Pastor Jeff Strite tells a fascinating story about a businessman named John Henry Patterson who back in 1884 founded the National Cash Register Company. Almost immediately the company was profitable. Patterson made it successful because he paid attention to details and kept an eye on each department in the company.
At one point, it became apparent that the factory was having a high number of burglaries. Patterson was convinced that the security staff was not doing their job. So, one night, he put on a phosphorescent suit a suit that glowed in the dark and rode up to the plant on a white horse. He jimmied opened the door to the tool room, helped himself to several spare parts and rode off, without being challenged.
The next morning, he replaced the security staff. (1)
How could those in charge of security not see a would-be burglar wearing a suit that glowed in the dark and riding on a white horse? Somebody wasn’t doing their job.
That story may remind some of you of a hilarious episode years ago on the popular TV show, “Friends.” Ross bleaches his teeth for a date. Unfortunately he left the whitener on twice as long as he was supposed to. The effect was shocking. He spent the evening going to extreme lengths to hide his teeth, until his date turned the lights down low. Then, all of a sudden his teeth began glowing in the dark, which caused her to totally freak out. We’re not accustomed to people in phosphorescent suits or glowing teeth, though, of course, more and more people are whitening their teeth.
Jesus invited his closest disciples Peter, James and John to go with him up on a high mountain. There, Matthew tells us, Christ was transfigured before them.
Transfigured that’s not a word we use very much.
A teacher in a Sunday school class was reading the story of the Transfiguration. As she read, she noticed one little boy seemed confused. When she was finished she asked him, “Johnny, why don’t you tell us where Jesus was in this story.”
He replied, “Oh, he was on a mountain.”
“Yes, that’s right,” said the teacher, “Do you remember why he was up there?”
Johnny answered with a confused look, “I guess that’s where his arithmetic class was held.”
The teacher looked at him and wondered what he meant. “What do you mean, arithmetic class?”
“Well” Johnny replied, “The Bible said, ‘Jesus went up on the mountain and there he began to figure.’
The teacher smiled and said, “The scriptures said, ‘He went into the mountain and there He became transfigured’ not began to figure.”
Well, no wonder Johnny got confused. How often have you ever used the word transfigured? Fortunately Matthew tells us what “transfigured” means.
He writes about the Master, “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.” Reminds me of John Henry Patterson’s phosphorescent suit or Ross’ glow-in-the-dark teeth. But this was real. It was authentic. And it isn’t the end of the story.
Just then the disciples saw two other individuals on that high mountain conversing with their Master, Moses and Elijah. Make no mistake about it, this was a once in a lifetime experience. Peter, who always seemed to need to make a comment said, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
But while Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came up to them and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
But later Peter did tell about this experience. How could he keep it forever to himself? Peter wrote two epistles which are included in the New Testament. In the second one he wrote: “For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain” (1:16-18).
This is significant. At Jesus’ baptism it is difficult to know if anyone beside Jesus heard the voice from heaven saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). This time, however, there can be no doubt. Peter heard the voice, James heard the voice, John heard the voice. It was the voice of God declaring, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
They saw Christ transfigured, they beheld Moses and Elijah who had been physically dead for hundreds of years standing there with him, and they heard the voice of the Almighty. This all happened right in front of their eyes. There could no longer be any doubt that this man whom they followed was the Messiah, the Son of the living God. And yet . . . just a short time later Peter would be denying he ever knew Jesus and James and John would be hiding behind locked doors as if they had no knowledge of Christ’s power and his purpose. How do you explain it?
We can’t explain it except to say . . . They were very much like us. They had faith like a yo-yo. “Sometimes up, sometimes down, sometimes almost to the ground.” It was only about a week before the Transfiguration that Jesus had asked his apostles the question, “Who do people say that I am?”
Who was it who answered him? It was Simon, of course. “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
And Jesus praised Simon, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it . . .”
And then Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
And how does Simon Peter respond to this? He takes Jesus aside and begins to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!”
Can you imagine that? He has just affirmed that Jesus was “the Messiah, the Son of the living God” and then he turns around and tries to tell him how to go about his business!
Jesus turns and says to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns” (Matthew 16:16-23). One moment he’s the rock, the next Peter is Satan!
Now, a week later, he’s up on a mountain offering to build booths for Christ, Moses and Elijah. But very soon he will be standing in that courtyard where someone will ask him, “Aren’t you one of his disciples?” And he will declare with an oath, “I am not!”
Friends, Simon Peter is us! We’re just as wishy-washy in our faith. One moment we feel so close to God that we are willing to give Him all that we are and hope to be and the next moment, in a time of testing, we deny we ever knew Him.
How do you explain it? There is only one way the disciples were human, just like you and me. They were full of good intentions, but poor in execution.
This is one reason we are so grateful for God’s grace. Everyone who is serious about his or her faith struggles at some time in his or her pilgrimage. The only people who don’t struggle are those for whom faith is but a surface phenomenon to which they are hardly committed at all.
One of my favorite pieces of humor is that one about the man who woke up and reported he had a terrible nightmare. He dreamed he was right behind Mother Teresa going into heaven and he heard St. Peter say, “I’m sorry, Teresa, it wasn’t enough.”
Friends, if heaven were based on merit, Mother Teresa would be omitted, the Apostle Peter would be omitted, St. Paul would be omitted. Heaven would be a mighty lonely place. As one fellow said, “If heaven’s based on merit, the only people who would be there are Jesus and my wife’s first husband.” Everyone who has ever done their best to follow Jesus has struggled at some time or another. That’s because we walk by faith and not absolute knowledge.
As most of you know Mother Teresa struggled with her faith during most of her great ministry. She wrote to a friend and priest, “Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness are so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.”
Mother Teresa gave herself as completely as anyone on this earth is likely to give himself or herself, but still she struggled, like Peter, James and John struggled even after the Transfiguration in which they heard the very voice of God. That’s life. In a sense, that’s faith. “For now we see through a glass, darkly,” wrote St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (KJV).
A successful businessman once traveled to India to spend a month working in one of Mother Teresa’s shelters. He longed to meet her, but Mother Teresa was traveling, and it wasn’t until the day before his departure that she had time to talk with him.
When he was finally in her presence, much to his surprise, he burst into tears. All the times when he’d been self-centered, busy or focused on his own gain flashed before his eyes, and he felt an enormous sadness that he had missed so many opportunities in his life to give of himself and his resources.
Without a word, Mother Teresa walked over to where he was seated, put her hands on his shoulders and looked deeply into his eyes. “Don’t you know,” she said, “that God knows you are doing the best that you can.” (2)
God does know. God knows our hearts. And God loves us with an everlasting love. And out of that love God has given us a gift.
Legendary Spanish artist Pablo Picasso was virtually unknown when he painted his famous portrait of American writer Gertrude Stein in 1906. Picasso gave the portrait to Miss Stein since, as the artist himself recalled with a smile, at that time in his career “the difference between a gift and a sale was piddling.”
Some years later, the portrait attracted the interest of millionaire art collector Dr. Albert Barnes, who asked Miss Stein how much she had paid Picasso for it.
“Nothing,” she replied. “He gave it to me.”
Dr. Barnes was incredulous that such a priceless work of art could have been a gift. (3)
You and I are equally incredulous that God could have given us the free gift of grace. But God did. In gratitude it is very important that we keep that faith alive.
We are all in constant danger of backsliding, of slipping away from God. If Peter, James and John were in danger after their experiences with Christ, if Mother Teresa was in danger even after all her good works then how much more danger are you and I in of allowing our hearts to grow cold and our lives to become indifferent to Christ’s claims.
That is the importance of being in worship each week, that is the importance of sharing in small groups with other believers, that is the importance of immersing ourselves in the Scriptures to guard against entropy of the soul, the natural tendency when we are away from the presence of God to allow the wonder of faith no matter how real in our lives to slip away.
Grace is free, but faith is always fragile. But, the casual believer asks, isn’t it dangerous to proclaim a grace that is so totally free? What motivation do people have to stay strong in the faith, if they do not have to fear God’s judgment? Only a person who has never really struggled with faith would ask such a question.
It’s like a story that is told about Abraham Lincoln. According to this story, Lincoln once visited a slave auction. He went to observe, not to participate. He watched the unspeakable indignities of selling and buying human beings. His response was a mixture of disgust, sadness and outrage.
As he stood there a young woman was brought to the block, her eyes and body language screaming defiance and hatred. She had been used and abused by her previous owners and now it was going to happen all over again.
The bidding began, and to everyone’s amazement, Lincoln offered a bid. As the price went up, so did Lincoln’s bids until the auctioneer declared him the buyer. He paid her price and then went over to where she was being held. All her animosity was focused straight at him. He looked at her and simply said, “You’re free.”
Dripping defiance and distrust, she said, “Yeah, free for what?”
Abraham Lincoln answered, “Free to do anything you want to do; free to go anywhere you want to go.”
Her appearance changed as she took in his words and realized he meant what he said. Lincoln repeated himself: “You’re free . . . free to go anywhere you want to go.”
She answered, “Then I’m going with you!” (4)
And that is what Transfiguration is all about. In our own way, each of us has been to the mountaintop at some time in our lives. “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). But we are sinners. We love him, but in the time of testing, we have each denied him. We are grateful to be recipients of his grace, and we commit ourselves again this day to seek in all we do to be close to him from this day forward. Amen.
1. http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/spiritual-add-jeff-strite-sermon-on-lordship-of-christ-117873.asp.
2. Rev. John Hill, http://www.suntreeumc.org/sermons/boldness%20of%20Dorcas2.htm.
3. Rev. Adrian Dieleman, http://www.trinityurcvisalia.com/sermons/joshua05v13-14.html.
4. Leith Anderson, http://www.higherpraise.com/outlines/woodvale/Luke7d.htm.