Transfiguration
Mt
17:1-9
1/17/15
Is Easter early or late this
year? It is a question that many of us
have asked at some point, as we think about scheduling events. We ask the question because the date for
Easter does move from year to year. It’s
not like Christmas. You know that every year Christmas Eve will be on Dec.
24 and Christmas Day will be on Dec. 25.
Instead the date for Easter changes.
Some years, like this year, it can be very early. Other years it can be
quite late.
The reason for this is that the
events of Jesus’ death and resurrection took place at the time of the Jewish
festival of Passover. Passover always
occurs on the 14th day in the month of Nisan on the Jewish
calendar. The problem is that the Jews
used a lunar calendar – one that was based on the moon. Our calendar, is instead a solar calendar –
one that is based on the sun. And so while Passover in the Jewish calendar is
always on the 14th day of Nisan, its date on our solar calendar
varies.
This fact caused some real problems
in the early history of the Church. We
know that the resurrection of our Lord occurred on a Sunday, the first day of
the week. However, if you figure the
date for Easter based on the exact of date of the 14th day of
Nissan, it often does not fall on a Sunday in our solar calendar. This gave
rise in the second century A.D. to what is known as the Quartodecimanism controversy
– a name based on the Latin word for fourteen.
Christians in Asia Minor – modern
day Turkey – figured the date for Easter in relation to the 14th day
Nisan and celebrated Easter on that day even
if it didn’t fall on a Sunday. Other
parts of the Church celebrated Easter on the first Sunday that came after the Nisan 14 date. This became a real controversy because it
dealt with the celebration of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ– the
foundational events of the Christian faith.
It wasn’t finally settled until the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD which
established for all the Church the way we continue to figure Easter today – the
first Sunday after the Nisan 14 date.
While the calendar differences have
been a source of difficulty in the Church’s history, on this particular morning
it is actually a very helpful thing.
Easter is early this year, and so the season of Epiphany is compressed –
very compressed. January 6 was the Feast of the Epiphany of
Our Lord. Last Sunday was the Feast of
the Baptism of Our Lord. Now, today is already
the end of the Epiphany as we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our
Lord. The early date of Easter means
that the Baptism of Our Lord and the Transfiguration of Our Lord occur on back
to back Sundays. The juxtaposition of these events helps us to better
understand what is happening in our Lord’s transfiguration.
Last Sunday we saw that Jesus
received the baptism administered by John the Baptist. It was a baptism for repentance – a baptism
that people received confessing their sins. Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of
God, entered into the water and after his baptism the Holy Spirit descended
upon him like a dove and the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I
am well pleased.” We learned that the
descent of the Spirit on Jesus and the words of the Father were a fulfillment
of Isaiah chapter 42. They identified
and endowed Jesus as the Servant of the Lord.
We saw that in this event Jesus took on the role of the suffering
Servant of Isaiah chapter 53. He went
into the water to take on our sins – in order to take our place.
Isaiah tells us in chapter 53 that
the Servant is nothing to look at – there is nothing impressive about him. He says: “he had no form or majesty that we
should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised
and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was
despised, and we esteemed him not.”
Jesus goes forth in his ministry as
the humble One. He does not seek
confrontation. Instead, he acts as One
who is gentle. In Matthew chapter 12 we
learn that the Pharisees conspire to kill Jesus. But instead of seeking a
battle with them, Jesus withdraws and Matthew tells us, “This was to fulfill
what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: ‘Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my
beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and
he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor
will anyone hear his voice in the streets; a bruised reed he will not break, and
a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; and
in his name the Gentiles will hope.”
Jesus Christ is the humble servant
of the Lord who acts in gentle ways. We
might even be inclined to say he is gentle to a fault. Our text this morning begins by saying, “And
after six days.” Specific time
references like this in Matthew’s Gospel are very rare, and so we know that
what Matthew now narrates has a connection to what has just happened. What has happened is this. Matthew has just
told us: “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to
Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes,
and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
Jesus is the Servant of the Lord who
says that he is going to die – indeed, who predicts that his opponents will kill him. Now if you knew that people in Carbondale
were going to try to kill you, you
wouldn’t go there. But Jesus tells
his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die. This is not just
humility. This is not just gentleness. This is not just weakness. It sounds like pure lunacy.
And so we learn in our text that
Jesus takes Peter, James and John along with him up onto a mountain. Then Matthew tells us, “And he was
transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes
became white as light.” Jesus Christ is
Emmanuel – God with us. He is God in the
flesh. At that moment, he allowed his
disciples to behold the glory of his divine nature. Here was glory, not
humility. Here was might, not
gentleness. He was power, not weakness.
There appeared with Jesus, Moses and
Elijah – the two great prophets of the Old Testament to whom God revealed
himself on a mountain. It was an amazing
moment. And true to form, Peter just
couldn’t help himself. He said, “Lord,
it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for
you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
Apparently, Peter wanted to stay in that moment of glory, basking in the
presence of the luminous Christ and these Old Testament greats.
But then a bright cloud overshadowed
them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am
well pleased; listen to him.” As Jesus
stands transfigured in glory, God the Father speaks the exact same words that we heard last Sunday at Jesus’
baptism. Once again, the words are taken
from Isaiah chapter 42. Once again, the
Father identifies Jesus as the Servant of the Lord. But this time Jesus stands there with his
face shining like the sun, and his clothes as white as light. Jesus has just predicted his suffering and
death, yet there he stands, transfigured in glory.
These two Sundays – the Baptism of
Our Lord and the Transfiguration – confront us with the saving paradox of
Jesus. He is the suffering Servant who
takes on our sin in order to die for us.
He is the almighty Son of God who possesses all power and might – who
created the universe. Jesus goes to the
cross to fulfill the Father’s will. He
goes in humility and gentleness and weakness. Yet this has saving meaning for
us because Jesus is glorious, mighty and powerful. He willingly
submits to the role of the suffering Servant out of love for the Father;
out of love for us. He gives himself to
carry out the Father’s saving plan.
That plan leads to death, as Jesus has
just told the disciples. But it does not end there. He had told them that on the third day he
would be raised. In the transfiguration
of Jesus we see a preview of Easter.
Jesus will die as the suffering Servant for our sins. But he will rise as the second Adam who
defeats death and begins the resurrection – the resurrection we will share in
on the Last Day.
Peter wanted to stay there – to stay
in that moment. You and I are no
different. We want the glory … not the
cross. After Jesus predicted his passion for the first time he said, “If anyone
would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my
sake will find it.”
The old man in us
wants to avoid the cross. He wants to
avoid suffering and sacrifice that is caused by belief in Jesus.
But we are called to follow in our
Lord’s footsteps. We are called to
follow in the way our Lord has already walked for us. That way looks weak and humble, because it
is. But the paradox of Jesus’ ministry
now applies to us too. The way of faith that
follows Jesus receives the forgiveness that Jesus won as the suffering Servant
who died in our place. And the way of
faith leads to the Last Day, when the risen Lord will raise us up and give us a
share in his resurrection.
Last week we saw Jesus in the
water. This week we see Jesus on the
mountain transfigured in glory. At both
events we hear God the Father say, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well
pleased.” They are events that together
help us to understand the paradox of the way God works in Christ. Jesus goes to
the cross as the sacrifice for our sins.
He goes in weakness and humility because
he is the almighty and glorious Son of God.
The glory of the transfiguration reminds us of this, and points forward
to his resurrection.
We follow Jesus in the way of the
cross. But because of his death in our
place we have forgiveness now. And because of his resurrection we know that the
way of faith leads to resurrection and eternal life with the triune God.
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