Rev’d Mark B. Stirdivant, Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Yucaipa, California
✝ sdg ✝

The face of Moses was exceedingly bright—so bright that the Israelites and even Aaron his own brother were afraid of him. As bright as the face of Moses must have been, it obviously paled in comparison with the brightness of Jesus in His transfiguration. The face of Moses sent out radiant beams after He, an earthly, fallible human being just like Peter and just like you, went up the holy mountain to speak face-to-face with God. Our Lord, on the other hand, is God Himself who came clothed in human flesh. In Him there is no fault, no sin to hide the Brightness of the heavenly Father’s face. He just let His awesome glory, which was in Him all the time, shine forth on this other holy mountain for a brief time. It is a transfiguration, or a change in form, only from your point of view, from the earthly perspective. From God’s perspective, Christ would normally look like this, glowing with heavenly glory. Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines purer than all the angels in the sky, so the song goes.

But there is yet another difference between these two transfigurations, a difference between the brightness of Jesus and the face of Moses. Both times you hear that these events caused a lot of fear. The disciples Peter, James and John who saw Jesus were just as afraid as the Israelites who trembled when they saw Moses, maybe even more so. But the people who ran from Moses had good reason to be afraid. His brightness was the shining of God’s holy law. Moses had already gone up Mt. Sinai to receive two stone tablets with God’s own commandments and laws inscribed with His own divine finger. Now his prophet came back down the mountain and His people had to make sure they listened to him this second time. The glowing of Moses’ face was too much for any human being to look at and it would blind you if you gazed intently on it. It’s the very same thing with the law of God.

God’s commandments to be holy and righteous, free from sin, shunning every kind of evil are too much for you, like they are for every other person. There is no way that you could completely and perfectly commit yourself to the law and be totally free from God’s righteous accusation. You have already come into the presence of God here today and admitted it yourself: I am a poor miserable sinner. O Lord, I deserve not glory and praise from you, but rather punishment. I have nothing to claim on my own. When the liturgy calls for a time of silence before we all speak the confession of sins, that time is intended for you to measure yourself against God’s requirements and realize how much you need His forgiveness and cleansing for your life.

But you know, you could study the law of God too much. If you follow your natural inclinations, you would find yourself constantly making comparisons to it. You would easily find yourself wondering what more is there to do, or have I done enough? Another way you could overdo the law is to compare yourself with others and pride yourself over how great you are living out your Christian life. You may read the Bible and pray often, but the temptation is there to make that the reason why God will listen to you—that you’ve got some closer connection. Then the Bible becomes for you a book of mere moral guidelines which you could study the same way as this year’s tax code. The law dazzles you and the devil deceives you into thinking one of two possible extremes. Either there is no hope and the promises of God were not meant for you because you haven’t completely turned your life around, or that you actually have done what it takes to please God, thinking I’ve done my part, now someone else can pick up the rest. It’s all the same lie.

It is the lie of seeking out eternal life, or just simply the favor of God, looking for answers in the law. Have you fallen for this lie? You’re in good company. The Jews in the time of St. Paul looked for righteousness and God’s blessing by carefully following all the laws passed down to them from the Old Testament. Instead of looking to Jesus and believing in Him to fulfill the law in their place, they looked to themselves and what they have done to deserve God’s attention. It’s what God’s Word describes in one of our readings as these stubborn people listening to the Bible, the books that God used Moses to write, with a veil over their hearts, meaning that they heard every word, but it just didn’t register right, and every wife can tell you how frustrating that is.

Now, completely the opposite, you have the transfiguration of Jesus. The law is not proclaimed here. There’s a lot of heavenly talking going on: Jesus talking to Moses and Elijah, the two giants of the Old Testament talking to Jesus, and God the Father speaking from the cloud. But in all this heavenly conversation, there’s not a syllable on what the human race has to do to save itself. It just isn’t there. Instead of law, there is Gospel. It’s all about what Jesus has done and what He would be just about to do, that is, go to Jerusalem, suffer as an innocent victim, and be sacrificed to death on the cross—all so that mankind—so that you, may have life forevermore.

There is no need to be terrified as Peter and the other two disciples were. Your Lord does not here reveal His glory on the mountain to show you how far you have fallen short. Nor does He show you a glory that you could attain by yourself. He shines with the unearthly whiteness of divine majesty to remind you that God Himself went to great lengths, even to the suffering and pain of the cross, to save you. He causes you to remember who He really is, despite what you see and what the world sees. Here you have the glory of God, found in the face of Jesus Christ.

But normally, from the earthly perspective, that face of Jesus is not shining gleaming white. Normally, your life in Christ isn’t a glorious, mind-numbing rush or a mountain-top experience. That may happen from time-to-time, but it’s nothing that you can build your faith on. The revival preacher can breeze into town and stir up a whole lot of power, glory and Holy Spirit, but in the long run, there’s no solid Word of God to keep the flock well-fed. No, the glory of Jesus is hidden—it’s still all there in all its glory, but it’s under a veil. The dazzling brightness of Jesus is in the water of Holy Baptism that washes you, the word of your pastor that forgives you, and the bread and wine that feeds you in body and soul. Jesus is in, with, and under all those plain, ordinary things, but He’s hidden, so that you may know and believe with God-given faith, what is really there in that water, word, bread and wine, is all there in the Transfiguration of Jesus.

And so, the Father’s words, “Listen to Him,” are not a stern, harsh command of the law.

This isn’t another Moses coming down with bigger stone tablets with more laws to follow, but rather, the Father’s voice is a loving, surprisingly sweet invitation. He says, you no longer have to look to the law, you don’t have my condemnation and punishment hanging over you any more. The veil no longer is on your heart. You can put down your tentmaking tools, Peter, because this gift is yours for the keeping, even in that valley of sorrow where you live for the rest of the week. No one else needs to be with you, but Jesus only.

“Listen to My beloved Son,” the Father says, “and you will have life. Because I am pleased with Him, I am also pleased with you for you are in Him.” By the doorway of Baptism you enter into the holy place as God’s child, adopted by His grace. The blinding condemnation of the law does not hurt your eyes. Here in His presence, at His altar and communion rail, the once-transfigured, glorious Jesus gives His life-giving body and blood into your mouth so that He might be united with you and you with Him. And as your relationship with God is restored, so is your relationship with those who sinned against you and you against them. Listening to Jesus is not something more you have to do to help yourself—it’s how God gives you the forgiveness, life and healing that you need.

At the Last Day, when Jesus raises your body from the grave, or should He come before you die, you too will be transfigured, appearing in all the glory that Christ displayed on the holy mountain. You will join with your departed loved ones whose bodies have given up the struggle with death, but their souls, waiting for the resurrection, now live victorious in heavenly splendor. Together again, you will sing in praise of your radiant Lord in a glory that even Adam and Eve couldn’t have imagined. And yet you have that right here, right now, in its fullness, though for a little while longer it is still hidden. May this Holy Communion with your Lord and Savior be for you a transfiguration as the Father says, “With you, I am well-pleased.”

In the Name of the Father and of the ✝ Son and of the Holy Spirit.