Shame before glory, cross before crown

Sermon for the Transfiguration of Our Lord

2 Peter 1:16-21  +  Matthew 17:1-9

Everyone wants to be happy. Everyone wants comfort and ease, glory and contentment. But what did Jesus tell His apostles? I must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day… If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. That’s what the twelve apostles heard from Jesus about a week before the events of our Gospel took place. Follow Me. First to the cross, then to the resurrection. First to shame, then to glory. As an old professor of mine used to say, the symbol of our religion is the cross, not the couch. The way of the Christian—the only way that leads to glory and life—is the way of the cross, which is not a symbol of comfort or of a relatively easy life, but of suffering, pain, and death.

But since that way of the cross seems dark and daunting, God also knows that you need some light along the way. And He provides that much-needed light in His holy Word, which, as you heard in today’s Epistle, is like a light shining in a dark place. Today that light shines literally (though briefly) as we hear the account of Christ’s Transfiguration, perhaps the greatest of Christ’s epiphanies, which happened just a week after the apostles heard from Christ just how dark the way was going to get, first for Him, then for them, and now for us, if we would actually follow Jesus.

We note right from the beginning that Jesus only took along three of the twelve for this epiphany. They didn’t all need to see it, just as you and I don’t have to see it with our eyes to believe it. Only three were there with Jesus—Peter, James, and John—so that “every matter may be established by the mouths of two or three witnesses.”

What did they witness? They witnessed Jesus’ “transfiguration.” The German word for that is the same as the word for “glorification,” to be made glorious, to be made brilliant. His face shone like the sun. It was the brilliance of His divinity, revealed to human eyes in the form of light, since, as John says in his first epistle, God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all, and from John’s Gospel, He was the true Light which gives light to every man.

This visible glory also included whiteness. Not whiteness of His skin, but of His clothing; it became white like the light, symbolizing purity, sinlessness, no stain or blemish or spot, no dirt or taint of evil. This was the glory of which Jesus says in John 12, now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. This is the glory that awaited Christ after His death and burial. This is the glory that awaits all who follow Jesus, too, first to shame, and then to glory.

To illustrate that point, the transfiguration also included Moses and Elijah, Old Testament saints who were talking with Jesus. Why those two? We could make so many connections. First, it showed that Christ really was the continuation and fulfillment of the Old Testament and the religion of the Jews. Moses didn’t teach one religion and Christ another. Moses and Elijah were pointing to Jesus the Christ all along. Second, it showed that Jesus wasn’t just “a” prophet, but “the” Prophet. He wasn’t talking with Moses and Elijah as their equal, but as their Lord, as the one who had sent them, as the One whom the Father was about to glorify even further.

In the midst of this glorious vision, Peter is the one who speaks, though he doesn’t know what he’s saying. Lord, it’s good to be here. I’ll put up three shelters for You, Moses, and Elijah, so that we can stay! It’s really no different from what Peter had said to Jesus just a week earlier after Jesus had predicted His suffering and death: No, Lord! This will never happen to you! What would you have said? “Oh, Lord, this is just too glorious here. We’re too happy, too content. Let’s go down and find that cross you talked to us about!” Wouldn’t you, like Peter, suggest to the Lord that He allow things to remain glorious here, or that He would cause glory to be restored to us here in this world instead of letting it fall further into darkness? Would you suggest that He replace the cross, as the symbol of our religion, with the couch, or with the crown?

Jesus didn’t have to answer Peter. The Father’s voice gave him the answer he needed.

This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased! Spoken at Jesus’ Baptism—at the beginning of His earthly ministry, and spoken again now as it draws to its conclusion. Whether you see Jesus in glory, or whether you see Him in humility, it doesn’t change the reality: This is the beloved Son of God, the only-begotten Son, who is not only well-pleasing to the Father as God, but also as Man. And if He does it or says it, it must be right. It must be good. It must be necessary. Because He is well-pleasing to His Father at all times. So if He says He must go to the cross, if He says you must follow Him through shame and suffering and cross in order to get to the glory on the other side, that is the good will of the Father.

Now, what should we do? God, the Father Almighty, tells us what to do: Hear Him! Listen to Him! That’s what you do now. That’s what you do during this time of the cross and shame. You hear Jesus, not whispering in your ear, but speaking to you through His own inspired word and through the preaching of that word that He Himself ordained.

And what is it that you hear Him talking about in His word? You hear Him talking quite a bit about the cross, first His, then yours. But you also hear a promise that accompanies the cross, that His death on the cross paid for the sins of the world, and that His death will be applied to you for the forgiveness of sins through faith in Christ, and also a promise of glory, first for Him, then for you who follow Him and remain with Him.

You hear Jesus mark you who are baptized with the same seal of God’s approval that He received when He was baptized. He who believes and is baptized will be saved! You hear Jesus, through the Apostle Paul, describe you who are baptized as wearing the same pure, white garments He was clothed with in the Transfiguration: As many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. And Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

You hear Jesus pointing to the inspired Holy Scriptures, that light shining in a dark place. When you walk by that glorious light, you don’t walk in the darkness of ignorance any longer, and you don’t have to keep groping in the dark for what’s true and what’s not true, since His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light for our path. And you hear Jesus telling you to take and eat; this is My body. Take and drink, this is My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

You hear Jesus telling you Christians that you are the light of the world. Men will see your good works and will glorify God because of them. Your love will stand out in contrast with the world’s hatred. Your chaste behavior will stand out in contrast with the world’s sexual immorality. Your patient endurance of suffering will stand out in contrast with the world’s bitterness and vengefulness. Your mercy will stand out in contrast with the world’s selfishness and readiness to condemn. And your courage will stand out in contrast with the world’s fear. You will shine as lights in this dark world.

You hear Jesus telling you that in this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. You hear Him telling you that He rose from the dead and reigns at God’s right hand and that He will come again in glory. And you hear Him telling you that, if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.

These words of Jesus, everything recorded in Scripture, this sermon you’re hearing today, is your God-given light, your God-given glory, for today, for this week, for the rest of your time on this way of the cross. The way of the cross is always dark; the valley of the shadow of death is always dim. But the glory of Christ, hidden from the eyes, still shines brightly in His word. It will light up the way of the cross for you in this world, until you reach the endless glory of the world to come. Amen.