Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2004 : February 22, 2004
Jesus Changed His Appearance, Not His Mind
Transfiguration Sunday
In Greek mythology, one of the more interesting stories is of a king named Sisyphus. In life, he was the king of Corinth. But he was so cruel during his life that when he died he went to Hades, or hell, where he was tortured by having to roll a boulder up a huge hill. But that wasn't the worst of it. The worst part was that when Sisyphus almost reached the top of the hill, every time the boulder would slip out of his hands and roll back down to the bottom of the hill. This is how he would spend eternity. And there was nothing he could do about it.
This morning we see that there was something that Jesus could have done when he was on the mount of transfiguration. He could have stayed there. He didn't have to go back down. Sisyphus had to go down his mountain to suffer because that was hell for him. Jesus didn't have to go down from his mountain to suffer, but he did -- to suffer your hell for you on the cross.
This Wednesday we enter into the season of Lent. At the end of Lent, we see Jesus hanging like a weakling and a criminal on a cross. If Lent is to mean anything to us, then we need to carry with us one thought out of the season of Epiphany: when we see Jesus on that cross, we remember that Jesus of Nazareth is true God, begotten of the Father from all eternity. This truth is driven home to us by the transfiguration, which we have before us this morning. This morning we see that Jesus Changed His Appearance, but Not His Mind, to go to the cross. May the Holy Spirit help us to see that Jesus changed his appearance for a short time
I. to prove he is God
II. to prepare us for his death, and
III. to predict our glory.
As we read the account of the transfiguration, we recognize right away that it was another of Jesus' miracles. All of his miracles were done to convince people that he is the Son of God, that he is true God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. St. John, toward the end of his Gospel, says, "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (John 20:30-31) All the miracles that we have heard Jesus perform during that last two months in the season of Epiphany reach their climax in the transfiguration of the Lord.
It has become very common in our day to downgrade these miracles of the Savior. The thought is: since science and reason can't explain these miracles, they must not have really happened. Instead, many people, especially intelligent people, see the miracles as parables which have important lessons to teach us. Thus the feeding of the 5000 didn't mean that Jesus actually fed 5000 men, not including even the women and children, out of one lunchbox. Instead, it was just a story like an Aesop's fable that should teach us to be concerned that the hungry are fed. The healing of the sick by Jesus should teach us to build hospitals. That's what Jesus' teaching should teach us -- we should help others to have a better earthly life, because that's what Jesus did.
Just a few days ago one of the major networks had a special about the last days in the life of Jesus -- did any of you see that? I especially remember a learned and well-respected professor of theology from DePaul University saying that there were so many contradictions in the Bible that the events as they are described in the gospel accounts of Jesus' life couldn't possibly have happened. It was preposterous that Jesus was setting up a spiritual kingdom -- it was totally political, he said. He said that Jesus only predicted his death because John the Baptist had died when he went against the Jewish authorities -- anyone could have predicted that; you didn't have to be all-knowing to figure it out. Caiaphas wasn't a bad person -- he was just doing his job, and if he didn't take care of Jesus so that the crowds in Jerusalem were peaceful and happy, then he would have lost his job. Pilate wouldn't have tried to release Jesus -- he could do what he wanted -- he was the prefect from Rome.
What are these people afraid of if they accept that Jesus performed miracles or that the gospel accounts actually happened? Simply this: If everything happened as the Bible says, then Jesus was no ordinary human being. He must be God himself. And if Jesus is God, then everything he said is true and binding on all people, including this unbelieving professor from DePaul University. So when Jesus says that if you don't trust in him for salvation that you'll spend an eternity in hell, it would be absolutely true. When Jesus shows that people who live for themselves will be separated from God forever, it would be absolutely true. Why do you think this professor from DePaul and billions of others don't want to see Jesus as the only way to heaven? Because they don't want to stand before him some day. But they all will, and they will get what they deserve for their sins and their rejection of Jesus.
While it is true that most of the miracles of Jesus were done to help people in their need, yet the story of the transfiguration of the Savior pulls us up short and makes us realize that this cannot be the significance of his miracles. The transfiguration is a great miracle. But by this miracle no hungry people were fed, no one was saved from drowning, and no sick person was cured. What it did do is this: It helped to impress upon them the truth which was proclaimed to them out of the cloud that overshadowed them, and out of which they heard a voice that said, "This is my Son."
People denying supernatural things or the gospel of Jesus isn't just happening today, though. Peter already deals with them in his second letter. There he spoke of the transfiguration when he said, "We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, 'This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.' We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain." (2 Peter 1:16-18) Peter tells us here that they saw these things with their own eyes and heard them with their own ears.
You can believe the foolishness of the world that says Jesus isn't God, or you can simply believe through the Spirit's power that he is, just as he said he was, just as he showed on the mount of transfiguration. Jesus changed his appearance to prove that he was God. This, in turn, would prepare his disciples for the next nine months, during which he would suffer and eventually die on Calvary.
The transfiguration was to prepare his disciples and us for his death. A few days before the transfiguration, the Savior told his disciples for the first time that he would die, and a few days after the transfiguration he told them this again. In our text we are told that when Moses and Elijah appeared to him, they spoke to him of his departure which he would "bring to fulfillment" at Jerusalem.
What a truly remarkable statement! We don't ordinarily talk about a man bringing his own death to fulfillment. If we were talking about an ordinary human being, it would sound like the description of a suicide. But in the light of the transfiguration, this statement makes a great deal of sense. When we have seen him with his face shining as brightly as the sun, it must be crystal clear to us that there is no authority on earth that can send him to the cross if he does not want to go. There is no power on earth that can rob him of his life if he does not want to die. But Jesus did want to die -- for you and me and a whole world full of sinners. Jesus changed his appearance on that mountain -- not his mind to save sinners.
When Peter and James and John saw the Savior in his glory on the mount of transfiguration, that sight did a great deal to prepare them for that day when these same three men saw him kneeling in a garden on the Mount of Olives, sweating drops of blood in agony, and when they saw him on Mount Calvary hanging on a cross. When they finally learned, after his resurrection, to put these things together, they knew that it was indeed God himself who had shed those drops of blood, they knew that it was God himself who had died there on the cross, and they knew why this suffering and dying could pay for the sins of the world. No ordinary man could save the world. If that man were perfect, he would only save himself. But by virtue of being true God, Jesus was able to have his perfect life and innocent death apply to the whole world of sinners.
And as we go from Epiphany to Lent, from the mount of transfiguration to Mt. Calvary, we also know that this is the Son of God who died, not because he had to, but because he loved us. This is the Son of God whose bleeding and dying is enough to give us the hope of heaven because it redeems us from all our sins.
Thus his transfiguration serves also to predict our glory. What the disciples saw there is what we shall see when we are set free from all the sorrows of this life. They were so excited that in each of the three gospel accounts Jesus and his clothes are described in different ways. In Matthew, Jesus is like the sun and his clothes are like the rays of the sun. In Mark, Jesus' clothes are described as bleached whiter than anyone or anything in this world could bleach them. In our text from Luke it says, "the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning." They were trying to describe something that was out of this world -- literally. How do you describe a brief glimpse of the glory of God? We'll know how finally in heaven.
When Moses and Elijah appeared to the Savior and his disciples on the holy mount, their very presence there testified to the fact that this present world is not the only home we have. What were they there for? To show the disciples that Jesus was certainly God, to prepare them for his death when he wouldn't look at all like God and to speak to Jesus about those upcoming events as he was about to walk down that difficult road. Finally, they were there to show the disciples and us that they had spent their lives in proclaiming the message of salvation through the coming Christ, and now by God's grace through believing in that Savior to come, they were in heaven. After we have spent our lives for our Savior, even after days when it seems like what we do doesn't matter, we will be taken into God's glory as well. And there we can see all the faces of those whom we told about Jesus.
Are you ready for Lent? Are you ready to see your God and your Savior suffer for your sins? Jesus changed his appearance to make sure you are ready for Lent, because he didn't change his mind about loving you so much that God himself died to take all your sins away. Sisyphus went down his mountain to suffer hell for what he did. Jesus went down his mountain to suffer hell for what you did. He did it because he loves you, to make heaven yours. Amen.
