Sermon
for Transfiguration, January 24, 2021
Grace to you and
abundant peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Lord.
Amen.
Isaiah 61:10-11 10I will rejoice greatly in the
Lord. My soul will celebrate because of
my God, for he has clothed me in garments of salvation. With a robe of
righteousness he covered me, like a bridegroom who wears a beautiful headdress
like a priest, and like a bride who adorns herself with her jewelry. 11For
as the earth produces its growth, and as a garden causes what has been sown to
sprout up, so God the Lord will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up in
the presence of all the nations. (EHV)
Jesus dresses His people for heaven.
Dear fellow redeemed,
Through Moses, the Lord God told the whole community of
Israel, “You shall be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.” (Leviticus
19:2) This is usually treated as a
command, as well it should be. However,
it is also a promise, because the Lord has always recognized that we cannot
save ourselves. In the beginning verses
of this chapter of Isaiah, the Holy One of Israel spoke of healing the
brokenhearted and freeing the captives.
Then, in Luke’s Gospel, we hear of Jesus reading the first couple
sentences of this chapter, after which He sat down and declared, “Today,
this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21) Therefore, everything that God promised to do
for the fallen human race is accomplished through Jesus.
Now, in
these two verses appointed for our sermon, we find the response of the
Christian Church in heaven. There it
will be that we never again have to confront sin. There, we will never again be separated from
God who created us, loved us, and redeemed us from our wretched state under the
devil’s control, for with the glory of His life and sacrifice, Jesus dresses His people for heaven.
It may
sometimes be hard for us to comprehend the change that will come upon us when
we leave this world and enter our new home in heaven. Here on earth, the devil would like to
convince us that we are doing okay, that we really are living holy lives, and
that we can positively compare ourselves with sinful neighbors. That is a dangerous temptation.
The truth
is, as long as we walk this earth, we will be saying with St. Paul, “The
desire to do good is present with me, but I am not able to carry it out. So I fail to do the good I want to do. Instead, the evil I do not want to do, that
is what I keep doing.” (Romans 7:18-19)
Truly, this is the Christian life on earth. The Holy Spirit has worked faith in us by
Word and Sacrament, and that faith in Jesus leads us to want to do right, but our
sinful flesh often keeps us doing what we know is wrong, for we do not yet enjoy
the full benefit of Jesus’ holiness until we reach our heavenly home. That does not at all mean we have been
shortchanged.
God, in
His holiness, gave the Law so that sinners might recognize our sin and our need
for a Savior. The blunt clarity of the law
brings brutal condemnation that drops us to our knees in repentance and breaks
any arrogant thought left in our hearts, so that we, like the tax collector at
the temple, as one with nowhere else to turn, might cry out, “God, be
merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13)
Again, that is the true Christian life—recognizing and confessing that
there is nothing good in us to merit God’s forgiveness and love but also
hearing and believing Jesus invite us, “Come to me all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find rest for your souls.” (Matthew 11:28-29)
Jesus left
His Father’s side in heaven to be holiness for you and me. Jesus, the Son of God, saw our wretched
state, saw us defenseless before the devil’s ruthless scheming and attacks, saw
us suffering and scattered as sheep without a shepherd, saw us naked, bleeding,
and dying without hope, so Jesus left His throne of glory to become one of us
and be the Suffering Servant who takes the price of our guilt so that we might
be lifted up to life and glory. Then,
because Jesus lived, died, and rose again for sinners like you and me, for all
of eternity, this will be our song of praise: “I will rejoice greatly in the
Lord. My soul will celebrate because of
my God, for he has clothed me in garments of salvation.”
Through
faith worked in us by the Holy Spirit in Word and Sacrament, God’s Son has
rescued us from an eternity of darkness and pain. Yet, He doesn’t bring us to some neutral spot
and say start over. Instead, He makes us
His own beloved Bride and dresses us for the wedding celebration of
heaven. Isaiah wrote, “With a robe of
righteousness he covered me, like a bridegroom who wears a beautiful headdress
like a priest, and like a bride who adorns herself with her jewelry.”
No
earthly clothing would prepare us to enter the holiness of heaven. Adam and Eve tried to cover their shame in
the garden but nothing they could do would hide their guilt from the discerning
eyes of the holy Almighty. Yet, after
confronting them in their sin, God offered forgiveness and restoration. We see that same heart of the Lord our God
when He came to Solomon in a dream and promised, “When…my people, who are
called by my Name, humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their
wicked ways, I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sins and heal.” (2
Chronicles 7:13-14)
That is
what we find in this text. God took
people who had nothing to offer Him. He
found us putrid and worthless in our sins and picked us up out of the gutter of
despair. He healed us of our sin and
iniquities through Jesus’ sacrifice, and today He calls us His beloved. Jesus perfectly fulfilled all the law that
accused us. He perfectly fulfilled all
that His Father had desired for men and women to be, and through faith, God now
credits Jesus’ holiness to each of us.
So that
we might be perfectly beautiful for all our days in heaven, Jesus dresses
His people for heaven in righteousness, obedience, and holiness. In place of the sins that once marred our
souls, we are given the glorious jewels of Jesus’ perfection. That is what Jesus, and the Father, will see
as we enter the banquet hall of heaven—a people dressed in perfect glory to be
loved forever. Thus, the Church will
sing unceasingly, “I will rejoice greatly in the Lord. My soul will celebrate because of my God, for
he has clothed me in garments of salvation.”
As we
look around the world, and even around this room, however, we don’t see that
perfection right now, but make no mistake, God sees it. He sees it in His Son of Whom He has
declared, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him.” (Matthew 17:5) In our Gospel lesson we saw the transfiguration
of our Lord Jesus. There for a few
moments, Jesus lifted the veil of His humiliation to give His chosen disciples a
view of the glory He possesses as God, a glory still His as Man, for Jesus
never once deviated from His mission to save.
Jesus
never could, nor ever would, depart from His mission. Isaiah wrote, “For as the earth produces
its growth, and as a garden causes what has been sown to sprout up, so God the
Lord will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up in the presence of all
the nations.” When Isaiah was called
to serve as God’s prophet, he saw a vision of the Lord on His throne, and the
angels surrounded Him singing, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah
6:3)
God is
holy, and St. John, likewise, tells us that “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) Therefore, to do anything less than to give
Himself into saving us would be to deny His very self. Thus, “When the set time had fully come,
God sent his Son to be born of a woman, so that he would be born under the law,
in order to redeem those under the law, so that we would be adopted as sons.” (Galatians
4:4-5) St. Paul also wrote to Timothy, “This
saying is trustworthy: Indeed, if we have died with him, we will also live with
him; If we endure, we will also reign with him; If we deny him, he will also
deny us; If we are faithless, he remains faithful, because he cannot deny
himself.” (2 Timothy 2:11-13)
This
morning, we celebrate the transfiguration of our Lord. In those moments on that mountaintop, Jesus
revealed His glory to the world for the first time. Isaiah had foreseen this glory seven hundred
years earlier as God revealed it to him.
God being true to Himself so that we could be rescued from darkness, and
though we may in this present time not see nor feel the holiness Jesus has
given us, it is coming, and when our days here on earth are ended, glory and
joy will be ours everlasting, for our sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake, and we
are counted holy in His Father’s eyes for the same.
Knowing
the love Jesus demonstrated for us with His life and sacrifice, we can boldly
face any trial or hardship this world might bring—even death. With the hymn writer, we can joyfully enter
heaven singing, “Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness my beauty are, my glorious
dress; ’midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my
head.” “Rejoice greatly in the Lord,”
dear friends, Jesus dresses His people for heaven. Amen.
The peace
of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
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