The Transfiguration of Our Lord
February 9, 2025
Text: Matthew 17:1-9
If we were all honest with ourselves, we’d all like to be there with Peter, James, and John. Why? Because we want the mountaintop experience, they just had in the Gospel. After all, it’s experiences like these that bring clarity to life, right? Yet, from Peter's bumbling words in our Gospel today, I don’t believe they’re any closer to understanding who Jesus is now and why He has come into this world than they were a week prior.
However, the words of Jesus just six days before today and immediately before our Gospel reading are incredibly important in understanding today’s text and having a proper lens through which to view today’s events.
Jesus said to His disciples,
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matthew 16:24b-28)
With this lens, one can see that the entire purpose of the transfiguration of Jesus is not only to confirm the identity of Jesus as the only begotten Son of God. But that He is the Christ, and His entire life leads to His glorification upon the cross.
Still, the disciples are a little slow on the uptick, and they do not comprehend Jesus’ words. One can see this in the Gospel today, too: Peter cannot keep silent. The great mountaintop experience is in full force; Moses and Elijah have appeared, and they are conversing with Jesus, and Peter breaks in (or interrupts like a child), “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” It’s a bold move, but not one I’d make, interrupting the God of heaven and earth, or insulting Him by offering to honor Moses and Elijah as an equal to Jesus with three tents.
It's as if Peter hasn’t been listening to Jesus’ teaching; He is the One who has come to fulfill all righteousness; He is the One who comes to fulfill the words of Moses and Elijah.
In an interesting turn, God the Father follows up these words of Peter by speaking from the heavens, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
It appears God has gotten their attention now as they are filled with fear and have dug their faces into the dirt and rock of the mountain.
But again, God said to everyone on top of the mountain, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”
These words of the Father are in the imperative; they are an order. “Listen to Him.”
But that’s exactly what they haven’t done; they have not listened to His Words announcing His cross and death, they have not taken them to heart, nor permitted them to lead the way.
But isn’t this what it’s all about, our way versus God’s way?
Like the disciples, there is no desire in our hearts to pick up the cross and follow Jesus. Instead, we prefer that Jesus conform to us. We desire power and success. Put us in charge, and we’ll get things right; we’ll get things done. We do this in our homes, our cities, and, yes, even the church.
It’s good to have ambition, but ambition can also destroy unity in Christ if we’re not listening to His voice – just look at Peter; his ambition was silenced by the very voice of God.
Because our ways are not His…
As the prophet Isaiah wrote,
“Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:6-9)
The way of Jesus is humility, submission, and obedience to His Father. Jesus teaches this throughout His earthly life, beginning with His birth, as He was born of the Virgin Mary. Or as He was tempted by the Devil and remained obedient to God’s Word, or as He prayed on the night of His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” (Matthew 26:42)
But that is the hardest prayer to make, isn’t it? To pray with Jesus, the third petition of the prayer He taught us, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
Why, you might ask… because it entrusts your entire life into His care; it places all of your dependence on Him. And this is difficult for us to comprehend as we live and dwell in a world consumed with itself and the idea that we are all little saviors unto ourselves.
Yet, what darkness have you ever led yourself out of?
And this is where the Gospel is leading us today, to journey with Jesus into the darkness; whether it be loneliness, the brokenness of a home, persistent grief, or even the nearness of the grave, today is a rallying cry to take up the crosses of life and follow Jesus into the darkness of His cross that first Good Friday.
And for this reason, the time is here for us to learn again to follow the words of our Heavenly Father and “Listen to His beloved Son.”
With the feast of Transfiguration, we now know the season of Lent is near. It’s a difficult season because it often brings us face to face with the deep darknesses of life. However, it also leads and teaches us to grow in our dependence on Jesus.
So, let it be time for us to learn the way of the cross.
Let it be time for us to follow Jesus with His disciples down this great mount of Transfiguration and to the mount of Calvary, where He is crowned in glory.
Let it be time, as our closing hymn will say, for the tears over sin and darkness to flow.
Let it be time for us to confess our need for Jesus to save us according to His Father's good and faithful will.
Because even as this journey to the cross is arduous and difficult, Jesus continues to come into these darknesses of your life with His Word and forgiveness.
He comes to this rail and says to you, “Rise, and have no fear.”
Meaning, rise and go in His peace, trusting that He will come again with His angels on the last day to bring you and all the faithful into the eternal glory of His presence. +INJ+
Rev. Noah J. Rogness
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Tomah, WI
