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.
Your flesh
wants to do something for God. Or, to be more accurate, your flesh wants to
receive credit for doing something for itself. That’s the way it is with the
flesh: It’s proud, and independent, selfish, and self-righteous. So, is it
really any surprise that your flesh wants worship to be about what you want,
and what you do for yourself, … uh, I mean, for God, rather than what God wants
and is doing for you? After all, you’re here this morning, unlike so many
others. You could be sleeping in, or cleaning the house, or visiting the city,
or any number of things. But, you’re here. Surely you get credit for that,
right? Surely God is pleased with you because you’re a good church-going,
Bible-believing Christian, right? Well, yes. That’s true. God is pleased with
you. However, God is pleased with you, not because of your good works, your
church attendance, or even your pious thoughts, but, God is pleased with you because
of your faith in Jesus Christ His Son, with whom He is well pleased, faith which produces good works with
which He is well pleased. For, the Gospel truth is that you can only serve God
and your neighbor if God has first served you Himself. Or, to put it another
way, you can only give of what you have first received. If you don’t have any
water, then you cannot give a thirsty person a drink. If you haven’t received
forgiveness, then you cannot forgive your brother or your neighbor. And, if you
have not first been loved, then you cannot love even those who love you, let
alone those who hate you, as your LORD requires.
Nevertheless,
you stand in good – or, I suppose, not so good – company. After all, King David
wanted to do something for the LORD. He wanted to build a house for the LORD –
you know, put God in a box. And, he had all kinds of visions of grandeur to
make God, and His worship of God, just the way he wanted them to be. Now, David
had good intentions – we always do, – but you know what they say about good
intentions. The LORD had promised to be with David always. The LORD had
promised that the throne would never depart from his family. David had the
promise of the LORD, He had the LORD’s unbreakable Word, but still he wanted to
do something for God. In his misguided faith, David wanted to put the LORD into
a box. And, likewise, centuries later, the Pharisees believed that they were
doing good works for the LORD meriting His favor in their prayers and their
tithes and their obedience to the Law. But, these, too, were worthless deeds,
vanity, and filthy rags because they were not done in faithful response to the
LORD’s gracious service to them.
And, then
there’s Peter. Good ole Peter, so named for the rocks in his head, maybe? No,
just kidding, … kind of. But, still, no one in the Scriptures exhibits the
highs and lows and the hots and the colds of faith quite like Peter. I mean, for
a man to give the stunning, revelatory confession of who Jesus is, “You are the
Christ, the Son of the Living God,” and then, moments later, vow to thwart the
Christ’s mission to die on the cross so as to earn the rebuke “Get behind me
Satan,” ought to put faith in perspective, don’tcha think? Truly, we must all
confess, “Lord, I believe; help me in my unbelief.” For, when he was blown away
by the vision of His Lord in glory, with Moses and Elijah standing and talking
with Him on the Mount of Transfiguration, what did Peter want to do, but to put
them in boxes and to preserve that mountain-top experience forever. Like I
said, the intention might have been good, but you know what they say about good
intentions.
And so, the
Transfiguration of Our Lord is every bit as much about your own transfiguration
as it is that of Jesus. Though Peter, James, and John went up the mountain to
worship the Lord in one way, with their own ideas of worship, and praise, and
glory, they came down the mountain in a different way, changed, metamorphosed.
Metamorphosed? Yes, changed, like a caterpillar into a butterfly. Indeed, metamorphosis
is precisely the Greek word that Matthew uses in his Gospel, which is
translated into the English as transfigured. In Jesus’ case, He wasn’t
so much changed into something else, something glorious, but, rather, the
fullness of His glory, which was veiled in humility, but, nevertheless, already
present, – You know, “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see. Hail the incarnate
deity.” – that glory was revealed, at least partially, so that the disciples
might believe and be better prepared to face and to endure what Jesus was about
to face and to endure in His Passion and death in Jerusalem. The disciples
needed to be metamorphosed; they needed to be changed. And, so do you, dear Christian.
You need to be metamorphosed. You need to be changed, that you may see the
Lord’s glory revealed in His Passion and death, that you may thus see your
worship and praise of Him, not in terms of what you want or what you do, but in
terms of who He is, what He wants for you, and what He has done and is still
doing for you. For, then, your whole life will be metamorphosed; your whole
life will be changed, for you will see the glory of the Lord, not in the things
your flesh and this world values and desires, but in the things to which the
Lord has attached His Word and His Promise.
You see, Jesus
knew His disciples. Jesus knew Peter. And, Jesus also knows you. Jesus knew
that Peter could be a man of strong faith and confession; but He also knew that
Peter often let his own ideas and understanding, and the ideas and
understanding of the world, form, guide, and direct his thoughts and His actions.
This is brilliantly displayed in Peter’s confession, “You are the Christ, the
Son of the Living God,” and then in Peter’s attempt to prevent His Lord’s going
to the cross. Peter understood who Jesus was, an understanding that Jesus says
was a gift of His Father in heaven, but he did not yet understand what Jesus
came to do, what Jesus had to do, in order to make Peter, and all men, and all
of creation, right with God once again. And, so, Peter swore an oath to stop
Jesus from doing what He said he came, and had, to do. And, in His rebuke of
Peter, Jesus named precisely whose ideas and understanding Peter was
expressing: “Get behind me Satan!” Therefore, just days before His entry into
Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to commence His Passion which would culminate in His
death upon the cross, Jesus took His closest disciples, Peter, James, and John,
up with Him high on a mountain so that they might experience a momentary
revealing of His glory, that their faith might be strengthened and that they
might have hope as they faced both the darkness of Jesus’ suffering and death,
and the darkness of their own trials and tribulations, suffering, and even
death as they lived their lives in Christ and in selfless and sacrificial
service of their brother and neighbor to the glory of God.
Of course,
Peter, holding the ideas and understanding of the world and the flesh, upon
witnessing Jesus’ glory, along with Moses and Elijah, wanted to bottle it up,
put it in a box, enshrine it and keep it forever. Peter still did not
understand that Jesus had to come down from the mountain and go to another
mountain, to Mount Calvary, and there suffer and die to atone for the sins of
the world. Once again, Peter sought to prevent Jesus from fulfilling His
purpose and mission. This is inevitably what happens when you think and act in
accord with what your flesh and the world consider glorious. For, your flesh
and the world subscribe to a theology of glory which enshrines created things,
things that are not, and things that are passing away, effectively calling evil
good and good evil. Your Jesus would have you subscribe to a theology of the
cross, which simply calls a thing what it is, regardless of how weak, foolish,
and pitiable it may appear to the flesh and the world. Jesus would have you
find His glory, not in temporary grandeur and magnificence, not in fickle
emotions of ecstasy, peace, and joy, not in wealth, power, and possessions, but
in His humility, suffering, and death upon the cross.
And, so,
following Jesus’ discourse with Moses and Elijah about His departure, or, in
the Greek, literally, His Exodus, which Jesus was about to accomplish in
Jerusalem, Jesus lead His disciples down from their mountaintop experience and
into the valley below, where they immediately encountered the demon-possessed,
the blind, and many others afflicted by the effects of sin, along with pride
and aspirations of worldly and fleshly glory, temptations to sin, and all
manner of evils that afflict you as you make your pilgrimage through the valley
of the shadow of death. That’s why Moses and Elijah were discussing the Exodus
with Jesus, for Jesus’ death and resurrection are the glorious subject of
discourse amongst the saints and angels in heaven. Then, the cloud of glory
lifted, and Jesus’ face and clothing ceased shining, and Moses and Elijah
disappeared, and the disciples were left with Jesus alone, of whom the Father’s
voice from heaven declared His pleasure and gave the exhortation and command,
“Listen to Him.” For, it is not the magnificence of glory and power, nor is it
the emotional highs of joy and exultation, nor works of any kind whatsoever
that make you right with God, but it is Jesus alone and His Word alone which
makes you right with God. Therefore, you must cling to Him and to His Word
alone, and place no trust in your emotions, in your works, or in any person or
institution. And, you must not succumb to the temptation to place your trust in
the things your flesh and this world count as glorious. For, these things are
creaturely and are passing away. They are not God, but they can become idols,
which get between you and God and threaten to weaken or destroy your faith in
Jesus Christ, in whom alone is forgiveness, life, and salvation.
And, now your
Lord Jesus invites you to ascend to the high mountain of the altar in this Holy
Eucharist where Jesus is truly present with Moses and Elijah, and with angels
and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, to eat His flesh and to
drink His blood, that your faith may be strengthened, your sins forgiven, and
that you may be preserved and protected as you descend from the high altar back
into the valley in which you live your lives, trusting in Him and in His Word
alone, to the glory of His holy Name. For, you cannot live on the mountaintop;
the air is to thin there for you now. Nevertheless, you were created to live
there with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit forevermore. And so, He gives you this
foretaste, now, of the feast that is yet to come, a feast that you will eat and
drink with your Lord and Bridegroom Jesus Christ when He comes again in glory,
glory that will be fully revealed and never fade away. For that day the Church,
His Bride cries out, “Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus! Come, quickly come!”
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
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