The glory that awaits is worth the pain of the cross

Sermon for the Transfiguration of Our Lord

2 Peter 1:16-21 + Matthew 17:1-9

If a person is serious about living a Christian life in this world, he’ll find that it involves plenty of pain and sacrifice. He (or she) will no longer fit in with the surrounding culture and society. He’ll experience strained or broken relationships, public shaming, persecution, struggles with temptation, confusion about the path forward (for oneself and for the Church), maybe also feelings of loneliness and isolation, as we live in the midst of the many lies, injustices, and acts of lawlessness that fill our world. In fact, it was just six days before Jesus’ transfiguration, which you heard about in today’s Gospel, that Jesus summarized all this to His twelve apostles: If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. Taking up one’s cross is not a symbol of comfort, or ease, or relaxation. Quite the opposite. The Christian life is symbolized by the cross, which is a heavy burden all by itself, and which leads inevitably to crucifixion.

But Jesus went on to explain to His apostles that taking up one’s cross, even losing one’s life, would turn out very well for those who follow Him. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.

The cross and death—losing one’s life—comes first. But one of the basic truths of the Christian faith is that death is not the end for the believer in Christ, just as it was not the end for Christ Himself. The entire eleventh chapter of the book of Hebrews teaches that truth, listing Old Testament believer after Old Testament believer who looked ahead in faith, past this life, with its joys and with its sorrows, to the glory of the life to come. Then it picks up at the beginning of chapter 12 with this encouragement for Christians: Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 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, looking 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.

How was Jesus able to endure the pain of the cross? By looking past it to the “joy that was set before Him,” the joy of providing the atonement for the sins of mankind by His cross-bearing, by His suffering and death, the joy of the resurrection from death and eternal glory afterward, first for Himself, and then for those who would follow Him into glory. That’s what’s pictured for Jesus’ disciples in the Transfiguration. In it, Jesus gives them a vision, an appetizer, if you will, of the glory that awaited Jesus, and all believers, on the other side of pain and death, enabling them to endure the cross that was coming.

Jesus took just three disciples—Peter, James, and John—up onto the mountain that day. It was enough for just three of them to see the vision. They would bear witness to the other apostles, and, later, to the whole Church of what they saw there that day, and the Holy Spirit would bear witness through them, so that those who hear, as you’re hearing today, might believe.

Jesus was transfigured before them. (That means, His form, His appearance underwent a drastic transformation.) His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white like the light, shining and white, like snow, Mark describes it, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. We’re used to seeing things like that in movies, but imagine it happening in real life, right in front of you, to a man you’ve spent almost three years with, every day, watching Him do miraculous things, yes, but never once looking any different than any other man. Before, the eyes of faith told them that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, as Peter had confessed one week earlier. Now, suddenly, they see Jesus looking like the Son of the living God, with all the glory and splendor of the Creator.

But there was more to this vision. Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. Remember how Hebrews chapter 12 spoke of the Old Testament saints as a “great cloud of witnesses,” all urging us onward and upward, to live as strangers here as we focus on the goal of heavenly glory? Well, God chose just two from that great cloud of witnesses to appear here with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Why these two? Oh, there are all sorts of reasons we could point to. Jesus had much in common with both Old Testament prophets, but I’ll mention just a few. Both Moses and Elijah faced their share of opposition from the unbelievers in Israel, just as Jesus had. Both of them trudged through this life, hoping for something better at the end. Moses knew he wouldn’t be allowed to enter the earthly Promised Land of Canaan, and yet he went on faithfully leading the Israelites through the wilderness for those forty years, because he had his heart set on the heavenly Promised Land that he did enter when he died. Elijah, for his part, was taken to glory early. He readily left behind this sinful world when God was ready to take him, and he left in a most extraordinary way: he ascended into heaven alive, being carried up in a whirlwind. In both cases, how did things turn out for them? Well, here they are, alive and well, conversing with the Son of God in His glory. Clearly, for them, the glory that awaited was worth the pain of the cross they bore.

Luke adds that they were talking with Jesus about His “departure (literally, about His “exodus”) which He was about to fulfill in Jerusalem. Ironic, isn’t it?, that Moses was talking about an “exodus,” and Elijah, too, given his extraordinary “exodus” from this world. Jesus’ own departure or “exodus” would also be rather extraordinary. He had a few months left to preach and teach, and then He would depart via death, as Moses had, but then come back to life, and finally depart by ascending into heaven alive, as Elijah had. This was the plan. It was the plan all along. It was the plan since Old Testament times, and, in fact, since the creation of the world. The Christ would come, not to conquer the world or dominate the world, not to sit on a throne in comfort and glory, but to suffer the pain of the cross, and then to enter into His glory.

Only a glimpse of that glory was being given to the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, but they sure wanted it to last. Lord, it is good for us to be here, Peter said. If you wish, let us make here three shelters—one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. St. Mark adds that he didn’t know what to say, since they were all so afraid. But Peter’s instinct to remain on the mountain, to keep the glory going, to not have to think about the cross they’ll have to face down at the bottom of the mountain—that instinct lives in all of us. We want the good times to last. We want to avoid the pain of the cross. In fact, Peter is almost repeating what he had said six days earlier when Jesus began to predict His suffering and death, “No, Lord! This will never happen to You!” At which point, Jesus had to rebuke him sharply, Get behind Me, Satan! For you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.The things of God include the pain of the cross in this life, for Jesus, and for those who would follow Him, without fail. But the flesh shrinks back from those things.

While Peter was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Hear him!” God the Father speaks from heaven for a second time. The first time, you recall, was at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry, when He was baptized. “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased!” The Father was pleased with His Son at the beginning. And He remains pleased now toward the end, even after Jesus has foretold the way of the cross, for Himself and for His followers. The Father was pleased to lead His Son to that cross for our salvation, and He was pleased with Jesus for being willing to set aside comfort and glory for a time, to bear the pain of the cross for us. And He is also pleased to bestow a glorious kingdom upon all who follow Jesus until the end.

Hear Him! Listen to Him!, the Father commands. No better advice can be given, at any time, but especially when it’s time to head down the mountain, away from the glory, when it’s time to bear the cross. When you’re tempted, when you’re disappointed, when you’re confused, when you’re depressed, when you’re persecuted, when you no longer fit in in this depraved world, Hear Him! Listen to Jesus! Not to a whisper in your ear, or to something you feel inside. Listen to the word of Jesus, to the things He has said, and has inspired to be written down in the Holy Scriptures, and has commanded His ministers to preach until He comes again in glory. As Paul writes to the Romans in chapter 8, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. That’s the lesson in the Transfiguration. The glory that awaits in the future is worth the pain of the cross now. It’s okay to go down the mountain and face the pain that awaits below, as long as you’re walking behind Jesus, 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. Keep following Him to the cross and the grave, and you’ll also follow Him into glory and life everlasting. Amen.