The Transfiguration of our Lord, Cycle C

"New and Improved!"

February 22, 2004

The Rev. Dr. David M. Wendel

Saint Luke’s Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Lessons:     Exodus 34:29-35;  2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2;  St. Luke 9:28-36

"New!"  "Improved!"  "Now, with More!"  "Now, It's Better!"

     We all seem to be looking for something--different.  The old never seems quite good enough.  The old doesn't seem to measure up, so, we're always looking, searching--for something new, and improved, that gives us more, and better.  The most obvious indication of that is in the development of new products, and the drive to market old products in new ways.  It doesn't matter what products--every year, they are new, improved, better!  And if they can't find anything to make them new and improved, then they give us more--a bigger size, a larger package, so that it's a greater value!  We look for that in our cleaning products, our foods and snacks, our tools and equipment, our computers and computer programs.  We look for what's exciting and cutting-edge--for what will make things easier for us--for what will do a better job with less work--for what will satisfy our constant craving for something different.  It's true with regard to things--and sometimes, it's true with regard to people.  Sometimes, marriages end, not because of infidelity, not because the marriage bond is irrevocably broken--but simply because, we tire of one another.  Sometimes, marriages end, because rather than bring some fun and joy back into your "old" relationship--you seek out the excitement of an affair--you seek out something that you think will be "new" and "improved"--better than what you had before.  Isn't it sad, that we have a hard time being happy with what we've got? Isn't it sad that we have this insatiable desire to always have something different, rather than being able to appreciate and value, what we already have?

     As we think about the Festival of the Transfiguration of our Lord, it would be easy to think of this revelation of Jesus, as something new, exciting, and different.  Certainly, Peter, James and John, who went up the mountain with Jesus, had never seen him this way before.  And while Jesus was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white!  You can almost hear the marketing strategies, "Now, Jesus, new and improved--with increased whitening, to make him bright and shiny!"  This was surely a shock to the disciples, leaving them, at first, with the feeling that something was really different about this Jesus.  And in a way, there was something different about Jesus.  But then, in the very next moment, this experience of the Transfiguration aims to tell us that Jesus is not so new and different, after all.  Because in the very next moment, after Jesus is shining like the sun, St. Luke tells us, "Suddenly, they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to Jesus.  They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem."  Now, it would've been easy, and indeed, tempting, for Jesus' followers to think of him as a "new and improved" Messiah--as a religious figure apart from his Jewish background--as a teacher who brought new ideas, and new teachings, and new ways of living as children of God.  It would've been easy, because in many ways, what Jesus was saying and doing WAS different, from what they'd experienced in Judaism in their own lives.  Judaism had become rigid, and mechanical--most of their religious leaders had lost a sense of God's love and grace and mercy--so that, when Jesus appeared on the scene, talking about mercy and love, showing mercy and love in his own life, it appeared quite new --so that there was some danger of folks thinking this Jesus was here to establish a whole new religion!  But the Transfiguration makes it clear--that Jesus isn't working for some "new" God--that Jesus isn't creating a new religion--but rather, is renewing faith in the one, true God.  Yes, that Jesus is creating a new relationship, formed by a new covenant, but with the same "old" God that had been around since Abraham, Isaac and Jacob--indeed, the same "old" God that was there with Moses and Elijah--the same "old" God that both the Law, and the Prophets, describe, and testify to--in all their lives, and in all their writings.  Had the Transfiguration happened, with just the glory and the dazzling white appearance, it would've been easy for the disciples to have concluded, this is something new.  But the appearance of Moses and Elijah;  the fact that they showed up, and discussed with Jesus his approaching departure, assured Peter, James and John--that this Jesus, was not something new and different;  was not a Messiah new and improved that was going to present a new religion--no, this Jesus, was the one foretold by the Law and the Prophets, throughout the ages.  This Jesus was here to give witness to the same God and Father who had been at work from the very beginning, working through the Law and the Prophets to show His love and mercy, working to renew His relationship with His children time and time again, until finally, in the fullness of time, He sent His Son--the Son, who would be the Messiah, the one chosen, and anointed, to depart this world, not in a blaze of glory--not in some miraculous display of world-conquering pyro-technics--but to depart this world, first, on a cross--by his own death--his own sacrifice, on an instrument of execution.  The presence of Moses and Elijah, was intended to assure all of Jesus' disciples, then and now, that once Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem, what would happen to him, would happen in accordance with the Law and the Prophets;  in accord with all that God the Father willed, and intended, right down to the death of His only begotten Son, on the cross, as foretold by the Holy Scriptures.  God wanted Peter, James, and John, to know this, so that they would understand--that all this had to happen, as it had been foretold, in order for God, to renew His relationship with His people--which is what he'd been trying to do, since that first sin, in the garden of Eden.  Nothing new, nothing different--just God, trying over and over again, to bring His people back into a right relationship with Him.  God trying through the Law and the Prophets, to bring His people back into a relationship of love and obedience and repentance and forgiveness.  And though the gift of God the Father's only Son, to be a sacrifice, a payment for the sins of the world, can certainly be thought of as something, new--something, different--it wasn't really a change of strategy--it was simply God, doing what needed to be done, in order, once and for all, to bring His children back to Him.  And if Peter, James and John didn't yet, accept, or understand that this Jesus, was the Son of the Father in heaven;  if they still weren't assured that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets--the Father gives them, and us, yet one more sign--His own voice from heaven that said, "This is my Son, my Chosen;  listen to Him!" And what does that voice from heaven, mean for us, today, as we stand at the threshold of the season of Lent;  as we prepare to follow Jesus, through Lent, finally to end up at the cross, where we, too, will witness His departure from this life--on the cross? 

     Just as the Transfiguration was meant to show Peter, James and John, that Jesus was not separated from, different from the Messiah foretold in the Old Testament, we are to realize, as well, that the Old Testament and the New, the Old Covenant and the New, are of one piece--that just as Jesus is foretold and described in the Law and the Prophets, so also the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled in Jesus, and Jesus is the continuation of everything that is proclaimed, in the Old Testament writings.  Because of Jesus, the teachings of the Old Testament do not become, irrelevant, or out-dated; to the contrary--because of Jesus, and his death and resurrection, we are set free, to commit ourselves wholly, to the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets!  St. Paul writes, "Indeed, to this day, whenever Moses is read--in other words, whenever one reads about the Laws of the Old Testament, a veil lies over the mind--we don't understand the laws and commandments of God--but when one turns to the Lord, Jesus, the veil is removed.  Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.  And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another."  Without Jesus, we don't understand the laws and commandments of God--we don't understand how we can grasp them or keep them.  But now that we are freed from the burden of the law, we are set free, to live for the law!  Now, the freedom won for us by the death and resurrection of Jesus, is a freedom, not to do whatever we want--but the freedom to live for God, and to strive to grow into the fullness of God's image, being transformed into his image, from one degree of glory to another; being transformed into God's likeness, one step at a time.  And the way that we do that--the way that we come to understand what God's will and command is for us, is by listening to Jesus--the Father's only Son--by listening to Him, as he unfolds for us, the Law and the Prophets;  indeed, as He reveals the scriptures to us, as he did for those disciples on the road to Emmaus, after his resurrection.  The message of the Transfiguration, for us, is that God's Word, proclaimed in the Law and the Prophets, enfleshed in God's Son, Jesus, is trustworthy and true--that it can not be improved upon, or different from what it has always been--a testimony to God's love and saving actions--a testimony to God's desire for us to live according to His will and law--a testimony to the sacrifice of His own Son, on the cross, and His resurrection, on the third day--to set us free, for--the Law and the Prophets--to set us free for, transformation, into, God's image and likeness--so that we will be, new, and improved!  So that you and I, will be different, because, we will become, more and more, the image and likeness, of God, made real, in Jesus, His Son.  Throughout the season of Lent, may you and I, may we, hear and heed, both the Law and the Prophets;  may we listen to God's Son, His Chosen--to be set free, for, transformation, into the glory of the Lord, from one degree to another!

     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.