Scripture: Luke 9:28-36; Matthew 17:1-9; Mark 9:2-8 Series: 2023
A transcribed sermon on the Transfiguration preached on the threshold of Lent. The preacher centers the core question ‘Who is Jesus?’ arguing the event lays open Christ’s identity as fully God and fully human, without which salvation, the kingdom, and mercy would be meaningless. He warns against instrumentalizing Jesus (‘what does he do for me?’) and frames the deepest Christian question as not what you believe but whom you follow, raising the challenge of idolatry amid rival saviors. Peter’s wish to stay on the mountain, his later denial, and the descent toward the cross show that the encounter with God overflows and cannot be contained even by failure. He closes with Sufjan Stevens’ song ‘The Transfiguration’ and the assurance that God is drawing near.
Illustrations: sufjan-stevens-transfiguration-song, peter-build-house-mountain, peter-denies-jesus-three-times, moses-elijah-worship
February 19
Who is Jesus and what is art? These are the two questions that always come to me. When I read the story of the Transfiguration, this moment and Matthew, mark, and Luke was not very important to me and my faith for a long time. It really wasn’t until the Sufian Steven song, the Transfiguration, when I looked at this moment again and again, the early trip spent a lot of time on the transfiguration. Protestants, not as much. Not a huge emphasis when it’s lost, when we don’t pay attention to the transfiguration is this question of who was Jesus? Oftentimes, Jesus is instrumentalized and to what does he do for me? What does Jesus do for me? If you do this, Jesus will do that and you’re golden. Then lint starts this week. The last thing Jesus does before turns his face to Jerusalem is take, take disciples up to the mountain to pray. Then the identity of Christ is revealed to them, this who of Christ that he is God and human. Now, there have been hints at this earlier in the gospels, but the transfiguration that’s laid out in the open and this matters so deeply For our faith, if, if God did not become man in Jesus Christ, then none of it really matters. We can’t be saved. The kingdom of heaven isn’t here. Mercy is a waste of time. Jesus takes his disciples and goes up to a mountain and prays enduring that time. A great brilliance shines over hemp, the great brilliance, and there’s a vision of Moses and Elijah present as well. Why were they there? Same kind of excessive. We need to linger on this moment. Again, we have this great revealing of God and Jesus Christ fully, not just the humble carpenter’s son, but a brilliant vision of the presence of God, and then Moses and Elijah are there also. I think Moses and Elijah are there not for the sake of Peter and John, but for their own sake so that they too can see the ethnicity of Jesus Christ, that this prophet is the God man, so they two can worship him. Peter then wants to build a house and stay up there. This is the preeminent mountaintop experience. It is. It is transformational. They have encountered the living God and with the stay in that moment. It is the walk tous moment. It is the midwinter moment. It is conversion and it’s fullest. They want to stay there. Peter wants to stay there, but Jesus rebukes him. They have to go down the mountain. They have to go into the valley. I’m sorrow that leads to the cross. There’s a great distance between transfiguration and resurrection, but the identity of Jesus is the same. Christ is God for do we live any differently knowing who Jesus really is, that God and God’s fullness became flesh in Jesus Christ. Does that change anything? Peter, the eager disciple wanted to build a house and yes, soon enough, he was denying Jesus three times. Does it change anything? The deepest question of, of the Christian faith is not what you believe, but who do you follow? Making sure you’re following the right person. This is where the great challenge of idolatry comes in. There’s lots of people who say they can save you. How do you know you’re following the right one? There’s lots of religions that say they can save you or say there is no salvation or say anything like that. There’s lots of people who say God is dead. Follow yourself. Who Do you the transfiguration. The disciples followed Jesus up the mountain who saw a great sight and they heard a great sound. The fact that Peter goes on to deny Jesus does not negate his experience of God. There this experience that is overflowing, that cannot be contained. I’m gonna close with the that song by Stevens. What about the transfiguration? It’s called the transfiguration. It tells the story directly and then lets us participate in that chorus. We may not be on a mountain anymore. Look, God is drawing near.