The Transfiguration: The Veil Removed

Mark(ed) for Action  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  42:42
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Intro

Galadriel, the elf queen in Tolkien’s Lord Of The Rings, is at the top echelon of creatures in the Tolkien universe. She is one of the three leaders of the three elven kingdoms in the books. But she stands alone in power and potential.
During one scene in the second book (and movie) The Two Towers, Galadriel contemplates who she would be if she takes the Ring of Power - a ring filled with all the malice and power of the Dark Lord Sauron.
In the scene, she is transfigured and transformed. She is transformed revealing the glory and extent of her innate power. She is transformed to reveal how that ring of power would corrupt her.
But instead of taking the ring, she refuses it. She denies herself all the additional power because she would not accept the corruption that came along with it.
This scene is in many ways an parallel to two times in Jesus’ life: The temptation in the wilderness and this moment we will read about today, His transfiguration.
But unlike Galadriel, Jesus is not the recipient of outside power or authority when He is transfigured. That is why it is not expressed as a transformation.
Let’s prayer, then read...
Pray
Mark 9:2–13 NLT
2 Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed, 3 and his clothes became dazzling white, far whiter than any earthly bleach could ever make them. 4 Then Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus. 5 Peter exclaimed, “Rabbi, it’s wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6 He said this because he didn’t really know what else to say, for they were all terrified. 7 Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.” 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus with them. 9 As they went back down the mountain, he told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 So they kept it to themselves, but they often asked each other what he meant by “rising from the dead.” 11 Then they asked him, “Why do the teachers of religious law insist that Elijah must return before the Messiah comes?” 12 Jesus responded, “Elijah is indeed coming first to get everything ready. Yet why do the Scriptures say that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be treated with utter contempt? 13 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they chose to abuse him, just as the Scriptures predicted.”

What will you do with Jesus?

What WILL you do with Jesus? This is the most important question of your life. In Jesus, everything that matters is established or brought down. In Jesus there is hope; without Him there is none. What will you DO with Jesus?
This is the question on Mark. Mark, the author, isn’t in a quandary seeking answers. Mark presents Jesus in all His humanity yet in all His uniqueness and begs the question to us: What will you do with JESUS?
Through the fist 8 chapters Mark revealed the man Jesus, foretold by the prophets before, proclaimed by John the Baptist, and attested to by the voice of God from Heaven. What will you do with this Jesus?
The first section of Mark concludes with one answer to that question: To acknowledge, confess, submit to Jesus as the Christ, the Savior, the Lord.
The Gospel of Mark turn at the point of this confession. There is a transition between parts 1 and 2. After Jesus ministry finally brings His disciples to the point of acknowledging that Jesus is the promised Messiah of God, Mark takes us on a direct journey to the cross. Jesus begins predicting His own death. He death, but not His defeat.
Part 2 of Mark begins with several parallels from part 1. In both, Prophets of old point to Jesus as the Lord. In both, God’s voice from heaven declares Jesus as His son. In both, after this revelation of glory - the first from God at His baptism, the second from Jesus’ own body - Jesus heads directly towards a purpose.
The first purpose was to reveal His identity through His actions fulfilling prophecy. The second goal is the cross.
The gospel of Mark will conclude with uncertainty. Not the uncertainty of Peter, or of Mark. But the kind of uncertainty that it self forms the question - What will you do with Jesus?
Lets take a close look at the transfiguration. As we study this, we will find several purposes of Jesus that He expresses. We will find expressions of His identity. And we will be confronted with Jesus that we must do something with.
The events of this day are recorded on all three of the synoptic gospels - Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It’s an important and central aspect of Jesus purpose and ministry.

The Purpose of Jesus

Maybe one of the best summations of Jesus’ purpose in found in
Luke 19:1–10 ESV
1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Jesus purpose was to seek and save the lost. There are two aspects of this purpose expressed in the transfiguration.
Jesus is not “the lost”. What happens when the lost come to save the lost?
Matthew 15:14 ESV
14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
The transfiguration cemented the fact that Jesus was, at His nature, not a blind guide! He carried within Himself the nature and characteristics of God Himself. Here He establishes His credentials of redemption.
If two are caught in an avalanche, what good does it do for one to offer to save the other? The short answer is none. The long answer is still none!
“Who can save us from this body of sin and death?” as Paul asks in Romans? Well, not another dead sinner! Jesus, here on this high mountain, declares He is not another dead sinner! He is not stuck in the same avalanche. His is not a blind guide.
2. The second point here is found in one phrase that is identical in all three accounts. It’s found as the voice of the Lord interrupts Peter’s. The first part is represented with some variations, but the end is always, “Listen to Him.”
If Jesus purpose is to Save the lost, and He does that by not being in the same condition, the means we are saved by him is to listen to him! Jesus purpose in my life or yours cannot be fulfilled if we ignore Him.
We’ll spend more time on this next week. We’ll return to this passage for more insight then.
We see the transfiguration supports the purpose of Jesus. It also reviews the person of Jesus.

The Person of Jesus

Transfigure = reveals the essence or some hidden aspect of someone or something.
Transformers transfigure. They are in essence bi-pedal, mechanical aliens (who comes up with this stuff??) AND vehicles.
Butterflies don’t transfigure. They transform.
Transformation = Moving from of fundamental essence to another.
Butterflies don’t start out as winged creatures hiding in a round little grub. They start out as round little grubs. What comes out a a chrysalis bears only the slightest resemblance of what went in. That’s transformation!
This event we read about today is one of the most foundational scriptures supporting the divinity of Jesus - fully God and fully man.
Jesus pulled back the veil that covered His glory. That didn’t cause Him to stop being the flesh and blood person of Jesus of Nazareth, but it revealed the other side of His essence. This is who we follow. When the scriptures say Jesus was meek, It means this same Glorious One allowed Himself to be brought from this high mountain to be crucified on the cross.
This person of Jesus who is somehow simultaneously impossibly more than any other person has ever been and who was brought impossibly lower. Only through this person can we be saved from the judgement for our sins.
But before we move on, I want to address the other two people who appear next to Jesus. Moses and Elijah. There are several perspectives on why these two Old Testament saints appeared here. But it is clear that they are not on par with Jesus. Only Jesus shines with holy radiance. God speaks to and about Jesus, not them.
Moses represents the giving of the Law. Moses Led the people of God out of slavery in Egypt into the promised land, only to die right before they entered.
Elijah represents the prophets, that class of people who’s job it was was to speak the words of God, that the people might listen to them. Elijah was called to share God’s love to the Jews and the gentiles. He stood on a hill in defiant opposition to the priests of false gods and declared the supremacy and victory of Yahweh. Elijah was not defeated by death.
There are other things that could be said about these two people and how they prefigured the ministry, purpose, and person of Jesus. This is one reason I love studying the Old Testament! We never know Jesus better than when we find Him in the Old Testament.
But, Jesus stands alone. Jesus stands out. And Jesus here makes a declaration to both the physical and spiritual realms that His Kingdom is established.
But this transfigured person of Jesus is but a preview of who it is that will be coming at His second coming. When we follow the crucified Jesus of Nazareth, we follow this glorified person.

The Imperative of Jesus

Jesus left no room for ambivalence. His claim to be God and man left us no real option of indifference. We must either accept His as the Lord that He is, or reject him.
rejecting Jesus does not diminish who HE is, it only establishes us as rebels to the King of heaven and earth!
The imperative of Jesus that we follow. The imperative if Jesus is that we listen to Him.
When we do that, when we set our hearts and minds to follow the authority of Jesus, we do not transfigure like He did. We transform! He makes us into something all together different; a new creation!
Romans 12:2 ESV
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
But how do we hear what He has for us? We hear what He has said, and allow that to transform you. When that begins to happen, we will be better able to discern further what God’s will is. Obedience in the small things is key to being entrusted with larger things of the knowledge of God.
2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
As you behold the glory of God, as His visage is unveiled little by little, what will you do?
Will you seek to follow and obey further?
Will you value the distractions of this world more?
I, for one, will pursue the Spirit of the Lord. Will seek His glory. Will follow my king!
What will YOU do with Jesus?
Pray
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