IN NOMINE JESU Jesus is God. Grace, Mercy, and Peace be unto you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text for the sermon today is the Gospel reading from the seventeenth chapter of Matthew which you just heard. In this chapter, Matthew records the account of the Transfiguration of Jesus and the disciples who saw it take place. This Transfiguration is one of the many times in the Bible that we clearly receive the message that Jesus is God; something absolutely ​ ​ necessary for us to be saved. Understanding exactly how Jesus can be fully God and fully man is something that people often struggle with, just like the struggle of understanding that there are 3 persons in the Trinity and yet only One God. Both of these struggles come up in the text for the Transfiguration, and while we can trust that The Bible is true, we don’t have to be able to fully understand everything; especially those things which God has chosen not to explain to us. As we go through the text again, keep this theme in mind, the theme that “Jesus is God”. Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration begins like this: 1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.1 This account begins with telling us that six days have passed since the last recorded event in Matthew. In the text immediately before our text for today we have the account of Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus then begins to talk with the disciples about His road to the cross and the resurrection. So this event of the Transfiguration happens a short while after that confession. If it wasn’t clear enough with the confession of Peter that this was God in front of them, Jesus reveals His divinity in a visible way to those disciples with Him on that mountain. Not only Is Jesus Himself transfigured, but even the clothes that He was wearing changed before the disciples and they bore witness to the glory of God in their presence. This transfiguration, however, was not a transformation. This was not Jesus changing modes and turning from a human into God before them, but rather this transfiguration was a revelation. Jesus, fully God and fully human since His conception allowed His divinity to shine forth in the presence of the disciples. 1 Matthew 17:1-2, ESV 2 When Jesus permitted His divinity to shine forth, the disciples saw God in the glory that eternally shines from Him in heaven. They got to have a preview for a few moments, of the glory of God that every Christian in heaven will be in the presence of. One of the misunderstandings that can happen here is the belief that Jesus was switching between being God and being man. That is a sinful and incorrect explanation of who Jesus is, and we need to repent and turn from that explanation if we are tempted with it. This is an especially dangerous belief when we try to understand God dying for us on the cross and try to say “Jesus was only a man at that moment, not God”. Jesus did not “Become” God, Jesus always was and always is God. Christ, the second person of the Trinity, became human when He was conceived, but He never stopped being God. Instead, Jesus veiled His glory and His divinity for a time, allowing the divinity to shine forth with His miracles; a divinity that was always present, even on the cross. The account of the Transfiguration continues: And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him.2 The revelation of Jesus’ divinity continues as He does what only God can do; He brings down two of the saints from heaven back to the earth. Moses and Elijah represent the entirety of the Old testament; the Law and the Prophets. Immediately when they appeared they were recognized by the disciples, even without any introduction or name tags. 2 Matthew 17:3, ESV 3 The Bible doesn’t say that two people who “looked” like Moses and Elijah appeared, or that two people appeared and introduced themselves, “Hi I’m Moses, and this is my friend Elijah, maybe you’ve heard of us from a few thousand years ago.” No, instead what we read is that the disciples instantly knew who these two people were. Again, we can see this as a preview of what heaven will be like. Not only do we have the shining glory of God in front of us in heaven, but we will all know each other like family and without confusion. Matthew’s account continues: And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”3 Peter often speaks on behalf of the disciples, and at this point he realizes what an amazing experience this is. Peter wants to prolong this experience as long as possible, and blurts out an offer to build tents when perhaps he should have been silent. The bigger issue here, however, is not Peter talking when he should be quiet, but that Peter seems to raise up Moses and Elijah to the level of Jesus. He is so blown away by what he sees that he offers to build one tent for each of them, as if Moses, Elijah, and Jesus are all equally important, and equally worthy of worship. Rather than responding directly to Peter’s idiotic tent-building-offer, Jesus doesn’t say a word. In fact it is at this point that God the Father interrupts Peter’s statement, God the Father speaks and clearly sets apart Jesus from the others. Matthew’s account records Peter talking and says this: 3 Matthew 17:4, ESV 4 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” ”Jesus Is God” That is the theme of this Transfiguration day. Jesus showed His glory and appeared in a way that only God could look, then Jesus brought down two saints from heaven, something that only God could do. Finally we have the voice of The Father Himself speaking and proclaiming the divinity of Christ. “Jesus is God; Listen to Him”, and the Bible wants to be as clear as possible about that. The Gospel account continues: When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. 4 As amazing as seeing the divine glory of Jesus shining forth from Him, and as amazing as it would be to be able to hear the booming voice of the Father, this is a terrifying incident. The power and the majesty of experiencing God in such a way would certainly be absolutely overwhelming. As scary as a divine encounter like that would be anyway, to make things even more frightening, these disciples were sinners in the direct presence of God. They would have understood from their knowledge of the Old Testament what a bad thing it would be to be unclean in the presence of so much holiness. 4 Matthew 17:6, ESV 5 These disciples, regardless of anything good they had said or done in life, did not deserve to stand in the presence of God and survive. They had every right to be terrified. But what happened next in the Transfiguration? After the disciples fell to their faces in terror and respect, what happened to them? Did God vaporize them with a bolt of lightning like the sinners they were? No! The opposite happened. God, the second person of the Trinity, Jesus, had compassion on them 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.5 Jesus comforted the disciples, not allowing the full force of the Glory of God destroy these unholy people for being in the presence of the Holy God, but instead raised them up and told them not to fear. Jesus alone does this, and gives them comfort when they should have gotten destruction, and when the disciples lift up their eyes they see that it is Jesus alone. Moses isn’t still with Jesus, helping comfort them and protect them from the righteous wrath of God, just Jesus. Even someone as holy as Elijah couldn’t possibly hope to stand between the wrath of God and an unholy person and hope to survive. As faithful a prophet as Elijah was, did not have the authority to intercede like that, to stand between God and man. 5 Matthew 17:7-8, ESV 6 There is only one Mediator between God and Man - Jesus our Lord! Through the love of God, Moses had his sin taken away, and Elijah was purified in the flames of the chariot that brought him to heaven. These two imperfect men were perfected by God and made holy, and capable of standing in God’s presence. Even if there was a perfect human being who could possibly stand in the presence of God on their own without bursting into flame, they would have no authority as a human to stop the wrath of God from reaching past them and being poured out on any of the other sinful people on earth.