it took a while but i don't mind

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The holy Gospel according St. Luke the 9th chapter! (v. 28-45)

Every year, just before Lent, we have the Transfiguration. The account of Jesus clothed in all his glory.

Often this is presented as the vision that sustains the disciples. Sustains them through the journey to the cross ALL the way to the exaltation of the resurrection. The “life-application” being that it’s no different for us. The mountaintop experiences of faith can sustain us through the tough times, too.

It’s easy to see why this sort of sermon has so much traction. It has the ring of truth to it. Doesn’t it? This is how it goes in real life. If you want to accomplish anything, you’ve got to set your sights on the finish line through every obstacle that might get in the way.

This narrative isn’t just repeated back to us in sermons, either. It’s the stuff of self-help, Hollywood, sports, and the like. 

Of course, the really good ones subvert this trope. Self-help that eschews objective-based actions for resiliency and acceptance. Films that depict what happens when the vision that’s been guiding the protagonist evaporates. The story of the athlete who set their sights like a laser and achieved every goal, only to realize it ruined the love they had for the game…

The uncomfortable truth that doesn’t fit in a tidy movie, or sermon for that matter, is setting your sights on a vision of glory will only get you through the tough times sometimes. And it’ll fail when it matters most EVERY time…

So, here’s your first bit of goods news; once you jettison all those easy storylines, you’ll be ready for the biblical one! As Luther said, if you let it, life will make a true theologian out of you.

The first thing you’ll notice about today’s scripture, when you let it speak on its own terms, is that the vision of Jesus in his glory is patently not enough to sustain the disciples! No sooner does Jesus come down the mountain than he’s confronted with, not one but two, failures! 

First, the disciples prove unable to cast out that demon. Even though, just one chapter earlier, Jesus promised them power over the spirits. Second, right after that, Jesus tells the disciples, for the second time, that he’s going to be betrayed. The disciples, though, don’t understand. Instead of asking him what he means, they keep quiet because they’re afraid to ask!

If this vision of Jesus in his glory is supposed to sustain the disciples, it doesn’t for long. Does it? But, it’s right in the middle of all that failure that Jesus takes up the question himself! In exasperation, Jesus asks how long he’s going to have to be with and bear with humankind before we finally get it together.

The answer, as it will become apparent, is forever. And not in any theoretical sense, either. But in a practical, moment-to-moment real-life sense. No sooner is the question off Jesus’ lips than he goes ahead and shoulders the disciples’ incompetence and heals the child. Immediately thereafter, he sets his face to Jerusalem. 

Jerusalem, where another mountain awaits. One that couldn’t be more different than the Mount of Transfiguration. And there, on Mount Golgotha, clothed in darkness, Jesus bears all the sins of the world away for all eternity! Your’s and mine included. 

If you want a vision of Jesus in his glory that’ll really sustain you through the really tough times, don’t look up. Look around! Look around because it is here, the foot of the mountain, that Jesus transforms into the foot of his cross! 

So, if you’ve set your sights on getting to the top of the mountain of life or faith, but are back here at the bottom all over again, don’t look up, look around! Because it is here, at the foot of the mountain, that Jesus transfigures into the foot of the cross! And what does Jesus do at the foot of the cross? Well, he takes all your visions of glory that have come to nothing and fills them with his everything!

…Every year, just before Lent, we have the Transfiguration. The account of Jesus clothed in all his glory. But this isn’t any year. It is? It doesn’t feel much like a glorious Transfiguration this year. In fact, as Lent begins, it makes a full year, in the church’s reckoning, that we’ve been living with COVID. 

When all of this started, none of us could have imagined we’d still be worshipping from home by the time Lent rolled around again. Yet HERE we are. And barely hanging on, too.

But, it’s right here, at the bottom of the mountain, where Jesus’ glory is truly revealed! And what it looks like isn’t every one of your wildest dreams come true. It’s all of them coming to nothing. And in that painful process, Jesus becoming your everything! Experiencing what Paul did, the sufficiency of (God’s) grace! Even when you’re not. Even when you can’t sustain yourself. 

…The temptation at this point to try and wrap the sermon up in a tidy little conclusion. But that wouldn’t be true to life. Would it? And as we’ve seen, it wouldn’t be true to scripture, either.
What you have is something so much better than a flimsy little conclusion to try and take shelter in at the top of this sermon like Peter wanted to build. What you have is something so much better. You have a savior, Jesus! Jesus who leaves his glory to come down the mountain. Comes down to be with you and bear with you. With you through it all. Bearing you come what may. And in this humble act, all of God’s glory is finally and fully revealed! Now AND forever.

It’ll sustain you yet. Just you wait and see…