The Glory of God

Luke 9:28-36

It was school picture time. The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to persuade them each to buy a copy of the group portrait. “Just think how nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say, ‘There’s Jennifer, she’s a lawyer,’ or ‘That’s Michael, he’s a doctor.’” Just then a smart-alecky voice piped up from the back of the room: “And there’s the teacher, she’s dead.”

Needless to say that would put a little damper on things. Nevertheless, it does raise an interesting question: what does the future hold for you and me? Death seems to be that one thing looming out there for everyone, that no one wants to talk about. Certainly it was no different for Jesus’ disciples in our text for today. To understand that better we need to look at the event immediately preceding our text, which was Peter’s bold confession at Caesarea Philippi, where he publicly declared that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world.

In response to Peter’s confession, Jesus told His disciples that He was about to suffer many things at the hands of the chief priests and elders, who would reject Him and put Him to death. However, Peter and the rest of the disciples were not too thrilled with that idea. They didn’t want to talk about Jesus’ death. After all, what good could the Messiah do, if He died. Instead, they wanted to talk about His glory. And so, Jesus gave them their wish. He said: “I TELL YOU THE TRUTH, SOME WHO ARE STANDING HERE WILL NOT TASTE DEATH BEFORE THEY SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD COME WITH POWER.”

Of course, He was talking about the occasion we’re celebrating today - Jesus’ Transfiguration. That was the Kingdom of God displayed in all the fullness of its power. And Peter, James and John got to see it firsthand, when Jesus took them up on the mountain. They’re the ones Jesus was referring to, who did not taste death, before seeing the Kingdom of God come in power and glory - just what they wanted. Yet, in the end, God’s glory did not turn out to be what they thought it was. For God’s glory can only be defined on God’s terms, not on our terms.

Oh to be sure, there was plenty of what they were hoping for up on that mountaintop. St. Luke tells us that the appearance of Jesus’ face changed, shining like the sun. And His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. You all know what it’s like on a pitch black summer’s night, when the darkness of the sky is shattered by the brilliance of a streak of lightning. It is glorious. In our family we say: “God is putting on a show for us.” Well, it was even more beautiful than that on the Mount of Transfiguration.

But it got even better, because suddenly Moses and Elijah, the two great pillars of the faith, appeared with Jesus. As a matter of fact, according to Jewish thought these two men were expected to return at the end of the world. No doubt, the disciples were thinking: “This is it! Jesus is going to reveal His earthly kingdom, and we’re going to get to reign with Him on thrones in glory.” No wonder that Peter wanted to put up three tents, or booths for them. He wanted to capture the moment and keep it forever. It’s like he was trying to redo the Feast of Tabernacles - New Testament style, because he wanted to preserve and prolong the power and glory of it all.

Does that sound familiar? In many ways, it’s not unlike what we often try to do. We want the Christian life to be all glory and ecstasy and power, with never even a hint of pain or hardship or heartache. And so, when trials and troubles come - and invariably they always do come - we frequently grumble and complain, instead of trusting God and praising Him. Too often we think that our will and ways are better than His, and so we feast our emotions and appetites on the transient things of this world that fade away, rather than nourishing our soul and spirit on the Word and Sacraments, which alone can truly satisfy. Yes, like Peter we want to remain constantly in a mountain-top experience, instead of descending to the plain, where the work of life must be done.

However, that was not Jesus’ intent in taking the disciples up on the mountain. Instead, He wanted to show them what His glory is really all about. His true glory is the ‘glory’ of the cross. Specifically, St. Luke says that Jesus went up on the mountain to pray. Undoubtedly, He needed His Father’s strength and guidance before the terrifying ordeal of suffering death and hell for the redemption of the world. And in so doing, He wanted to teach the disciples that the glory of the resurrection and heaven can only come through the humility and suffering of the cross.

And that’s precisely why Moses and Elijah were present with Jesus. The Old Testament law stated that a matter had to be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. And that’s what they were doing - witnessing and validating Jesus’ saving work, kind of like a notary public authenticating a legal document. Moses as the representative of the Law, and Elijah as the representative of the prophets were pointing to Jesus as the Savior, as the one who is the fulfillment of all of God’s promises of forgiveness and salvation. The third witness, of course, was God the Father Himself, who said: “THIS IS MY SON, WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN. LISTEN TO HIM.” That statement was a reference to Isaiah 42:1, where previously God said: “HERE IS MY SERVANT, WHOM I UPHOLD, MY CHOSEN ONE IN WHOM I DELIGHT.” It’s a prophecy about the Suffering Servant, who would die to rescue His people from their sins.

Well, that’s what the Transfiguration was all about. It was pointing forward to Jesus’ death and resurrection, which saves us. You see, it is our sins of pride, selfishness and lust, which disfigure us and deform us so that we are hideous in God’s holy sight. But Jesus came to transfigure us into the likeness of His holiness, to transform us into His pure and beautiful saints by removing the pitch black night of our sins, and making us as pure white as a streak of lightning. And yet that could only happen at the cost of His life and the price of His blood. Which is why our text says that Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah about His ‘departure’ - that is, His death. The beautiful thing is that the word ‘departure’ is actually the word ‘exodus,’ which literally means: ‘the way out.’ And that’s just what Jesus has given us - the way out of sin and shame, the escape from death and hell. Like the Israelites in the Exodus, He has released us from our slavery to guilt and iniquity and set us free. As a result, like the disciples in our text we do not have to taste death before seeing the Kingdom of God. We can see it right now, by faith in Jesus Christ. Best of all, we don’t really have to taste death at all, because the bitter poison of eternal death has been swallowed up by Jesus Christ our Savior. That’s the true glory He revealed to His disciples.

Perhaps that’s what St. Luke was getting at, when He said that the appearance of Jesus’ face was changed - shining like the sun. You see, our text is one of only two places in the Gospels, where the face of the Jesus is ever mentioned. The other is when He’s on trial before the Sanhedrin, and they spit in His face, mocked and hit Him. It’s a reminder that Jesus took all the shame and mockery of our sin for us and removed it completely for good. And by the agony of His suffering and death, you and I now reap the benefit, which is His bright shining face, smiling upon us with love and forgiveness. We do not have a vengeful God, who is frowning at us in wrath in anger. Instead, we have a loving God, who beams at us with pride and joy.

And that, my friends, is the real beauty of God’s glory. It’s not about the glory of some earthly kingdom. It’s about forgiveness and salvation in His heavenly kingdom through faith in Jesus Christ. That’s why our text says that after God the Father spoke, the cloud of His presence disappeared, Moses and Elijah were gone, and the disciples found Jesus alone. What important words those are - Jesus alone. That’s all we need. We don’t need some mystical experience. Just Jesus’ presence in the Word and Sacraments, which gives us the strength and guidance we need for our daily lives. With the added promise that some day God will take us to the mountaintop of heaven, where He will wipe away all tears from our eyes and there will be no more sorrow or pain or death. The petty annoyances of life that upset us will be gone. All the deep hurts of our heart and soul will vanish. Every loss and failure and disappointment that we feel so strongly right now, will mean nothing to us then, because our joy will be complete. We too will have a shining, smiling face, because we will finally see our loving Lord Jesus face to face!

Late one afternoon a five-year-old boy climbed an oak tree in the yard. As he scrambled up almost to the top, he looked down to see how far he had come. Panic set in! He grabbed the nearest limb and hugged it for dear life. Paralyzed with fear, he couldn’t move to climb back down. For 30 minutes he clung to the branch. When the fire engine arrived, a rescuer climbed up to the boy. “Don’t look down,” he said. “Just keep looking at my face.” As the boy’s eyes focused on the face of his rescuer, he was able to relax enough so that the fireman could bring him safely to the ground.