“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.
Like one night when she was asleep on that padded couch, something went wrong with her father. The nurses were not aware of it. Becky was asleep and suddenly someone shook her awake. She looked around the room, and all she saw was people sleeping. No one was up. And suddenly, she got a feeling that her father was in trouble. She got up and went to the nurses and said there is something wrong. When they checked on her father, he was indeed in distress. It was God our Father who shook her awake, and it was He who saved her father, and it was God who said, her father’s time on earth was not over.
How many times can we all say that God revealed himself to us in some way that we knew He was watching over us and that we were not alone. When those times come, we are amazed by the very presence of God. Can you imagine how the apostles felt on that mountain?
But really, God never leaves us. Sure, we have those times of epiphany when we are sure that God himself is speaking to us. And then there are times when we wonder where He is? We feel that God has abandoned us.
We wonder as David did in Psalm 22. “Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?” (Psalm 22:1 ESV)
But let me declare to us all today. God will never leaves us, He is always near. He is with us in both the good and bad times. As wisdom tells us in Deuteronomy 31:8 “It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”
And let us be reminded with the words of our Savior as he gave us the great commission in Matthew 28:20, “Teach them to obey everything that I have told you to do. You can be sure that I will be with you always. I will continue with you until the end of time.”
In the novel “The Metamorphosis” the main character Gregor is changed from a man to a roach. He dies in that form. In life we are changed from dreadful, hopeless sinners to glorious Sons of God. As I have been telling Becky all along through her present illness, “There is a Better Day Ahead for us all. And that goes for you and me as well. God is with us. What more can we ask?
Let us be strong in the Lord because we have hope. The hope that is Jesus Christ as he was revealed to us on the mount of Transfiguration. God is with us! Amen
