Transfiguration Sunday 2022: Luke 9:28-36

When I was just getting started in church ministry, I served as the student’s pastor at a church in Athens. One year we opted to take our high school students to Brazil for a short-term mission experience in Rio de Janiero. On one of our last days, we took a trip up into the mountains surrounding the city, to one of the city’s most famous landmarks, the Christ statue that overlooks the city. Cristo Redentor, it is called. Christ the Redeemer. It is a one hundred foot tall statue of Jesus, with arms extending out a hundred feet to form a cross, and it sits on the peak of Mount Corcovado. You can go up and stand right at the feet of this towering giant, and you can look out at the beautiful Brazilian coast with Copacabana beach, Sugarloaf Mountain. It’s stunning and it is moving to be up there. We were all moved to prayer on that mountain.

I remember the beauty of it all, the glory of it all. But I also remember the feeling of whiplash as we drove back down that mountain, as we zigged and zagged down the switchbacks, and suddenly we were surrounded on every side by the makeshift homes of the favelas. The slums of Brazil where the poor lived. It was a startling change, going from the heights of glory to the depths of the human condition. The sunshine and cool breeze of the mountain-top to the shadows and smells of the slums.

This morning we wrap up the season of Epiphany, which is a season all about the brightness of Christ’s glory going out into all the nations. It began with the Father speaking at Christ’s baptism, and it ends with the Father speaking at Christ’s transfiguration - when, up on a mountain, the glory of Christ the Redeemer, is made visible in a dazzling display.

And yet, immediately following this glorious scene, coming down the mountain, Jesus makes his way to Jerusalem, to another hill, where he would be lifted high upon on a cross to die. Difficult days await Jesus and his disciples. And we know that Jesus is prepared for those hard days, but what about his disciples? Are they ready for what comes next? Are they ready for the conflict and suffering and loss that they’re going to find in Jerusalem?

It’s hard to prepare yourself for those things, isn’t it? How do you prepare for hard days? That’s the question our text engages this morning. How do we prepare for hard days ? And the answer we’re given is this: we listen to Jesus, and he will strengthen us for what lies ahead.

In our text this morning, Jesus leads three of his disciples (Peter, James, and John) up a mountain to pray. These disciples have been following Jesus for some time now, and they have heard him teach again and again, in town after town, that the the old order of the world was passing away along with its violence and disease and poverty and oppression and all other manner of evil and suffering. And in its place, Jesus was establishing a new world, a new Creation, characterized by peace and justice and wholesale human flourishing. They had even seen evidences of that new Creation in the miracles that Jesus had done in their sight. How he had healed people, fed people, even raised the dead to life!

But at the same time, they also had seen the continued oppression and violence of their Roman occupiers, and the hostilities from the religious leaders, and the unrelenting plight of the poor. So questions remained. Was Jesus really the promised Savior? Was he really the Messiah - the one who was anointed to roll back the curse of sin and usher in an age of flourishing for all the world?

When I was in high school, I had the opportunity to meet one of my heroes. He was the lead singer of a popular band that I loved. And yet, as I was waiting to meet him, I began to feel a little uneasy. What if he wasn’t all that I had made him out to be? What if he didn’t measure up? What if he was a big disappointment? On some level, all of us know that our heroes can’t possibly live up to our unrealistic expectations that we have for them. If we are honest, we recognize that if we were to pull back the curtain of their lives, we’ll come to find that they are a mixed bag of good and bad. We’ll come to find the disappointing reality that they are simply human. And so, we become guarded, jaded, and distrusting.

So what about Jesus? Sure he seems great - but when we pull back the curtain, will we be equally disappointed? Well, on this mountain as Jesus is praying with three of his disciples, the curtain is pulled back, and we get to see the true and glorious identity of Jesus. Look with me at verse 29:

Luke 9:29–31 (ESV)

29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Luke tells us that Jesus and his disciples ascended this mountain to pray, and as Jesus was praying, he was transformed before their very eyes. His face changed and his clothes became white like lightning - this isn’t Downy bleach white - it’s blinding white. In the biblical story, figures who match this description or those who have been in the presence of God. They are reflecting the glory of God. In our Old Testament reading, having been in the presence of God for forty days, Moses came down from Mount Sinai and his face was shining.

So here on this mountain top, the curtain is pulled back on Jesus and we see him on a different level than our human eyes allow. He is bathed in and radiating the glory and power and love of God. This is who he is.

And he is joined by two of Israel’s greatest figures: Moses and Elijah. They just appear out of no where beside Jesus. What is this about? Well, God is revealing to the disciples the reality of Christ’s mission on earth. Jesus has come to complete the work that God began through Moses and continued through Elijah. These were giants in the history of God’s people. They led the nation of Israel through some of its darkest years. They represented the Law and the Prophets - and while they played vital roles in God’s redemptive plans, it is Jesus who has come to finish the job. The voice from heaven declares as much when he says about Jesus, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!”

We are strengthened for hard days when we live into the reality that Jesus is the Savior of the world, and he has come to restore and heal and make new. I will be honest with you, there are times when I act as if I am an abandoned child who is destined to live out my days all on my own. No Father in heaven who loves me. No Savior who has come for me. No Holy Spirit who lives within me. And when I find myself living into that reality, I am scared and anxious about what comes next.

I recently heard a quaint little poem that really drove this home for me. Taking inspiration from the many gospel texts about God caring for the birds, one poet writes:

Said the robin to the sparrow, “I should really like to know, Why these anxious human beings Rush about and worry so.” Said the sparrow to the robin, “Friend I think that it must be, That they have no Heavenly Father, Such as cares for you and me.”

I know I am not alone in feeling this way at times.

But when I listen to Jesus, and I am reminded that none of that is true. What is true is that the Father loves me, but not just me, he so loves the whole world that he sent Jesus to liberate people from slavery to sin and death and establish his Kingdom here on earth. And no power of hell and no scheme of man can delay the coming of his Kingdom. Not sickness. Not war. Not injustice. Nothing can stop the restoration that Jesus has set into motion. Jesus is, as the writer to the Hebrews says

: Hebrews 1:2–3 (ESV)

3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

And when we live into that reality - that good news - we find strength to face whatever comes next. How do we prepare for when the sunshine turns to shadow? We listen to Jesus, and he strengthens us by the word of his power.

The disciples had some heavy days ahead of them. Days when they would also need strengthening. Luke says that during his transfiguration, Jesus’ face was altered and his clothes radiated the glory of God. And though the brightness of his appearance faded as he came down that mountain, his face remained altered, for Luke tells us at the end of this chapter that from this moment on, Jesus had set his face towards Jerusalem. As he descended that mountain, every step he took was one of intention and purpose, as he made his way to the cross, where he would purchase through his death, our salvation.

This is the one that we called to listen to. And if we are called to listen to Jesus, than that must mean that he is speaking to us. Every day, Jesus is speaking to us. And if his word has the power to sustain the universe, imagine what it can do for you? Imagine the kind of life that it can produce in you? The Psalmist says that the one who listens to the word of God is like a tree that never withers. No matter the season. No matter the weather, the tree bears fruit. Why? Because they listen to the Lord.

Jesus is speaking to you every day of your life.

When we listen to Jesus, we are strengthened for whatever lies ahead.

Unlike the disciples, most of us will not experience anything as dramatic as they were afforded to convince us of the reality of God’s kingdom. But we are called to do what the voice from heaven said: Listen to Jesus, because he is the one who is making this world new again.

Let’s pray.