Grace,
mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
Text: (Matthew
17:1-9)
And [Jesus]
was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes
became white as light.
Prayer: May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O
Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
In our
Gospel reading today, there are two things that are very important: the things
that the disciples see, and the things that the disciples hear.
The things
that the disciples see are told to us like this:
[Jesus] was
transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes
became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah,
talking with him.
At the end,
Jesus says to them: Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised
from the dead.
But the
things that the disciples hear are told to us like this:
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.”
So, what
exactly did the disciples see?
Well, in the
Christian church, we believe that Jesus our Lord has two natures: he has a human
nature and a divine nature. He is a 100% man, and also 100% God
at the same time. He had a human mother, and a divine Father: The
Virgin Mary who was a true human being was his mother, and also God the
Father was his Father, and he was conceived by the Holy Spirit.
So, you can
see, that Christ, in one way, is just like us, because he is a true
human being, just like us. But also, in another way, he is nothing like us,
because he is also true God. None of us are gods!
In the
bible, we have various passages that say that we worship one God. For
example, in Deuteronomy 6, we read: Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the
Lord is one. So Christians believe that there is one true God, which is
different to Hinduism, or Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, who believe in many
gods. We are also different from many indigenous religions, which believe in
different animal gods, like the traditional religions of the Australian
Aborigines or in Africa. We also don’t believe in two gods: a good god and an
evil god. God and the devil are not equal. We only believe in one God.
But also, we
believe that God has revealed himself in three persons: the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit. Already in the Old Testament, we have passages which
point ahead to this. Right at the beginning of Genesis, God says: Let us
make man in our image. He doesn’t say: Let there be man in my image, but let
us make man in our image. So it says: God created man in
his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created
them. You can see, right from the beginning of the bible, that even though
there is one God, he speaks about himself as more than one. Also, in
Numbers 6, where we get the blessing, the word “Lord” is repeated three times: The
LORD bless you and keep you. The LORD make his face shine on you and be
gracious to you. The LORD look upon you with favour, and give you peace. And
also in Isaiah 6, where Isaiah sees the great vision of heaven, the angels (the
seraphim) sing: Holy, holy, holy Lord God of hosts. There’s a very good
reason why we say this blessing, and sing the Holy, holy, holy every Sunday.
But then
also in the New Testament, Jesus says for us to baptise in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Also, in 2 Corinthians 13,
St Paul finishes his letter by saying: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. And
then there’s the baptism of Jesus: the Father speaking from heaven, the Son in
the water, and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.
So you can
see that even though we believe in one God, we also believe that there are three
persons in the Godhead: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
In the early
church, this belief which we confess was called the Holy Trinity, which
means that there is three in one and one in three.
In the
Athanasian Creed, we read a wonderful description of this: The Father is
God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and yet they are not three Gods
but one God. So the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord,
and yet they are not three Lords but one Lord.
So, when we
see this wonderful light shining from Jesus in our reading today, what do we
see? Where does this light come from?
First of
all, this wonderful light comes from the Father. James, who was there at the
transfiguration, in his letter in the New Testament, calls God the Father the
Father of lights. John, who was also there, says in his letter, that God
is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.
But also,
it’s not as if Jesus is shining someone else’s light. He is shining the light
that is his, and which belongs to him. John, who was there, in
his gospel (the Gospel of John), says that Jesus is the light that
enlightens everyone. In John’s Gospel, Jesus says: I am the light of the
world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of
life.
But also,
Jesus shines the light of the Holy Spirit. In the book of Hebrews, it says that
says that the people who have shared in the Holy Spirit have been enlightened. In so many songs and
hymns of the church, we often call the Holy Spirit God’s “light”.
So the light
that shines brightly through Jesus’ face and through his clothes is the light
of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. At the same time, the light of the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit shines only through the face of Jesus. Jesus says: Whoever
has seen me has seen the Father. And also on the night of Easter, Jesus
comes and breathes out the Holy Spirit on his disciples.
So we have
three persons of the Trinity: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But only the Son
has taken on human flesh. Only the Son has a human mother, Mary. The Father and
the Holy Spirit don’t have human bodies. Only the Son, Jesus Christ, has a
human body.
Now, if we
believe that Jesus is both true God and true man at the same time, how do we
describe these two natures in Jesus? How do they come together? Are they like
two pieces of cardboard stuck together? Does Jesus have some human moments
sometimes and some divine moments sometimes? No. He’s 100% God and 100% man
100% of the time. Otherwise, it would be like having two Jesuses. There’s only
one Jesus.
Is he like
two liquids mixed together to make a new liquid? No—otherwise he wouldn’t be
truly human or truly God anymore—he’d be something different altogether.
The best
picture of this is one that Christians in the early church used all the time,
and that is the picture of iron and fire. When a blacksmith puts iron in
fire, what happens? The iron becomes red-hot. The fire is contained in the
iron, but the iron is still iron. Also, the fire is still fire. But they are
joined together.
If you
wanted to brand something, like a cow or put a pattern on a belt, and you used
a cold piece of iron, nothing would happen. If you got out a blowtorch and used
just fire, you’d get roast-beef and a burnt belt. You have to use both: iron
and fire. Fire so that it will burn, and iron so that you can put the right
mark in the right place.
Jesus is
very much like this. When he touches a person, just like he comes and touches
the disciples in our reading today, it’s not simply a human touch, but it’s the
touch of God. It’s like iron and fire together—God and man in one person,
Jesus. When Jesus speaks, just like when he tells the three disciples, Rise
and have no fear, it’s not simply human words, but it’s the word of God.
Those words spoken with Jesus’ human tongue are words that are caught on fire
with God’s power. When Jesus does human things, it is God who does them. When
Jesus does divine things, it is a man who does them.
And so, we
can see in our reading, that Jesus glows with this wonderful light. Most of the
time, people see him just as a man, but here we see both clearly: we see the
iron and the fire glowing in the iron. We see the human body of Jesus glowing
and shining with pure divine light.
The miracle
here is not that Jesus shines with this light—he could shine like this all the
time if he wanted to, but he doesn’t. Instead, Jesus hides this light for our
benefit. He says: Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised
from the dead. Here Jesus prophesies that he will rise from the dead. And
the Transfiguration means nothing if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead. Why would
anyone care about this happening to a man if he’s now dead? But Jesus is
actually risen from the dead, and when we will finally meet him, he will
radiate with the kind of light that shines here in front of Peter, James and
John.
So the
miracle isn’t that Jesus shines with light—the miracle is that the disciples
are allowed to see it. And Jesus didn’t show this light to everyone when he was
giving the Sermon on the Mount, for example. He only showed this light to
Peter, James and John. Later, when Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane,
Peter, James and John were the same three disciples who were allowed to see
Jesus in his profound suffering and agony, when Jesus said: My soul is
deeply sorrowful, even to death.
But also,
Peter, James and John each wrote books of the New Testament. Peter wrote two
letters: 1 Peter and 2 Peter. James wrote the book of James (the letter of
James). And John wrote the Gospel of John, the three letters of John, and the
Revelation of John. At the beginning of the Gospel of John, John writes about
this event in our reading today. He says: The Word became flesh and dwelt
among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of the only Son from the
Father, full of grace and truth. John
says that he had seen the glory of Jesus. And also, that it is the glory as
of the only Son from the Father. On this occasion, God the Father says: This
is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.
But also, in
2 Peter, Peter writes: we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he
received honour and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him
by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we
ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the
holy mountain.
So you can
see that the disciples wanted to write about what is written in our reading
today. It was a wonderful thing and they wanted to tell people about it.
But this
wonderful vision is not the most important thing. The most important thing
about our reading is not what the disciples saw, but what they heard.
God the Father said: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased;
listen to him. We read: When the disciples heard this, they fell on
their faces and were terrified. Weren’t they already terrified?
No—they were quite excited. Peter wanted to build three tents, one for Jesus,
one for Moses and one for Elijah. But when they heard God’s voice they were
terrified. It’s a dangerous temptation for us to want to see Jesus, but
rejecting his words.
So here God
reveals the glory of Jesus for what it is, the glory as of the only Son of
the Father, full of grace and truth. This is my beloved Son, with whom I am
well pleased. But then he says: Listen to him.
Many of us
would love to see something magnificent from Jesus, something special, some
great display, but we need to be reminded that the great power of Jesus comes
through the word that he speaks. Listen to him. The water of
baptism saves people not because it is water, or because it is a powerful
water, but because of the word of Jesus. Listen to him: I baptise you in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The words of the
forgiveness of sin spoken by pastors in the church actually forgive people not
because of the pastor, or because they are more holy people that know better
than everyone else, but because the words they speak are the words of Jesus.
The Lord’s Supper becomes the body and blood of Christ for us to eat and drink,
not because of some special power that drops down from heaven, but because of
the words of Jesus: Take and eat, this is my body, take and drink, this is
my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.
It’s the
words of Jesus that make the water of baptism catch on fire with God’s saving
power like fiery iron, it’s the words of Jesus that make the bread and wine of
the Lord’s Supper catch on fire with Christ’s body and blood like fiery iron.
It’s the words of this glorious Saviour, Jesus of Christ, who give the power.
And so God the Father says: Listen to him.
Even in 2
Peter, where Peter tells about the vision on the mountain, he says: We were
with him on the holy mountain. And 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. He points us to the word of God. And also John in his first letter
says: That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you, so that you too
may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and
with his Son Jesus Christ. John says: We
proclaim it to you. We want to preach it to you. We are telling you this as the
word of God, so that you will hear it and join with us in the fellowship with
the Father and the Son. This is the fellowship that St Paul calls the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
What a
wonderful joy and privilege it is to listen to the words of Jesus! What a
wonderful joy it is to come and hear Jesus speak his grace, his comfort, his
forgiveness, his life, his salvation! What a wonderful thing it is that Jesus
comes and speaks his words to us, and shares his light with us!
Amen.
Lord Jesus
Christ, we thank you for this wonderful vision that you showed to Peter and
James and John. Through your great promises, make us partakers of your divine
nature, and strengthen us with your word in our journey to our heavenly home.
Amen.
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