Luke 9:28-36 / Transfiguration / 18 February 2007 / Holy Trinity-Hacienda Heights
In Nomine Iesu
Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.” (Lk 9:27) A week or so after saying this, Jesus took three of His disciples - Peter, John, and James - to up a mountain to pray. These three were the “some” who would not taste death before they see the kingdom of God. Some, not all. Three, not the Twelve. That’s how it is in this kingdom. A few see and testify; the rest believe, and in believing, they too will see.
The transfiguration of Jesus marks the turning point in Jesus’ ministry. In Mark it’s right in the middle. In Luke, it’s off to the left, but Luke has much more to tell us about the road to Jerusalem. Still the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain in the visible presence of Moses and Elijah is the turning point. From here, Jesus sets His face toward Jerusalem and the glory of His cross and resurrection.
It takes two or three eyewitnesses to establish the truth. Peter, John, and James are those eyewitnesses who saw with their own eyes Jesus in His divine glory. They saw what few eyes are given to see; they saw what we believe. They testified to what they saw. Peter wrote, “We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 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 heard this voice borne from heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain (2 Peter 1:17-18).
The Transfiguration of Jesus testifies to His divinity. He is, as the church confesses, “God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God.” God and Man in one Person. Every cell of His humanity glows with divine radiance, a dazzling, blinding white brighter than the sun. No one ever shined this way. Moses shined for a bit when he came off the mountain. They had to cover his face as the glory faded. Moses was like the moon reflecting the sun. Moses’ glory was temporary, fading. Jesus’ glory is eternal. He is the Source, God in the Flesh.
Moses and Elijah appear with Jesus in His glory. All the dead are held safely in Him. They talked with Jesus about His “departure.” In Greek, His “exodus.” Moses led Israel on an exodus from slavery to freedom. Jesus’ exodus takes the world, the created order and our humanity, from death to life. Moses and Elijah, the Torah and the Prophets, pointed to Jesus. Now they share in His glory.
Peter, John, and James were “heavy with sleep.” How can that be? How can someone be heavy with sleep on a mountain with Jesus? How can you be heavy with sleep on this mountain with Jesus? It seems that whenever Jesus and His disciples get together for prayer, the disciples are heavy with sleep. On the mountain, in the garden. The spirit is willing, the flesh, weighed down with sin, is weak. And sleepy. Their sleep is a sleep unto unbelief and death. On their own they would sleep their way to hell, as we would. It takes a shining Jesus to wake us up, to raise us from our sleep, to open our eyes to see Him for who He is.
When the three disciples see Him, they don’t know what to do. What can you do? Peter wants to enshrine the event, build three tabernacles, make a holy site where pilgrims can go. Three tabernacles - one for Moses, one for Elijah, one for Jesus. Luke admits Peter had no idea what he was talking about. What’s wrong with this picture? What’s wrong with enshrining the event? With honoring Jesus, Moses, and Elijah - three great religious figures?
The voice of the Father from the cloud tells us what’s wrong and what’s right. “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to Him.” As at Jesus’ baptism, so here, the Father quotes Isaiah 42. This Jesus is unique among men, for He is God in the flesh. God’s only-begotten. God’s chosen one. The One elect from all eternity to save humanity. There is no one else quite like Jesus. Moses was great, but Moses cannot save you. His commandments are great, all ten of them. And you should try to keep them. But they cannot save you, and you cannot live by them. Elijah was great, the father of the prophets, whisked off to heaven in a fiery chariot. But Elijah can’t save you. He can only point to Jesus, as Moses pointed to Jesus, as the Father point to His Son, and says, “Listen to Him. Hear Him.”
The transfiguration of Jesus underscores His utter uniqueness. There is no one else quite like Jesus. He is greater than Moses on his mountain. He is greater than Elijah in his glory. He alone is God in human flesh. He alone is the chosen, elect Son. He alone is the Christ, the anointed servant of God who suffers for the sin of the world. He alone is the Savior who can pull you from your grave of death and lift you up to His holy mountain and give you a glory that is not your own.
You and I live in a world of homogenized religion. It’s a world of “truths” rather than the Truth. A world that seeks the least common denominator rather than the distinctive. A blenderized buffet of beliefs where Buddhists and Sikhs and Hindus and Jews and Muslims are all somehow supposed to worship the same “god.” You sometimes hear people speak of the “three great religions” of the world - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. What they all have in common is commandments, divine rules for you to keep. We may not agree on each and every rule, but we agree that there are rules. We may all pray (we have that in common), but we pray to different deities and approach them in different ways.
The greatness of Judaism is Moses. His mountain is Sinai. His glory is the Law in which there is no salvation for sinners. Moses died. Moses cannot save you. The greatness of Islam is Mohammed who claimed to be a greater prophet than Jesus. A false prophet, an antichrist, a murderer and a liar. Mohammed is dead too, and he certainly cannot save you. The greatness of the Christian faith is Jesus, whose humanity shined with the glory of God and who laid down His life on a cross to save the world from sin and rose from the dead. Now tell me there are three great religions in the world.
You can approach God in only two ways - according to the Law (your works) or according to the Gospel (Jesus’ works). There is no third option. Approach God according to the Law, and you will encounter the God of wrath. Approach God according to the Gospel, through faith in Jesus, and you will encounter the God of mercy. You see, it isn’t all that complicated.
Only Jesus is God in the flesh. Only Jesus shines with the radiance of heaven. Only Jesus keeps the law perfectly in your place. Only Jesus goes down to your death to pull you up from the grave and give you eternal life. Only Jesus has the words of eternal life. Only Jesus has a Baptism that can save you. Only Jesus has body and blood that He can give you as food so that you might live off His death and live in His life. And that’s all that was left when the cloud lifted - only Jesus.
John was one of the three disciples privileged to see the Transfiguration of Jesus with his own eyes. In the first chapter of his gospel, John wrote: “The Word become flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld His glory, glory as of the only Son of the Father.” Yet here’s a curious thing: John doesn’t describe this event in his gospel. He gives us no eyewitness account in his own words. He lets Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell the story of Jesus glory on the mountain. And even though he was there and saw it with his own eyes, John declines to add anything further.
I find it strange. You would think that this would be the fulcrum of John’s gospel as it is with Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But it isn’t. John looks beyond the mountain and its glory, and follows the gaze of Jesus as He sets His face toward Jerusalem. The glory of the Transfiguration was great; it was a wonderful vision never again to be repeated until the Last Day. It was like all those miracles Jesus did - changing water to wine, healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead. They were signs that revealed Jesus’ glory as the only-begotten Son of God in the flesh. But John has a another view of glory in mind on another mountain - the hidden glory of the cross.
In John, the word “glory” is all tied up with Jesus’ death on the cross. That is Jesus’ moment of glory, when He is lifted up in death for the life of the world. The glory of the transfiguration is hidden, buried under the glory of the cross. Darkness not light. Weakness, not power. Silence from heaven. Abandonment, isolation, darkness, death. The same Jesus who shined so gloriously on His mountain, hangs in utter desolation on a cross, and John declares that this is His shining moment, this is His hour of glory.
The mountain of Transfiguration, the mountain of Calvary’s cross are two side of the same Jesus coin. The two faces of glory. One hidden, the other revealed. One for now, the other for all eternity. One for faith, the other for sight. Now we live in the glory of the cross. We live by faith and not by sight. We live as justified sinners. No “shine Jesus shine” stuff. Only the hidden glory of a sublime death that conquers death. For as often as we eat of the bread that is His body, and drink of the cup that His blood, we proclaim His death until He comes in glory. That’s the glory of Jesus.
When He appears in glory again, the flip-side will be revealed, the counter-side to Calvary. The glory of the cross becomes the glory of the open, empty tomb. Resurrection! And then you will see with your own eyes, as Peter, John, and James saw with theirs, and you also will appear with Moses and Elijah and all the saints in the endless Day of Jesus’ glory.
In the name of Jesus,
Amen.
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