The LCMS church service this morning celebrated Transfiguration
Sunday. The Scriptural texts were Deuteronomy 34:1-12, II Corinthians
4:3-6, and Luke 9:28-36. Deuteronomy 34:1-12 is about the burial of
Moses. II Corinthians 4:3-6 interacts with the story in Exodus 33-34
about Moses seeing an aspect of God’s glory and shining as a result of
it, so Moses had to wear a veil before the Israelites. Paul relates that
to the glory of Christ being hidden from unbelievers by the god of this
world, but the light shines in the heart of believers. Luke 9:28-36 is
Luke’s version of the Transfiguration story.
Here are some items:
A. One of the hymns that we sang is entitled “How Good, Lord, to Be Here.” It is specifically about the Transfiguration. Some stanzas stood out to me:
Before we taste of death,
we see thy kingdom come;
we fain would hold the vision bright,
and make this hill our home.
Jesus in Luke 9:26-27 states: “For whosoever shall be ashamed of me
and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall
come in his own glory, and in his Father’s, and of the holy angels. But I
tell you of a truth, there be some standing here, which shall not taste
of death, till they see the kingdom of God” (KJV). Verses like these
trouble some, since they seem to suggest that Jesus was predicting that
the Second Coming would occur in the lifetime of at least some of his
disciples. One way to get around this is to say that Jesus was speaking
here about the Transfiguration. And, sure enough, the next verse says,
“And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took
Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray” (KJV).
The text appears to connect the Transfiguration story with Jesus’s
statement that some of his disciples will not taste death before they
see the Kingdom of God. That stanza of the hymn goes with that
interpretation.
‘Tis good, Lord, to be here,
yet we may not remain;
but since thou bidst us leave the mount,
come with us to the plain.
I have heard sermons about how Christians should not stay on the
mountaintop, with their elevated spiritual experiences, but should come
down and make a difference in the world below. This stanza is
essentially saying that. But I like how it invites Jesus to come down
with us to the world below.
B. The sermon drew a parallel between the Exodus 33-34 story and the
Transfiguration. Moses’s shining was a sign that God was still present
with Israel through the person and work of Moses, even though Israel had
just sinned with the Golden Calf. The Transfiguration is about God
being with us through the person and work of Jesus. The Transfiguration
was a time of glory, as Jesus’s glory was demonstrated to Peter, James,
and John, and as Jesus talked with two of the prominent pillars of
Israel’s faith, Moses and Eiijah. But what did Jesus, Moses, and Elijah
talk about? They discussed Jesus going to Jerusalem, which was where he
would suffer, die, and rise from the dead. The pastor referred to how
the disciples were excited by the miracles that they did (Luke
10:17-20), but Jesus continually told them that he would go to
Jerusalem, die, and rise again on the third day. We could easily be
overwhelmed and even destroyed by the glory of God, but God came to our
level through the incarnation.
Jesus, Moses, and Elijah discuss Jesus’s departure, or his exodus, in
Luke’s account. Jesus’s departure occurs at his resurrection, which is
where he is glorified. The pastor said that Jesus’s resurrection effects
our eschatological resurrection, but also new life in the here and now.
C. Some items from the Sunday school class:
—-Moses could not enter the Promised Land due to his sin, but Moses
got to be in the Promised Land at the Transfiguration. Not only that,
but he got to hear about the point of the Promised Land: the death and
resurrection of Jesus.
—-Moses set the stage for Joshua, and the law of Moses set the stage for Jesus, whose name is Joshua.
—-Joshua had huge shoes to fill, like young Lutheran pastors in the
midwest taking the place of pastors who served a church for decades. But
God gave Joshua a spirit of wisdom.
—-The location of Moses’s grace was kept a secret either so people
would not worship Moses or his enemies would not desecrate his grave.
—-There was some discussion about why Elijah appeared at the
Transfiguration. Elijah represents the prophets, but why Elijah rather
than Isaiah or Jeremiah? I think part of the answer is that Elijah’s
appearance set the stage for Jesus’s discussion with his disciples about
Elijah preparing the way for the Messiah, which occurs right after the
Transfiguration in Mark 9:11-13 and Matthew 17:10-13. In a sense,
though, Elijah was a prototypical prophet. He was one of the earliest
prophets, and quite a bit of narrative is devoted to his proclamation of
repentance and his role in restoring Israel to God.
—-Peter, James, and John did not tell anyone about the
Transfiguration right after it occurred. The teacher speculated that
perhaps they had not digested it, or they thought that people would not
believe them. Jesus in Matthew 17:9 and Mark 9:9 explicitly tells them
not to tell anyone until he has risen from the dead. The teacher said
that it was not yet the right time. Now, we are supposed to tell people
and also show people. In the same way that Jesus’s transformation was
obvious to the disciples, Christians’ glorification of Christ is to be
obvious to the world, through their love and compassion.