God Is With Us

“God is With Us”

FPC Catlettsburg KY - Transfiguration Matthew 17:1-9 03-02-25

Today is Transfiguration Sunday. Do you know what it means to be transformed? Well to be sure, I looked it up in the dictionary: its meaning surprised me, it meant more than I thought. It means to make a thorough or dramatic change in the form, appearance, or character. It means to dramatically change: to make a metamorphosis. When I read that definition, I thought of a book I read years ago in German class. We were assigned the task of reading the Famous Novel by Franz Kafka entitled “The Metamorphosis”. It was about a young man who woke up one day and realized he had been transformed into, of all things, a large Roach. The story line of the book is how his life dramatically changed. You can only imagine how much it changed. The first thing he had to do was run for his life, because his own mother and family member were trying to kill him. You can imagine. He knew who they were but they had no idea that he was a member of the family.

When we become Christians, we too undergo a metamorphosis, Not from one species to another but even more dramatically from an child of the world to a child of God. We are not transformed as much as we are transfigured like Jesus was. Our bodies and souls are changed and become “Glorified”, Much as Jesus was glorified on the mount of Transfiguration.

This morning, we will look at that Transfiguration. Not literally, if only our Father would allow us that miraculous sight, instead we will look at it as it is recorded for us in our Father’s Holy Word.

Let us allow our imaginations to experience the magic of the moment. But be careful. If you try to understand this story with just your mind, you will most certainly be disappointed. Instead, let yourselves go and use the eyes of your souls to witness it, and let your hearts be warmed with the vision of our Lord in His glory.

What’s interesting is that there is something different about Matthew's version of the Transfiguration. And that is that the disciples do not seem all that amazed when Jesus suddenly turns into a vision of light, when suddenly, he stands in the company of Elijah and Moses. What a sight that must have been! Now I don’t know about you, but I would be shocked. But they seem to be unimpressed.

That is, until they hear the Voice, until they hear the voice of El Shadai, God himself, repeating once again the words he spoke at Jesus’ baptism. "This is my Son, the Beloved; with whom I am well pleased; listen to him." Yes, my friends, it was the Voice and not the vision that put the disciples’ knees to the ground.

Has God ever communicated with you? God reveals Himself in many ways. I don’t know about you, but for me it happens like this. Words form in my mind, sometimes God uses my own voice to speak and sometimes it is just a feeling or a thought. Is that the way it happens with you? When it happens, no matter how, you just know that it is our Father’s voice you are hearing. There is no doubt.

However, on the day of our Lord’s Transfiguration, it was not like that. The disciples hear the actual voice of Our Father Himself. Can you imagine what that must have sounded like?

The Voice they heard reassures and empowers Jesus just before he turns his face toward Jerusalem, toward the cruelty of the cross. It reassures and empowers the disciples who have just been told to deny themselves and pick up their own crosses. And it reassures and empowers us today as we embrace our own Christian journey.

The Voice of God says many important things to us. The main thing and the most reassuring is, “You are never alone”. God will never ever leave you. I am reminded of how God let Becky know that he was with her when she was in a time of trouble. Her father was sick and in dire condition in the intensive care unit. For days she sat out in the ‘Family Waiting Room’ lingering with the other worried families. She was only allowed to see her father 4 times a day. But she was there, and ever faithful! And every night she stayed, sleeping in a chair or on a hard-padded bench. She was diligent, never losing hope, never giving up. She was there day in and day out, no matter how bad she felt, no matter how many others came. She was there. But you know, as lonely as she felt sometimes, God was with her. He never left her. And he let her know it several times.