The Rev. Paul J Cain, Jr.
Transfiguration
Last Sunday after Epiphany, The Transfiguration of Our Lord,
19 February 2012
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Sheridan, WY
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
In Epiphany, Jesus is revealed as who He really is: “God in
flesh made manifest,” to quote the hymn. Epiphany Day brings with it Three Wise
Men seeking the King of the Jews. They find Him in Jesus, not yet two years
old. The Following Sunday we celebrated His Baptism in the Jordan where the
Holy Spirit Descended upon Him as a dove and the Father spoke: “You are my
beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Nathanael confessed, “Rabbi, you are
the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus Himself preached, “The time
is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the
gospel.” He then called His first disciples. Jesus teaches as one with
authority and casts out demons. He healed. He preached in their synagogues. And,
“so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive
sins” —He said to the paralytic—“I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go
home.” Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners!
What does this mean? Jesus is 100% man, yet He is more.
Jesus is the Christ, God in the flesh, revealed for us and for our salvation.
And He’s not done yet.
2And
after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a
high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3and his clothes became
radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.
Six days after what? That would be six days after predicting
His death. The disciples were confused by this. They see their rabbi and Lord preaching
and teaching like no one else they had ever heard, healed the sick, and
expelling demons. And now He’s going to die? Not likely! Not on my watch! Jesus
knows differently. The cross is before Him. His miracles accompany faith. They
encourage faith. They result from faith. They draw attention to His teaching
that all may believe in Him and be with Him forever, healed in body and soul.
And now Jesus is on the mountain glowing as the Son of Man
mentioned in Daniel. Because He is the Son of Man. The disciples don’t know
what to say. They count Jesus, Peter, James, and John. Who are those other two
guys?
4And
there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. 5And Peter said to
Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for
you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6For
he did not know what to say, for they were terrified.
And then Peter knew. It’s Moses! And Elijah! In holy terror,
Peter planned for a camping trip up there on the holy mountain. He didn’t know
what he was saying. All he knew was that he didn’t want it to end. It’s not
every day that your teacher in the faith reveals his glory, shining brighter
than a neon sign. And to meet the two greatest prophets of the Hebrew
Scriptures, our Old Testament. Amazing!
7And
a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my
beloved Son; listen to him.”
Remember hearing this back in January? At His Baptism in the
Jordan, when the Holy Spirit Descended upon Him as a dove, the Father spoke: “You
are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” The Lord now adds, “Listen to
Him.” Moses remembers. He prophesied about this prophet Jesus who is more than
a prophet back in Deuteronomy 18. One like Elijah would prepare the way for
Jesus. Jesus would connect the dots for the disciples and us. It’s John the
Baptizer, of course! As the cloud covers them, the cloud showed the Lord’s
presence as to the people of Israel in their journey from Egypt and as when
Solomon dedicated the Temple. The voice speaks. And…
8And
suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.
That’s it. We don’t get to live here? But it was so
glorious! Right. Jesus allows this preview of Himself on the Last Day when all
is completed. He still has work to do. The disciples are not going to like it.
Expectations of glory can be distracting. When Leonardo da
Vinci—the real one, not the fiction in The
Da Vinci Code—when Leonardo was working on his famous painting The Lord’s Supper, he had but one object
in view—that the person of the Savior should attract and hold the attention of
all who beheld the painting. But in one part of the picture there was a tiny
ship that he had painted with great care for three weeks. When the painting was
exhibited and the people came to see it, Leonardo noticed that they all crowded
together to look especially at the one corner of the picture with the small
ship that had cost him so much pain and labor. “Just see how grand that is!
Truly he is a master artist!” he heard them exclaim. Chagrined at this, he took
his brush when they were all gone and with one sweeping stroke blotted out the
little ship, declaring, “No one shall find reason for admiring anything except
Christ alone.”
Expectations of glory are distracting. They often make us
dissatisfied with the everyday. What goes on at Youth Gatherings, LWML and LLL
Conventions, and Synod and District Conventions should reinforce and reflect
Sunday morning in our congregations, not merely be a mountaintop experience no
one wants to leave behind.
Jesus wants us to hold on to Him all the days of our lives.
He is there in good times and bad. His promises do not depend upon great
numbers of people, expensive clothing, professional musicians, or our own
excitement. His power is made perfect in weakness. He chose the humble things
of this world—words, water, bread, wine—to shame the wise.
9And
as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they
had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
There’s a good reason why Jesus tells them not to tell the
Good News about Jesus. Most of the Good News simply hasn’t happened yet by this
point in history. Jesus is given to go to Jerusalem. He will enter the city on
a donkey. He will preach and teach and cleanse the temple. He will teach the
disciples privately. He will institute the Lord’s Supper and wash their feet.
He will pray in Gethsemane, sweating drops of blood in His agony. And then He
will be arrested, and be tried, flogged, condemned, and crucified. The cross
awaits. And so does the empty tomb.
The kingdom of God is near. Good Friday is coming. And Jesus
is not done yet.
That is the “what” of the text. Those are the facts: who,
what, when , where. We have yet to discuss “why?” One could even ask the
question in a different way: “So what?”
There are consequences to the Transfiguration. Good ones.
Peter, James, and John were born centuries after Elijah, as
Elijah was born long after Moses. The texts present them knowing each other.
Because of this, Christians teach that we will know other believers in heaven,
where Moses and Elijah are, even if we never met them in this life. That is a
great comfort to us, because we have many friends and family who have passed on
believing in Christ. We will see them again. We will know one another. And it will
only get better when Resurrection Day reunites body and soul.
In Catechism class, we learn about two states in Jesus’
life—and they’re not Nebraska and Wyoming. His state of humiliation goes from
His birth to His burial. The state of exaltation begins with His descent into
hell not to suffer but to proclaim victory and His Resurrection from the dead.
In humiliation, Jesus did not always make full use of His divine powers. He
shows that He was actively obedient to the father, fulfilling His office of
prophet, teaching the kingdom. He was also passively obedient, in that He
allowed Himself as our high priest, to become our substitute, a sacrifice for
sin.
Because of the Transfiguration, we know that Jesus is not
merely a man. He is more. Death will come, but death will be defeated.
Therefore we fear not. Suffering and cross will come for Jesus. He endured. He
rose from the dead. Therefore we know we have a high priest who is able to
sympathize with us, because He suffered in every way, just as we do, yet
without sin. He knows what it’s like down here. He lived it. And He is with us
always.
The Transfiguration and the glorious transformation of Jesus
gets our attention. Jesus wants us to keep our eyes focused upon Him as He goes
to the cross. Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent. During these
forty days, not including Sundays, we walk with Jesus all the way. Each Lent,
we learn again to repent, and that repentance is not just a once-a-year or
once-a-life thing. Holy Baptism teaches us about daily contrition and
repentance. We deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. With His
gifts, we follow Him all the way until the Lord calls us home and to Himself in
heaven. And now we tell the Good News about Jesus—news of hope for the life to
come, forgiveness of sins now, new life, and life eternal in glory—glory the
Transfiguration of Our Lord gives us a preview of.
Keeping up appearances. We all try to do it. We’re usually
pretty good at it. New this. New that—even though the average American is
living off of credit cards. Smiles and laughs and entertaining—but it is all a
fairy tale. Everything is actually far from right. We keep up appearances.
Not Jesus. Almost every hour of His ministry on earth, He
kept down His appearance. He didn’t let people see what was really behind the
humble attire, the modest means. Only for those brief moments on the Mount of
Transfiguration did a chosen few see His full, radiant appearance. But when
they did, when Jesus did let His glory be seen, it revealed why we don’t ever
need to put on a facade, pretending to be what we aren’t. The one who looks so
plain, so unimpressive, is in fact, the One who could put us to shame even at
our best. And that can be rightly explained in one way: He came to humble
Himself, even to death on a cross, so that you could shine in His Transfiguration
glory, real glory. Jesus is not done with you yet.
Amen.
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
