Seeing The Glory

About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elija, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, "aster, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters-one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." (He did not know what he was saying.) While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen. -Luke 9:28-36

So since just after Christmas, we've been on a journey through Paul's letter to the church in Corinth, and so we've looked at some of the elements in there, but this series or loose series has been one that focus on that idea that the love of God never ends that love never ends, and we see that demonstrated as we began on that first Sunday, shortly after Christmas with the baptism of Jesus, where he's baptized in the Jordan by John, and God makes the declaration that, This is my beloved and I'm proud of him.

And then we moved from there into Paul's letter and looking at the way in which that love is woven through that story, and 1 Corinthians 13 is very clear about that, in fact, I took that love chapter is where we get that statement, love never ends and over the last couple of weeks, we've looked at that idea of what exactly is resurrection, not only the Resurrection of Jesus, but that promise for us to be raised to newness of life as well, and God's work of demonstrating that love through bringing redemption to the world. And this week, we jump back to the gospels as we experience his transfiguration Sunday of this change that comes over Jesus. Now, as we look at this in the gospel of Luke, this ninth chapter, there are some chapters that there's just so much going on and so setting the stage a little bit, there's been a lot that Jesus has done with the disciples early in this chapter is when Jesus commissions the disciples to go out into the surrounding towns and villages and to preach good news, but more importantly, to proclaim healing for those who were sick and the cast out demons, and in Jesus name they went, and the things they did happened, the demons were cast out and people were healed and the message was received, and they came back and reported this.

And then as Jesus had that large crowd gathered by the side seashore, 5000 of them, he told the disciples, feed them, they're like we had, and he said, Yes, you can, and they gathered up a few loaves and fishes, and they fed 5000 people. Mighty things had been happening, miraculous things had been happening, and so prior to the section we're looking at this morning, Jesus was talking with the disciples and had called them together and said, Hey, who are the crowd saying that I am? And they said, Well, some people are saying that you're John the Baptist, some say that you're Elijah, come again. Others, one of the prophets, but Jesus pressed him a little further, he said, But who do you say that I am? In a moment of inspiration that had only have been through the Holy Spirit, Peter who's usually putting his foot in his mouth, says, You are the Messiah, the Son of God, and Jesus responds by saying, Don't tell anybody, he then goes on and begins telling them the Son of Man is gonna have to endure a lot, and in fact, die and rise again, which brings us to today's text.

All of these things had been going on, and these disciples, these three that Jesus called, decide to go with him, had been a part of that journey of going and healing and proclaiming, they had been a part of passing out those fish and the loaves and collecting the surplus and scratchy there had saying, how did that happen? They were there when Peter made that profession, you are the Messiah, the anointed one, the son of God.

And they just a week before I heard Jesus talk about what was awaiting him, and so Jesus said to them one morning to mind... Let's go pray. Now, Jesus had done this often throughout the Gospels, we see occasions where Jesus goes off to a wild place, Jesus goes off beside the sea shore, Jesus goes up on a mountain to pray, and it's not unheard of for him to do that, but this time he invited the disciples with Him.

I don't know if they had any expectations of what was going to happen, if they had any idea that anything at all was going to happen, but they went with Jesus. And we have the story of them witnessing this change, this transfiguration that comes upon him, of His appearance of his face changing, of his clothes becoming dazzling white, and then these two figures appearing with him.

That we’re told our