Beginning to Become Transfigured

All God's grace, mercy and peace be yours in the name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Amen. Did you know that when the disciples had approached Jesus, and in this particular scenario, they had come to Jesus, saying Lord, teach us how to pray. And so, the Lord, He taught them. And He taught them what you and I know of as the Lord's Prayer. And did you know that as they were taught, that they had thought, or they figured that he had taught them to pray - I think it's what we Lutherans understand as a seventh petition - and Deliver Us from Email? Yeah! That's what they thought. That's what they figured. And they must have prayed that, Lord knows for how many years, until they finally got straightened out. And then did you know - you know, we have a sound system here. Jesus didn't have a microphone or speakers. So imagine when, in The Sermon on the Mount which Matthew records and one of our favorite parts - one of my favorite parts of The Sermon on the Mount is the beatitudes, the blessings. Did you know, now imagine without Jesus having a microphone and a sound system, if you were way back in the crowd, actually those who were way back, they were sure that Jesus had said, "blessed are the cheesemakers." And for many years! There were people who thought that yeah, it was the cheese makers, not so much the peacemakers. And then, did you know that, when it came to Peter, James, and John being invited by Jesus, to come up to the mountain for his Transfiguration, as they got up there, and from what they could understand and as they figured it, Jesus was there, must have been having to deal with some word problems or math, because they were convinced He had the began to figure. Yeah, okay. One person got it. Transfiguration - began to figure. Somebody came out of the early service and said, "You know, you got off to a good start, Pastor. And then it kind of nosedived from there." Well, alright. Well anyway, here's how Matthew and Mark described the Transfiguration of our Lord. Jesus was transfigured. He didn't "began to figure." He had it figured, but He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light, but then Jesus came and touched them saying, "Get up and stop being afraid." And when they lifted up their eyes - now, it's Luke and his gospel that you heard earlier and that Tara, commented on - that there, Luke mentions that Moses and Elijah were standing there with Jesus, but after Jesus comforted them, and Peter and James had looked up, they saw no one, but Jesus. Jesus only. No one except Jesus. If only we could see only Jesus when we're afraid or we're finding ourselves feeling helpless, or we're experiencing things just getting out of control, or when we're trying to figure out what on earth is going on between Russia and Ukraine or in Wisconsin Rapids, when the mill closes, and when things are happening in the family, or the marriage, and you just can't figure it all out. Just when everything starts to look so dark, even when the sun is shining, and it leaves you feeling like you're just all alone. Well, you know, it's about to get a lot darker. And a lot feeling, having that feeling of being on your own, as we are about to come off of this mountain and down into the valley - a valley with its suffering and with its passion and with its loneliness known as Lent. That's right around the corner from us, but not without one final, incredible burst of brilliance in the Transfiguration of Jesus. So, how do you make sense, then, of what's going on here? How is Peter, James and John, you know, that the gospel writers are also tell us a confused by what was going on. They were afraid. They didn't understand. They couldn't figure it all out. Well, you could say that Peter, James and John witnessed, what - a synonym to Transfiguration is a metamorphosis. You've heard that before? If you paid attention in earth science class, that's where I remember it. A metamorphosis is usually what we think of what happens to a cocoon, and it becomes a butterfly. Right? Wow, can you imagine being stuck in a cocoon? Like as if you're ready to be laid in a tomb, and yet then burst forth. The brilliance of a butterfly. But even that falls short of completely understanding and being able to embrace and describe what all happened with Jesus and to Jesus in His Transfiguration. And the gospel writers, then they describe how Jesus' face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as white can be. I think some of the translations take the original text and they say, they translate that as His clothes were like lightning. I mean, you know, what light's like. Or you've seen a blast of lightning. You know, that kind of sounds like how it was when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, if you remember that. And after being in the presence of God, the Israelites couldn't look into Moses' face. Moses had to cover his face. That would be one way of trying to get to an understanding of what Peter, James and John experienced, except still that falls short of what all happened in Jesus becoming transfigured in His Transfiguration. So the best that I think you can do, that we can do with the Transfiguration of Jesus is to realize that our words can help us to understand and figure things out, but up to a point. Then there are just things that take place that are just indescribable. There aren't words that fully embrace it all and explain it. It was just something so profound that it still leaves us wondering. What was this? How could this all happen as it was? Well, maybe it might help if we think of it this way: how would you describe God - okay - God being transfigured or metamorphosizing Himself into an infant, little boy? How do you describe that?

Well, I suppose you could describe it in this way: as the Glory of the Lord shining all about, as the shepherds watched their flocks by night. You could describe it that way. May be confusing. Indescribable, isn't it? Or how would you figure the Transfiguration - or the metamorphosis, if you will - of a 33-year old Nazarene, who has been crucified and died, laid in the grave, but then being transfigured, going through a metamorphosis from death to life. From the grave to resurrection. You could describe it that way, but it's still difficult to fathom, isn't it? Oh, I just had a funeral Friday. Man, once again, standing there at the casket before it's lowered into the grave, and sharing those words: For God so loved Olivia, that He gave His one and only Son, that Olivia, believing in Him, would not perish. But there is a body there that isn't breathing.

Still makes you wonder, doesn't it. Well, it's indescribable, when it comes right down to it, from what Peter, James and John witnessed. And what we're given - the privilege to witness, by way and by help of the Word. God in Christ, in all His glory: indescribable. This metamorphosis from God into an infant. This Transfiguration from a 33-year-old Prophet, from the dead to the living. you see, only in Jesus - what it comes down to, is there's so much more than we can begin to fathom and to figure and to understand. And that's the Jesus, that God gives us - His Son in the Transfiguration. That Jesus, who was about to do something even more indescribable and more profound and impossible, as far as our minds can handle it and figure it all out - how Jesus, with the Transfiguration, sets the stage for Him, then setting aside, then letting go of his indescribable glory, as it was portrayed in all this brilliance. And He walks down that mount into the valley of suffering. And begins that slow - I prefer to think of it as a crawl, more than a walk. Certainly not a run - to another mount. A crawl to another Mount, of which He will then ascend with a Roman's cross as the burden upon His shoulder. You know, the thing with Jesus, is that whatever it is that you have known of Jesus, whatever you feel about Jesus and who He is, however you have experienced Jesus to be, what the Transfiguration does, is it shows us how to open our eyes. That there is so much more to Jesus than what we think we know. Or what we've ever experienced with regards to Jesus.

So what are we thinking, then, when "You know what, I finally made it in my relationship with Christ, when I finally got myself to a point as a Christian as His son and daughter, where everything is just glorious and brilliant. There's no more pain. There's no more suffering." Yeah, we don't know what we're saying. We don't know what we're saying. Because what Peter didn't understand was that in order for Glory to be had, there had to be suffering. There had to be suffering. And there had to be whose suffering? See, Jesus knew all this because it was Jesus, and it was only Jesus who made Himself nothing. Who else do you know, who has done that or would do that? Taking the very nature of a servant. Jesus is the one to whom Isaiah loves to refer to, time and again - as the Suffering Servant. And, by the way, that's going to be the theme for Lent, the Wednesday services here. Good and Perfect Gifts. It's going to be based on Isaiah 56 through 66, because those chapters, you get these images of the Suffering Servant, and only the Suffering Servant, who as Isaiah tells us, so many became appalled, whose appearance became so disfigured beyond that of any man, who had no beauty or majesty that would attract us to Him. Who had nothing in His appearance that we should be wanting Him. Who do you know? Who do you know to be that way? Who was despised and rejected by men, who became a Man of Sorrows, was familiar was suffering, from whom men, then, chose to hide their faces. Who do you know? Who do you see? But Jesus! Who but Jesus and only Jesus. The one and the same, who here, we're being taught, and we're being allowed to see on this Mount of Transfiguration, was just brilliant with the glory of God.

Now, we find Him - if we're still looking at only Him - has humbled Himself to the point of death, even death by a cross. Who do you see? Who do you see?

Who would be and do such a thing? And who is it that you see when you find yourself pierced buy your own guilt? Or who is it, when you should dare to look up who you see and behold, when you find yourself crushed by your own failures? You know what we see. Well, you can either see yourself and just keep looking at yourself with all your guilt, with all your failure. Or you could choose to look at everybody else who has wronged me and hope that God will hold them accountable. You know what I'm talking about. Or you could do what? You could look up and what? See only Jesus. And see only Jesus. Who was pierced for your transgressions and mine. Who was crushed by your iniquities and mine. Who, with the punishment that He came down from the Mount of Glory to take upon Himself, was upon Him so that you could be at peace with yourself and with others, rather than keeping track of their wrongs.

Waddling in your own guilt. And your own sin. And, you know, don't you? The One and only One upon whom the Lord laid the iniquity upon us all. Only Jesus. No one except Jesus. So, do you see? I think it's Paul, somewhere in the New It says it's time. Today is the day of salvation. Lift up your heads. Stand up. Lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near. Your redemption, which is coming down from the Mount of Glory of Transfiguration, in order to begin and continue in you and me, a Transfiguration, a metamorphosis from sin to forgiveness. From death to life. So, it's time for Lent. The season is right here on the threshold. Actually, it's time for Jesus and only Jesus. And now, may the peace of God, which transcends all our understanding, may it keep and guard your hearts and minds only in Jesus. Amen.