Sermon for February 6, 2004
Transfiguration Sunday
Series 1—Discipleship: A Reordered Life
Right Where Jesus Can Touch You
Matthew 17:1-9
If you want to be a disciple of
Jesus Christ, your life must be reordered. Your priorities must be
changed. Your understanding must be turned upside down. The life of
discipleship, no longer ordered by the ways of the world, is reordered by
the ways of the kingdom of God. You want to be a disciple of Jesus
Christ. I suggest to you this morning we can identify the thing that must
be reordered. What is the first step in discipleship? What is the first
thing you have to do in order to be a disciple of Jesus Christ? It’s very
simple. The first thing you need to do to be a disciple of Jesus Christ
is to be where God is. The problem is we always look in the wrong place
for God.
Where do you have to go to be where
God is? Where do you have to go for God to be with you? If you listened
carefully this morning, the Word of God has already told you. The
Scripture says if you want to be where God is, if you want God to be with
you, if you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, you just have to be
right where Jesus can touch you.
Six
days after Peter becomes the first to declare that Jesus is the Messiah,
the Son of the living God, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a high
mountain by themselves. At the top of the mountain Jesus’ face shines
like the sun, his clothes become dazzling white, Moses and Elijah, the
great prophet, appear talking to Jesus. Peter, James, and John do not
really understand what is going on but whatever is happening they are sure
they know where God is. They had a feeling that if they followed Jesus
long enough he would lead them to God. So Peter suggests that they build
tents for Jesus, for Moses, and for Elijah right there at the top of the
mountain. Don’t you think Peter, James, and John want to take this chance
to be where God is—they want God to be with them. The next thing that
happens is more than they can stand. A bright cloud overshadows them and
a great voice announces,
This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased;
listen to him! (Mt. 17:5b)
By this time Peter, James, and John are flat on the ground trembling with
fear.
There they were.
They were there! Finally, right where God is! They wanted to stay right
there. But they just couldn’t stand it. It was too much for them.
This moment in the
life of Jesus’ disciples harkens back to one of the very earliest moments
in the relationship of their ancient Hebrew ancestors with God. After
they crossed the Red Sea having fled Egyptian slavery, they arrived safely
at Mount Sinai. The presence of God, signified by thunder and lightning,
thick cloud and smoke, descended atop that mountain. Moses went up the
mountain, you remember. But the elders who accompanied him kept their
distance while the people remained in the valley. God set limits around
the mountain else, as the Scripture describes it, God will break out
against them. There, amidst the thunder and lighting, thick clouds and
smoke, earthquake and trumpet blast, God announced for all to hear the Ten
Commandments. The Scripture says in the book of Exodus:
…the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of
Israel…God did not lay his
hand on
the chief men of the people of Israel… (Exodus 24:9, 10a, 11a)
The people were very sure where God
was. They knew where to go for God to be with them--on top of the
mountain amidst the thunder and lightning, thick clouds and smoke,
earthquake and trumpet blast. That’s where God is. But they couldn’t
stand to go up there and, as they waited for Moses for a long time, they
became more sure than ever that God is up there; and if God is up there
then God surely is not here! And if God is not here we better make
one for ourselves because we want to be where God is. They were so sure
that God was up there and they were so sure that they dare not go up there
they felt the need to make a god to be with them down here. That’s when
they constructed that golden calf and worshiped it. They were so sure
that God was up there, they completely missed God altogether.
If you are so sure
that God is up there you have already missed God, too.
When you think you are where God is, God is
too much for you—God is too pure,
perfect, glorious, and just for you to even be in the presence of God up
there.
Even if you dare to go where you think God is you
completely miss God altogether. Even as the elders see God only from a
distance, so do you. And did you notice? God did not touch them up
there, and neither does God touch you if you are so sure that’s where God
is exclusively—up there. You find you are not where God is after all.
You
want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. You want to take the first step in
discipleship. The first step in discipleship is to be where God is. You
want to be where God is? You want God to be with you? They knew where
God is. Is that where God is?
Peter, James, and John, three disciples of Jesus, finally got there and
they found themselves flat on the ground overcome with fear. But the
experience of disciples of Jesus is quite different from the experience of
their Hebrew ancestors at the foot of Mt. Sinai. To disciples of Jesus,
Jesus came and, listen to this now, Jesus came and touched them
saying,
Get up and do not be afraid.
(Matthew 17:7)
And when they looked up they saw no one except Jesus alone and he led them
back down the mountain
Did
you hear it? Does this different ending not strike you? The Gospel
writer surely knew what he was doing and Jesus made very sure the
disciples did not miss the point. Whereas God at Mount Sinai
Did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel,
(Exodus 17:10a)
Jesus came and touched his disciples. His touch led them from the top of
the mountain back down to the valley. In his touch Jesus in effect said
to the disciples, “If you want to be where God is, you come with me, don’t
stay here. If you want God to be with you, keep your eyes on me. If you
want to be my disciple, let me touch you, take you by the hand, and lead
you.”
When
Peter first announced that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living
God, six days before this, Jesus told Peter some very disturbing things.
Jesus told Peter that the Son of Man must suffer and die and in three days
rise from the dead. At the top of the mountain when God confirmed Peter’s
announcement, Jesus tells his disciples not to speak to anyone about the
vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead. Jesus,
you see, knows where God is. Jesus knows that God is indeed at the top of
the mountain amidst the thunder and lightning, thick clouds and smoke,
earthquake and trumpet blast. But Jesus also knows how utterly
unapproachable God is for any human being……….Jesus also knows that God is
in the valley where people need guidance and protection by day and by
night, where people need water and food. God is in the everyday hard and
difficult struggles of daily life. God is in the midst of injustice and
freedom that are the ebb and flow of created life. Jesus went where God
is right in the midst of life down here, suffered, died, and rose from the
dead that God might touch you right where you are, right now. Jesus
suffered, died, and rose from the dead to transfigure evil into good, hate
into love, oppression into justice, poverty into abundance, war into
peace. That’s where God is. God is not just up there somewhere. A God
who suffers, dies, and rises from the dead is a God who is right here in
the midst of life.
Now
you can continue to misunderstand what you have to do to be a disciple of
Jesus Christ. You can go ahead and keep on thinking you know where God
is—you know, up there somewhere. But I tell you the truth, if you do you
will miss God altogether and like the Hebrews you won’t have any choice
but to make a god for yourself because you’ll want to be where God
is. You’ll find something—power, money, sex, alcohol, drugs, work,
something—but it won’t be God. You’ll be a disciple of something but it
won’t be Jesus. And you know the really sad part? All the time you’re
making that god for yourself you keep God at such a distance from you.
God won’t ever touch you even though God is right there with you all the
time. But if you let go of all that for just a moment and you take the
hand of Jesus who has been there for so long, poised for your grasp,
you’ll be where you’ve been all along—right where God is.
If
you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, your life must be reordered.
Your priorities must be changed. Your understanding must be turned upside
down. The life of discipleship, no longer ordered by the ways of the
world, is reordered by the ways of the kingdom of God. The first thing
you have to do to be a disciple, the first step you must take, is to stop
looking for God in the wrong place.
When
you come to the table of your Lord this day, come and be where God is. As
you come take that first step in discipleship. Let him reorient you to
the very presence of God in the midst of life.
Disciples of Jesus Christ are always where God is, not because we finally
get ourselves there; no, the Gospel, you see, proclaims that God never
left us in the first place.
