John 12,34-36. The Transfiguration of our Lord

✠ In the Name of Jesus ✠

John 12,34-36 [37-41]   913

Letzter Sonntag nach Epiphanias  019 weiß  

The Transfiguration of our Lord 

Fabian, Bishop of Rome, Martyr 249
Sebastian, captain, Martyr at Rome, c. 288

20. January 2013

1. O GOD, whose Blessed Son was manifested so that He might destroy the works of the devil, and make us the sons of God, and heirs of eternal life: Grant us, we beseech You, that, having this hope, we may purify ourselves, even as Jesus is pure; so that, when He shall appear again with power and great glory, we may be made like unto Him in His eternal and glorious reign.  Amen. 

2. So the crowd answered Him: „We have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?“ So Jesus said to them: „The Light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the Light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the Light, believe in the Light, that you may become sons of Light.“ When Jesus had said these things, He departed and hid Himself from them. Though He had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in Him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: »O Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?« [Isaiah 53,1] Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said: »He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes,and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.« [Isaiah 6,10] Isaiah said these things because he saw His glory and spoke of Him.  

3. The Jews asked two questions of Jesus that pertain to this, our Transfiguration of our Lord Sunday. 1. Who is this Son of Man? 2. Jesus, how can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? 

4. To be fair, the Jews got it right with their statement: Moses tells us in the Law that the Christ remains forever. We have to, however, understand what they meant by the Law. The Jews were not referring to the commandments or other legal precepts when they speak of the Law. The Law for 1. century Jews referred to the Bible, specifically the Five Books of Moses: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. So the Jews rightly declared: The Bible tells us that the Christ remains forever. They were admitting that this eternalness of the Christ is the core, the very cornerstone, of the covenant given at Sinai. 

5. Since this is true, who then is this Christ? Jesus rarely referred to Himself as the Christ, preferring instead the less loaded term Son of Man. Both the Christ and the Son of Man refer to the same person. So, the Jews want to know who this man is. The Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke tell us that when asked, the apostles confessed that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus affirmed this confession by stating He is the Son of Man, the Messiah. 

6. Many of Jesus’ peers got jittery over His bold profession. Many of the Pharisees and the scribes really got upset when Jesus said He was the Christ and the Son of Man. This confession was, essentially and deliberately, a claim to Divinity. When Jesus claimed to be the Christ and the Son of Man He was claiming to be God Himself. That was a hard statement for many Jews to swallow. Jesus made it even more difficult, for He not only claimed to be God but He claimed to be the Son of God. This confession made an untidy mess for the Jews who held that there is only one God, and that is God the Father. They were thoroughly monotheistic in their beliefs: There is only one God, and there is only one Person in this Divine Godhead. Jesus, now, has made it a binary God: there is one God comprised of two Persons, the Father and the Son. But Jesus did not stop there, for He added that God is properly a Triune God: one God comprised of three Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These Three we saw at Jesus’ baptism where Jesus is baptized, the Father speaks from heaven and the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus. It would not be far-fetched to pictured the heads of the Jews spinning in response to this Divine revelation that most surely struck their conservative Judaism like a lightning bolt from the storm clouds. 

7. Q: Who is the Son of Man? A: Jesus is the Son of Man and He is the Second Person of the Triune God. Conventional wisdom says lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place. Ah, but Jesus is about to make it happen. He tells them that the Son of Man will be lifted up. The Jews cannot believe their ears. No, they demand, the Son of Man cannot be lifted up! What is the problem here? The lifted up that Jesus proclaims and that the Jews understood is that to be lifted up is a reference to crucifixion. Jesus says that the Son of Man, the Christ, yes, Jesus the Son of God, is going to be crucified by the Romans. This declaration is not just a tree being struck by lightning but is more akin to whole towns being wiped out by a hurricane. This declaration is devastating to the ears and minds of the Jews, including Jesus’s very own apostles and disciples. The apostles confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God (Matthew 16,13-20). Jesus then explains that as the Christ He must suffer, die and rise again (Matthew 16,21). Do you remember Peter’s response to Jesus? No, Jesus, that must not ever happen! Jesus then rebuked His chief apostle, saying: „Get behind me, Satan! You are  a hindrance  to me. For you  are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man“ (Matthew 16,22-23). 

8. Q: Why must the Son of Man be lifted up and crucified? A: The crucified Christ is the redemption plan of the Triune God that is to save fallen men and women. The will of God is to save fallen men and women, and this salvation is merited by Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross and His resurrection from the grave. Jesus proclaims: »The will of My Father is that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him shall have everlasting life and I will raise Him up on the last day« (John 6,40). 

9. The crucifixion of the Son of Man was offensive to the Jews. They could not or would not accept a Suffering Servant as their Messiah. They wanted a Warrior Christ, something akin to a rampaging Viking who would sweep down upon the unsuspecting Roman legions and utterly crush them. The Son of Man, however, was not some Warrior King who would liberate the Jews from Roman occupation. Jesus was, for mankind, a Suffering Servant, humbled Himself, was humiliated by the Romans government and the Jewish religious leaders, suffered the ignominy of scourging, slander and defamation, bore the brunt of the cross with all its shame and agony, was rejected by His Heavenly Father and submitted to His holy wrath and punishment upon sin and sinner, died and was buried in a tomb. The Jews saw no glory or redemption in such a Suffering Servant, and honestly not many people today do either. And yet, that is the very Christ we got in Jesus, a Christ who gives us what we need and not what we want. 

10. Mankind got the Suffering Servant Jesus. The devil got the Warrior Christ. Hear how Cynewulf describes this Victorious Jesus: „Now hath the Holy One harrowed hell of tribute, of all that in the days of yore swallowed up unrighteously into that house of torment. Now are these devil-champions all undone, cast into everlasting torture, bound in the pit of hell, despoiled of might. Nor in that battle might these foes of Hell, in that clash of weapons, know success, when by His might alone the King of Glory, the Helm of Heaven, waged battle on His olden enemies; when He led forth from thraldom, from the city of His foes, exceeding spoil, a countless train of folk, this very multitude whereon ye gaze. Now will the Savior of souls, the Very Son of God, depart unto the mercy seat of spirits after the battle play. Now do ye know aright who is that Lord who leads this array. Unto your friends go boldly glad in heart: Open, O Gates! For with no little train the All-ruling King, the Author of creation, leads unto you, into the joy of joys, within the city, that folk which He in triumph wrested from the foes of hell. From this time forth forever shall be peace to men and angels, covenant of God and man, spiritual faith, and love and hope of life and gladness in all light“ (Crist 11-12). 

11. This, dear Christians, is the glory of the transfigured Christ. Men and women, who are lost in their sin and depravity, receive a glorious Suffering Savior who wins and redeems them from death, hell and the grave. Satan and his devils, who are wicked tempters of mankind, receive a vengeful Warrior King who punishes them and confines them to the prison of hell. This is the exodus that Jesus spoke of with Moses and Elijah: an exodus from sin and damnation unto eternal life for men and women, but an exodus from power and might unto defeat and desolation for Satan and the devils. And so, the Jewish questions are answered: Jesus is the Son of Man and He was lifted up and crucified to redeem you and punish the devil. What a loving and gracious Christ we have! We have received His salvific gospel in the words of preaching, and soon we will receive His merciful gospel in His body and blood that is really present in the bread and the wine of the Lord’s Supper, all for us and our redemption.  Amen. 

13. O Christ Jesus, the Fountain of Eternal Life and the Everlasting Light of Divinity, pour upon us the Holy Spirit so that we are emboldened to proclaim the wonders of Your loving-kindness unto our neighbors and support them with our love.  Amen.

One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you! 

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

Cynewulf, Crist. Copyright © 2000 In parentheses Publications. Translation © 2000 Charles W. Kennedy

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

Löhe, Wilhelm. Seed-Grains of Prayer: A Manual for Evangelical Christians. Wartburg Publishing House, Chicago circa 1912. Concordia Publishing House; Concordia on Demand.