The Transfiguration of Our Lord

The Transfiguration of Our Lord (C)

March 2, 2025

Text: Luke 9:28-36

            Moses cannot lead the people into the Promised Land.  In fact, he himself cannot enter.  As a pastor, I have quite a lot of sympathy for him in this.  Here he had devoted his whole life, or at least the last forty years of it, to shepherding this rebellious congregation across the wilderness, and he doesn’t get to take them across the finish line.  He doesn’t get to complete the exodus.  Well, it’s his own fault, really.  You remember what happened.  The rock and the staff.  Water for the people in the wilderness.  Now, the first time, it is true, God told Moses to strike the rock with his staff, and water came out (Ex. 17:6).  Of course, this is a type of our Lord Jesus Christ, stricken by a Roman spear on the cross (John 19:34), and out comes… water, yes… and blood!  The water and blood of our redemption.  St. Paul writes that “all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (1 Cor. 10:4; ESV).  The second time this happened, though, Moses is told simply to speak to the rock, and the water will flow (Num. 20:8), a testament to the performative power of God’s Word.  But, as preachers are wont to do, Moses doubts that the Word is sufficient.  And in frustration with his congregation, he calls them names (“Hear now, you rebels” [v. 10]); takes the responsibility of providing for the congregation upon himself, rather than giving glory to God (“shall we bring water for you out of this rock?”); and then bangs on the rock twice with his staff (v. 11).  And the water flows, and the people drink, because our God is so gracious, He provides for His people even when the pastor makes a miserable mess of everything.  But Moses is in trouble.  He and Aaron both, actually.  The LORD says to them, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them” (v. 12).

            Thus our Old Testament reading.  Moses gets a supernatural sneak peek at the land across the Jordan.  And it’s not just that he’s high enough up on the mountain that he can see it all.  The LORD is showing him the whole land in a miraculous vision.  But then he dies.  The LORD buries him, we still don’t know where, and we won’t until the Day of Resurrection (that is so we won’t commit idolatry with his body, by the way).  Moses doesn’t get to go in.  He cannot fulfill the Promise for God’s people.  For that, we need another.  Yehoshua.  Joshua.  In Greek, as you know, his name would be rendered Ἰησοῦς, Jesus.

            And now you know what’s really up with all this.  Oh, this is so Lutheran, isn’t it?  You cannot appropriate the Promises of God… salvation, peace with God, eternal life… through Moses, through the Law, by your own righteous fulfillment of God’s Commandments.  Moses will never get you across the finish line.  For that, you need Another.  Your true Joshua.  Jesus.  It is right there in the Name.  Joshua/Jesus means, “The LORD saves.”  Not “Moses saves.”  Not “You save yourself by obedience to the Law.”  The LORD.  He does it.  By grace.  Jesus leads you into the Promised Land. 

            And this is all brought home to us in the Transfiguration.  Peter, John, and James are there to witness it, so that we have a firsthand account.  There is no mistaking it.  The divinity of Jesus shines through His human nature.  The Source of this Light comes from within.  His face is radiant.  His clothes become dazzling white.  What is the epiphany?  What is revealed, here?  This Man is God.  It is enough to knock the disciples out for a time.  In fact, it is a death and resurrection of sorts.  The disciples become heavy with sleep, and have to be awakened.  Then what do they see?  The two great Old Testament figures, Moses and Elijah, speaking with Jesus about His… well, our translation says, “departure” (Luke 9:31), but the Greek word is Exodus!  They are speaking with Him about His Exodus, which He is about to accomplish in Jerusalem.  And that is to say, His death on the cross, and His resurrection from the dead!  What Moses could not finish, Jesus does finish in His sin-atoning self-sacrifice, and His victorious bodily resurrection on the Third Day.  That is the fulfillment of all of God’s Promises.  That is what leads, not only Israel, but all of us into the Promised Land.  Not just the Land of Canaan, but Resurrection.  New Creation.  The New Heavens, and the New Earth.  Eternal life with God as His own people. 

            Now, Peter starts jabbering, and he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.  Another pastor who blows it.  God has to interrupt him, and I mean all three Persons of the Holy Trinity.  The Cloud envelopes the whole business.  Well, we’re right back to the Exodus imagery.  The Pillar of Cloud, understood to be the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.  In the midst of which is… the Son, Jesus.  And then, the Voice!  The Father, saying something very similar to what He said before, at our Lord’s Baptism: “This…” Jesus… “is my Son, my Chosen One” (v. 35).  And just so you don’t miss the point, you are now to “listen to him!”  Notice, the whole Old Testament, represented here by Moses and Elijah… it’s all about Him.  It’s all about His Exodus.  If you want to be faithful to the Old Testament, listen, now, to Jesus.  The whole New Testament, too, represented here by the three Apostles, Peter, John, and James… It’s all about Jesus.  So, listen to Jesus, because He is the key to the whole thing.  The whole Bible.  Moses and all the Law of God.  All the Prophets.  Every Word.  It’s all about Jesus, and salvation only in Jesus. 

            And so, all at once, the whole theophany, the whole divine manifestation, disappears from human sight, and the disciples are left alone with Jesus.  In His ordinary human appearance.  Because that is all they need.  In Jesus, in this Man from Nazareth, is hidden all that was revealed on the Mount of Transfiguration.  The disciples are to remember this as they descend the mountain toward Jerusalem and Holy Week.  As they endure the Master’s betrayal, His arrest, His suffering, His death.  The disciples are to remember this as they behold the Lord, a bruised and bleeding corpse, nailed to the cross.  If all that they saw on the mount of Transfiguration is true, then Jesus suffers all of this willingly.  And it must be for our good, for our salvation, in spite of all appearances.  The Almighty Son of God, whose divinity we just saw bursting forth from His humanity, wouldn’t have to suffer such an ignominious end.  Unless it was His plan all along.  And hidden underneath it all is the glory of our salvation.

            We are to remember this, too, as we enter upon Lent.  And as we suffer disappointment and misfortune, grief and pain this side of the veil.  Hidden underneath it all is the glory of our Lord’s salvation.  We can’t see it.  But when we listen to Him… in His Word, in His Scriptures… He reveals the truth to us.  Remember what Peter says about the whole experience in his second epistle (I’m paraphrasing, here… 2 Peter 1:16-21): “Yeah, we saw His glory on the mountain, and we heard the Voice, and it was great.  But you have something even more sure.  The prophetic Word.  The Holy Scriptures.  Pay attention to them, and you will be doing what the Father bids you: You’ll be listening to Jesus.”  And if you listen to Jesus, His Word will scoop you up and bring you all the way into the fulfillment of all His Promises: the Life, the Land, the eternal love of our Living Lord.

            By the way, happy ending for Moses.  He makes it into the Land, after all, right?  In our Holy Gospel, on the mount of Transfiguration.  He made it in the same way we make it.  In Jesus.  By grace.  He dies on top of Mount Pisgah.  But he lives with our Lord.  Now, Moses still serves a purpose.  He gives us God’s Law, the Ten Commandments.  He teaches us what we should, and should not do.  And what he teaches us still applies.  It is still true.  But he can only get us so far.  And that is the point.  He can only lead us, finally, to the end of ourselves, where we realize we have no righteousness or holiness in us.  We have transgressed the Law.  We have not done what we should.  We have done what we shouldn’t.  And, therefore, we are condemned.  Moses gets us right up to the edge, and then we fall far short.  That is his Office.  To lead us to despair.  And in that, he does not fail.  So that when our Joshua comes, our Lord Jesus Christ, we trust in Him alone to lead us up and in.  Exodus complete. We are not righteous, but He is our righteousness.  We are not holy, but He is our holiness.  Moses is a servant.  But Jesus is the Son.  So, beloved… stop your jabbering.  Listen to Him.  And come on in.   In the Name of the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.