Glory in the Cross

“I’ve told you and I’ve told you and I’ve told you and I’m sick of telling you, so this is the last time I’m going to tell you.”
You hear those words coming from someone’s mouth--mom, dad, the wife, the boss or teacher--it’s not a good time to reply, “Good, because I was getting sick of hearing it!”
Why do we, even the best of us, have to be told so much? Certainly with chores around the house and tasks to do at work or school. Absolutely when it comes to spiritual matters? Why do we Lutherans always have to be told about the cross?
Why are we so hard of hearing?
I wonder if today’s text, Luke’s account of Jesus’ Transfiguration, won’t give us some insight into this all-too-human weakness.
Glory in the Cross
1.Jesus’ heavenly glory draws us.
2.Jesus’ suffering and death saves us.
First of all, Transfiguration means simply that your appearance has been changed—for the better! Your form hasn’t been changed—none of that science-fiction body morphing stuff. You stay the same, the same you, but your appearance is different—glorious. We say young children, brides and pregnant mothers beam? Well, imagine beaming from literally every pore of your skin. That’s what happened to Jesus on the mountain. His heavenly glory showed in and through his mortal body.
“Now about eight days after these sayings, (after Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ and Jesus’ talk about him suffering and dying and if anyone would be a follower of his they were going to have to take up their cross and follow Jesus, too) Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white (28-29).”
It was like Jesus was shining like the sun. So brilliant was the light coming from him that it even made his dingy clothing look dazzling white. It is a glorious sight in and of itself, but Jesus’ companions make it even more glorious.
“And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory (30).” These were the two most important prophets of God in the Old Testament. If you wanted to summarize all that was best and good about the Presidents of the United States, you would say, “Washington and Lincoln.” If you wanted to summarize all the men of God in the Old Testament, you would say, “Moses and Elijah.” And there they were, alive in their bodies, talking with Jesus. You can tell this was a glorious sight by the effect it had on the Apostles.
“Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah’-not knowing what he said (32-34).”
Peter, James and John were tired from the hike up the mountain. While Jesus had been praying, they had been napping! Upon waking up they see Jesus, in his glory, and Moses and Elijah just as they are about to take their leave. They missed it (almost)! Wait, wait, don’t go! Like a little child sleeping through almost all the fireworks on the Fourth of July, Peter wants it to last. He’ll build shelters for Jesus and Moses and Elijah. Just stay.
Jesus’ glory drew them.
It is no secret I’ve been spending the last couple of months trying to come up with some music for our 10·2·10 service. It is not that easy. A lot of the music they are singing in other churches focuses on the glory of Jesus. Almost exclusively. Now, songs that sing of God’s glory, that is not a bad thing. A quick look at our Favorite Hymn roster from last September found such glorious hymns as “How Great Thou Art,” “Beautiful Savior,” “Holy, Holy, Holy,” and we could just as well throw in there “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee.” But we want balance. And we’ve got it in our old hymns. “Amazing Grace,” “The Old Rugged Cross,” “Just As I Am” and “I Know that My Redeemer Lives”—even if it took almost 200 years to get that balance. I think it is much more upbeat to focus on the glory of Jesus, his eternal nature, his power, his majesty in nature, his wisdom in creation. That draws us. It does. People actually pay good money to go on vacations where they can see glorious sunsets, glorious, snow-capped mountains, glorious vistas of a tropical beach jeweled with waves. One of the highest joys of heaven is going to be seeing God in all his glory. And that is a hope that revives us and gives us courage to face the death of loved ones and even our own deaths.
But there’s the problem. How are we going to get to heaven? How are we going to afford that eternal vacation to see those glorious sights? We aren’t perfect people. We aren’t glorious people. We aren’t so holy that our holiness takes on a physical dimension so that even dull, earthly eyes can detect it. We have sin! We need a Savior! We need to look closer at this glorious God to find a different glory, the glory in the cross.
God does not let Peter blather on about the glory he was seeing from Jesus. “As Peter was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him (34-35)!’”
Certainly there is no doubt in anyone’s mind who Jesus is. He is the Son of God, attested by God the Father’s own voice heard on the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus is the Christ, the One Chosen to be the Savior of the world. A glorious person on a glorious mission. What folly it would be not to listen to Jesus! That’s what God the Father was getting across to Peter and the gang, and to you and to me.
Let’s review. What had Jesus been talking about? Luke starts this section by referring to Jesus’ past “sayings.” We saw those sayings centered upon the cross and Jesus’ role in dying on the cross to pay for the sins of the world. What was Jesus speaking to Moses and Elijah about on the Mount of Transfiguration? “His departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” That’s just a nice way of speaking of his death which would soon take place in Jerusalem. The betrayal. The arrest. The staged trial with false witnesses and predetermined outcomes. The miscarriage of justice in Pilate’s palace. The scourging. The death march. The crucifixion, death and burial. That was Jesus’ departure. Forget about first class or economy. Forget about flight delays or cancellations in getting back to Chicago by plane earlier this week. This was a departure none of us would have the heart to stand in line for, even if we could physically and spiritually endure it.
The cross was his departure and Moses and Elijah consider it so glorious that they have to come back to earth to talk to the glorious, transfigured Jesus about it.
“Listen to him,” God the Father is telling us. “Listen to him,” Moses and Elijah are telling us. “I’m talking about the cross,” Jesus is saying.
Because Jesus’ cross saves us.
If I have a friend who is big and important, chances are he is not my friend because he is big and important. He is not going to be one who is busy all the time telling everyone how big and important he is. He is not going to be spending all his time being his own publicist. He is going to be my friend because I like him, I love him, and I love the things he does. Do you think that off-duty police officer in Salt Lake City gave a hoot who he was when he heard the rifle shots in the mall and looked at his pregnant wife? Probably the only thing he thought was, “Do I have my revolver with me?” and since he did, off he dashed to pin the shooter inside one store to stop his roving rampage until the on-duty police officers came. And do you think his wife loved him because he is a police officer? No, she loved him because he loved her enough to risk his neck to put a shooter out of commission before he shot his wife and he cared enough for all those other people out there to call down the risk of a gun battle in a shopping center upon himself.
Jesus is not an off-duty policeman. Jesus is not Mayor of Bigtown. Jesus is bigger than that. Jesus is God himself, the Son of God. And God is not some cheap, in-the-back-pocket figurine, like a lucky rabbit’s foot. God is the almighty God, the transcendent God, the eternal father, the glorious, holy God. We spent the whole first half of this sermon establishing that.
And look what he does. He put it all away to die on the cross to pay for our sins. That is why he came into this world. That is why he disciplined himself to lead the perfect life as the perfect human being. That is why he steeled himself to start the trip downhill, and it is all going to be downhill for Jesus from this point on until his resurrection on Easter Sunday morning, downhill to his death. For you. For me.
Now who are we going to listen to? And what are we going to hear? As Christians we will turn a deaf ear to those voices out there that say there are better things to do on Sunday mornings than go to church. We are going to tune out those voices that say you don’t have to be constantly in God’s Word to be a good person, to show the discipline to avoid drugs, booze, affairs, gambling addictions, the simple world-weariness that would make you toss a few Molotov cocktails hoping the police would end your life. Corruption sinks into all of us if we are not constantly being renewed by the Holy Spirit who only comes to us through the means of grace, the Gospel in Word, the sermon, the Bible readings, and Sacrament, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. We know that because God has told us that. We want to listen to our God, not to the world. They can’t save us from death. We want to listen to our God, not to the devil. He doesn’t want any to get to heaven.
What are we going to hear? We’re going to hear of Jesus’ love for us that led him to the cross. We are going to hear of Jesus’ love for us that made such a huge sacrifice. We are going to hear of Jesus’ love for us that washes us clean of all our sins in God’s sight, not because of the good in us, but because of the good in Jesus for us. We are going to hear of Jesus’ love for us that will love us no matter what. That’s the real glory of our God, the
Glory in the Cross
1.Jesus’ heavenly glory draws us.
2.Jesus’ suffering and death saves us.
Did you tell her? Did you tell her this Valentine’s Day that you loved her? Did you let him know? Did you let him know this week that you loved him more than any man on the face of this earth?
When we see God’s love to us in the cross, it doesn’t become a matter of dutiful repetition, because that’s the way God wants it. It becomes a matter of “tell me again.” “Say it one more time.” “I know you’ve told me a million times before, but I never can get enough of hearing it.” We Lutherans, maybe more than all other Christians, love much, because we have been told much.