4 minute read
Down from the Mountain
By Rev. George F. Borghardt
Brighter than bright! Lighter than Light! Very God of very God! Jesus shines like the sun at His Transfiguration!
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The Epiphany season has been all about Jesus showing us His glory. Wise men from the East came to Jerusalem to worship the One born King of the Jews. The Father spoke, “This is my Beloved Son with whom I am well pleased,” and the Holy Spirit descended from heaven as a dove at His Baptism. Jesus changed water into top-shelf wine, healed the sick, and raised the dead. That’s a lot of Epiphanies!
But at the end of the Epiphany season, Jesus puts on His greatest show! He is transfigured before St. Peter, St. James, and St. John. His face shines like the sun with unborrowed light, and His clothes become as white as lightning. He changes form. He is transfigured. His glory is revealed to them. Now that’s an Epiphany!
God is in the flesh and blood of the man, Jesus. He is not far off at all. He’s not distant on some mountaintop. He is with you. He is for you. He is near you. He is true God, begotten of His Father from all eternity. He is true man born of the Virgin Mary. He is your Lord. He is your God.
St. Peter didn’t get it. I’d have missed it, too. I’d have gotten so excited about Jesus shining like the sun and about being there to see it, that I’d have wanted to stay on that mountain with Jesus forever. “This is even better than an HT conference! Let’s build three altars! One for you, Jesus. Then we can build one for Moses and one for Elijah! Let’s stay in this mountaintop experience forever!”
After all, that’s how we like God: bright and shining and powerful. God on our terms. God only for us. God doing and saying what we want Him to do and to say. God looking like we think He should look. But the problem with God is that He can’t be controlled or manipulated by us. He does what He does. He says what He says. He can’t be bought, bribed, or fought. He doesn’t lose—ever. He isn’t even on our team, because we are sinners. Our wants and desires are soiled by our sin. So as Peter is rambling about how this is the best retreat ever, the cloud and the majesty of God shows up and the Father speaks from the cloud, “This is my beloved Son, listen to Him!”
God is God. We are sinners. His holiness overwhelms sinners. He judges them for what they are: His enemies. He condemns and accuses sinners with His Law. He sends sinners to hell. The end. So the disciples run and hide, trying to cover their heads from the God they were big fans of right up until their sin was shown to them. Suddenly there was just too much God on the mountain for them and they were going to be destroyed by Him.
Jesus was standing on the mountain just like Yahweh! He was talking to the two top prophets of the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah. And if we would listen, we would hear the true glory of God: St. Luke says they were talking about “His exodus which is about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem,” (St. Luke 9:31).
The Exodus was the salvific event in the Old Testament! God brought His people out of Egypt, out of their slavery, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Over and over again, God’s prophets make reference to the Exodus. God saved His people. He will do it again through His Son.
On the mountain, Jesus shows that all of the Old Testament pointed to Him! It all is focused on the Exodus that would take place when He died for you on the cross. There God saved His people from slavery. There in Jerusalem, on the tree, God shows His love for His people—He dies for them! For there aren’t two gods: one god of the Old Testament and a nicer, sweeter, god in the New Testament. No, Jesus is the Lord God of the Old Testament! He is the God who saves His people by dying.
“Rise, stop being afraid!” The Lord speaks to St. Peter, St. James, and St. John. He doesn’t judge them. He doesn’t condemn them. He speaks them out of their fear. He raises them from their sin and death. They look up and they don’t see the cloud—the majesty of Almighty God. There is only Jesus.
This is Jesus’ greatest Epiphany! This is the culmination of the entire season! Jesus didn’t come to shine like the sun. He didn’t come to condemn sinners or make them afraid. He comes down from the mountain headed for the cross. That is why He came! He came to die for you and to die for me. That’s what makes the Father so happy! That’s the Epiphany of the Transfiguration: Jesus is headed for Jerusalem. He’s headed into the Lenten season to die, and you will be saved.
Rev. George F. Borghardt is the senior pastor at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Bossier City, Louisiana. He also serves as the president of Higher Things.
