Text: “Lord,
it is good for us to be here.” Matthew 17.4 (NIV)
According to the entry in
Wiki,
What happened that day, would
stay with John and Peter
for
the rest of their lives. In old age, John would write “ We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from
the Father, full of grace and truth. We have seen His glory”.
Suddenly the majesty of the
presence of the living God, the glory of the living God appeared round Jesus,
within Jesus. For a few moments, maybe longer, it as if His glory can no longer
be hidden, His whole being is filled with light.
The disciples,
see Jesus speaking, to two figures who are close to Him. They recognise Moses
and Elijah – the great law giver and the great prophet of
This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased – listen to Him.
When the
cloud lifts only Jesus remains.
Much of what happened there
is, of course, a mystery to us,
but
let us consider two dimensions
of the
event on
There on the mountain top – we
see
Jesus revealed in glory, and we see the disciples’ response,
the
glory of Jesus shines in radiance………..
and the
disciples look on, listening, waiting, in deep reverence, and awe.
The glory of Jesus, and the
reverence and awe of Peter, James and John…..
seen
there in what took place on
in
the Transfiguration………..
let
us, for a short while consider these: Glory and awe……….
First, Glory
Glory is one of those great
Biblical words – The glory of God is seen when the law is given, the glory of
God leads His people across the desert in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar
of fire by night. The glory of God rests
on the summit of
On the day the the Tent of Meeting was set up, the cloud covered it. From
evening till morning
the cloud above the tabernacle looked like fire. That is how it continued to be; the cloud
covered it, and
at night it looked like fire.
Glory is recorded during the
worship in the
What then is glory ? if we take the Bible as a
whole ?
Glory is that light, that radiance which speaks of the majesty and
greatness of the presence of God. The light of glory has solidity,
substance, splendour, beauty, magnificence.
It is that glory we see, that
ineffable light,
present
in Jesus Christ on
The light that shines here on
reveals
to us who Jesus is………
Here, on the summit of
the
Eternal Son, the living Word.
Then the voice of God speaks, declaring:
This is my Son, whom I love, with Him I am
well pleased.
Just as at Jesus’
Baptism, which was at the beginning of
all that Jesus would do, the Father, affirmed and confirmed Jesus the Son, who
He is, what He is -
here once
again is the Father’s loving affirmation of who Jesus is,
the
Father’s loving confirmation of what Jesus will do………..
You see, from here, the way
leads down the mountainside, down the
But before Jesus sets out on
that journey, the Father lovingly affirms Him, His beloved Son once again.
The Father here affirms Jesus both
as the Son, and as the Servant.
The Son, sent by God,
The Servant, promised by God, who would come at the right point in
time,
who
would be rejected by His people, – who would take upon Himself our infirmities,
our sorrows our sin, our iniquity, and restore the broken breach between
ourselves and the living God – this is who Jesus is………….
This is what the Father
confirms here. And the Cross which lies only
a season or so away is not the working of “fate” nor is it “an unfortunate
event” –
no –
at the Cross, Jesus has taken away our guilt, our sin, and has restored us
to
the living God……….
all
of this, is in the loving purpose of God, who declares
This is my Son, whom I love, with Him I am
well pleased.
This is the glory of who Jesus
is – in Him is the power, the majesty, the greatness of God, the love of God,
He is the beloved Son.
the
Servant promised……
Glory – but the gospel also shows
us the response of the disciples…..
Look first at Peter: when the glory of the living God shone all
around, Jesus, could be seen speaking with Moses and
Elijah – Peter cried out ‘It is good for
us to be here’ and offered to build three shelters. Some have thought that,
Peter, impulsive as ever, hadn’t grasped the holiness and sacredness of the
moment, when he called out with the offer to make the shelters. But perhaps
there is another explanation.
There is perhaps something
deeper in what Peter said and why he said it. You see, When Peter asked to make
three shelters, he was talking about making shelters
as was done each year in
At that annual Festival, men and women of
One teacher of the law said of
the Festival of Shelters………: if you never saw the joy (of that Festival), then
you have never known what joy is.
When Peter asks to make three
shelters, he is speaking with an unutterably deep joy he feels in the presence
of God, in the light of the glory of Jesus Christ. Deep joy - but the response
of Peter, James and John is also one of deep
awe and reverence as the glory of Jesus is revealed: we see them
listening,
watching, waiting, in deep reverence and awe.
Peter would later write of
that day, that experience –
“we were eye witnesses of his majesty – He received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the Majestic glory saying “This is my Son whom I love; with Him I am well pleased”. We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with Him on the sacred mountain.”
(2 Peter 1.17,18)
We read that when God spoke, with
deep reverence and awe Peter, James and John, the three disciples, fell on
their faces, in the light of that glory……….
the
glory of Jesus Christ.
So - the joy, the reverence,
the awe of the disciples………..
And the glory of Jesus Christ,
joy,
reverence, awe
is
that not what underlies all worship ?
all
our worship ?
Though we come to a place, a
building, a sanctuary we know so well,
come
Sunday, by Sunday…. and come for many different reasons……….
is
not the deepest reason this:
that
we come
to be
silent, to wonder at, to adore
the
light, the radiance, the majesty, the greatness of the glory of Jesus Christ
though
that glory is hidden, for the present, from our eyes ?
Though we come to a place, a
building, a sanctuary we know so well,
come
Sunday, by Sunday…. and come for many different reasons……….
is
not the deepest reason this:
that
we come
to be
listening to, listening for, the Word of God, the voice by which we are
addressed, called, commanded, welcomed, forgiven and guided ?
For we do not live, as John
Calvin said, “according to the poverty of who we are, or the poverty of what we
believe, we live according to the
greatness of the glory of Jesus Christ and what He can do”
May we as a Church recover
the vision
of the glory of Christ,
the
light, the radiance, the majesty, greatness of the glory of Jesus
And may our lives be marked by
joy, reverence, awe in His presence.
AMEN