[Sermon Archive] - [Weekly Devotional Guide]
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This Week's Sermon The Transfiguration of Our Lord 18 February 2007 "My Beloved Son - My Beloved Children"
Soli Deo Gloria!
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This Week's Sermon The Transfiguration of Our Lord 18 February 2007 "My Beloved Son - My Beloved Children"
Soli Deo Gloria!
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Epiphany began with the heavenly Father's pronouncement to Jesus, "You are my beloved Son." [Luke 3.22]. Epiphany ends today with the Transfiguration and the same words of the heavenly Father, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." [Luke 9.35]. And with his Transfiguration, we have seen and heard the last of Jesus' miraculous signs until he gives us the final sign in his mighty resurrection from the dead. The entire Epiphany season is enclosed in these words, "My Beloved Son."
So much of the emphasis of Transfiguration seems to lie in the glory that Jesus shows on the mountain. His appearance was transfigured. His clothing became dazzling white. Everything about what the disciples saw was supernatural, not earthly, but heavenly. The Evangelists make it clear that the three disciples saw the glory that Jesus possesses as the eternal Son of the Father, that is, he has the glory of the true God, which he is. But the real glory of God goes far beyond this brief glimpse of Jesus' heavenly splendor. The real glory of God does not lie in his being sovereign, that is, in having almighty power, but in his love for sinners. Many Christians like to emphasize God's almighty power when they say, "He's such a great God! He's all-powerful!" Yes, he is, but making a statement like that doesn't really separate one from the militant Muslim who shouts "God is great!" as he kills as many people as possible in a murderous rage. The greatness of God does not consist in awesome displays of power. It consists in his love. That is what Transfiguration really demonstrates to us because Transfiguration is the bridge between our Lord's Baptism and his Passion.
How can you be sure of this? Listen as Luke explains:
"And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem." (Luke 9:30-31, ESV)The word that gets our attention is "departure." Some of you know from our adult Bible classes that this word is "exodus" in the Greek. That brings up all kinds of images from the great saving act of God in the Old Testament. Certainly, what Jesus was going to do in Jerusalem was going to fill up that Old Testament event with its true and final meaning. At Jerusalem Jesus would cause the angel of death to pass over all the world and he would lead us out of the bondage of sin, death, and hell.
But there is more. "Departure" is a softer way of speaking of death. Moses and Elijah were speaking with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration about his death, "which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem." The Transfiguration is not merely a glorious conclusion to the Christmas and Epiphany season, but it is the proper entrance into Lent and ultimately, to Easter. The whole Gospel is held together by this theme, "My Beloved Son-My Beloved Children." What happens to Jesus is to your benefit.
Sinful human beings would rather not deal with sin. We would prefer to ignore it, hoping that it will simply go away, but of course, it does not. There can be no glory until the very thing that prevents us from seeing God's glory is removed. A couple of weeks ago we heard how Peter became acutely aware of his sin when Jesus caused the miraculous catch of fish and how this echoed what Isaiah had lamented when he saw a brief glimpse of God's glory. Both men wanted to be out of God's presence because they were so aware of their sinfulness that they feared God's wrath and a horrible death.
And yet, it is not the death of sinners that God seeks! The Father sends his beloved Son to be the sacrifice for sinners. This glorious Son, this image of the Father, the perfect Son, this sinless one he sends to be the sin-bearer for all of us, to take all our sin in his own body and carry it to the cross. This beloved Son in dazzling, heavenly glory the Father calls his "beloved Son." Perhaps no one says said it better than Luther did in his marvelous autobiographical hymn, "Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice" [LSB 556.5]:
God said to His belovèd Son:
"It's time to have compassion.
Then go, bright jewel of My crown,
And bring to all salvation.
From sin and sorrow set them free;
Slay bitter death for them that they
May live with You forever."
Text and Music: Public domain
The Father sends his beloved Son to degradation, suffering and death to bring us back to himself. We are the objects of his love! Following our Lord's Passion and death, he rises from the dead as the Victor over sin, death, and hell. The same disciples that he trained he sends out to announce the good news that all people are acceptable to the Father because of Jesus [Acts 10.34-43].
The Apostle Paul tells us that those who were not beloved by God are now beloved by him because of this beloved Son, Jesus Christ:
"As indeed he says in Hosea, "Those who were not my people I will call 'my people,' and her who was not beloved I will call 'beloved.' " "And in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called 'sons of the living God.' "" (Romans 9:25-26, ESV)
In their Epistles the Apostles keep calling Christians "beloved." They are beloved by the Apostles because they are beloved by God in Christ Jesus. For example, Paul writes to the Colossians:
"He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:13-14, ESV)I counted well over 60 instances of the use of the term "beloved." We are "beloved children" because Jesus is God's "beloved Son" who went to the cross for us.
The love of God implies election, that God has chosen us. He chose his Son to be the Savior. Luke's text makes that clear because the Father specifically calls Jesus "my Chosen One." Another name we can use here is Christ, the anointed one. That is another way of saying the same thing. Jesus was anointed to be the Savior. He is the Chosen Savior. God loves Jesus because Jesus obeys him and does what his heavenly Father asks him to do, namely, become incarnate and go to the shameful death of the cross so that sinners can be redeemed.
It is in Holy Baptism that we became God's beloved children because in Holy Baptism God puts his name on us and in us. "In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" is much more than a convenient formula by which we were baptized; it is God putting the name of Jesus on us. In Holy Baptism we are united with Christ in his death and in his resurrection. His perfect righteousness becomes ours and we are safely brought through death to new life, the life of Christ's resurrection. Because we are baptized, we know that God has chosen us also and that we find favor with him because of Christ. You can always be sure that you are God's beloved child because you have been baptized. What is said to Jesus is said also to you! The Father says to Jesus, "You are my beloved Son," and he is also speaking to you, "You are my beloved child!"
Of course, it doesn't always seem to you that you are God's beloved child, does it? There is this whole business of suffering in this world. Christians are not immune to suffering. If that were true, then all the world would be Christian! The Transfiguration serves to show us that there must be suffering before glory. Just as it was for Jesus, so it is for those whom the Father calls beloved for his sake. There can be no glory without the cross. In fact, the cross is God's real glory because it demonstrates his love for sinners by suffering himself in their place.
In his Heidelberg Disputation Martin Luther spelled it out very well. He says:
A theologian of glory calls evil good and good evil. A theologian of the cross calls the thing what it actually is.This is clear: He who does not know Christ does not know God hidden in suffering. Therefore he prefers works to suffering, glow to the cross, strength to weakness, wisdom to folly, and, in general, good to evil. These are the people whom the apostle calls "enemies of the cross of Christ" [Phil. 3:18], for they hate the cross and suffering and love works and the glory of works. Thus they call the good of the cross evil and the evil of a deed good. God can be found only in suffering and the cross, as has already been said. Therefore the friends of the cross say that the cross is good and works are evil, for through the cross works are destroyed and the old Adam, who is especially edified by works, is crucified. It is impossible for a person not to be puffed up by his good works unless he has first been deflated and destroyed by suffering and evil until he knows that he is worthless and that his works are not his but God's.1
The love of God is crowned and released to the world through the death of Jesus. It is, therefore, God's highest and greatest glory. This vision also encourages us because it shows us the result of Christ's work, our eternal glory. Yet, God's real glory is not this heavenly splendor, but his dying love in Christ.
The Gospel reading concludes with the poignant observation:
"Jesus was found alone."Moses and Elijah are gone. Their work is done, and they have disappeared from the scene. The cloud too is gone, and the naked majestic Christ, braced in spirit, and enshrined in the reverent affection of His disciples, is left alone-to suffer!
And so, by this vision, we are less sorrowful at Jesus' death. Lent is not designed to be a sad season of the year, but a time of reflection, a time for us to consider just what it is in us that caused God to send his Son to the cross. Repentance and faith are required of us so that we may keep the Easter festival with sincerity and truth.
What a joy to know that God takes pleasure in you! He takes pleasure, not because of what you are, but because of whom you belong to, namely Christ. Knowing this, you can face the trials of this life, whether those trials be illness, disappointment, sorrow, in other words, life under the cross! - knowing that these things are not evidences of God's wrath for you, but of his love for you. You come down from the mountain of Transfiguration full of courage and joy, ready to face whatever crosses lay ahead because you know that you are indeed God's beloved children for the sake of Jesus. If he is God's beloved Son sent to earn your salvation by means of the cross, then you can have no doubts that you are the objects of his love and favor! And your crosses are not burdens to bear but joyful evidence that you are the objects of God's love and favor!
And this beloved Son goes with God's beloved children every step of the way in life. He himself has promised to be with you always, but not merely in some ghostly sense where he cannot help you, but he has promised to be with you in Word and Sacrament, especially in the Sacrament of his body and blood. Here is his presence for you! Here he gives you himself as the proof positive that God regards you as his beloved child!
There is a precious promise through the pen of the Apostle John which reminds you of your own transfiguration to come:
"Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2, ESV)
Because Jesus is God's beloved Son you are God's beloved children!
1Luther, M. (1999, c1957). Vol. 31: Luther's works, vol. 31 : Career of the Reformer I (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (31:53). Philadelphia: Fortress Press.