[Machine transcription]
Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake,
they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. You may be seated. In the name of Jesus,
Amen. Dear Saints, it was about eight days after these things. What things?
The conversation that Jesus had had with his disciples up at Caesarea Philippi.
We remember that conversation.
Well, we know that Peter
remembered that conversation
because it was one of
those moments that will stick with you.
Who do people say that I am?
Jesus asked.
Some say Elijah,
some say one of the prophets,
some say John the Baptist
raised from the dead.
Who do you say that I am?
And Peter says, you are the Christ,
the son of the living God.
And Jesus gives them
this great blessing.
Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah.
Well this was not revealed by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven.
But then remember what happened.
Jesus took them aside and began to teach them that the Christ must suffer many things, be
handed over to be beaten and scourged and even crucified, that he would die and then
on the third day be raised again and Peter took Jesus aside as if he would rebuke him
and say Lord no it can’t happen to you.
You and Peter turns to him and says,
Get behind me, Satan!
You have on your mind the things of men
and not the things of God.
You just have to think that maybe that conversation
is playing over and over in Peter’s mind
for that week as they travel around.
And especially as they’re walking up the mountain,
Peter, James, John, Jesus,
to get away, Jesus often would go
into the mountains or into a desolate place
in order to pray, but this time he’s bringing his disciples with him for this blessed moment.
And you have to wonder if Peter’s reflecting on this.
Is he going to try to convince us again that he’s supposed to suffer?
Is he going to bring up that being rejected and beaten and flogged?
Is he going to talk about that again?
Am I going to have to stand up and rebuke him again?
And what happened last time?
Boy, he got pretty angry when I said that.
And what does this mean that he has to suffer, that he as the Christ has to die?
I can’t help but think that this is on the mind of Peter and James and John.
They follow Jesus up the mountain and then Jesus picks a spot there on the mountain and
says this is where we’re going, it’s now time to pray.
And Jesus kneels down to pray, the disciples fall asleep.
It seems like whenever Jesus is praying, the disciples are sleeping.
But as he’s praying, Jesus is now visited by these, this is quite amazing, these two
greatest of prophets.
Here’s Moses and Elijah and they’re talking, it’s only Luke that tells us what they’re
talking about, they’re talking about Jesus’ exodus, his departure, which he was going
to accomplish.
In other words, Jesus doesn’t have to argue with Moses and Elijah about his suffering,
they know all about it, that’s what the conversation of the throne room of God is about.
but then Peter and James and John wake up you have to think that one of them
woke up and looked over at Jesus and says whoa this is something and he taps the
other guys on the knees wake up wake up you’re gonna want to see this and they
open their eyes it says they became fully awake and they look and there’s
Jesus and his face is radiant glowing like the Sun and his clothes are white
mark tells us his clothes are whiter than anyone any launderer on earth could
ever get clothes white they’re just beaming white Jesus is radiating with
this glory and they’re talking with them are the prophets Moses and Elijah and
and and they listen a little while the disciples listen with amazement and with
fear and then the Moses and Elijah begin to depart and Peter says no we
can’t let this end. Master, it’s good to be here. Don’t leave yet. Let’s make some
tents. It’s a skeine. The Greek word is the same word used for the
tabernacle in the Old Testament. The same word that’s in John chapter 1 when it says
Jesus became, the word became flesh and he dwelt with us. Tabernacle, he tented with us.
Let us make some booths, I think we say, or tents or something. Yeah, tents. Let’s just
stay here. We don’t want to leave. But Peter didn’t know what he was saying. And now comes
the glory of God in the cloud, just like the Old Testament. And the voice of God the Father
who’s going to give us now his second of three sermons that we’re going to hear in the Gospels.
This is my Son, my Chosen One.
Listen to Him.
And their fear, which I think was probably at about level 8 when they saw Jesus and glory
ramped up to level 9 when they saw the cloud, and now the voice ramps it up to level 10
and they fall on their faces, but then Jesus goes and He grabs them and lifts them up
and they look and they see just Jesus, normal Jesus. The glory is gone and he
tells them not to tell anyone until after the resurrection. Now I want to put
the transfiguration of Jesus in the context of Jesus teaching the disciples
that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer. I want to put this moment, I want
to put this event in the context of Jesus trying to bring the disciples and us along
to understanding what he in fact came to do.
And I’d like to suggest it in this way, I’ve been thinking about it this all week trying
to sort this out, is if the transfiguration of Jesus was an act that he did or something
that happened to him.
In other words, was it Jesus who decided that He would simply radiate with glory at this
particular day?
Or was it the result of Him going and standing before His Heavenly Father in prayer?
Like Moses.
Remember the Old Testament when Moses would go into the tabernacle and he would come out
and his face would glow and he had to wear a veil over the face because of the glowing
the rays of light coming out of his face and they were getting less and less and he had
to wear that veil over.
But Moses didn’t have a choice if his face was glowing.
He stood before the Lord and he radiated with that glory.
And I wonder if that’s how it was with Jesus.
It seems like it’s very passive.
He began to radiate, he began to change, the text is passive.
But I have to think, and here’s my suspicion on this, that this is probably how it, this
is how it, this is the neutral position for Jesus.
This isn’t Jesus turning the light on.
Then, this is Jesus turning his humiliation off.
In other words, I don’t know how it was with you, but when I got up this morning, well,
I might not be 100% presentable, but I’m more presentable now than I was when I woke up
this morning.
And I suppose that’s how it is for all of us, right?
We wake up and we say, boy, we don’t have a lot of glory, but we’ve got to do whatever
we can to improve the glory that we have so we can go and present ourselves.
but with Jesus it’s the opposite. Jesus has the glory. He is, we said it in the
creed, God of God, light of light, very God of very God. He is the divine Son of
God radiating with this divine glory so that it’s necessary for Jesus to hide
the glory, to cover the glory. No one says Jesus lights a lamp and then puts it
under a bushel, but Jesus hides his divine nature under his human humility.
This is how Paul says it in Philippians chapter 2, he empties himself so that we see the glory
of God in the face of Jesus.
He makes himself approachable for us so that his presence doesn’t bring us fear or even
destruction.
Remember how God said it to Moses, no one can look on the face of God and live.
So the strange thing, and here’s what I’ll suggest, and I think this is the point,
the strange thing is not that Jesus is transfigured before them on the mountain.
The strange thing is that he’s not always like this.
That he wasn’t born in the manger like a little baby ball of sunshine.
that he didn’t go into the Jordan River to be baptized by John the Baptist and
the water evaporated away from him or imagine it this way imagine if Jesus was
transfigured at other times imagine if he was transfigured in the garden of
Gethsemane when they came to arrest him they all come with their pitchforks and
their whips and their all their whatever they’ve gotten they come looking for
Jesus and Judas kisses him on the cheek and Jesus just goes and they all run for
or when he’s standing before Pilate and Pilate says are you the king of the Jews
and Jesus and Pilate falls down and worships him and gives him the throne or
when Jesus feet and and arms are tied to the cross and the soldiers have the
nail there right in his hand and the other one is raising the hammer to pound
his flesh to that wood and then the glory and they drop those weapons but
Jesus hides his glory so that he might suffer he hides his glory so that he can
die and be buried it’s necessary he says to Peter to the disciples to you and me
it’s necessary for the Son of Man to to be beaten to be handed over to be
crucified and die and be buried. It’s necessary. And then on the third day to
rise again, the one on the cross, the one in the grave, the one being beaten and
having his beard ripped out and being spat on, this one is the glorious one,
the Son of God, who hides his glory with his flesh and his humility so that he
can be your Savior.” So we give thanks to God that Jesus gives to Peter and James
and John and to you and to me this little glimpse of glory to know what he
suffers in his death so that we would know that the blood of God is spilt for
us, that the Son of God has suffered for us, and that the Glorious One has entered
into this humiliation so that you might share in this glory and come to this glory in life
everlasting.
So may God grant this vision of Jesus, transfigured, to find a seat in your own heart, to give
you his comfort and his peace, amen.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Jesus Christ
our Lord, amen.
