Sermon - Transfiguration - Mark 9:2-9

 

What a strange event was the Transfiguration of our Lord!  Sticking out like, well, a mountaintop, in the midst of the Gospels.  Most of the miracles Jesus does directly benefit someone who is suffering or in need.  But this one is different.  This is a teaching moment.  This is a revelation.

Peter, James and John have front row seats to a spectacular event – Jesus is transfigured before them.  And through their witness, we can peek on in to see it too.  His appearance, his figure, changes.  No longer appearing as your average, every-day, humble Jewish man of the first century.  Now Jesus gets all bright and shiny and glorious.  Even his clothes change, and are elevated to a brightness that is beyond anything of this earth. Normally, just looking at Jesus, you wouldn’t see anything particularly special about him.  But now, here, it’s unmistakable.  The picture speaks loud and clear.

But, look!  It’s not just Jesus!  There’s two other men, too.  Moses and Elijah!  Two of the greatest figures of the Old Testament!  (And as a sidenote – how did the disciples KNOW it was Moses and Elijah?  Perhaps something in the conversation clued them in.  Or perhaps, this is an indication that in glory, we will all be known to one another?)  But in any case it’s clear that Moses and Elijah they were.  And it’s hard to overstate what this would have meant to the disciples.

Moses – the great deliverer of the people of Israel!  The one to whom God appeared at the burning bush and revealed his personal name – Yahweh!  Moses!  The one through whom God rescued them out of bondage in Egypt.  Moses!  Who parted the Red Sea, and led the people through on dry ground.  Moses!  Who met with God on Mt. Sinai, face to face, and experienced such glory that his own face once glowed with borrowed light, and had to be veiled before the people.  Moses received the 10 commandments.  Moses received the instructions for the Tabernacle and the whole sacrificial system.  Moses who died at 120 years of age with eye undimmed and vigor unabated.  Moses who also promised a “prophet like me” would be raised up from among the people.

And then there’s Elijah!  Most famous of the prophets.  Elijah who had the guts to speak against wicked king Ahab and queen Jezebel.  Elijah!  Who bravely stood against the 400 prophets of Baal and mocked them when their false god didn’t answer their prayers, but who prayed simply for Yaheweh to hear and saw fire from heaven consume his sacrifice, his altar, and all the water he had dumped on and around it.  Elijah!  Who heard the voice of God not in the storm or earthquake, but in the whisper of the wind.  Elijah!  Who performed so many miracles, and even a resurrection, maybe the greatest of all the prophets.  And then it was Elijah, with a spectacle of his own, who was taken to heaven on the fiery chariot, as his protégé Elisha looked on. 

For Peter, James, and John, they must have been star-struck.  This would be like meeting two of your idols, two of the founding fathers, like if they had to make a wish to have coffee with any 2 historical figures, they might have chosen Moses and Elijah!  Starstruck, we might say, but Mark tells us they were terrified.

Peter didn’t know what to say, but that didn’t stop him from saying something.  “Lord, it’s good to be here!  Let me put up three tents – one for you, one for Moses, one for Elijah” 

Perhaps he had in mind that the three disciples would just sleep out on the ground.  We can stay and visit for a few days.  Maybe 40 days, Moses likes that number.  I can send John back down to get some refreshments.  Whaddaya say, Jesus? 

But, of course, Peter misses the point.  Jesus was not there to point them to Moses and Elijah.  Moses and Elijah were there to testify to Jesus. The cloud overshadowed them, and the voice boomed from the cloud.  The voice of the Father. And if Moses and Elijah being there was good, now it’s great.

“This is my beloved Son.  Listen to him.” And when the cloud was gone they saw Jesus only.

Listen to Jesus.  See Jesus only.  The message is clear.

The Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ is a feast for the eyes and ears.  We see Jesus a little bit less veiled, a little peek at his true glory, just a tiny glimpse of the divine nature that he’s had hidden all along.  Moses and Elijah appear, to testify by their presence that this Jesus is the one they had been waiting for.  It was toward his coming that they had worked and preached and served.  Everything they did, and even now their appearance on the mount, is a testimony to Christ.

And oh, what the disciples heard!  The conversation with Jesus about his Exodus, his own going- out.  Moses had an exodus, he had THE exodus.  He wrote the book.  Elijah had a pretty fancy exodus of his own.  But the exodus of Jesus was to run through the cross and grave, and then an exodus from death and a glorious ascension to heaven.

Like the disciples, we are easily distracted.  Even with Jesus shining as bright as the sun before them, they are confused and terrified.  As great as Moses and Elijah were, this was all about Jesus.  As great as reveling and basking in the glory of the mountaintop experience might be, Jesus has work to do, down there.  

Jesus had told the disciples already about his upcoming death and resurrection.  He would repeat it several times, ever more plainly as it approached.  The voice of the Father reminds them, and us, “Listen to him.”

Listen to Jesus when he tells you about his mission.  Listen to Jesus when he points you to his cross.  Listen to Jesus when he prays, “Father forgive them” and declares, “it is finished”.  Peter, listen to Jesus when he forgives your denial and charges you to forgive sins on earth that they be forgiven in heaven. And Christians, listen to Jesus when he speaks through your pastor declaring to you your sins are forgiven. 

Listen to Jesus, and see Jesus only.  Moses and Elijah had their place, but only Jesus is our savior.  Only Jesus can save from sin and death and hell by his blood.  Moses and Elijah can’t.  You certainly can’t do it yourself, either.  But Jesus can, and Jesus did.  Listen to him.

The Transfiguration, it is said, was a sign to help prepare the disciples for what was about to happen.  When the come down from the mountain, you might say, it’s all downhill from there.  Jesus sets his sights on Jerusalem, and on his cross.

Lent is upon us, and so we do the same.  We set our sights on the cross – Good Friday, and also the resurrection to follow.

About a year after posting the 95 Theses, Martin Luther took part in a debate called the “Heidelberg Disputation”.  It was there that he began to articulate his famous distinction between the “Theology of the Cross” and the “Theology of Glory”.  And while there’s much more we could say about this contrast, we can see it clearly on display in the Transfiguration. 

Peter is interested in the glory.  Visiting with the great men of old!  Basking in the glory of the mountaintop!  It’s good to be here!  Peter is a theologian of glory – much like we all are at times.

But Jesus is a theologian of the cross.  He knows his true mission, his true work, his true glory – is in bloody sweat and agony on a cross. 

The Transfiguration is not the thing, it’s merely a step on the way to the cross.  The bright shining glory, the majesty and awe – none of it are the thing.  It you listen to Jesus, you’ll know it’s all about the cross.  If you see Jesus only, there you will see your salvation.