The Transfiguration of Our Lord
Epiphany • Sermon • Submitted
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The Glory of Christ Revealed
The Glory of Christ Revealed
Grace, Mercy, and Peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
My brothers and sisters in Christ Transfiguration is upon us much more rapidly than we expected as Easter is a bit early this year, and Lent is not that far off. But before we move into Lent, we want to pause at this mountaintop where Christ’s glory is revealed to Peter, James, and John. Now this Glory had been witnessed before by Moses, and the glory had caused Moses face to shine from being in the presence of the Lord. Moses just had a reflection of the glory, Jesus shone with pure radiance. For Jesus does not merely reflect the Glory of God, he is light of light and very God of very God, This glory comes from the fact that He is God, in the flesh.
Now St. Paul expands on this wonderfully in his second letter to the Corinthians. He talks about the new covenant and the old covenant, and he laments a bit that his people, still did not understand that Jesus was the fulfillment of the old covenant, but just as Moses had a veil over his face, the people had a veil over their hearts.
But here on the Mount of Transfiguration, the disciples get a foretaste of the victory that is to come. They see who Christ is and what He will accomplish in the end. That Moses and Elijah are here on the mountain, reaffirms that what they wrote down, and what their work was pointing towards, was Jesus. That is why Jesus tells the Pharisees that the Scriptures are about Him. They point to Him above all else.
So this wonderful sight showed His awesome glory, for who would think that they would witness these things with their own eyes. They had seen the miracles, they knew all the healings that Jesus had done, and now before them they witness the glory and majesty of God.
Then Surprisingly Jesus does not want them to tell others about this until the Son of Man is raised from the dead. They can’t tell people what they have seen until Jesus has finished what Moses and Elijah were pointing towards. Because before them is a road that is going to be difficult to watch. A road that will bring them down to the point of despair. A road where it will be difficult to remember what they had seen on this mountain, a mountain where they wanted to stay, but Jesus must prepare them for another mountain.
Now it may sound strange but new Christians often find a similar challenge, For when we become Christians there is an intense joy, the light of Christ shines upon our life and gives to us hope in a land or time of darkness. There is a joyous blessing as the world suddenly comes into focus and we know who God is, and with wonder we realize that He made the Sun the Moon and the stars, that His love for us was so great that not only did God send His Son to save the world, but to also save me! As we move further away from that moment and it seems as though clouds thicken overhead and eventually darkness comes to rest upon us. and then we arrive at Gethsemane and eventually Golgotha.
If your faith is tied to feelings, then you, like the disciples, will flee. For on the outside there is sorrow, there is suffering and there is pain, and the hearts of men are revealed. If that if what your faith is tied to, it will shatter. WHich is why hear on the mount of transfiguration the Father says, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well please; listen to Him.
That is the Father’s desire for the disciples on the mountain, for the Israelites in the wilderness and in the promised land, for Christians throughout the history of the world and even you to rely not on what your heart feels, or your eyes see, but the Word of God. That word which was recorded by the Moses and the Prophets and the Apostles. Faith clings to the Word. That is because the difference in feelings between this mountain and Gethsemane are huge, but the prophets had foretold what would happen on Gethsemane and Golgotha, and Jesus told the disciples time and time again that he would have to suffer and die. They did not listen to him.
When Jesus goes to Gethsemane to pray, do you know who he takes with Him? Peter, James, and John. The same 3 that saw him on transfigured on this mountain today, and what a different sight they behold as Judas betrays Jesus, and those 3 who had seen Jesus in His glory and majesty flee. Why?
The glory that they had witness on that mountain is what they wanted, and they wanted to stay there, and who can blame them? If you had to be with Jesus at a moment in His ministry to see the glory and the power and the might, or Him waiting to be betrayed. But Jesus can’t stay on this mountain, for while He is God in the flesh, He did not become flesh to just manifest His glory for the disciples but to fulfill all that had been spoken about Him, and especially that He would suffer for us.
So we witness one type of Glory today, and by Good Friday we see a different type of Glory. This glory in today’s lesson shines brightly, while on that other mountain the land is covered in darkness, but what happens on Golgotha is far more beautiful. For there we witness the fact that Christ was willing to lay aside His glory, this radiance, His Power, and His might, to empty himself and give himself over to death for you.
On that other mountain you will see that Jesus was willing to suffer for you, Jesus was willing to endure hardship for you, He was willing to sweat tears of blood for you, that is because Jesus loves you. He loves you not just when times are easy and life is good, but even through your darkest hours. The reason that Jesus is here on this mountain to visit with Moses and Elijah is to speak with them about all that He was going to accomplish at Jerusalem.
This is something that the disciples need to listen to him and something that we need to learn as well. The Season of Epiphany builds up these Theophanies, showing us by the various miracles that Jesus is God in the flesh, so that we might understand who Jesus is and what He lays aside for our sake.
There is a hymn that puts this beautifully, hymn 543, when I was sinking down beneath God’s righteous frown, Christ laid aside his Crown for my soul. To understand the love that Jesus has for us, we have to understand what He laid aside for our salvation. That the Son of God to whom belongs all power and glory and might, came into this world to join sinners in their suffering.
This is the stumbling block to the Jews and the foolishness to the gentiles. It is foolish still to this world, that He who is omnipotent would become so weak that He would die on the Cross. That is because they do not understand the Love that God has for mankind, they do not understand God’s earnest desire to show mercy and love. That Love could not leave us as we were, objects of wrath waiting to be destroyed, rather Christ gave up His life so that we might bear his image, his glory, and be welcomed as the Children of God.
So my Brothers and Sisters in Christ, as we begin to prepare for lent, keep that in mind, as we meditate upon the fallen state of mankind, to understand all that Jesus is going to take upon himself for your sake so that you might be saved.