Lives Transfigured (Sermon Mark9:2-8)

Lives Transfigured.

Grace and Peace to you from God the Father from Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This sermon is based on the Gospel Reading for the Transfiguration of our Lord Mark 9:2-8, 

² And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, ³ and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. ⁴ And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. ⁵ And Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” ⁶ For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. ⁷ And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” ⁸ And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only. 

Lord, sanctify us by the truth, your words are truth. Amen.

One man said to his friend one day, “My wife talks to her self a lot”. His friend answered, “Mine does too, but she doesn’t know it. She thinks I’m listening”. 

Ok so for those who didn’t pick up on it, that was my lame attempt of publicly repenting to my wife for my listening skills.

But thats not where I need to leave the repentance, in fact it barely scratches the surface. God our Father in the reading today says quite specifically that the man on that hill, Jesus Christ, is His son, the son of God, and that we are to hear and listen to him. Do we always listen to his word, do we always concentrate on what He is telling us? Or do we ignore him, or tell ourselves that its too hard to hear, or even that He can’t be meaning that because it doesn’t make sense... 

Today I want to show you that nothing much has changed in the last 2000 years and like the disciples we fail to hear and listen to Jesus Christ, even though we know who He truly is.

Just before this reading Jesus foretold the disciples of His upcoming death and resurrection. Mark 8:31-33 reads: Jesus then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the 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 Jesus. But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter saying “Get behind me Satan, You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns”.

Six days after this happened, Jesus went for a walk up a mountain, he took with him his close friends Peter, James and John. And when they got up the hill, these three men saw an amazing sight. Jesus was revealed to them in His truest form. He shone brightly, his righteousness was physically revealed. Or as I mentioned in the Children’s address it was like superman showing his undies on the outside for all present to see.... 

After this happened God descended in the form of a cloud, and said to Peter, James and John, “This is my beloved Son, listen to Him”...

So in brief, they have seen who Jesus is, they have heard who Jesus is, Peter even said, “You are the messiah, the Son of God”, so it all seems pretty self explanatory doesn’t it. Now they must surely have faith in Jesus... Shouldn’t they??? 

Only days after the transfiguration Jesus again tells the disciples that he must suffer and die... And not one of them understood.

Nope not much has changed in 2000 years. We have all been told who Jesus is, every time we come to church, when we went to Sunday school, when we went to confirmation classes and every time we open our bible. We see who Jesus is during these times, but we see him most clearly through those in whom he is working, as well as through the sacraments of Baptism and Communion. And every week we acknowledge who Jesus is either using the words of the Apostles or Nicene Creeds. And yet... We still follow the example of the disciples and don’t understand Jesus, listen to Jesus or see him in the right way.

The question is; even though we don’t understand, or listen, or see Jesus; exactly the same as the disciples 2000 years ago were guilty of; are we willing to be as bold, as courageous and as transformed as they were?

The disciples didn’t understand, yet, they followed Christ up the hill and back down the hill.  

What does the hill represent in our life? The top of the hill was where God revealed his son to the disciples present. It was the place where God talked to them, the place where the saints of old (represented by Moses and Elijah) and the present day saints (represented by the disciples) were gathered together... Can you think of any place similar to this??? Isn’t this exactly what we are doing right now? Gathering together with the Apostles, the prophets and the judges, as well as with our fellow saints here on earth, the members of this congregation. Aren’t we spoken to by God every week as we gather in this place. Aren’t we shown Christ in His glory every time we are gathered up the front here to partake of His body and blood. Do we really understand what happens when we come to church and are spoken to by God? And do our uncertainties stop us from speaking out about what we believe to those around us in our daily lives???       

Yes we come up the hill with Jesus like the disciples. But are we willing to come back down from the hill with Jesus as well. 

The disciples didn’t always listen, and they were sinners like you and me, yet they strove to do what was right.

Peter as I mentioned earlier had only six days earlier been shut down by Jesus. He didn’t want to hear that Jesus would die, that he would be hated and that he would be rejected... It didn’t make sense so he tried to tell Jesus the way he thought it should be ... Jesus in the most powerful way he could says “Behind me Satan”.

Now on top of the hill, Peter sees his moment of reconciliation. He recognizes God’s glory on that hill. He sees Moses and Elijah, He knows that Jesus is the Son of God and He wants to do as He see’s scripture telling him to do. So he asks to erect three tents on the mountain to house the three sent from God. Peter didn’t know what to say, He was frightened by everything going on, and yet He still attempted to do that which he thought was the godly thing to do. We don’t always listen to what Jesus tells us to do, we get distracted by life, and we become frightened by the things happening around us. But do we have the courage of Peter to speak up in these circumstances and say what we feel is biblically correct. Do we have the courage to move on from our past sins and attempt to please God every day in every way?

Yes we forget to listen and we sin, but do we let the guilt of our sin stop us from trying to do right in God’s sight?

Although the disciples heard who Jesus was; were told who Jesus was; and were shown who Jesus was, they found it hard to see what this meant until they too were transformed.

Jesus on the mountain was transfigured, or transformed. Only it wasn’t so much a transformation as it was a revealing. Jesus was already pure, he was already righteous before God. This was just the first time the disciples had seen it physically. He shone brightly. But what did the disciples really see? Did they know right then that He was God? Did they know right then that The Father loved Him? Possibly, but it was only when God spoke to them that they had any idea of what this meant, and probably more to the point; it was not until Christ rose from the grave that what God said about Jesus being his loved son who needed to be listened too, made any sense to the disciples at all.

They had eyes but they did not see, ears but they did not hear. Brains but they could not understand. How much do these guys sound like us here today?

But as with the disciples, the story does not end here for us either. God continued to teach them about who His son was. Jesus himself continued to teach them the ways of His kingdom. He taught them what forgiveness and grace, hope and joy, truly were. But ultimately it was not until Christ’s death and resurrection that they began to understand all that God had taught them. That the scriptures had spoken about all that must happen, and that all scripture had been preparing them for Christ to come to be a sacrifice for the sins of all people. 

We like the disciples are being continuously taught, corrected and disciplined by our Father. And being the great Father that he is, he continuously forgives us, and shows us His grace which gives us hope and true joy...

But how was this made possible?

Christ died on the cross to be the sacrifice for all sin. He took it all upon himself. He was the only one who could be this sacrifice, as he was the only one who had come into this world who was truly righteous, without sin, without guilt. This is what the disciples saw on that mountain, The righteousness of Christ shone through, his blamelessness, his guiltlessness... his holiness was revealed.

When Jesus died. He took on the curse of death. But because of his righteousness, he could not stay dead. Death could not hold him. And anyone who believes in Him and is baptised is saved from death, because of His holy sacrifice.

The most amazing thing however, is that the righteousness that was revealed to Peter, James and John, was given to all of us who believe in him at our baptisms. We are washed clean in Christ’s blood and are given His righteousness as our robe to wear. This shining robe that is purer than any Napisan product can make it or any dry cleaner can possibly come close to, is ours. Not by anything we do, but by what Christ has already done for us. And so we too become transformed or transfigured, into Christ’s holiness.

So what does this mean for us right now?

We should be willing to let Christ lead us back down from this hill, the church and to follow him, through out our week even though we don’t totally understand it. We should be willing to listen to what God has to say, both here at church and at home as we read the bible and pray, despite our previous sins and guilt that have already been forgiven.

And we should be willing to allow God to daily forgive us all our sins, daily transform us in His bright shining righteousness so that in all we do we can be bright shining beacons of Gods forgiveness, grace, hope and true joy.

And the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. 

Amen.