I heard a story recently about a terrible fire in a chemical plant. Several area fire departments responded to the blaze, and quite a crowd from the entire area gathered at a distance to watch. The media was there in helicopters and satellite remote trucks. The president of the company was among the crowd, and he was frantic. He gathered together the chiefs of all the fire departments and explained to them that in the midst of the inferno was a safe that contained all the company’s super-sensitive documents including the top-secret formulas for all their best-selling products. He pledged to give a $500,000 donation to the fire department that brought the blaze under control and saved all the super-sensitive documents in the safe.
The chiefs rallied their firemen and women, pulled out all the stops attempting to bring the blaze under control, but it wasn’t happening. The fire continued to rage. After quite some time the crowd heard another siren in the distance that kept growing louder. Before long this old beat up, dilapidated 1930’s style fire engine filled with a bunch of men in their 60’s and 70’s came roaring through the crowd, right past all the other fire departments. The truck didn’t even slow down as it burst through the front door of the plant and right into the middle of the blazing inferno. Everyone, firefighters, media members and the crowd just gasped thinking about what these guys did. However, before long the fire was under control and this group of aged firefighters stumbled out the front of the plant coughing. Everyone cheered their heroic effort. They saved the safe. A few hours later in front of the gutted plant the president of the company handed the 82 year old chief a check for half a million dollars. In the press conference that followed, one reporter asked the chief what they planned to do with that incredible reward. He didn’t even hesitate. "These guys already told me they want to buy a new fire engine that has some brakes!"
I tell you that story for a couple of reasons. First of all, I thought it was funny. But more important, there is a lesson we need to learn in it. Every story, every situation, every incident has at least two levels to it. The first level is what happened, the facts of what occurred (Who, what, when, where and how). Though sometimes the bare facts are interesting if they are outrageous or off-beat, most often the bare facts of a scenario are that, pretty bare. What adds spice and interest to the facts of any situation is the motivation. It seems to me that why something happen is usually more interesting than what happened, even if what happened is a phenomenal event.
With that kind of thinking process, the Bible becomes very exciting reading to me. Events and situations that could seem like dusty old ancient history come alive with interest and intrigue when you look behind the scenes to the rest of the story. When you read what happened to Jesus and His disciples, it is always interesting to ask the question, "How come God allowed that to happen?" or "Why did God act like that?" Our passage for this morning is a prime example to consider as we think not just about what happened, but why.
Matthew 17:1-8
What an incredible event! Imaging being one of those 3 apostles, seeing Jesus changed into a being brighter than the noonday sun. What would it have been like to be there to see Jesus chatting with Moses and Elijah, heroes of the faith from thousands of years in the past? Just the bare story of the transfiguration is incredible in and of itself. But what about the behind the scenes stuff? This morning I want us to think past what happened to the real meaning of the events. When you ask questions like "Why did this happen?" or "What is God teaching us through these events?" it really gets interesting. Through the incident recorded here in Matthew 17, it seems to me that God was teaching us at least three vital lessons.
1. He Is Teaching Us Important Theology.
In the church sometimes when you use the word theology, people’s eyes start to glaze over. They think you are going to start using big words like propitiation, sanctification or transfiguration or some other left field term that they have no clue about. But Christians talk about theology all the time. All the word theology means is "thinking about God." When you are a Christian, everything you do in life is based on your theological understanding. If you have bad theology, in other words if you think wrong things about God, it can make you believe wrong things, which can affect the way you live. On the other hand, good theology helps us view the world rightly, and ultimately guides us to live the lives God created us to live.
In this incident, Peter, James and John witness Jesus having a conversation with Moses and Elijah. These two guys are among the most important people in the history of the Jewish race. Moses was the great law-giver, the one God delivered the Ten Commandments to on Mt. Sinai. Elijah was the ultimate prophet. He never died because he was so good; God just whisked Him up to heaven on a chariot of fire. Jesus is chatting with the law-giver and the prophet! That tells us something, and it especially told the first readers of Matthew’s gospel something very important. Matthew first wrote his gospel to tell Jews about Jesus. The Jews had a 2000+ year heritage of dealings with God, and they needed to know something important.
Jesus is not some contingency plan that God threw in at the last minute when everything else He tried failed. Through this incident we learn that Jesus is the culmination of everything God had been doing for thousands of years. Paul explains in several places that the plan to bring us grace by sending Jesus to earth was set into motion even before creation. Everything before Jesus including the O. T. law and prophets pointed to Jesus. Listen to what the Hebrew writer said in 1:1-2 "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe." Did you see it? Jesus is not something new on the scene. He is the continuation of God’s work that is recorded through what we call the Old Testament.
That is really important for us to know, because we have to realize that God isn’t just some big powerful human being muddling along by trial and error until He finally gets it right. God is completely in control, completely faithful to accomplish everything He wants to do. He never fails to accomplish His Will. When we recognize that Jesus is in direct continuity with God’s plan throughout the ages, we will also come to realize that God’s plans for our life are perfect and without flaw. You need to know that He will never fail you. It may seem to you that things have gotten so messed up that God has lost control, but it never happens. God is in complete control. His purposes never fail. When Luke records this incident he lets us in on what Jesus, Moses and Elijah were talking about. It says, "Two men, Moses and Elijah, 31appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem." Later as the disciples reflected on the events here on the mountain, and then considered the events that soon take place in Jerusalem, Jesus’ trial and crucifixion, they came to understand that those events were never spiraling out of control. God never lost control, and He never will. That is maybe the most important lesson in theology we can ever learn.
2. He Is Revealing Jesus’ Incredible Majesty.
As the 3 disciples who witnessed this event tried to explain to the others what happened, can you imagine how frustrating it must have been? Matthew’s account reads "His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light." Mark’s gospel says "His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them." In Luke 9:29 it says, "As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning." You can almost sense the frustration as the gospel writers attempt to describe the indescribable. They were trying to explain to people something that was beyond anything we can comprehend. The term in our Bible translated "transfigured" is the Greek word we get "metamorphosis" from. It is the term we use to describe the process of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly, spinning a cocoon and then being seemingly transformed from one creature to another. As the disciples described it, it was as if for a moment Jesus’ human body, the shell that made Him like us was pealed back. These disciples got a glimpse of who Jesus really is, God in the flesh.
Witnessing this event on the side of the mountain made an incredible impact on Peter, James and John. When you read through John’s writings, one of the most prominent ways that he refers to Jesus is as "the light." In 1 John 1:5 he writes "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." Many years later, as Peter approached the end of his life, he wrote in 2 Peter 1:16-18, We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he 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 that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
This encounter with the overwhelming majesty of Jesus was startling to these disciples. They didn’t only see Jesus changed, they also heard the voice of God. (Read 17:5-6) I have never heard God’s audible voice, never experienced any kind of vision of who God is, but in the Bible when people come face to face with the majesty of God, their first response is fear. The physical presence of God must be overwhelming, but an amazing thing happens in the next verse. (Read 17:7-8) What an amazing change takes place. In the future as they looked back at this incident, do you think they did so with fear? (Pause) I don’t think so.
What was once an incident filled with fear as the disciples came face to face with the incredible presence of God, all at once became a great source of comfort to them. There perspective was changed because they recognized not just the power and majesty of Jesus, but they also came to understand the love He had for them. That brings us to the final lesson I believe God wants us to gain from the incident this morning.
3. He Is Relating To Us The Privilege of Intimacy.
In April 2001, in the midst of the Israeli/Arab conflict, a motorcade carrying the Security Service Chief of Gaza came under intense bullet fire from Israeli troops. The frightened security officer called Yasir Arafat from his car for help. Arafat, in turn called the U.S. Ambassador, who then called the U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell. Colin Powell then phoned the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, who ordered the shooting to stop immediately. It did. It was a good thing the Security Chief had connections. They literally saved his life.
The real truth of the matter is as I saw on a bumper sticker. "It’s not what you know, but who you know" that matters most. That was true for the security chief. That’s true in a lot of areas of life. Connections will help you get a job, they will give you many business opportunities, and they will help you get thing done. If that is the way it is with people, then it is infinitely more true that if you have a relationship with the eternal God, the one who created everything and who holds everything together, then you are in good shape in the big picture of things.
I’ve noticed something though. We live in a very casual society where the idea of intimacy and friendship has gotten watered down. It used to be that people would never think of calling another person by their first name until they were invited to do so. When you first met someone, you referred to them as "Sir" or ’Ma’am." If you spoke to them specifically you might call them by their name, but only Mr. Suchandsuch or Miss Soandso. In those bygone days the only time you would dream of calling someone by their first name was if they gave you permission to do so. That was a privilege of intimacy reserved for only the closest of friends. Today for the most part we have done away with that kind of formality. I don’t think that’s all bad, but I do notice a problem. The casualness of our relationships causes us to take intimacy for granted. We come to assume everyone is our buddy. We presuppose that we are on a first name basis with others. It is an assumption we just take for granted, instead of considering it a privilege we believe we have to be given.
That change in our culture has occurred. For better or worse it is a fact of life. But the problem is, often that kind of assumption slips over into the way people relate to God. I hear people refer to God or Jesus as "The big guy in the sky," and I cringe. Jesus is not someone to be taken casually. He is the Alpha and Omega, the creator and sustainer of the Universe! I am sure these disciples who witnessed Jesus’ glory never took their relationship with Him for granted. Though they were with Him day in and day out for several years, the more they knew who He was, the more they marveled at the fact that He had a relationship with them. When you think about Jesus, that He is God in the flesh, that there are no words that can adequately describe Him, you can’t help but marvel at who He is. But beyond that, I hope you realize what a privilege it is to be able to call Jesus your friend. In John 15:14-15 Jesus said, "You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you."
That privilege is a gift offered to us by the incredible, awe inspiring, overwhelming grace of God. When you come to understand who Jesus is, the perfect Son of God; and when you also come to realize who we are, sinful, self-centered creatures, you can’t help but marvel at the privilege of being able to be called a friend of God. But we can have that kind of intimate relationship if we come to Him in faith, trusting Him to guide us through this life and into an eternal life with Him in heaven.
