Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text (Matthew 17:1-9):
When the disciples heard [the voice from the cloud], they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
Mëë ci ji̱ kɔaarɛ jɔw liŋ, cukɛ dual elɔ̱ŋ, kä cukɛ rɔ̱ yuɔr piny buupä. Kä cu Yecu ben cuɛ kɛ ben thiap, jio̱kɛ kɛ i̱, "Jiacɛ rɔ̱, kä /cuarɛ dual." Kä min cikɛ nhial liɛc, cuɛ thil radɔ̱diɛn mi cu kɛn ɛ nɛn, ɛ ni Yecu kärɔaadɛ.
Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In 1 Corinthians 15, St Paul says: “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.”
In our reading today, Jesus is transfigured. You will also be transfigured.
In our reading today, Jesus face shines like the sun. You will shine like the moon, reflecting the rays of the sun.
Jesus clothes are white like the light. And the prophet Isaiah says, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”
What is the point of all this? Why does Jesus give his disciples this vision? Why does he let himself be shown to them in this way?
Jesus wants to show to his disciples before he suffers, and before he dies, and before he rises again from the dead that he is truly God, and that all power comes from him.
The book of Hebrews says: Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever.
He is the same when he is in his mother’s womb, he is the same when he is a boy, he is the same when he is a grown man, he is the same when Pilate commands him to be beaten and whipped, he is the same when he is nailed to the cross, he is the same when he rises again from the dead, he is the same when he sits at the right hand of the Father, and he is the same now when he comes and speaks his words to you, when he baptises you, when he prays for you, blesses you, forgives you. He is the same.
He’s not a different Jesus. It’s not as if when he rose again from the dead, that he no longer needs his human body any more, and he’s done with it.
Christ’s human body is seated on the throne of heaven, and when you know that his human body is in heaven, you also know that yours will be in heaven.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.
Everything about our reading today forces us to look forward to the other side of the grave. Everything about our reading today makes us look beyond death, beyond this time, to the other side of death.
Jesus gives a vision to the disciples in which his face shines like the sun. His clothes become white like the light.
And we read in Revelation: “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. And the city [the new Jerusalem] has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”
In heaven, there will be no need of a sun, because Jesus, the Lamb of God, will be the sun.
Jesus points us towards the other side of death. He shows us what it will be like.
Also, we see him talking with Moses and Elijah. In the gospel of Luke, we read that they were talking about his “departure”: that means, his journey to the cross, his journey through death to the other side. And why they were talking about this, and why they had to talk about this at this particular time, we don’t know. But Jesus also here gives us a window into the other side of death, he gives us a window into heaven.
We don’t know why Jesus had to talk to Moses and Elijah at this time, but once again, Jesus points your eyes to look forward to heaven, where you can ask Moses and Elijah all about it in more detail. Jesus points you forward to the time when not only he is talking to Moses and Elijah, but when you will talk with Moses and Elijah yourself, if you are not completely and totally awestruck by the greatness of heaven itself, and by the love and peace and joy that radiates from the face of your Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Peter has no idea what’s going on: He says, “Lord it is good that we are here. If you wish we will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
But, we read, He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
Listen to Jesus, God says.
And in the church we are constantly listening to the voice of Jesus.
And these words are filled with great power. They are filled with so much power that people are converted by them all around the world. They are such powerful words that they transfigure people, they create people into new creatures, they make people new creations.
Jesus words are words that always bring about transfiguration.
He transfigures death by saying telling to die.
He says to the water, “save” and it is transfigured.
He says to the bread, “body” and it is transfigured.
He says to the wine, “blood” and it is transfigured.
He says to sinners, “forgiven” and they are transfigured.
He says to churches, “shine” and they are transfigured into cities on hills.
And these powerful words of Jesus transfigure the world. These words make all things new. These words raise bodies from the dead.
But what do the disciples do, we read?
The passage says, “When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.”
They fell on their faces and were terrified.
What about you? Are you terrified when you come to church?
Should you be?
There are many people who are terrified about coming to church. Many people say, “I couldn’t come to church, because the walls would fall in on me. The ground would open up.”
Don’t laugh at people who say this. They are closer to the faith than many people who call themselves Christian. They have a small knowledge of what it means to be a sinner. They feel in themselves some unworthiness of coming into the presence of God. They know that they have done something wrong, and they feel they might be punished for it. They are terrified.
Perhaps you are terrified at other times, when you are not at church. Perhaps you are terrified after coming to church, when you know you’ve done some damage after having received the forgiveness of sins. Perhaps you are terrified about some things when you are going to sleep at night.
The people who should be really afraid, are those who are not terrified by the presence of God at all. If you’ve never thought for a moment that you are unworthy in the presence of God, if you’ve never thought for a moment that you are a sinner, that you are conceived and born in sin, then repent!
St John says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is nor in us.”
The disciples are showing you what is the natural thing to do when faced with the living voice of God, and when we are confronted with the shining face, the resurrected and glorious body of Jesus Christ. They fall on their faces and are terrified.
But then a wonderful thing happens to these disciples. All of a sudden the voice stops, maybe the open their eyes, maybe they see a bug or two on the ground, and they feel a hand on their shoulder, and the voice of Jesus who says, “Rise, and have no fear.”
And we read, “When they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.”
Psalm 3 says, “O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.”
Jesus is the lifter of their heads. He is the one who comes to them and touches them. Our text actually says: “He came near to them and touched them.” He is the beloved Son of God, with whom God is well pleased. He is the one about whom God says: “Listen to him.”
And then, what does he say, when he touches them? “Rise, and have no fear.” Rise and have no fear.
Listen to him! Listen to these words! Let him lift up your head, let him lift up your head from sadness, despair, and let him forgive you with these words. Let him transfigure your fear with these words, “Rise and have no fear.” Let him transfigure your mourning into dancing with these words, “Rise and have no fear.”
Be still, and know that he is God.
Take a moment now and think where you are. Think about in whose presence you are. Picture Jesus standing in the middle of this church today, among all messiness, our chaos, our troubles. He is here, you know!
The book of Hebrews says: “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel… Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”
This passage is describing what it means to be a Christian, and what it means to be a Christian who is gathered in the church, what it means to be a Christian gathered with the church by the Holy Spirit in the presence of the living Lord Jesus Christ.
It is a terrifying thing.
It is a terrifying thing to be in the presence of Jesus, because he is our God, and he is a consuming fire. The consuming fire shines out from his human body.
We haven’t just come to a church with pieces falling off of it, we have come to the heavenly Jerusalem. We have come to the angels, to the company of heaven, to God our judge, to Jesus, and to his sprinkled blood.
And we fall on our faces, and are terrified.
And when we come to the altar we fall on our knees in the presence of the transfigured Jesus Christ.
And we when we are in the presence of Jesus, we join in a conversation with Moses and Elijah, with the angels and the archangels and all the people who have died and are now in heaven, the spirits of the righteous made perfect. We talk with them, in fact, we sing together with them, with Moses and Elijah, and we say together, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, grant us your peace.”
Jesus transfigures us with his words. He forgives our sin, and he doesn’t count our sins against us any more. That’s what it means to be transfigured by Jesus: it doesn’t mean that we transfigure ourselves, it means that we let him transfigure us through his own transfigured water of baptism, his own transfiguring words of forgiveness, and his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.
He also transfigures our lives. St Paul says: Be transfigured by the renewal of your mind.
Transfiguration is a terrifying thing to see. It is also a terrifying thing to experience, as we undergo a constant transfiguration through the forgiveness of sins. St Paul says: “We who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” We are commanded to put off the old person and put on the new person, being transfigured in the image of God.
Transfiguration for you will mean constant testing, constant struggle. It will mean falling on your face and being terrified.
That’s why Jesus comes and touches you, he actually touches you to strengthen you. That’s what the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are: they are Jesus reaching out and touching you. But he doesn’t touch you in such a way as to make you afraid. He touches you and says to you, “Rise, and have no fear.”
Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.
I have died for you. I have won the victory. I have risen from the dead.
So all there is for you now is to “rise and have no fear”.
The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you!
Amen.
Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for the wonderful vision of your transfiguration. Transform us, and transfigure us for the sake of your holy precious blood, with which you won and redeemed us. Transform our lowly bodies to be like your glorious body. Purify us and make us holy with your holy words of forgiveness. Strengthen us with your words, with your holy sacraments, with your Holy Spirit. Amen.
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