The Transfiguration of Our Lord Rev. Darrell Debowey Immanuel Lutheran Church, Springfield, IL February 7, 2016 Deuteronomy 34:1 12: 1 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. And the LORD showed him all the land, Gilead as far as Dan, 2 all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, 3 the Negeb, and the Plain, that is, the Valley of Jericho the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. 4 And the LORD said to him, This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, I will give it to your offspring. I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there. 5 So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD, 6 and he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. 7 Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed, and his vigor unabated. 8 And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days. Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. 9 And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the LORD had commanded Moses. 10 And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11 none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 12 and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. The Grace of Perfect Forgiveness INTRODUCTION Last week, using 1st Corinthians 13 as the basis for our meditation, I talked about love divine love. How we are to love our brothers and sisters in Christ as Jesus loves us especially by setting aside our own rights and wants and desires to love and help and forgive our neighbor. So, how are you doing? How good is your love? Is your love perfectly patient? Is it perfectly kind? Have you given up all envy and boasting? If your team wins the Super Bowl this evening, are you going to refrain from all arrogance or rudeness? Are you perfectly comfortable letting other people be first in line and having their way? Are you perfectly calm and never irritable or resentful? Do you willingly bear your brother s burdens? Do you earnestly reject every tidbit of gossip that you hear? Do you regularly defend those who are being slandered or Page 1
maligned? Do you always willingly endure the world s hatred because you love love the truth and follow Jesus? Is your thanksgiving to God generous and the forgiveness of your neighbor s sins unconditional? I didn t think so. Truth is, we re pretty shabby at everything God wants us to do. That s the honest-to-god truth, isn t it? Our patience is shabby, our kindness is shabby, our deference is shabby, our willingness to defend our neighbor is shabby, our generosity is shabby, our worship is shabby, our forgiveness is shabby our faith, hope and love are shabby. When it comes to love, God doesn t desire good enough. He demands perfection. Jesus said, You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (Mt. 5:48). You must love perfectly as your heavenly Father loves perfectly. In the same context, Jesus also said, For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:20). Now, if any of us could love perfectly, we would be perfectly righteous we wouldn t need God s grace and mercy, which means, we wouldn t need Jesus. If we could love perfectly, the most important message of the Church would be, do this and do that and obey to the Law ; it wouldn t be, repent and believe the Gospel. Now, none of us is able to love perfectly or forgive perfectly but God does! That s why I love the Old Testament stories they are true stories of real people with real struggles. The stories of God s people in the Old Testament are stories about sinners people with flawed characters who made poor choices. They struggled with impatience and hatred, sexual desire and Page 2
jealousy, self-confidence, self-control, and self-centeredness, obedience and generosity, and forgiveness and trust. Yet God loved them and forgave them and used them to lead His people, extend His kingdom on earth, teach His Word of truth, and prepare the way for the Messiah. All you have to do is look at the genealogies of Jesus in the New Testament. His ancestors according to the flesh were all sinners from Adam to Mary. Take, for example, Moses in our Old Testament reading: After all his years of service, the closest he gets to the Promised Land is a glimpse from the top of Mt. Nebo. Then he dies and is buried. God doesn t permit Moses to enter the Promised Land as a consequence of his sin at Meribah, where Moses, as he reports in the book of Numbers, rebelled against [God s] word in the wilderness of Zin when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold [the Lord] as holy (Num. 27:12-14). If Moses had to be perfect to be saved, not only would he have missed out on the Promised Land, he would have missed out on heaven, as well. But in grace, God raised Moses from the dead and gave him life in heaven. Moses missed out on the Promised Land because his love for God wasn t perfect, but he didn t miss out on heaven because God s love for him was perfect. Moses didn t complain that he couldn t enter the Land of Canaan he knew God was just in His judgment but Moses died and went to heaven because he enjoyed the grace of perfect forgiveness. Despite Moses faults and sins, God did mighty things through his servant: There has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, 11 none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 12 and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. Page 3
As sinners, none of us is capable of loving as Jesus loves us and by the grace of God we know it. As King David said another of God s flawed servants For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me (Psa. 51:3). And yet David pleads to God for mercy Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow (Ps. 51:7). And in his repentance and faith, David receives from God the grace of perfect forgiveness. Thank God for your Christian faith and your Baptism. You know what God demands but you also know what God gives. The life of perfect love that God demands, Jesus lived for you. And the mercy and forgiveness that you need for your shabby love, Jesus won for you on the cross. Through the gift of faith in Jesus, though you aren t capable of perfect love, you enjoy the grace of perfect forgiveness! The grace of God s perfect forgiveness is an objective reality no matter how you feel, as a baptized believer you are forgiven. But sometimes, it doesn t seem that way. Despite living under God s grace, we often have to pay the earthly consequences for our sins like driving too fast and getting into an accident, or betraying a friend and loosing that friend, or suffering the sicknesses and diseases that are common in this world corrupted by sin. But that doesn t mean God is punishing you for your sin or that He doesn t love you. God doesn t desire the death of anyone and Jesus received the just punishment for your sins. But our choices have consequences and God doesn t promise to insulate us from those consequences. The consequence of Moses sin at Meribah was not being allowed to enter the Page 4
Promised Land. That didn t mean that God didn t love him or that God didn t forgive him just that Moses had to face the consequence for his sin. God s temporal judgment on His children for our imperfect lives is part of His loving discipline. Ultimately, we all must face the final consequence for sin death no matter how good we think we are, because at our very core we re sinners. But you have the perfect hope of resurrection to eternal life in heaven because Jesus won for you perfect forgiveness. And all who are baptized into Jesus have put on Jesus you have put on His perfect life, His perfect Sonship, His perfect righteousness. And so, as believers in Jesus, though you are still sinners and the righteous things you do are tainted with sin, your destiny is heaven. How do you know this? There, on the Mount of Transfiguration, you see Moses, a sinner in life, but now with Jesus in perfected glory. There on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses does set foot in the Promised Land! And he s standing there with another of God s flawed servants Elijah also in perfected glory. Together, they represent the Law and the Prophets the Old Testament revelation of God s grace of perfect forgiveness. CONCLUSION: When Jesus said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners (Mk. 2:17b), that means He didn t come to save those who thought they were perfect in fact, the perfect didn t need Him! It was the Moseses of the world who knew they needed him the failures, the wrecks, the poor, miserable sinners. The perfection you have in Jesus isn t perfect lives, but perfect forgiveness. But that doesn t mean you can go out and sin, sin, sin, because you have God s rich forgiveness. In fact, it means quite the opposite. Knowing you have God s grace of perfect Page 5
forgiveness is the greatest motivation for living lives of love living lives that honor the One who gave Himself for you. The Old Testament reading demonstrates that you can t always count on the love and forgiveness of your fellow Christians for none of us loves and forgives perfectly not even Moses. But you can always count on the perfect love and forgiveness of your heavenly Father and that He is able to do great things like love and forgive through His forgiven people. In Jesus Name. Amen. Page 6