Not your transfiguration [Transfiguration; St. Matthew 17:1-9]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE.

Jesus teaches us today saying:

“And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.”

Ah the big three: Peter, James, and John. The three who will see the kingdom of the Lord before death, the three that witnessed the dead daughter raised from her deathly sleep, and the three taken into the confidence of Gethsemane, today get to see our Lord’s Transfiguration.

But why these three? We can theorize and speculate on their importance or prominent roles within Jesus’ 12 disciples, but Scripture is pretty silent on this point. The best we have is St. Paul quoting Moses in 2 Cor. 13, when Moses says,

“One witness shall not stand to testify against a man for any iniquity, or for any fault, or for any sin  which he may commit; by the mouth of two witnesses, or by the mouth of three witnesses, shall every word be established.” (Deut. 19:15)

What Moses focuses on here is unrighteousness and 3 different words for sin. We’re talking about committing a crime, here, not just verifying testimony. Jesus Transfigures with an openness that lands Him under capital punishment. Now who would think transfiguring yourself would be that bad?

When you do a cursory Google search for “transfigure” you come up with a bunch of mystical magical stuff, because transfiguring is impossible without Harry Potter. So, we are usually taught not to transfigure ourselves (because magic isn’t real), but to transform. Transform becomes close enough for these popular teachers of religion and for us, I mean, it sounds the same right?

So we are taught that God wants us to transform our lives, transform our hearts, and transform our behavior so that we can spread the message:

“What are YOU going to do when hearing or reading these readings for today?”, they ask. Are you going to attentively listen and allow yourself to let the message fall upon deaf ears?  What are you going to do to become ‘transfigured? You have been called to love your neighbor regardless of liking their actions or not.  WE ALL are called to listen to what Jesus taught… Practice and teach love, and hopefully those who have deaf ears will eventually come to hear the message.  We are ALL called to be ‘transfigured’ so that we can spread the message of Christ.

But is that all there is to transformation? Just, “bring a friend to church”? To transfigure means to transform into something more beautiful or elevated. In other words, something other than what you currently are. And to transform means to make a thorough or dramatic change in the form, appearance, or character of.

Our form is man. Our appearance is that of a human being. Our character is to be a body and a soul. We cannot transfigure or transform. We would be made into something completely different. We would not be human. We would not be “made man”. We would be unrecognizable to God and He would turn us away at the Wedding door.

We can pretend to transfigure or transform, but God isn’t fooled by our sinful attempts. And yet, neither is He unaware of our inability to transfigure. Thus, the main idea behind Jesus transfiguration is not that we follow suit, but to show us that we can’t do it, yet we have a Savior Who can.

There is no sin with God. There is no pretending or metaphor. In fact our unrighteousness proves the righteousness of God, because in His divine forbearance He passes over all our sins. Not for how well we transform, but for how well the Lamb of God takes away the sin of the world.

For our sake, God made Jesus to be sin Who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. This means that it is God’s work to transform us. It is God’s work to transfigure us. We don’t know how or what a real transfiguration looks like neither do we know how to accomplish it. So God must.

Jesus must be formed in us (Gal. 4:19), not the other way around. God then makes up the plan for transfiguration and institutes what this transfiguration is to look like. It is not up to us to pretend it happened to us. It is up to God to make a way for us.

And it is in this way that He does so. Jesus is only partially transfigured today. Though we see the glory, we only see the back end of it. Part of it. For God’s full glory is revealed on the cross. It is the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus that reveals not only the true glory of God, but also the pattern we are to follow in order to be transfigured ourselves.

And it goes in this way: that we are con-formed to His death (Phil. 3:10). Not only that, but that we share fellowship with His sufferings. And in order to gain His resurrection from the dead, we must believe that it is not us to be transfigured, but God, transfigured on the cross beyond all recognition of Him being God anymore.

There is only Jesus. This transfiguration is for Jesus. The sufferings of betrayal and scourging are for Jesus. The death on a cross is for Jesus. The resurrection from the dead is for Jesus. Life eternal is for Jesus. Word and Sacrament is the mercy Jesus extends to you which allows you to commune with His Transfiguration.

You want to be transformed by Christ?? Hear His Word and believe it. You want the transfiguration that comes from God?? Partake of God’s Sacraments. You want the ability to share that with others?? Invest in the Divine Service, attend Bible Class, make all of Church a part of your life.

People can smell a con from a mile away. They will only buy the “transform yourself” line for so long. And it will be until they realize they don’t need to be in church to accomplish transformation in their lives. But giving them the Divine Service is not a scam. It is how God has chosen to work salvation on this earth.

And it is the only way God continues to transfigure you, even though you return to your sin. Our Lord’s Transfiguration is brought to us. Forgiveness is brought to us. Jesus comes to us in Word and Sacrament that we would have the hope of His Transfiguration. Not only that it is a real, historic event, but that it is something we get to do as well.