Transfiguration

What is it?

Today on the church calendar is transfiguration Sunday. It’s the Sunday before the start of lent. When I hear the word transfiguration my mind immediately thinks of this passage and how it’s something that happened to Christ. Looking at the definition of what transfiguration is, it clearly is the work of Christ through the Spirit in us today.

trans·fig·u·ra·tion /tran(t)sˌfiɡ(y)əˈrāSH(ə)n/ a complete change of form or appearance into a more beautiful or spiritual state.

2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT

17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

In Luke’s account of the Transfiguration we see the complete story of God in a nut shell. We see Moses who represents delivery from slavery in Egypt and the law. We see Moses and Elijah talking to Jesus about his exodus or his death. We also see the glorified Christ as a reminder that death does not have the final word. God through Christ is redeeming/ transfiguring all of creation.

This is an important reminder for us today as we sit in the shadows of Russia’s war with Ukraine. As the world sits on the edge of their seats wondering if this will escalate into WWIII, it is tempting to think that our world is beyond saving. Brothers and sisters we need to remember in a world marked by suffering and death God is at work transfiguring you and all of creation. Evil, sin and death does not win and will not have the final word. This is the message of hope a world on edge needs to hear and see from the collective body of Christ.

What is most important for us today? God is transfiguring us through the work of the Holy Spirit to be more like Christ. That our lives will point to Christ the author and finisher of our faith. That Jesus is God’s beloved Son, his chosen one to be like Christ we must listen to him.

The Transfiguration

Luke’s build up to the Transfiguration

Herod asks “Who is this Jesus?”

Jesus asks “Who do others and you say that I am?”

Peter’s bold proclamation “You are the Messiah sent from God!

Jesus predicts his death and resurrection, challenges the crowd to deny themselves take up their cross and follow him.

8 days later Jesus took Peter, John and James up on a mountain to pray.

Christ is transfigured

Moses and Elijah show up

Peter, John and James seize the opportunity to take a nap.

Moses and Elijah both had life changing mountain top encounters with God.

They were talking about his exodus from the world. His death which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem.

The transfigured Christ shows him in his full resurrected glory. He is a new Moses who leads God’s people out of slavery to sin and death and into his glorious light of the Kingdom.

Peter’s response, upon waking up. Make three shelters one for each of you. As if the glory of God can be contained in a building.

God answers the question who is this Jesus? Listen to him! Listen goes beyond simply hearing, but to actually hear and do what he says.

Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary: Year C, Volume 1 Homiletical Perspective

Shown in glory with Moses and Elijah, two great figures of Israel’s past, Jesus is revealed as the culmination of the story of a God who comes, again and again, to rescue God’s people.

What can we learn from this mountaintop encounter? 1) When its time to pray don’t sleep. 2) Through Christ God has and continues to transfigure us and all of creation. 3) Moses and Elijah and the rest of the prophets point to Jesus, God in his exclamation to the disciples response proclaims his Son as the culmination of the law and the prophets, we must listen to him. Our transfigured lives should point others to Jesus as the one in whom there is healing, resurrecting, and sustaining power. We must point to the hope we have in Christ, that despite the brokenness, sin, and injustice in our world God is at work through Christ transfiguring all of creation. Brokenness, evil, sin and death do not have the final word.

2 Corinthians 3:16–18 NLT

16 But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

Let us Show how he has Transfigured us.

Rafael’s Transfiguration

Brothers and sisters what our world needs living in the shadow and under the threat of war, is to see the transfigured glory shining through his people. In the darkness of war may the light of Christ shine through each of his followers. May what we say and do as a church point to God who is at work transfiguring the creation now marked by suffering and death.

Jesus led his disciples up a mountain to pray. Wednesday marks a fast time for the church let’s pray and listen to Christ for 40 days. Lets allow the work of the Spirit to continue to transfigure us that others would she the glory of the resurrected son in our lives. Let’s not build shelters for Moses and Elijah but point to Jesus in all we do. Let’s help others answer the question for themselves who is this Jesus.