Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

From the Epistle of the Day: For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. [2 Peter 1.16]

On this day marking the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the most important thing you should hear, mark, and inwardly is “The Point of the Transfiguration.” That we mark it today is due to a change in the themes and Scripture readings that Lutherans embraced early in their existence after being excommunicated from the Roman Church.

The Roman Calendar marks the observance of the Transfiguration of Our Lord on the 6th of August. Lutheran embraced a move of this feast day to the Last Sunday in the Season of Lent. Why?

I.

The move of this minor feast known as “The Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord” from 6 August to the Last Sunday in the Season of Epiphany came about among Lutherans, in particular, because they saw the connection of the Epiphany theme of the earthly miracles on the one hand, and the preparation for the holy and somber Season of Lent.

The point of this Day, then, is to get Christians rightly ordered and prepared to benefit from what looks like bleak days, but are victorious days right in the middle of the bleakness.

You must rely on the testimony of these eyewitnesses. But, here you have a problem. You pick up your English translations, and the readings are not the same. All but two current English translation render the sermon text this way: “And so we have the prophetic word made more sure, which you do well to heed as a light that shines a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

On the other head, the newly printed ESV states: “And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”

Now, in the context for this verse, the previous verse describes the apostles’ experience of the transfiguration: “For He received from God the Father honor and glory which such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’”

Now, since St. Peter has just described his experience on the mountain top, the more popular English translations take it to mean: “And so we have the prophetic word made more sure BY THIS, OUR EXPERIENCE, and you do well to pay attention to our experience until you have your own, inner experience.”

Meanwhile, in light of the context, the new English Standard Version, which is the translation used by the Lutheran Study Bible, says: “And even though we had this experience, we also something made more sure, the prophetic Word – the apostolic preaching and writing, – unto which you do well to pay heed as a light shining in a dark place, until the day of faith dawns and the morning star of your joy in the forgiveness of sins rises in your hearts.

II.

So, you see, there are two quite different meanings hiding behind these seemingly similar translations. For the more popular one points you to inner human experience as the key to the Christian life, for which Christ’s transfiguration serves as an illustration. Meanwhile, the second translation points the apostolic Word and ministry as the key to the Christian life, for which the transfiguration serves as the foundation.

These renderings, therefore, are quite different, even contrary in their message. Well, which one is correct? Can you just take your pick? Should you in this case? These questions highlight the point of the Transfiguration.

St. Matthew’s account of this event, already read to you as the Holy Gospel of the Day, highlights the fact that what is important here is not the experience of the apostles but rather the Word that God gives to the apostles. You see this when St. Matthew writes, “When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only,” and then Matthew add: “Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.” So the meaning of the experience is to drive the disciples to Jesus Christ only, and to Him as the One crucified and raised from the dead.

That should be enough to tell you that the correct English translation is the one that is found, in this case, in the ESV. But, there is even more. Every credible Greek textual resource indicates that the rendering of the ESV is “the more natural interpretation” of the flow of the Greek sentence.

So, then, why is it so popular to render this Greek text with a more unnatural, tortured translation?

III.

Here’s the answer, and it may trouble you: It depends on what the translators believe. And most of the translations available to you are translated by well-meaning Christian scholars who happen to believe that your Christian experience is the foundation of your Christian beliefs.

If Christian experience is the basis for Christian belief, then whatever you believe rests on what you have experienced. In fact, it rests on what you feel about what you have experienced. And since that is certainly a slippery slope, you heart goes looking for some authority, any authority who experiences what you experience and feels about it the way you do. So, now you can say, “Well, he thinks so, too! She thinks so, too!”

Many Christians draw their sense of assurance precisely in this way, finding some authority to agree with what they feel and want to think. But, this who process should deeply disturb you, because, if you are honest with yourself, you know that such beliefs are built on shifting sand.

The Transfiguration is selected for the bridge between the miracles of Epiphany and the holy struggles of our Lord in the liturgical time ahead. And this point of the Transfiguration is precisely that you do NOT need to build your faith on shifting sand. The experience of the soon-to-be apostles does not make their word more sure. Rather, the Word that God gives them to prophecy and proclaim makes faith grow in the heart, and joy happen over the forgiveness of sins. The Word of God confirms what the disciples saw, not the other way around. The Word of God confirms that in His transfigured form Jesus appears as He truly is: God in human flesh.

IV.

So, what is the point of the Transfiguration for you in your daily Christian life? The answer to this question is found in the words that you hear from your heavenly Father at the time of Christ’s transfiguration: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

When you believe in the Transfigured One, you are believing in the One, God the Father’s beloved Son. When you trust the work of redemption completed for you on the holy cross, you are trusting the right work that brings you the forgiveness of sins. And when you are trusting the Words the God speaks over His only-begotten Son, first in His baptism and again in His transfiguration, you are trusting the right words of God, the words spoken over you, first at your baptism, and continually when the Law and Gospel transfigures your understanding of yourself, so that you believe what God has promised you: What He sees in His only-begotten, He also sees in you.

That is the truth, and it depends on no one’s experiences or feelings. It depends only on the Word of God, the Word that declares concerning you through the waters of your baptism: “THIS son, this daughter is MY BELOVED SON, in whom I am well pleased!