Second Sunday in Epiphany,
Exodus 34:29-35; Mark 9: 1-7
“The Rest of the Story”
Paul Harvey is famous with his features entitled “The Rest of the Story.” The premise of the feature is that some stories are compelling, interesting, fascinating, and that they reach a point where it would seem that the story is complete. But, there is more, and what is more is, perhaps, even more compelling than the part of the story that preceded it.
The Christian faith, as it is seen in the testimonies of a great many Christians, is like one of those Paul Harvey features. What I’m thinking of here is the testimonies many of my friends in college were encouraged to report to gatherings of other college students, to explain how they were saved, how they came to faith in Jesus Christ, how a former life of sin, or degradation, or desperation was overcome by the saving forgiveness of one who paid the penalty that all such sin rightly deserves.
I have no interest in calling any of these kinds of testimonies into question. Without a doubt, some of them were likely embellished in the telling, but for every overblown testimony I’m sure there are dozens that are even wilder and woollier which are as true as the gospel. Christ’s mercy extends far, far beyond anything we are used to thinking about, unless, of course, we have one of those wild and wooly tales in our own spiritual closets.
So, for the record, let us acknowledge candidly and enthusiastically that the proper and first concern of every sinner is the very one that so exercised Martin Luther – how shall a sinner like me ever find himself acceptable to a holy and righteous God. And, also for the record, let us acknowledge candidly and enthusiastically that the answer Martin Luther settled on is the one loudly proclaimed in the gospel of Christ: God’s free and gracious forgiveness of all our sins, because they were judged and atoned for by the death of his Son on the Cross. 16"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
Now, for a great many Christians, this is the end of the story. My problem, your problem, everyone’s disastrous problem is that we’re sinners, born in sin, carrying Adam’s guilt, and adding our own as soon as it is possible to do so. And, the solution to this disaster is the removal of the penalty of sin. Praise the Lord. End of story, at least until Jesus comes to take us to heaven.
But, there’s more to the story, a lot, lot more. And it is the rest of the story that I want to point your attention to, from the lessons we have heard read a short while ago.
Let’s begin with the Old Testament lesson from Exodus 34. We’re told about a curious thing concerning Moses and his shuttle diplomacy, as it were, between God and the people of Israel. Moses was the one to whom God spoke, and after God has given Moses commandments or other things for the people, then Moses would depart from God’s presence and go to the people and tell them what it was that God said. If you want to know how this arrangement came about, read Exodus 20, where you’ll find that the people could not bear the presence of the Lord, and so they demanded of Moses that he speak to God, and then come and tell them what God had said. If God spoke to them directly, they feared they would perish.
So, Moses becomes God’s mouth, as it were, for that is what a prophet in Israel is – a spokesman for God.
Now, the first time that Moses comes down from the mountain, he must have been one very scary looking fellow. No one wanted to get close to him, and the reason for this is that Moses’ face was shining. Evidently, light was pouring out of his face toward others, and this frightened all who saw him. Moses succeeded in getting the people to approach him anyway, and he delivered God’s words to them. So far, so good. But here’s the curious thing – after he had finished speaking with them, Moses put a veil over his face. And he kept it there until he went to speak to God face to face again. Then he would take away the veil, speak with God, and come back to speak to the people WITH HIS FACE UNVEILED. And, after he had finished speaking, he would put the veil back on.
What, exactly, is going on here? Why not leave the veil off all the time? Well, the Apostle Paul explains for us what was going on in 1 Corinthians 3. Moses, Paul says, “put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away.” In other words, the light that was shining from the face of Moses after he had spent time with God began to fade over time. Moses knew this, and he feared for the morale of the people and for his own reputation as their leader if the people saw the light fading. And, so he covered it up until he went to speak with the Lord face to face. After each of these visits, his face would shine, Moses would speak with an uncovered face, and then cover it again, so that no one could observe how the light from his face was fading away.
Now, a great many Christians are like Moses here. When they first encounter God in Jesus Christ, when they first embrace the forgiveness for their sins which God freely grants them in Jesus Christ, the relief, the joy, the amazement – these and all sorts of similar feelings give them that baby Christian joy, that new Christian enthusiasm. They do not shine exactly as Moses did, but it is not an exaggeration to say that their personality has a certain glow to it that others can recognize as different from their former selves.
There is nothing wrong with this, but the experience is often like Moses’ shining face – it fades with time. This new-Christian glow can be, and often is, renewed, just as the shine in Moses’ face was renewed, but a fresh encounter with the saving grace of Christ.
This is, I think, one of the reasons why it is so valuable to observe the Lord’s table weekly, and why I am so looking forward to our inauguration of weekly communion here at St. Athanasius. In the Eucharist we are brought back once more to the source of all our spiritual life – the forgiveness of our sins by the blood of Christ shed on the cross for our sakes. Every time I bite on that bread and feel the flavor of the wine blooming on my tongue I, every time all my senses of sight and touch and taste and smell experience the reality of those communion elements, I am reminded – as I am supposed to be reminded – that Christ’s work on the cross is no less real, no less tangible, no less historical. And, something in me, something in your if you rightly apprehend what you are doing, something in us ought to be refreshed, just as the light in Moses’ face was refreshed each time he came face to face with the Lord. In the Eucharist, we come as close to Christ as it is possible for us to do in any objective way, until we join him in heaven or, perhaps, he returns to the earth to retrieve us.
But, this isn’t the end of the matter. The New Testament, as Paul Harvey would say, gives us the rest of the story. And we have that story set before us in a picture in the gospel reading for today.
Mark records in the first verse that Jesus had promised his disciples that some of them would not taste death until they had seen the kingdom of God in power. And, what follows next is the fulfillment of that promise, when Jesus takes some of his disciples – Peter, James, and John, and goes up to a mountain, and there he is transfigured. His clothes becoming shining, exceedingly white, like snow, and Elijah appeared there, along with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.
Of course, the scene which James, Peter, and John behold is a stunning recapitulation of what we have looked at in Exodus. But, the differences are even more important than the similarities. In Mark’s gospel, it is Jesus who shines, not Moses, and Matthew’s account reports that Jesus’ face shone like the sun. Luke records that Moses and Elijah too were shining and glorious in their appearance. And, at the end of this vision, God speaks from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, Hear Him!” saying this as Jesus stands with Moses and Elijah at his side.
The disciples are stupefied by all this. All the evangelists record that Peter’s comment about the tabernacles is to be understood as the confused babbling of a man who is so overwhelmed by what he sees that he winds up speaking things he doesn’t understand. But, Jesus has fulfilled his promise – some of the disciples were permitted to see where it is all headed, and then it all vanishes and they are left with Jesus alone, looking as ordinary as he had looked before the transfiguration.
What are we to make of this? We could make a very great deal out of this, but as far as the story of our redemption is concerned, this is the rest of the story – or, perhaps, it would be better to call it the end of the story, the goal toward which your story and my story are moving. The forgiveness of our sins by faith in the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf – this is the beginning of the story. The rest of the story is what happens afterwards, or what we should always be looking toward – our future glorification with Jesus Christ.
Paul, referring to the glory that shone from Moses’ face, says this 12Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech-- 13unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. …. 18But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
I’ve puzzled over that phrase “from glory to glory” for a great many years, and I think I now understand what it is that Paul speaks about. The glory of Moses’ shining face was indeed a glory, and it is found, as I have suggested, in the forgiveness of our sins in Jesus Christ. But, there is an even greater glory than that, the glory for which our forgiveness is simply the first step – and that is the glory of Jesus Christ, into whose image we are being transformed. As we behold him, we are changed. Yes, our sins are forgiven, but there’s more – what Paul says is a transformation from glory into greater glory.
The Apostle Peter, one of those up on that mountain, put the matter rather more bluntly. He opens his second epistle with this astounding statement: “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, … 4by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world …”
John, another one of those on the mountain writes this: 2Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”
In light of this, let reconsider a very old and rightly favorite verse from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans in Chapter 8:
28And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son … ,” That is the glory Jesus showed his disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, the glory of the eternal Son of God, and it is to that we are being conformed. It is God’s purpose from all eternity past, and so Paul says “Whom God predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.”
God grant us this day and ever hereafter we may fix our hearts on the glory that awaits us at the completion of our redemption, and ” let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
