Transfiguration
Mt
17:1-9
2/9/14
This past Sunday, the Seattle
Seahawks destroyed the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl. The Seattle defense strangled the vaunted
Denver offense which had Payton Manning at quarterback. The Seattle defense should probably get most
of the credit for the win, and linebacker Malcolm Smith was named the game’s
MVP. However, all the pictures that I
saw after the game showed another player holding up the Lombardi trophy in the
midst of the celebration – Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson. He was the player that I saw being
interviewed on morning shows like Good Morning America.
Quarterback is the glamour position,
and so it is not surprising that Wilson received attention. It doesn’t hurt that he is a good looking and
articulate guy. But as good as the
Seattle defense was this year, the reality is that Wilson was the difference
between Seattle being just a good team, and being Super Bowl champions. His
surprisingly strong and accurate arm; his ability to run; his leadership; and
that “it” factor that is hard to describe but separates great players from
everyone else have put Wilson at the center of attention. It has brought him sports glory.
Wilson’s glory as Super Bowl winning
quarterback stands in contrast to what had preceded in his career. As a high school quarterback he was only
ranked as two star recruit by recruiting services Rivals and Scout (for those of
you not familiar with the recruiting scene, that’s two stars out of five). Not surprisingly, he didn’t receive any great
scholarship offers. Wilson is only about
5’11’’ and so it seemed unlikely that he would be a successful quarterback at the
college level.
There was no doubt that Wilson was good
athlete. He signed with North Carolina State where he played both football and
baseball. He was successful at both
sports, and in 2010 the Colorado Rockies drafted Wilson in the fourth round of
the baseball draft. Wilson intended to
play minor league baseball as well as college football. However the NC State
football coach, was opposed to the idea. While Wilson had been good, he hadn’t
been great and so the coach gave Wilson a release to transfer.
Wilson was not considered a great
pro-football prospect. In fact, he would not even have been invited to the 2011
NFL combine. So in 2011 he made use of a new NCAA rule that allowed a player
who had a year of eligibility and had graduated to transfer and play one more
year as a graduate student. Wilson
transferred to Wisconsin where he had a spectacular year. He was drafted in the third round by Seattle. But it’s not as if they were certain that he
would be a star. Instead they had signed
Matt Flynn as their quarterback and had given him a contract with 9 million
dollars in guaranteed money.
Wilson’s Super Bowl glory contrasts with
what had preceded in his career in which he had constantly been doubed. We find the same contrast as we look at our
Gospel lesson for the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. Jesus shines forth in divine glory, and yet
immediately before our text he had predicted his own suffering and death.
Our text this morning begins by
saying, “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his
brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured
before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as
light.” Jesus takes the “inner circle”
of his disciples, who are all pictured on the walls of our nave, up on a
mountain and there his appearance was changed in a way that revealed the fact
that is the Son of God. His face shone
like the sun and his clothes became white as light. It was amazing.
And that wasn’t the end of things
either. For we learn that Moses and Elijah appeared there with Jesus and were
speaking with him. There stood two
giants of the Old Testament to whom God had revealed himself; two figures
associated with the end times.
Peter’s response to this experience
was classic Peter. 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.”
Peter spoke in a way that seemed to put Jesus in the same class as the other
two.
However, we learn in our text: “He
was still speaking when, behold, 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.’” A bright cloud came upon them,
just as it had stood over the tabernacle in the Old Testament. And if Peter was confused into setting Jesus
in the same group as Moses and Elijah, the Father immediately set things
straight by commanding: “Listen to him!”
The focus was to be on Jesus and
what he had to say. And that takes us
back to the last thing he had said in the Gospel. The phrase “after six days” at the beginning
of our text provides a critical link with the events at the end of chapter
sixteen. There Jesus had asked, “Who do
people say that the Son of Man is?” When
the disciples indicated that people took him to be some kind of prophetic
figure, Jesus asked: “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter had replied,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus had answered him,
“Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to
you, but my Father who is in heaven.
This was great stuff! But immediately after this we are
told, “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.” Peter had confessed that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And now Jesus says that he is going suffer and die.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, he
then goes on to add: “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 One who is the Son of God tells his
followers that they will need to suffer for him … and even die.
Now this is not what you want to
hear. Because, after all, you don’t have
to be here. You could be somewhere else, doing something else. You have chosen to come to church – to live
the life of a Christian – because you think that in Jesus Christ you have great
benefits. We speak of forgiveness and
peace and salvation. We speak of comfort and joy and love.
But Jesus isn’t talking about those
things here – at least not directly.
Instead Jesus is talking about his suffering and death … and he is
talking about the cross for you. The
cross was not something that people in the Greco-Roman world used as a metaphor
to mean anything positive. The cross was
about humiliation and weakness and suffering.
The cross was about death.
Jesus does not promise you “your
best life now.” In fact, he says that
faith in him will make your life harder.
It’s harder because it means when the conversation about “religion” is
going on, you are called to speak the truth about who Jesus Christ is and what
he has done. It’s harder because it
means taking a stand and saying what God’s word says about living together
outside of marriage. It’s harder because it means saying there is right and
wrong in a world where the only thing that is really wrong is to make that
claim. You know there will be
consequences for doing these things. And so at times, you just don’t.
In our Gospel lesson Jesus has just
predicted his own suffering and death.
He has predicted hardship for his disciples. This could shake our confidence and call
everything into question. And so in his
transfiguration, Jesus provides a glimpse of his glory. He does this even as God the Father points us
to Jesus with words that take us back to what he said at Jesus’ baptism.
There, at the beginning of the
Epiphany season, we saw that Jesus was designated as the Servant of the Lord. He identified himself with sinners as the One
who would be the suffering Servant in your place to give you forgiveness. He
began a mission that was directed towards one thing – it was directed towards
the cross.
In our text today was see again that
although it involves the cross, it is still God’s mission. It is God’s glorious saving mission that
occurs in a hidden way – in the way of the cross. Yet in spite of its appearance, there is no
doubt about its final outcome. It
leads to the glory of resurrection and eternal life.
That’s what Jesus shows us in the
transfiguration this morning. He is
headed to the cross. But for a brief
moment he shines forth with a glory that points forward to his
resurrection. He points forward to what
lies on the other side of the cross.
And in doing so he tells us that cross, weakness and suffering do not
contradict his promises. They are instead the way those promises are fulfilled.
The same thing is true for you as
you walk in the faith. Confessing Christ
in this world will bring the cross. But
our Lord calls you never to lose sight of the resurrection. For it is the resurrection that gives you
hope – a living hope that enables you to take up the cross. In the cross and
resurrection of Jesus Christ you know you have peace with God now. And in the resurrection of Jesus you have the
assurance that the way of faith leads to the eternal and complete peace of
resurrection life in the new creation.
