| March 5, 2000 | Yahweh With You | Mark 9:2-9 and Joshua 1:9
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.
Today we have the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus as the subject of our Gospel lesson. In our Confirmation verse for Lisa we have God's message of encouragement to His people. What do these two portions of Scripture have in common? They are both intended to encourage and strengthen the faith of God's people as they head off into uncertain dangers and adventures. So, let us each be renewed in the confidence we have because Yahweh is with you.
Our Gospel lesson today is the account of the Transfiguration. Today is the Last Sunday after Epiphany in the Church Year calendar. The season of Epiphany lasts from January 6 up to the point where the season of Lent begins. Lent is always 40 weekdays and 6 Sundays before Easter. You know that Easter moves around depending upon the phase of the moon when Spring, March 21 arrives. This year Easter is very late-April 23. This year is the latest date for Easter since 1943. So, if Easter is later, then Lent begins later. If Lent begins later, then Epiphany lasts longer. So, we had 9 Sundays in the season of Epiphany this year. The last Sunday of Epiphany, no matter how long the season lasts, is always celebrated as Transfiguration Sunday. The Transfiguration is so important that we want to be sure to cover it each year.
Now, what is the setting for the Transfiguration? In the Gospel of Mark as we look back into Chapter 8, we have Peter confessing Jesus as the Christ. He speaks clearly of who this man truly is and sets the stage for the next part. That next part is that Jesus teaches the disciples of His coming death and resurrection. It says in Mark: "He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this..."
Now put yourself in the disciples' position. They just heard a great confession that Jesus was the one chosen to save them. Then Jesus teaches them that He must die. This seems very confusing and Peter, of course, tries to rebuke Jesus for speaking such nonsense. In this, Peter and the other disciples demonstrate some fear for what the future would hold. They were fearful for what would come for Jesus.
Next in Mark Jesus speaks to the disciples about the strong demands of discipleship. "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." These are strong words. Jesus just finished speaking of what the future held for Him. Now He said the disciples must be willing to take their crosses up also. They must be willing to lose their lives.
This must have been hard for them to hear. Can you imagine their fear for what the future held? Think of the unknowns that lie in following Jesus. Think of how bad it could get. Now, keeping this in mind, consider our text from Joshua.
The setting for the passage from Joshua is a rather important point in the history of the Israelites. The Exodus from Egypt was coming to a close. They had arrived at the doorstep of the promised land. Futher, Moses had just died. God had used Moses as a strong leader of the people since they had left Egypt 40 years ago. Now that Moses was gone, there was some nervousness about what lie ahead. However, it was not mostly Moses' absence that was the issue, but rather what lie ahead.
See, the promised land was that land of Palestine which God told the Israelites He would give to them. There was just one problem, however, and that was that other peoples were occupying the land at this time. The Israelites would have to go to fight for the land which God promised them. Certainly God promised to deliver the land to them and deliver their enemies into their hands. Yet, there was a fear the Israelites had approaching this situation.
The fact that the Israelites feared the future was really a failure of faith. They actually forgot how much God had done to take care of them over the years traveling in the desert. They forgot the magnificent wonders that the Lord had done to save them: the Ten Plagues in Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea and drowning of Pharaoh's army. They forgot the giving of water, mannah and quail in the desert. They forgot how God had already delivered them from various enemies such as the Amorites and the Amalekites.
If they would have remembered all these things that God had done, they would not have feared the future, but would have recognized God would continue to bless them and be with them. They forgot, however. That is why the verse from Joshua begins in a tone of rebuke: "Have I not commanded you?" In other words, God was saying to the people, "You have forgotten what I commanded you to remember." God commands us to remember His goodness toward us. If we fear the future, then we doubt His faithfulness and we doubt His promises.
Perhaps you would say that it is only natural to fear the future and unknown. However, we have to remember that our idea of what is natural is tainted by a human nature which is corrupted with original sin. Just because our corrupted nature leads us to fear the future does not mean that we are not held accountable for this. Indeed it is a sin in God's eyes.
It is because of the sinful fear of the disciples that the Lord offered the demonstration of the Transfiguration. It is because of the sinful fear of the Israelites entering the promised land that the Lord offered the comforting words of grace and presence in Joshua.
The Transfiguration was a most powerful demonstration of exactly who this Jesus Christ was. In fact, the demonstration of who Jesus was has been a theme throughout the season of Epiphany. In Christmas we have the wonderful gift of God made flesh delivered to us. The incarnation is the theme of Christmas. Then Epiphany fills out this incarnation by demonstrating just who this man Jesus Christ is who was born at Christmas.
We have in the Transfiguration a glimpse of the heights of who Jesus is. Just prior the disciples had had a glimpse of the depths, that is the humiliation that Jesus would undergo at the cross for our benefit. Now Jesus takes them to the heights, both literally, up on a mountain, and figuratively in seeing His full glory and honor.
The Transfiguration gave the disciples a dose of grace in that the Lord demonstrated that they were following the right person. They may have been questioning who they were following. They were expecting a messiah who was a powerful military conquerer who would sweep the people of Israel away from the hands of the Roman government. The disciples expected this, but instead they got a messiah who told them He was going to suffer and die. And then He told them they should follow Him into suffering and give their lives. Now you can imagine that they wondered if they were following the wrong person. In the Transfiguration, Jesus demonstrates that He is the right one to follow. The Transfiguration reassured the disciples that Jesus was truly God. He demonstrated an appearance which strongly suggests He is God. His clothing was so brilliant and bright that the disciples had never seen anything like it. The voice of the Father spoke from the cloud. Even the cloud was a sign of God's presence, where He also led the Israelites in the desert during the Exodus with a cloud and pillar of fire. God's grace was shown to these three disciples as He gave them a sign to reassure them. Though they were certainly sinful in fearing the future and doubting who Jesus was, He came to them with His grace. The Lord saved them even in the midst of their sin.
It was the grace of the Lord to also give these disciples something to remember in the days approaching. When they would see the Lord face His arrest, trial, sentencing, suffering and death during His passion, they could think back to the glory and wonder of the Transfiguration. It was by grace that they were given the special demonstration of the Transfiguration.
We also have God's wonderful grace demonstrated in Lisa's assigned verse. The Israelites had their sinful fear of the future. Against this sin, God directs His grace. He speaks these wonderful words: "Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." First is the encouragment: be strong and courageous. These are powerful words in the original language of Hebrew. They have much more meaning than these few English words reflect. The first means be strong, prevail, be firm and be secure. The next says be strong, alert, courageous, brave, stout, bold, solid and hard. These are quite the range of meaning. They are words of encouragment in the faith. Trust in the Lord and be solid and secure in that trust. Hold strongly to your belief in the one who will deliver you. Be bold in facing challenges to your faith. Be alert to those forces and individuals who would rob you of the grace you have in Christ.
This is good advice for our confirmand, Lisa, and all of us. Hold fast to the wonderful blessing the Holy Spirit has given you. Watch for wolves who would steal you away from your Lord. Be brave in facing opposition that you will encounter.
God's words of encouragment also go on. Don't be terrified or discouraged. These words also have much broader meanings: Do not tremble, fear or feel dread. Do not be shattered, broken, or dismayed. So, Lisa and all of us are encouraged to not fear the future. Don't dread the challenges you will face as a Christian. Do not let those who oppose Christ and His teachings shatter you, or break you or cause you to be dismayed. We know there are those who will ridicule, reject, and even persecute us because we are Christians and because we speak God's truth. Lisa, you have already seen many examples of that in your life. In the face of these threats, God wants us to be unafraid.
God shows His love us of by giving these blessed words to give us hope to face the future without fear. The best part, however, is the reason He can make these statements. Why be strong and courageous? Why not fear or be discouraged? The reason is given following the word "for." For...because..."the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." So, why can we face the future confident? Because God is with us, wherever we go.
God's constant presence is a wonderful thing. A friend always there. A constant companion. Always watching over us and never abandoning us.
These words are so powerful, that I want you to hear them in the original Hebrew. It begins: IM-ME-KAH YAHWEH ELOHEEM. This means, literally, "with us Yahweh God." Yahweh is God's proper name. Yahweh our God is with us. The thought is so pure and the connection so direct in the Hebrew that the verb is absent. The verb "is" is not given. With us--Yahweh God. Im-me-kah Yahweh Eloheem. That is a phrase we all ought never forget. Lisa, remember: "With us-Yahweh God." It is so wonderful to hear that our God is accompanying us through all the challenges of walking the path He has given us to trod. He will be with us wherever we go in life. Whatever we do. God is with you.
This same God did not stop with the demonstration of His grace in the Transfiguration or in the words of Joshua 1. This God who is with us wherever we go also went to the cross on our behalf. There He was not transfigured in glory but suffered in humiliation so that we might be free of all our sins. So, Jesus forgave our sins of fearing the future. He took away all the punishment we would have deserved. This He did through His death as a sacrifice for us. And then, the picture became complete as He arose again. After the Transfiguration, He told the disciples to keep quiet about what they had just seen until He was resurrected. Then, with the resurrection the picture was complete. The humiliated Lord was back to glory as He ascended to heaven to reign. Then the one who died for us also opened the door to eternal life for us.
This same God, who did all these wonderful things for you is not a distant God. He is near. He is im-me-kah Yahweh Eloheem. He is with us wherever we go. All our days, through challenges and tests of our faith, through times we need strength, we can know that Yahweh is with us. We know that because of the grace demonstrated through Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.