The Mountain Before The True Glory
A voice from the cloud said, “this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.”
As we come to the Feast of the Transfiguration, we come to the end of the Epiphany Season and are poised to enter the season of Lent. This strange event comes at a point that divides two phases in our Lord’s ministry – both of which began with the words: This is my beloved Son, listen to him. The first was at the conclusion of our Jesus’ baptism from the voice from heaven by the Father. The second is here on the mountain of our Lord’s transfiguration. The first admonition points to the central element and objective of the first half of our Lord’s public ministry. It was meant to answer questions and issues concerning his identity to usher in the Kingdom of God. We could call this Phase 1 and it was well characterized by one occasion when the disciples of John came to Jesus with the question: Are you really the one who is to come, or should we look for another? Jesus’ response about that day’s ministry well reflected the character of what His ministry was about during Phase 1 in His answer to their question: Go back and tell John the things that you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. (Luke 7: 20,22)
Of course, while the crowds and the disciples understood that God was certainly at work through Him, they understood nothing about his ultimate saving work still to be accomplished. They could see the presence of God in a very dramatic way in his many miracles and exorcisms, but what it all really meant; however, they did not have a clue. Just before Jesus took Peter, James, and John up on the mountain, He gathered his disciples together at Caesarea Philippi to take inventory on the current understanding of His identity and mission. All right, who am I? Who do the people say that I am . . . But, who do you say that I am (Matt. 16: 13-15)? And after Peter made his great confession: You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God (vs. 16) – a confession more from wisdom supplied by the Heavenly Father than some conclusion on his part.
In his response to Peter, Jesus entered Phase 2 in His ministry as He began to teach them about his saving work on the cross, his death, and resurrection that lay ahead for Him in Jerusalem. They will now be making Jerusalem their final destination. Naturally the disciples, Peter foremost, did not get it. In response to Jesus announcing Phase II, Peter said in essence, over my dead body, and Jesus identified such thinking as of the Devil (vs. 21-23). At this time, the disciples entertained the popular messianic understandings of the day. God would send His Personal Anointed One to rally the good, God-fearing people and make a frontal attack on the evils of the world. He would right all the wrongs of the world and His people would become the victors not the losers they were sick and tired of being. When Jesus worked His miracles overcoming all sorts of horrible conditions – feeding thousands and getting all the demons on the run – they thought He fit right into this understanding perfectly.
But now, let’s review the mountain top and the Transfiguration of Jesus. This amazing event presented Peter, James, and John a rather confusing picture of Jesus the Messiah. On the one hand, the Transfiguration of Jesus seemed to reinforce the picture that the disciples had and wanted to continue to have about what it meant for Jesus to be the Messiah. The appearance of Moses and Elijah with Jesus – all in a state of heavenly glory – seemed to present just what the disciples would expect. Perhaps God is sending two of the greatest messiahs from the past to assist Jesus in his mission. Let’s make fitting accommodations for all the glorified messiahs, Peter thought, as he asked the Lord about making three tabernacles – one for each of God’s representatives. It could be just like when God tented with his people in the Old Testament. Why if we have Moses and Elijah back, all glorified with Jesus, surely this means that glory days are ahead for the children of Israel. But, as soon as Peter offered his suggestion, Moses and Elijah disappear; a thick fog developed around a no-longer-glowing Jesus; and once again voice of the Father is heard: This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, listen to Him (vs. 5).
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At first the disciples were awestruck. Jesus, Moses, and Elijah were all standing there in glorious splendor. Then, when suddenly went away and they hear the voice from Heaven, they are terrified. I doubt they remembered what Jesus had said to them a few days before when he told them about how He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many shameful things at the hands of the religious leaders there. These words did not fit the kind of messiah they were seeing or wanting in Jesus as they witnessed his miracles, exorcisms and now beholding the glory of God on the mountain. But the voice from heaven said, this is my beloved Son, listen to him . . . listen to what He is telling you about what is going to happen and what must be done. These are words that they needed to take to heart as Jesus set his face to Jerusalem. We also need to take his words to heart this morning. As we close out the Epiphany season and ponder making some extended preparations for Lent, the voice from Heaven reminds us that we must listen carefully to our Lord. We must set our face to make the journey with our Lord to Jerusalem and behold what the Father has ordained to take place there. The purpose for which the Father sent His Son into the world will there be fulfilled.
In terms of the Old Covenant of Law and Israel’s history, many have been tempted to understand the mission of Jesus as a salvage operation. The sinful-self in all of us would like to think that with some glorified presence of God and His power in the world and in our lives, we can get our spiritual selves together and measure up to what the people of God should be and do. The old sinful self in all of us should like to think that power to reform and inspire – not grace to forgive – is what we really need. But the Father knows better, and He had other plans for His Son in Jerusalem. Moreover, Moses and Elijah – David and Solomon for that matter – would not be needed. Jesus came down off the mountain and headed to Jerusalem to bring an end of the old way of living under a Covenant of Law. Life for God’s people would be under the charter of the Kingdom of God ruled by grace, not law. It would come by a cross and its citizens would have to live by a cross in this world. Phase two begins as Jesus traveled to establish the foundations of the everlasting reign of grace. Life with God is to be anchored in the events of Jesus passion, death, and resurrection – not in tabernacles, not in blessings anchored in Law, not in animal sacrifices, and not in exclusive membership with the children of Israel. And for now, in this life, we might add as we now peer with Peter, James and John in the hazy cloud . . . it is not going to be a life of glory. Not yet anyway!
The ministry of our Lord presents a paradox that was confusing back then, and it can be confusing today also. The Father chose to reveal the true identity of His Son and his messiahship by mighty acts, miracles, exorcisms, and unmistakable signs of glory like we see in the transfiguration of Jesus. However, these glorious signs were not the central redemptive work for Jesus to accomplish. He was named Jesus; to save us from our sins, not our current temporal ills. This redemptive work would involve what Luther called, God’s left-handed work. This is where it seems to the naked eye that God is not present; He is not doing anything; and it looks like evil is in control and winning the day. This is different from what we have seen before. Moses did some of his greatest messianic work on Mount Sinai where he received the Covenant of Law from God. And Elijah did his greatest messianic work embarrassing and routing the Baal prophets on Mount Carmel. And here they gathered with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Here we behold the glory of all three.
But Jesus still has his greatest messianic work ahead of Him. He came into the world to die for your sins, but not on this hill. This mountain is just the capstone in Jesus ministry to make manifest to all that He truly is God’s Anointed. Now the real work of redemption is to be accomplished in Jerusalem where Jesus will climb his appointed mountain for his saving work. And in that event, the greatest glory of God will shine forth; but not for the eyes of the camera to capture; just for the eyes of faith to heed the voice from Heaven and listen to Him. So down off this mountain we go with Jesus and his disciples, off to another mountain. In Jerusalem, He will climb the hill that is worth dying on . . . for you, for me, for the whole world.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
