Jesu Juva

“The Exodus, His Exodus, and Your Exodus”

Text: Luke 9:28-36; Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Well, this was a pretty unusual week. Extraordinary, really. First having a Memorial Service for our oldest member, and then the very next day a Funeral Service for the youngest one among us. We gathered and spoke of their departures. And we did so with sorrow, but not despair. We did so with grief, but also with confidence and hope. And this day, the Transfiguration of Our Lord, helps us do that. This day when Jesus revealed His glory, and spoke with Moses and Elijah about His departure. And without that, without Jesus’ departure, or literally in the Greek, His exodus, without that, this past week would have been very different for us. For without Jesus’ exodus, we would despair, and be without confidence and hope.

But today we got a glimpse of what really is, and what will be. And what really is, is that this man, Jesus of Nazareth, is in truth the glorious Son of God. The veil that separates heaven and earth is pulled aside, just for a moment. And His glory - the glory that He always had, but willfully set aside in order to live as a man just like us - is revealed. The glory isn’t momentary, just the revealing of it is. Which Jesus did to strengthen Peter, James, and John, who actually almost missed it because their eyes were heavy with sleep. You know how that is. When you want to stay awake, but you just can’t keep your eyes open. When your eyelids feel like they weigh about a hundred pounds each!

But they didn’t miss it all, and when they became fully awake, they saw not just what really is, Jesus in His glory, but also what will be - that Jesus is not alone in that glory. His own are with Him. And specifically here, this day, they see Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus, talking about Jesus’ exodus. Which makes sense, for when you think of an exodus, or the Exodus, the first person you think of is Moses.

And the exodus, for Moses, started on a mountain, like the one Jesus, Peter, John, and James had just gone up. And on that mountain, so many years ago, it was Moses who was stunned by the sight he saw - a bush that burned with fire but was not consumed. And then even more amazing, that bush spoke to Moses (Exodus 3)! Telling him to go to Egypt and bring the people of Israel out in the Exodus. God was going to deliver them. And now, on another mountain, it is happening again. Moses is talking with the very God who spoke to him from that burning bush about the Exodus, now speaking of His very own exodus. And a greater one than Moses’.

And then there was another mountain for Moses after that one. For after God had successfully brought His people out of Egypt and through the Red Sea, Moses ascended Mt. Sinai, where once again, God spoke to him. This time not with a burning bush, but in a dark, dense cloud that descended on the mountain (which happened also in the account we heard today!). And that day, on Mt. Sinai, God spoke to Moses and gave him two important things: the Ten Commandments, and all the instructions for the building and running of the Tabernacle - the place where God would descend to be with His people. And now, on this other mountain, Moses is again talking with the God of Mt. Sinai, but about how HE is the one who perfectly fulfills all the Law; the one whose human flesh is the new Tabernacle - the new and greater dwelling place of God with man.

And then there was one more mountain for Moses, which we heard of in the Old Testament reading today, right on the border of the land God had promised to His people and was now leading them into. The Exodus was now almost complete. Just one more step. But one final step Moses would not be able to take. Moses would not, could not be the one to lead the people into the Promised Land and complete the Exodus. Another would do that. Back then, it was a man named Joshua. But now, here, on this other mountain, Moses was speaking to the one who would really complete the exodus of all God’s people from our slavery to sin and from death and into the Promised Land of heaven. A greater exodus. Moses was speaking with the promised prophet who was greater than he, and who was about to accomplish this greater exodus. What Moses foreshadowed, Jesus was now doing.

But how? How would Jesus accomplish this final and greater exodus? Well that’s where the other prophet who appeared that day comes in, the prophet Elijah. Who also foreshadowed what Jesus would do on a mountain. Mt. Carmel. On that mountain, Elijah alone did battle against 450 prophets of a false god named Baal. They would each offer a sacrifice, and whosever’s god consumed the sacrifice was the true God. Well, the sacrifice to Baal went untouched, while the sacrifice to Elijah’s God consumed with fire not just the sacrifice, but the sacrifice, the wood the sacrifice was on, the altar the wood was on, the ground around the altar, and all the gallons of water that had been poured on the sacrifice to try to prevent this all from happening! It was a great victory. But not as great as the one Elijah was now talking about with the very God who had consumed his sacrifice so many years ago. Now that God, Jesus, would offer up Himself on the altar of the cross for the life of the world. A greater sacrifice, a greater victory, a greater exodus, and a greater salvation.

It was all now coming to a head. What Moses foreshadowed but could not complete, and what Elijah foreshadowed but could not complete, Jesus now would. He would cross the finish line, once and for all. And so, Luke tells us just a few verses after the ones we heard today, that Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51). He wouldn’t be denied. He would go to Jerusalem, where He would climb another mountain, a smaller one named Calvary, where He would complete His exodus and show His glory - a greater glory. The glory of His death on the cross. For just as Jesus of Nazareth looked like just a normal man like every other, but was, in fact, the glorious Son of God, so, too, His death on the cross looked gruesome and gory just like all the other crucifixions that took place in that day, but was, in fact, the glory of God. For what could be more glorious, more wondrous, more awesome, than the God of all creation offering Himself up to save His creation. To take our sin and death upon Himself and suffer what we deserve, so that one day, we could stand in His glory, like Moses and Elijah, and with Moses and Elijah, and Peter, John, and James, and Roy and Philip, who departed from us these past couple of weeks.

But who, we believe, departed in Jesus, and so just as with Jesus’ departure through death and the grave with a resurrection to life eternal, so in Jesus, Roy and Philip’s departure ends the same way - with a resurrection to life eternal. To the glory of the Transfiguration.

That’s the good news, even though we would have preferred this past week not happen; that Roy and Philip would have stayed with us. That’s what Peter (and probably John and James) wanted, too. They wanted Moses and Elijah to stay. Put up three tents! We don’t want this to end. But that’s when the cloud descended, the cloud that marks the presence of God, who spoke and said: This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him! Listen to what? What they were talking about! Jesus’ exodus. Jesus’ cross. Jesus’ death and resurrection. For that’s the glory that leads to glory. Don’t rely on what you see, rely on what you hear. For what we see is often confusing. But what we hear from Jesus is rock solid.

For they would soon see Jesus bleeding and dying on the cross. But they would hear Him from that cross forgiving sins (Luke 23:34). They would see an empty tomb and be confused and befuddled at it. But they would hear from that tomb the Word of God from the angel: He is not here! He is risen! (Luke 24:6)

And so it is with us. We see the sin in us for which we should be judged and condemned to damnation. But you hear the voice of Jesus say: I forgive you all your sins. We see suffering and death in the world and in us, but we hear the voice of Jesus say: you are my beloved son, for you are baptized children of God. We see and feel our failure and weakness, but we hear the voice of Jesus say: This is My Body, This is My Blood. Eat and drink for your life. And in all these ways, this is Jesus talking to us of His exodus - that He completed the journey from heaven to hell and back again - and so in Him, so do we. No matter what hell hurls against you, no matter how much sin corrupts and rots and crushes you, no matter the depths of sorrow death tries to bury us under, our exodus takes us through all that. Jesus takes us through all that. It will not win. It will not, it cannot defeat a child of God.

And that’s the glory we didn’t see, but heard this week. What we saw was death. What we saw was sorrow. But what we heard was glory and glorious. That the graves of Roy and Philip are just their beds, where their bodies will rest until one final time the veil that separates heaven and earth is pulled aside. But this time not just for a moment, but forever. And there will be only Jesus . . . in His glory. And we there with Him and with all the saints who died in the Lord and now rise in the Lord, and from their labors rest.

Until that day, we continue living in the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23). With the sin and the sorrow and the sadness and the grief. But not alone. Jesus didn’t stay on the mountain. He came down to be with us. And still is. Lo, I am with you always (Matthew 28:20), were the parting words at His ascension. Ascending - in a kind of oxymoronic way - not to leave us but to be with us. And He is. And so there is in this valley of the shadow of death also confidence and joy and hope. Because no matter what you are going through, Jesus went through it first. No matter what burdens you’re under, they are not too heavy for Jesus. No matter what griefs and sorrows are weighing you down, He bore those for you, too (Isaiah 53:4).

So now hearing this word of the Lord, take the next steps in your exodus and His. Come up to the altar, passing the Font and that water you passed through to become children of God, and passing the spot from where you heard and received the Absolution, the forgiveness of your sins, and going to the place where the glorious Body and Blood of Jesus is here for you and now placed into your mouths. And with His Body and Blood, His forgiveness. And with His forgiveness, His life. And with His life, His salvation. And with His salvation, the promise of eternity. This is your mountain and your Jesus. And Jesus is all you need.

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Now the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds through faith in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.