Sermon on Mark 9:2-9, Transfiguration of our Lord 2021 (B), "The Total Jesus"

 

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today is the Transfiguration of Jesus, a glimpse of Jesus’ glory shortly before His death on the cross and the resurrection. After the glory fades from the spectacular transformation, Peter, James and John are left with Jesus only. And that’s not a let-down—it’s the point. Having Jesus only, is having everything we need. The Total Jesus. The One to heed and hear, the Only One we need and fear. With a newfound reverence for God’s Beloved Son, they descend the mountain where Jesus resumes His path to the cross. But we have the Total Jesus; He is our “all in all” (Eph. 1:23; Col. 3:11). The Transfiguration shows several ways how we have the Total Jesus. When we have Christ, we lack nothing. Let’s consider four ways He is the “Total Jesus.” His Transfiguration shows His Total Authority, Total Truth, Total Purity, and Total Glory.

It was quite extraordinary to see these living saints and biggest heroes of the Old Testament appear with Jesus. Have you ever dreamed of meeting some famous figure or inspirational hero from the past? Did Peter think that Jesus had achieved superstar status when Moses and Elijah show up? That Jesus had “stepped up” into their league? A tent for all three would seem fitting—camp out here a little longer and soak up the divine experience? But God quickly establishes Jesus’ Total Authority. Far above Moses and Elijah, the greatest representatives of the Law and the Prophets, Jesus eclipses them both. His appearance is transformed by a blindingly pure white light.

Make no mistake who this is: God reaffirms His words from Jesus’ baptism, “This is my beloved Son”. Neither Moses nor Elijah were God’s beloved Son. Only Jesus. He’s in a League of His Own. His authority is far beyond Moses and Elijah. They were God’s mouthpieces. They carried an awful lot of weight, to be sure. But Jesus is the very mouth of God, the very voice and authority of God, with no middleman. So far from being on par with them, Jesus is the Greater Prophet they had pointed to. Moses and Elijah point to Jesus’ Total Authority. He’s clearly in command, and the center of attention.

Likewise, today Jesus doesn’t stand on par with any other great religious teachers. People today might jumble Jesus up with other religions on a bumper sticker or in a world religions class or textbook, or in a Jeopardy question category. But Jesus’ Total Authority has no parallel. He alone claimed to be God’s Son and was affirmed by the Voice from heaven as God’s Son. Jesus alone rose from the grave, verifying His claim. He has no peers or equals.

This leads to a second, closely related point: Jesus’ Total Truth. We’re unaccustomed to total truthfulness. No one in our lives can match His absolute truthfulness in every way, without any shade of flattery, mixed purposes, or vanity. We may know plenty truthful, direct, or honest people, but none compare with Jesus. None who have never spoken a lie in their lives, or bent the truth in their favor, or left out what showed them unfavorably. But Jesus’ disciples learned by experience that everything He said was true, even when it sometimes seemed improbable, like the feeding of the 5,000. But here at Jesus’ Transfiguration, not only do Moses and Elijah witness to Jesus’ Total Authority, but God the Father affirms that we should Listen to Him—to Jesus. God gives His unqualified approval to everything Jesus teaches. Finding Total Truth is as easy as listening to Jesus.

No other teacher or religion pierces the human heart like Jesus. His words convict and challenge just as powerfully today as 2,000 years ago. His Divine Truth calls all sin in us to account and calls us to life in His forgiveness. So the call to “listen to Him” is not just for the ancient disciples of Jesus, but for everyone today. Christ still gathers His flock in groups of 2 or more in His Name, and still sends His servants to teach His Word to listening brothers and sisters in Christ. His truth still transforms our lives. It can be like having the light flashed in your eyes when you are sleepy or startled out of the darkness. Truth can be an unpleasant wake up call. God’s truth can be disorienting at first, but turning our eyes to Jesus orients us, so that when all the dazzling light fades, we see Jesus only. Truth can also be a joyous relief. Because in Christ is the peace, the joy, and the truth that all worldly idols and distractions steal from us. Jesus is Total Truth; listen to Him.

The Gospel writer Mark goes a little further to emphasize Jesus’ appearance in his account of the Transfiguration than the other Gospels do. Jesus was “transfigured before them and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.” The brilliant white clothes remind us of a couple of well-known Old Testament verses. Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.” God’s forgiveness is better than the best laundry stain remover you could imagine. But this also leads us to Daniel 7:9, where we hear God’s own holiness described in the same terms: “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire.” God’s holiness is seen by His intensely white, pure clothing. So pure as God’s holiness, does His forgiveness cleanse and wash us clean. With such intense purity and holiness, Christ on earth has no equal. He is Total Purity. His purity washes away our sins, making us whiter than snow. The red stains of our sins are washed clean in His cleansing blood.

Jesus’ Total Purity adds to our last point: the highlight of the Transfiguration. Jesus’ Total Glory. It was a glory event, to be sure—but only a preview of greater things to come. Even if much greater glory remained to be seen, there could be no doubt that Jesus possessed Total Glory. For a few glorious moments the cover was lifted, to show that “all the fulness of God” dwells within Jesus’ human frame (Col. 1:19). The disciples could not bear to always see such blinding brightness, as God dwells in unapproachable light (1 Tim. 6:16), but here they had a brief glimpse. Jesus was headed for a dark and stormy path. The cross was near at hand when Jesus would win His full glory. This glimpse of that glory illuminated the path ahead. But until Jesus’ resurrection, the Transfiguration would remain a secret.

The glory of Jesus was not yet complete, until Jesus’ cross and resurrection. Take it from Jesus in the Gospel of John, where He says the “hour was coming” for Him to glorify the Father. Not until His Passion arrives—the hour of His betrayal, suffering, and death—did He declare the hour had come, and that the Father would be glorified when He was lifted up (John 12:27-34). This consistently woven glory strand runs all through Jesus’ story. But the cross brings the greatest glory to God, as His Beloved Son, in Total Purity, lays down His life for the sinful world. Jesus’ glory comes by the gory cross. He sheds His blood to wash our sins whiter than snow.

The Resurrection became another stamp of approval from God, that Jesus is His beloved Son and God is well pleased. God raised His innocent Son, vindicating His Name. Therefore His Baptism, His Transfiguration, and His Resurrection, mark at each stage of Jesus’ mission on earth, that God approves and is well-pleased with His beloved Son. Jesus’ ascension into heaven and seating at God’s right hand further complete the Total Glory theme. But back here at Transfiguration, we’re still headed into that darker season leading to the cross.

But the season of Lent that begins this week, shows forth Jesus’ glory in a different way. One way to show the glory, seen only by Peter, James, and John, was the blinding light and transfiguration. The other way, made visible to everyone else and to us, shows Jesus’ Total Authority, Total Truth, Total Purity, and Total Glory in a different way. A flesh and blood way, with serving hands washing disciples’ feet, with piercing words of truth that left no escape, but called hearers compassionately back to Him. With forgiveness for His enemies on His lips and with bread and wine in His hands for the forgiveness of His gathered disciples—His very flesh and blood covenant. The glory show was not over when He left the mountaintop, it just took on a more accessible, less frightening, and tangible form. Actions that were accessible and human but filled with His transcendent glory.

Everything mounted up to His cross and resurrection. After that turning point Jesus’ disciples could at last talk about their experience. Looking back, it would all make sense. At the cross we see the Total Jesus, all we need for our salvation. Gloriously revealed at His Transfiguration, and yet more gloriously revealed in His death on the cross. Still showing Total Authority, Truth, Purity, and Glory, and still capturing all the reverence and worship of those who beheld His glory. Glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14). In Him we have all we need for life and salvation! Amen.