Jesus is transfigured in today’s Gospel, and then
goes down the mountain to die in Jerusalem. He doesn’t hug the
glory of the Transfiguration to Himself. He surrenders it. He
had other things to do besides stay up there on the mountain
basking in glory like Peter wanted Him to. Rejection, betrayal,
mockery, suffering and death -- these awaited Jesus in Jerusalem.
It had to be that way. It was God’s will. The One who was
glorified had to be humiliated. It was the only way to pay for
sin. The only way to reconcile a lost, wandering human race to
God. It was the only way to snatch you and me out of the jaws of
sin and death and hell, and set us on the solid ground of God’s
forgiving love and mercy in Christ.
Our Lord’s Transfiguration was the door through
which He passed on the way to the Cross. There on the mountain,
prior to His suffering and death, the disciples were given a brief
glimpse of heaven. Before the eyes of Peter, James and John,
Jesus’ glory was momentarily revealed. His sinless human nature
was made radiant with the heavenly splendor of His divine nature.
Moses and Elijah appeared, representatives of the Old Covenant, to
give Jesus their homage. According to Matthew, the bright cloud
of God’s presence enveloped the mountain, and God the Father
testified out of the cloud to Jesus’ identity and authority:
This is My Son, whom I love. Listen to Him! And then
suddenly, all the splendor disappeared. Poof! – The cloud was
gone. Moses and Elijah were gone. Everything was back to
normal. And when the disciples looked around they no longer saw
anyone with them except Jesus.
That’s what counts, finally. Having Jesus with
you. We love our spouses. We love our children. We love our
parents and siblings. But all these people we love will one day
be taken away. You can’t hold on to them forever. You can’t hold
on to any earthly thing forever. In the end, when you’ve been
brought up short by the recognition of how gross a sinner you
really are, or when you survey the scattered wreckage of your
fondest dreams, or when you have to face up to the fact that this
time you won’t be getting better because the doctor says there’s
nothing more he can do – then what ultimately counts is having
Jesus with you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the
end of the age, Jesus says. How good, Lord, to be
here. Here with you, secure in the shelter of your love and
mercy.
It’s good to be with Jesus, because of who He is.
The Transfiguration makes it plain that our Lord wasn’t some poor
schmuck who had the bad luck to get himself nailed to a Roman
Cross. No, Jesus is the beloved Son of God. That’s what God the
Father said about Jesus at His Baptism, when the heavens opened
and the Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove. It
happened again at the Transfiguration: This is My beloved
Son. On two separate occasions the Father testified in a
loud voice from heaven who Jesus is. Twice, for emphasis, to make
sure we get it. He is the Son of God. He is the One beloved by
the Father. The Creed puts it this way: Jesus is God of God and
Light of Light, very God of very God. In the Transfiguration,
heaven’s spotlight shines on Jesus, revealing who He really is.
Come, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector
of our Faith. The Transfiguration encourages us to do
exactly that.
But wait a minute – here’s a puzzle! If Jesus is
the beloved Son of God, then what about the bad things that
happened to Him after the Transfiguration. That’s My Boy,
the Father said when Jesus was baptized and transfigured. I
love Him. I’m proud of Him. So why, then, if that’s the
case, did Jesus cry out from the agony of the Cross, My God,
My God, why have You forsaken Me? At the moment of
crisis, when things were at their darkest, why did God turn His
back on Jesus? Is that any way for a father to treat his son?
Uh – Dad, couldn’t You be here when I
really need You?
And as for Jesus’ clothes, which at the
Transfiguration became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in
the world could bleach them – think about how those same
garments were stripped from Him by the Romans when He was flogged
and crucified. Think about how the soldiers gambled for the
garments that just a few months earlier had shone with such
heavenly splendor. Not only had the glory of the Transfiguration
utterly vanished when Jesus was crucified – it was stomped
underfoot and ground into the mud, swallowed up by suffering and
shame and humiliation and death.
And what about Peter, and the other disciples?
It’s good for us to be here, Peter said. This is
where we belong. Some months later, on the night Jesus was
betrayed, Peter said something similar. He swore up and down that
even if he had to die with Jesus, he’d never disown Him, because
it was good to be with Jesus. He’d be faithful. He’d stick with
Him. But after Jesus was arrested, Peter swore with an oath that
He did not know the man. Three times Peter denied his Lord in
order to save his own neck. At the critical moment all the
disciples deserted their Master and ran away like scared rabbits.
How good, Lord, to be here, indeed. Now just don’t go getting
Yourself crucified or anything like that, and we might even hang
around.
And what did the Father command from the cloud when
Jesus was transfigured? Something about listening to Jesus? Pay
attention to Him? Believe what He has to tell you, even if you
don’t like it? You have one Teacher, one Instructor,
Jesus would later say. So if Jesus says that He came not to
be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many
– believe it. Believe that He came to give up His life for
you, in payment for all your sins, so God the Father could declare
you not guilty for the sake of Jesus. Believe that He came to
serve you by the washing of water with the Word in your Baptism.
Believe that He comes to serve you by forgiving all your sins,
week after week, through the Absolution that enters your ear and
takes root in your heart. Believe that He comes to serve you in
Holy Communion, by placing into your mouth His true Body and Blood
for the remission of sin. More than life, breath, food and drink,
you need Jesus. You need the saving gifts He gives – His Word,
His Body and Blood, His forgiveness that covers all your sins.
Finally, think about that bright cloud of God’s
presence that enveloped Jesus and all who were with Him at the
Transfiguration. All the glory of God was there, and frightening
though it was, it must have been a wonderful thing to see.
It’s good to be here, Lord, Peter said. Peter’s instincts were
right, but His understanding was wrong. Peter and the other
disciples, and even Jesus Himself, couldn’t inhabit that glory
permanently just yet. There was another mountain Jesus had to
climb first – Mt. Calvary, where He would atone for the sins of
the whole world by dying on a Cross. There was another cloud that
would envelop Jesus first – the dark cloud of God’s wrath, that
swallowed Him up as He became sin for us so we could become the
righteousness of God through faith in His Name. Someday Jesus
will come again in the bright clouds of heaven to make us new and
to receive us into the fullness of His kingdom. But that glory
isn’t ours just yet. We’ve got a ways to go before we get there.
Until then, we walk by faith and not by sight. We
walk trusting in the forgiveness and salvation Jesus alone can
give.
At present we live our lives under the shadow of
His Cross. Striving to be faithful to His Word and Gospel, we now
endure misunderstanding, gossip, temptation, and affliction. We
suffer pains and doubt. We’re impatient for the glory to be
revealed in us when our Savior returns. We want to be there with
Jesus in heavenly glory, there with Him in the eternal newness of
life that the resurrection will bring. But it’s not ours quite
yet. We want it so badly, but for now, we have to wait. Not yet,
God says. But soon. So we wait for
the Lord, our soul waits, and in His Word we do hope.
But until that day, as we wait, our Lord Jesus
Christ is with us, and we, by God’s grace, are with Him. Right
here, right now. He’s with us always for the sake of our
Baptism. Never will He leave us, never will He forsake us. Jesus
is with us now as the Good News of His life, death, and
resurrection is preached into our ears and hearts. Our Savior’s
with us in the precious gift of His Body and Blood, given and shed
for us, so we can be with the Triune God for all eternity. How
good, Lord, to be here! Here where You are, present for us in
Word and Sacrament, until You finally bring us to be with You
there, in heavenly joy and splendor forever.
When the disciples looked up after the
Transfiguration ended, they didn’t see anyone with them except
Jesus. But just as surely as Jesus was with them on the mountain,
He’s with us too. As we bear our crosses, as we climb our little
Golgothas, as we await our final transfiguration and entrance into
heaven’s glory, our Savior Jesus Christ remains with us. We’ll
see Him one day, as Peter, James and John saw Him there on the
mountain. And when we finally see Him with unveiled eyes,
we shall be like Him, Scripture says, for we shall
see Him as He is. And thanks be to God, then we will be
transfigured too.
In Nomine Patris. . .
