Sermon manuscript:
I’d like to begin today by speaking about a detail that
could be easy to overlook. At the beginning of our reading it says, “Six
days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John to a high mountain.” The
transfiguration took place about six days later. Six days after what?
It took place about six days after Peter’s confession that
Jesus is the Christ. I’d like to go through that history since I think it sheds
light on what is going on with the transfiguration.
Jesus was with his disciples and he asked them, “Who do
people say that I am?” The disciples answered by telling him what they had
heard: “Some say that you are John the Baptist, some say that you are
Elijah, others say that you are Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” We won’t
get into the specifics of why the people might have given these answers for who
Jesus was. Suffice it to say, though, that the people recognized Jesus as being
highly unusual. They thought that he was one of the great prophets.
Then Jesus asked his disciples, “But you, who do you say
that I am?” And Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of
the living God.”
The word, “Christ,” means “anointed one.” It also has
connotations of kingship. The way that the kings became kings in the Old
Testament was by being anointed with oil. So there’s kingship here. Plus, throughout
the Old Testament God gave his people prophecies about a coming, chosen servant
of the Lord. The servant of the Lord would set things right. He would establish
justice and righteousness. He would open the eyes of the blind, and the ears of
the deaf would be unstopped. Ultimately these prophecies go all the way back to
the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve are told that the seed of the woman would
crush the serpent’s head. God’s people had been looking for the Christ who was
to come.
So when Peter answered Jesus’s question about who the
disciples thought that he was by saying that Jesus is the Christ, this was no
ordinary, everyday answer. There is no more important confession on earth. In
fact, this is the shortest creed, or statement of faith, in Christendom: “I
believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord.” And Peter even adds: “the Son of the
living God.” So Peter is identifying this man Jesus as the most important ever.
He is also saying, “You are God.”
Jesus responded to Peter’s confession by saying, “Blessed
are you, Simon son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,
but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this
rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overpower it. I
will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth
will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in
heaven.”
There’s quite a bit that I wouldn’t mind saying about these
words too. To keep it short, let me just point out a couple things. Jesus says
that his church is going to be built on the rock of Peter’s confession. What is
Peter’s confession? That Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. So if you want to
be a Christian, there you have your creed. The other thing is the activity of
the church is also laid out. Christians, those who confess what Peter
confessed, are given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Christians forgive and
retain sins. When Christians forgive the sins of repentant sinners, their sins
are forgiven. When Christians retain the sins of unrepentant sinners, their
sins are retained so long as they do not repent. These are eternal, stupendous
things! Heaven and hell, to which each individual must go—to one or the other—are
put into the hands of Peter and all the others as well who make his confession.
So this was all well and good. Peter got it right. Good for
Peter. Then, not too long after this, Peter will end up getting it wrong. After
Peter’s confession the Gospels tell us that Jesus began to teach Peter and the
other disciples what was going to happen to him. He was going to go to
Jerusalem, suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and
experts in the law. He was going to be killed, and on the third day rise again.
When Peter heard this he took Jesus aside and began to
rebuke him: “May you receive mercy, Lord! This will never happen to you.”
But Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are a
snare to me because you are not thinking the things of God, but the things of
men.”
Note how, in quick succession, Peter is called the rock and
Satan by Jesus. He is called the rock for his confession that Jesus is the
Christ. He is called Satan for opposing the way that Jesus was going to be the
Christ. Jesus the Christ, Jesus the King, was going to accomplish his work of
redemption for sinners. He was going to attain eternal life for those who are
under the wrath of God, by being subject to that wrath and swallowing it up. By
his death he would destroy the power of death. In the process he would look
weak, horrible, a worm and no man, and the furthest thing from being a king,
but even that had been foretold in the Psalms and the prophets.
After rebuking Peter Jesus goes on to tell the disciples
that this is not something that is just applicable to him. The cross applies to
anyone who wants to be his disciple. Let me read in full what Jesus says here:
“If anyone wants to follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and
follow me. In fact, whoever wants to save his life will lose it, and whoever
loses his life for my sake will find it. After all, what will it benefit a
person if he gains the whole world, but forfeits his soul? Or what can a person
give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his
Father together with his angels, and then he will repay everyone according to
his actions. Amen I tell you: Some who are standing here will certainly not
taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”
What I have just read is immediately prior to where our
Gospel reading picks up today. Six days after this Jesus took Peter, James, and
John to a high mountain and was transfigured before them so that he shined like
the sun. I think it is important to pay attention to the link that the Gospel
writers make between Jesus’s transfiguration and what came before. Peter and
the disciples confess Jesus to be the Christ, but they have a hard time
accepting the work of the Christ. That is to say, they have a hard time
accepting the cross.
It seems to me that you can see this somewhat on the Mount
of Transfiguration. Think of the frame of mind that Peter, James, and John were
probably in. Jesus confirmed their long held suspicions about his real
identity. They had long suspected, perhaps even from the very beginning, that
Jesus wasn’t even just one of the greatest ones come back to life. Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of the living God. He is the most important man ever. And they
are his friends and his disciples. They’d been living with that confirmed and
certain knowledge about who Jesus is for about a week. Of course Jesus had
rebuked Peter in the meantime. He said a bunch of stuff they didn’t really
understand, but the important thing is that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the
living God.
And then on the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus appearance
started to change. And I think the disciples maybe were thinking, “Oh, here we
go! This is it! Here comes the Son of Man in his kingdom. We’re about to be
whisked up into his glory! He is who he said he is! Heis the Son of God!” How
thrilling this must have been for them, and they were kind of anticipating this
very thing too. And there are Moses and Elijah—the greatest of the greats from
the Old Testament. I wonder what will happen next.
And this was all wonderful and exciting and evidently
thoroughly enjoyable for the disciples. Peter says, “Lord, it is good for us
to be here. If you want, I will make three shelters—one for you, one for Moses,
and one for Elijah.”
But even before he was done speaking things became even
brighter. A bright cloud overshadowed them and a voice came out of the cloud: “This
is my Son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.” Perhaps
those words sound familiar to you and they should. When Jesus was baptized he
was anointed by water and the Holy Spirit. At that time a voice came from
heaven: “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” What is
added here at the Transfiguration, though, are the words, “Listen to him.”
“Listen to Jesus.”
We, like Peter, need to listen to Jesus. Our thoughts are
not God’s thoughts. Peter thought that it would be horrible for Jesus to
suffer, die, and rise again. God the Father, on the other hand, loves Jesus and
is well pleased with everything that he did.
This is true also for us with our lives as disciples,
denying ourselves, taking up our cross, and following Jesus. Whose life is free
from misfortune, pain, loss and sadness? It is always possible for us to react
to such things by passing along the pain, make somebody else bear the burden,
never allow ourselves to be shamed, and instead shaming others. Living that way,
living only to make your life better, tends to make sense to our fallen,
sinful, selfish, common sense. Jesus, on the other hand, teaches us many things
that are contrary to a selfish common sense. We should not look for what is
pleasant or beneficial for ourselves, but what is beneficial for others. And
not only should we look after what is beneficial for our friends, but what is
beneficial even for our enemies—the ones who have hurt us.
So we are in as much need as anyone of that admonition from
God the Father: “Listen to Jesus.” Jesus is his beloved Son, with whom he is
well pleased. Listen to him. To follow Jesus’s words might not seem like it’s a
sensible course. Certainly Jesus’s words to Peter about his upcoming suffering,
death, and resurrection sounded like a horrible plan to Peter. “Never should
such things happen to you, Lord,” Peter said. But those very things that
Jesus did were the best things that have ever been done. It is by that cross
and resurrection that Jesus has brought about the renewal of mankind.
So it is also, but on a much smaller scale, and with many
imperfections, when we live the sanctified life that we have been given to
live. When we live with faith in Jesus our Redeemer, and when we listen to him
and live has he teaches us, this is pleasing to God our Father. It might not
appear impressive or honorable to those who do not have the eyes to see or the
ears to hear. Living how Jesus teaches us might not even be pleasant to our own
selves. Maybe we would wish that things would go differently. But God know
best, and those who follow him will be blessed—that’s a 100% guarantee—even if
it doesn’t appear so at the time.
One final aspect I’d like to comment on briefly. God the
Father said, “Listen to Jesus,” and note what Jesus said to the
terrified Peter, James, and John. He said to them, “Get up, and do not be
afraid.” When God the Father says, “Listen to him,” that includes
Jesus’s instructions and commands. However, it is not just those words that we
should listen to. What is most certainly included are kind and tender words
like, “Do not be afraid.” Jesus is not just some law-giver. He also is a
friend, a Savior, a Shepherd to the sheep.
We are an awful lot like Peter. We have our own ideas of how
things should go. Maybe we are not the best listener. Jesus did not reject
Peter on that account, but forgave, corrected, led, and loved him. So it is
also today with us and Jesus. Listen to him when he says, “Do not be afraid.”
He will help you on the way that you are to go as his disciple no matter where
that road might go.
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