February 26, 2017 Text: Matthew 17:1-9
Dear Friends in Christ,
One of the things I’ve learned in over 25 years of being a Pastor is that the church year has a certain flow to it. There are the high feasts of Christmas and Easter. Pentecost/Confirmation time in our church has an expectation feel. Even the beginning of fall and a new year all have something the worshipping community can grasp on to.
Not Transfiguration Sunday. Most years it falls somewhere in the gloomy days of February, the New Year has past and it is not quite spring. The last two weeks being an extraordinary exception. We also tend to have people gone, vacationing down south, family obligations, winter hangover. Attendance figures I looked back on for Transfiguration Sunday bear this out.
Plus how important can it be when we have immigration, The President vs. the media, the state failing again to pass a budget, spring training baseball and is this the year the ISU basketball team makes the NCAA tournament? Add on to that winter health concerns, kids activities and what outlandish thing will be said on the Oscars tonight?
Well, my friends, the Transfiguration of Jesus is big. Dr. Louis Brighton stated it well: “It is not by accident the church has chosen the…Transfiguration as a concluding text to the Epiphany season as a transition from the glorious light of the Epiphany to the darkness of the Passion of its Lord. The church’s mission is the proclamation of the saving presence of the Lord Christ in the Gospel. But this mission is carried out in the midst of suffering (the very thought we don’t want to hear). The church proclaims the Gospel while bearing the cross; it proclaims life while facing and experiencing death . . .”
Cone along up the mountain to see . . .
“WHERE WE ARE GOING”
There was a lady who was meeting with her new Pastor. She asked if she could have a church service when she died. “Of course,” he said, grabbing his date book, “What day do you want?” What you have here is a failure to understand what someone else is trying to communicate.
After six days Jesus takes these three disciples up the mountain. The question is: “six days after what?” It was six days after He told them of His suffering, death, and resurrection and Peter rebuked Him. Jesus has carefully outlined for these men what was going to happen from His crucifixion, resurrection to His Second Coming. This trip to the Mount of Transfiguration was made so they would ultimately understand who Jesus was and that God in the flesh does exactly what He says He’s going to do and He is in control of everything.
One of the things for us to see before we get to where we are going is the importance of listening to Jesus as He reveals himself in the Word. I am talking about maturing in our knowledge and application of Scripture if we are going to deal with the problems and concerns of life and a nation that is in the painful process of decay and collapse. Knowledge of Christ ends a lot of confusion, and a lot of unnecessary worry. Let me elaborate . . .
We all know where we are going, don’t’ we? Eternal life. We are on the road to glory…just like the glory Peter, James, and John saw on the mountain. And it is more important than your college education, your next vacation, your early retirement! The Road to Glory!
But we need to keep this straight. The Road to Glory requires that we first bear a cross. Jesus teaches this to the disciples. Jesus’ return to Glory with the father will require Him to bear a Cross…a Cross for the sin of the world. We also bear a cross on the path to Glory. That is why Peter wanted to build the shelters he didn’t want to leave the glory for the cross-bearing.
American Christians don’t do well with this Biblical truth, do they? We are success oriented. We determine God’s blessings by our abundance and prettiness and numbers. John Tunis said, “Losing is the great American sin.” That mindset filters into the church. Let’s build some shelters, gets lots of people with lots of money, grow big and successful and call ourselves “The Church Inc.!”
And Jesus reminds us, “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (Lk. 14:27) We are going to heaven someday – glory. The truth is that here we bear the Cross for Christ. If we are faithful to Him and His Word…we will bear a Cross. From the world’s perspective that may make us losers. It’s not the American way! It is the way of Christian disciples. And strangely enough it is the way to ultimate victory and true success – if I might be so bold as to use that secular term. Paul said, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Rom. 8:18)
And God the Father was pleased with the Son because the mission of Christ to salvage us was well under way – as God pleased! A mission of terrible suffering and pain and loneliness and rejection – punishment and death – for our sin – so that we would never have to face punishment and eternal damnation.
“When they lifted their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.” (v. 8) Nothing but Jesus. In the good times and bad times…through the smiles and tears of life…in the midst of loneliness and pain…He’s always there. He’s in the Holy Bible. He’s in the bread and wine. He ‘s in the water that brings newness of life.
Are things a little clearer? Do you see the importance of the cross and on the other side, it’s glory? And no matter which side…there’s Jesus. The reason we will get to where we are going.
Amen.