Time with the children
I have a shape of Jesus with me today…does it look shiny to you? No? Well, that’s not surprising is it. It just looks like plain white paper. But what if I told you that the Jesus shape really was shiny, even though you couldn’t see it? You would have to trust in what I said. And you might do that for a little while, but it wouldn’t take long for you not believe me, and think that I might be making it up, because all you can see is a plain piece of paper.
Well have a look at this [flip for a second]. Did you see that shiny Jesus? You did. You saw the shiny Jesus only because I showed you. I only showed you for a second—but that’s all you needed to see it, to know that what I told you was true.
That’s a bit like what happened when Jesus went up a mountain with his disciples. Jesus was born as a real human being for us. The disciples lived and worked with Jesus and saw him as a person, just like themselves, and all other people they lived and worked with.
But although he is human, just like you and me, Jesus isn’t just like you and me. He is also truly the Son of God. He is God and man, true God before time even began.
When Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain, they were given a glimpse of who he really was. He showed them he was truly God, by revealing his heavenly glory. Suddenly he became bright, shining like the sun. It was important for them to see this, because he had just told them that he would suffer and die. That sounded like Jesus would lose the fight against the devil, and sin and death. It didn’t sound like he would win by dying on the Cross to save the world.
But Jesus wouldn’t stay dead, he would rise again and win over sin, death and the devil. When he was on the mountain, God the Father’s voice came from the cloud and said: read: “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5b)
No matter what happens in life, if we stay faithful to Jesus by listening to him, we will see him in glory, forever.
Prayer on Taking faith home sheet
SERMON
After Jesus asked his disciples: “…who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter said: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus answered: “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:13-19).
Now, this sounds like power, triumph, and glory! The gates of hell will not prevail over the church Jesus’ builds, and whatever the disciples bind and loosen on earth will be done in heaven. Just imagine! Stopping all the wrongdoers in the world, rescuing people from wicked nations and tyrannical leaders. Bringing to account those who are guilty, creating a victorious, just and mighty community to live in success and self-rule forever! This is just what the people who lived under oppressive Roman government longed for. They saw in the promised Christ someone to make Israel great again.
But from that time Jesus began to reveal to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Jesus turned to Peter and said: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Matthew 16:21-23).
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it…Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matthew 16:24-28).
Well, this isn’t Peter’s picture of how God would work, or how the reign of the Christ is supposed to be. Where is victory in a ruler who is going to be murdered? That’s preposterous! How then could Jesus bring about the long hoped for restoration of Israel? Suddenly, things don’t sound so triumphant anymore. It doesn’t sound like the church Jesus will build will end in victory, power, and success. It doesn’t sound like the gates of hell will be defeated, let alone wicked earthly regimes.
And so we come to today’s text. Jesus takes Peter James and John with him up a high mountain. There Jesus was transfigured before them and for a moment they see Jesus’ divine nature unveiled, his glory he had from eternity with his Father bursting forth in dazzling brightness. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then, Moses and Elijah appeared, talking with Jesus, those key Old Testament figures of the Law and the prophets.
Peter knows there is something deeply significant about this revelation. “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters―one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Perhaps he has in mind the week-long Festival of booths God instituted in Leviticus 23, commemorating how the Israelites lived in shelters after God had rescued them from Egypt; a festival which, at the end of Zechariah, is connected with the final, joyful restoration of Israel. Could this be that final moment, promised for so long?! But before Peter can even put on his hard hat and tool belt, a bright cloud enveloped them, from which came the Father’s voice: “This is my Beloved Son, with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.”
Peter is right about one thing—this is incredibly significant. It is so significant that Matthew, Mark and Luke all record it, preserving this event for the church of all times and places. They take us to the mountain as onlookers, so that we can see this revelation of Jesus’ glory too. This scene is like a movie preview, where the audience watches snippets to a whole film yet unseen. But what movie preview shows you the end; the final outcome? That’s what today’s text does.
It is important for us to see this preview, for three reasons. First, like the disciples, we too can easily be discouraged. Until Jesus comes again to judge the living and the dead, our spiritual experience is often more on the plains, in the valleys, and among the shadows, rather than on the mountain top, seeing Jesus’ radiant light. But as we walk on the plain Jesus walks with us. It is not atop the mountain, but on the plain that Jesus builds his church, as he leads us through the valley of the shadow of death, where evil and wickedness thrive and the devil is fiercely at work, to those who are the poor in spirit, those hungering and thirsting for righteousness, those oppressed, broken and bound by sin and evil.
Matthew tells us that immediately after Jesus comes down with the disciples from the mountain, a man came up to Jesus and, kneeling before him, said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:14-20).
Why did they fail? They had forgotten already what Jesus had said earlier: “What you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” They had looked to themselves; their competencies, their resources, their plans. But Jesus’ church does not function by human strength and effort. It wields no material power, and indeed by worldly standards is small and weak. Yet it has a power far greater than the world. Jesus builds his church, not with a construction crew, or an army, or politicians, but by his powerful word. If the disciples had faith as small as a mustard seed, they could move a mountain from one place to another, simply by telling it to—so how much more then could they loose this boy from his affliction, and bind the demon, simply by speaking in Jesus’ name. This is the power and authority of the office of the keys; the heavenly power and authority of unlocking the gates of heaven to people by forgiving them, and freeing them from sin, death and the power of the devil.
The second reason God gives us this preview is to cause us to reflect on how we are like the disciples in the text. When do we look to ourselves rather than Jesus? How are we like Peter who interrupts Jesus, talking over the top of him, with our plans of what we will build according to our blueprint? How are we like Peter, who in his haste to drive the ute down to Bunnings, has forgotten that Jesus had earlier said he will be the one doing the building of his church?
This week I saw an article about one denomination’s plans to refer to God as gender neutral[1]. I’m sure the motive in this is to be kind and caring, mindful especially of women—but didn’t Jesus teach us to pray: “Our Father in heaven?” Is the church talking over the top of Jesus? What tiny shelters of our making do we try to confine God to?
The third reason God gives us this preview is to bring us peace. When the disciples heard the Father speak from the cloud, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. Maybe they were terrified because they saw the magnitude of God’s glory and their unworthiness to be in his presence. Maybe they were terrified because they recognised how big God is and how little they were, seeing their sins, their failures, their guilt in the blinding light of God’s holy presence. Maybe they were terrified because they dared to tell God how it would all work out, and what he needed to do to fit into their will, their plans.
But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.”
Jesus reaches out to touch all of those who fall before him, terrified. He reaches down to you, and says, “Don’t be afraid.” Don’t be afraid of your past, present or future. Don’t be afraid of not being loved, or having a place of belonging. Don’t be afraid of what might become of the world, or of your life, or even of death. Don’t be afraid of what you see or hear of escalating violence and lawlessness. Don’t be afraid of if you’ll have enough of what you need. Don’t be afraid in your journey of grief or illness. Don’t be afraid that God won’t listen, or understand, or forgive. Don’t be afraid when you can’t see the light, but only darkness. Don’t be afraid that you or your situation is too broken to be mended. For Jesus comes to you, reaching out to touch you in gentle comfort, to raise you up, making his face to shine on you, transfiguring fear, hurt, pain and darkness to wholeness, raising you up to hear his Father say to you: “You are my beloved with whom I am well pleased.”
“Tell no one about this,” Jesus says, “until I have been raised from the dead.” Lent begins in just three days’ time now, and the Cross is looming large. The tragic earthquake in Syria has shown just how frail and fleeting life is, and how one second can dramatically change circumstances, plunging people and even nations into devastation. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has shown how brutally cruel and deeply corrupt some people can be. Our anxiety escalates with the appearance of suspicious flying balloons. Our own circumstances are filled with fear and struggle. But it all comes under the shadow of the Cross. The Cross is the only place, the only way that can give sure hope. Jesus died for every hair, every molecule. He died and descended into hell to win the victory for the world, to raise you out of fear and darkness, death and hell, to hear Jesus and follow him in dying to ourselves and carrying our own Cross into a dark world to love others before ourselves.
God gives you this preview of the transfiguration to hold on to. Just a few seconds, but it’s all you need. In the last days, when the world disintegrates and the shelters of human making are no more, God’s word will remain. If you keep listening to Jesus and stand firm in the faith, then you will one day see what Peter, James and John saw—your Saviour in the fullness of his glory. And as his light reflects upon you in heaven, your face will shine like the sun and your clothes will be as white as the light, not for a few seconds, but for all eternity. Amen.
Pastor Tim Ebbs
St Paul’s Lutheran Church, Glenelg
Transfiguration Sunday, 2023
[1]Novak, Lauren Church of England proposes gender neutral terms for God—and it’s already happening in Adelaide. https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/church-of-england-proposes-using-genderneutral-terms-for-god-and-its-already-happening-in-adelaide/news-story/b754c5d0d771a98c9ee76434c1610747 last accessed 18 Feb 2023
