Light of Light [Transfiguration]

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO HERE 

READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• Exodus 3:1-14

• 2 Peter 1:16-21

• St. Matthew 17:1-9

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1)
 
Jesus speaks to you on this day from His Gospel heard, saying:
“And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.”
 
We say Jesus is the Light of the World without knowing what that means, exactly. In the first place, we are correct in saying it, even to just repeat it, because God said it in St. John 8:12, so no worries. 
 
When we must worry is when we let any and every one decide what it means for us and are satisfied with that, and it becomes forgotten. We pass off “Jesus as light” as something unimportant to faith and unimportant to me.
 
It is in this sin that we are enslaved by whomever and whatever. We have not thought of Jesus as the light on our own and so we believe whomever and whatever. And yet we spend much time and effort in memorizing “And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light…”
 
St. Peter leads us and the whole Church on earth to these thoughts in our Epistle today saying, “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns”. 
 
At this point our “whomever whatever” teachers will say that Jesus is simply a flashlight. There’s some darkness around us. Some mistakes we made or a little flub here and there that made a mess of things and Jesus helps clean up. 
 
Or rather, He points His light like an usher, revealing the mess and the correct way to go. Jesus is the light on the vacuum cleaner, the light in the garage, or the light in the fridge. He turns on when we need a hand, then goes away to wait obediently for our next call.
 
With this, the Light of the world becomes useless thus Jesus becomes useless. If He is only useful when we think we need Him, He is not useful at all. This is the exact battle the Ancient Church fought in the 4th century, at the 1^st Ecumenical Church Council, when battling the Arians who said that there was a time when Jesus was not God, therefore He is a created creature, and not God.
 
When Hebrews 1:3 says that Jesus “is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact image of His nature”, the temptation is to say that Jesus is the radiance and God is the Source of that radiance, separating the two. As if somehow, you could separate radiance from a light source, life from a fountain, and a son from a father. In other words: there was a time when Jesus was not the light, they want you to believe.
 
So Jesus becomes just a special boy. One with prerogative with God. The only one. He alone partakes of the Father and everyone else has to partake only of Him. The heretics will say this so that St. John 1 stays true. That in the beginning was God and then all things came into being by the Son, separating us from God completely.
 
If we do not discern correctly the relation of the radiance to the light, we lose God the Son. If Jesus being the Light of the world and the Light of men is just a metaphor for correcting small mistakes in our lives, then we lose His divine sacrifice made to purchase us from sin, death, and the power of the devil and are lost forever.
 
Psalm 36:9 says, “For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light” and when the Lord chides Israel, He says in Baruch 3:12, “You have forsaken the fountain of wisdom”, the same Fountain Who says, “They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters” in Jeremiah 2:13. (NPNF 2, 4:158)
 
You cannot separate the radiance from the sun or the fountain from life. Without the sun there is no radiance and without the radiance, the sun is not the sun. The Light and the radiance are one. If you are Light, as God is and as we heard holy Scripture proclaim Him, then you also have godly radiance. Only the one true God can do that.
 
In the Transfiguration of Jesus, He shows us Himself as the source of the Light and the radiance at the same time. No separation. No distinction. The Father doesn’t show up until the cloud comes to cover Jesus and company on the mountain, emphasizing even more that it is the Son’s own divine Light shining on earth as it is in heaven.
 
The word that the Ancient Church employed to keep us away from such a heresy is “essence” or “substance”, found in the Creed as “very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father…”
 
God is God because all that is essential to being God is found in Him. I know, that sounds circular, but I only say it to say this: Jesus is God because all that is essential to being God is found in Him. 
 
In St. John 20:28, St. Thomas calls Jesus after the Resurrection, “My Lord and my God” and Jesus did not correct him.  Instead, He said (John 20:29): “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” as St. Thomas believes.
Romans 9:5 speaks of Him as “Christ who is God over all, blessed forever.  Amen.”  
Titus 2:13 states that we are waiting for “the appearing of the glory of our great God and Lord Jesus Christ.”  
 
Five attributes that Jesus has that only God has (LSCE, q. 119 B, p. 122): He is eternal, unchangeable, almighty, all knowing, and omnipresent. Four works that Jesus does that only God does (LSCE, q. 119 C, p. 123): forgives, creates, will judge, and He preserves. 
 
It is necessary for Jesus to be true God (LSCE, q. 123, pp. 126-127) “in order that…His life, suffering and death be a sufficient ransom for all and He be able to overcome death and the devil for us.
 
In light of Holy Scripture, this First Council of the Church declared, “Those who say: 
There was a time when He was not, and 
He was not before He was begotten; and 
that He was made out of nothing; 
or who maintain that He is of another hypostasis or another substance [than the Father], or 
that the Son of God is created, or alterable, or a work, or from another essence, [them] the Catholic Church anathematizes.”
 
Not because they are the be-all end-all, but because it affects eternal salvation. This is the same reason that Jesus lights it up today. Not simply to show that He is God of God and Light of Light, but to show that God of God and Light of Light has been made man in order to heed the cries of His people, who are suffering, for they have reached His ears, so says our Exodus reading.
 
The Light of Christmass, Epiphany, Transfiguration, Lent, and Easter has come down in full force to suffer and die on the cross. He does not leave bread trails to follow or only point out the way, He is the Way and He is the Bread. There is no inaction with Him that we need to fill in afterwards.
 
In fact, our inaction is precisely what He desires. For He only transfigures once, without us. A one time deal. The rest is found in the Word. The salvation, the faith, and the Light is all to be found in His Word, not on this mountain.
 
St. Peter says this in the Epistle today, which I already quoted, “And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place”.
 
And so, today, we have the prophetic Word, the Light of Light, more fully confirmed in His holy Scripture, which you heard today. For greater than being in the presence of our Lord’s Transfiguration is hearing His Word and being in the presence of His Easter Bread.
 
For the Lamp that shines in a dark place, we have lit on this Altar. The Jesus that shines in true Body and Blood, given and shed for the forgiveness of sins, offers Himself to you on this Altar. The Light shines on His Word and Sacrament.
 
Moses looked at the burning Light and saw Jesus. Elijah was lifted up on a chariot enflamed with the radiance of God’s glory. Sts. Peter, James, and John were thunderstruck as the lightnings of God descended on the mountain.
 
But all mortal flesh is made silent when that Light descends to earth, blessing in His hand, fully God and fully man, bringing to you what you can not fully comprehend, but most definitely can completely eat and drink for the forgiveness of your sins.