This morning, we, with the disciples, Sts. Peter, James, and John, have a mountaintop experience. We climb the Mount of Transfiguration where we see Jesus surrounded by the Law and the Prophets, Moses and Elijah. There, we see Jesus transfigured, His appearance being transformed, His face and clothing outshining the sun, and we realize that we are in the presence of God. This, we experience at the invitation of God who sends forth His Holy Spirit to record this text and speak it into our ears. With the three disciples, you have become Jesus’ inner circle. With the hearing of this text, you stand on holy ground and hear the voice of God. “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” (Matthew 17:5)
“Hear Him,” God, the Father tells us. Hear Him, because what He has to say to you is important. His Words are the Words of eternal life, spoken by He who is the Light and Life of men. Jesus’ Words create and destroy, kill and make alive, condemn and absolve, cast down and raise up. Jesus sustains all of creation with His Word. With it, He daily provides for all our needs in this body and life. With it, He cares for our souls.
“Hear Him!” For Jesus is the only One to whom it is really worth listening. “Hear Him!” Listen in on His conversation with Moses and Elijah, for He speaks of His exodus from this life. Jesus speaks of His coming crucifixion and death. “Hear Him!” For the gruesome death, which He suffered, was meant for more than show. His death on the Cross was not meant to show that Jesus was some sort of divine facilitator who spurs you on to a holy life by which you make yourself acceptable to God and, therefore, somehow have a hand in your own salvation. He did not die so that your heart would be set ablaze. He did not die so that you could make promises you will not keep. He did not die so that you could ask, “What would Jesus do?” For you cannot die an innocent death, can you? You are a sinner, and whatever punishment you might have received for your sins you more than deserve. No, Jesus’ death was meant to redeem you, a lost and condemned sinner, to pay the price you could not pay, to drain the cup of God’s righteous wrath to the dregs so that you could drink from the Cup of Salvation. “Hear Him!”
Jesus invited you today to the Mount of Transfiguaration to behold “His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full or grace and truth.” (John 1:14) It is good for us to be here. But often, we, with St. Peter, confuse the mountaintop experience for the ultimate experience.
We prefer the high emotion of the mountaintop and would erect tabernacles to preserve the moment. But the problem with the emotion of the mountaintop is that such an experience is all about the emotion and has very little, if anything at all, to do with Jesus. Such an experience tends to draw your eyes away from Jesus and His Cross and places your focus on how you feel, but just like cotton candy once it is in your mouth, when the emotion melts away, there isn’t much of any substance left to sustain you.
Still, we prefer emotion over substance. We want “feel good” theology that stresses a “flower child” Jesus, a “hippy” Jesus, an “it’s all good” Jesus, nearly any kind of Jesus but the Jesus of Holy Scripture. You don’t like hearing about your sins. You don’t like hearing that there is nothing you can do for yourself. Most of all, you really want nothing to do with Jesus’ Cross and suffering.
Repent! Stop looking for peace in all the wrong places. Repent, because with such an attitude, we stand with St. Peter, rebuked by our Lord who said, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:23) Repent, because unless you recognize your sin, you will never see the need for Jesus and His love and sacrifice. Jesus didn’t remain on the mountain, because there was one more mountain remaining for Jesus to climb— Mount Calvary.
Jesus came down from the Mount of Transfiguration and climbed Mount Calvary so that you wouldn’t have to. Jesus came down from the light of His glory to hang dead in the darkness of your sin. Jesus came down from the Mount of Transfiguration because His true glory was not in the moment He was transformed and all was light, but in being nailed to His throne and lifted up, drawing all men to Himself. There was no bright light, no voice from heaven, no Father, no Elijah, no Moses. There were no Disciples, save one, because all the rest had run away. There was nothing but the brutalized Body of the Son of God, hanging in the darkness upon His Cross, bearing the weight of the sin of the world, for the life of the world. This was His glory, for in the darkness of that most holy of days, Jesus defeated sin, Satan, and the grave, and brought you out of death to life.
Mount Calvary is the place where the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled. Here, the Voice from the cloud is echoed in the voice of the Roman centurion, “Truly this was the Son of God.” (Matthew 27:54) Jesus is the Father’s beloved Son, in whom you are made beloved of the Father. In Jesus, the Father is well please with you.
Do you wish to see the glorified Jesus? Then behold the Jesus of the Gospels. “Hear Him!” For God the Father is manifested in the preaching of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is manifested in the preaching of the Cross. “Hear Him!” For in His preaching we are called to faith and made glorified. “Hear Him” and behold Jesus in the Sacraments, for He is there according to His living flesh, crucified, dead, buried, resurrected, and glorified for you. “Hear Him” when He signs you with His Holy Name in Baptism. “Hear Him” when He says to you, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” “Hear Him” when He says, “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:54) For Jesus speaks with power and truth. His Words accomplish what He sends them out to do. “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:24) “Hear Him” for “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17)
Do you wish to see the glorified Jesus? Then be where He has promised to be for us—on Mount Zion, in His holy Church, where the Word is preached in all its purity and power and the Sacraments rightly administered. There Jesus is, right where He said He would be, in the Tabernacle of His Flesh, establishing and maintaining His Kingdom among us. Here, on this holy Mountain, we are given the Words of the New Covenant, we are sprinkled with Christ’s holy Covenant Blood and we eat and drink with God, without fear.
“Hear Him,” God, the Father tells us. Hear Jesus, because what He has to say to you is important. His Words are Spirit and truth. They are the Words of eternal life. What Words are these? You have already heard them, even this day when you heard Jesus say, “I forgive you all your sins.”
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Amen.
