St. Matthew’s Ev. Lutheran Church + Benton Harbor, Michigan

The Feast of the Transfiguration, March 5, 2000

Mark 9:2-9

“Sneak Preview”

By Pastor Timothy H. Buelow

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. ³ His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. ⁴ And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. ⁵ Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” ⁶ (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.) ⁷ Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” ⁸ Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. ⁹ As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Dear Friends in Christ,

The Passion Season is about to begin. The Passion season was about to begin for Jesus and his disciples as well. Things were going to get more and more difficult as the day approached when Jesus would be arrested, tried and crucified. The disciples needed to be prepared to face those faith-shaking trials. They’d need to remember that Jesus really is God, that he was in control of his own destiny, that he had the power to overcome even death and the grave. That’s why Jesus took them up the mountain and was transfigured before them. He wanted to give them a “Sneak Preview” of the glory and power he would manifest again when it was all over.

1. A Preview of Jesus’ Heavenly Glory

Our text begins with the words “after six days.” Six days earlier Jesus had told his disciples in blunt words about the death he would meet in Jerusalem. His words had left them in a state of shock and denial and disbelief. Listen: He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” (Mk 8:31-33)

Whether they were ready or not, these things would soon happen. The disciples would see Jesus as fully human, allowing himself to be taken captive, tortured and even crucified to death. If they didn’t understand that Jesus was still in control, Jesus knew they would be severely tempted to believe he had failed in his mission. When Jesus told them about his coming death, he also prophesied his resurrection, but the disciples did not understand. They still had not grasped the fact that the Messiah had come to meet the greatest need of all—the need for guaranteed eternal life in heaven. But Jesus tried to teach them nevertheless.

Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. (vv.2c-3) The dazzling glory Jesus was unlike anything they had ever seen on earth. Only God could be so bright. The sight of Jesus transfigured before them showed them that this man whom they loved and followed was none other than God himself.

The purity too was unlike anything they had seen on earth, either. God tells us that even all the righteous things we do as his children are still tainted and impure, like filthy rags, but Jesus was purity personified. He was the sinless one — whiter and purer than anyone in the world could make him. Nothing of this world is pure, but Jesus showed his disciples he was not of this world. Jesus gave his disciples a Sneak Preview of his purity and glory and power, so they would understand it wasn’t weakness that allowed him to be arrested and crucified when that day came.

2. A Preview of Jesus’ Place in God’s Eternal Plan

But there was more they needed to see to be prepared for Jesus’ passion. They also needed a Preview of Jesus’ Place in God’s Eternal Plan. Like all of us, the first disciples showed our tendency to focus on the moment and miss the big picture. They had the tendency to hear Jesus and not realize that all he said and all he was doing was part of God’s eternal plan to save the world. That plan started with the first promise in the garden to crush Satan’s head. That’s what the story of salvation is all about: God’s promise of a champion over sin and death and the devil. The story runs all through Scripture and culminates in the ultimate return of Christ to judge the world and create a new paradise for us.

Christians everywhere have always shared the need of Peter, James and John, the need to focus in on the target of our faith. It’s always been easy for Christians to get distracted and led astray to think of Christianity as primarily a set of ethical rules and guidelines to follow to earn our own way to heaven, or to think of the church primarily as a building where we go for baptisms, weddings and funerals. The devil delights when he gets us and to lose sight of the ultimate goal of Christ and the Scriptures, namely to prepare us for heaven through the forgiveness of sins in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

Well, Jesus met this need also on the Mountain of Transfiguration. There appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus. ⁵ Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (vv.4-5) Luke adds that they were talking about his death, which he would accomplish in Jerusalem.

All Israel recognized Moses’ authority and was willing to submit to what he declared. Here, at the mount of transfiguration, Moses lent his testimony to Christ: This is the one I promised: ‘listen to him, love him, believe in him, for he is your salvation. His death means your forgiveness, his resurrection means your resurrection to eternal life.’

Why Moses? Moses had been placed before the people by God as a type of Christ. He brought the word of God to God’s people. He was their prophet. He was the priest, who offered prayers on behalf of the people, interceding for them to prevent their death under God’s wrath. Moses was their ruler and leader. Moses was the founder and mediator of the Old Covenant. He foretold the coming of Christ. He foretold him in pictures, establishing for all Israel the Passover celebration, the ceremony of the death of the innocent lamb of God which brought escape from the angel of death. He foretold Christ in the establishment of all the other sacrifices that showed the need for a blood offering to pay for sin. And he foretold him in words—“the Lord himself will raise up a prophet like me from among your brothers,” Moses had said. “You must listen to him.”

But Moses was not alone with Christ that day. Elijah also appeared. Next to Moses, he was he greatest prophet of the Old Testament. Just as the Lord had personally buried Moses, his greatest prophet, the Lord affirmed Elijah’s ministry by taking him physically to heaven, as we heard in the Old Testament Lesson. As Moses was the founder of the Old Covenant, Elijah was its restorer. His ministry consisted primarily in calling the people to repentance for their idolatry and back to the one true God. Do you remember his meeting with the prophets of Baal? He had challenged them to meet him before the people for a showdown, to see which God was real and alive, by calling down fire from heaven to consume their sacrifices. Baal didn’t respond but the Lord sent such a fire it consumed not only the sacrifice but the stones of the altar and the water in the ditch around it. “How long?” he challenged the apostate people of Israel. “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” (1 Kg 18:21) By appearing here with Jesus, Elijah lent his testimony to this fact: to believe in Jesus is to believe in the one true God who took on all the prophets of Baal—and won.

These two greatest prophets, Moses and Elijah, appeared to show the disciples that Jesus is the one who was the focus of all their testimony while on earth. He is the one and only Savior, who came to rescue man from sin and death. His sacrifice on the cross would not be an accident, but the culmination of God’s plan.

3. An Affirmation and Admonition from the Father

Finally, if all this had not been enough to prepare the disciples for Lent, for Jesus’ passion and death, one more witness lent His testimony to the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ. Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Soon the disciples would no longer see the glory. The time of the Passion would begin for them just as it begins for us on Wednesday. All their attention would be focused on Jesus’ frailty, his willingness to suffer and die for sinners. While Jesus would again and again foretell his death and resurrection, their dull senses would only allow them to see his death. The nearer they came to the cross, the harder it would be for them to listen. Jesus wanted them to remember his glory and his prediction of the resurrection and let this be their source of strength and hope. That would be the key to believing that far from his death being in vain, it was the sacrifice that would win for them and the world the forgiveness of sins.

Since they needed to remember that this was no ordinary man, but the Son of God, divine and all powerful to save, God the Father himself also spoke in testimony that this Jesus whom they knew as their teacher is the Son of the Most High! “This is my Son whom I love,” he thundered from heaven. “Listen to him!” ‘Listen to what he says. Listen closely. Listen when he tells you he’ll die for the sins of the world. Listen when he tells you he’ll rise from the dead. Listen when he tells you he’s not only your teacher, but your Savior and Lord!’

Dear friends, we’re just as weak of mind and faith as the first disciples. As Lent begins, we’re going to focus on the willing offering that Jesus made on the cross. In all that talk of suffering and dying, we want to be reminded of the Sneak Preview Jesus gave his disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration. In our everyday lives, we get all caught up in our own suffering and worries, and quickly lose sight of the glory and power of Jesus, our Savior and Lord. Don’t let it happen. Remember that Jesus is pure and powerful. Remember that he is the Messiah foretold by all the prophets of the Old Testament from Moses to Elijah to Malachi. Remember that he is the Son of the Most High, who thundered out from heaven: “Listen to him!” How much easier our lives will be, and how much more meaningful our Lent, if we remember our “Sneak Preview” of the glory and power of our Redeemer and Christ. God grant it for Jesus’ sake. Amen.