The Transfiguration of Our Lord

The Transfiguration of Our Lord (C)

February 27, 2022

Text: Luke 9:28-36

            Just a little glimpse.  That is what we are given in the Transfiguration of Our Lord.  Just a little glimpse of Jesus’ divine glory.  Just a little glimpse of heaven, of the victory that belongs already to our Lord. 

            A little glimpse to strengthen and sustain Jesus as He descends the mountain and sets His face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51).  Just a little glimpse to fortify Him as He bears the sins of the world, making atonement for our transgressions by His sacrificial suffering and death on the cross. 

            A little glimpse to strengthen and sustain the disciples, Peter, John, and James, as they descend the mountain into the confusion, darkness, and doubt of our Lord’s Passion, which will not be dispelled until they see Him again on the other side of death, risen and living, opening the Scriptures to them, and breaking the bread for them.  Just a little glimpse, that they may bear witness to Him after He rises from the dead. 

            A little glimpse to strengthen and sustain us as we live this side of our Lord’s glorious return, in confusion and darkness and doubts of our own, living by faith, and not by sight.  Just a little glimpse so that we know where all of this is headed… that in the end, God wins.  Jesus wins.  Death, the devil, and all the forces of evil are defeated.  Heaven and resurrection await. 

            Just a little glimpse of the eternal glory of Jesus, the beatific vision of this Man who is God, who is present with us in the flesh.  Just a little glimpse of what we will enjoy with Him in the presence of God the Father and all the saints.  This is to fortify us.  This suffering will lead to victory.  The cross will give way to resurrection.  The New Day will dawn.  Do not despair, beloved.  Endure in hope.  Persevere in faith.  This is the glory the Son has shared with His Father from all eternity.  He has it, and He will have it, forever and ever, amen.  And He is bringing you into it. 

            It is just a little glimpse, this metamorphosis on the mountain.  But it teaches us what we must know as we return to what awaits below. 

            We must know that God is a Man, and this Man is God.  Jesus of Nazareth is the eternal Son of the Father.  So His face is altered at His Transfiguration, and His clothing becomes dazzling white.  From within Him the divine light shines, He who is the Light of the world (John 8:12).  And the Father declares of Him, as He did at His Baptism, “This is my Son” (Luke 9:35; ESV), the only-begotten He gives for the life of the world, “my Chosen One,” elect from eternity to be our Messiah and Savior. 

            We must know this is the One of whom the Law (the Torah) and the Prophets bear witness, the Holy Scriptures, the whole Old Testament.  That is why Moses and Elijah are present (the representatives of the Torah and the Prophets), discussing Jesus’ departure, literally His exodus, from heaven to us, through cross and grave, and out the other side alive again.  As we know, the truth of a matter of such magnitude is established by two or three witnesses (Deut. 19:15), and so, here they are, testifying that Holy Scripture, in every part, is about this Man, our Lord Jesus, and His exodus for our salvation.

            We must know that Jesus is the New and Greater Temple, that His flesh is the dwelling place of God with man, our Emmanuel.  Thus the Cloud… the Cloud that led Israel and camped among them in the wilderness (Num. 9:21).  The Cloud that descended on Mount Sinai as Moses received the Law, the Holy Ten Commands (Ex. 19:18 ff.).  The Cloud that descended upon the Tabernacle after Moses erected it (Ex. 40), and upon the Temple at Solomon’s dedication (1 Kings 8:11).  The Glory Cloud, the Divine Presence.  Jesus is the Word, who was in the beginning with God, and who is God, now made flesh, who tabernacles among us (John 1:1, 14).  So the Cloud descends on Him. 

            We must know all this by faith, because we will not see it with our earthly eyes until Jesus raises them from the dead.  But we will hear it with our ears.  Faith comes by hearing (Rom. 10:17).  Thus the Father speaks, and He speaks of His Son, Jesus: “listen to him!” He says (Luke 9:35).  In listening to the Word of our Father, that is, Jesus, His Son, we find, as the disciples did in our text, Jesus alone (v. 36), Jesus only.  And Jesus is enough.  Jesus will bring us through this vale of tears to Himself in heaven.  He will bring us through the valley of the shadow of death, and out the other side, alive.  For He is descending the mountain to die on the cross for our sins, and on the Third Day He will arise.  So, the Word.  We are to listen to the Word.  We are to cling to the Word.  For the Word gives us Jesus.  The Word gives us faith. 

            We often wish our little glimpse didn’t just come through the Word, but that, like Peter, John, and James, we could catch that glimpse with our own eyes.  It would be good for us to be there, we think, with Moses and Elijah and the disciples, with Jesus, basking in the Light of our Transfigured Lord.  And that isn’t wrong.  It would be good.  Peter says it out loud, and he’s right… even if he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.  He wants to construct three tents, to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles (there is that word again), and stay there, up on the mountain.  Why go down, when you can stay up?  Well, that is the part that is wrong.  If Jesus had stayed up on the mountain, then Peter, John, and James… and you… and all humanity would have to go down forever into the abyss of death and hell.  Because Jesus would not have completed His saving work.  And if we don’t go down, well then, we wouldn’t be with Him, would we?  So down we must go, all of us, down below.  Jesus to bear our sins and die.  You and I to take up our crosses and follow Him.  We don’t like coming down the mountain, where we cannot see.  But it must be so.  It is divinely necessary.  For we must be with Jesus, and His way is the way of the cross.  There is no other way to glory.  There must be death before there is resurrection.  You must have the crucifix before you can have the empty tomb.  Good Friday must come before Easter.  And you must be down here now, that Jesus may bring you up and into His heavenly glory.

            So we must hear the Word, and we must believe the Word.  That is what we are given.  And Peter, who did see it all with his own eyes, says that the Word is actually better than the live and in person experience.  “(W)e were eyewitnesses of his majesty,” Peter says.  “For when he received honor 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 borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain” (2 Peter 1:16-18).  But the most important thing, Peter emphasizes, is the voice.  And you have that voice written down for you in the Word.  And so, Peter says, “we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” (v. 19).  The surer Word is not what the eyes see, but what the ears hear, that which is given to you in Holy Scripture.  That is the lamp to your feet and the light to your path (Ps. 119:105).  Contrary to our way of thinking, the Word is the better glimpse. 

            So now, from this Epiphanytide mountaintop of Transfiguration, we come down into the Season of Lent.  We put away our alleluias for a time.  We discipline our bodies and our minds.  We put away sinful and harmful habits, and take up good ones.  We examine our lives, repent, and confess.  We turn our eyes to focus on Jesus alone, our salvation, and our life.  And we do that by tuning our ears to His Word.  We come down where there is confusion, and darkness, and doubt, to be sure.  But we do not despair.  For Jesus is with us, forgiving our sins, teaching us, strengthening us, sustaining us, feeding us with His own Body and His own Blood.  We know who this Man is who walks with us on the way, for we’ve had ourselves a glimpse.  Just a little glimpse, but that is enough.  We know what we need to know.  We have what we need to have.  Jesus is our Light and our Life.  Jesus is God, and He is our Brother.  Jesus is with us… Emmanuel.  And Jesus is enough.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.