THE LORD OF SECOND CHANCES
Luke 9:28-36 Exodus 34:29-35 2 Peter 1:16 Matt. 16:18, 23 2 Peter 1:12-14, 17-18 Matt. 5:47
When Thomas Edison invented the first light bulb, he handed the bulb to his young apprentice who anxiously carried the bulb upstairs. Yes, you might have guessed it; the nervous young boy stumbled and dropped it, and it shattered on the floor. It took another tedious twenty-four hours of non-stop work to make another bulb. When completed, Edison handed the second bulb to the same assistant. This time the boy carried the bulb more carefully. So this brings me to my question for you. If a person lets you down, do you give him – or her – a second chance?
We all make mistakes. We all have faults and make human errors. We have all seen people stumble and fall down. Where would you be if someone had not given you a second chance? What if someone had not believed in you enough to help you up or let you try again? READ LUKE 9:28-36
God is in the business of giving people a second chance. Probably no one knew this better than Simeon Peter. Whether it was stepping outside the boat and starting to sink in the sea, or speaking without thinking, it was Peter front and center. Despite his failures, Jesus gave Peter the biggest compliment and mission anyone could have. “You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church and the powers of hell will not overcome it.” Only a few minutes later, however, Peter spoke up again without thinking and this time Jesus said to him, “Get behind me Satan.”
But for all of Peter’s weaknesses and mistakes, Jesus saw potential in him. That potential was good enough encouragement for Peter, that after Jesus’ death, it was Peter who took up the cross and became the Saint who led the new church of believers.
As we read today’s scripture, we see the accounts of two men who stood looking into their futures. The first was Jesus. He was standing on a mountain talking with two men from the past – Moses and Elijah. Even so, Jesus was not seeing the past but the future near at hand. He saw the road to Jerusalem and the fulfillment of God’s plan for our salvation.
The second man seeing his own future was Peter. He was in Rome, and there he saw his own death by crucifixion. But before he died, he wanted to remind all believers of the truth of Jesus Christ. Peter knew that his time on earth was limited as he wrote his second letter.
Some of Peters' last written words were given to us in 2 Peter 1:12-18. He wanted to make sure that people remember the truth of Christ and of the Transfiguration. So Peter says, “I think it is right to refresh your memory as long as I live in the tent of this body, because I know that I will soon put it aside, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.” Then in verses 17-18, Peter adds, “(Jesus) received honor 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 … from heaven when we were … on the sacred mountain.”
When preaching on the Transfiguration, most sermons end at saying that His face and clothes changed, but in doing so, they stop short of the deeper meaning of what took place. With a little extra exegesis, we discover more.
For instance, the Greek words translated fashion, countenance, white and glistering are all words that aren’t likely to describe a change in someone’s physical form. Rather, they indicate a change in knowingness … a new awareness or a look of “fully understanding”.
As Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah, He was looking ahead in time. There He could see the road to Jerusalem and his own death on the cross. But that did not sway Him or break His resolve. He was not weakened by knowing what lay ahead. On the contrary, he was more determined than ever of what he must do to complete God’s plan of salvation to save the world from its sin. That is the meaning and power behind the Transfiguration.
There may be moments in your own life as well; moments when it seems like something falls away, and you see beyond the present circumstances, and it becomes clear that God is calling you – calling you to “Make disciples and transform the world for Christ … together.” So the disciples also changed when Jesus died. They were frightened and scattered – crushed and overwhelmed – devastated by seeing their Messiah crucified on the cross.
The Disciples felt helpless and hopeless; threatened by those who wanted to kill that group of rebels who challenged the religious establishment. Jesus had changed the status quo. He set His disciples’ sights on things beyond the Temple walls in Jerusalem to see the least – the last – the lost that were sitting outside the church walls, and Jesus said, “Invite them in.”
An old hymn written by Alexcenah Thomas says:
Who’ll go and help this Shepherd kind,
Help Him the wand’ring ones to find?
Who’ll bring the lost ones to the fold,
Where they’ll be sheltered from the cold?
Out in the desert hear their cry,
Out on the mountain, wild and high;
Hark! ’tis the Master, speaks to thee,
“Go, find My sheep where’er they be.”
And bring them in from the fields of sin;
On the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter wanted to set up three shelters for Moses, Elijah and Jesus. Once again we see Peter’s foot in his mouth. Apparently he’d forgotten that, “It’s better to be thought a fool than to speak up and remove all doubt.”
Peter didn’t tell anyone what he had seen until much later. You know how it sometimes takes us a while to let things sink in especially - if that something frightened us or challenged our thinking. But over time the future becomes the past, and then we can see how Jesus’ death was really a victory. The cross was not the end but the beginning.
Finally, things began to make sense for Peter. As he grew stronger in his faith and drew closer to his own mortality, he better understood his mountaintop experience. The Transfiguration is a call to experience that wonderful and glorious encounter with God that establishes our mission to follow Christ. It sets our true identity as believers and children of God.
It also marks our mission to make disciples no matter what the cost - with all certainty – absolutely clear – no doubts – no turning back. Peter was determined and resolved that, even if it meant his death, he would keep reminding people that, what happened to Jesus, was not a clever, made up story. It was the truth. Peter had seen the power of God in Christ with his own eyes. He had heard the voice of God with his own ears.
Someone once said, “Discipleship is not lived out on the mountaintop, but in the valley.” The Mountain is often where God is revealed, and His glory is discovered. The Valley is where battles are fought, and life gets hard.
After they came down from the mountain, the very next scene is an encounter with a boy possessed by an unclean spirit. Jesus rebuked the evil spirit and healed the boy. Peter witnessed that Jesus, who is Lord on the mountain, is also Lord in the valley. The glory that was revealed on the mountain makes a difference in the valley.
Your mountaintop experience may result in you wanting to make a difference for someone you meet in the valley. Have you experienced this wondrous truth in your own life? Have you met Jesus in your own valley?
What I mean is this. We can worship week-after-week on the Mountain. We can enjoy the mountain so much that we want to stay there. But worship is really only a fraction of what God wants from us.
The truth is that there is nothing more important than the church making disciples in the valley. There are always opportunities to make disciples. There are plenty of empty pews and extra places to park cars. We don’t have to swap members from that church to this. There are plenty of lost people in need of Christ.
The Mountain top is often a place where God is revealed and his glory is discovered. The Valley is the place where battles are fought and life gets hard.
The journey from the Mount of Transfiguration to the Mount of Calvary is one we’re all called to travel. It’s the call to salvation. It’s that moment where we must choose between living in our past and settling for our failures, or making the decision to begin a new life in Christ; a new life where we receive a second chance. It’s where we receive mercy and grace; where we show that same compassion to strangers and people who we might not like or even get along with. But we know that Jesus loves them the same way he loves us.
Rev. Cynthia Hinson posted a funny picture on Facebook. It’s a photo of a large sign in front of “Saint Peter's Church”. The only thing wrong was that the “S” from “Saint” had fallen off the sign. As a result, it read “-aint Peter's Church.” I chuckled, but then I wondered, “How does our own church sign look to those outside its walls?”
We all have “can do appointments” in our lives, and then there are the “don’t you dare do appointments.” We can’t say that we’re over churched. There are almost always empty pews in every service. We can make a lot of excuses as to why we don’t do more to make disciples. But I don’t think any of our excuses will pass “the God test”. But don’t get too discouraged. God sees the potential in us. Discipleship is an ongoing process that requires us to “go on”.
Peter spent most of his last days writing letters to the churches encouraging them to never ever give up. In his own words, “I will make every effort to see that, after my departure, you will always be able to remember these things.” To believe - and trust - and have faith in God is no small thing.
History records that Peter was crucified upside down on the cross. He did not feel worthy to be crucified in the same manner as Jesus. Peter was trying to teach us a valuable lesson; to spend our time living out the radical teaching of Jesus. Show hospitality to all people. Shake hands with someone you don’t know; even give a hug to someone you may despise. Because, “We have seen his majestic splendor with our own eyes.”
PLEASE JOIN WITH ME IN PRAYER: Heavenly Father, you are always giving your people another chance. You are forgiving and erasing the sins of our past. As you were Transfigured, so we pray You will Transform us. Through Jesus on the cross, you have made it possible for us to keep coming back until we get it right. By our Lord of the empty tomb, empower us to keep coming back. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
