Sermon Tone Analysis

The Transfiguration of Our Lord, February 26, 2006

A Flash of Light

*Sermon Theme:* In the transfiguration, God gives us a glimpse of Jesus’ glory so that we listen to him.

*Text: *Mark 9:2–9

*Other Lessons:* Psalm 50:1–6; 2 Kings 2:1–12c; 2 Corinthians 3:12–4:2

*Goal:* That hearers understand the transfiguration as God the Father’s work, to give a glimpse of Jesus’ glory so that they listen to him.

Rev. Thomas G. Norris, pastor, Faith Lutheran Church, Pleasant Hill, California

Liturgical Setting

Transfiguration Sunday is the day toward which the Epiphany season has been moving.

Jesus has been demonstrating that he acts with the works of God and teaches with an authority that is his own.

He has been doing the very things the prophets foretold would be the marks of God’s new covenant and his eternal kingdom and has been proclaiming that the kingdom of God is near.

At his transfiguration, the Father discloses his glory and gives his own approval to what Jesus has been preaching and teaching.

The day’s /Introit/ from Psalm 99 speaks of the awesome power and glory of the Lord, the greatness of his name, and his holiness.

Its Antiphon of exalting the Lord and worshiping at his holy mountain closely aligns with the transfiguration, where Jesus is exalted in glory, and makes the mountain holy by his very presence.

The /Collect/ recalls that the transfiguration served to validate, both by the presence of the ancient prophets and by the voice of God himself, the divinity of Jesus Christ.

The /Old Testament Reading/ remembers how Elijah, one of the two great prophets who appeared at the transfiguration, was taken to heaven in a whirlwind, anticipating, as it were, his appearance now with Jesus, while in the /Epistle, /St.

Paul writes of the other prophet, Moses, but says that the glory he revealed was only preparatory to Christ’s.

Indeed, when the Jews read the Old Testament without seeing Christ in it, a veil covers their hearts.

Relevant Context

It may actually be that what precedes the account of the transfiguration is the greatest key to understanding the event.

The word from the cloud proclaimed, “Listen to him.”

As we read Mark’s Gospel, what is recounted before the transfiguration is the complete failure of the disciples, Peter serving as their representative, to understand what it means that Jesus is the Christ.

After Peter’s confession, Jesus begins to tell them what will happen to him because he is the Christ, namely, that he “must suffer many things and be rejected . . .

be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mk 8:31).

Therefore, it is the theology of the cross, not a theology of glory, that provides the interpretational key to the transfiguration.

Textual Notes

/V 2: /“after six days.”

That is, six days after Peter’s confession and subsequent confusion.

This not only provides a chronological mark, but also provides a narrative link between the confession~/denial of Peter and the transfiguration.

“A high mountain.”

Variant traditions differ on locating the transfiguration on Mount Tabor or on Mount Hermon.

“He was transfigured.”

Note the passive voice.

It is the work of the Father that discloses the identity of Jesus and points forward to the glory that would be his after the death and resurrection he had predicted was accomplished.

/V 7:/ “a cloud . . .

enveloped them.”

The parallels to Moses on Mount Sinai are unmistakable.

“This is my Son, whom I love.

Listen to him!”

In Mark’s account of Jesus’ Baptism, the heavenly message is primarily for Jesus (“/He/ [Jesus] saw heaven being torn open. . . .

‘/You/ are my Son . .

.’ ” [Mk 1:10–11, emphasis added]).

Here, however, the Father speaks for the benefit of the disciples, and adds the command, “Listen to him.”

Sermon

Have you ever noticed how difficult it is /not/ to turn your head at a flash of light?

Somewhere along the line the advertising people figured this out too.

Bright lights now illuminate signs.

Light chases light from bulb to bulb on other signs.

And then there are the searchlights in front of theaters, shopping malls, and automobile dealerships.

Advertisers use light to say, “Look here right now!

You may not normally expect to see anything of importance here, or you may have missed it before, but look here, right now, and you won’t be disappointed!”

On the Mount of Transfiguration, the Father used light in a similar way.

The light of Jesus’ transfiguration drew the disciples’ attention to him in a new way.

There on the mountain, the Father showed Jesus in a different light than the disciples had ever seen him before.

Their friend was not just a carpenter, not just a teacher, not just a rabbi.

He was much, much more.

“Look here!” the light emanating from Jesus demanded.

The Father’s voice proclaimed, “This is my Son, whom I love.

Listen to him!”

This morning, God uses the light that shone from Jesus once again.

In this light that shines from the Word, the Father once again draws our attention to Jesus to enlighten us.

“He’s more than you’ve imagined!” the light exclaims.

“Listen to him!” the Father decrees.

In the Transfiguration, God Gives Us a Glimpse of Jesus’ Glory So That We Listen to Him.

I.

As Mark tells it, there had been little rest for the disciples.

They’d been chasing Jesus from town to town all around Galilee and beyond, finding the reality of faith in unlikely people and fury from his enemies.

They knew that Jesus was something special—and yet, it was for them like the strange story of the two-stage healing of the blind man at Bethsaida.

When Jesus first touched the man, he could see, but only people who looked more like trees walking around.

The disciples saw, but what they saw didn’t always make sense.

Take what happened just six days before the transfiguration.

As they were scrambling around Caesarea Philippi, Jesus and his disciples talked about who the people thought Jesus was.

And then Jesus asked them point-blank, “But what about you?

Who do you say I am?” To which Peter famously replied, “You are the Christ.”

Peter saw, but none too clearly, because in the very next paragraph Mark recounts how insufficient Peter’s definition of “the Christ” actually was.

And when Jesus goes on to give the title “Christ” the content of his cross . . .

what Peter thought he saw just didn’t make sense.

So now, six days later, Jesus took Peter, James, and John up a mountain.

I’m sure they thought they were ascending for prayer.

They’d done that many times before.

It wasn’t at all unusual.

They’d probably even become used to it, thought it was ordinary.

And for a while that day, it was—until.

Until the extraordinary happened.

Until Jesus’ clothes became impossibly white and Elijah and Moses arrived to speak with him.

Until that cloud enshrouded them and added even more to their fear.

Until a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love.

Listen to him!”

Then, just as suddenly as it all happened, it was over.

No dazzlingly white clothes, no visitors, no voice, only Jesus.

With the blue spots from the light still burning in their eyes and with that voice still ringing in their ears, it was over.

This incredible vision and voice let them know that Jesus was far more than they imagined.

“Listen to him,” the voice said.

They had been startled from the stupor of the ordinary, but what now?

What did it all mean?

It would be some time before they could know.

His light had shined in their darkened understanding, but what did it mean?

Jesus was obviously more than they ever imagined, but who, or what, was he?

II.

On the other hand, the disciples have us at a serious disadvantage.