Transfiguration 2019

Matthew 17:1-9

February 10, 2019

Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID

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Throughout the last month or so we have focused upon the various miracles of Jesus which reveal His divinity to the world.  Today we have come to the Transfiguration of Our Lord, the final and most brilliant Epiphany celebration of the season. Christ gives a few of His disciples a little glimpse of His divine glory, as His face shines and His garments become white as light. Because God is light (I John 1:5), the shining of Jesus' face like the sun, and the whiteness of His garment all demonstrate that Jesus is God, “light of light.”

Jesus takes three of His disciples, Peter, James, and John, with Him to the top of the mountain to pray. As He is praying, He is changed. A vision is granted to those three disciples to reveal what He will become, when He endures betrayal and death, burial and resurrection. In His obedience, He fulfills the Law, so Moses stands before Him. He is the righteousness of God for whom the prophets yearned, so Elijah joins Him. The apostles look upon the prophets. The prophets look upon the apostles.  They look upon each other, united by Christ.

 And they are not alone.  A bright cloud overshadowed them.  Moses had foretold that God would raise up a prophet to whom people should listen.  And now the great I AM who spoke out of the burning bush speaks from the bright cloud, answering the question Jesus had asked His disciples earlier, “Who do you say I am?” “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him.”

And His disciples, and we ourselves, need to hear this prophetic word again, for all who want to be saved ought to listen to this Word of God, for the word proclaimed is the instrument of the Holy Spirit to call, gather, and enlighten His people by the Gospel.  We need to see this glimpse of the glory of the Lord, to have our eyes of faith directed again to see no one but Jesus only; for we must remember it as we begin our coming down from this mount, from Septuagesima next Sunday into Lent, into Passiontide, and finally into Good Friday and Easter.  We must remember this glimpse of the glory of God as we hear again about the lowliness, the suffering, the passion of Jesus.  For too, on the cross Jesus displays His divine glory as He bears the sin of the world, the righteous judgment and wrath of God, and overcomes sin, death, and the devil

From eternity this Jesus is the bearer of God’s eternal glory, and from His incarnation He is the bearer of God’s image now and forevermore in human flesh. Through His suffering He reveals the depth of God’s love; in His rising He reveals God’s victory and defeat over all that opposes Him. He is the Incarnate God in spite of the depths of His humiliation.

The Father bears witness from heaven concerning His Son. He doesn’t say, "This has become My beloved Son," but "This is My beloved Son," indicating that this divine glory is Christ's by nature. From eternity, infinitely before Jesus' Baptism and Transfiguration when we hear this divine proclamation, He is God's Son, fully sharing in the essence of the Father: Jesus Christ is God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance of the Father, by whom all things were made.”

The Transfiguration not only proclaims Christ's divine sonship, but foreshadows His future glory when He as the Messiah will usher in the long-awaited Kingdom of glory. The bright cloud recalls the cloud that went before the Israelites in the wilderness, the visible sign of God presence and glory among His people. Peter sees this vision as a sign that the Kingdom has come. Knowing that the Feast of Tabernacles is the feast of the coming Kingdom, a celebration reiterating of the deliverance from slavery in Egypt, status as holy pilgrims, and establishment into the promised land, he asks to build booths, as was done at that feast, to serve as symbols of God's dwelling among those made righteous by faith in Christ. But it wasn’t quite time. Jesus tells His disciples to wait until after His resurrection to tell of these things. Jesus still had to bear the cross. His time had not yet come, but soon it would. And now, we teach and confess these things for we share in the glory by faith. And so that we can say with St. John, “we have seen His glory, the glory of the only Son of God, full of grace and truth.”

And it now changes us.  This vision of God in the flesh transfigured in glory transforms us. We are transfigured, the beauty of His glory makes us become glorious and beautiful and righteous in the sight of God for the sake of Christ.  St. Paul proclaims in Romans 12:2, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed/transfigured by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” We cannot remain as we were. We must turn and repent. We must reject whatever is not glorious, that is to say, whatever is not of Christ, who is the glory of the Father.

Transfiguration of Jesus not only shapes us here and now, but it is also a foretaste of our coming glory.  The only entrance into the kingdom of glory is through death and the resurrection.  The He shall change our lowly bodies shall be transformed like His glorious body by the power that enables Him to subdue all things to Himself. Amen.