Rise and Have No Fear

Text: Matthew 17:1-9
Date: The Transfiguration of Our Lord2/5/06

  When Jesus was transfigured before three of his disciples on the holy mountain they were aware that they were on holy ground, in a sacred space. When they heard the voice from the cloud, they fell on their faces and were terrified. That is the first reaction when sinners are confronted with the holy. Recall Adam after the fall into sin hiding in the bushes when he heard the voice of God (Gen. 3:8), Moses hiding his face in fear before the burning bush (Ex. 3:6), then Aaron and the people afraid to approach Moses when they saw his face shining after his conversation with God (Ex. 34:30), and Isaiah's cringing for fear in a corner of the temple when he saw God and heard the angel chorus (Is. 6:5). This fear of God is good and right. It is the first word in the Small Catechism explaining the First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods.” “What does this mean?” “We should fear…God above all things.” For without the fear of God you cannot then proceed to the next words, namely, “fear, love and trust in God above all things.”

  The fear of God is the first step toward true repentance—contrition and sorrowful confession of sin. Without true fear of God one will never discover that this wrathful God is also the God of love, forgiveness and salvation. Without true fear of God and repentance, one will continue failingly to try to relate to this God, if at all, by pursuing the impossible, namely, trying to appease him by doing enough good works. But how many is “enough”? And how good is “good”? Finally, without true fear of God there is no true worship of God as the letter to the Hebrews says it, “Therefore…let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” [Hebrews 12:28-29 (ESV)].

  Today we celebrate the Transfiguration of Our Lord. The Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church commemorate this event as a festival celebrated on the fixed date of August 6. Ever since the Reformation, however, the first evangelicals, the Lutherans, saw this event as the most appropriate way to mark the transition between the glad account of the Nativity or Christmas and Epiphany and the heart of the church year, the Passion, suffering, death and resurrection of Christ. As such this Sunday occupies a holy space in our calendar. The Christmas crib lay some 43 days behind us, some thirty years ago by now for our Lord. The Good Friday cross stands 68 days before us, and only a short while ahead as Jesus comes down from that mountain with his face set resolutely to his destiny in the holy city of Jerusalem. As this spectacular event on the holy mountain served to prepare Peter, James and John for the crucial and climactic event of the Cross with a brief glimpse of the glory of Jesus' divine nature, so this festival serves to remind us that the true holy space our Lord wishes to occupy is in your heart.

  The glory of God appears as radiant light. St. John describes God the Son, saying, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…the true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world” [John 1:4-5, 9 (ESV)]. Jesus said of himself, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” [John 8:12 (ESV)]. Later St. John wrote, “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” [1 John 1:5 (ESV)]. In the Creed we confess him “God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God.” This light of life, Jesus, dwells in his disciples by faith as the Apostle Paul said, that by the power of “his Spirit in your inner being…Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” [Eph. 3:16-17]. And, of course, this happens solely through the Word of the Gospel preached and taught and the sacraments administered according to Christ's institution, as we heard the Apostle Peter say today, “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, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts” [2 Peter 1:19 (ESV)].

  This faith is in Jesus because of who He is. When he was transfigured before the three disciples “his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” Ever since his birth, his circumcision on the 8 th day and his presentation in the temple on the 40 th day as Holy Church just celebrated this last Thursday; ever since his baptism by John in the Jordan River, his calling disciples, his preaching, teaching and healing ministry throughout Galilee, these were the beginning days of his state of humiliation. He was born and submitted to God's Law and lived as any man. Unlike any man since Adam, however, he fulfilled God's Law perfectly, without sin. He never used his divine nature, his status as The Eternal Word, the Son of God except to help people and as signs for faith. After this brief incident the three disciples were ordered to “tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” His state of humiliation was not yet complete. For he was yet to be delivered into the hands of men, be killed and on the third day be raised (Matthew 17:22-23).

  Faith is in Jesus because of who He is. Hiding, as it were, however, under the humble form of a servant, his human nature, he is, as Peter confessed, “the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And here, for a brief moment, his divine nature literally shined through his human nature, through his skin and even his clothing—the two natures, divine and human, in one Person, Jesus the Christ of God.

  Saving faith is in Jesus because of who He is, God and Man; and also because of what He has done. In that glorious light appeared also Moses and Elijah, representatives of all the Law and the prophets of the scriptures, two men of God who left no grave or bones behind after their days. Matthew says they were talking with Jesus. St. Luke tells us that they were talking about “his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” [Luke 9:31 (ESV)], that is, his exodus, his death by crucifixion. This was his purpose, his goal, his destiny: to release the world of the grip of sin, death and the devil by coming as the Suffering Servant and offering his very life as the Lamb of God, the one and only perfect sacrifice that alone could atone for the sin of the world for the life of the world.

  He took all sin into himself and was broken by the jaws of death according to both his human and divine natures. For this reason we can say that, on the Cross, God died. But because He is God the grave could not hold him. And on the third day he rose from the dead, both his human and divine natures in tact. Now in his state of exultation, “He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things” [Ephesians 4:10 (ESV)]. By faith he fills you, “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” [Ephesians 1:18 (ESV)].

  When the bright cloud overshadowed the scene, a voice from the cloud said the same words as at Jesus' baptism, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” and then the addition, “listen to him.” And so it is for all who would be saved, “for we walk by faith, not by sight” [2 Cor. 5:7 (ESV)]. We do not see his glory but we hear his voice and listen to him. “When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.” The fear of God is the beginning. “But Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Rise, and have no fear.' And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.”

___________________
Rev. Allen D. Lunneberg

Contacts:

deblocascio.stmark@sbcglobal.net

Pastor: Rev. Allen D. Lunneberg
7979 Commerce Rd.      (1/4 mile east of Union Lake Rd.)
West Bloomfield, MI 48324
Phone: 248.363.0741
Fax: 248.363.4755