The Transfiguration of our Lord

Matthew 17: 1-9

February 19, 2023 - BRCC - Pastor Deb

One of the great theologians and teachers of the early church, Augustine, posed an experiment with his students. It went like this: Imagine God saying to you, “I’ll make a deal with you if you wish. I’ll give you anything and everything that you ask: pleasure, power, honor, wealth, freedom, perfect health….even peace of mind. Nothing will be a sin; nothing will be forbidden; and nothing will be impossible to you. You will never be bored and you will never die. The Only thing you will be denied is this…You will never see my face.” That first part is pretty appealing isn’t it…especially no sin…peace..health…never bored…never die? But then we hear the one thing we would have to give up and we pause. “Never? I’ll never see God’s face? The face of the living God will never shine upon me and be gracious unto me? I’ll have an eternally easy life, but I won’t have Jesus. That gives us pause, doesn't it?

And doesn’t this experiment teach us something about our hearts? I’ll never behold the presence of Christ? I’ll never know the full majesty of the greatest love…the greatest creator…and the greatest giver. I’ll have what I think would make me happy…but I’ll never look into the face of the one who knows what I don’t know, and can never imagine. I’ll never behold his glory…and I know on some deep instinctual level that I REALLY do want to behold His glory. Augustine is also famous for his conclusion. He said “Our hearts are restless until they find their glory in our God.”

Today is a festival Sunday that serves as a bridge between Advent/Christmas and Epiphany and leads us into Lent and Easter. It’s a Sunday we call “The Transfiguration of our Lord.” In our gospel text today we hear this declaration: “There (on the mountain top) he (that is Jesus) was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.” Matthew 17:2 We know from stories from the Old Testament, that when Moses saw the face of God his face shone like the sun and he glowed as he came down the mountain with the law that was to give life to God’s people. So…transfiguration has something to do with literally being in the presence of the face of God.

What does it mean to be “transfigured?” The Greek word for transfiguration literally means to be “metamorphosed.” It is to be revealed in the complete fullness of all potential. Like a caterpillar, whom we may assume is a form of a worm eating away at our milkweed plant, but who then spins into a cocoon and hangs in waiting until that amazing day when it emerges into the fullness of a beautiful monarch butterfly. When we experience the butterfly, we realize the true nature of that caterpillar, and its destiny. That’s a very simplistic explanation…but it does help us get at what our gospel text is trying to convey to us today as we prepare to turn the corner of the Christmas and the Season of Epiphany and enter into the Season of Lent.

This coming Wednesday evening at 6 p.m., we will offer a short service of the imposition of ashes. A beautiful, but solemn reminder that we are creatures destined to die. We are dust and to dust we shall return. Yet, despite the reality of our mortality, Ash Wednesday leads us on a journey not unlike that cocoon of waiting and hoping for the new life that is promised in the resurrection. And so, our gospel text today is a glimpse of the glory that shines forth from Jesus to give us courage and hope. An eyewitness account that reveals the full character and holiness of God, that beyond our ability to understand, makes mortal life a metamorphosis into eternal life…seeing the face of our God.

As we approach the 17th chapter of Matthew’s gospel, we have jumped ahead from the Sermon on the mount to those days when Jesus is now heading to Jerusalem where he will face crucifixion and death. Peter had just made a stunning confession about the Lord Jesus Christ. For when Jesus asked his disciples, “But what about you, who do you say I am?” Peter answered “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Peter did not hesitate, he did not stutter, but looking Jesus straight in the eye he told him, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” He declared Jesus as the eternal king over the kingdom of God. It was immediately after this confession that Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. The disciples had a really hard time understanding this. Eternal king … death … what? How? Why? In today’s passage, Jesus will show them a glimpse of his glory that they might be a witness to us that he is truly the Messiah, the Son of the living God, and that he did indeed come to die, and we will learn why.

“Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.” As Jesus and his disciples went up the mountain we can imagine the scene . Jesus, as he was ought to do, perhaps went off by himself to pray. It was starting to get late into the night, and the disciples were getting drowsy (Luke 9:28,32). The light of the moon lit up the snow capped mountains in the background. Jesus may have prayed like he did in John 17:24, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.” As he was praying (Luke 9:29), something marvelous happened. “There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.” I imagine it was like lighting up a match, and the fire flares into flame. Jesus’ face shone like the sun. This is how Matthew describes it. He uses the brightest thing he could think of – the sun, and uses that to describe Jesus’ face. It was bright like the sun. A typical 100-watt light bulb is about 1600 lumens, and you can barely look into a lightbulb. The sun is at least 38,000 trillion trillion lumens. If you look at the sun, even 93 million miles away, you will become blind. The book of Revelation says that in heaven, there will be no need for a sun, for Jesus Christ is the light of the kingdom of God! So Jesus may be in fact brighter than the sun. Now here in this transfiguration, Jesus’ face is certainly very, very bright….yet, by God’s grace, his face is seen.

What did this reveal to them about Jesus? Certainly his holiness. What the disciples saw was spiritual as well as physical. The veil of Jesus’ humanity was briefly drawn back and they saw Jesus in a way they had not seen him before. And this was the only time while Jesus was on earth that His glory was revealed in this way. But, seeing it…nothing was ever the same. Nothing on earth could ever be more appealing that being in the presence of the face of God’s holiness and his beloved Son.

The transfiguration foreshadows Jesus’ resurrection glory that can’t really be imagined. It hints at a journey that takes us from death to life…a place where the veil is lifted and the line between this life and NEW LIFE with God is made possible. In some ways…it is a journey toward the realm of God and holiness that awaits His beloved creation.

And so what do we celebrate on this festival day called The Transfiguration of our Lord? Ps 34:4-5 says, “I sought the Lord and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame.” The three disciples came down that mountain Radiant with a truth and a joy they could never find for themselves. They had been given the privilege of seeing the face of their God, and it led them to be the eyewitnesses of the power of Jesus as our source of ultimate joy, and the ultimate promise.

We don’t need a perfect life. We just need to look to the Lord. Christ gives us his robes of righteousness. He makes us holy and gives us entrance into his kingdom. The Bible promises us that when Jesus comes again, he will come in his glory, and the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt 13:43).

And so, we come down the mountain with Jesus and his disciples knowing full well that a cross of suffering comes before a cross of glory. Jesus comes to us, he touches us and says, “Get up, don’t be afraid.” When we look up, let us look to no one except Jesus. Let us Repent, and trust in Christ alone for forgiveness of our sins, and on this Transfiguration Sunday, let us contemplate the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and rejoice that someday, we too will see the face of God. Amen.