Transfiguration: Confirmation Given
 

Pastor Meyer’s Sermon

Sunday, February 3, 2008

Well, we all know what today is. I don’t know about you but I’ve been looking forward to it for quite some time now. In fact, I’m looking forward to tonight where I can sit down with my plate of food in my lap and my drink by my side and I can celebrate along with what most of you will be celebrating, Transfiguration Sunday, right? No? No, it’s the Super Bowl. New York Giants against the New England Patriots and we will see them duke it out to see who is the best team in the NFL.

But you know, I like football and all but there is one thing I never understood and that is how 11 players, 11 men would get out onto the field and they would be a team and they would subject themselves to being beaten and bloodied and bruised and torn. Wide receivers going across the middle get railroaded. The offensive linemen sacrifice their bodies to keep the defense from coming in. A running back willing to run into a wall of blockers even though he knows this one is going to hurt. All because they’re trying to take a piece of pigskin over a goal line.

Some would say that’s because of the motivation of the head coach. Some would say that it’s the love of the game they have. Others would say they’re doing it for the fans. But you know, I say it’s because of the quarterback. No matter who you point to, no matter what you tell me, the quarterback is the main guy on the field. In fact, the quarterback is the guy who the other 10 players need to buy into as their leader in order for them to play as a team. Sure, you have the wide receivers, you have the running backs, you have the defensive backs and you can’t play football without them but the main guy on the field is the quarterback. And the question is how does the quarterback get the other 10 players to buy into him as the leader?

Certainly, there must have been during the season some flashes of brilliance where you kind of get a glimpse into the kind of player this quarterback might be. But there had to have been a defining moment during the season, a moment where the 10 players said, “Yes, this is the guy I’m going to follow. Yes, I’m going to support him.” Maybe it was the quarterback’s coolness under pressure. Maybe it was his willingness to run into the end zone as the seconds were ticking out at the end of the game to score that winning touchdown. Or maybe it was his willingness to allow someone else to take the credit even though he had a hand in the play. Whatever it was, there had to have been a defining moment during the season where the quarterback showed his team what he is on the inside because of how he acted on the outside.

The interesting thing is that the 12 disciples were in need of a defining moment. Sure, they had flashes of brilliance with Jesus. His teachings, talking about giving to the needy, talking about not worrying. They heard it, parables and His stories and they had seen flashes of brilliance and His miracles, the healing of many people, the calming of the storm, the feeding of the 5,000 and even raising a dead girl but all of these flashes of brilliance pales when Jesus had some disturbing news for them.

You see, right before our reading for this morning, Jesus gathers his disciples and He has some news for them and this is what He tells them. He says that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and teachers of the law and that He must be killed and, on the third day, be raised to life. In essence, this quarterback was telling them, “Follow with me all the way to my goal line, the cross, where I will be beaten and bloodied and bruised and torn and so may you.”

Now the disciples said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, time out. This wasn’t part of the game plan.” In order for them to really follow Him, they needed to have a defining moment, something that could help them to buy into Jesus, to know what He really appeared to be on the outside is who He really is on the inside. And so that’s why Jesus took Peter and James and John up the high mountain to answer that very question.

Now isn’t that true for us, too, today? We have so many voices that are coming in our world, are coming from all different directions. They’re telling us different paths to follow and who to follow, who to believe, how we should act, how we should treat others and when we hear Jesus and what He wants us to do, we know if Jesus is going to be our quarterback, we’re going to need some kind of defining moment. Because, you see, what He’s asking us to do in the world, the way He wants us to live, we know we, too, are going to be beaten and bloodied and bruised and torn.

Sure, when we look at our lives, we can see flashes of brilliance, days where our faith in God was very strong, days where we completely trusted in Him. Maybe times where we’ve seen God actually working in our lives, even being quick to go to God in prayer. But you know, we also know what our lives are like in-between the flashes. We see flashes of brilliance in the disciples, Peter, James and John. Peter crying out, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” but yet later, he denies Jesus for ever even knowing Him. John was one of the first to even follow Jesus, yet he ran away naked from the Garden Gethsemane when the soldiers came to arrest Jesus. James and his willingness to be with Jesus and to share in whatever fate would happen to Jesus, yet he gets caught in a bitter disagreement about who of the disciples would be the greatest.

We saw flashes of brilliance in all of the disciples as they walked across the countryside preaching about Jesus, doing healing. They were even casting out demons but just like how we find ourselves sometimes, the disciples still needed that defining moment to buy into who Jesus is, to know that what Jesus appeared to be on the outside is really what He is on the inside. And that, my friends, that’s what transfiguration means, a change that happens on the outside because of what’s happening on the inside. Jesus transfigures Himself, He reveals who He is, God the Father comes to say, “This is my Son whom I love. With Him, I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” Jesus’ defining moment is right here. This quarterback is who He says He is. He did get beaten and bloodied and bruised and torn all the way to the cross, all for us. And He would rise again just as He said He would, all so we could be like Peter and we could say these words, “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but we were eye witnesses of His majesty for He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the majestic glory saying, ‘This is my Son whom I love. With Him, I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with Him on the sacred mountain and we have the word of the prophet made more certain and you will do well to pay attention to it.” They did listen to Him. And it’s because of that defining moment that Jesus gave for these three disciples, they were able to change the way they would handle their defining moments later in life.

Peter, standing before the crowds at Pentecost, the crowds thinking that he and the other disciples are all drunk but no, Peter stands up and He says, “The Jesus whom you crucified is the Son of God,” and 3,000 people came to faith that day. James who remained faithful even unto death by a sword. And John writing a gospel, writing three letters, writing the book of Revelation, all because in his words, “I write these things so that you may believe.” These disciples were changed on the inside and it certainly was reflected on the outside.

You and I, my friends, are changed on the inside. Because of Jesus’ defining moment, because of the gift of faith that He’s given to us, the gift of the Holy Spirit, we can look at defining moments in our lives differently. You want to handle the argument with your spouse in a different way because you understand your spouse as being a gift from God and you are changed inside. You want to refrain from cheating on a test because you are changed inside. You want to refrain from talking about others behind their back or engaging in gossip because you’re changed on the inside. Like transfiguration, we’re changed on the inside and we can’t help but show it on the outside.

Now I’m not a prophet or a son of a prophet. I don’t know who’s going to win tonight, whether it’s the Giants or the Patriots but I do know for certain that each and every one of us here this morning are winners because our quarterback is really who He says He is. Amen.