A Transfiguration Comparison
Luke 9:28 About eight days after this conversation, he took along Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. 30Suddenly, two men were talking with him—Moses and Elijah. 31They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.
32Peter and those with him were in a deep sleep, and when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men who were standing with him. 33As the two men were departing from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it’s good for us to be here. Let’s set up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he was saying.
34While he was saying this, a cloud appeared and overshadowed them. They became afraid as they entered the cloud. 35Then a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, the Chosen One; listen to him!”
36After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They kept silent, and at that time told no one what they had seen.
The reading of the transfiguration account is placed at the very end of the Epiphany season. It is the climax of the Epiphany season. That is because this bizarre and strange and miraculous event reveals more clearly to human eyes – in this case, the eyes of Peter, James, and John – that we are not dealing with an ordinary man here. The divine glory, the divine majesty of Jesus is revealed here like in no other miracle. The apostle Peter acknowledges this when he wrote in his second epistle, “For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, 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 beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased!’ We ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.” (2 Pet. 1:16-18)
So, real history. It really happened. And it happened in order to reveal Jesus’ majestic, glorious, and divine nature, equal to God the Father, and yet still a man.
And what further confirms this as a real event is the reaction of the three apostles. They were scared to death and dumbfounded. And who wouldn’t be? Jesus, in dazzling white revealing his deity, and Moses and Elijah, men who had died fifteen hundred and five hundred years before this, respectively, now fully alive with perfectly glorified bodies. How would you react? What would you say? Peter, who had a habit of speaking without thinking, said something rather ridiculous: “Master, it’s good for us to be here. Let’s set up three shelters: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah,” as if these three needed or wanted some earthly shelter hurriedly thrown together by Peter and friends. It kind of reminds me of the time when I, as a 20-year-old, went to observe a soccer clinic for youth put on by two of the top professional soccer players in the country. I was really excited to meet them. I went up to them and said, “Hey, if you want me to help demonstrate some moves…” And they just ignored me, and rightly so. What I said in my pride was silly. They were in a league well beyond mine. As if they needed anything from me! “Peter, these three are in a league far above yours. Just observe and listen.”
I want us to consider another comparison. A comparison between Jesus and the one who had died fifteen hundred years earlier, but was very much alive at this transfiguration: Moses. We read about him in the Old Testament lesson for today from Deuteronomy 34:
Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo … and the Lord showed him all the land: Gilead as far as Dan, all of Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Mediterranean Sea, the Negev, and the plain in the Valley of Jericho, the City of Palms, as far as Zoar. The Lord then said to him, “This is the land I promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you will not cross into it.” So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the Lord’s word. He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab …,
and no one to this day knows where his grave is. 7Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his eyes were not weak, and his vitality had not left him. … No prophet has arisen again in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. He was unparalleled for all the signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do against the land of Egypt —to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to all his land—and for all the mighty acts of power and terrifying deeds that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.
So, let’s compare these two. Moses, a righteous man, but still a sinner. In fact, that was why he was not able to cross into the promised land. God demanded something of him as leader of the Israelites, and he fell short. He had not obeyed God as he should have. He was a sinner. Jesus, on the other hand, had no sin. There were attempts to accuse him of sin, but nothing stuck. He was in a different league, all by himself.
Moses was a man. An amazing man, a very humble man, but nothing more than a man. Jesus was also a man, but, as the transfiguration and the voice of the Father reveals, more than a man. He was also the Son of God, the second person of the Trinity.
Moses was enabled to perform miracles. Around 25 miracles are recorded over a period of 40+ years. But Jesus was in a different league. Within three years he performed dozens if not hundreds. And he did so with his own almighty power, because of his omnipotence.
But the number of the miracles was not the only difference. There was also a difference in purpose and result of the miracles. Many of the miracles Moses was allowed to perform were miracles of deliverance – the Israelites were delivered from Pharaoh and Egypt. But his miracles – all of them – were also miracles of judgement, condemnation, resulting in a lot of people being killed. And though the miracles of Jesus were miracles of deliverance – from demons, from disease, from deformities, from blindness, and even from death – none of them were miracles of judgement and condemnation; not one person was put to death by his miracles. They were all acts of mercy.
And that brings me to the one difference that puts all these differences in perspective. They can all be summed up in the difference between the two covenants.
The Old Covenant was given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. What was the Old Covenant? The heart and center of the Old Covenant was located in the ark of the covenant – that gold-plated chest. What was in that ark? “Nothing was in the ark [of the covenant] except the two stone tablets that Moses had put there at [Mt. Sinai], where the Lord made a covenant with the Israelites when they came out of the land of Egypt.” (1 Kings 8:9) The two stone tablets were the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were in that ark. The Ten Commandments were the essence of the Old Covenant given to Moses. And that covenant was saying, “Do this and you will live.” (see Romans 10:5) The Old Covenant was saying, “Fear God, love God, trust God above everything and everyone else.” All the time? It was saying, “Call upon God in every trouble. Praise him and give thanks to him.” What for? How often? Under what circumstances? That covenant was saying, “Remember the Sabbath day, keep it holy, holding the word of God sacred in all that it teaches and gladly hear and learn it.” That just means Sundays, right? Or does it?
Those are just the first three commandments. The remaining commandments of the Old Covenant tell us how to treat our neighbor. How to love our fellow human being, within the parent-child relationship, within marriage, within the congregation, with anyone and everyone God places across our path of life on any given day. They tell us to do so regardless of who that other person is. “Do this and you will live. Love your neighbor as yourself and you will live.” That was the Old Covenant given to Moses.
It is tempting to think that keeping the Old Covenant is balancing thing. “I have not kept the Old Covenant here, but I have kept it here. I have violated this commandment, but I have kept this other one. I broke the sixth commandment on Monday, but I did a better job with it on Tuesday. I coveted my neighbor’s money last week, but I gave a donation to the poor today.”
But keeping the Old Covenant is not a balancing thing. You wouldn’t say to a judge, “Yes, I was caught speeding the other day when I was pulled over, but the day before that I was going under speed limit so it kind of balances out!” It doesn’t work that way, and neither does the Old Covenant. That is not how God’s justice works. You violate any of the commandments by what you do that you should not have done, by what you don’t do that you should have done; you violate any of them by your actions or in your thoughts or in your heart, you are an Old Covenant breaker.
When King Solomon dedicated the temple where the Ten Commandments were found in the ark of the covenant, he had a prayer on behalf of the people. He prayed, to paraphrase, “When you afflict us because we have sinned against you, because we have violated this covenant, because we have broken the Ten Commandments,” he does not say, “please remember the good things we have done, the times when we kept the Commandments and your covenant.” No, he simply said, “When we sin against you and we repent, forgive.” He does this five times, always ending with “forgive us.”
Forgiveness is not a part of the Ten Commandments. We can say forgiveness was hinted at in the Old Covenant and it was pictured in the sacrifices that were to accompany the Old Covenant. Again, the Old Covenant was essentially saying, “Do this and you will live. If you don’t do this, don’t keep this covenant, and you will die.” This was the Old Covenant of Moses.
The New Covenant was the covenant of Jesus. And it was about forgiveness.
What does the transfiguration of Jesus have to do with the New Covenant? First, the transfiguration tells us who would establish the New Covenant. It is no one less than God himself, in the flesh. Not a mere man, like Moses. Second, the transfiguration points to what would be necessary to bring about the New Covenant, for after the transfiguration Jesus keeps telling his disciples he must go to Jerusalem one last time, he must be arrested and put on trial, he must suffer, he must be crucified, he must die, and rise on the third day. That’s what it would take to establish the New Covenant.
Finally, the transfiguration points to the heart and center of the New Covenant: the forgiveness of sins. In Hebrews we are told, “Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.” (9:15) “But now Christ has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself. (Heb. 9:26) The apostle John wrote, “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) And Christ himself said regarding the sacrament of holy communion, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.”
The New Covenant is not, “Do this and you will live,” but “Jesus, the Son of God did it all.” The New Covenant is not about our obedience, but the obedience of Christ. The New Covenant is not about what we offer, but Christ offering himself for forgiveness, the forgiveness of sins. And so if the transfiguration truly happened – and it did – then you know who it is that dealt with your sins on the cross. It’s a done deal. It cannot be anymore done.
Now, what do you do that? Since the “the blood of Christ, who … offered himself without blemish to God,” has cleansed “our consciences from dead works” we now “serve the living God.” (Heb. 9:14) That is what we do.
Amen.
Podcast: Play in new window
Subscribe: RSS