The Transfiguration of Our Lord – Series B (February 15, 2015)
“Exalted on the Mountain” (Psalm 99)
The Lord
reigns; let the peoples tremble!
He sits
enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
2 The Lord is
great in Zion;
he is
exalted over all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and awesome name!
Holy is
he!
4 The King in his might loves justice.
You have
established equity;
you have executed justice
and
righteousness in Jacob.
5 Exalt the Lord
our God;
worship
at his footstool!
Holy is
he!
6 Moses and
Aaron were among his priests,
Samuel
also was among those who called upon his name.
They
called to the Lord, and he
answered them.
7 In the pillar of the cloud he spoke to them;
they kept
his testimonies
and the
statute that he gave them.
8 O Lord our God, you answered them;
you were
a forgiving God to them,
but an
avenger of their wrongdoings.
9 Exalt the Lord
our God,
and
worship at his holy mountain;
for the Lord our God is holy! [1]
It was not all that long ago (about
seven weeks to be exact) that we once again celebrated the Incarnation of Our
Lord. The Son of God humbled himself and
took on human flesh. Born in a stable in
Bethlehem, the place the prophet Micah said was “too little to be among the
clans of Judah” (Micah 5:2). Born to a
poor virgin girl from the village of Nazareth, the place of which Nathanael
asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). From his hometown, he traveled throughout
Galilee, where he preached, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is
at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). In the fishing village of Capernaum, he
showed how the kingdom of God was at hand in him. He taught with divine authority. He cast out demons, proving his power over
the forces of evil. He healed the sick,
proving his power over the brokenness that sin had brought into the world. And yet looking at him, there was nothing
that would have distinguished him from the rest of the people. Dusty robes.
Calloused hands. Body odor. Dirty feet.
He didn’t appear very exalted. On
the contrary, he appeared quite humble.
For a
moment, that all changed. Jesus led
three of his disciples upon a high mountain. There he no longer appeared as a
humble man. Now, he was exalted. He was transfigured. Changed.
The dust of the roads of Galilee and Judea that dirtied his garments disappeared
in the shining radiance of his divine glory.
Clear evidence of his dual nature as True Man and True God in the same
person.
On the
mount of Transfiguration, Jesus is flanked by Moses and Elijah, two of the
greatest saints of the Old Testament, now appearing in glory. Both Moses and Elijah had previously encountered
God on another mountain, Mt. Sinai to be exact.
Moses stands as a representative of the Law. Elijah stands as a representative of the prophets. Jesus has come to fulfill all that the Law
and the Prophets had promised, that God himself would come to save his people
from sin, death, and hell and give them an everlasting kingdom.
“The Lord
reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the
earth quake” the psalmist says. In the
presence of God, you better tremble. You
have every reason to shake in your boots when the holy God shows himself. You are sinful. God is not.
“Holy is he.” Therefore the
disciples were “terrified” when they viewed this sight on the mountain. And this was not the first time they were
afraid in the presence of Jesus. After
Jesus calmed the storm, the disciples “were filled with great fear” (Mark
4:40). During another storm, they saw
him walking on the water, and they “were terrified” (Mark 6:50). And after a miraculous catch of fish arranged
by Jesus, Peter recognized his own unholiness and fell at the Lord’s knees and
said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:16).
One of
God’s attributes is omnipresence. He is
present everywhere. Yet in the
tabernacle and later in the temple, Yahweh promised that his presence would be
located in the Holy of Holies, the place behind the curtain where the Ark of
the Covenant would be situated. There,
the Lord God would be “enthroned upon the cherubim,” flanked by the sculpted
angels on the mercy seat that sat on top of the ark. From there, the Lord promised to meet with
Moses and speak to him and tell him what to say to the people (Ex. 25:22). On the Day of Atonement, the high priest
would sprinkle sacrificial blood from bulls and goats over the mercy seat, thus
covering over the sins of the people (Lev. 16:11-19).
Peter
wanted to build three tabernacles, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for
Elijah. But that would not have been
appropriate. Jesus is the tabernacle. He is the presence of God. “In him all the fullness of God was pleased
to dwell,” St. Paul writes (Col. 1:19).
There is no more need for tabernacles and temples. And here he is, exalted for a moment with his
own divine nature shining, not a reflected glory that needed to be veiled as it
was for Moses was when he came down the mountain.
Actually,
the glory of Jesus also had to be veiled for a time when he came down the
mountain. He had an appointment with
another mountain, not one as high as this one, but one much more
important. This one was not really a
mountain, but a raised elevation outside the walls of Jerusalem. This one looked up to Mt. Zion where the
temple stood in its glory, although a fading glory, for with Jesus it ceased to
serve its purpose. On Mt. Calvary, Jesus
was not flanked by Moses or Elijah. On
Mt. Calvary, Jesus was not enthroned between two cherubim. Instead, he was enthroned as the King of the
Jews between two accursed criminals. This
was the Holy of Holies. There, his blood
was shed at the mercy seat of the cross.
There, on the cross, Jesus was lifted up above the earth, his footstool. And from that cross, his blood dripped down
upon his footstool to redeem the sins of the whole world.
“The King in
his might loves justice. You have
established equity; you have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob,” the psalmist declares. “You were a forgiving God to them, but an
avenger of their wrongdoings.” In Jesus,
the justice of God over our unholiness has been met. The wages of sin has been paid in full in the
death of the sinless Son of God. Our wrongdoings
were avenged by the terrible price that God himself paid for them … the death
of his only Son. That is God’s equity. That is the way he displays his righteousness. He is indeed a just God, but he is also a
forgiving God. “If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
This is
what we will be further contemplating in the coming season of Lent. The voice from the cloud said, “This is my
beloved Son; listen to him.” Each
Wednesday night we will listen to the seven words or statements of Jesus from
the cross. We will learn from them and
have our faith nourished by them. The
Transfiguration of Jesus was a preparation of sorts for Jesus as he faced the
cross. It prepared him for his journey
down the mountain and gave the disciples a preview of the resurrection,
something they did not fully understand until after the fact … besides which, Jesus
told them not to say anything about it until he had risen from the dead. For us, the Transfiguration is therefore a
fitting conclusion to the Epiphany season and a preparation for our Lenten
journey to Good Friday, knowing that the joy of Easter is always in view.
“The Lord
is great in Zion; he is exalted over all the peoples.” Zion is the hill on which Jerusalem sat,
where the temple was built, the place where God promised to dwell with his
people. With Jesus as our temple, Zion
is his Church. He dwells among us. The table of the Lord becomes the Holy of
Holies where the very body and blood by which he redeemed us is given to us to
eat and drink for forgiveness, life, and salvation. And one day we will be brought into the
eternal Zion, the new Jerusalem, where we will sing our eternal Alleluias with
angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven (Rev. 21:1-4).
“Exalt the
Lord our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he!”
“Exalt the
Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy!”
Kneel down
today at his footstool and receive the body and blood of your exalted King. Worship him in Zion. Holy is he … and you are made holy through
him.
Amen.
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