The Transfiguration of Our Lord

The Transfiguration of Our Lord (A)

February 19, 2023

Text: Matt. 17:1-9

            “When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.  But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Rise, and have no fear.’  And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only” (Matt. 17:6-8; ESV).

            One thing only, one voice only, one Person only, can raise you up out of the dust, and cast away your fear…  It is Jesus only, who died for your sins on the cross, and who is risen from the dead.  The account of His transfiguration, in every detail, attests to this. 

            High up on the mountain, with the requisite two or three witnesses to establish the matter (cf. Deut. 19:15), all at once, Jesus’ face shone like the sun, and His clothes became bright as light (Matt. 17:2).  Just as the Angel of the LORD, the preincarnate Christ, appeared to Moses on Mt. Horeb in a flame of fire in the midst of a bush, and the bush was burning, but was not consumed; and there the LORD revealed His Name (“I AM WHO I AM”) and promised His people salvation (the Exodus from Egypt and possession of the Promised Land) (Ex. 3); so here the divinity of God the Son shines through His humanity (and does not consume it!), and even through His very clothing, attesting that this same LORD who appeared to Moses, has now come in the flesh, Jesus (which means, “YHWH saves”), to lead us in Exodus from our Egyptian bondage to sin and death, into the Promised Land of Resurrection and New Creation.

            And speaking of Moses, who should appear on the mountain with Jesus, but the man himself, along with the great prophet Elijah, the requisite two Old Testament witnesses, representing the totality of the Hebrew Scriptures, the Law and the Prophets, the Torah and the Nebiim, talking with Jesus about His own Exodus through the wilderness of suffering and cross into empty tomb and resurrection!  This is the same LORD who appeared to both of them on Mt. Sinai, Horeb, before whom Moses and the elders of Israel ate and drank, and did not die (Ex. 24), and who spoke to Elijah, not in wind or earthquake or fire, but in a low whisper (1 Kings 19).  Here they are, with Him again on the mountain, this time probably Mt. Tabor (and we should note, Moses has finally made it into the Promised Land), and in this way, they are attesting that this Man, Jesus, is the great fulfillment of their whole ministry, of the sacred writings, of all the saving and mighty acts of God.  He is Messiah.  He is God in human flesh come to save humanity from all that terrifies us and lays us in the dust of death. 

            Then there is the cloud overshadowing the whole scene.  Ah, the cloud.  The pillar of cloud by day, shining with fire by night, God’s Angel (Christ) leading God’s people Israel in exodus through the wilderness (Ex. 13:22).  The cloud and fire of Sinai, the very presence of God, writing His Commandments with His own finger (Ex. 20).  The cloud that descended upon the Tent of Meeting outside the camp, the LORD speaking to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend (Ex. 33:7-11).  The cloud that covered and filled the Tabernacle in the grand finale of the Book of Exodus (Ex. 40), and also Solomon’s Temple upon its dedication, such that the priests could not do their work (1 Kings 8:10-11).  Once again, now, at the Transfiguration, the cloud comes over the mountain.

            And from the cloud, a voice.  It is the voice of the Father, proclaiming of Jesus the very same thing He said at our Lord’s Baptism: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 17:5).  It is the unmistakable and unequivocal declaration that Jesus of Nazareth, as the only-begotten of His Father, is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, one substance with the Father.  This Man is God the Son.  And the Father is pleased with Him.  The Son is doing what the Father sent Him to do, namely, save us.  And He is doing it well.  The Father approves.  The Father accepts the saving work of His Son.  What is about to happen to Jesus in His descent from the mountain, is just what must happen for us men and for our salvation, according to the Father’s eternal, saving plan.

            And then, “listen to him” (v. 5).  He is the Prophet of whom Moses spoke just before his death: “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” (Deut. 18:15).  He is God’s Spokesman.  He is God’s self-revelation.  He is the Word of God, who was in the beginning with God, and who is God… the Word who became flesh and tabernacled among us (John 1:1-2, 14).  If you want to hear the Father, listen to Jesus.  Listen to Him as He speaks to you in the Scriptures.  Listen to Him as He speaks by the mouths and pens of His Apostles and Prophets, and in the Apostolic preaching of His Church.  And what happens?  Just as in your Baptism into Christ, you become what Christ is, children of the Father with whom He is well pleased… that is, God adopts you as His own and justifies you, declares you righteous for Jesus’ sake… so it is when you listen to Jesus.  Listen… not just the vibrations of the words beating upon your ear drums, but hear His Word, receive it, and believe it.  Then He comes and touches you (as He really and substantially does in His Supper), and raises you from the dust of death (spiritually now, bodily soon), and bids you “have no fear” (Matt. 17:7).  For all your sins are forgiven.  Jesus atoned for them.  God is no longer angry.  Death is no longer your sentence.  Life is your sentence.  Eternal life.  So what do you have left to fear? 

            Now, Peter, God bless him, in the middle of all of this, can’t help but run his mouth.  He thinks it would be good if they all just stayed up there on the mountain.  Let’s celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles up here.  He proposes that he, Peter, will build three tents for the three dignitaries (and notice how he equalizes all of them), one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.  We three can sleep in the open air.  We’re just happy to be here, at the campground. 

            But, of course, Peter has missed the point entirely.  That’s why the cloud must interrupt him, and the voice of our Father must redirect him.  Peter can’t build a tent for Jesus.  Peter can’t shelter Jesus.  God builds a tent for Peter and for us all in Jesus Himself, the Word who tabernacles among us, pitches His tent among us.  Which is to say, takes up our flesh.  Jesus is our shelter.  Peter’s intentions are good, but as always, let’s just say his intentions don’t pave the way to the salvation of the world. 

            But then, you’d want to stay there, too.  So would I.  It's good up there on the mountain with Jesus and the Bible All Stars.  But we mustn’t misunderstand what is happening here.  This is just a preview of the Lord’s visible glory as it will be manifest in His resurrection and ascension, and as we will see it, and bask in it, when we are with Him in heaven, with Moses and Elijah and all the saints who have gone before.  If it all ended at the Transfiguration, yes, Jesus would be glorified, but the rest of us would be doomed. 

            To save us from that doom, Jesus must come down the mountain and head toward suffering and the cross.  Then, after suffering and the cross, on the Third Day, resurrection.  Glory.  Peter, James, and John, must come down the mountain with Him to witness these things happen, to be the requisite two or three, and give testimony, preach the things they have heard and seen, and write them down, that many more may listen to Jesus and be raised from death.  And that includes you and me, right now, listening to Jesus as His Word is preached.  And so we must come down the mountain with Jesus.  It is not yet the Day of Resurrection.  Soon.  Soon.  Today, we’ve had a glimpse.  But for now, we are still in the wilderness, the wilderness of suffering and the cross.  And in this wilderness, there is a season for everything, for every purpose under heaven.  And so we put away our alleluias for a time and enter upon the season of Lent.  Lent is a season of penitence: self-examination, repentance, confession, and Absolution for all our sins.  It is a season of preparation: self-discipline and fasting, mortification of the flesh as we look forward to the Feast to come and our own bodily resurrection with Christ.  It is a season for immersion in the things of God, the things wherein we hear Jesus and receive His healing and life-giving touch, His Word and the Sacrament of His body and blood.  We meditate on His Passion, His suffering and death for our sins.  There are additional Church services and devotions with our families and in our homes.  It is a season of attentiveness and prayer.  “Watch and pray,” Jesus bids His disciples, “that you may not enter into temptation.  The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 56:41).

            It is tempting for us, as it was for Peter, to want to stay on the mountain and go directly from Transfiguration to Easter to the Last Day when Christ returns in all His glory.  But trust me, you don’t want to face Judgment Day apart from the cross of Christ, and there is no risen Jesus apart from the One who is crucified for our sins.  There must be Good Friday, or there is no Easter.  There must be death if there is to be life. 

            And so Peter, and we, are interrupted by the cloud and the voice of our Father, directing all our attention to Jesus.  It levels us.  It terrifies us and lays us in the dust.  So that Jesus can touch us, raise us up and cast out all our fear.  “And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only” (Matt. 17:8).

            “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2; NIV).  Lent has this way of lifting up our eyes… away from our own navels, away from our idols and pet sins, away from our endless quest for self-righteousness, self-justification… to see Jesus only.  And that is good and right.  Whether on a mountain-top or in the valley of the shadow, in the wilderness or in the Promised Land, it is good for us to be wherever Jesus is.  For there is only one thing, one voice, one Person who can raise us out of the dust of death and cast our fears away.  It is Jesus.  It is Jesus only.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.