A sermon preached by Pastor Lewis Polzin on February 14, 2021 at St. Peter–Immanuel Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, WI, on 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:6. You may play the audio of the sermon here.
A mostly unedited transcript of the sermon follows the jump:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, the third and fourth chapters:
Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over His face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s Word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
Have you wondered what Elijah and Moses are doing on the Mount of Transfiguration? Paul tells us, and we find out again, in our reading of the Old Testament today, that Moses is the entire type of the law. When you think law, you think Moses. In fact, He stands in the place of the law to the people of Israel. This law is able to guide them in the paths of righteousness, or it makes them rightly despair. And Elijah is the typification of all of the prophets, the prophets who, each one of them, pointed forward to the coming Christ and the freedom that we have in Him on behalf of God Himself. The Law and the Prophets both point us to the fullness of God’s Word found in Jesus Christ.
And for at least 4,000 years these stood. They were the way that the Israelites interacted with their God. But, it wasn’t His full intent. They would hear and believe the things that pointed to Jesus, but God’s plan was that God Himself would stand in front of them and interact with them. Until that happened though, the people were veiled from seeing the end. All they could see was their own despair, their own breaking of the law, the punishment that God had promised to give to them if they should break the law. That's what they saw. Certainly, they had hope. They had hope that a Messiah would come, hope in God's promise that the Messiah would come from the line of Eve and that He would crush the serpent's head even while the serpent would bruise His heel. They hoped for what they didn't yet know because they couldn't yet see.
Fast forward to Jesus, Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God, has come into the flesh and He dwells amongst His people, His Chosen People Israel. And they still do not see. They can see Him with their eyes, but they choose not to see Him with eyes of faith. And so Moses and Elijah still stand for them, pointing them to a promise they believe unfulfilled and so they rest under the condemnation of the law for the rejected this Messiah of God.
It is a sad thing that we see these people who have rejected Jesus. We pity them for their works would only serve to make certain the judgment of God. Yet, this was God’s plan. He knew that, before He even created the earth, He would send His Son to this place that He would die. And, while the actions taken to get Jesus to the cross are heinous, they are quite beautiful for those whose hope is in the Messiah, for, in the death of Jesus, your sins are forgiven. In the death and resurrection of the Christ, you find forgiveness, life, and salvation. You have eternal life through these people’s unbelief.
In a way, I suppose, you can’t really blame people for not believing in Jesus buy using their eyes. This guy looked just like a man. This boy that grew up in Nazareth became a carpenter. They knew Him as Jesus, Joseph’s son. The divine nature of Jesus was hidden behind human flesh. That, by the way, is probably a good thing. To see Jesus fully uncovered would be overwhelming. I kind of think it would be a little bit like the Nazis who opened up the Ark of the Covenant in Indiana Jones; our faces would melt away if we were to see Jesus this way. Even as His God-ness shines through on the Mount, the Apostles still probably didn’t see everything of Him, for fear that they would melt away. But they got the picture didn't they?
They saw with their eyes what they had apprehended by faith: that Jesus is God, the Eternal Lord from all creation, the Son of God in human flesh, the Messiah. Granted, they would forget this as Good Friday approaches and Holy Saturday would come but they were reminded very quickly of it on Easter Sunday. They saw their Jesus and knew that He was their Lord and because of this because they knew they had hope. They were sent out into the world and they told this story of Jesus’ Transfiguration to all. Peter at one point even says that the hope that He declares through His preaching is more certain and sure for you than it was for Him on the mountain. Hearing about Jesus’ Transfiguration is better than even seeing it, for indeed your eyes can deceive you but Faith knows what's true and what's right.
And so Paul picks up on the hope that comes from the Transfiguration. He tells us about this hope, this hope that makes us bold in Christ, this hope that gives us a hope for the future, a hope that brings to us the good news of everlasting life and in this hope we are bold to go out and preach it. We know it for certain, not like Moses.
Moses, of course, hoped in the Messiah and yet never saw Him in His flesh until that day on the mountain when Jesus was transfigured. Moses knew the glory of God that He would see that Transfiguration day, for Moses himself was transfigured. His face was changed to something bright every time he stood in the presence of God. Moses even had to put a veil over that kind of glory, not because the people were all too frightened, but that they would not see the glory of God fading from Moses’ face. This way, the people would know that God was with them and God was for them when Moses would speak.
And even as he spoke behind this Veil, He spoke the law of God. He spoke the Thou shall and thou shall nots. The people, even being in the midst of the glory of God, would suffer under this law, for they were accused of breaking it. They would suffer and die, for they were sinners. They knew what would happen to them. They would die. And so shall we all. We have all fallen short of the glory of God and, if we were to stand before a holy God as we are, sinful and naked, we would utterly melt away.
But Jesus Christ has come to us and He has lifted the veil. Literally, He has taken the veil away out of the temple. He broke it in half so that you might see the place where God dwells. It dwells in Him. But, now that Christ has died, risen, and ascended, and sits at the right hand of the Father, where now is the place that God dwells? In His Word and in His Sacraments.
He broke the veil that He might give these to you and, in breaking that, and in giving these to you, He comes to you and you do not need to fear him. Instead, you may love Him and know that you will be changed as He has been changed. You will be glorified as He is glorified.
How should this be? I've never once entered into church and seen a glowing person. I've seen people who have been burned by the sun. I've seen people who have big smiles on their faces. But I've never seen somebody with the light of God in them so brightly that they shine as they sit in the pews. But the Lord is the Spirit, and He comes to you in your baptism, He comes to you in the Word, and He comes to you delivering the body and blood of Jesus Christ each and every time that we gather together. He comes and He lives in you and if the Spirit is the Lord, then He also bears the lights of God, and that light dwells within you. That light is under your sinful flesh, it is veiled for a time, but it soon to be revealed, for it years to come out. That light is aching to break forth, that light is aching for the day of the Resurrection, that light is aching for the day when Jesus will draw you up out of your grave and you will shine with the light of God in a way that you will have never before considered, and that light is the hope of the world and the hope that we have as we look to that day.
The Lord is indeed in us and He is glorious, bringing His life that He might bring salvation to us. What a wonderful blessing, that is if you know this then you may have confidence. You may face your life, you may face your death with that confidence that Jesus will not leave you in your grave. He will not abandon your soul to Hades, but instead shall raise you up. You may live with Him forever.
Having this light within us, though, does mean a few things for how we are to live. We live for Christ. We abandon the ways of this world. We abandon the ways of our flesh. And we hold fast to God's Word we serve and love our neighbor that He's given to us. Paul says we commend ourselves to everyone's conscience. That means that we live in such a way that even to the unbeliever who should hate you, they can say no worse about you than he loves Jesus, she loves her Lord.
It gives us a little bit of pause, doesn't it? Do we do this? Have we lived this way? Of course not. Of course not; you must try harder. Not that you will earn your salvation by this–you are saved–but you must try harder. Indeed, the light of Christ is in you; look like that light.
But even if you mess up, there is yet forgiveness. There is mercy there. As we go into the world, even should we do things in the world’s way, do not despair. In repentance, you will find the Lord’s forgiveness and the grace to do it again. And should you fail to preach the Gospel rightly, Paul says even if our gospel is veiled, we should not have fear, the Spirit still works through us. And if people reject the Good News, it is because they are choosing to hold onto their sin, to hold onto their unbelief, to refuse to see with eyes of faith. For if they were to truly open themselves to the revelation of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, they would know that they are just like you, suffering in your flesh, suffering under the flesh of sin. They would see their need for a Savior, just as you have, and hold fast to Christ, their only hope.
The people of the world refuse to see God for the God, and if you notice in the text, it's a little G, the god of this world has blinded their minds. They cannot see, they will not see with their eyes and their head and they will not see with the eyes of faith for they are blind from seeing the light of Jesus that is in you. If that's the case, don't fear. It has been that way since the beginning, that people mock and ridicule those who follow after the ways of God.
Do not fear. You are not alone. You stand with the prophets behind you. Just as the prophets accompanied Elijah and Elisha as Elijah was taken up into heaven, so the prophets accompany you through the Word, their words that have lasted through the millennia and they sit there with you and they remind you that you, too, will be taken from this world. Even should the world hate you, you will be glorified as Jesus Christ is glorified. This is very good news.
If it were ourselves that we should proclaim, pointing to ourselves as the pinnacles of morality, it would be a grievous sin. If Moses pointed Israel to himself as his face shone, it would have distracted them from God. We live righteously, or try to, and that’s how people will judge you. But, even if you were completely righteous in all your living, your message is still not their own. They may hate you, for you cannot, you will not share in their message of death and destruction, everything that comes form breaking the Law of God. So, we do not proclaim ourselves, our works. We go into the world proclaiming Him. We proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord. Indeed, He dwells in Us by the light of His Transfiguration, by the power of His Spirit. This may be no comfort to the world; it should be for you.
We talked last week about this idea that as we get to know people, we begin to love them, and as we love them, we desire that other people would love them, too. And so it is as we go forward into this world with Jesus. As we know Him, we love Him, and as we love him, we want others to love Him too. And so we bring Him to the world, this world that is dark needs the light of Jesus. This world that is dark needs His Redemption. This world that is dark and in despair, even if they don't know it, they need their Jesus. Our duty is to go out and share Him with those that we love, share Him with those who are around us. And as we do, we have confidence that we will not be put to shame in our sharing of His faith ,the faith that will sustain us until the end. We have confidence that our Lord will work in His people exactly as He needs to, either convicting them of their sins and bringing them to repentance and the forgiveness of sins, or securing them in their sins, that in their choice, they may be sent to Hell forever.
Have confidence. Go forward. Live as Christ has, for indeed, He has come into the flesh to save you. And this Transfiguration Day, we celebrate this, that we see our Lord in all that He is, in His flesh and in His blood and in His divinity, that He is both God and man, and He is here for you, that He has bridged the gap between you and the Father, that there is no need to fear any longer but you shall be welcomed into that Promised Land. You shall not be punished according to the Law, but you shall be redeemed for the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets has come in the person of Jesus, and through His sacrifice on the cross, He has given to you His righteousness that you may live with Him forever.
This is the Transfiguration, my friends. This is how we look to our Jesus, and this is the hope that we have, that it is placed on Him and in Him and through Him, all for you, that you might have life Everlasting. And so you do. And so you shall. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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