Matthew 17:1-9 - “The Glory in Suffering”
Rev. Kurt A. Van Fossan
Today we re-examine the Transfiguration of our Lord and its bearing on our lives as the children of God. As with most everything Jesus has done for us, the purpose of His transfiguration “passes all understanding.” That doesn’t mean, however, that we simply throw up our hands and say, “I can’t fully understand it so what’s the point of even thinking about it!” Instead it means that we humbly recognize that we are always growing in our understanding and appreciation of God’s Word and its bearing on our lives.
To help us in that growth, I would like to hopefully stretch your minds (and mine) this morning and have you consider something about Jesus’ transfiguration which you may have not considered in the past. To do that it’s helps to know that six days before Jesus’ transfiguration He had asked His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” After giving Jesus some opinions of others, which they had heard, Jesus proceeded to ask His disciples, “But what about you?...Who do you say I am?” To which Peter was first to respond, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”(Mt 16:13-20).
From that time on, once the disciples had clearly established in their own minds who Jesus was, Jesus began to explain to them how He would suffer many things at the hands of the religious leaders, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.
While the disciples were perhaps all feeling the same way after hearing Jesus explain these things, Peter was again first to respond. “Never, Lord!...This shall never happen to you!”, he said. We would probably have responded in a similar way. We naturally seek to protect those we love from harm. So when Jesus said he was going to be killed by the religious establishment, we, like Peter, would probably try to prevent this from happening.
But that’s when Jesus tells His disciples that, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” Through these words Jesus seeks to explain to us that there is glory in suffering for God’s name sake [briefly explain two types of suffering--suffering placed upon us (illness, etc.) & willing to suffer for God’s name sake]. Remember Peter wanted to protect Jesus from suffering--from the cross (a natural response from our thinking, but not with God!). Do you think that could be one of the reasons Jesus revealed His glory to Peter, James and John through His transfiguration. He wanted them to see that “the way of the cross is glorious.” Jesus was glorious not only after His resurrection from the dead, He was glorious even in His humble nature as a man; even in the midst of His suffering and death on the cross! This is a glory that is not visible to our human eyes, but only to our eyes of faith. So, too, the way of the cross is glorious for each one of us--if we have the eyes of faith to see it.
A biology teacher once told his students how he watched an ant carrying a small stick which seemed almost too heavy for it to drag. The ant came to a crack in the ground which was too wide for it to cross. It stood still for a time, as though at a loss for what to do. Then the ant put the stick (the heavy burden it was carrying) across the crack and walked over it.
Jesus’ transfiguration, through which His glorious nature as God was evident--through which his divine nature “shone like the sun,” revealed to the disciples (and to us) that there is glory even in suffering for the sake of the gospel. What is the glory in suffering? The heavy load which Jesus bore for our sake--his suffering and death on the cross--was the burden that He laid down to span the gap between heaven and hell for us--a gap which was too wide for us to cross. Jesus’ death on the cross is His greatest glory through which He frees us from our sin and shows us how much He loves us. That’s the glory of Jesus’ suffering.
Once we, by the grace of God and through faith, see this, our Lord wants us to also see the glory in any suffering we are asked to bear for His name. What better message of love can we send to others and to God, than our willingness to sacrifice some of our own time, talents and treasures in order to share the love of Christ with others, either personally or collectively through his church. May we view the burdens we carry in the giving of ourselves in service to God as bridges which we lay down for others, that they too may cross the gap between hell and heaven which Jesus spans through his death on the cross.
In Jesus name we ask it, and for His name sake.
Amen
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