Title: Transfiguration of Our Lord/Exodus 24:12
Contents
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1st Topic: Exodus 24:12, 15-18
interpretation for sermons
The ultimate authority of Christ overwhelms this season as the towering theme of this feast. Today's Gospel text commands, "Listen to him" (verse 5). This event impresses the reader as a vision in condensed form like a dream, and this vision is expressed in silver language in the writings of the writer of the Gospel of Matthew, who wrote the words of our Lord Himself. The dream-symbollanguage depicts Jesus conversing with two extremely authoritative figures. However, the two figures disappeared without a trace, and the disciples, overcome with awe, “seen no one but Jesus” (verse 8). Just as a person who glances at the sun for a brief moment sees an afterimage of the twinkling around him, so every disciple sees every experience and every problem through the perspective of his Lord.
While we are perplexed by "God talk," we must not conceal ourselves in any less transcendent subject. One temptation here the article of the epileptic boy that follows (vv. 14-21) is to elevate human service to the highest priority in order to propel the hasty descent from the mountains of vision. Today's Gospel text refuses to support such an escape.
This text is dotted with transcendence. Note the following symbols. The face of Jesus, shining like the sun, and his clothes as white as light (verse 2) were parallel to the white robe of the Ancients of Days (Dan. (28:3) is also parallel. Moses saw the back of God (Exodus 33:23), and Elijah met God in a small voice
(1 Kings 19:13)--as here, these two men each on a mountain--have now vanished before the appearance of God. The “bright cloud that covered them” (verse 5) is reminiscent of the cloud image of Moses as he ascended Mount Sinai (Ex. 24:18) and Daniel’s image of the cloud of transcendence (Daniel 7:13). God's voice from the clouds proclaims that God is pleased with His Son (v. 5). To reinforce this proclamation of the Gospel of Christ's authority, the Church has chosen passages from the Old Testament that are known primarily for their emphasis on the encounter with the Transcendent. No matter how we deal with this tale, we are bound to encounter this textual evidence of transcendence.
The issue at issue for us is the finality of our Lord. Can He make the ultimate statement about the character of God? As this article suggests, is God like Christ? In an age when ethical issues are being radically rethought, what does the phrase "Listen to me!" mean with the right of command? In this trend where the religions of this world are trying to approach each other while claiming to be of one origin while making different claims, what does it mean that the disciples saw no one but "Jesus only"? Preaching the transfiguration event means jumping into the middle of these questions.
Today's Gospel text emphasizes that Jesus - the one we fully know that obeying him is meaningful - speaks with the mission of eternity. "If it is impossible to hear and see the distance of the human Jesus by any true measure, then it is utterly useless to talk about the finality of Christ. The very God who cannot control the will of his will, to whom man must be subject to his judgment, and to whom man is compelled to take into account his irresistible presence among them, meets and is It's about whether we can meet or not."
Helmut Thielicke shows how such scriptures reflect for us the true experience of our Lord. "...We can read the whole story in first person. Indeed, this is by no means a little thrilling. In this way we push and pull until we identify ourselves with the many people who surrounded Jesus. It must be, because if in these people
For we cannot recognize the Lord unless we identify ourselves in The moment we go deep into the experience, all of a sudden, everything changes, and we too hear a voice saying, “This is my beloved Son” (verse 17).
We are then confronted with the myths and ideologies of our time, not in theoretical thinking, but in personally employable historical experience (v. 16). Early debates were against heretical doctrines that did not view the person of Jesus as decisive for the character of God or salvation. The transfiguration of Jesus against such heretical doctrines is anchored in the historical fact that those who first knew him had an experience convincing them that God claimed Jesus as his own supreme and final revelation. There is (v. 17, cf. Matt. 17:5).
As today's interpreters weaken this remaining message of fear of "modern man" skepticism, the remaining void is being filled by a preoccupation with the budding mystic. Today's second text argues against this, saying, "We didn't follow a cleverly crafted story." We are dealing with historical realities that can be pivotal.
"Peter" sees the foreshadowing of parousia in the transfiguration (v. 16). God will complete what He began in Jesus. Articles in the Gospel text are not just random episodes. It is a revelation of the ultimate. The phrase “the advent of the Lord Jesus” is a phrase of the church that expresses the final victory of Jesus. We are faced with monumental struggles in this age. In urging Christians to fulfill their role, the Evanston Assembly of the World Council of Churches confessed: "We are not good enough for these things, but Christ is enough. We don't know what is coming to us. But we know who is approaching. He meets us every day and at the end of time. It is our Lord Jesus Christ who will meet us, so we say to you - "Rejoice in your hope." Today's second text urges us to make that very hope our own in the community of faith .