Sixth Sunday after Epiphany

Festival of the Transfiguration of our Lord

Text: Matthew 17: 1-8

Theme: The Mountain before the true Glory

A voice from the cloud said, “this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” When the disciples heard this they fell on their faces and were terrified.

Usually when we come to the Feast of the Transfiguration, we have come to the end of the Epiphany Season and poised to enter the season of Lent. Not so this year with Easter falling so late. Nevertheless, this is a strange event and comes at a point in our Lord’s ministry that divides two phases. Up to this time Jesus has preached to the crowds and instructed his disciples concerning the Kingdom of God which he brings to them in His person as the promised Messiah. On the one hand, He has presented them with a rather hidden, mysterious, and perplexing Kingdom through teaching and parables which they failed to understand at the time. What they did understand - as well as the crowds - was that God was certainly at work through Him. They could see this in a very dramatic way in his many miracles and exorcisms. These were signs for all to see that God was showing up to do His work and in a most dramatic way. What it really all meant, however, is another story. In short, they had not a clue.

Just before Jesus took Peter, James and John up on the mountain, He gathered his disciples together in Caesarea Philippi to take inventory on their understanding of His identity and mission. All right, who am I? Who do the people think I am . . . who do you think I am? And after Peter made his great confession: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God - a confession more from wisdom supplied by a revealing Heavenly Father than some sound theological conclusion on his part . . . Jesus entered phase two in his ministry as He began to teach them about the cross, his death, and resurrection coming up the way in Jerusalem. . . where they will now be making as a final destination. Naturally the disciples, Peter foremost, did not get it. Peter said, over my dead body, and Jesus identified such thinking as of the Devil. At this time, the disciples entertained the popular Messiah understandings of the day. God was going to send His personal Anointed One to rally the good God-fearing people and make a frontal attack on the evils of the world. God would show up and right all the wrongs of the world and his people would now become the victors not the losers they were sick and tired of being. When Jesus worked His miracles overcoming all sorts of horrible conditions, feeding thousands, and getting all the demons on the run . . . They thought He fit this understanding perfectly.

But now to the mountain top and the transfiguration of Jesus. The amazing event presented Peter, James and John a rather confusing picture of Jesus the Messiah. On the one hand, the Transfiguration of Jesus seemed to reinforce the picture that the disciples had and wanted to continue to have about what it meant for Jesus to be the

Messiah. It seemed to have precedent with many of the messiahs in Israel’s history. Moreover, the appearance of Moses and Elijah with Jesus - all in a state of heavenly glory - seemed to present just what the disciples would expect. Perhaps God is sending two of the greatest messiahs from the past to assist Jesus in his mission. Lets make fitting accommodations for all the glorified messiahs, Peter thought, as he asked the Lord about making three tabernacles - one for each of God’s representatives. It could be just like when God tented with his people in the Old Testament. Why if we have Moses and Elijah back, all glorified with Jesus, surely this means that glory days are ahead for the children of Israel. But as soon as Peter offered his suggestion, Moses and Elijah disappeared, a thick fog developed around a no-longer-glowing Jesus, and a voice was heard: This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, listen to Him.

First the disciples were awestruck . . . Jesus, Moses, and Elijah - standing there in glorious splendor. Then, when suddenly went away and they hear the voice from Heaven, they are terrified. I doubt that they remembered what Jesus had said to them a few days before when he told them about how He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many shameful things at the hands of the religious leaders there. This was not the kind of messiah they were seeing or wanting in Jesus as they witnessed his miracles, exorcisms and now the glory of God on the mountain. But the voice from heaven said, this truly is my Son, now listen to what He is telling you about what is going to happen and what must be done. These are words that they were to take to heart and we must also this morning. As we close out the Epiphany season and make some extended preparations for Lent, the voice from Heaven reminds us that we must now listen carefully to our Lord. We must now set our face to make the journey to Jerusalem and behold what the Father has ordained to take place there. The purpose for which God sent His Son into the world must now be fulfilled.

In terms of the Old Covenant of Law and Israel’s history it is difficult not to understand the mission of Jesus as a salvage operation. The sinful self in all of us would like to think that with some glorified presence of God and his power in the world and in our lives, we can get our spiritual selves together and measure up to what the people of God should be and do. We should like to think that power to reform and inspire - not grace to forgive - is what we really need. But the Father knew better and He had other plans for His Son in Jerusalem. Moreover, Moses and Elijah . . . David and Solomon for that matter, would not be needed. Jesus came down off the mountain and headed to Jerusalem to bring an end of the old way of living under the Covenant of Law. Life for God’s people would be under a charter of the Kingdom of God ruled by grace, not law. It would come by a cross and its citizens would have to live by a cross in this world. Phase two begins as Jesus traveled to establish the foundations of the reign of grace. Life with God is to be anchored in the events of Jesus passion, death, and resurrection - not in tabernacles, not in blessings anchored in Law, not in animal sacrifices, not in exclusive membership with the children of Israel . . . And for now in this life, we might add as we now peer with Peter, James and John in the hazy cloud . . . not in glory. Not yet!

The ministry of our Lord presented a paradox that was confusing back then, and can be confusing today also. The Father chose to reveal the true identity of His Son and his messiahship by mighty acts, miracles, exorcisms, and unmistakable signs of glory as we see in the transfiguration of Jesus. Yet, on the other hand these glorious signs were the central Messianic work that was given by the Father for Jesus to accomplish by which the forgiveness of sins would come to earth for all sinners. Remember, He was to be called Jesus for He would save us from our sins. This redemptive work would involve no mighty displays of God’s power in the world. Rather, it would involve what Luther called, God’s left-handed work where it seems to the naked eye that God is not present; He is not doing anything; and it looks like evil is in control, having its own way, and winning the day. This is different from what we have seen before. Moses did some of his greatest messianic work on Mount Sinai where he received the Covenant of Law from God. And Elijah did his greatest messianic work embarrassing and routing the Baal prophets on Mount Carmel. And here they gathered with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Here we behold the glory of all three. But Jesus still has his greatest messianic work ahead of Him. He came into the world to die for your sins but not on this hill. This mountain is just the capstone in Jesus ministry to make manifest to all that He truly is God’s Anointed. But now the real work of redemption must be accomplished in Jerusalem where Jesus will climb his appointed mountain for his saving work. And in that event, the greatest glory of God will shine forth; but not for the eyes of the camera to capture; just for the eyes of faith; eyes fashioned by the Word of Christ that heed the voice from Heaven and listen to Him in the power of the Spirit. So down off this mountain we go with Jesus and his disciples to another mountain. In Jerusalem, He will climb the hill that is worth dying on . . . for you, for me, for the whole world.

Shepherd of the Springs Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod

Shepherd of the Springs
Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod