Who is Jesus for Us?

[Below you'll find live stream videos for both the traditional and modern worship services of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio as well as the text of the message. Have a blessed Holy Week!]





John 12:12-19

People love to make Jesus over into their preferred image of Him. For example, an evangelical celebrity not long ago said that, despite what Jesus tells us as His disciples, turning one’s cheek to an enemy is un-Christian. (He actually said that!)

Efforts to change Jesus into a co-conspirator in our favorite sins or to reduce Him to a buddy we can control are nothing new. The Gospel of John tells us that after Jesus had miraculously fed a crowd of more than five-thousand people, the crowd wanted to turn Him into an earthly king accountable to their desires. So, Jesus went off to a mountain by Himself. (John 6:15) Jesus will not be the king the world wants. He will only be the king we need.

Today is Palm Sunday, commemorating Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on the Sunday before His suffering, crucifixion, death, and, ultimately, resurrection.

The events of this day press this question on us: Who is Jesus for us?

It’s the most important question we will ever be asked, the very question Jesus posed to His first disciples when He asked them, “Who do you say that I am?”

On that first Palm Sunday, Jesus was hailed by crowds. Because of that, there was a surface air of celebration. But Jesus was surrounded either by people who saw Him either as a buddy king to be used for their own ends or as a threat by those who, by their knowledge of Old Testament Scripture, had a sneaking suspicion of Who Jesus really was (and is) and so, wanted to get rid of Him.

According to John in today’s gospel lesson, John 12:12-19, there were two streams of crowds flowing into Jerusalem that day. There was the throng that had come there, as Jews did every year from throughout the Mediterranean basin, for the Passover. There was also a crowd that had followed Jesus from nearby Bethany, where, just a few days before, He had raised His friend Lazarus from the dead.

This confluence of people shows us how they see Jesus by their words and actions. They hail Jesus with words from Psalm 118. “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!” (John 12:13)

These words may seem innocent or innocuous to us. But, “Hosanna,” meaning Save, and the rest of what the crowds say had a specific meaning for the Jewish people. Historically, the words were cried out to Jewish kings who had won military victories. Palm branches too were waved during such celebrations of battles and wars won.

The message of the crowds was clear: “We’ll follow You, Jesus, as long as You do our bidding. So, re-establish the Kingdom of Israel by force. Lead us in a military battle to overthrow both Pilate and Herod. And then, give us what we want–the booty of war–as Your loyal followers.” They were itching for a fight and all they needed was for Jesus to give the orders.

But the crowds were to be disappointed. Jesus makes it clear that He hasn’t come to Jerusalem to lead an insurrection or win a military victory. John says that “Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it.” (John 12:16) When Jesus did this, you can be certain that there were groans of disappointment from some in the crowd.

In telling us about this, John cites words from Old Testament prophecy, Zechariah 9:9: “Do not be afraid, Daughter Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” Through the prophet Zechariah, who lived in the sixth century BC, God had announced that He was going to send the Savior Messiah to make all things right between God and the universe He had created.

But this Messiah would be no warrior king!

Warrior kings may temporarily change the borders of nations in this temporary universe.

But those kinds of kings can’t change people born as enemies of God into God’s friends.

Nor can they give mortal human beings everlasting life.

Nor can they make us citizens of a new and eternal kingdom in which every tear will be dried, every need will be met, every relationship healed, and every vestige of the filth of our sin will be removed from us.

The world’s conqueror-kings cannot give sinners the gracious covering of God’s own righteousness.

Only Jesus can do that.

Horses were instruments of war in the ancient world, the means by which armies killed and conquered. This is why in those days, the Jewish people, so often the victims of conquering armies, hated horses. Donkeys, on the other hand, did the work of peace. Zechariah’s prophecy said that the Messiah would not conquer humanity’s common enemies of sin, death, and darkness by violence, war, or the exercise of political power.

The Messiah would instead, humbly bring the Kingdom of God to all who believe in Him not by making war, but by the death He died for our sin on a cross and by the resurrection with which God the Father rewarded Jesus’ righteousness. Centuries before, through the prophet Isaiah, God had revealed that this would be how the Christ would conquer the reign of sin, death, and darkness over us. “We all, like sheep, have gone astray,  each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him [on Jesus, the Messiah] the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

Then, after offering up His sinless life to take the punishment for our sinful natures we deserve, out of His great love for all, Jesus the Messiah would give forgiveness and eternal citizenship in the Kingdom of God to all who believe in Him.

The crowds in Jerusalem for the Passover had no interest in the Kingdom of God or in eternal life.

They wanted vengeance on the Romans and the Herodians, control of their country, and prosperity. Many, like the Zealots or maybe Judas Iscariot, still joined in shouting for Jesus after their disappointment in seeing Jesus on a lowly donkey, thinking they could use Him for their purposes.

But some in Jerusalem knew that Jesus couldn’t be used. The Pharisees look at the Palm Sunday spectacle and say to each other disgustedly, “Look how the whole world has gone after him!” (John 12:19) The Pharisees know that Jesus is, as John the Baptizer called Him, “the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) They get it that Jesus is God the Son, the Word made flesh. And for them, as would become true for Pilate, Herod, the Sanhedrin, and the selfish crowds, Jesus was not a Messiah to be welcomed, worshiped, and trusted, but a threat, a threat to their way of life.

Even today, Jesus threatens us. He threatens our desire to be our own gods and our ambition to have lives focused on ourselves, our appetites, our interests, and our preferences.

The world turned against Jesus during that first Holy Week. Good Friday and Easter Sunday proved the world wrong for having done so.

Because of the death on a cross Jesus humbly faced and endured, Philippians 2:9-11 tells us “God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,  in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

This then, is Who Jesus really is: God, Savior, King, Redeemer, Who humbly bore the cross you and I deserve so that we might eternally share in His resurrection victory.

So, we come back to the question of Palm Sunday: “Who is Jesus for you?”

Jesus never sat on an earthly throne, was never serenaded by bands playing Hail to the Chief, never won a war or an Oscar or a Grammy or a Nobel Prize. But through His humble submission to death for us, He won eternity for us.

Will you daily welcome Jesus as your only Lord, your God, your King, Messiah, and Savior? Jesus tells us elsewhere: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Follow the King, Jesus, to everlasting life with God. Amen

Transfiguration: Glory Through the Cross (AUDIO)

Here.

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio.]

Transfiguration: Glory Through the Cross

[This message was shared during worship earlier today with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]

Luke 9:28-36
There’s an old Paul Simon song called Learn How to Fall. The bridge contains these lyrics: 

Oh, and it's the same old storyEver since the world beganEverybody's got the runs for gloryNobody stop to scrutinize the planNobody stop to scrutinize the plan

Artists, I believe, receive inspiration from the Holy Spirit even when they don’t know it. And I believe that in these words and in the entire song from which they come, Paul Simon, who isn’t a Christian, is saying more than even he realizes.

The truth to which Simon points is this: All we human beings who, though made in God’s image, have inherited the condition of sin from our ancient grandparents, Adam and Eve, want “glory.” We want, in our sinful hearts, “to be like God” (Genesis 3:5). (This is a distortion of the true glory God has in mind for us as the only ones God created in His image [Genesis 1:26].)

But, again like Adam and Eve who grabbed hold of the fruit that God told them would bring them death, things like glory or transformation or righteousness or joy or life or any truly good thing cannot be grasped by human effort. All of these things--glory, transformation, righteousness, joy, life, or any “good and perfect gift”--come to us as gifts from God. They are to be received, not achieved. 

Whatever this world has to offer will die. Whatever God has to offer is eternal. 

God operates by a different plan from the ones offered by the world, the devil or our sinful selves. Today’s gospel lesson, Luke 9:28-36, containing Luke’s account of Jesus’ transfiguration, will allow us, again in Simon’s phrasing, to “stop and scrutinize the plan,” God’s plan.

Shortly before the incident recounted in the lesson, the apostle Peter confessed his faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, God’s anointed King, the One come to make the fallen world right. Peter said that Jesus was, “The Christ of God” (Luke 9:20). 

This was the right answer, but Jesus might have had good reason to doubt whether Peter understood exactly what that meant. 

The Old Testament repeatedly promised the Christ. But popular culture in first-century Judea envisioned the Christ as a triumphant warrior king who would enter Jerusalem, throw out the Romans, the latest in a long string of foreign overlords to have conquered God’s people, and let the Jews conquer and be prosperous and comfortable. This popular version of the Christ bears little resemblance to the real one prophesied in the Old Testament by the prophet Isaiah.

This version of the Christ or Messiah would demand no transformation, no surrender, and no faith of His followers. They could be just as selfish and heedless of the Word and the will of God as they’d always been. All that mattered was that their names were on the church membership rolls of First Church of Self-Righteousness and Entitlement.

All of this may be why Jesus said what He said after Peter had confessed Jesus as the Christ: “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” (Luke 9:22) And then: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) 

Life with God in His eternal kingdom is a free gift to all who repent and trust in Christ. But if we are to receive the gift God wants to give to us, we must stop grasping for the prizes offered by this dying world.

In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus shows us the path to glory that we all seek, even if that’s not the word we might use for it. So, please take a look at our lesson, starting at verse 28: “About eight days after Jesus said this [that is, eight days after the words of Jesus we just talked about], he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.”

This is a remarkable moment. On top of a mountain, the kind of place where God had once interacted with Old Testament figures like Moses, the bringer of God’s law, and Elijah, Israel’s greatest prophet, Jesus prays. 

When Moses encountered God on a mountaintop, you’ll recall, his face reflected the glory of God into whose presence he had come. 

But it’s different for Jesus here. Jesus once said of Himself: “I am the light of the world.Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8:12).” 

You see, on the mount of Transfiguration, Jesus isn’t reflecting the glory of God. Jesus also tells us, “The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me” (John 12:45) and “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). 

Jesus Himself is the source of the light. 

He glows in the radiance of Who He is: God the Son. 

“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory,” the preacher in Hebrews says, “and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word... (John 1:3).” 

This is what Jesus wanted His three closest and most intimate disciples to understand, that though the way to His kingdom went through a cross, through the surrender of self and the crucifixion of our old sinful natures, as God, the Author of life, Jesus could offer new and everlasting life to those who would faithfully follow Him no matter what. 

When we’re going through tough stuff in our lives, this can be our comfort and hope. Christ is God and He is the One Who can lead us to life beyond the pain and challenge and death.

Verse 30: “Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.” 

Neither Moses nor Elijah had walked on the earth for centuries. But here they are, in Jesus’ reflected glory, talking with Jesus about his departure. 

In the Greek in which Luke wrote about this incident, the word translated as departure is exodos, exodus. The Exodus is the event in Old Testament history in which God delivered His people from slavery in Egypt, took them through the wilderness, and into the promised land. 

Jesus was about to accomplish a new exodus, this one not just for the descendants of Abraham and Sarah, but for all who trusted, believed (and believe now) in Him. Jesus was going to endure the wilderness of suffering and death, then rise from the dead, so that He could meet us in our wildernesses and lead us into the presence of God, today in this imperfect wilderness and beyond the gates of death in the eternal promised land.

Verse 32: “Peter and his companions were very sleepy [just like they would later be in the garden of Gethsemane on the night of Jesus' betrayal and arrest], but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ (He did not know what he was saying.)”

Peter makes at least two mistakes here. 

First, despite the evidence before him--Jesus allowing the three disciples to see Him in the full glory of His deity, Peter equates Moses and Elijah with Jesus. He wants to erect three shelters or tabernacles to honor Jesus and the two Old Testament figures, as though each were on equal footing. 

Second, like the grasping world, Peter wants to capture God’s holiness, rather than be captured by it. Peter has yet to learn that human beings cannot be saved from sin and death by the things they do, or strive for, or control, but solely by surrendering faith in Jesus the Christ. 

Peter didn’t know what he was saying, but God still loved him and Jesus would not give up on him, just as God loves you and me and, as long as we have breath, Jesus will not give up on enveloping us and the rest of the human race in His kingdom of grace and love.

Verse 34: “While [Peter] was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice came from the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.’”

This is the same voice, that of God the Father, that told Jesus at His baptism: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased (Luke 3:22.)” At that time, the Father spoke to reassure the Son as He began His ministry. Now, at the Transfiguration, the Father speaks to encourage these three key leaders of Christ’s Church in the bleak days between Jesus’ death and resurrection, and later, in the remaining days of their lives. Even though Jesus would die, they would know that He was and is the Christ, and that they hadn’t been mistaken in following Him. 

Today, in the midst of both happiness and setbacks, we can live in that assurance, infinitely strengthened by the fact that after Jesus had taken the way of the cross, He rose from the dead, and that “the one who believes in [Jesus] will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in [Jesus] will never die (John 11:25-26).”

Verse 36: “When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.” 

There was no Moses, no Elijah. Religion may be about building shelters--or tabernacles--to dead saints. But faith in Jesus is about following and listening to a living Savior, about turning from death and sin and self-will, turning instead to Christ, our King. 

That Paul Simon song I mentioned earlier also has these lines: 

You got to learn how to fall Before you learn to fly

We’re all anxious to fly, high above the death and anxiety, the sin and the striving of this world. We want the resurrected life, the life of victory. 

But before we can fly, we must fall. 

We must lay aside all our pretenses of a righteousness born of our own goodness and see Jesus for Who He is: the Savior Who alone, amid all the competing voices, is the One to Whom we need to listen. 

Not money or security. 

Not tradition or change for the sake of change. 

Not fashion or habit. 

Not Buddha or Allah. 

Not sex or drugs. (Or rock and roll.) 

But Jesus. 

Only Jesus. 

In another place, Jesus calls Himself the good shepherd and His followers His sheep, and then says, the good shepherd’s “sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger (John 10:4-5).” 

Amid the din of voices screaming at us on TV and radio and social media, commercials, and political ads, may we keep listening for Jesus, through the wilderness and the cross, to the promised land and God’s glorious kingdom. 

May we always return to the One Who loves us more than we can either ask or imagine. 

May we always listen to Jesus. Amen

[I'm the pastor of Living Water Lutheran Church.]

Lord of the Riff Raff

Luke 15:1-10
[Here's an audio version of this post.]

Apple rolled out its new iPhone 7 this past week. It’s generated a lot of advance sales and buzz. That’s because the new phone has no headphone jack because it uses wireless earbuds, called airpods.

A big concern has arisen though: What if people lose their airpods? This burning question has been the subject online articles at Forbes, Marketwatch, The Daily Beast, Barron’s, and The Chicago Tribune, among other places. One article was headlined snarkily and accurately: "Entire world terrified about losing Apple AirPods that no one even owns yet."

When you can't find your AirPods anywhere pic.twitter.com/t6sUfLT1oA

— Super Deluxe (@superdeluxe) September 7, 2016

Now, I love my Apple products. In fact, I love to go into Apple stores just to smell all the technology! But when I consider...

the young people likely to lose normal life spans or normal brain function because of their drinking water in Flint, Michigan...

or the people losing their lives because of interminable wars in places like Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan...

or parents and others losing family members to the horrors of drug-addiction...

or the lives of babies being lost when abortion is used as a birth control method...

or children losing their innocence in a global sex-crazed culture...

anxiety over losing a couple of airpods seems sinfully inconsequential.

Nonetheless, all this anxiety demonstrates a truth: The value we attach to things or people directly corresponds to the anxiety we feel over losing them as well as to the joy we experience when, after losing them, we find them again.

In Luke 15:1-10, today’s Gospel lesson, Jesus tells two parables. They’re both familiar to us.

In the first, Jesus tells the story of a shepherd charged with overseeing one-hundred sheep. One of the sheep gets away. Apparently, the shepherd believed that all his sheep mattered. So, he searched for the lost sheep, found it, carried it back to its place, then threw a party for his friends, all because this valuable thing that had been lost now was found.

In the second parable, Jesus tells the story of a woman who owns ten silver coins, then loses one. She scours the house until she finds the coin. Like the shepherd in the first parable, she invites her neighbors over for a celebration because this valuable thing that had been lost now was found.

Of course, Jesus didn’t tell these parables just to entertain us. (Although I remember hearing Dr. Henry Mitchell say at a lecture, "The opposite of entertainment is not education.") Jesus told parables to educate and inspire us. But mostly He told them to transform us.

To get in on the transforming power of these two parables, it’s important to remember the context within which Jesus told them. In the first two verses of our Gospel lesson, Luke gives us the context:

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

Two groups of people were present, each with their own motives for gathering around Jesus.

One group included tax collectors and sinners. Tax collectors, in those days, of course, were hated people, shaking people down so that they could line their own pockets. They were thieves. We don’t know exactly what Jesus had in mind when he spoke of “sinners.” But He probably meant people who had, until this point, been unrepentant sinners, but now, like the tax collectors, saw in Jesus Someone Who bore the authority of God and the power of God’s love, Who would grant them God’s forgiveness and make their lives new.

The other group to whom Jesus spoke were Pharisees and teachers of God’s law, people who saw themselves as upright people above reproach, alarmed by Jesus’ offer of forgiveness and new life to those who repented and surrendered to Him. They were alarmed too that Jesus, while claiming to be from God, would spend His time with and sit down to party with such sinners. They gathered around Jesus so that they could gather incriminating evidence against Him.

It’s significant that the Pharisees and teachers of the law were horrified by Jesus eating with notorious sinners. For centuries, Jews had been looking forward to the day when they would sit at the great heavenly banquet with God’s anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ.

Isaiah 25:6 promised: “On this mountain the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines.”

The feast was promised (and is promised) to all who trusted in God and in His Messiah. Well before the day that Jesus told the two parables in our lesson, people were starting to speak of Him as the Messiah. In Luke 9:20, after Jesus asks Peter and the other disciples who they think He is, Peter answers plainly: “God’s Messiah.”

For the Pharisees and teachers of the Jewish law, this was deeply disturbing. Now the One being called Messiah by some was feasting--hinting at the great banquet all who trust in God will enjoy in eternity--with the riff raff. Was Jesus saying that this collection of no goods and nobodies were going to feast with God and them in eternity?

Actually, that was close to what Jesus was saying. The riff raff who turned from sin and trusted in Christ would be welcome to the Messiah’s banquet. But the Pharisees and teachers of the law were, it turns out, a bit too confident about their own places at the table.

That’s why Jesus ends the first parable at verse 7, with these words: “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”

According to Jesus, there’s a party, an outbreak of the Messianic banquet, every time a single sinner turns from their sin and trusts in the Savior Who died and rose for them to give them new life. That’s good news, or as the Old English word we use without much thought, puts it, God-spell, Gospel!

Yes, Jesus is saying, all this riff raff will be at the banquet. And so will all the other riff raff who turn to Him in despair over their sins and turn to Him too with faith in Him as their only gracious God and King. (That’s gospel even for riff raff like you and me!)

But did you notice what Jesus also says in that verse to all the Pharisees and others who think that their goodness secures their reservations for the heavenly banquet? Did you see the little barb in Jesus' words? Jesus says that there will be a bigger party in heaven over one sinner who repents than over “ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” Now I ask you, can you name a single person besides Jesus since Adam and Eve fell into sin who has had no need of repentance?

The Pharisees and teachers of the law thought that they needed no repentance. (And maybe we think that sometimes.) But, Jesus is saying, people who are confident in their own goodness need to think again.

Listen: Every sinner matters to God. Every sinner can receive grace that can transform us into God’s friends and transform the way we live each day. But that only happens for those who can acknowledge that they’re sinners in need of forgiveness, debtors to God for Whom Jesus has paid the price when He died on the cross.

True story: A seminary professor had just finished a lecture and was approached by a first year student with a big smile on his face. The professor had just lectured on temptation and sin, big topics. “Professor So and So,” the student said. “It’s amazing. But I just wanted you to know that it’s been seven years since I've been tempted to sin.” He was pleased with his own righteousness. The professor replied, “That’s about the worst thing I can imagine hearing.” The student’s expression changed, “Why?” “Because,” the professor told him, “it means that you’re so filled with self-righteousness that you’re not hearing God’s call to repent and trust in Jesus’ righteousness, rather than your own.” The professor was telling that student that he was really lost.

But the God we know in Jesus Christ can find lost people. And He can use believers in Christ like you and me to find them.

Another true story. A prominent Christian speaker was doing a seminar in Hawaii. The event was to begin in the evening and so, this speaker and some of his friends decided to grab an early dinner at a local greasy spoon. A group of women, whose profession was obvious, came in at the same time for coffee. The Christian speaker learned that it was the birthday of one of the women--we’ll call her Doris--and that at the end of the evening, at about three in the morning, Doris and the other women would gather again for a late night supper before heading for their homes.

The speaker and his friends hatched a plan. They bought a birthday cake, candles, streamers, noisemakers, and went back to the diner to await the women’s return. When the women got back, they threw a birthday party for Doris. They led everyone in singing Happy Birthday. Doris, who hadn’t been treated with genuine kindness in a long time, wept.

Later, someone asked the speaker why he and his friends had thrown this party. “Because,” he said, “we’re Christians.” “Really?” the questioner said. “What kinds of Christian are you?” “The kind of Christian who throws parties for prostitutes at three o’clock in the morning.” That speaker and his friends knew the truth of Paul's words in Romans that tell us that it's the kindness of God that leads sinners to repentance. That speaker and his friends were Christians who treated lost people exactly the way Jesus treats lost people, including you and me. He welcomes us and invites us to a party!

Every sinner (that's all of us) and every dying person (that's all of us too) matters to God.

You matter to God.

God doesn’t want to lose you. God doesn’t want to lose anybody.

God has dedicated Himself and He’s called us to the pursuit of one single purpose: Finding those dying in sin and hopelessness and helping them to receive the Good News of Jesus Christ!

On the cross, Jesus bore the punishment we deserve for sin, so that as we turn from sin, we are set free from death and share in His resurrection. We become part of His banquet, even today as we trustingly receive His body and blood in Holy Communion.

In response to Christ, this week, I ask you to do two things.

First, let Christ find you! Let Christ call you to repentance, and cover you with His forgiveness. Live in His love. Relish God’s celebration of His love for you.

Second, ask God to help you to invite the lost ones in your life to “come and taste the goodness of the Lord.” Do that for one simple reason: Everyone matters to God.

That, and because God loves to throw a party when the lost are found. Amen

[Blogger Mark Daniels is pastor Living Water Lutheran Church in Centerville, Ohio. This message was shared during both worship services today.]

God's Encouragement

Luke 9:28-36

We were talking with a young person this past week and the subject of this year’s presidential election came up. She was equally glum about all the presidential candidates in both parties. “It doesn’t matter who we vote for,” she told us. “Nothing will ever get better again.”

I have to say that I share that young person’s assessment of whether the election of any person would significantly change our world for the better. 

Only a spiritual renewal will cause us to act differently toward one another. 

Only massive numbers of people coming to be disciples and to live as disciples of the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, massive numbers of people daily repenting and daily believing in Christ, can move us out of what some are calling degenerative discouragement syndrome. 

It was discouragement to which that young person gave voice. 

And she isn’t alone, though some try, on their own, to make the best of it. Like people who say, “The world is going to hell. But I’m going to get what I can for me and my family.” 

Not, “The world is going to hell and I’m going to share Christ with whoever I can.” 

Not, “The world is bad, so I’m going to love my family and forgive those who sin against me.” 

Not, “I’m going to pray that God’s kingdom will come.” 

No, these people think, “Things are bad and I’m going to get as much good as I can, other people be hanged. Then I'll die."

The followers of Jesus Christ had observed many epiphanies--many manifestations of His power and Lordship--over the course of His ministry. 

Because of them, they were pinning their hopes for a better world on Jesus. 

For five hundred years, God’s people--the Jews--had suffered from a kind of degenerative discouragement syndrome. It had been that long since God had spoken through the prophets, through whom God had promised a Messiah, a Christ, an anointed King. 

Through those centuries, they endured injustice, foreign domination, and the enslavement of a grace-less religion. 

Many had given up hope that God would ever act. 

But now, as Jesus preached, taught, healed, raised the dead, and cast out demons, the veil of despair began to lift. Was God’s kingdom close at hand, after all? Was Jesus the Messiah, the Christ, God’s anointed king, come to make things right?

Eight days before the events recounted in this morning’s Gospel lesson, one disciple, the apostle Peter, was moved by the Holy Spirit to claim Jesus as “God’s Messiah.” [Luke 9:20] 

According to Luke, Jesus silently acceded to Peter’s confession, charged the disciples to say nothing to anyone because first, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” [Luke 9:22]

At that, the disciples must have felt that the small embers of hope just being brought to flame by Jesus were being doused by His cold wet blanket. 

Popular thought said that the Messiah--the Christ--would conquer foreign foes and ensure an era of financial prosperity. (The very things we expect of presidents, by the way.) The Christ, they thought, would govern justly and everyone would live happily ever after.

But Jesus understood that the people of His homeland--the people of the world, including you and me--are oppressed by much more than foreign threats or economic challenges, more than poverty or terrorism. All of those ills and many more come from a deeper human problem, the problem that Jesus came to conquer. The problem is sin, humanity’s inborn alienation from God, and death, the common enemy of every human being, that springs from death.

Jesus was telling Peter: “You’re right. I am the Messiah. And this is what the Messiah does. He bears the weight of Your sin and death on the cross, taking the punishment you deserve, so that if you repent and believe in Me, you will have eternal life in the kingdom of God.” 

The kingdom of God exists for all eternity, starting here in the hearts and wills of people who follow Jesus. Being a member of this kingdom today won’t erase the sins or tragedies of this fallen world. It’s still poisoned by sin and death. 

But being a member of this kingdom today will give us the faith and courage to live the Christian life: to love God, to love neighbor, to serve others with no expectation of return payment, to call others to follow Jesus with no expectation that they will say yes, to pray in Jesus’ name for those we love and for those who hate us. 

When the risen Jesus lives in us by faith, we can take a world going to hell in our arms and love it with the love of Christ. 

When you know that the story ends beyond the gates of death with eternal life with God, it changes how you do today!

But when you’ve lived for five centuries with degenerative discouragement and you’re told that your favorite myth about the Messiah is false, that the Messiah is going to suffer rejection and execution, that He will conquer your enemies by death and not warfare before He rises from the dead, you need encouragement. 

And so, our lesson tells us that God the Father supplied it! 

Verse 28: “About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. [God always shows up when we pray! Even if we’re discouraged, even if we can't sense Him coming close to us when we call Him. God will show up for us when we pray!] As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. [Already, this should be reminding us of the time in Exodus 24, when, centuries before, Moses took Joshua up to a mountaintop with him as he received God’s Law. When people looked at Moses, they saw the bright light of God on his face. Now back on this mountain with Jesus,] Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. [The word translated as departure here is literally exodus. Jesus is leading people who repent and believe in Him out of the wilderness of sin and death into the promised land of forgiven sin and new and eternal life.] Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.”

What a sight it must have been for the discouraged eyes of Peter, John, and James! The holiness, grandeur, and light of God emanating from every pore of Jesus’ earthly body. The lawgiver Moses, centuries dead, and Elijah, Israel’s greatest prophet, carried away by a chariot of fire centuries earlier, there to affirm that Jesus was the Messiah to Whom the Law and the Prophets and the Writings of the Old Testament all pointed. 

God was assuring the three disciples (and us) that despite the cross that awaited Jesus--that awaits who follow Him, He was still God and that the Messiah, after claiming His throne, would reign eternally over all who endure in believing in Him.

Verse 33: “As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters (The word in the Greek in which Luke wrote his Gospel is skene, literally meaning tabernacle or tent, also resonating of the Old Testament's account of God's people during their exodus from Egypt through the wilderness to the Promised Land.)—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.’ (He did not know what he was saying.) While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice came from the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.’ When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone.”

Peter wanted to capture the moment, as though you could possibly capture the majesty and mystery of God in a tent, a booth, a tabernacle, a church, a cathedral, or a universe. God, who Peter was looking at in Jesus, is bigger than all the boxes we try to put Him in. 

Besides that, Peter seems to think that Moses and Elijah were on an equal footing with Jesus. Just so Peter doesn’t misunderstand, God the Father envelops the whole group in a cloud, like the pillar of a cloud through which He led ancient Israel through the wilderness, and then says unequivocally: “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to Him.” At that, the three disciples found themselves with Jesus alone. 

What was God telling Peter and the other two (and us)? Simply this: “This is all you have been looking for. This is the one to whom Moses and Elijah were pointing. This is your king, God in the flesh. This is your wandering hearts' true desire!” 

Jesus was and is the Messiah toward whom all of human history had been moving. 

As the book of Hebrews puts it in a passage I mentioned a few Sundays ago: “In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.” [Hebrews 1:1-2]

For people discouraged by life, the events of the first Transfiguration Sunday give hope. 

They must have helped Peter, John, and James and the disciples they led through the pain of Good Friday and Holy Saturday. “Yes,” they could have said, “Jesus has died, but we saw Him on the mountaintop. We know that He is God. But hold on. Hold on!” 

And when they saw the risen Jesus, the Holy Spirit would help them to put the pieces of the mystery together. They would understand that the sinless Messiah had to die so that when He rose, He could claim us not for a kingdom that lasts for a few fleeting years, not a kingdom that may give us material prosperity and personal security before we die in our sins, but an everlasting kingdom filled with the righteousness and peace and presence and love of God. 

Take courage in the midst of this world’s darkness, hold on tightly to Jesus, because “the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.” [Matthew 24:13] That’s the promise of Jesus’ transfiguration!

[This was shared today during worship with the people and friends of Living Water Lutheran Church, Centerville, Ohio.]