Transfiguration Sunday 3/5/00 Pastor Michael Jensen

Luke 9:28-36 St. Mark’s Lutheran Church

Watertown, WI

St. Luke 9:28-36

LK 9:28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. [29] As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. [30] Two men, Moses and Elijah, [31] appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. [32] Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. [33] As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, "Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters--one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." (He did not know what he was saying.)

LK 9:34 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. [35] A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." [36] When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves, and told no one at that time what they had seen.

Before Crossing Over to Lent . . .

STOP. LOOK. And, LISTEN.

Introduction

"Stop, Look, and Listen." Children, do you recognize those instructions? Parents, have those instructions ever fallen from your lips? I would suppose that we have all heard or given that three-part instruction. When you hear those instructions," where do you picture yourself? Most likely you picture yourself standing on the curb about to cross the street, because from little on we are taught: Before crossing over to the other side of the street, Stop, Look and Listen.

Those are instructions which serve us well whenever we come to a crosswalk and as therefore those instructions serve us well today. For today, as we continue our walk through the church year, we have come to a crossing, a crossing over from one season of the church year to the next.

For the past month and a half we have been walking through a block of the church year known as Epiphany. Today, however, as we continue our walk through the church year we have come to the end of that block of the church year. We have come to the end of Epiphany and are now standing at the crosswalk known as Transfiguration Sunday. On the other side of this crosswalk is another block of the church year which we're are going to walk through, the block of the church year known as Lent.

So as we stand on this curb of the church year, as we stand at the crosswalk of the Transfiguration, what would it be good for us to do on the basis of our Gospel lesson? It is good for us to do the same thing at this crosswalk of the church year as we do at any other physical crosswalk. Therefore, before crossing over into Lent Stop, Look & Listen. 1.) Stop and Look at the Son. 2) Stop and Listen to the Father.

I. Stop and Look at the Son.

Before we cross over into Lent, we definitely do want to stop and look at our Savior as he is immediately before us in our Gospel lesson. It says, "As He (Jesus) was praying, the appearance of His face was changed, and His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning." Now, stop. Look at him. Look at him as he appears on this page of Holy Scripture. What do we see? We see Jesus like we've never seen him before.

Just prior to this, his appearance was what we would call normal. For about thirty-three years his appearance had been that of a normal human being. As a child there was nothing special about his appearance. He looked like the true human boy that he was. During his ministry, as he traveled throughout the countryside preaching and teaching, never was there a mysterious glow to his appearance. Never was there seen even a hail-o above his head. Although always the Son of God full of glory, in his state of humiliation he chose to veil that divine glory which was his from all eternity. To be sure, his divine words, backed up by his many powerful miracles, had revealed him as true God and had pointed to the glory that was his. Yet, in order to serve as our Savior, he had chosen to look like the true human man that he also was. Why even moments before his transfiguration, as he traveled up that mountain with Peter, James and John, those three disciples were walking and talking with someone who looked just like them.

On that mountain, however, all that suddenly changed. Peter, James and John saw Jesus in a way they had never seen him before. They saw Jesus shining brighter than a flash of lightning; shining with a brightness that could only be a heavenly. The God-Man on whom they had looked day in a day out now was so dazzling white that even a look was all they could stand.

But, why? Why would Jesus reveal his glory as the Son of God? Why there? Why then? Why to those three disciples? At this transfiguration crosswalk, before crossing over into the depth of his humiliation, Jesus has his disciples stop and look. Through his transfiguration he stops them, dead in their tracks, and as he reveals his glory, he has them look . . . really look . . . at who he is, the Son of God.

On this mountain, at this crosswalk, besides looking at him, Jesus also wanted them to look both ways before crossing over into the depth of his humiliation. He wanted them to look both ways; not to the right and left, but to the recent past and near future. He wanted them to look at where they had been in the recent past with Jesus. He wanted them to recognize that their entire time with Jesus up to that point had been a time in which Jesus in word and deed had been pointing to himself as the Son of God, their Savior. He wanted them to realize that the unveiling of his glory on this mountain was the exclamation point on everything that had preceded.

As we stand on the edge of Epiphany, ready to cross over into Lent, Jesus' transfiguration serves the same purpose for us. Before crossing over into Lent, it causes us to once again look back at what we have heard during Epiphany. It causes us to stop and look at who Jesus is and as on look back on what we have heard during Epiphany and as we once again hear of Jesus transfiguration, the Holy Spirit once again prepares us for Lent as he leads us to confess, Jesus Christ is the Son of God, our Savior. Such a revelation is the exclamation point to our season of Epiphany.

We, however, recall that Jesus wanted them to look both ways before crossing. Yes, he wanted them to look back, but he also wanted them to look to the near future. He wanted them to view his glory as a preparation for what was to come in the near future.

Jesus reveals his glory to these disciples, because he knew what knew what the next six months had in store for him and for his disciples. Jesus knew he was crossing over into the depth of his humiliation. The next six months he would spend traveling toward Jerusalem for the final time. He knew that on the other side of this mountain was a journey that led to another mountain, Calvary. He knew that during that time, those three disciples would be attacked by many doubts about him and his mission. So in order to strengthen them for the gore of Golgotha he here shows them his glory as true God. Before they had to watch him suffer hell, Jesus gives them a foretaste of heaven he would gain for them.

Jesus transfiguration also prepares us for Lent. It strengthens as we cross over into to Lent. It gives us a glimpse of the glory of Easter's empty tomb that was gained through our Savior's sufferings and death, and thus motivates us to enter Lent with the desire to once again review how Jesus, the Son of God and Son of Man worked out our salvation for us.

II. Stop and Listen to the Father

At the Transfiguration, Jesus also wanted his disciples to look ahead to the near future, because he knew the future is that with which the disciples had been having a problem. Jesus had been telling them about his future sufferings, death and resurrection, yet the disciples weren't listening. So as they stood at the crosswalk, because they didn't want Jesus to go to the cross, they didn't want to cross.

Their failure to listen to the Savior was a problem. They heard him talk about his death and that was just too distasteful for them. They didn't want to hear anything about rejection, suffering and death and in closing their ears to that message, they kept missing out on what Christ's suffering and death would produce, namely salvation, salvation more glorious than any momentary glimpse of glory on a mountain. Because the disciples were not carefully listening to Jesus' words, because when Jesus said he was going to die, they were too busy saying, "Never, never Lord!" And so, they missed the final part about Jesus being raised back to life on the third day.

They had a problem. They hadn't been listening to Jesus. Going into the depth of Christ's humiliation, they needed to listen to Jesus more carefully than ever before. On the mount of Transfiguration they were vividly reminded of this as "a cloud appeared and enveloped them . . . A voice came from the cloud, saying, `This is my Son, whom I have chosen. Listen to him!'"

Never was a better instruction given by a father to his children than that which our heavenly Father gave to those disciples. Oh if only they would have heeded that word. If only they had remembered this instruction of the heavenly Father, when Christ was taken captive, tried and executed. If only they had listened to Jesus, then they would have known that the darkness of Good Friday would give way to the light of Easter. If only they had listened to Jesus more carefully, then they would have recognized Christ's cry of "It is finished!" as a cry of victory rather than defeat. If only they would have listened to Jesus then the fearful hiding behind closed doors would have been replaced with open eager expectation of Christ's glorious resurrection on the third day. But, as we know, they didn't heed the Father's instruction. They didn't listen to Jesus.

We think, "How could they be so blind? Before crossing over into Christ's passion, they had seen his glory, the glory he had as the Son of God. They had heard him speak about his death in payment for sin and his resurrection for life. The Father had come to them and specifically told them to listen to Jesus. How could they not listen?" Good questions.

Let's answer those questions by asking some other questions. "How is it that we so often don't listen to Jesus? How is it that after he has revealed to us his glory as our Savior and God, we so often ignore what he says to us in his word? How is it that Moses and Elijah, the two great prophets of the Old Testament were standing there on the mount of transfiguration hanging on Jesus' every word, yet we don't?"

Another series of good questions, questions which all have the same answer as those first questions, namely, Jesus' disciples both then and now are while being forgiven saints are still sinful human beings who because of their sinful nature are more prone to listen to themselves or anybody other than Jesus. And because in sinful weakness we do not always listen to the Father as he tells us to listen to the Son, we like the disciples miss out on many spiritual blessings. Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bare all because we do not listen to the Savior speak to us through his Word.

Stop and look. Look at what's going on in your life. Compare it to what was the disciples were about to go through. The disciples were about to go into a crisis situation, one in which they would be frightened, confused, in doubt, groping for answers . . . a crisis in which they would feel all alone. Oh, what peace they forfeited. Oh, what needless pain they bore, all because they did not listen to Jesus. Disciple of Jesus, what is your crisis situation? It doesn't have to be a major one? But, then again, it might be. What is it that has you frightened? What is it that has left you confused? Are there doubts in your life? Have the questions become more troublesome and the answers apparently too complicated? Do you seem to have it all together on the outside, yet inside feel like you're wasting away? Then it is good for us to have come to the crosswalk of the Transfiguration.

It is good to have looked at the Son of God in his glory and been encouraged by a Savior who has revealed to us his glory. It is good to hear the Father's words telling us that Jesus is the one to listen to in no matter what the crisis. Listen to him as his words of peace, pardon and protection calm even the most fearful, most troubled, most confused, most doubtful soul. Listen to him.

Conclusion

Before we cross over into Lent, however, we need to briefly stop, look and listen one more time. We have stopped and we have looked at Jesus as he revealed his glory to Peter, James and John. We have been amazed at his glory as the Son of God. But look again at Jesus as our Gospel lesson tells us, "When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone." Look at the Son of God. Look at him as he once again veils his divine majesty and glory. Look at him chose not to make full use of the glory that is his from all eternity, all so that he may descend that mountain and go to Jerusalem. Yes, more amazing than his showing his glory to these three disciples, was the fact that he once again chose to not make full use of his glory so that he might go and die for all people. So, as is always the case, the most amazing thing about the Son of God is not his glory or his power shown to those sinners on that mountain, but rather his love for all sinners shown on another mountain and proclaimed throughout the world.

Before we cross over into Lent, it has been good for us to stop, look and listen today at this crosswalk know as the Transfiguration. We stopped and looked at a Savior who is the all glorious Son of God. We have looked at our Savior who willingly humbled himself to serve as our Savior. We have seen the depth of his love for us and having looked at all that, having stopped, looked and listened at the crosswalk of Transfiguration, we are certainly ready to cross over into Lent where we want to do the same. For in Lent also we want to stop, look and listen. We want to stop by taking time out of our schedules for midweek lenten services. We want to come and look and listen as we once again review our Savior's passion, a passion which he endured for us. At midweek services, as always, we want to do what the Father commands. We want to come and listen to Jesus, the Son of God, our Savior. Amen.