‘Glimpsing the Glory of Jesus’

Sermon: Transfiguration Sunday

John 17:1-16;17-24:

 This Sunday is transfiguration Sunday. Just before we begin the Lenten journey that leads finally to Good Friday and the cross, Transfiguration Sunday reminds of who it is who sacrifices his life for us. Matthew, Mark and Luke all record that before Jesus heads to Jerusalem for the final time, he takes Peter, James and John with him to a high mountain. There he is changed or transfigured before them as he appears on the mountain speaking with Moses and Elijah, the greatest lawgiver and the greatest prophet of Israel. Both figures had encountered a theophany, a physical appearance of God in the Old Testament, and both on the same mountain, Mt Horeb (also known and Mt Sinai). For both, it was an awe-filled experience.

And now here they are again, on a mountaintop, with God in human flesh, revisiting their experiences of the glory of God. Just how the three disciples recognised that it was Moses and Elijah that Jesus was speaking with we do not know. What we do know is that they were awestruck. Peter blurts out the helpful suggestion to Jesus that they could make a shrine to each of the three. Then the voice from heaven suddenly says, ‘This is my beloved son. Listen to him!’ They bow down trembling and when they look up, only Jesus is there.

The point is that Jesus is not on an equal footing with Moses and Elijah. He is not sharing the stage with Moses and Elijah. Jesus is the one Moses and Elijah had met before on the mountaintop.  What the disciples saw was a glimpse of the glory of Christ. And they never forgot it. Many years later Peter recalls the event vividly of the time he was an eyewitness to Jesus’ majesty, and how they witnessed the ‘majestic glory’ of God on the holy mountain (2 Peter 1:16-18). The event was so significant that all three synoptic gospels record it.

Yet curiously, John, who was one of the three disciples to witness the glory of Christ on the mountain, does not mention the event in his gospel. But perhaps we should not be entirely surprised. John has a habit of leaving out material that is important when it has been well covered by the other three gospels, which he would have known well. For instance, he is the only gospel writer to not explicitly include the baptism of Jesus. Yet John has more baptismal imagery and more about John the Baptist than any other gospel. Similarly, his is the only gospel to not include the institution of the Lord’s Supper, yet he spends more time describing what was said at the last meal of Jesus with his disciples than all the other gospels combined, and has more eucharistic imagery than any other gospel. So clearly baptism and the Lord’s Supper were important to John. It was enough for him that the three previous gospels had given accounts of the baptism of Jesus and the institution of the Lord’s Supper. John focused on filling out these themes in other ways.

Something similar occurs with the transfiguration. John was not in the habit of rehashing ground that had already been covered by the other gospels. He does not tell again the story of the mountaintop experience with Jesus. But the revelation of the glory of Christ certainly left its mark on John.

For John, the theme of Christ’s glory comes to the fore in the prayer Jesus spoke on the last night he was with his disciples. As he does so often, John fills out a theme from the earlier gospels with material that they have not included. In this case, it is the so-called high priestly prayer of Jesus in which he prays for his disciples, and for all of us who would one day follow them in faith. In this prayer Jesus reveals that he and the Father are one, continuing a theme from earlier in his gospel. And in this prayer Jesus talks about glory. For this reason it is fitting that we should reflect upon the account of the prayer of Jesus in on Transfiguration Sunday, in which we reflect upon the glory of Jesus.

More than any other place in the Gospels, apart from the account of the transfiguration itself, we see the glory of Christ in this text. We have seen in other sections of John’s gospel how he uses different forms of the same word repeatedly in order to underscore a key theme. For instance ‘witness’ and ‘testify’ in chapters one, two, five and eight, ‘see’ and ‘look’ in the second half of chapter one, ‘from above’ and ‘from heaven’ in chapter three, and ‘water’ and ‘spirt’ in chapters three and four.

John makes the theme of this prayer clear when he reports that Jesus used the word ‘glory’ or ‘glorify’ eight times, and three times used the related word, ‘sanctify,’ or to make holy.

The Greek word for glory is ‘doxa’. From this we get the word doxology. The hymn, ‘Praise God from who all blessings flow,’ sang sometimes at the end of a worship service, is often simply known as ‘the doxology.’ It was a hymn praising and glorifying Christ. In the Old Testament the glory of God was revealed to Moses on the mountaintop. When the Bible speaks of the glory and holiness of God it is something more profound than simple praise or adoration. It goes to the very heart of the nature of God. God is holy, and God is glory.

Jesus asks that he might be glorified (vv. 1 and 5) and that he might glorify the Father. He says he is glorified in his disciples, and that he gives them the glory that the father has given him. And this glory that he speaks of is the glory that he has shared with the Father from before the world was created (verses 5 and 24).

Similarly, Jesus reveals that we are made holy through truth. We are made holy just as Jesus makes himself holy (17-19). Notice the language here in verse 19: ‘I make myself holy’. Only the Holy One can make someone holy. Jesus is revealing his holiness and his glory to his disciples in this prayer. He is showing them that he is God, just as much as he did when he revealed this to Peter, James and John on the mountaintop a week earlier, as reported in the other gospels.

John has spoken of the glorification of Jesus previously in gospel in 7:39 and 12:16. In both these instances he refers to the time when Jesus will be glorified when he ascends into heaven. The glory of Christ is connected with the ascension and enthronement of Christ, for glory is something associated with God in the heavenly realm. But the prayer of John 17, like the accounts of the transfiguration in the other gospels, is about Jesus revealing his glory while he is still dwelling among us. We are seeing the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ, who become human flesh and lived among us.

But why is this important? And why does Jesus reveal his glory so late in his ministry? Why does he take three of his disciples up a mountain to see a glimpse of his heavenly glory within a week or two of his crucifixion? Why reveal his glory so explicitly in this prayer on the very night that he would be betrayed and arrested? And why does John devote an entire chapter to a single prayer when there were so many things to write?

The answer to all of these questions is that it was important for the disciples to know, and it is important for us to know, just who it is who goes to the cross for us. It is unexpected and astounding enough that the promised Messiah would do this. But Jesus is far more than the Messiah. Jesus is God himself, creator of all things. Jesus is the One whose very nature is glory and holiness. On the mount of Transfiguration, and in Jesus’ prayer for his disciples and for all of us, the curtain is briefly pulled back, and Jesus reveals himself to us in his glory. We see that it is God himself going to the cross.

We also find that this prayer of Jesus is very personal. It is not a short model prayer, like the one he gave to the disciples when they asked how they should pray. This is Jesus expressing his deepest concerns in conversation with the Father before he goes to the cross. The focus of the prayer is not only on the glory Jesus has with the Father, but it is on the disciples and all those who will come to believe in him through their testimony (verse 20).

In this prayer Jesus is praying for us. Imagine that. I have always been deeply touched when I learn that someone has been praying for me. I still remember when my grandmother told me near the end of her life that she prayed for me every day and had done so since I was born. Many of you have had similar experiences. Now imagine learning in this prayer that Jesus includes us in his prayer. Jesus, in his glory, prays for you and me.

In his prayer Jesus says to the Father in verse 4, ‘I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do.’ And in this work Jesus is glorified with the glory that was his before the world existed. The very glory that defines God, that belongs to the very nature of God, is the same glory that is made known in God who comes to dwell among us and goes to the cross for us. In this act Christ glorifies the Father and is glorified by the Father, with whom he is one. And Jesus shares this glory with those who believe in him and makes them holy as he is holy. And he does this that we might one in him, just as he and the Father are one. He does this that we might love one another, just as the Father has loved the Son since before the foundation of the world.

Finally, Jesus prays for us asking that we might see his glory. The glimpse of his glory that was given to Peter, James and John is something Jesus wants all of us to see. Jesus wants us to see his glory not to be impressed and in awe. Peter learned that this was not the purpose of seeing the glory of Christ when he suggested building shrines to Jesus, Moses and Elijah.

Jesus wants us not only to see his glory but to share in his glory. He wants this so that we might be one, just as he and the Father are one – and so that we might love one another, just as he and Father love one another. Jesus wants us to know just who it is who died for us on the cross in order that that we might be transformed, becoming more like him.

Amen.

Pastor Mark Worthing.