The Transfiguration of Our Lord

The Transfiguration of Our Lord (B)

February 14, 2021

Text: Mark 9:2-9

            The Transfiguration of our Lord is the great epiphanic event, the grand finale of the Epiphany season.  This man, Jesus, is God.  There is no denying it.  He is the Son of God, the Word of our Father, and God’s merciful revelation of Himself to man.  This is the whole point of the Transfiguration.  This is the whole point of the Epiphany season.  Jesus had demonstrated His divinity throughout His earthly ministry, in every miraculous healing and exorcism, in the feeding of the multitudes, and the command of wind and sea.  But here on the mountain, He shows His divinity to His disciples, that He is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact imprint of His nature (Heb. 1:3).  He is transfigured, μετεμορφώθη in Greek, the divine light, not simply reflected from the Father, but radiating from within Jesus as its Source, radiating even through His clothes so that they became intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them.

            Now, no fact of this magnitude can be established without the evidence of two or three witnesses (e.g. Deut. 17:6).  And so we have Elijah and Moses, Peter, James, and John; two from the Old Testament, three from the New.  And so heaven and earth meet in Jesus.  Elijah and Moses appear from heaven, the Law and the Prophets bearing witness that all the Old Testament Scriptures are about Jesus and His saving work.  Elijah, who never died, but was taken up in the whirlwind (2 Kings 2).  Moses, who was buried by God Himself (and the angels, Jude 9), and no one knows the location of his grave to this day (Deut. 34:6), who enters the Promised Land for the first time on this very occasion.  Both had met with the Lord on mountains before: Moses on Mt. Sinai in the great giving of the Law (Ex. 19 ff.) and when God showed Moses His backside (Ex. 33), Elijah in the still, small voice (1 Kings 19).  Now here they are again.  And we know from St. Luke just what it is they are discussing with Him.  They are discussing His exodus (Luke 9:31), His journey to Jerusalem and the cross to save us from our sins.  And it is worth noting that these heavenly guests were recognized by the earthbound disciples, in spite of the fact that there were no Polaroids available, and no “Hello, my name is” stickers were distributed beforehand.  So we will know and recognize our loved ones in heaven, and not only that, we will know and recognize many people we did not know on this earth, throughout history and from every nation, tribe, people, and language.  And we will recognize that we’ve been in communion with them the whole time.  And that will be glorious.

            The three earthbound disciples are extraordinarily important here, for they will give eyewitness testimony in their preaching and their writing.  But for now, they are utterly stupefied by what is happening.  Peter, who is known for speaking without thinking, wants to stay on this mountain, which is heaven on earth.  He wants to bask in the glow of the Lord’s divine glory, and spend eternity with the Old Testament saints.  Well, one can hardly blame him, and that is ultimately the goal, isn’t it?  So he wants to erect three tents for the exalted dignitaries.  He suggests celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles so he can have unending holiday joy.  But his suggestion is misplaced.  We don’t need three tabernacles, because the true Tabernacle of God’s presence with His people has arrived in the flesh of Jesus Christ.  And so God’s answer to Peter is the cloud… the glory cloud, the Shekinah, the presence of God that led Israel through the wilderness (Ex. 13:21-22), that covered Mt. Sinai (Ex. 19:16) and descended on the Tabernacle to speak with Moses face to face (Num. 9; Ex. 33:7-11), the cloud that filled the Temple at Solomon’s dedication so that the priests could not do their work of ministering (1 Kings 8:10-11).  And the point is, where Jesus is, there is heaven.  Because where Jesus is, there is God. 

            And then there is the voice of the Father.  He repeats what He said at the Baptism of our Lord, so that Epiphany is book-ended with this all-encompassing statement: “This is my beloved Son; listen to him” (Mark 9:7; ESV).  Seeing the divine light isn’t enough.  God has spoken.  And in His speaking, He gives His beloved Son.  Jesus is His Word.  Jesus is God, the eternal Son of the Father.  And Jesus is the Prophet like unto Moses, of whom Moses spoke, to whom we are to listen (Deut. 18:15).  Jesus is the One to whom Elijah pointed.  All the Scriptures, and the whole history of God’s people, in fact, the whole history of the world comes down to this: Jesus.  God’s Son.  Listen to Him.  Trust Him.  Receive His salvation.  Live in Him.

            And to underscore the point, upon the Father’s speaking, all at once, the grand vision disappears.  “And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only” (v. 8).  But Jesus is enough.  In fact, Jesus is everything.  And you have Jesus, and everything Jesus has come to give, in listening to Him. 

            We may wonder why this grand event happens at this particular point, and in this particular way.  We may wonder what good it does for Jesus and the disciples, besides simply being spectacular, and we may wonder what good it does for us when we weren’t there to see it. 

            In the context of our Lord’s ministry, Jesus is about to set His face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51), where He will suffer and be killed for the sins of the world.  To strengthen Him for His saving work, and to fortify the disciples for the coming ordeal, there is this little glimpse of Easter.  Jesus and His disciples are about to come down the mountain where great sadness and suffering await them.  But Jesus is the Father’s beloved Son.  God will not abandon His soul to Sheol, or let His Holy One see the corruption of the grave (Ps. 16:10).  Jesus will rise from the dead.  And the Word of Jesus will sustain His disciples through all suffering and death to the resurrection of their own bodies on the Last Day.  That is the encouragement.  That is the good accomplished by God giving this gift at this particular time and in this particular way.

            And so us, because we find ourselves in the same situation.  It would be nice, wouldn’t it, if we could simply bask in the glory of the risen Christ, in the very presence of God, and in the fellowship of all His saints, no suffering, no sorrow, great joy, where everything is always right and always good?  That reality does await us in heaven, and most fully, and more specifically, in the resurrection.  But for now we have to wait.  We have to descend the mountain and live our lives here in this fallen world.  At the very least, like Peter, we’d like to make everyday a holiday, where we can forget about our troubles, and lose ourselves in the festivities.  So we try to do that.  We eat too much or drink too much and obsess over creature comforts and the pleasures of the flesh.  We’re trying to make an imitation heaven on earth.  So also in the Church.  We wonder, why can’t we skip from the mountaintop of Christmas to the mountaintop of Easter?  Why can’t we just concentrate on the happy occasions in Jesus’ life, and skip all the depressing talk about sin and suffering and cross and death.  But I think you know that doing that would reduce the very happiest occasions to nothing more than empty tinsel and Easter grass.      But it cannot be.  You cannot stay on the mountain, much less build a paper mountain here for yourself.  Jesus descends the mountain to suffer and die for the forgiveness of your sins.  So He bids you take up your cross, here and now, and follow Him.  There is suffering to be borne in this life, in this world.  You will suffer for your faith in Christ at the hands of the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh.  You will suffer in your love for others, as you bear with them in their sin and weakness.  You will suffer sickness and heartache and death as your own body fades, for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.  But through it all, God is doing His work of mortifying your flesh and conforming you to the image of Christ the crucified.

            And beloved, if you have died with Christ, and you have in Holy Baptism, you will also be raised with Christ.  The Transfiguration is a glimpse of your coming glory with Him.  It is a taste of Easter and your resurrection on the Last Day.  God gives you just a peek behind the veil.  This is given to strengthen you as you bear the cross now, awaiting what is already yours in Christ, but not yet revealed. 

            Sometimes we wish we could see what Peter, James, and John saw.  But as Peter reminds us, we actually have something even more sure: The Scriptures, the prophetic Word, to which we do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place (2 Peter 1:19).  We have the Word of Jesus Christ, God’s own beloved Son.  And we are to listen to Him, as the Father bids us.  And rather than looking for glorious visions and spectacular mountain top experiences, we are to fix our eyes on Jesus only.  Everything else disappears into the background.  We are to look for Him where He has promised to be for us: Where He speaks in Scripture and Proclamation and Absolution, where He tabernacles among us with His true Body and Blood in the Feast.  For as it was with the Emmaus disciples, so it is with us: He opens up the Scriptures to us, to show us all the things concerning Himself.  And then we recognize Him in the Breaking of the Bread (Luke 24).  That He is here.  Really and substantially.  Bodily.  He is here for us.  And suddenly there we are with Him on the mountain, with angels and archangels, Elijah and Moses, Peter, James, and John, and all the company of heaven.

            Jesus is all that matters.  It all comes down to Him.  Now we put away our alleluias for a time and descend the mountain into the Lenten valley.  So be it, as long as Jesus is with us.  Let us take up our cross and follow our Lord as He journeys toward His suffering and death for our sakes.  It will get dark, but we know where this leads.  Easter is coming, as surely as Jesus is God’s Son.  We will take up our alleluias again, and that forever, in the brightness of that Resurrection Day.  For then we will see Him as he is.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.