Septuagesima [Matthew 20:1-16] (13-Feb-2022)

                  

This sermon was preached at St Peter’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. 

Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

Our Gospel reading today, from Matthew chapter 20, tells the wonderful parable of Jesus about the labourers in the vineyard.

We read: For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

Jesus here is speaking here about the kingdom of heaven and he likening it to a vineyard. Now, we often read in the Gospels that Jesus speaks in parables, he uses little stories and metaphors to help us think about something that for us is so incredibly wonderful and mysterious. It’s almost completely wrong or inappropriate to speak of the kingdom of heaven like a description in a mathematical or scientific textbook. Jesus is speaking of the Kingdom of heaven, which is a wonderful kingdom to be part of, and which has a wonderful king, our Lord Jesus Christ.

However, here Jesus is not simply speaking about the kingdom of heaven as when we die and enter into heaven. Yes, we speak about entering into heaven like that, but here, Jesus is speaking about something that is going on here on the earth. The Kingdom of heaven, already in this life, begins here for us on this earth, in such a way that heaven and earth overlap. Even, when Jesus was born, when we consider all the events at Christmas time, we notice how there are so many angels: an angel appears to Mary, to Joseph, to the wise men from the East, even a multitude of angels appears to the shepherds in the fields. It would have been difficult for these shepherds in a way to know whether they were standing on the earth or in heaven itself when they found themselves in this kind of heavenly company.

And so, the church on earth has always been this kind of kingdom. We worship here on earth the Lord Jesus Christ, as he descends to be with us, and speak to us in the Holy Word, and forgive us our sins, and wash us clean from sin in the water of Holy Baptism, to feed his people with His own heavenly food in the Lord’s Supper. And not just here in the Divine Service, but in our everyday life, we go into the world as people filled with the Holy Spirit, so shine the light of Christ wherever God has placed us, to live our life to His glory, to the honour and praise of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Of course, we Christians still carry around with us our sin, our troubles, our weaknesses. Here in this life, on this side of the grave, on this side of death, we are still wrestling, still fighting against sin. We still live in such a way that follow after Christ carrying the cross. We still have our sufferings and our burdens. But in the kingdom of heaven, we know that even though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, as Psalm 23 says, I will not fear, for you are with me. Our heavenly, divine Shepherd, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is with us, even through the difficult times, and leads us forward in times of teaching and learning for us, times which are sometimes difficult, but then also he leads us into times of refreshment. Throughout all of this, we know that the victory over sin, death, the world, the evil one, Satan—the victory has already been won. Jesus has died and he has risen again from the dead, and the victory has been won. Sin, death, the world, Satan have all been defeated. And in the Kingdom of heaven, here on this earth, as we march along to our heavenly destination, as we look to heaven to be with our Lord Jesus Christ for all eternity, we continually need to learn that this victory is already ours. If we look into our hearts, we will only see failure, anxieties, and disappointment. But if we look to Jesus, then we can see his forgiveness, his encouragement, his joy, his hope. St Paul quotes in 1 Corinthians 15: Death is swallowed up in victory? O death, where is your victory? O death where is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. St John writes in his letter: This is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. In the letter to the Hebrews, we read: Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. How desperately we need to here these encouraging words in our discouraging times and in our dark world!

Now, in the reading, Jesus compares the Kingdom of heaven to labourers working in a vineyard. Many times throughout the bible, the kingdom of heaven is compared to a vineyard. In fact, after the flood, we read that one of the first things that Noah did was to plant a vineyard. In Isaiah 5, it says: Let me sing for my beloved my song concerning his vineyard: My beloved has a vineyard on a very fertile hill. The prophet here is speaking about his people as like a vineyard which God tends and looks after. Even, if we go right to the very beginning of the bible, with Adam and Eve, the first thing that God does it to put Adam in a garden, to tend it and look after it.

Now, also, the grapevine is an extraordinary plant in many ways, and produces a rich fruit, a sweet fruit, which then can be used to produce all kinds of rich wines. I remember talking to someone from the Barossa Valley, here in South Australia, where of course they have many vineyards, and someone said that the wines there are so distinctive, that this person could almost tell you the exact paddock where the grapes were grown from tasting the wine.

On the other hand, the grapevine is not a particularly spectacular looking plant. It’s not like a strong fig tree, or an impressive palm tree. In the Middle East, in Dubai, I think, they have made some artificial islands off the coast, in the shape of a palm tree, which branches and frons. But could you imagine someone making artificial islands in the shape of a grape vine? It would go all over the place.

And so, this is something also for us to consider: on the face of it, a grapevine doesn’t look like much. It’s gnarly, and twisted. It needs maintenance: it need propping up, and tying back, and stakes and posts, and all that kind of thing. So even in this world, in the eyes of the world, the church doesn’t look like much. The kingdom of God from the outside looks very humble, it looks like it’s struggling, it looks weak, like it doesn’t achieve much, even sometimes like it’s dying and not growing. But in all of this, we remember the words of Jesus in John 15, where he says: I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can no nothing. What a wonderful promise of Jesus this is! Of course, many times we will feel as though we’re doing nothing, achieving nothing, getting nowhere, but all of this is to remind us to turn to Jesus and rely on Him for everything: to rely on Him for our comfort, for our energy, for our hope, for providing our income and means of living, for our words, for our thoughts. Jesus is the wonderful vine, and we often shy away from him and sometimes can even be ashamed of Him, because we see this gnarly and twisted appearance, and we would rather go to some other tree. But we can’t judge these things with our eyes. Remember in the Garden of Eden when the fall into sin happened. We read: When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. So, when it comes to this twisted and weak appearance of the grape-vine, we need to judge not with our eyes, but with our ears, according to the word of God, as Jesus teaches it. Now, there are so many things that we could consider about the kingdom of heaven and the vineyard, but for the moment we’ll leave it there.

Now, let’s go back to our reading. We read that Jesus says: For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire labourers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the labourers for denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

Now, let’s think for a moment about the labourers. The master sends his labourers to work for a denarius for the day’s work. Now there are various countries, mostly in the Middle-East, but also including Serbia, where they use a currency called a “dinar”. This word comes from the word “denarius”. A denarius was a normal day’s pay for a labourer. Today, we would think of it as somewhere between a hundred dollars, and a few hundred dollars, depending on the type of work.

Anyway, in our parable, we read there is a master of a house—who we assume is God himself—who goes out and hires labourers to work in his vineyard. What a wonderful privilege it is to be called to be a labourer in God’s vineyard. Actually, all Christians are labourers in God’s vineyard. Now, there’s two aspects to this: the first is the honour, the great joy, the great privilege of simply being asked, being called, to be part of this kingdom. The second aspect to this is that there is a task, there is work, there is labour.

Now, as Christians, in the kingdom of heaven, as labourers in the vineyard, we are called to work. We are called to do things. Now, each of us has a particular calling in life, a particular place where God has called us to live a life filled with the Holy Spirit. For example, maybe you are husband, a wife, a father, or a mother, or a son, or a daughter, in the family. We’re called by God to be a good husband, a good wife, a good father, a good mother, a good son, a good daughter – we ask the Holy Spirit to bless us in our place in life in the family, so that we can shine the light of Christ from that place. Also, we might have some particular employment, or career, or work that we do during the week: we are called to do it well, to the best of our ability, to be a good worker, a good boss, so that the Holy Spirit may also shine his light through us in whatever place we are. We also might have the vocation of being a pastor, or a member of the church, a hearer of God’s Word. Some people find themselves called upon by God to go further afield and serve the kingdom of God in a far-off country as a missionary, or something like that. Of course, we are never perfect, because we it’s in all these particular places, and particular aspects of our lives, that we realise that we have let those down around us the most. And so, in all our labours, we always need to ask for the forgiveness of God upon our lives. It is only Jesus who is perfect, and we are simply unworthy servants. But when we receive the forgiveness of sins, even in this life, through the Word of God, through the blood of Jesus, everything wrong is covered by Jesus, so that when we stand together with Him, it is as if there were nothing wrong, because the blood of Jesus, which has paid for and atoned for every single sin in the whole world, has washed everything away.

Now, the other thing that goes on in this reading is that all throughout the day, the master is going out all day to call the different labourers to work. We read: And going out about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, ‘You go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same. And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

Here we see a picture of how God is constantly going out every day, all throughout the day, all throughout the history of the world, stretching out his arms and calling people to come to himself. In fact, not one single labourer could even work at all in the vineyard, unless God has actually called them. So, none of this depends on us, and on our choosing, but it depends on God and his choosing. He is the one who through His holy Word calls all people to Himself.

You see, sometimes, we hear about some Christians even who are constantly asking people to make a decision to follow Jesus. But that is something that an unconverted sinner can’t do. A sinner can only choose sin, and not good. God must come with His Holy Spirit, and He is the only one who can convert people and change their hearts. And so, God is the one who acts here, who does something. He is the one who calls and hires the labourers. He must change people’s hearts, before they can make any good choices about spiritual things in their life. When we are converted to God, it is not our choice, but it is God who has chosen us. Even in the passage about the vine and the branches that we read before, Jesus says: You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. Let’s look at a couple of examples of this. Take Peter, for example. He was the apostle who was the first preacher when the Holy Spirit came down on the day of Pentecost, and three thousand people became Christians. But when Jesus called him to follow him, and they were fishing in the boats, and Jesus caused them to catch a huge number of fish, we read that Peter said: Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Yes, Peter was right: he was a sinful man. But that is no reason for Jesus to depart. In fact, quite the opposite. It’s the reason for Jesus to draw near. And that’s exactly what happens. Jesus said to Peter: Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men. Peter didn’t know how to choose to follow Jesus: his sin wanted to push Jesus away from him. So Jesus then calls him to work in the vineyard. And we read: when they had brought the boats to land, they left everything and followed him.

But then, look at Paul, the other great apostle. Paul was actually a persecutor of Jesus and his followers. He had approved of the execution of Stephen and was on his was to Damascus to round up other Christians to have them executed too. But as he was still breathing threats and hatred against the Christians, Jesus converted Paul on the road. He says: I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do. When Paul went into Damascus, he met a man called Ananias, who said to him: Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. So, here you can see again, that it was not Paul who made a decision to follow Jesus, but it was Jesus who reached out to him, despite his sin, despite even his hatred and contempt for Christians. So we can see that it is a wonderful thing to be called by Jesus, a great honour, a great joy, because we realise that the work of converting us and changing our hearts and not been our own doing, but it has been his doing. It has all been by his grace, his mercy, his love which he has shown to us.

Now, at the end of our reading we read about how all the people who were called at different times came to be paid. We read: When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the labourers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last, up to the first.’ And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. And on receiving it they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and do. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or is your eye evil because I am good? So the last will be first, and the first last.

Now, let’s summarise what happens here. This whole part has to do with how we are saved by God. Are we saved because of the good works we have done, or are we saved by the grace and the mercy of God? Well, firstly, in this life, we are called to work, and do good things for people, and good things which are to the praise and honour of God. But when we do them, we are not counting them, as if we will be paid a particular reward by God because of them.

No, our salvation, our forgiveness, the kingdom of heaven, doesn’t come because we earn it, or because we pay for it, or because we have done some work for it. It is not a reward, or day wages. It is a free gift, which we receive by simply believing in it. St Paul says in Romans: The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So the reason why it is free is not because it is worth nothing. Not at all. No, it is worth everything in the whole world and more. It is free, because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has actually come down from heaven, entered into this world, and has paid for it himself through his suffering, his death on the cross, through his holy and precious blood, through his sacrifice.

And so, then, when we are baptised, and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit through the water and the Word of God, this is not a work that we do. This is an event where God himself adopts us as his own child, and where he pours out his Holy Spirit to fill us, and where he actually forgives us our sins. And we don’t earn any of it, we simply believe that God’s word is true and that it has been given freely for us. When we believe in it, it is ours, completely apart from any our works, or whether we have done anything.

The people who come at the eleventh hour get the same pay, because it is a gift from God who gives it. He says: Friend, I am doing you no wrong? Did I not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go. Those who complain about the payment wanted to be rewarded for their labour. They worked, God should pay them. But this is not how it works. Some people work very hard in the Christian faith and in the kingdom of heaven. Some people only come recently, or even close to the end of their life. The master says: I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me?

Not only does God do what he chooses with what belongs to him, but he also promises us certain things too. For example, we do not go along thinking that at the end of the day, God can do what he likes, and can just chuck us in the bin if he chooses. No, God promises, He actually binds Himself to his Word, and says: Whoever believes in Jesus will not perish but have eternal life. He says: Whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame.

So, let’s commend ourselves into the wonderful hands of our dear Lord Jesus, ask him to fill us with His Holy Spirit, so that we may be useful in all kinds of ways in the Lord’s vineyard. And let’s look forward to that wonderful time, when he will receive us into his kingdom, together with all his saints and angels, and all the company of heaven, not because of anything that we have done, but because Jesus has done everything. It is paid for in full, it is paid for with his blood! And it is poured into our lap in abundance, completely for free, totally freely. All we do is believe it, and even our faith itself is his gift. All the glory, honour, the power, the wisdom, the righteousness, and the kingdom belongs to Him! Amen.

 

And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

The Transfiguration of our Lord (Matthew 17:1-9) [6-Feb-2022]

                 

This sermon was preached at St Peter’s Evangelical-Lutheran Church, Public Schools Club, Adelaide, 9am

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

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." 

Prayer: Let the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

 

Today we are celebrating the event of Jesus’ transfiguration. This is the wonderful event in the life of Jesus where he took Peter, James and John up a mountain, and his clothes and face began to shine with bright heavenly light. We are also told that Moses and Elijah appeared next to Jesus, talking with him about his departure, his journey to Jerusalem to die as the Lamb of God for the sin of the world. We are also told that when Peter, who was completely amazed by this appearance and had no idea what to do, was suggesting that he make three tents for Jesus, Moses and Elijah, a cloud came and covered over everything. And God the Father spoke from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

This is such a wonderful event, and yet many Christians don’t often think about it too much. We have a custom in our church of remembering this event, and celebrating it on the last Sunday of the Epiphany season. The Epiphany season is that time of the year after Christmas, which begins by remembering the visit of the wise men to the baby Jesus, and the Baptism of Jesus. The word Epiphany means to “show”, or “manifest”, or “display”. We see God making a wonderful “showing” when he sent the wise men a star to lead them to the country of Israel, and also when he “showed” himself as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit at the Baptism of Jesus: The Father spoke from heaven, the Son was being baptised in the water, and the Holy Spirit came upon him in the form of a dove. Today, as we celebrate the Transfiguration, we remember the wonderful way in which God showed to us the power and the divinity of his Son, Jesus Christ—he shows us that he is truly the powerful Son of God himself—by speaking his voice from the cloud, as wonderful light radiates and beams forth and shines from Jesus’ face, and body and clothes.

Actually, the two events of the Baptism of Jesus and the Transfiguration form a kind of pair of bookends to the Epiphany season: we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus at the beginning of the Epiphany Season at the beginning of January, and we celebrate the Transfiguration at the end of the Epiphany season. And both of these events have something in common. On both occasions, God the Father actually speaks his voice in the hearing of all the people who were present at these events. In fact, at both events, he says the same thing: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. However, at the Transfiguration, he says something extra: Listen to Him! It’s this command of God to listen to Jesus that I’m going to focus on today, and I think that these words of God the Father actually give us a wonderful interpretation of everything that goes on. In fact, these words are the centre and the focus of this event at the Transfiguration – Listen to Him!

 So firstly, today, I’d like to take us back to the Old Testament, to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 18. Now, the book of Deuteronomy is a particularly special book in the Old Testament, which contains—if you like—a long sermon or speech from Moses, just as all the people are about to cross the River Jordan and enter into the promised land of Canaan.

Now, during the book of Deuteronomy, Moses gives the people all kinds of warnings to the people about what they should do and not do when they enter the Promised Land. Particularly, they must remain faithful to God, and not start worshipping the false gods of the people in the land. But not only that, but the people were not allowed to copy to worship practices of the people who worshipped other gods, and use these practises to worship the true God. For example, you might remember in the book of Exodus, when the people worshipped the Golden Calf. Not only did they worship this statue, but Aaron said that the calf was in fact God himself, and that through worshipping this statue of the calf, they were worshipping God himself. Do you see? Aaron made it look like they weren’t worshipping some other god, but that they were actually worshipping the God of Israel. But the people weren’t allowed to do this—they weren’t allowed to use idols, and such like, in such a way that they could gain access through them to God. The way to meet God was not to worship a calf statue made out of gold.

So, in Deuteronomy 18, this is what Moses preaches to the people. He says: When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, for whoever does these things is an abomination to the LORD. And because of these abominations the LORD is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the LORD your God, for these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this. The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen.

Let me read to you this last verse again. The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen. Moses is saying that God will raise up a prophet like himself, from his brothers, from the Jewish people. Now, there are a number of places in the New Testament, where this verse is taken to be talking about Jesus. After Pentecost, Peter uses this passage to speak about Jesus in one of his first sermons, after he heals a man sitting outside the temple. Stephen, the first person to be killed for the Christian faith, uses this passage from Deuteronomy to refer to Jesus. It’s as if to say, that since the people entered the Promised Land all those hundreds and hundreds of years ago, after Moses had died, they have been waiting for a prophet. And Christians say, that this prophet that the Jewish people had been waiting for centuries, is in fact, Jesus.

Let me read the prophecy again. Moses says: The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen. Now, let’s have a look at the Transfiguration, and see how this prophecy is actually fulfilled in our reading.

First of all, Moses calls Jesus a “prophet like me”. Actually, at the transfiguration, Moses is there. In fact, we’re not entirely sure whether this is Moses in his spirit, or in his body, because at the end of the book of Deuteronomy, it says that nobody knew what happened to Moses body. Mysteriously, here is Moses, talking to Jesus. And after Moses had received the law, we read that his face began to shine with bright light, such that he even had to put a veil, a cloth, over his head, because the people just couldn’t cope with and withstand this wonderful light. In the same way, Jesus’ face shines, but not only that, but his whole body shines, and even his clothes. But Jesus doesn’t normally appear like this, but he is always the Son of God, he is always God of God, Light of Light, but most of the time when people saw Jesus, this light was not hidden by a cloth or a veil, like Moses, but is was hidden simply by his human flesh. So Jesus is like Moses, in that his face also shone like Moses’ face.

Also, Jesus was like Moses, in that both of them performed miracles. But they performed very different types of miracles. Moses performed miracles that were frightening and scary for people. They were miracles that revealed God’s anger and his judgement and his wrath. For example, Moses put his hand in his coat, and it was full of leprosy. He put his staff on the ground, and it became a snake. He poured water on the ground, and it turned to blood. He brought about many plagues in Egypt—flies, frogs, darkness, death—you name it!

Now, when Jesus came, he also performed miracles, but miracles that were comforting and encouraging and which strengthened people. For example, he turned water not into blood, but into wine, for people’s enjoyment. He didn’t bring about leprosy, but he healed lepers. He healed many people, he cast out demons, he gave sight to the blind, and allowed the deaf to hear, and raised the dead. So Jesus’ miracles were of a different character to Moses’ miracles. But the fact that they both performed miracles like this, means that Jesus is very much like Moses.

But also, Jesus was a prophet like Moses, in the way that he spoke. Moses brought the 10 Commandments to the people. But then Jesus applies and comments on the commandments in a way that had never been done before.  He says: You have heard that it was said, “You shall not murder”. (Jesus quotes the 10 Commandments). But then he says: But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. So Jesus is also like Moses in the way that he speaks. Moses spoke the thunder of God’s law, and brought the people in a limited way into God’s presence through all the laws and details about worship, about the tabernacle, and the priests, and the food regulations, and all that kind of stuff. But Jesus also speaks the thunder of God’s law, but he does so in order to lay them bare and to bring them the forgiveness of sins, which he won for them through his suffering, his blood, and his death on the cross. That was something that Moses didn’t bring, but Jesus did bring. So in this way, Jesus is very much like Moses, and he is a wonderful teacher of both the law and the Gospel, but especially the Gospel. We read in John’s Gospel: The law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Now, if we look back through the bible, we read that there were many great prophets, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. And if we were to name the greatest of these prophets, we would probably say, Elijah. Elijah was an amazing prophet, and he spoke God’s word clearly and boldly at a time when very few people wanted to hear it. However, we believe that Elijah was not this prophet that Moses spoke about, but that Jesus is this prophet.

And we realise this at the Transfiguration, because not only is Moses standing there with Jesus but also Elijah. And together Moses and Elijah testify by their presence, that the prophet that the Jewish people are looking for is not Elijah, but Jesus Christ. Can you see this wonderful way in which Moses and Elijah point to Jesus here? And together they show that Jesus is the fulfilment of these words from Deuteronomy: The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet from among you, from your brothers—it is to him that you shall listen.

But there are two more things in the Transfiguration that relate to this prophecy. First, it says that Jesus will come from among you, from your brothers. Moses means that Jesus will come from the Jewish people, not from some other people. And so, we see Jesus here, just like an ordinary Jewish man, amongst his three friends, Peter, James and John. He takes them up the mountain, these three fishermen, who grew up similarly to him, and to whom Jesus talks to as an ordinary person to ordinary people. Jesus came from among them, from among the Jewish people. But then, when they arrive at the place, a separation occurs—Peter, James and John are over there, and Jesus is over there. Jesus is shining with brilliant light, with all the light of his divine nature, brighter than the light from heaven itself, and Peter, James and John are completely dazzled by it. Because Jesus is not just a normal Jewish man, but he is also the Son of God, and in fact, true God of true God. At the end of the reading, when the cloud has gone, and everything is back to normal, Jesus touches his disciples, like a brother, like a friend, and he says: Rise, and have no fear. Don’t be afraid, it’s me, let’s go, let’s walk together. And so, Jesus comes from among his people, from the Jewish people, from their brothers.

But secondly, God the Father wants to make it especially clear that these words from Deuteronomy apply to Jesus. Moses says: The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet from among you, from your brothers—it is to him that you shall listen. At the Transfiguration, God the Father himself hides his voice in a cloud, and speaks his voice to all who are there: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him! Moses said: It is to him that you shall listen. And now God the Father says: Listen to him! It’s as if God the Father is coming with his own finger, and pointing to his only Son, and saying to Peter and James and John: This is the one that you’ve all been waiting for, this is the one you should listen to. In fact, every Sunday, this is what we Christians actually come here to do. We come to listen to Jesus. We don’t come to listen simply to a pastor, or to listen to each other over morning tea. We come to listen to Jesus, as he speaks his own words to his people, through the absolution and the forgiveness of sins, whenever someone is baptised through the words that are spoken, in the Lord’s Supper when we hear that this bread and wine is in actual fact his body and blood, and in the sermon, when the word of God and the words of salvation are proclaimed and spoken to you. So listen to God the Father’s voice, when he says to you: Listen to him! Listen to Jesus!

Now, there’s another aspect to the Transfiguration that we haven’t really spoken about yet. What happens here is an amazing vision. And Jesus himself calls it a vision, but it’s not like the disciples were dreaming or day-dreaming, and what they saw wasn’t actually real. It was real, it happened. They saw it, and they saw it as something that was happening right there in front of them, they didn’t imagine it, and it didn’t happen in their heads.

But also, there’s something very mysterious in the way that Moses and Elijah appeared. Because in one sense, they were dead—but also, there was something very strange about the deaths of both these men. With Moses, nobody knew where he was buried. In the book of Jude, it says that there was some kind of dispute between the archangel Michael and the devil about the body of Moses. We don’t really know much about it, but it’s a strange thing that nobody knew where Moses’ body was, and yet, here at the Transfiguration, here is Moses. Also, Elijah was taken into heaven on a chariot—he didn’t die a normal death, and he also didn’t have a grave site. And yet, at the Transfiguration, here is Elijah. All this is very mysterious, and strange, and is a holy mystery that we leave in the hands of God. We don’t want to delve into it too much, because if we do, it can even become dangerous to us. When Peter starts to ask about these things, God brings down a cloud. It’s as if he puts all these things off limits. Sometimes Christians are deceived into thinking that they need to penetrate through this cloud of unknowing to discover God in the darkness there. No—the cloud comes down, the mysterious things are off-limits, and God the Father points us to Jesus.

Now, there are actually many people in our country and in our society who are interested in spiritual things. In the 60s, many hippies went to India to find spiritual enlightenment. Many people still go to wellness clinics in Asia to find spiritual health. Many people want to receive visions, and they want to contact the dead, and cross over into other dimensions, and they start to wonder about all these things. People even today, just like superstitious people in ancient times, look up at the stars, and practice astrology, and try to derive meaning from them, as if the stars and the zodiac are telling us messages about our lives.

Well, Moses spoke about these things in Deuteronomy: Earlier, I read where Moses said to beware of the practices of the nations when they entered into the Promised Land. Moses says: The nations, which you are about to possess, listen to fortune-tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the LORD your God has not allowed you to do this. Moses makes a long list of these strange practices of the nations: fortune-telling, sacrificing children, practicing divination—which is, let’s say, “trying to get a message from something that doesn’t give messages”—, interpreting omens (like reading stars, or tea-leaves, or bird-calls, or whatever, to get some warning), sorcery (which is witchcraft, or occult), charming (which is attaching some spiritual power to something that doesn’t have that power—like saying, “this magic rock will protect you”). Moses also mentions, “mediums” (who are people who claim to give messages from the dead), or “necromancy” (which is talking to dead)… all these things, Moses says, the nations listen to these people. But the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this. Instead, who should you listen to? Moses says, “It is to him you shall listen!” To the prophet like me! God says: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him!

What Moses describes with all these strange practices things, is basically the traditional religions which are found all across the world. If you go to India, you’ll find talking to the dead, reading omens, fortune-telling in Hinduism. If you go to Africa, you’ll find it there with the witch-doctors. If you go to South America, you’ll find it there with the shamans, or whoever. And this stuff is making a strange come-back in Australia. If you start take notice, you’ll see this stuff everywhere, and realise just what a pagan country Australia.

What you need to know, and what Moses teaches, and what God the Father teaches at the Transfiguration, is that, if you hear a message from any of these people, who practice this stuff, it is not Jesus. It is not the voice of Jesus. The Word of God does not come through these people, and these practices. It is mutually exclusive to listen to the fortune-tellers, and to listen to him!

So we don’t become distracted by the wonderful spiritual vision at the Transfiguration, and go off trying to chase our own personal spiritual vision, through whatever means. We don’t become distracted by the presence of Moses and Elijah who are there, and start trying to build tents for dead people, and try to talk to them, and get messages from them. King Saul wanted to talk to dead Samuel, and he was rejected by God.

And so, at the Transfiguration, there are so many comforts for us. We don’t need to embroil ourselves in all this complicated, mystical stuff. We are simply told to listen to Jesus, to hold fast to his Word, and never let it go. When we have the Words of Jesus, we have everything we need. We have everything we could ever possibly want, and we will never be disappointed. He is our true Saviour, our true God, our true Light, who has won the true forgiveness of our sins, and promises us eternal life with Moses and Elijah, and all his saints, in wonderful glory, just like we see in the Transfiguration. Our bodies will be transformed to be like his. The forgiveness of sins which receive even today through the absolution and the Lord’s Supper is the beginning of that wonderful Transfiguration that will happen to us on the last day so that all our sins will be completely erased and we will shine like Jesus. So let’s listen to him, and take tremendous comfort in this event! Amen.

 

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.