What does this mean?

Mark 9:2-9
The Transfiguration

† In the name of Jesus †

Grace and peace from God our Father and our risen Lord Jesus Christ!
What caused them to ask what does this mean?

If we numbered the incredible things that happened while Jesus walked the earth, the Day of the transfiguration has to be in the top six. The days of His birth, His death, His resurrection, and the day of His ascension to Heaven are the four most obvious ones, but this day, and the day of His baptism come close behind. For it is on these two days, when He was baptized, and when the apostles saw Him in His full glory, that the Father spoke, audibly, about His Son.

In the passage, the apostles ask a intriguing question. It is a question often repeated in catechism class. What does this mean? As they travel back down the mountain, they discuss that question among themselves. What does this mean? What does this mean? In a way, they remind me of some of the people we met on our vacation.

One of the days of our trip, we went out to see the Hoover Dam. On the way back, we stopped at this place where we could get a view of Lake Mead. We had just visited this incredible dam, which on one side is the incredible lake, the other side, nothing for a long way down. Incredible views, of which I have at least 30 pictures. The cars, parked beside the buildings at the base, look about 1/10th the side of a matchbox car. At the overlook, you could see 20 plus miles across a beautiful lake, and incredible mountains and rock formations. What seemed off to me, was the people enjoying the incredible views. What gathered their attention, were about 15 little squirrels/kangaroo rats, which gathered just on the other side of the wall. With all the magnificent scenery, the little varmints were talked about more than the lake!

Peter, James and John seem to me to be like that. You see, they had just seen Moses and Elijah, talking to a Jesus, whom for the first time, they showed in ALL of His glory. O what a sight that must have been, to seem Him shining, fully transformed, the son of God. And then, just as incredible, a cloud covers the mountain, it overshadows them, and they HEAR the voice of the Father, proclaiming His love for Jesus the Son, and commanding them to listen.

Yet, as the three apostles walk back down the hill, they don’t discuss these things, they questions about what this means, is about something Jesus said, as they were leaving. It wasn’t about the Moses and Elijah and the transformation, it wasn’t about the Father’s voice. No what they needed to know about, what they asked it each other about; was “what this rising from the dead might mean”. When I first saw that, it seemed to me like the people getting excited about the varmints, while incredible vistas were all around them. Yet, the more I struggled with it during the week, the more I realize that they stumbled on the key to the passage, and why the transfiguration is so incredible.

All of what happened that day, balances on the question, what this rising from the dead might mean. Without it, the Transfiguration, and the Father’s call to hear Jesus, doesn’t really matter.

Rising from the Dead
§ Mark 8:31 & John 2:19
§ Is it the more… personal miracle.

This talk of Christ’s death is not something new to the three apostles. In the previous chapter of Mark, they heard it as well.

Mark 8:31 (ESV) 31 And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.

In John 2, at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, a similar comment was made. In those days, perhaps the apostles could overlook such comments, as they became enamored with following around, the one who could really be the Messiah. But now, a few months away from the cross, this question of Christ rising from the dead, takes on a more personal meaning.
Their rabbi, their teacher, whom they have traveled with for three years, their friend, in order to rise from the dead, must die. Jesus had to die. Had to die.

Though we see the Old Testament as clearly talking about the death of Christ for us, the apostles haven’t put it together yet. Here the prophet Isaiah’s words, 700 years before Christ’s death,

Isaiah 53:5-8 (ESV) 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

Jesus had to die, and rise again, so that our sins, could be forgiven. Until that time, until we trust in that death for us, the Transfiguration, and the command to hear Jesus, doesn’t make sense.

… Hearing Jesus, doesn’t make sense without the resurrection either
§ HE is more than just a Rabbi
§ The Ten Commandments parallel

The term in greek for hearing is the source of the word acoustic. As we talked with the man who is building our pipe organ, I began to understand why the ceiling stucco is called an acoustic ceiling. It is because it absorbs the sound, and internalizes it. Not something positive for hearing hi quality music, but it presents a great picture for hearing. Hearing is not just interpreting the sound waves into words, but it is internalizing what is said, the words are absorbed into our being.

When we in trust in Christ, for the forgiveness of our sins, the gospel has stuck to us. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we have absorbed that message, and come to a life in faith. Until then, the words have no great meaning, we don’t realize their significance. He came, to bring to us the Kingdom of God, for us to live in the presence of God, as forgiven children of God. That sin, which stopped us from hearing the word of God, from being able to hear, and understand, is no longer holding us in bondage.
We hear, we believe, we trust, in the grace of God, which brings us to life in Christ.

Because He rose from the dead. That is what this rising from the dead means, for us.

… Transformation doesn’t make sense without the resurrection
§ His, or ours
§ 1 Cor 3/Romans 12

There is so much to preach on in this message, the ties into the old testament are incredible, but perhaps more so, is the idea of Transformation, that our epistle adds some insight into. You see, the term for Jesus’ transformation is used only two other times in the New Testament, one of those times we see in our Epistle reading.

Jesus is transformed before the apostles, instantly returning to the view that we shall someday witness. In all of His glory, as He is pictured in the Book of Revelation. Such an incredible view! Jesus , in all of his majesty and wonder, God visible in all his glory, to mortal men.

Yet, our reading from 2 Corinthians talks of us reflecting that image, being transformed into that image. Moses only reflected that glory, when he came down from the mountain. 2 Corinthians talks about the on-going work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, transforming us, as we behold the glory of God. Romans 12:2 -10 talks of this as well, as we are transformed by the re-newing of our minds. Such incredible things are done to us, as we take on the righteousness of Christ, credited to us in our baptism.

Do you realize that transformation is occurring even now, within us, as we see the forgiveness of God, given to us in the death and resurrection of Jesus? That is what this rising from the dead means as well. It is our salvation, our being found righteous, and it results in our sanctification as well, as we are being transformed into the image of Christ.

That is why, in Romas 12, goes on from our transformation to talk of our using our gifts in ministering to each other, and 2 Corinthians talks of us having the incredible treasure of God contained in our lives, a treasure, not to be horded, but to be shared. Here is how it is put there,

2 Corinthians 4:13-15 (ESV) 13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, "I believed, and so I spoke," we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

What does this rising from the dead stuff mean? Incredible things. It means that we can, in a moment, share the body and blood of Christ, in through and under the bread and wine. It means, doing that, we know we are forgiven. It means we can boldly proclaim with the apostles, that He is Risen!
That means something…..

That the peace of God is ours, a peace that passes all understanding, given to us in Christ, and it shall keeps our minds and hearts, His. AMEN