Transfiguration Sunday 2 Corinthians 4:3-6
February 7, 2016
Dear friends in our Beautiful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
We’re at the point where winter is starting to wear a little on us.Being cooped up in the house, often in subzero weather, can be depressing, and it doesn’t help when you go outside and the sky is gray day after day. But wake up to the sunshine just one day - feel the light break through the monotony of winter – and we feel alive and energized, even if the air is still crisp and frigid.
That’s a small picture of what Peter, James, and John experienced that day when Jesus took them up the mountain and showed them a glimpse of his glory. There were no words to describe it. St. Luke simply wrote:“The appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.”
Wouldn’t it be great if we could have joinedthem that day? We have so many gloomy days. So often it seems things just don’t go right and God’s love and grace and favor arehidden behind clouds. We know what God promises in his Word – that one day we’ll see Jesus’ full glory in heaven – but wouldn’t a few rays ofthat glorious heavenly light brighten your day and energize your lifenow?
It does. The apostle Paul assures us thatthe same divine light that emanated from Jesus at his Transfiguration shinesin his gospel today.AsGod brought light out of darkness when he created the universe,he brings light into the darkness of our lives with the message of his Son. IN CHRIST WE CAN SEE!
- God shines in Christ
One sunny afternoon I stopped to visit an elderly woman in my former congregation anddaughter-in-law led her out of her bedroom to sit in the living room. As we sat there the sun streamed through a large picture window and was so bright I had to squint. But as Kathryn stared out the window she remarked, “There must be something wrong with the weather nowadays. When I was younger thesun was a lot brighter. Now it’s always so foggy.” It took me a moment to wonder what she was talking about, but then I realized that she had cataracts. What I could see so clearly was hidden from her eyes.
That’s how it is for everyone when it comes to the truth about God. Not only is it foggy – by nature we’re spiritually blind and can’t see it at all. On top of that, there’s someone who works very hard tokeepthe light of Christ’s gospelfrom ever reaching people’s hearts so they see only the gloom of sin. Paul explains: “If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.” And then he identifies the one who works so hard:“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” The “god of this age” is Satan, the devil. In other places of the Bible he is described as the “prince of this world”and “the ruler of the kingdom of the air.” Although he masquerades as a “good guy” – an “angel of light” – Satan is and always will be a fraud. The devil is the “prince of darkness”,and he works with all his might to veil the light of Christ’s gospel so people can’t see it. He knows all too well that the gospel message is God’s only means ofdelivering the power of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to our hearts and save us from our sins.
“Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.”No one can take away the everlasting power of the gospel. So how does Satan “veil” its light and “blind” the minds of human beings? He does it by convincing people that the true God is not who He claims to be. When he brought his blindfold to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden he didn’t tempt them to deny the existence of God. He tempted them to deny that God is the God of mercy and love. He tempted them to think of God as oppressive and unfair, a god who was holding them back from reaching their full potential. Satan cast his veil over their hearts. They believed his empty promises and were instantly filled with darkness. They tried to hide from the God who loved them. They covered their nakedness in a pitiful attempt to hide their shame from each other and from their Creator. Satan had succeeded in tempting them to destroy their life with God.
Yet in mercy and kindness beyond all understanding, God’s grace shined in that gloomy garden with the glorious promiseof a Savior. An offspring of the woman would come to crush Satan’s power to deceive and destroy.As the man and womanheard thatpromise of a Savior, the veil of unbelief was lifted from their hearts. The light of God’s mercy and love flooded the darkness and they believed what God had promised. Since that day this eternal truth has been declared to the world. In God shines in Christ!
Centuries later another believer, Job, faced an avalanche of earthly gloom, yet in the midst of his most depressing circumstances God’s light in Christ flooded his life. He confessed:“I know that my Redeemer lives.” More centuries later King David shed tears of joy as that light of God’s forgiveness in Christ shined in his heart, forgiveness that would be won for him by his own descendant, Christ in the flesh, whom David called his Lord and God. A thousand years later, as Christ sat at the last Passover table with his disciples, one of them, Philip, in a gloomy moment, asked Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us. Jesus answered, “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”(John 14:8-9) God shines in Christ!
Satan still uses the same temptation today that he used on Adam and Eve. Instead of letting mankind see God as the God of forgiveness, mercy and everlasting love, he desperately wants us to see him as an oppressive, unreasonable god, who drives us to despair by demanding what we cannot give. But that is not the true God. The true God shinesin Christ asthe Savior of sinners, and Christ shines in the gospel.
- Christ shines in the gospel
St. Paul writes “God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” The divine light which Peter, James and John saw shining from Christ is still sending out its rays in the gospel. It’ssuch a simple message. God sent his own Son to earth, God in the flesh,human in every way but without sin.Jesus Christ obeyed his own divine Law in our place. Jesus Christ put himself under God’s perfect justiceand suffered the eternal consequences of our sins. Jesus Christ opened heaven for all people by rising from the dead.Because ofJesus Christ,God forgives our sins and gives us eternal life. Now Christ shines in the message of his gospel to give us the joy of his salvation.
Are you feeling gloomy today?Are there things you’re trying to hide from God, and you’re feeling cooped up and miserable with guilt?Satan wants nothing more than to put a veil between your heart and the gospel to keep you from seeing Christ’s love shining on you. No matter what Satan wants you to believe, today the Lord announces good news: in Christ he forgives whatever you have done. There is nothing more to hide. We can step out into his light “so that it may be seen plainly that what [we have] done has been done through God.” (John 3:20)
Have you ever wondered what Peter, James and John were thinking as they walked down the mountain with Jesus that day? They’d never seen Jesus like that before. In Christ they could see into heaven. In Christ they could be certain of heaven!How about you? Can you be certain of heaven as well? Butisn’tthat beingoverconfident?No way! In fact, our problem is that we are often under-confident! Satan still tries to veil the simple message of the gospel even from those who believe it by whispering, “But you just can’t be sure.”But God the Father says you can! Hear what he said about Jesus:“This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” (Luke 9:35) Keep listening to the gospel and Christ will shine in your hearts. He will make you confident of your future in heaven.
- The gospel shines in our hearts
In Christ we see!As the gospel shines in our hearts we can move boldly through shadows of disappointment and periods of darkness.When we are hurt, confused, and things don’t make sense to us, the gospel keeps us focused on God’s Son Christ is with us! No matter what happens here, heaven is our home, and one day soon we see his full glory with our own eyes in paradise forever. When that is your surehope, Christ will shine in your life. Others will want to know why you are so confident, and you can tell them what Christhas done for you and for them.
The next time you and I gather for worship, the bright white altar cloth of Transfiguration Sunday will be replaced with the solemn purple and black of Lent. For six weeks we will retrace our Savior’s steps to his bitter cross during Lent, yet in that dark cross of Christ we glory. The gospel will shine with the guarantee of everlasting peace with God, just as it shines in our hearts today. In Christ we can see. Amen.