A VISION OF JESUS' TRUE IDENTITY

Transfiguration of the Lord

            Sometimes we need a fresh vision in the middle of an undertaking.  You watch the large conference room fill up with men in white shirts and ties; and with women in dark skirts, light blue blouses, and heels.  They file in carrying their cardboard coffee cups, their handheld computers, and their laptops.  There hasn’t been much excitement in the company since the year-end reports came in showing a serious dip in sales.  The Christmas season didn’t give the company the boost they had hoped for.  But something is happening today.  The CEO has called a meeting of his management people.  He strides smartly into the conference room.  He begins talking in an enthusiastic voice before he reaches his seat.  He carries the remote control for the projector for his PowerPoint presentation, changing the images rapidly.  He’s excited and it is beginning to be as contagious as the flu bug in a kindergarten class.  Many of his people have been with him a long time.  Things have just become humdrum around the place.  The CEO reminds his team what their mission is, why they come to work, and how their products and services can be more creative.  He gives his team a fresh vision for carrying out their common mission.  As we are in the long haul of an undertaking, sometimes we need a fresh vision for our mission.

            Well, it may be hard to imagine Jesus’ disciples needing a fresh vision for their mission.  After all, they knew Jesus well, didn’t they?  They walked with him wherever he went.  When Jesus opened up his mouth to speak, the disciples were nearby to hear every word.  No doubt Jesus spoke the same message from place to place.  Do you imagine the Sermon on the Mount was given in only one place at one time?  Probably that same message was repeated in various locations.  Matthew has Jesus give that message on a mount, Luke on a plane.  Chances are it was delivered by the seaside and in homes and in the temple.  Jesus surely repeated what he had to say so that everyone would be able to hear the same good news.  When you hear your Master proclaim the good news day after day, eventually that message is fixed in your memory.  It’s like the reporters who follow the same presidential candidate from city to city.  The candidate has a stump speech that may be revised as the campaign goes on.  Nevertheless, it is the same speech in this city and the next.  It is the message that the candidate wants the voters to hear.  The reporters hear the same speech again and again until they know it very well.  I imagine Jesus’ disciples knowing their Master’s message that well.  It’s not hard to imagine that Jesus’ disciples came to know clearly who he was.

            But did they?  It seems that the ones closest to Jesus often couldn’t see who he was.  They were with Jesus, but they didn’t fully know his identity.  They were with Jesus, but they didn’t fully understand his mission.  Think back to the time when the disciples were with Jesus in the boat on their way to the other side of the lake.  A storm arose, so they awoke Jesus, shouting, “Master, Master, we are perishing!”  Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind and the waves.  The wind stopped, and the waves quieted down, and once again all was calm.  Then Jesus said to them, “Where is your faith?”  Said the disciples, “Who then is this, that he commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him?”  Who, indeed?  Didn’t they know?  Or again, Jesus once asked his disciples, “Who do the crowds say that I am?”  All kinds of answers were brought up:  John the Baptist, Elijah, one of the ancient prophets.  Jesus put it to his disciples directly, “But who do you say that I am?”  Peter blurted out, “The Messiah of God.”  So they knew Jesus well.  Or did they?  Jesus, referring to himself, said, “The Son of man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.”  A strange notion indeed, a suffering Messiah.  Nobody expected that.  When Jesus told that to his disciples, they didn’t understand.  It seems pretty clear that even Jesus’ disciples needed a fresh vision during their undertaking.

            Not only them, but also ourselves.  Sometimes we need a fresh vision of who Jesus is and what Jesus was all about.  As we gather today, we are at various stages in our journey with Jesus as his disciples.  We know who Jesus is.  If we have been his disciples for a long time, we have heard the stories of all those things he did, how he healed people, the things he said.  We have heard him call people to him as his disciples.  We have heard him say, “Follow me,” and we have confessed Jesus as Lord and followed him.  But, like Jesus’ first disciples, his message becomes familiar.  Many of us have taught it around miniature tables with tiny kids in little chairs.  We read the gospels to ourselves.  We hear them preached from the pulpit.  Who Jesus is is so familiar to us.  So familiar that, from time to time, we need a fresh vision of Jesus that we might see our own mission with greater clarity, and propose to carry it out with greater passion.  There are, you see, competing visions all around us, telling us what Jesus said and what he stood for.  The vision we hold is the banner under which we march into the mission of discipleship.  Sometimes we need a fresh vision of what Jesus was all about.  If we were to be faithful to what Jesus was all about, what exactly would we be faithful to?  Sometimes we need a fresh vision as we progress on our journey of discipleship.

            So we go up the mountain today.  We climb this mountain to receive a fresh vision of what Jesus was all about.  We go up the mountain to get a fresh vision of the nature of our discipleship, if that involves being faithful to Jesus’ own mission.  Right now in the church calendar, we’re in between the Christmas cycle and the Easter cycle.  We have just been through the season that celebrates God’s coming to earth in Jesus.  We are only days away from beginning the season that follows Jesus to the cross on which he will die to benefit humanity.  These two great cycles of the faith converge to give us a clear picture of who Jesus is and what he was all about.  As we continue our journey as Jesus’ disciples, as we hear him speak and hear the stories about him again and again, sometimes it all becomes routine.  So we need a fresh vision of who Jesus is.  We need to see clearly what he was all about, so that we may be faithful to that as his disciples.  So we go up the mountain today.

            Now look!  What do you see?  We are up on the mountain.  Right in front of us is Jesus with Peter and John and James.  Jesus moves to a spot where he can have some space, and he begins to pray.  If we needed a fresh vision of what Jesus was all about, this image of Jesus praying would speak volumes.  Jesus is the one who submits to the will of his Father.  By praying, Jesus opens himself to the leading of God the Father.  The first thing we see Jesus do on this mountain is pray.  Now look!  Look at Jesus’ face!  There is a change in his face—what would you call it?—a radiance.  Not only his face, but even his clothing.  It’s so bright!  It’s like walking in the snow on a bright, sunny day.  The brightness is almost more than we can stand.  Now in this glorious vision, we also see Moses and Elijah.  We’ve never seen them before, but we somehow recognize them for who they are and what they represent.  It is as if the great people of Israel’s past are now conferring with Jesus.  Then a cloud approaches and envelops us.  It is the very presence of God.  And from this cloud, a voice:  “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”  Now look!  It is only Jesus we see.  The others we see no more.  Only Jesus.  Now we see only Jesus.

            Of course, what does all of this say about who Jesus is and what he was all about?  This fresh vision of Jesus reminds us that he is the Son of God.  All of this will become clearer on Easter when God will raise up the crucified Jesus from the dead.  That event will declare that Jesus is indeed the Son of God.  In our fresh vision for today, we are reminded of that.  And we are reminded in this vision of the moment when Jesus’ ministry began.  We are reminded of the words God spoke at Jesus’ baptism, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”  In our fresh vision for today, we heard God say something similar:  “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!”  Both these words and those spoken at Jesus’ baptism echo Psalm 2 and Isaiah 42, one of the Suffering Servant poems.  This fresh vision reminds us that Jesus is the Son of God.  It reminds us that what Jesus was all about was obedience to his Father, including his steady march to the cross.  Jesus, the Son of God, also took on the role of the Suffering Servant.  This fresh vision tells us that those two realities go together.  They are inseparable.  And in this fresh vision we see more clearly that new reality breaking in to our broken lives.  We see the approach of God’s reign on earth.  We see in this fresh vision new and strange values, values very different from the world in its brokenness.  Jesus was proclaiming the breaking in of the kingdom of God.  He called us to enter into it.  He suffered to demonstrate the love that was the foundation of the reign of God.  That’s what he was all about.  His life was not about our successful living.  It was not about being the best you that you can be.  Jesus’ life was about our brokenness being made whole.  If we follow this cross-going Jesus, our lives will be all about taking risks to live according to the new and strange values of the kingdom of God.  What we say and do will henceforth be countercultural.  Eventually, we will face hostility and be misunderstood by those who mean the most to us.  That’s what this fresh vision tells us.  Jesus is the obedient Son of God, who went to the cross.  Discipleship is all about following that cross-going Jesus, and not about any other mission.

            See!  That’s just what we needed, wasn’t it?  We needed a vision of Jesus’ true identity.  We needed a fresh vision of his purpose that we may also take up that purpose as his disciples.  It feels good to have this fresh vision, doesn’t it?  I don’t know about you, but when I have a fresh vision of who Jesus is and what his life was all about, it pumps me up with new enthusiasm.  Sometimes we receive such a fresh vision as we read the gospels or books that help us understand the gospels.  I have sometimes received a fresh vision through the preached word, those times when God spoke to my heart in a powerful way.  It’s a great feeling when we have a new vision like that.  Sometimes we want to enshrine the spot where that fresh vision came.  The sanctuary where you heard that sermon.  That chair where you sat when you read that visionary book.  That spot under the tree, or by the lake, or in that hammock.  Or on that mountain.  We want to hold on to that fresh vision and to the great feeling.  We can, can’t we?

            We know the answer.  Fresh visions of who Jesus is and what he was all about are not provided to disciples so that we may have a spiritual high.  These visions are not provided so that we may have perpetual joy on the spot where we received them.  No.  The fresh vision we had today was given for the purpose of allowing us to see who Jesus is and what he was all about.  Seeing that, we are then to follow this cross-going Jesus.  We are to recognize a new reality breaking in to our world, the reign of God.  God’s kingdom involves new and strange values when compared to those of the world.  So you begin to see yourself as the one who follows this cross-going Jesus.  You see yourself as the one who speaks out against an injustice.  You’re the one who takes up the cause of love and justice, the values of the reign of God.  Make no mistake, sometimes to promote the values of God’s reign can place you right in the jaws of hostility.  Case in point:  There are some brave people in Farmers Branch who have dared to speak about a vision of a city that welcomes neighbors who are different, who speak a different language.  When they share that vision at the city council meetings, their neighbors ridicule them.  They laugh at them.  They seek to embarrass and intimidate them.  It’s easy to give up the cause, when you face such hostility, but a handful of brave citizens of Farmers Branch will not be deterred.  They continue to speak out for a community that is welcoming and inclusive.  They are doing what a disciple of Jesus ought to be doing.  To be a disciple of Jesus Christ we ought to promote hospitality instead of hostility.  To be a disciple of Jesus Christ we ought to welcome all of God’s children in our midst, even those who are different.  You see yourself doing those things.  You see yourself living by the values of the kingdom of God.