Sermon for 1/29/23: Transfiguration of Our Lord

 CLICK HERE for the sermon audio.

No video recording this week. My apologies.

“We Shall Be Changed…”

Matthew 17:1-9

 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen

 

 

A lot of Christians are troubled people. In truth, all Christians are troubled people. In Church they hear about a wonderful life that God has promised them in the Gospel. But then they walk out the church doors and back into a life that is filled with the same problems they had when they arrived. It seems as if nothing has changed. And not a few of these dear Christians—maybe you are among them—are convinced that, if only Jesus was here today as He was in our Gospel, those problems would disappear.

The truth is, had we lived in those days, we probably would not have recognized Him. Many movies about Jesus attempt to depict Him as having an unearthly glow, with a melodious and yet compelling voice. But He wasn’t like that at all. He himself said that He was meek and lowly. Herod had to kill all the male babies in Bethlehem because there was no way to identify Jesus. When He walked through Galilee and Judea, He blended in with the crowd. If Judas had not kissed Him, the soldiers would have had no idea which man to arrest. In His death, He fit in with criminals, and His crucifixion was a common method of execution. His burial was really no different from that of anyone else who died that day. Many years prior, Isaiah prophesied that He would have no beauty that we should desire to know Him.

This Sunday in the Church year is about change. Even the shape of our worship will change, taking on the solemn tones of Lent. This is the Sunday of the Transfiguration, a word which means “changing the outward figure or appearance.” What the thing really is, however, does not change. Caterpillars become butterflies. Babies become adults. One thing becomes another, and yet it really is still the same thing. No matter how much our appearance may change, we remain the same person. In the same way, the Transfiguration of Jesus is not really a new development. Finally the disciples see Jesus the way He always was and the way He always will be. For one brief moment, the covering of His saving humility is pulled back, and we see things the way they really are. His face took on a different appearance; it “...shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light.”

What happened on the mountain may have been new and strange to the disciples, but not to Jesus. Even in the days of His deepest humiliation, who Jesus had always been was what the Transfiguration revealed. He is the Lord, glowing in the glory of God the Father. Hidden in appearance as an ordinary man was God Himself in all His eternal splendor. Even if His disciples had not heard the voice of the Father from heaven, they would have known from that moment that in this Man—who was also exactly like us in every possible way, except that he was without sin—in this Man resided everything that is God.

The Word that was with God eternally, as John says in his Gospel, had appeared in ordinary human flesh. But now, that same appearance, which had joined deity to humanity, was reversed! The disciples saw His glory, the glory of the only Son of God. God became man, and now they see this Man in the fullness of God’s glory. Here was the glory of everlasting life. Here, in the place of human rejection, was divine acceptance: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him!”

For Peter, it was like the teacher had cancelled the final exam. Perhaps Jesus would not have to die after all. Just build three tents to capture and hold the glory of God right there. In one we can listen to Moses, the great Law giver; in a second we can listen to Elijah, the great prophet; and in the third, we can listen to Jesus. The Kingdom has come; let’s bottle up its glory in tents. Like us when we walk out of these church doors into a world that hates us for what we believe, Peter had to come down from the mountain. He was going to have to watch his Master die. But things are never quite as they appear. If the humility of Jesus is a covering for His glory, then hidden in the deep recesses of that glory is the suffering of Jesus: His arrest, His trial, His scourging, His carrying of the cross to Golgotha, the pounding of heavy nails into His hands and feet. Remember the words of the Father, “This is my beloved Son...” Well, here He is, beloved of His Father because He bore the burden of our sin. We see His glory as He is lifted up, exalted on the cross.

The Transfiguration is not a moment for fear and despair, for Jesus leads you through the gate of death into eternal life. He alone has the words of eternal life; the voice from heaven orders us still to listen to Him alone. We still hear that voice in the words of the Gospels. And Jesus is transfigured still. He who was instantly revealed in glory now is revealed in the bread and wine that is His body and blood in the Holy Supper.

And there is yet a transfiguration to come, when God will take our bodies and change them to be like the body of our Lord Jesus. For, as Paul said, “...in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” we shall be changed. The final chapter of the Transfiguration has not yet been written. When it is, you will be a part of it: a final and lasting transformation, a final and never-ending resurrection. And with Peter, James, and John, with Moses and Elijah, and with all the saints, you will see His glory! In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

 

The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always.  Amen.