Transfiguration Sunday, February 18, 2007
Luke 9:26-43
I. How many of you here have ever bought a used car?
A. You should see the looks on your faces.
B. It is obvious that some of you have had some negative experiences buying used cars.
C. But it is also obvious that some of you have had some good experiences buying used cars.
D. Let me tell you two stories about used cars:
A young man went out to buy his first car. He didn’t have a lot of money to spend so he went to a local used-car lot where he found a 1967 Red Mustang in what appeared to be mint condition. He was told by the salesman that the car had been owned by a little old lady from Pasadena, oops, I’m sorry, it was owned by an elderly woman who only drove the car on Sundays to church. Having fallen in love with the car he bought in on the spot. The next day while out driving smoke began billowing out from under the hood and the temperature gage spiked into the red. He had the car towed to a local garage where he was told that it had some major engine problems and would cost almost a thousand dollars to be fixed. When he called the salesman at the used-car lot he was told that all sales were final. Standing there with phone in hand all the young man could think of was a ditty of advice his mother used to tell him. “When the world gives you lemons Tommy, turn them into lemonade.” The young man then realized that he was now the proud owner of a life-time supply of lemonade.
Another young man was looking through the classifieds in search of a used car when he came upon an ad for a brand new Jaguar being sold for only $50. Surely he thought this was typo, but calling the number listed he was assured that $50 was correct. The next day he went by to see the car and to his amazement found the automobile to be in superb condition. He asked woman why she was selling this expensive car for only $50.00 and she said, “A year ago my husband began to go through a mid-life crisis. That’s when he bought this car. About a month ago he ran off with his 23 year old secretary. A week ago he called to say he was running short on cash and asked me to sell his Jag and send him the money. So that’s exactly what I am doing.”
II. At one time or another we have all been told, “What you see is what you get.”
A. And we all know that seeing is believing, right?
B. The two young men in the used car stories both saw something that was to them beautiful.
C. For one it turned out to be a bad experience for the other a good experience.
III. Sometimes we can all be looking at the same thing and see something completely different.
A. A college Criminology professor was about to give the final exam to his students when two men armed with handguns ran into the room and pulled one of the students out of his seat. They roughed him up a bit and then dragged him out of the room, saying, “We told you what would happen if you didn’t pay your up.”
After the class calmed down the professor explained that their final exam was to describe, in detail, all they had just seen and heard. Amazingly, no one got an A on the exam. Everyone had seen the same thing, but everyone saw it somewhat differently. Some even had three or four armed men, others said that they took a girl from the room, and almost no one remembered why they took the young man. NO one had seen the professor briefly hold up a sign saying “This is just a simulation.”
Everyone had seen the same thing, but none of them saw everything that happened.
IV. Peter has a similar experience in today’s scripture.
A. Jesus, Moses and Elijah are together on the mountaintop.
B. Peter, James and John are there with them, but a short distance apart from them.
1. Let us remember that Moses is the Great Patriarch of the Jewish people. He is the one who led the people out of slavery in Egypt and into the Promised Land.
2. Elijah is considered the greatest prophet of all time.
C. What Peter sees is that Jesus is with these two great leaders.
1. To Peter that is a validation, a confirmation of Jesus’ ministry.
2. So he says let us build three tabernacles; one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.
3. Luke then adds, “He did not know what he was saying.”
V. What Peter saw was Jesus being equal to the giver of the Law and the epitome of the Prophets.
A. This passage comes very shortly after Peter has confessed Jesus to be the Christ.
1. Recognizing Jesus to be the Savior and then trying to make Him equal to any man, even the greatest man that ever lived does not work
2. Peter sees his friend, his mentor, as only being validated by being in the presence of Moses and Elijah. And that is all he sees.
VI. So God does what is necessary to make Peter, James and John understand.
A. God thunders from above, “This is my Beloved Son, hear Him.”
1. Implying Jesus’ superiority to even Moses and Elijah who quickly disappeared.
B. And there before them Christ is transfigured, He has become dazzling white. A white that no man had ever seen before.
1. Peter and the others are getting a glimpse of the Glory of Christ.
VII. Unfortunately the image of Christ in His glory does not last.
A. Again and again Jesus tells them that He will be handed over to the authorities and will be killed and rise on the third day.
B. But they did not understand.
C. In fact, Peter will go so far as to deny Jesus three times on the night before His death on the cross.
Conclusion: So, what do we see when we read the story of the transfiguration? Do we Jesus as see Moses’ and Elijah’s equal? Or do we see our Lord and Savior standing before us in His glory, a glory that is so bright that it hurts the eye to look upon it? The transfiguration was done so that we might believe Christ to be the culmination of the Law and the Prophets. All that had come before leads us to recognize that we are sinners who need forgiveness and that forgiveness comes only from the live, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
And because we have seen, through the eyes of Peter, James and John, the transfiguration of our Lord, let us be transformed by that image so that we might reach out to others with the truth of salvation; God still loves you so much that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life.
Let us see the true image of our Risen Savior in all His glory that we might be transformed into a resurrection people; reborn into the new covenant, reaching out to the least, the last, and the lost that they, too, might enter into the Kingdom of God.
