Earwitness Exodus 24:8-18 2 Peter 1:16-21 Matthew 17:1-9 Transfiguration Peter later wrote that We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father and the voice was borne to Him by the Majestic Glory, This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well please, we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain. And (here s where it gets interesting): we have something more sure, the prophetic Word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place. Grace to you and peace from God, our Father, and from our Lord, and Savior, Jesus Christ. Bridge Peter had said to Jesus, Lord, it is good that we are here, and that may have seemed to be the understatement of all time. His theology was, there, near perfect (but, only, for the moment). His timing had to be corrected. Peter had the sentiment right-on: what his eyes saw, his heart believed and his life took to the grave he, just, needed the rest of the story. There have been people in history who ve seen God in His Heavenly glory, shining as He does up above, but doing-so down here (being obvious about who He is). They ve told us about it God s Word puts the pieces together. Text 3,500 years ago that was Moses and Aaron, Joshua and 70 elders of the Children of Israel. They all got to see God up the holy mountain of Sinai. But all 2 Million (even in the valley) saw His glory like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain. Last Sunday night, Mrs. Hoover s Sunday School class did some seeing as they watched the old Charlton Heston version of the 10 Commandments. After having talked about that in class, seeing it in, even, a video
was (for them) a different experience. It was fun to listen to their reactions to the movie and all the questions and comments they had from the sight of it. God was visible in a burning bush there, showing Himself as more than just a concept. And events like that (the ones we remember today) remind us of that. And that s important because (I think) we ve grown up in a culture where people believe more in the National Enquirer than Holy Scripture. Because made-up stories are accompanied by pictures possibly doctored but of a person we ve seen on TV or in movies, we re apt to believe what s said about them as reality, and the Bible has no photography, just drawings of people sometimes made to offer a visual image to the things that are, otherwise, recounted, only, in words. With enough fantasy around, we can get tempted to lump history into that mix we can be found (in our hearts) revising it or minimizing it or, just, considering it suspect but that s not true. Visiting Israel made that much clearer to me. Seeing it has, forever, impacted me in ways I hope I m decently-able to talk about. Jesus took 3 of His guys up onto a mountain on a day so apparently tiring that (as Luke tells us) they fell asleep once up there. There was no hype to prepare Peter, James and John for what they about to wake-up-to, so the lesson for us is that we must be ready (at any time) for a surprise gift from God. For them, this came out-of-the-blue and from out of their boredom. Yet, they were prepared / they were with the Lord, and that may be the variable that s necessary to, actually, see Him sometime. As you re with Him in whatever ways He dictates that we be, then who knows what could happen from there. So after six days from Peter s confession of Jesus as the Son of God (from the framework of that context), he got to, then, see Him glowing (transfigured) with, also, Moses and Elijah
there talking to Him (they in resurrected bodies because of what they were talking about Him doing). Peter saw God as God in Jesus and 2 Old Testament guys the way they d become because of Him. Moses and Elijah knew all that and knew (intimately in their resurrection) the divinity of Jesus as God the Son. And because of their knowledge of Him, they (even though passed from this life) weren t dead, but lived and, even, conversational. Peter got to see all of that (even down here on this earth) and he knew that it was all good. And that s important. The Father gave to those three and to us that experience that He gave, also, to so many way back before that, wanting everyone, obviously, to hear and have that history under their belts. He wanted the whole world exposed to Himself like that (as God who is different / so different than what He s created). So people saw, yet nobody saw, yet, enough. It s what Peter reflected-back-upon: how he d only gotten a pre-view. See, God as God wasn t the entire story (as a matter of fact, it was, just, a little bit of it) Him humiliated unto death / God humiliated that was the fuller story. The whole story was that (Peter said): we d never been following cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to Him by the Majestic Glory, This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased, we ourselves heard this very voice borne from Heaven, for we were with Him on the holy mountain yet when we lifted up our eyes, we saw no one but Jesus only, and (with Him) we came down the mountain. Application Jesus Transfiguration (or His glowing like the sun before the disciples) yielded, then, back to
the very much different visual of Him, again incarnate in the humiliation of sin-covered flesh. He returned, assuming that once-again mundane look before ever shining for good, bound to the duty, not-staying-on-the-mountain (as Peter suggested they all should) but serving in the valley. Jesus came down the mountain to offer His flesh as the sacrifice to pay for sin, and Peter would have to see that too. As right as he was to be enthusiastic about being on a mountain with the Lord (His sentiment had the appropriate energy); it was, just, pre-mature for him to stay there prior to the Lord providing the way for him to do so. He, then, with all people could stay there because Jesus came back down the mountain, died, then came back to life. It s what Peter realized (so wrote-of) many years later. What he d loved seeing upon the Mount of Transfiguration gained its perspective from what he d, then, avoid-seeing (hide from) in the way it unfolded from the Garden of Gethsemane onto Golgotha. As eager as Peter d been to build tents and remain up on that mountain within the shining of Jesus we hear-of today, what he avoided seeing was what it was that would be needed to make glory happen (all we ll be hearing-about throughout the Season of Lent and Holy Week). It s the reason why there can be glory in the Transfiguration (for the Lord, finally, but for us most definitely). Peter describes, especially, the Passion part as the Prophetic Word more sure (or effective) than, even, the vision he got on the mountain. He said (of all things) that we d do well to pay attention to that Gospel as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in our hearts. Peter says, here, that the mere Words of the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus transfigure Him as the Morning Star within us, dawning our days with His Words that we pay-attention-to.
See, of all the visuals which Peter got (and He got, even, Jesus no longer dead, but risen and living), what he, later, gravitates to is the Good stuff that we have to hear-of (what, even, the Father said to listen to in the Gospel of what s been done and accomplished to be, then, spoken-about, repeated, listened-to, cherished, meditated-upon and passed from person to person, shared and, together, enjoyed) we have that! It s an EAR-WITNESS Peter more-encouraged from the wisdom of his later-thoughts inspired by the Holy Spirit, an ear-witness -of-glory won by the un-glorious-seeming act of the death of God s Son... There are lots of eye-witness accounts that have been given for us to hear about every one is a gift. One of the writers said that there are so many things seen that were every one of them written down for our hearing, the world couldn t contain all the books to document them. But the ones included for us to hear (for our ear-witness the ones Peter called the Prophetic Word more sure, yet, than, even, eyesight / of men speaking from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit ), these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name. Jesus Transfiguration was a hint at His ability to accomplish the bigger purpose. Peter (with the Heavenly Father) insists that we stay tuned for the story of that bigger purpose. We, here, will be doing that. During our Season of Lent, we re going to be entrenched in the bigger news of after Jesus after He came down the mountain. We ll be ear-witnesses to all of it. For the Lord s Passion (and for our own struggles until we get to stay in glory), it s the purpose of this sight of the Transfiguration to grant us ample reason to remain faithful (even thrive) through anything-else our days might bring to us. In +Jesus name. Amen.