Bible Text: Matthew 17:1-9 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | Our Gospel begins with the words, “After six days.” Six days previous Jesus began to tell his disciples that He would be going to Jerusalem to suffer and die and rise again. And when Peter heard Jesus say this, he scolded him, “Far be it from you, Lord. This will never happen to you.” Peter certainly trusted in Jesus, called him Lord; in fact, Peter had just made the great confession that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. But when it came to what the Christ, the Son of the living God would do, Peter not only didn’t believe, but was totally opposed to the idea of the Christ dying. For this, Jesus gives Peter the harshest rebuke in all the NT, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me, a scandal to me. For you put your mind on the things of men and not the things of God.” Think of that. Jesus could be harsh, he could lash out with anger against his enemies. Read Matthew 23, and see how many times Jesus says, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” He calls them blind guides and fools. And you can be sure he raised his voice a little too. Jesus is full of compassion for sinners, full of love, calls himself rightly meek and gentle of heart, tells us who are weary and heavy-laden to come to Him, compares himself to a mother hen who wants to protect us from every evil, but when it comes to false doctrine and false teachers, Jesus has no patience. This is why He spoke as he did to Peter. Get behind me, Satan. The harshest words he speaks to anyone. Why? Because Peter wanted Jesus without the cross. And this is a scandal to Jesus, an absolute scandal – in fact that’s what he calls Peter literally in the Greek – you are a scandal to me.
This all happened six days before the Transfiguration. And so it’s no coincidence the Holy Spirit records these words, “After six days.” He’s connecting the transfiguration to Peter’s denial of Jesus’ suffering and Jesus’ fierce response to Peter. Now Jesus brings Peter to a high mount. James and John are there too, but that’s because you need more than one witness for an event, right? By the testimony of two or three witnesses everything shall be established. Peter is the focus here. And Peter sees Jesus in all His glory. Sees His face shine like the sun. Sees his clothes flash like light. Sees Moses and Elijah appear and talk with Him. Sees with His eyes that Jesus is God.
Why? Because Peter needed to learn and we need to learn that there is no divorcing God’s power from His suffering and His death. The image of Jesus that is imprinted on our minds and hearts is the suffering servant on the cross, right? The crucifix, the God-man bleeding and dying for our sins. This is what we mean when we sing, “On my heart imprint thine image” – this the superscription be, Jesus crucified for me.” But this image can never be separated from the image Peter saw that day on the Mount of Transfiguration. Christ is the God of all power and might. He wears our flesh and blood, but in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. His face shines like the sun. And it is this same Jesus who goes to the cross. With all His power, this is what He chooses to do with it, to take all of our sins on Himself, to defeat our death by suffering it Himself, to satisfy His own justice by pouring out His blood for sinners, to end the threat of hell by facing its punishment in His own body.
In our day it’s become very popular to talk about a cross-less Jesus. Pastors and ministers calling themselves Christians will speak the name of Jesus but never or rarely say a word about His death for sinners. Televangelists will promise that Jesus will use His power and His love to give you your best life now. But the suffering and the cross they ignore, because it doesn’t draw the crowds, it gets the same response as Jesus got from Peter – Far be it from you. Remember Jesus’ rebuke of Peter. It applies to crossless, bloodless preachers today too. Don’t listen to them. Remember what your Lord said the day Peter became a false teacher and denied the cross. Get behind me, Satan. You are a scandal to me. Remember that the Jesus who said this is the same Jesus who shined in all His glory six days later, who shines in all His glory now. And He has not changed His position. Jesus is angry with preachers who don’t preach Him crucified and risen for the forgiveness of sins. This is why we’re Lutherans. We expect every single Sunday to hear the preaching of Christ’s cross.
And that’s not simply because we have one passage here in Matthew 17 that tells us to. No, look at that Mount of Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah are there. Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, called the Law or the Pentateuch. Elijah represents the prophets who wrote the rest of the Old Testament. The regular term Jesus uses to refer to the Old Testament is the Law and the Prophets. And here you have the Law and the Prophets, Moses and Elijah speaking with Jesus. The whole Bible represented, speaking to Jesus. Because that’s what the Bible does. And St. Luke tells us explicitly what they’re talking about. They’re talking about Jesus’ coming death. Not just about Jesus and His power, but Jesus and His death, what He uses all His power to accomplish. Again, this is no coincidence. If we want to be called a Bible-believing church, if we want to claim that great Reformation slogan, Sola Scriptura, Scripture alone, it’s not enough to reject evolution and accept the creation account in Genesis, it’s not enough to insist on the traditional morality of the Bible and take stands against abortion and homosexual marriage, it’s not enough to be conservative, though God knows we must be, but the true Bible-believing church will preach constantly Christ-crucified, because this is what the entire Bible pushes on us and God knows it’s what we desperately need.
I asked Pastor Richard to read the OT lesson that’s not printed in your bulletin. Because it, more than any other, shows us why we need to talk constantly about Jesus’ death and resurrection. When Moses was on Mount Sinai the thunder and the cloud covered it, God’s presence there terrified the people. And when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, the people couldn’t even look at his face, because God’s glory was there. He had to put a veil on so they could see him. This is who God is in all his power without the death of Jesus. He’s unbearable. He can’t be looked at. We can’t approach Him.
Every Christian knows this. We know the pain of sin. We know the fear of God. How do I approach the holy God who requires love from me, when my heart has been so stained with selfish desires? When I have sworn time and again to do better and have once again come up short. When I have to admit that I have cared about the smallest things, spoken harshly to those I love, judged my neighbor in my heart, nursed my pride, doubted that God is in control, lost patience with His timing, faltered in my prayers, thought of worldly things like Peter, obsessed over them as if this world were all there is. And against all this, the holy God still thunders. God is angry with sin every day, the Psalmist says. Lord, to whom shall we go?
Now understand why Jesus is so furious with Peter for forbidding him to go to the cross. No, the cross is everything. Here God uses His power not to condemn sinners, not to cast you away, but to pay Himself for all your sin and to win for you a perfect righteousness. Here you can look at God and not be afraid. You can stare into the face of the living God and see that He wears your flesh and blood and has buried your guilt and your shame in his grave. You can know that the almighty Son now is your intercessor, the one who pleads your case before the throne of His Father in heaven.
Listen to Him. That’s the command of the Father to Peter and to us. Don’t listen to the devil who throws your sins in your face as if they were too gross or wicked for your God. Don’t listen to the world that thinks nothing of sin and forgiveness but ignores it all for fleeting pleasure. Don’t listen to the doubts of your own flesh. Listen to Jesus. His word is like a light shining in a dark place. He says come to me all ye who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. He speaks the forgiveness He died to give you. He says take eat, this is my body, drink of it all of you, this is my blood shed for the forgiveness of all your sins. And He promises, after the cross comes glory. After death comes resurrection.
Moses and Elijah not only represent the Law and the Prophets, they are the image of what we will have in the resurrection. They shine with Jesus. They are cleansed from every sin. There is no more temptation to lust, no more guilty conscience, no more doubt, no more uncertainty, no more pain or fear of death, no more impatience, no more selfish pride, no more pain, no more anxiety, no more lies of the devil. There is only love and contentedness, pure love for one another and for the God who has bought us. They talk with Jesus. They look Him in the face and speak together of His cross, because it’s His cross that has won them this unbelievable privilege and happiness, to look at God without fear and know Him and love Him. That’s what Jesus has won us by His cross. Realize now that we have a foretaste of heaven here. We don’t see Jesus face to face. Not yet. But we join Moses and Elijah and all the saints coming before our God without fear to listen to Him and rejoice in His death and resurrection. And that we’ll be doing forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.