Bible Passage: Luke 9:28-36
Pastor: Michael Willitz
Sermon Date: February 27, 2022

Bulletin February 27, 2022

Luke 9:28–36

²⁸About eight days after he said these words, Jesus took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. ²⁹While he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothing became dazzling white. ³⁰Just then, two men, Moses and Elijah, were talking with him! ³¹They appeared in glory and were talking about his departure, which he was going to bring to fulfillment in Jerusalem.

³²Peter and those with him were weighed down with sleep, but when they were completely awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.

³³As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let’s make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He did not realize what he was saying.

³⁴While he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them. They were afraid as they went into the cloud. ³⁵Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” ³⁶After the voice had spoken, they found Jesus alone. They kept this secret and told no one in those days any of the things they had seen.

Listen to Him!

1. He is the greater Prophet.
2. He has fulfilled the greater exodus.

Dear fellow redeemed in Jesus Christ our Lord,

Once again, today, we make our annual pilgrimage to the mountain of transfiguration. And what we observe on this mountain is truly astounding. Jesus’ face, which looked so normal before, is now shining like the sun. Jesus’ clothes, which were so common before, are now dazzling white, more brilliant and more radiant than a fresh blanket of snow. Look, there’s Moses! And look, there’s Elijah! Moses hasn’t been seen on earth in over 1400 years, and Elijah hasn’t been seen in 800. Yet, there they are, standing in glory, deep in conversation with Jesus. Then the cloud sweeps in and covers everyone up. It’s a tremendous cloud and a terrifying cloud, a cloud that strikes fear into the hearts of men. So what are we to make of all of this? The whole event of the transfiguration is both stunning and mysterious. It is both breathtaking and frightening. What does it mean, and what does it tell us? Dear friends, this morning, if we take nothing else away from the mountain of transfiguration, let’s take the words of narration provided by God the Father. Out of the midst of that mesmerizing cloud, the Father speaks, and He says to us, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” [35]. So listen to Him! Listen to Jesus, because He is the greater prophet. Listen to Him! Listen to Jesus, because He has fulfilled the greater exodus.

As God the Father speaks from out of the midst of the cloud the words He says are words that we have heard before, aren’t they? “This is my Son, whom I love.” We’ve heard that before. God the Father said the same thing on the day when Jesus was baptized. The heavens opened, the Spirit came down in the form of a dove, and the voice of the Father came out of the heavens, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love. I am well pleased with him,” [Matthew 3:17]. But what about the other words, the command, “Listen to him,” [35]? Have we heard those words before? The people of Israel had certainly heard those words before. 1400 years earlier in their history, those words had been spoken through the mouth of Moses. The setting was the wilderness of Moab, just to the east of the Jordan River. Moses was soon going to die and Israel was soon going to cross the Jordan and take possession of the Promised Land of Canaan. But before the sons of Jacob took their first steps on the soil of Canaan, and before the prophet Moses breathed his last breath and was buried by God, Moses spoke to the people by inspiration, and he said to them, “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brother Israelites. Listen to him,” [Deuteronomy 18:15].

“Listen to him,” Moses said, and it is no coincidence that God the Father now utters the same three words, because Jesus is the Prophet who was promised by Moses. Jesus is a prophet like Moses, and, in fact, He is a prophet greater than Moses. In our first lesson today, we heard how Moses’ face shone with glory when he descended Mount Sinai. But in our second lesson today, we heard that the glory in Christ is more glorious than the glory in Moses. When Peter, John, and James wake up from their nap, and their eyes land on Jesus, they are looking at a prophet with even greater glory than the prophet whom the Israelites saw coming down Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments.

The book of Hebrews also tells us that Jesus is worthy of greater glory than Moses, because while Moses was a faithful servant in God’s house, Jesus is not merely a servant. He is the Son of God over all of God’s house, [Hebrews 3:5-6].

Jesus is the greater Prophet. He is greater than Moses. He is greater than Elijah. He is greater than every prophet who spoke for God in the days before Him. In fact, Jesus is the culmination and the capstone of all that God has to say to His people. This is taught in the very opening words of the book of Hebrews, where it says, “In the past, God spoke to our forefathers by the prophets at many times and in many ways. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son,” [1:1,2]. So do you want to hear what God has to say? Listen to Jesus, and you will hear what God has to say. Other prophets have come and have gone, like Moses and Elijah who appear for a while and then disappear with the cloud on the mountain. Jesus alone remains with His disciples, and the voice of the Father declares of Him, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” [35].

God’s will is that we listen to Jesus. He is the great Prophet, the ultimate Prophet, who speaks words from God, words that you and I need to hear. We do not need our own ideas or our own speculations. We do not need our own suggestions as to how God should operate. Isn’t that what got the Israelites into trouble when they grumbled against God time and time again in the wilderness? Isn’t it what got Peter into trouble? Just eight days before the transfiguration, Peter rebuked Jesus for saying that the Son of Man must suffer and must die and must rise. Now, on the mountain, Peter is still trying to inject his own ideas and his own plans. “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let’s make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah,” [33]. But Jesus does not need Peter’s suggestions. He does not need your suggestions, and He doesn’t need mine. You and I, and Peter, and John, and James need the words that come from Jesus. We need to Listen to Him, because He is the greater Prophet. We need to Listen to Him, because He has fulfilled the greater exodus.

That’s what that glorified delegation discusses as they stand with Jesus on the mountain. They are talking about His exodus. Our text says that Moses and Elijah “appeared in glory and were talking about his departure, which he was going to bring to fulfillment in Jerusalem,” [31]. Now, in this translation and in most modern English translations, the word “departure” is used, but in the original Greek, Luke uses the word “exodus”. “They were talking about Jesus’ exodus, which he was going to bring to fulfillment in Jerusalem.” That word, “exodus”, calls to mind the exodus from Egypt, when the LORD rescued His people from slavery to Pharaoh and brought them up to the Promised Land of Canaan. With Moses and Elijah, Jesus discusses an even greater rescue.

You and I were held in slavery, not in slavery to Pharaoh, but in slavery to sin. We were lost to sin’s control, and we were doing sin’s bidding. That’s why by nature we don’t want to listen to Jesus, and, instead, we want to formulate our own plans. By nature, we are with Peter, wanting to camp out in glory rather than walking the way of the cross. Yet through His suffering, and through His death, and through His resurrection, Jesus has fulfilled the greater exodus. He has won for us our freedom from slavery to sin. He has won for us our freedom from the hell that we deserve. He has served as a greater deliverer than Moses, and as a greater Passover Lamb.

You might remember how at the very first Passover, God ordered every Israelite family to slaughter a lamb and paint its blood on their doorposts. Then, during the night, when God brought death on the firstborn of Egypt, He spared every family that had blood on their door. God’s Son came to earth as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” [John 1:29]. He came to shed His holy, precious blood in order to spare us from God’s wrath and in order to free us from slavery and bring us up from this world to the eternal Promised Land.

So in spite of Peter’s suggestions, Jesus leads His disciples down the mountain. In spite of Peter’s rebuke from eight days earlier, Jesus continues on the road to Jerusalem to fulfill His exodus. Jesus accepts the flogging and the thorns. Jesus willingly takes up the cross. Jesus embraces the hatred of men and the wrath of God for you and for me, and three days later Jesus crosses over from death into life.

Dear friends, we have been marked by Him, not with blood on our doorposts, but with Baptism on our brows. By this washing, Christ has swept away every sin and has poured out the Holy Spirit on us and awakened us to life. By Holy Baptism, He has brought us with Him from slavery into freedom. Now He leads us, as a rescued people, in an exodus through this world to the next. Here we live in humility, and here we carry a cross, and here we do not have a permanent home, but we press on, following Jesus. We Listen to Him, and we wait for the glory that will be revealed in the Promised Land to come.

With the gift of the Holy Spirit, Peter, and John, and James listened to Jesus and followed Him. In fact, in the first chapter of his second letter, Peter mentions his impending exodus. If church tradition is correct, then Peter suffered execution on an upside-down cross. Yet, now Peter sees His Savior in glory, and on the Last Day, Peter’s body will be raised in glory. We, too, have a glorious future. The glory that shines on the mountain of transfiguration is a foretaste of the glory that we will share in the life to come. In our epistle lesson today, we read these words, “But all of us who reflect the Lord’s glory with an unveiled face are being transformed into his own image, from one degree of glory to another,” [2 Corinthians 3:18].

Though we live in humility now, great glory awaits. Even as Jesus passed through suffering and entered His glory, He is leading us on the path through suffering into glory. So let us heed the Words of Jesus’ Father. Let us Listen to Him! He is the greater Prophet, and He has fulfilled the greater exodus. To Him be glory both now and forevermore.

Amen.

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