Sermon for the Last Sunday After the Epiphany,
The Transfiguration of Our Lord
Jesus Only
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen. In today's Gospel from St. Mark chapter
9, Jesus took His dear disciples "up a high mountain by themselves." Light
shined brightly from Jesus, dead prophets appeared, religious feelings
filled Peter's heart, and a voice spoke out of a cloud. Then it was over as
soon as it began. Everything got swept aside. "Suddenly, looking around,
[Peter, James, and John] no longer saw anyone with them, but Jesus only."
Dear Christian friends,
As you know, our nation's economic hardships have been seeping
their way into our own town. A couple of weeks ago the Gates plant announced
a new round of layoffs, bringing the total workforce reduction to more than
fifty so far this year-and it is only February. Stating the obvious, the
talk at the barbershop claims that, if Gates were to close its doors, our
town will suffer a blow from which it might not recover. Other local
businesses are cutting their employees' hours. Foreclosure notices are
stacking up in the pages of the Leader-Statesman. This rising flood has
begun to lap at the toes of more than one person in these pews. Others are
already up to their knees or even higher. There is good reason to be afraid:
the economic forecast promises that eventually everyone is going to get wet.
Like a flash flood, you can hear it rumble and crash as it heads this way.
Add to this the more "standard" fears we all feel all the time
about the future: Where will my children end up? What will happen if my wife
or husband should take leave of me? How long can I keep my health? What harm
or hardship might come to me or to those whom I love? (Beyond such general
or universal fears as these, you probably can add a list of your own
particular fears, which plague you most especially.) We Christians need a
continual supply of medicine against fear, because we fear plenty and fear
is nothing short of weak faith and flirtatious unbelief.
Today's Gospel is a very good Gospel for your fears. This Gospel
is an especially good medicine for those things you fear that are right over
the horizon, roaring in the distance but not yet fully upon you. In today's
Gospel, Jesus has not yet gone down the road to Jerusalem, to suffering and
the cross. It was just over the horizon. It would soon swirl all around Him
and His disciples. The forecast was very dark. Six days before today's
transfiguration Gospel,
[Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and
be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be
killed, and after three days rise again. And He said this plainly (Mark
9:31-32).
The warning that Jesus so plainly spoke to His disciples was somewhat like
receiving a pink slip or getting diagnosed with a deadly disease. There was
no mistaking the fact that terrible hardship was on its way and it was
coming soon. Suffering and cross were not yet fully upon them, but the storm
clouds were clearly gathering right over the horizon.
So in today's Gospel Jesus lovingly gave His disciples good and
powerful medicine against their fears for the future:
After six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John, and led them up
a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them, and His
clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach
them. And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking
with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here.
Let us make three tents, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah."
For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. And a cloud
overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is My beloved
Son; listen to Him." And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
with them but Jesus only.
Marvelous things happened here: Light flashed brightly from Jesus'
face and clothes, famous prophets appeared in shimmering glory, God the
Father spoke directly out of an overshadowing cloud-and all these amazing
things did not do one single thing to calm the disciples' fears, "for they
were terrified." So afraid were these disciples through this entire display
that Peter had no idea what to say, and so he babbled nonsense.
The marvelous things that happened in this Gospel-the light, the
voice, the cloud-these things are not meant to calm the disciples' fears.
These amazing things are meant only to focus the disciples' attention-and to
focus YOUR attention-on the ONE THING that calms all fears: Jesus only. As
soon as this divine display had begun, it was over. "Suddenly, looking
around, they no longer saw anyone with them, but Jesus only."
Today's Gospel deliberately isolates Jesus so that His disciples
will focus their attention upon Him and Him only. Imagine yourself at the
theater, watching a lively play. The lights swirl on the stage, the actors
dance enthusiastically, and the music pulses with energy. Then everything
suddenly falls silent and dark, with a spotlight centered on one single
person. The silence, the darkness and the still will all focus your
attention directly upon this one person.
That is the point of today's Gospel, dear saints: Jesus ONLY.
· Yes, visible light beamed from Jesus' face "and His clothes became
radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them." But the
light quickly shut off again, leaving Jesus standing there with a face like
the face of any other man and with clothing unremarkable.
· Moses and Elijah momentarily entered the scene, but then they were
swept off the stage again, leaving but one actor on the mountaintop upon
whom we might focus our attention.
· God the Father's voice spoke from the cloud, but then His voice
fell silent again after it told us the One to Whom we must listen from now
on: "This is my beloved Son; listen to Him."
That is why this Gospel is such good medicine for your fears, whether your
fears are rooted in your economic position, your family status, your health,
or in anything else. Today's Gospel is good medicine for your fears because
this Gospel teaches you to look at Jesus and Jesus ONLY as the calm for all
your fears. The future was dark and terrible for these disciples. Everything
they experienced in today's Gospel terrified them further , except for when
"they no longer saw anyone with them, but Jesus only." So it must be also
for you, that you find your calm for all your fears in Jesus only.
· Comfort for your fears will not be found in an intense or emotional
experience, such as the disciples had when Jesus "was transfigured before
them, and His clothes became radiant." If the intensity of your experience
were truly to be the calm for your fears, we would need to turn our
sanctuary into a soundstage or a theater, complete with strobe lights and
pyrotechnics and a big screen with PowerPoint radiating from it. But those
things only take the focus off from Jesus. Sensation and emotion are not the
answer and today's Gospel takes the intensity of experience off the table.
· Comfort for you fears will not be found in amazing visions or
voices from heaven, either. That is what separates us from the Pentecostals.
In today's Gospel God the Father takes voices from heaven out of the
equation for you, because He only speaks long enough to say, "Listen to
[Jesus]." Jesus Words'-that is to say, the New Testament-Jesus' Words are
now the way we listen to our God.
Comfort for your fears will be found in Jesus only: plain-Jane, unbecoming,
no-longer-brightly shining Jesus. Comfort for your fears comes from the
Jesus who comes to you unspectacularly; the Jesus who comes to you clothed
in unsophisticated Words and common bread and wine, just as unremarkable as
He was on the mountain after all had gone silent and dark.
While in the vision and the voice and the cloud, the disciples were
terrified. When did their terror cease? When did divine calm rest upon them?
When "suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them, but
Jesus only." This unremarkable Jesus is the Jesus who goes with them down
the mountain and the Jesus who bears the brunt of their suffering and pain.
This is the Jesus who stands in their place and shoulders their load. This
is the Jesus who "must suffer many things.and be killed, and after three
days rise again" (Mark 8:31) so that His beloved disciples may know true
rest and comfort from every fear.
This is YOUR Jesus, too, dear Church. This is the Jesus who knows
exactly what lays just over the edge of your horizon, and the Jesus who has
already fully acted to guard and protect you from every danger that should
flood your way. Be it the economy, be it storm or tempest, be it family
strife or division, be it death itself. You have Jesus-Jesus Only-and in Him
you shall not be overcome.
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