Transfiguration Sunday

February 19, 2023

Text – St. Matthew 17:1-9

“Tis Good for Us”

OK.  It’s time for a pop quiz.  There are only a couple of questions and if you paid any attention to the Gospel readings for the past six weeks this should be no problem for you at all.  There are no consequences for wrong answers except that I hope that you would be prodded by this review to once again take seriously the seasonal emphasis.

So, what did all the Gospel readings prove about Jesus?  How was this point proven?  How is this proof to be received and understood by any child of God?

We might start with the last question first which sort of establishes the ground rule for what trickles off the tongues and flows from the lips of your preachers here.  The proof you were given is authoritative and historical because, after all, our liturgical life, our prayer life, our teaching and preaching come from no mean or insignificant source but rather from the holy, inerrant, infallible, powerful, clear, and sufficient Word of God, the Scriptures, which “stand forever” (as Isaiah tells us).  They are authoritative because “all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for instruction…” and “holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”  They are historical because those “holy men” did not convey down to us “cunningly devised fables,” but [they] “heard this voice,” and “were eyewitnesses of His majesty.”

Now, what about questions one and two?  What have our Gospel readings since January 8th taught us about Jesus? How were these essential points about Jesus driven home into our minds and hearts?  What did we take away from this Epiphany season about the head of the Church, our Savior Jesus?

The First Sunday after the Epiphany was the commemoration of Jesus’ Baptism.  Nothing less than the voice of our heavenly Father confirmed for time, and for the whole world, that in the Jordan on that day, being baptized by John, was His own “beloved Son, in whom [He] is well pleased.”  What Jesus did back then began to “fulfill all righteousness.” 

Our baptisms mean so much more when Jesus considered Himself worthy of that washing.  Furthermore, those waters are so much more for us, in our lives, and in our hearts, because by the Word, redemptive power flows through this water into our lives, and we are really and truly cleansed.  Baptism is in no way some empty symbolic ritual, but rather it is exactly as the Scriptures say and express, “a rebirth,” it is being born again and from above, and by it and through it, “you receive forgiveness of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Epiphany Two Jesus is declared the sacrificial Lamb on whom all the world’s sin would be laid.  Jesus also chose His first disciples who would bear the message of His mission after He had ascended into heaven.  On Epiphany 3 His Word was one of repentance.  He called the Apostles to the ministry as fishers of men.  He healed the diseased and exorcized demons. In the Gospel for Epiphany Four Jesus spoke of the blessing to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and to the meek and the peacemakers.  Throughout February we heard more of Jesus’ gracious and powerful words excerpted from His Sermon on the Mount.  The unique thing is that through His divine Word He gave us insight into what is otherwise invisible to us, namely, the Kingdom of God ushered in by God’s own Son.

What did those works and words teach us about who Jesus is?  They pointed out to the doubting, to the ignorant, to the skeptical, to just plain old sinners, that we are dealing with Someone extraordinary and distinct from all others who ever lived or ever will live. In each case, Jesus “epiphanied” (or made manifest) that He was in possession of divine nature and name, divine presence and power!  He was in every way, obviously, really human, but through His mighty signs and magnificent sermons His real divinity shines through. 

What did all those Gospel readings prove about Jesus?  He was really a man, speaking, touching, eating, sleeping and having to do the same things we do just to live, but in addition, He is fulfilling righteousness, teaching, healing, and giving us eyes of faith to see God above us, among us and beyond us.

Now, all that should be sufficient proof that our faith is not some empty religiosity or pious, but meaningless, theology.  Our creed (especially in our confession of our Savior) is grounded on the testimony, of not just two or three, but at least twelve eyewitnesses and our creed speaks truly, historically, and authoritatively — when on the basis of the Holy Scriptures — we confess that we believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, “Light of Light, very God of very God, of one substance with the Father,” and “incarnate, conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, who suffered, died, and was buried…” really!  That should be enough!  All further questions about who Jesus is are unnecessary.

But as, in all things, the least is never enough.  With our God — doing the slightest, just fulfilling the basic requirements, to do and be done — is never enough.  In our worship of Him, one quick statement of His love and forgiveness is not enough.  His interaction with mankind did not cease with the closing down of the Garden of Eden; and a few accounts of the extraordinary life of Jesus, our Messiah, is never enough!  God would hammer the point home so that the devil and the world can never deceive us or seduce us into misbelief of any sort.  That Jesus is the God-Man is an essential part of the arsenal needed to defend us against the onslaughts of flesh and demon.

So, it’s just not enough.  We desire to see even more that Jesus is who He claimed to be.  Therefore, we head up to the mountaintop together with Peter, James, and John; and before us, Jesus would shine bright as the sun, His clothes whiter than any laundry soap could make them.  Thus, shining through the human Jesus, who hiked with them up the side of that hill, they see His divinity clearly and unmistakably, and this is the same Jesus who becomes the focus of what we teach, preach, and confess today.

Yes, it’s good for us to be here.  The God-Man Jesus, the One and only more than adequate but perfect Mediator and Advocate, is both God and Man so that God and Man are reconciled. Jesus as God and Man is sufficient to the ancient task assigned to Him by His (and our) heavenly Father. Jesus is the bridge between the ancient saints and prophets and us who presently dwell on the surface of this groaning creation.  He is the head of that Church which is both militantly striving forward at this present time (something of which we are so much aware) and which is triumphantly at rest in His presence in the heavenly places.  Jesus, the God-Man, is the sole reason why it’s good for us to be here, or any place where He is (and He has already promised that He will be with us always, everywhere, even to the end of this age!)

What is good for us — is what we have become eyewitnesses of – namely, the effect that God’s love and forgiveness in Christ Jesus has had in our hearts and how our lives are being transformed by it.  As we have come to realize that God’s love and forgiveness are as real as Jesus, and spoken of with as much conviction from God’s heart, as Jesus really revealed it from the cross, so we are bound, life and limb, to the glorious and comforting words of His absolution.  We are moved, and thrive, whenever we hear those precious words flow over us as abundantly as, on the altar, the redeeming, atoning blood from the wound of the sacrificial Victim is poured out.  Yes, on account of Jesus, the Lamb of God, God’s own “beloved Son,” your sins are forgiven, you now live… and heaven is your home.

It‘s good for us to want to stay here.  It is safe wherever Jesus is.  He has defeated the enemy.  He has healed our diseases and has made us complete who were once broken and despairing. He has brought light into our darkness. He has exchanged our sin for His righteousness and newly and freshly clothed us in it for His banquet and feast. He has given life where death once held sway.  He has closed to us the gate to hell and opened to us His heavenly mansion.  If there is any place you should want to stay, it is where Jesus is together with all the treasures of heaven that He has promised and delivers to those who call upon His name.

The apostles couldn’t come up with a good reason to leave behind a shiny, fully glorified Jesus revealed in all His divine splendor only to go down into the “valley of the shadow of death” once again.  Given our preference, Jesus in His glory and Jesus in His victory will always seem better than Jesus on a cross or Jesus in a tomb, but without the cross, without His death as our substitute, there could never be life with Jesus and God for any for whom death is the appropriate reward for sin. Sinners need a Jesus who tackles our problems head on and who is up for the conflict and able to overcome the worst in our behalf… we who can’t even make a decent beginning toward that same end… that same goal.

It’s good for us, that Jesus did all that He did!  It’s good for us to know that Jesus, without whom we couldn’t anticipate anything other than a bleak end, He has given us peace above all understanding, hope that gives us solid footing in what too often appears to be hopeless times, and He has given us new life even as we wind down and weaken in the face of our mortality.

It is good for us to hear the Gospel stories that confirm the historical foundations of our faith, that we are not following “fables,”“myths, and human philosophies” but, as pertains to our Lord, the God-Man, Jesus, we have the testimony of eye, ear, and heart witnesses who know Who it was that made their (and our) lives complete and made them something other than they were destined to be in this fallen world.  The same is true for all of us who have heard and have believed.  We have taken God’s Word… the Prophetic and Apostolic testimony… and it sustains us, builds us up, and comforts us.

It’s good for us to see and hear!  It’s good for us to go out from here, back into the harsh world, that as our family, friends, colleagues, and neighbors see what God’s pardon in Christ has done for us, they, too, would desire to know and possess that same pardon and that same peace that we have.

It is good for us to be touched by the Word of Jesus and raised up out of fear to a new vision, that whether we see Jesus in all His glory, or view Him bleeding, dying on the cross… whether we see Him shining as the sun, or as plain as any of us, we will know that the Jesus who has claimed us as His own possession and has paid the price for us and our freedom, that is the Jesus the Father declared as His own beloved Son, and the One to whom we must listen, without question or doubt, because our life here and then depends on it. 

His touch removes our fear.  His life takes away our death.  His blood cleanses us of all unrighteousness.  His message makes it possible for us to boldly return to what’s waiting for us out there. None of it can overwhelm us!  His forgiveness silences our accusing conscience.  His love confirms our status as justified children of our heavenly Father. 

Go, and do not be afraid!  Jesus, the God-Man, is your Lord, and even more than that, He is your Advocate and Savior. Jesus, in a state of transfiguration or not, seen or unseen, glorified or crucified, with Him our Father is well pleased and through Him, as we trust in Him, our Father is well pleased with us too.   

Amen.