Revelation 1,9-18. Transfiguration Sunday

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The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Revelation 1,9-18               1120

Letzter Sn. n. Epiphanias  019

Purification of Mary and the Presentation of our Lord

2. Febuar 2020

1. O Lord, our Creator, we often find ourselves restless and disconnected from You and Your creation; send forth to us Your Holy Spirit, so that we have Your peace in the assurance that You are our Father and we share Your Name  Amen. (VELKD Weekly Prayer for Last Sunday in Epiphany 2020 § 1) 

2. »I, John, your brother and one who shares in the tribulation, the reign and the patience in Jesus, was on the island being called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day and heard behind me a great voice like a trumpet saying: „Write what you see in a book and send it to the 7 churches, to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.“ And I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and having turned I saw 7 golden lampstands and in the midst of those lampstands one like a son of God having been clothed in a robe reaching to the feet and having been girded about the breast with a golden sash. And the hair of His head white like wool as bright as snow and His eyes like flames of fire and His feet like burnished bronze as having been refined in a furnace and His voice like the roar of many waters.« 

3. Today’s Gospel pericope recounts for us Jesus’ Transfiguration or Mount Tabor in lower Galilee 11 miles west of the Sea of Galilee. There Jesus discussed His impending Passion with Moses and Elijah. Last week we heard a healing story where Jesus cured a paralyzed Gentile servant of a Roman centurion. 

4. Jesus’ Transfiguration draws to a close the season of Epiphany. Throughout these past weeks the Gospels have told us how Jesus manifested His Divinity in the midst of Israel. We began with a visit from the Magi who worshipped Jesus as God, then His boyhood visit to the temple where He amazed the rabbis and Pharisees with His knowledge and wisdom of the Scriptures, we also heard about His first miracle when He changed water into wine in Cana and finally the healing of the Gentile paralytic. In those manifestations of Glory we catch a glimpse of Jesus’ Divinity, but today we see His Divinity in fuller Glory. 

5. Decades later, the Apostle John describes the majesty of the transfigured Christ in his revelation: »The hair of His head is white like wool as bright as snow, His eyes are like flames of fire, His feet like burnished bronze as having been refined in a furnace and His voice like the roar of many waters.«  Jesus in His fuller Divine Glory both frightens and amazes those who see Him thus. John writes: »When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead.« Such fear is the first response from sinners who gaze upon God in His holiness. Our sinful state cannot bear the glory of His purity and perfection. God’s Glory also amazes us; like Moses removed his sandals lest he trample upon the holy ground, we, too, humble ourselves. We manifest humility with different physical actions: our heads bowed, closed eyes, kneeling, folding our hands, saying a prayer or some such pious action. We are weak and insignificant in the presence of the Almighty God; our actions mimic our utter humbleness in His presence.

6. We prepare to meet Jesus each week by confessing our sins. This act of contrition reminds us to humbly gather before our Savior. Next week begins the 3 Gesima Sundays that prepare us for the season of Lent and its overarching theme of repentance, fasting and preparedness as we draw closer to the suffering and death of Jesus. In his first epistle John reminds us: »If we say we have no sin, then we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say we have not sinned, then me make God a liar and His word is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness« (1. John 1,8.10.9). 

  7. In Exodus 3 the Lord appeared in His Glory to Moses via the Burning Bush; He told Moses: »I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry. I know their sufferings, and I have descended to deliver them out of the land of the Egyptians and to bring them to the land of Canaan that is a good and broad land flowing with milk and honey« (Exodus 3,7-8). In Matthew 17 God the Father says to Peter, James and John: »This is My Beloved Son with whom I am well pleased; listen to Him« (Matthew 17,5). In Jesus the two great exoduses are undertaken: in the first exodus Jesus delivered His people from bondage into freedom and the promised land; in the second exodus Jesus delivered all people from their sins and set them free to dwell with Him forever in Paradise. In both instances Jesus manifested Himself in His Divine Glory as a testament to His omnipotent power to do the very thing He has promised. 

8. The Apostle John was blessed to have seen the glorified Jesus several times during his life: at Christ’s Transfiguration, in His resurrected body and in his vision at the beginning of his Revelation. Jesus assured John: »Fear not, I am the Alpha and the Omega; I am the Living One. I died, and behold I am alive forever more; I have the keys of Death and Hades.« That is the ultimate manifestation of Jesus’ Glory: He is the risen one who has conquered sin, Death and the Grave (sin, Satan, Sheol), SDG, and in doing so manifests Sola Deo Gloria, for to God alone is the Glory of His victory over sin, Death and the Grave. John reassures us that in times of trials, sufferings and tribulations Christ Jesus has triumphed over them all and uses them to fulfill His Glory and kingdom in our midst. Jesus stands in the midst of His Church; He suffers alongside us and delivers us from evil. 

9. Last week we heard how Jesus showed God’s mercy and love when He healed a Gentile servant. Today we hear that Jesus is Himself a servant who will suffer and die to redeem us back to His Father. Next week we will hear Jesus’ salvation is for all, regardless if they are the first (like the Jews) or the last (like the Gentiles), because God’s grace promises the heavenly inheritance to all who believe.   Amen. 

10. Let us pray. O Jesus Christ, the Brilliance of the Eternal Light; shine upon us and shine forth from us, so that in Your light our neighbors see that You have delivered them from their sin and suffering.  Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2019 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2020 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. 

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