Loving God, you reveal to us not only Jesus' true nature, but our true nature as well. Teach us this day to find our fulfilment in you, that we might learn to live in the spirit of your love; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

My name is John, and I've got a few things that I want to share with you today. I know that some of you have been wondering what Jesus is all about, just as I was at the time that these things took place. In some ways, I still can't say that I fully understand, but I understand a lot more now than I did at the time. First of all, let me tell you what happened one day when me and Peter and James went up on the mountain with Jesus.

At first we thought that this would be a nice little relaxing time away from the crowds of people. However, pretty soon we were absolutely astounded by what we saw. All of a sudden, Jesus began to glow. I know it sounds weird, but it was as if the light was coming from inside of him. His face had this heavenly glow to it, and his clothes were suddenly so incredibly white that it was hard to look at him.

Now, as if this wasn't enough, all of a sudden we saw Moses and Elijah standing there talking to Jesus as if we're in heaven or something. Not only could we see them, but we could hear their conversation with Jesus. It was as if they knew all about Jesus and all about his mission, and they were talking about some sort of exodus that Jesus was going to accomplish at Jerusalem.

All of a sudden, we looked at one another and realized that all three of us were seeing the same thing. Peter - always the one to swing into action - wanted to build some booths so that everybody could stay for a while. Who can blame him, really? This was just too amazing to let it go right away. However, there was no time for anybody to start building anything.

As soon as Peter had said something, all of us were in the middle of a cloud. Now things were getting really weird, and we honestly wondered if we were going to die. It may sound silly now, but what else are you going to think if you're seeing Moses and Elijah (who have been dead for years) and are in the middle of a cloud? Wouldn't you think you had died or something?

Well, as if that wasn't enough, then we heard this simply amazing voice speaking to us out of the cloud. We just knew that it had to be the voice of God. I don't quite know how to explain it to you, but we just knew. And the voice said: "This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!" (Lk. 9:35). And then suddenly the cloud was gone, and Moses and Elijah were gone, and the three of us were left standing there with Jesus, just as we had been before all of this happened.

For my part, I was just left shaking my head. Did any of this really happen, or were we just imagining things? What did it all mean? Of course, the three of us knew that we couldn't all have imagined the same thing. Yet, none of us really wanted to talk about it, either. We didn't want anybody to think that we were ready for the insane asylum. And, unfortunately, we never had much time to think about what had happened.

It wasn't long before we were surrounded by crowds of people again, all of them clamouring to get at Jesus. It seems that the rest of our group had been trying to heal a boy while we were gone, and they couldn't do it. The boy was convulsing and foaming at the mouth. His father was begging Jesus to come and look at him. It was just a bunch of not-so-organized chaos! The boy was shrieking and was dashed to the ground, his body racked by convulsions. Jesus was clearly annoyed and said something about this faithless and perverse generation. Then, Jesus simply healed the boy. He healed the boy, and the shrieking and convulsions stopped, and he gave the boy back to his father. It was just like when Jesus had calmed the storm out at sea. Jesus spoke the word, and there was calm.

We all wished that Jesus would have done this later on, in the midst of all of the insanity surrounding his arrest and his flogging and his crucifixion. Couldn't he have just spoken the word then, and put a stop to all the madness? But he didn't, and we all went through hell together before we finally started to understand.

You see, we had thought that maybe Jesus was going to be crowned as king or something at Jerusalem. Maybe then he would lead our people into the freedom of God's way. Yet, God had a different plan in mind, and even when Jesus tried to tell us, we couldn't comprehend it. Jesus did tell us that he was going to suffer at Jerusalem. He told us that he would be put to death, but we never knew what to do with those statements. How would he ever accomplish anything by being put to death? We couldn't understand it, and it was only afterwards that some of his statements started to make sense.

The thing is that, for Jesus, death was not the end of things. You might find this even more difficult to believe, but God raised him from the dead! We wouldn't have believed it ourselves except for the fact that we saw him and talked to him and ate with him and touched him for 40 days after his resurrection. We saw him dead and buried, and we saw him alive on the third day. He wasn't going to set just our people free. He was going to set all people free from sin and death! This is the exodus that he was talking about with Moses and Elijah on the mountain. This is the great event which the Law and the Prophets pointed to.

Only now does that whole experience on the mountain top make sense. We were privileged to be given a glimpse of who Jesus really was (and is!). He is the Son of God - the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets - the Messiah - our Saviour. And our lives have never been the same because of him.

In my case, I had spent most of my life fishing with my family and our partners. We went to synagogue, of course, but never did I dream that I would end up preaching and teaching. I had never studied enough to do that! But Jesus changed all that. When we saw him ascend into heaven, he told us that we would receive power from on high - the Holy Spirit. He told us that we would be his witnesses, not only in Jerusalem, but to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). He gave us a mission that would be ours for the rest of our lives.

Well, he certainly wasn't kidding about the Holy Spirit. We all received the Spirit on the same day, and were immediately able to speak about Jesus far more fluently than we had ever thought possible. It was like the Spirit just gave us the words, and not just in our own language, but in other languages, too! It was as if our hearts had been set on fire with God's love, and we simply had to share the good news with anybody who would listen.

My life was no longer just about fishing, but had been given a much higher purpose: to share God's love with others. I am still amazed by how much love Jesus had for all of us, that he would have suffered such indignities and pain. We saw in those events how ugly sin could be, and it was not a pretty picture. Isn't it better to cleanse that sin and replace it with God's love? After all, we have been set free from the power of sin and have been called to place ourselves under Jesus' authority instead. With Jesus as Lord comes the freedom to be the people whom God designed us to be. There is no higher purpose than this! Amen.

The Transfiguration of Our Lord (C) Luke 9:28-43a

February 18, 2007

St. Luke's Zion Lutheran Church

Pastor Lynne Hutchison Moore

? 2007 Lynne Hutchison Moore All Rights Reserved