Main Menu
SitemapRecentHomeBeliefsLiturgy and PreachingParishEducationArticlesHistoryLinksContactPastor * Pastor's BlogCalendarDirectionsPhotobook
Transfiguration - 2003
Todd A. Peperkorn, STM
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for today is the Transfiguration of our Lord.
The season of Epiphany is all about seeing God in the person of Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord. That’s the point. If you want to find God, go to Jesus. God declared this at His Baptism when He spoke from the heavens and said, This is my beloved Son; listen to Him. Jesus declared it when He changed the water into wine at Cana, and when He healed the Centurion’s servant. And last week Mary and Joseph presented Jesus in the Temple last week, so that He may present us before His Father’s throne holy and perfect. This has been a season of coming to know and believe who Jesus is, so that we may know what He has come to do for you and I.
Now the Transfiguration of Our Lord really pulls all of this together and makes it very clear, so that there can be no doubt for sinners like you and I that if we want peace with God, if we want to be in communion with the Almighty, then it is only through Jesus Christ. He is your only hope, as we shall clearly see.
Jesus brings Peter, James and John up to a mountain six days after Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the only Son of God. While they are up on the mountain, Jesus is transfigured before them, and two figures from the Old Testament appear and speak with Him: Moses and Elijah. Moses, the great prophet of the Ten Commandments, and Elijah, the prophet who was carried to heaven in a chariot of fire,
Peter, of course, wants things to stay just as they are. If Jesus can stay up on the mountain peak like this, then everything will be perfect. He won’t have to go to Jerusalem. He won’t have to suffer the shame and scandal of the cross. Everything will be just right. But the voice of God from the could puts a wrench into this. "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!"
You would think this would be good news, wouldn’t you? You would think that hearing the voice of God the father testify that Jesus is the Son of God would be a very good thing. And yet when Peter and the others hear this voice speak from heaven, they are deathly afraid.
Why are they afraid? They are afraid because they just came to realize that they are in the very presence of the Almighty God and creator of the universe. For a moment, they forgot about Jesus and all they could imagine was that God Himself was in their midst, and in a flash their sinfulness stood before them.
The Law of God produces fear. And apart from Jesus Christ, we only know a God of the Law, whose rules will neither bend nor break. That is what they heard from the cloud.
But the true face of God is seen in the person of Jesus Christ. For He is the very image of the Father, an icon of God’s holiness in the world. And that holiness of Jesus Christ is yours through His Word and Spirit. That is what Moses and Elijah represent. They are the Law and the Prophets, what we call the Old Testament. They point to Christ, and show that God has come into our very flesh and blood to redeem us from our sinfulness and buy us back.
So how do we find Jesus? Where is He located so that I may trust in Him and know that God loves me? The only place we may go to find Christ is in His Holy Word and Sacraments. He is in every page of the Scriptures, He is the content and point of all the stories. They all point to Him. Martin Luther put it this way: For there exists no other witness on earth to Christian truth but Holy Scripture.[1]
But this does not limit us, as if we should have more ways to find God. This is about the certainty which Christ delivers to you in His very Word. The Word He gives to you this day and always is that you are a sinner that has been bought with His own blood. Jesus, Moses and Elijah stand on the mountain peak and they are discussing another mountain peak; they are discussing the death that He will die for you on the cross. It is their obsession, their passion. The prophets long to see Jesus’ day, which He will die for the sins of the world. Everything in the Scriptures point to that One life lived for you.
Only Christ Himself through His Word can give you the faith to see Him in the Scriptures. For many, His Word will always remain a closed book, full of stories that make no sense. The Old Testament, the Scriptures of Moses and Elijah, are for many simply stories about morals or how to behave in a harsh world. They miss the point of these stories, because they cannot see Jesus in them.
But not for the baptized, not for you. For you His Word is a rich treasure, far more precious than gold or jewels. This treasure opens up all of eternity to you. This treasure gives you a window into the very mind of God, and through that window you can see God’s great love for you in His Son, Jesus Christ.
On this Transfiguration Sunday we stand upon one mountain and gaze upon another. Moses and Elijah teach us of this journey in the Sacred Scriptures. You see the glory which is Jesus upon this mountain, for His glory is your glory in your baptism. But that glory is bought with a price. That wonderful gift of God cost Him His very life.
This is why we will say farewell to the Alleluias today for a time, only to pick them up again on Easter Sunday. We say farewell to that great acclamation of praise to God because we travel with Christ through His passion and death. His glory lies in His shame, which Moses and Elijah spoke of so many years before. We say farewell to Alleluia because we shall pick it up again. We say farewell because we do know the end of the story.
This day as you examine your life and see the heartache and sorrow that accompanies life this side of the grave, know this: Christ gave up the glory of this mount of Trasfiguration for you, because of His great love for you. And it is that glorified body and blood which He gives you this day. Trust in Christ and His Word. He will never fail you. Believe it for His sake. Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.
[1]Luther, M. (1999, c1974). Vol. 52: Luther's works, vol. 52 : Sermons II (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (Vol. 52, Page 21). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
This page was created on 01/15/2007 and last edited on: 01/15/2007