Exodus 34:29-35; 2 Peter 1:16-21; St Matthew 17:1-9
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
There is a lot for the eyes in the Transfiguration of our Lord. His face shines like the sun. His clothes become white as light. Moses and Elijah appeared to the Twelve, talking with Jesus. St Luke actually tells us of topic of conversation: They spoke of His departure, that is, His exodus, His Crucifixion. The topic de jure of the eschaton. Peter takes it all in and wants to stay awhile, maybe longer. “I’ll build three tents!”
With all that going on, you might think that the Voice from the bright cloud would say something like, This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; look at Him. But instead that Voice says, This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him. The climax of the account is not in what is seen, but what is heard, Listen to Him.
Listen to Jesus, the Voice, the Father, says. Listening to Him is true wisdom. For He is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God. You will do well to pay attention to Him as a Lamp shining in a dark place, until the Day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. For He is the Word who is a Lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path (Ps 119:105).
But who ever really listens to anyone? Listening is not easy. We’re not good listeners, are we? How will we ever listen to Jesus when we’re listening skills in general are too poor? When we’re constantly distracted, attention diverted elsewhere within mere seconds, minds wandering the moment we tune out. Do we ever really tune in? Listening requires effort. We’re not willing to put it forth.
We also don’t listen well because we’d rather be talking. Have you ever missed part of a conversation because you’re thinking of what you’re going to say next? And that’s the main reason we are not good listeners. We are selfish. Too preoccupied with our own thoughts. Too preoccupied with the question that always in the back of our minds in any conversation, any interaction: “What in this for me?”
That certainly explains Peter. Six days before the Transfiguration Jesus told Peter and the disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, that He must suffer and be killed and on the third day be raised. But Peter was too preoccupied with his own thoughts and ideas about how the Messiah should act and behave. He told Jesus, “No You won’t.” He wasn’t listening.
So Jesus later tells him against that He’ll suffer, be mocked and flogged and crucified and on the third day rise again. Yet Peter is one of the Twelve who shortly after argues about which one of them is the greatest in the Kingdom. Not listening.
Later Jesus directly tells him, Truly I tell you, this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times (Mt 26:34). But Peter was preoccupied with thoughts of his own glory. “Never. I will never deny You. In fact, even if they are all away, I will die with You.”
He’s hearing words, but he’s not really listening. Ever have anyone like that? Are you like that?
The battleground for man’s soul is his ear. Adam and Eve didn’t listen to the Lord. Peter didn’t listen Jesus. We don’t listen to Jesus, either. We give honor to Jesus’ Word, but then go out and live however we please anyway. We give honor to what Jesus says, we even stand when His words are read, but you’re not convinced that His solutions are workable or that He can be trusted with your future.
We assert, “I listen to Jesus,” but then, like Peter, when difficulty, trial, scorn, cross-bearing comes in your life you can’t bear it because you’ve tuned in to your own inner voice of wisdom that’s always scheming to get out of the situation in which God has placed you. We convince ourselves we deserve better, that we aren’t to blame. We get angry when others won’t listen to us. We take offense. How must Jesus feel?
Yet our Lord has paid back our anger with forgiveness, our dishonor with honor. Six days after Peter confesses Jesus to be the Christ, Peter kind of gets it right. Lord, it is good that we are here. It certainly was good to be on that Mount of Transfiguration that day. It was good to see Jesus’ body shining with glory. It was good for us, the baptized, to get a glimpse of our own body’s glorious future. As we prayed in the collect. But the sixth day is not associated with “good.” The Sixth day is associated with very good. For on Day Six God created man and it was the day He declared His created to be very good.
Yes, Peter, the Mount of Transfiguration was indeed a good place to be. But you don’t want your Lord to stay there. That’s not why He came. You weren’t listening. There was a better mountain to which Jesus had to go. Another mountain on a different sixth day so that something very good might occur for the world. A holy mountain were He confirms and fulfills the prophetic word.
There was a better sixth day to come. Sixth days are Friday. There is a better Friday to come.
Moses and Elijah on the holy mountain were indeed good. But Jesus hanging on a Cross on an ugly mountain between two thieves would be even better. It would be very good.
Jesus’ face bright as the sun was good, Peter was right, but according to Jesus, His face being spit upon and covering with blood was even better for us.
Jesus’ clothes becoming white as light was good, but His clothes soaked red with blood that atoned for your sins was even better.
Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration was good, but Jesus on the Mount of Disfiguration on that Very Good Friday was better, because there He was bearing our sin to death and recreating us from condemned Sons of Adam to adopted Sons of God and co-heirs with with the King in His glory.
Listening to your “inner voice” you’d never get that. Listening to your own wisdom about how God should be, you’d never understand that. Preoccupied with your own thoughts about how God should act, you’d never think like this. Listen to Jesus. Hear His voice. And you will begin to get it. When God the Father said to His beloved Son, “It’s time to go down and save them,” Jesus listened. He loved the Father’s words. His mind never wandered. He never lost focus. He never got distracted. He never thought, “What’s in this for Me?” His mind was preoccupied with doing the Father’s will, loving sinners by giving His life for them. He never lost interest, had no short attention span, but for all His years on earth His all consuming focus was to die for the sins of the world.
This is why the Voice from the bright cloud said, This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. He is the Father’s Beloved. The Father is pleased with Him because He reconciles the world to Him in His atoning death.
And if the Father loves Jesus, then He must love those whom Jesus loves. That’s you! If the Father is well pleased with Jesus, then He must be well-pleased with those who believe in Him and trust His Word and work. And that’s you! If God is well pleased with Jesus and Jesus forgives a denier and bad listener like Peter, then He must forgive your denials too.
Listen to Him. Listen to Jesus. Today you hear His Voice. Though you have not honored His Word as you should, He sends His messengers in His stead and by His command to forgive your sins. When your Pastor speaks the Absolution it is just as valid in certain as Jesus speaking.
When you stand for the reading of the Holy Gospel, listen to Him, for you are hearing the viva vox Jesu, the living voice of Jesus.
When you hear His Word expounded and proclaimed, listen to Him.
When you come to the holy mountain of His Altar, the Tent of His Body, and the veil is lifted, listen to Him. He says to you, Take, eat. This is My Body, which is given for you. Take, drink. This is My Blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life and I will raise Him up on the Last Day (Jn 6:54). Listen to Jesus, the crucified One, who rose bodily from the dead and ascended bodily into heaven is coming again so that you might be revealed with Him in bodily glory (Col 3:4).
In the Name of the Father + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
There is a lot for the eyes in the Transfiguration of our Lord. His face shines like the sun. His clothes become white as light. Moses and Elijah appeared to the Twelve, talking with Jesus. St Luke actually tells us of topic of conversation: They spoke of His departure, that is, His exodus, His Crucifixion. The topic de jure of the eschaton. Peter takes it all in and wants to stay awhile, maybe longer. “I’ll build three tents!”
With all that going on, you might think that the Voice from the bright cloud would say something like, This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; look at Him. But instead that Voice says, This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him. The climax of the account is not in what is seen, but what is heard, Listen to Him.
Listen to Jesus, the Voice, the Father, says. Listening to Him is true wisdom. For He is God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God. You will do well to pay attention to Him as a Lamp shining in a dark place, until the Day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. For He is the Word who is a Lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path (Ps 119:105).
But who ever really listens to anyone? Listening is not easy. We’re not good listeners, are we? How will we ever listen to Jesus when we’re listening skills in general are too poor? When we’re constantly distracted, attention diverted elsewhere within mere seconds, minds wandering the moment we tune out. Do we ever really tune in? Listening requires effort. We’re not willing to put it forth.
We also don’t listen well because we’d rather be talking. Have you ever missed part of a conversation because you’re thinking of what you’re going to say next? And that’s the main reason we are not good listeners. We are selfish. Too preoccupied with our own thoughts. Too preoccupied with the question that always in the back of our minds in any conversation, any interaction: “What in this for me?”
That certainly explains Peter. Six days before the Transfiguration Jesus told Peter and the disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, that He must suffer and be killed and on the third day be raised. But Peter was too preoccupied with his own thoughts and ideas about how the Messiah should act and behave. He told Jesus, “No You won’t.” He wasn’t listening.
So Jesus later tells him against that He’ll suffer, be mocked and flogged and crucified and on the third day rise again. Yet Peter is one of the Twelve who shortly after argues about which one of them is the greatest in the Kingdom. Not listening.
Later Jesus directly tells him, Truly I tell you, this very night before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times (Mt 26:34). But Peter was preoccupied with thoughts of his own glory. “Never. I will never deny You. In fact, even if they are all away, I will die with You.”
He’s hearing words, but he’s not really listening. Ever have anyone like that? Are you like that?
The battleground for man’s soul is his ear. Adam and Eve didn’t listen to the Lord. Peter didn’t listen Jesus. We don’t listen to Jesus, either. We give honor to Jesus’ Word, but then go out and live however we please anyway. We give honor to what Jesus says, we even stand when His words are read, but you’re not convinced that His solutions are workable or that He can be trusted with your future.
We assert, “I listen to Jesus,” but then, like Peter, when difficulty, trial, scorn, cross-bearing comes in your life you can’t bear it because you’ve tuned in to your own inner voice of wisdom that’s always scheming to get out of the situation in which God has placed you. We convince ourselves we deserve better, that we aren’t to blame. We get angry when others won’t listen to us. We take offense. How must Jesus feel?
Yet our Lord has paid back our anger with forgiveness, our dishonor with honor. Six days after Peter confesses Jesus to be the Christ, Peter kind of gets it right. Lord, it is good that we are here. It certainly was good to be on that Mount of Transfiguration that day. It was good to see Jesus’ body shining with glory. It was good for us, the baptized, to get a glimpse of our own body’s glorious future. As we prayed in the collect. But the sixth day is not associated with “good.” The Sixth day is associated with very good. For on Day Six God created man and it was the day He declared His created to be very good.
Yes, Peter, the Mount of Transfiguration was indeed a good place to be. But you don’t want your Lord to stay there. That’s not why He came. You weren’t listening. There was a better mountain to which Jesus had to go. Another mountain on a different sixth day so that something very good might occur for the world. A holy mountain were He confirms and fulfills the prophetic word.
There was a better sixth day to come. Sixth days are Friday. There is a better Friday to come.
Moses and Elijah on the holy mountain were indeed good. But Jesus hanging on a Cross on an ugly mountain between two thieves would be even better. It would be very good.
Jesus’ face bright as the sun was good, Peter was right, but according to Jesus, His face being spit upon and covering with blood was even better for us.
Jesus’ clothes becoming white as light was good, but His clothes soaked red with blood that atoned for your sins was even better.
Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration was good, but Jesus on the Mount of Disfiguration on that Very Good Friday was better, because there He was bearing our sin to death and recreating us from condemned Sons of Adam to adopted Sons of God and co-heirs with with the King in His glory.
Listening to your “inner voice” you’d never get that. Listening to your own wisdom about how God should be, you’d never understand that. Preoccupied with your own thoughts about how God should act, you’d never think like this. Listen to Jesus. Hear His voice. And you will begin to get it. When God the Father said to His beloved Son, “It’s time to go down and save them,” Jesus listened. He loved the Father’s words. His mind never wandered. He never lost focus. He never got distracted. He never thought, “What’s in this for Me?” His mind was preoccupied with doing the Father’s will, loving sinners by giving His life for them. He never lost interest, had no short attention span, but for all His years on earth His all consuming focus was to die for the sins of the world.
This is why the Voice from the bright cloud said, This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. He is the Father’s Beloved. The Father is pleased with Him because He reconciles the world to Him in His atoning death.
And if the Father loves Jesus, then He must love those whom Jesus loves. That’s you! If the Father is well pleased with Jesus, then He must be well-pleased with those who believe in Him and trust His Word and work. And that’s you! If God is well pleased with Jesus and Jesus forgives a denier and bad listener like Peter, then He must forgive your denials too.
Listen to Him. Listen to Jesus. Today you hear His Voice. Though you have not honored His Word as you should, He sends His messengers in His stead and by His command to forgive your sins. When your Pastor speaks the Absolution it is just as valid in certain as Jesus speaking.
When you stand for the reading of the Holy Gospel, listen to Him, for you are hearing the viva vox Jesu, the living voice of Jesus.
When you hear His Word expounded and proclaimed, listen to Him.
When you come to the holy mountain of His Altar, the Tent of His Body, and the veil is lifted, listen to Him. He says to you, Take, eat. This is My Body, which is given for you. Take, drink. This is My Blood which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life and I will raise Him up on the Last Day (Jn 6:54). Listen to Jesus, the crucified One, who rose bodily from the dead and ascended bodily into heaven is coming again so that you might be revealed with Him in bodily glory (Col 3:4).
In the Name of the Father + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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