"Jesus' Exodus"
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from
God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Mountaintop
experiences are those times when you want time itself to stop; those moments
when you wish that would never end. A
fishing trip where the fish seem to jump right into the boat. A conversation that you have with a loved one
that’s so deep and meaningful that you wish time would suspend itself
forever. Sharing in the glory of a
hard-fought victory with your teammates.
Mountaintop
experiences, when they come, are hard to give up. Who wants to leave a lake that’s full of fish
and put the boat back in its trailer?
Who wants to end a meaningful conversation with those we love and go
back into the world? Who wants to depart
from the field of victory and return to life with all its difficulties and
pains?
That’s
the situation in which Peter, James, and John find themselves. The Lord they have followed takes them up to
a mountaintop. “No big deal,” they
think, “He often goes to a desolate place in order to pray.” So, as the disciples seem to do at some of
the most important times, (the Garden of Gethsemane) they fall fast
asleep.
But
their slumbers are interrupted by something more dazzling than anything they
could imagine. The man they’d been
following is leaking His divinity all over the place. “…the
appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling
white.” Moreover, there are more
people now than there were before they had fallen asleep. “Moses
and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of His departure, which he was
about to accomplish.” Jesus
transfigured, revealing Himself as not only true man, but true God, Moses and
Elijah are there speaking with Jesus. If
there were any doubts in their minds before, certainly this clears everything
up about who Jesus is.
In
his mountaintop euphoria, Peter, whose always quick to speak but slow to think,
wants this to last. Jesus, just a few
verses before our text, tells His disciples, “He must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief
priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.” Eight days earlier, Peter makes his great
confession that Jesus is the Christ of God.
But today, it’s “Forget all that killing stuff, Jesus.” “’Master,
it is good that we are here. Let us make
three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah’- not knowing
what He said.”
Peter’s well
intentioned. We may know an inkling of
how he feels. He doesn’t want to leave
the mountaintop. No one ever does. He would rather bask in the glory of Jesus,
Moses, and Elijah. Why leave the
mountaintop to go back into a world where Jesus will be killed by the chief
priests and scribes? Why? Because it’s necessary. Absolutely necessary.
Jesus,
Moses, and Elijah are speaking of Jesus’ departure, or literally, exodus. Jesus journeys through the wilderness of the
world so that He can make His exodus on the cross. For the world and for you. Take Peter’s advice, stay on the mountain,
avoid the thing that’s most necessary and no salvation, no forgiveness. Jesus’ task is to set His face toward another
mountain. He has His own mountaintop
experience to undergo. Mount
Calvary.
Though
His glory is on full display at His Transfiguration, Jesus ignores Peter’s
suggestions and hides His glory. He goes
to Jerusalem, is stripped of His clothes, beaten, mocked, abandoned, and nailed
to a cross. He dies and is buried in a
tomb… For your salvation, for your forgiveness.
Doesn’t seem to us to be very glorious.
We like the Transfigured Jesus, with His glory just oozing out of Him
for everyone to see. But He has come to
display His glory, not in power and might, but in the weakness of the
cross.
No
wonder the Father speaks from the cloud, “This
is my beloved Son, my Chosen One; listen to Him.” Jesus has come to do the Father’s will,
not Peter’s or ours. Listen to
Jesus! He reveals His glory to you in
His death and resurrection where He has answered for all your sins. The sin you’ve committed. The sins that have been committed against
you. The big. The little.
Even the sins you can’t remember.
The sins you love, the sins you can’t stop doing, the sins you
desperately want to stop.
Peter
doesn’t want to give up His mountaintop experience. We know what that’s like. But the mountaintop experience of Jesus on
Mount Calvary, where He wins for you the forgiveness of your sins is the
necessary work of the Savior. Jesus’
exodus means your entrance into the Promise Land. Paradise’s door is open to you for the sake
of Christ. Thanks be to God He left the
Mount of Transfiguration and journeyed to Mount Calvary for you. Amen.
The peace of God, which surpasses
all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life
everlasting. Amen.
