March 2 – Sermon
Dear Heavenly Father, we confess that we often try to adjust Jesus’ teachings to our life and expectations, when it is our lives that require change and transformation. Through the power of Your Holy Spirit, help us to hear His Word with open hearts and minds, and grant us courage to follow Him with greater faith and commitment. This we ask in Jesus’ holy name. Amen.
The Transfiguration of Our Lord is an important event in the New Testament, but what is the point of Jesus being changed in this way? The Transfiguration of Our Lord gives us a glimpse of what is to come. and sometimes it is important to know the ending. It gives us encouragement to keep going.
Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim across the English Channel. Back in 1952, she set out to become the first woman to swim from Catalina Island to the mainland of CA, about 20 miles. The morning she stepped into the Pacific Ocean it was foggy. She swam for 15 hours, in a fog so dense she could hardly see the boats attending her. But after 15 hours, she asked to be taken out of the water.
Her mother, in a boat alongside her, told her she was close, and encouraged her to go on. But Florence was exhausted. It wasn’t until she was in the boat that she realized that the shore was less than half a mile away. At a news conference the next day, Florence said, “All I could see was the fog.…I think if I could’ve seen the shore, I would have made it.”
It’s amazing what we can endure when we know it will end, when we know for sure how much longer it will be. Seeing the shore can be the difference between swimming on and giving up.
The transfiguration is God’s way of showing Jesus and Peter, James, and John the end result. It is God’s way of encouraging them before they go on to Jerusalem. God reminded them of how it would end.
God’s holy word reminds us of the day when we will all be transfigured into heavenly glory. With the Season of Lent about to begin, we are offered a glimpse of Easter and it can give us the courage to face our sins and to face the cross, just as it did for Jesus and His closest disciples.
This miracle comes at a very important moment in Jesus’ journey with his disciples. He told them that it was time for Him to go to Jerusalem – to suffer, be rejected by His own people, and to die, before being raised on the third day.
This isn’t a surprise to us—we know the ending, but it was to the disciples. This was not what they expected to happen at all.
And so, 8 days after this puzzling conversation, Jesus took Peter, James and John with Him and went up on the mountain to pray and the incredible transfiguration experience took place. While Jesus was praying, His appearance changed into His post-Easter appearance—for a brief moment, He was no longer seen as the Son of Man but as the very Son of God.
For that moment, they all saw through the fog, through the uncertainty that surrounded them. They saw beyond the cross and the crucifixion, to catch a glimpse of the heavenly glory that was coming.
But why were Moses and Elijah present? Why did these great heroes of the faith appear to Jesus and what did they talk about?
Moses and Elijah had both been gone for centuries, but the way they left this earth was rather mysterious. Moses died after speaking with God on the top of a mountain, but according to Deuteronomy, no one knows where he was buried, and still remains a mystery today. And Elijah, of course, was carried on a chariot of fire, straight into heaven. So now in this miracle, Moses and Elijah appear and were talking with Jesus and their appearance itself was a glimpse of what was yet to come.
Life-after-death is real. Moses and Elijah were from that distant shore, to show Jesus and His closest disciples that heaven is real, that life-after-death is real. They had come to offer them, and us, a glimpse of the future for all who believe.
Florence Chadwick the great swimmer said, I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it. The Transfiguration offered Jesus and His disciples (including us) the encouragement to go down the mountain and back to the struggle that awaited them.
And a struggle it was – for Jesus, and for the disciples. Jesus suffered and died in Jerusalem. They couldn’t have stayed on the mountain, as much as they’d have liked to. Peter said, “It is good for us to be here, let us make three dwellings, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
Peter, like all of us, wanted to stay on that mountain top. But that was not the plan. There was another mountain that awaited Jesus: Mt Calvary. If heaven was to be real for us, if the shore was to be reached by us, then Jesus had to go to that mountain.
Think of the differences between Mt Tabor, where Jesus was transfigured into glory, and Mt Calvary, where Jesus was shamed and crucified.
On Mt Tabor, Jesus’ clothes were shining white. On Mt Calvary, his clothes had been stripped off and gambled away.
On Mt Tabor He was flanked by Moses and Elijah, two of Israel’s greatest heroes. On Mt Calvary, He was flanked by 2 criminals.
On Mt Tabor a bright cloud overshadowed the scene. On Mt Calvary, darkness covered the land.
On Mt Tabor Peter offered to build dwellings for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. On Mt Calvary, Peter hid in shame and denied even knowing Jesus.
On Mt Tabor a voice from God Himself declared that Jesus was His son, His chosen. On Mt Calvary, the voice of the crowds ridiculed and mocked him.
Mt Tabor and Mt Calvary could not be more different.
But both places were needed for God’s plan of salvation. These two places teach us of who Jesus was/is, and what He means for us. We can’t understand the glory of the transfiguration without the shame of the crucifixion. Nor can we understand the shame of the crucifixion, apart from the momentary glory of the transfiguration, and the eternal glory of the resurrection.
When we look at Jesus in glory, we must also see the cross and the glory that awaits.
Lent and Easter go hand in hand. Lent represents the struggle of life. But its endpoint is a glorious destination.
The shore may seem distant at times, but today’s Gospel offers us a glimpse of that place that has been provided for us.
We know that Jesus went down the mountain and journeyed to Jerusalem. We know He stretched out His arms, and did not give up the struggle, even when it cost Him His life. We know that Jesus accomplished what He set out to do for us. We know that the Father raised His Son from the dead after three days, and transfigured Jesus once and for all into eternal, heavenly glory. It is He who calls out to us to follow– to the cross, to the tomb, and finally to the heavenly glory that awaits all who believe. Thanks be to God! Amen.
