This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am (lay-reading), and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 9am.
Grace, mercy and peace be to
you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.
And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of
the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.”
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.
Today we are celebrating an event recorded in the
Gospels which we call the Transfiguration. In this reading we read about how
Jesus appeared to Peter, James and John in a particularly amazing way, where
his face and clothes became to shine with bright white light. We also read about
how Peter, James and John also saw Moses and Elijah, two well-known figures
from the Old Testament who have lived long ago, talking with Jesus. And then,
we also read about how a cloud covered them, and God the Father spoke,
declaring Jesus to be his Son, and giving the command that we should listen to
him. And so, we’re going to look at these three things in our sermon:
I. Firstly, the amazing light that came across Jesus and
changed his appearance.
II.
Secondly, the fact that Moses and Elijah appeared, and
III.
Thirdly, the words that God the Father spoke from the
cloud.
So let’s come to the first part of our reading, where
we read about
I.
The amazing light that came across Jesus and changed
his appearance.
We read in our Gospel reading today: Jesus took
with him Peter and James and John, and let them up a high mountain by
themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became
radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. This is how
the evangelist Mark describes it in his gospel which we read today. He makes a
particular emphasis about Jesus and his clothes. Matthew also tells us that his
face shone like the sun. And also Luke, says that Jesus was praying,
and that the appearance of his face was altered.
This is an amazing thing that happened. John also
makes mention of this event, when he says the well-known words at the beginning
of his gospel: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen
his glory… Here in our reading today, we get a little picture of that glory
that John saw, together with Peter and James. Peter, who was also there on this
occasion, wrote about this event in his second letter, where is says: We did
not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but 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 from heaven, for we were
with him on the holy mountain. Do you see what kind of an impression
this event made on John and Peter? You can almost sense that their amazement
hadn’t worn off even by the time they wrote it.
This event in our reading teaches us something
wonderful about Jesus. It teaches us that Jesus is a human being whom we can
see and touch, but that also he is true God. He is the light of the world, who
existed right from the beginning of time together with his Father. The Book of
Hebrews calls Jesus the radiance of the glory of God. Jesus is 100% man
and 100% God 100% of the time, but he most of the time, he hides his glory and
his majesty and his brightness under the humble form of a human being like us.
It’s almost like a burning coal, or a hot piece of iron that a blacksmith uses.
Jesus is true God, and this divinity of Jesus shines out through his human
body, just like fire and heat make a charcoal or a piece of iron glow red hot.
But the miracle of the Transfiguration is not this
happened to Jesus. The miracle is that the disciples were allowed to see it.
Everything that Jesus did or said glows and radiates and shines with all of
his wonderful divine power and energy. Here in our reading, Jesus makes it
clear to the disciples exactly who he is. Like a true man, made in the image of
God, he prays, he has a face, a body, clothes. But as true God, shining with
brilliant light, he glows and shines and sends out his rays. When Jesus asked
Peter who the Son of Man is, Peter replied: You are the Son of the living God. The Son of Man is the Son of
God—this is who Jesus is. When Thomas after Easter saw Jesus standing in front
of him, with the wounds in his hands and his side, what did he say? He said:
You are my Lord and my God.
We learn here just who this Jesus is that we worship.
He came down from heaven to live a life among us. This is the Jesus who lives
with us each day, who baptised you personally, and who gives you the Lord’s
Supper each Sunday. You are his bride, and he is your bridegroom. And all of
this wonderful glory and power he shares with you, he uses this power to die
and cancel your sin, he unites himself with you, and he shows you a little
taste of what he will be like when you see him in heaven. But we might think:
but I am so ordinary, so sinful. I carry a lifetime of burdens, and shame, and
sadness, and worries and guilt. Does this Jesus with all of that brilliant
heavenly light want to enter into my life? Yes—he has died for you, he
has shed his blood for you, that body shining with light was nailed and pierced
and whipped and crucified for you, and now he is risen from the dead. He gives
you his forgiveness and his promise of eternal life and his victory as a
wonderful robe and clothing of righteousness and holiness, so that you can
stand before God, and wrap yourself up completely in that robe. You can stand
before God the Father, not because you are so holy and perfect. Far from it—you
are not holy and perfect. But this Jesus is—and let’s you wrap yourself up in
his robe of righteousness, that righteousness, that holiness, that purity, that
brilliance and radiance that belongs to him.
But also, we get a little taste of what our bodies
will be like when Jesus raises us from the dead. In the Apostles’ Creed it
says: I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Sometime
after we have died and gone to be with Jesus in heaven, he will gather up all
of the dust and ashes of our bodies and transform them and glorify them. Paul
says in Philippians: Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like
his glorious body. Just think about that for a moment—the wonderful glory
that we see in our reading today of Christ’s body, he won’t only keep to
himself, but he will share that glory with you, and transform your body at the
end of the world.
The other thing that happens in our reading today is
that it’s not just Jesus’ face that shines with brilliant light, it’s not just
his body, but it’s also his clothes. Our reading today says: His clothes
became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. Now
the wonderful thing about Jesus is that, now that he has ascended into heaven,
he still wants to meet us and speak to us and be with us even now, here in this
lifetime, on this side of the grave. And so he clothes himself. He hides
himself here on earth, in such a way that you would only know he were there if
he told you. Do you know what these things are, where Jesus clothes himself?
First of all, he clothes himself in the words of the bible, the Holy
Scripture—not just in the printed words on paper, but also when we read it
aloud, and preach it, and sing it, and pray it, and think about it. Jesus
clothes himself in the words of the Scripture, and these clothes of his shine
with all the brilliance of his divine light. We read: Your word is a lamp—a
bright, shining lamp!—to my feet, and a light—a brilliant light!—to
my feet.
Also, he clothes himself in the words and the water of
Holy Baptism. To us, it looks like just a bit of water in a bowl. But this
water and the words of Jesus that we speak—I baptise you in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit—this baptism is full of
wonderful divine light and energy and power, because your baptism gave to you
the forgiveness of sins, rescued you from death and the devil, and gave you
eternal life. You can put your trust in this solid rock, because Jesus himself
has promised that he will clothe himself there, and hide himself there. Also,
on Sundays, we hear those wonderful words of absolution spoken by the pastor: I
forgive you all your sins. Jesus had said to his apostles: Receive the
Holy Spirit! If you forgive anyone their sins, they are forgiven; if you
withhold forgiveness, they are withheld. And so, Jesus has promised to hide
and clothe himself in these words of forgiveness, so that when we hear them we
know that this is not the words of a mere man standing on earth, but the words
of the Lord of heaven and earth himself, our Lord Jesus Christ. And if he has
clothed himself with these things, we know that his clothes shine with
brilliant divine light.
But then also, he has promised to give us his body and
blood to eat and to drink. He clothes himself in this bread and wine, and this
bread and wine shines and glows in such a way that they are connected and
united to the body and blood of Christ himself, so that when we eat this bread,
we are eating Christ’s true transformed, glorified and life-giving body and
when we drink this wine, we are drinking Christ’s true, transformed, glorified,
and life-giving blood. And Jesus knows that if we came on our own, we would die
and be completely overwhelmed by his holiness. Jesus knows our sin and our
weakness, so he says to us not just, This is my body, but that it is given
for you. He says not just, This is my blood, but that it is shed
for you for the forgiveness of sins. And so we can trust him and his words
and joyfully receive the wonderful gifts that he gives to us.
So there are so many wonderful things that we learn in
our reading today from the fact that Jesus was transfigured, that his
face shone like the sun, and that even his clothes become radiant,
intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.
Let’s come to the second part of our reading where we
read about where
II.
Moses and Elijah appear.
Moses and Elijah were two
historical figures which we read about in the Old Testament. Moses lived about
1500 or 1600 years before this event, and led the Jewish people out of Egypt
through the Red Sea. Elijah was a prophet who lived many years later about 800
or 900 years before this event, during the years of one of the worst kings in
Israel’s history, King Ahab. And in our reading today, they show up, and they
are standing there on the mountain with Jesus.
One of the very strange
things about Moses and Elijah is that nobody knew where Moses was buried. His
bones were never found. Also, Elijah didn’t die in the normal way, but was
carried into heaven with chariots and horses of fire. We also read about
another figure in the Old Testament, Enoch, who also didn’t die in the normal
way. It simply says: Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God
took him.
In our reading today, we get
a little glimpse of two saints of the Old Testament, who enjoy being in the
presence of Jesus and talking with him. This gives us also a little picture of
the way in which we who believe in Jesus will one day enjoy being in the
presence of Jesus and talk with him.
Peter at this point, just
goes a bit crazy for a while. He is completely overwhelmed and dithers around
and doesn’t know what he’s doing. He says to Jesus: Rabbi, it is good that
we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for
Elijah. Mark also tells us: For he did not know what to say, for they
were terrified. Of course, they were terrified! Here was Moses and Elijah! Did
Peter, James and John think that maybe they were even entering into heaven
itself?
But there is one thing that
Peter’s ramblings teach us. Peter recognised Moses and Elijah—he had never met
them before, but when they were there, he recognised them. And this is a
wonderful comfort to us about when we enter heaven is that we will recognise
people: we will recognise all those people we loved who died with Jesus and
that we now miss, and we will recognise all the saints and all the apostles and
the martyrs and the prophets, and everyone. It will be a wonderful family
reunion, where we won’t need to wear nametags!
But also there is something
else that is special about Moses and Elijah. Moses is the person who wrote down
God’s law in the Old Testament. Elijah is considered to be one of the most
important prophets. And often we read about the Law and the Prophets. In
Romans 3, Paul says that Law and the Prophets bear witness to the
righteousness of faith in Jesus Christ. Here we see Moses (who represents the
law) and Elijah (who represents the prophets) pointing to Jesus. After Jesus
rose from the dead, we read in Luke: Beginning with Moses and all the
Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning
himself. What this shows us is that the whole of human history, and all of
God’s people, were all looking forward to this moment, and this person, Jesus
Christ. And even today, he is our wonderful Saviour, our King, our Lord, our
Mediator, our Advocate, and our Redeemer. When we look to Jesus and point to
him, we even have Elijah and Moses on our side.
But let’s come to the last
part of our reading, about where:
III.
God the Father speaks from the cloud.
We read: And a cloud
overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son;
listen to him.”
Here is God the Father’s
voice: and he points to his Son, and tells us not simply to look at him, or to
touch him, but to listen to him. All the power is in Jesus’ words. John
calls Jesus the Word of God. He says: The word became flesh. But
Jesus is not the word of God who keeps his mouth shut. He is the word of God
who continually opens his mouth. He was speaking even through Moses, and
Elijah, and throughout the Old Testament. And when he rose from the dead, he
sent out his apostles to give an eyewitness of him. He says: He who hears
you hears me. And this Jesus calls takes every that Moses said and
everything that Elijah said, all of God’s law and all the cries of the
prophets, and preaches it right into the very centre of our hearts, and calls
us to repent, to completely change our lives, and our whole way of thinking.
But God the Father also points to his Son, and says: Listen to him,
because of a new word that will be spoken. This word is the Gospel, and this
word shows us Jesus as our Saviour, as the one who has fulfilled the whole law
for us, and now gives forgiveness and eternal life as a gift completely and
totally freely to everyone who believes in him.
And so, when God spoke to
Moses, he gave him the Ten Commandments. The First Commandment says: You
shall have no other Gods before me. And now the same God who spoke to Moses
on Mount Sinai now speaks from the cloud and says: Listen to him. If you
want to have me as your God, you must listen to my Son. You will get to me and
come to me in no other way! This is my beloved Son. Jesus says: I am the
way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. Peter
said: There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under
heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
And so, the disciples look up
and see Jesus by himself, alone. They see his kind face, and a gentle hand on
their shoulder of a friend. But more importantly, they have a word from the
Father: Listen to him. And Jesus says: Rise, and have no fear. Have
no fear, for I will suffer and die for you, I will rise for you, and I will
forgive you, and lead you, and strengthen you, and bless you, and be with you
always to the end of the age. This is Jesus, our wonderful Saviour! Amen.
Dear Jesus, how good it is to
be here with you today, together with all the angels and saints of heaven, in
your glorious presence. Speak to us in your word, and fill us with your Holy
Spirit. Amen.
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