25 Feb

3/3/19     Matthew 17:1-13          “A Brilliant Light”

You know, sometimes I astound myself at what I don’t know and it shouldn’t surprise me because it’s a lot.  Today we are going to look at the transfiguration.  I had to look up just what transfiguration meant.  I know what it is.  And I’m sure I could have called any of you for a definition but it was pretty early in the morning and my brain wasn’t in gear.  So I looked it up in the dictionary and found that it means to change the appearance of.  This sounds pretty logical to me.  Sometimes I have to wonder about how my brain works or doesn’t work.  Anyway, today I would like to try to rediscover the transfiguration and what it means to you.  How can you be transfigured?

Karl Eckhoff tells the story of a carpenter who came to visit one of two brothers who were embroiled in a bitter dispute after farming together for 40 years.  The carpenter asked if there was any work that he could do.  The brother said, “Yes. Do you see that farm over there?  That is my brother’s place and there used to be a meadow between us.  Last week he bulldozed the levee and now there is a creek between us.  I would like you to build a fence 8’ high so that I never have to look at his place again.”

The carpenter agreed to do it and the brother helped him get all the materials he needed.  But the brother had to go to town for some other things so he left the carpenter by himself.  Late in the day the brother returned and his jaw dropped open when he saw what the carpenter had built.

In front of him was a beautiful bridge with hand rails and everything.  And before he could say anything, his brother was coming across and saying, “You are quite a fellow, you know, to build this bridge after all that I have said and done.”  The carpenter said, “I would love to stay but I have more bridges to build.”

Isn’t that just like what our carpenter would do?  Jesus Christ is our carpenter from Nazareth and He is always building bridges to mend things that we have done.  One of the things that Jesus will do today as we look at the transfiguration is tell us who He is.  He is God!  He will build bridges for us and help us to mend lives.  Often times our definitions are wrong about Jesus and so were the disciples’.

One of the reasons that this event took place could be because the disciples didn’t really know who Jesus was.  They didn’t get it yet and it would take the crucifixion and resurrection before they would finally realize just who Jesus was.  He had asked, “Who do they say I am.”  Some of the answers were John the Baptist, Elijah and Jeremiah.  There was confusion as to the identity of Christ.  So Jesus took three of his disciples and climbed a high mountain.

Three main things happened at this time.  First Jesus was transformed.  Right before their very eyes His face turns brighter than the sun and his clothes become as white as the light.  Can you imagine this?  It would be brighter than lightning or the light given off from an arc welder.  If I had been there I would have fallen on my knees at such a display.  This radiance is not lost on the ancient audience, either.  If you remember when Moses came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments, his face was so bright that the people couldn’t look upon it.  As a matter of fact he had to wear a veil to cover it so people could talk to him.  So the ancients knew that this meant a great Godly presence.

It seems that in the narrative all these things happened rather rapidly.  We are going to slow it down a little as we talk about what happened.  We live in a very fast paced society.  Because of this I think that we often miss some important things that are right in front of us.  I have heard from skeptics and scholars that this probably didn’t happen like this.  However, two other Gospel writers also tell of this event.  It happened and there were witnesses.  And it is important to know who Jesus is because this is written about three times.

Jesus changes lives.  He changes lives in an instant.  One moment you are walking around in this dirty old world and the next moment you are sons and daughters of God.  You then begin to walk around all bright and shiny.  When God enters lives through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we change.  We become spiritually transfigured.  This is one of the awesome wonders of following Jesus.  So if you haven’t been transformed or transfigured by the awesome power of God, then do so today by repenting and asking Jesus to live in your life.  It is the best thing that I have ever done and you will never regret it either!

And just as quickly as this happens, suddenly there is Moses and Elijah standing there talking to Jesus.  This scene on the mountain is just turning crazy.  These people had been dead for hundreds of years and yet here they are with Jesus on the mountain.  Once again, I would have fallen to my knees.  These disciples were just regular people like us so I’m sure this was quite a spectacle for them also.

There is a lot of speculation as to why these two men were here.  One of the main lines of thought on this is that Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets.  This is the symbol that a new covenant is coming.  And in this new covenant, Jesus will stand alone and the Law and the prophets will fade away into the background.  Don’t ever forget that the new law will be entirely focused on Jesus.

There is a lot of talk these days about people who claim to be prophets and how much of the Law do we follow.  Personally, I have a hard time with modern prophets and here is the reason why.  Jesus came so that I or we could have a personal relationship with Him.  We don’t need a priest or sacrifices in order to talk to God.  All we have to do is get on our knees and pray.  He will be there.  I feel that if Jesus has something to say to me, then He will say it during this time.  For the most part, He will not use someone else to tell me the obvious.  And as far as the Law goes, we need only to follow the law that God writes on our hearts.  We need to try to keep the Ten Commandments and the Golden rule.  We are to do the things that are right and I firmly believe that we all know exactly what is right and what is wrong.  Our world tries to tell us that we all have our own truth.  You have yours and I have mine. Balderdash!  This is entirely wrong!  There is only one truth and that is Jesus Christ.  If you hear that you can believe in anything else, it’s coming from Satan.

Moving on, we find Peter being Peter.  This poor guy does more things wrong than I do.  Well, maybe not.  But he does many things wrong in our readings.  Here he wants to set up shelters and extend a little hospitality to such honored guests.  He is trying to do the right thing and it turns out not to be.  The Scripture doesn’t tell us that it is wrong but the scholars have told us that this was wrong after they have examined this.  I think Peter just did what came naturally to him and he extended hospitality to his guests.

The important point is to look at how this happens today.  Being President of this country is a very visible job.  They are always on display.  I don’t think that any of the recent presidents started out trying to do the wrong thing.  But often times things end up being wrong for a variety of reasons.

And we are no different.  How many times have you tried to do something that was good and it turned out not so good?  We have all been there and done that.  And here is Peter trying to extend a welcome and maybe prolong the visit of these esteemed visitors and it turns out not to be really the right thing.  Peter was missing the point of the visit.  I think that this time we shouldn’t be too hard on Peter.  After all, he is just missing the point and that is something that we all do now and then.

And while all of this was happening, we come to the third part of this event.  A bright cloud enveloped Jesus, Moses and Elijah and a voice from the cloud said, “this is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.  Listen to him!”  On top of everything else that is going on here, suddenly God the Father shows up in a cloud.  And finally, the three disciples fall facedown to the ground.  They must have been used to these types of things after being around Jesus all the time because I would have been facedown long before this point.

I think as a country and as individuals we often forget to fall down before the Lord.  We seem to think that God is some sort of buddy-buddy type of guy.  We think that He is a good old friend that we respect at our leisure.  We forget the power he has.  We forget that He is the judge of sin.  As a country we seem to think that we can do anything and it is ok with God because He is our buddy.  Well, we couldn’t be farther from the truth.  He may be our buddy but He is also God.  You should be giving him the utmost respect.

This is also the second time we have God speaking to Jesus directly and in front of witnesses.  We hear God saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.  Listen to him!”  God is quite specific when he says, “Listen to him!”  This may be one of the times when they actually did listen.  Jesus tells them not to tell anyone about what they had seen until he had been raised from the dead.  Nowhere does the Bible come out and say that these three told anyone at this time.

How good are you at listening to Jesus?  How often do you just go through the motions?  I would guess that there are people here today that are just going through the motions of coming to church.  Some of you are probably going through the motions of being a Christian.  I would guess that sometimes you go into your prayer time and your heart is not in it.  I would guess that there are times when you are doing something for someone else and you are doing it just because you have to.  All this is ok, kind of, if you recognize it.  If you slip once in a while and then come back you are ok.  You are human.  But when you start to do this on a regular basis and thinking these bad thoughts all the time, then it is time to look at yourself.  Are you serving God or are you trying to serve yourself?  Does God get the glory or do you?  A few of weeks ago I asked you to pray, “Holy Spirit empower me to give as Jesus did.”  I hope that you are keeping up on this.  And I also hope that if you are spurred to action, that it will glorify God and not you.  Some of these actions will be private and those can remain private.  But some will be public actions and please give the glory to the one who deserves it, God.  And don’t be afraid to give this glory to God publicly so that others will know how great Jesus is.  I told the story before of a woman once who was on a stage once when it collapsed.  There was no one hurt but when she came out of the wreckage, she was praising God out loud.  That’s what we are supposed to do.  Praise God even in the bad times!

Today we have seen how you can be changed by a transfiguration, how this needs to glorify God and how sometimes you get your focus on the wrong things.  I ran across this story by Jon Krakauer from his book ‘Into Thin Air’ about the hazards of climbing Mount Everest.  One of the leaders on an expedition to the top, Andy Harris, had stayed too long and on the way down found himself in dire need of oxygen.

He radioed the base camp about his problem.  He had found a cache of oxygen tanks that were left by other climbers and he insisted they were empty.  The base camp knew for a fact that they were full.  They pleaded with Andy to use the canisters as they were full.  But he wouldn’t listen because he was starved for oxygen and insisted they were empty.

The problem was that he was so lacking oxygen that his brain couldn’t function right and he kept insisting that there was no air when it was right in front of him all the time.  The life-saving gas was right there.  What oxygen does for the body, the bread of life or Jesus does for the soul!  Sometimes we can be starving for Jesus and not even know it.  This is why you desperately need a prayer time.  You should have a little time to yourself when you can just talk to Jesus and let Jesus talk to you.  Let His love flow through you as you refill your oxygen tanks with Jesus.

He loves you so much that He will show himself to you He did for the disciples in our reading.  He will talk to you and guide you in all, and I mean just as all, of you decisions.  Put your total trust in Jesus.  And thank you Jesus for first loving us.  Let’s pray.