Matthew 17:1-9; 2
Peter 1:16-21; Exodus 34:29-35
In the Name of the Father and of the
+ Son and of the Holy Spirit.
In the Transfiguration of Our Lord, our God
grants us sinful and corrupted mortals a peek behind the veil. Through the eyes
and the ears of Peter, James, and John, we are granted to see, for just a
moment, what even the High Priest in the temple could not see when he entered
the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. We are granted to see what Abraham
and Moses could not see, and what Isaiah could see only in a vision. For, what
we are granted to see in the Transfiguration of Our Lord is the fullness of the
glory of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we see the fullness of
God’s glory in the human person of Jesus, in whom all the fullness of the
Godhead dwells bodily, as a man.
On the mountaintop, we see the full,
unveiled meaning of the Incarnation, of Christmas. We see Emmanuel, God with us
as a man, and more importantly, man taken up into God. This is our future
glory. But, this is also, though hidden, our glory now. Our glory is not in
ourselves, but our glory is in Jesus who has taken up our flesh, has died for
our sins, has been raised for our justification, and who has ascended to the
right hand of the Father in our human flesh in the full glory of God. A flesh
and blood human man now sits and reigns in the full-on presence of God’s glory
as His Son. And we are baptized into Him. All that belongs to Him He shares with
us, even His new and everlasting life. This is the meaning of the
Transfiguration of Our Lord. We will not experience the fullness of Jesus’
glory until the Resurrection or our own bodies, but, spiritually, we are living
that glorious resurrection life already and now.
Moses and Elijah were there talking with
Jesus. They were living witnesses of the promise that those who die in the Lord
will live. They were witnesses of God’s faithfulness in keeping His promises as
they stood in the fullness of His glory and were not consumed. St. Luke tells
us that they were talking to Jesus about the Exodus He was about to lead in
Jerusalem. Imagine that! Moses, God’s prophet and anointed leader of the Exodus
out of Egypt and Elijah, the greatest of God’s anointed Old Testament prophets
were discussing the new and better Exodus that Jesus, the New Moses and the
Great Prophet, was about to begin. Jesus’ Exodus was not out of slavery and
bondage to Pharaoh in Egypt, but Jesus would lead His people out of slavery and
bondage to sin and death through His own crucifixion, death, and resurrection.
Jesus, the New Joshua, would lead His people across the River of Life into the
Promised Land of Heaven, into the full-on presence and glory of God forever.
Now, if you were Peter, standing in the
glorious presence of Jesus, with Moses and Elijah by His side, I suspect that
you might also say, “Lord, it is good that we are here.” Peter was overcome by
the original of what we now commonly call a “mountaintop experience.” Peter
wanted to preserve that experience – and I know that you want to do the same –
so he proposed that he might “pitch a tent” for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. “Pitch
a tent” – that’s a form of the same Greek word used John 1:14: “And the Word
became flesh and [pitched His tent] among us.” It’s the same word that is
translated as tabernacle in the Old
Testament. Peter wished to provide a shelter, a tabernacle for Jesus, Moses,
and Elijah. You can see now how absurd and backwards was his thinking. Jesus
does not need to be tabernacled, but Peter, James, John, you, and I need to be
tabernacled and to be sheltered by Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God tabernacled
among us. Jesus is the tabernacle made without human hands that provides
shelter for all who take refuge in Him. Let us all, and always, seek refuge in
Jesus Christ and His gifts. His Word and His Sacraments are the means of His
grace through which He preserves, strengthens, keeps, and protects you until
the resurrection of your bodies and their transfiguration to be like His
glorious body.
While Peter was still speaking, while
his confused, sin-corrupted thoughts were still babbling out of his mouth, the
bright cloud of God’s glory tabernacled over Peter, James, and John. Then the
Father spoke, just as He had at Jesus’ baptism, saying, “This is my beloved
Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.” Suddenly the terrible reality
of their mountaintop experience was made fully apparent. Their arrogance, their
pride, and their self-righteousness in presuming that they could stand as they were
in their sin, with their sin-corrupted good works like filthy rags, before the
LORD in His glory was shattered, and they fell down on their faces as though
dead. This was the same reaction that Isaiah had when he beheld the LORD’s
glory in a vision. Just as Isaiah’s guilt was taken away and his sin atoned for
as an angel touched his lips with a glowing coal from the altar of sacrifice,
so Jesus reached out His hand and He touched His disciples and absolved them
saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” Which is easier to say, “Your sins are
forgiven you,” or “Rise and walk?” Jesus’ Word is His absolution. Jesus’ Word
brings into being what it says. Where there is forgiveness there is no fear,
but there is life and salvation.
“When they lifted up their eyes, they
saw no one but Jesus only.” Moses and Elijah had withdrawn to the realm of
those who have died in the Lord and await His return and the resurrection of
their bodies. They, like the repentant thief who was crucified with Jesus, are
with Him now and forever in paradise. The cloud of glory, too, had gone away,
and Jesus’ face and clothing and flesh veiled His glory once again. They were
granted but a peek behind the veil that their faith might be strengthened and
that they might persevere, bearing their own crosses in the way of their Lord
as He soon would take up the cross and their sin and the sins of all men and
suffer and die for the life of the world. They followed Jesus down the
mountain, leaving the glory behind to suffer under the cross. There will come a
holy and permanent mountaintop experience, but now is not the time. The lesson
of the Transfiguration of Our Lord is that we have that glory now, though
veiled, in Jesus and in His gifts of Word and Sacrament. These seeming humble, foolish,
and weak things the LORD has invested with His glorious Word and Promise of
forgiveness, life, and salvation. They are our food and drink, the very air we
breath, by which we are forgiven, faith is strengthened, and we live until He
comes and raises our bodies and unveils their glory, glory like His, the
only-begotten Son of the Father from eternity.
God knows that you in your flesh, with
your fallen reason, wisdom, and desires, are attracted to things that dazzle
the senses, that have worldly value, that bring sensual pleasure, and seem wise
in the minds of men. You count as glorious and as evidence of God’s blessing large
churches, overflowing coffers, numerous parishioners and programs and parking
lots. Weakness and humility, poverty and lowliness, an emphasis on sin and your
need for forgiveness, a preference for the mutilated body of Jesus upon a tree
instead of an empty cross or, even better, a resurrected Lord with lifted hands
and a smile on His face, make you grimace uncomfortably and wonder if maybe,
just maybe, we’ve just got it all wrong. God knows this about you. And, God
knew this about His disciples. Therefore He granted them this peek behind the
veil in the Transfiguration of Our Lord. It is meant to encourage you and to
strengthen your faith that you might persevere through temptation and tribulation,
most of which come from your own sinful, fallen reason and desires.
Years later, long after Jesus’
resurrection, St. Peter told the account of his mountaintop experience in an
epistle to the Church saying that, despite the glorious vision they were
granted to see, “we have something more sure, the prophetic Word, to which you
will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the
day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” That “something more
sure” is here for you today. You are invited, not to peek behind the veil, but
to see with the eyes of faith the glory of God that is hidden, right here,
right now, tabernacled among you. The word of absolution, Law, and Gospel proclaimed
by this sinful man is God’s Word of promise to you that you can trust and take
comfort in. This ordinary water is the forgiveness of sins and the gift of the
Holy Spirit to those who are washed and believe. This humble bread and wine is
the resurrected and glorified body and blood of Jesus just as He promises in His
Word for the forgiveness of your sins, the strengthening of your faith, for life
and for salvation. And, because of your Holy Baptism into Jesus, His glory is
hidden within you as well. Once you dwelt in darkness, but now you are Light in
the Lord. Walk therefore as children of Light.
In
the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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