Our Sermons

Bible Passage: 2 Corinthians 3:7-18
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  February 28, 2022

We’ve reached the end of the season of Epiphany. Today, we’ll have one last look at what needs to be uncovered, only today it’s going to feel different. Transfiguration is unique in the sense that it shows this paradox that when God’s glory is most hidden is actually when it’s most on display. And I know that sounds crazy and it sounds illogical, but that shouldn’t surprise us. That’s most often how God chooses to operate. And today, it reaches its climax. 

2 Corithians chapter 3 is heavy stuff. Some commentators have called this section the Mount Everest of Paul’s theology. But let’s not let that scare us. We have God’s promise that the Holy Spirit is with us when we gather around his Word. May he help us to understand the truths presented before us today. Let him especially uncover for us today: The Need for Transfiguration.

The context of this section is important. The apostle Paul was dealing with opponents in Corinth, so-called super apostles. These super apostles expected the glory of a person’s ministry to be obvious. There should be universal popularity and acceptance. Finances would never be an issue. Suffering and persecution should be non-existent. And so when these “super-apostles” looked at Paul and his message and the impact of his message there seemed to be little glory at all. 

This dynamic is still very prevalent today. It is easy to look out over the landscape of Christianity and see “glory” out there. Large buildings, full parking lots, dynamic speakers, super-apostles if you will and then to look around here and think that there’s no glory here at all. It’s tempting to fall for those false ministries, the ministries that Paul says brought death. Why would Paul say that? Because those super apostles were pushing a ministry that talked about Jesus but then added all sorts of stipulations and rules and laws the people had to follow. Their ministry was primarily a law ministry.

And notice what Paul says about this law ministry, the ministry of Moses. “If the ministry that brought death (which was engraved in letters on stone) came with glory…For if the ministry that brought condemnation has glory,” It came with glory! The ministry that brought death and brought condemnation has glory! But where did that glory lead? It led to death and condemnation. You see the glory of the Law is that it kills. That’s its purpose. Its native work is to expose sin which leads to death. There is a need for transfiguration! 

It’s no secret that everyone needs a transfiguration, an active, present change from the inside out. The question really before us today is how does that transfiguration take place? Many people feel that this transfiguration, this path to a better life is found in a Law ministry, is found in doing a bunch of things to be a better Christian. Paul calls this view of life looking at the word through a veil. “ Yes, up to the present day, the same veil remains then the Old Testament is read…Instead, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts.” This veil, this covering that has been placed over the Law is what our Lutheran Confessions call man’s opinion of the Law. When you live your life trying to keep the Law as the way to be right with God, your view of the Law is going to lead you in one of two directions. Either you are going to be crushed and killed by the Law and led to despair or you are going to think that you’ve done enough to be right with God. As one hymn writer so eloquently said it as he described looking at the law: “Now prodigal, now pharisee.” It’s like living life looking through a veil.

Everyone needs a transfiguration. And while the Law has power, while the Law has glory, it ultimately leads to death. Trying to live as a law based Christian is exhausting! But true transfiguration that comes through the gospel, through Christ is better in every way. Just listen to Paul, “If the ministry that brought death (which was engraved in letters on stone) came with glory, how will the ministry of the spirit not be much more glorious? For if the ministry that brought condemnation has glory, the ministry that brought righteousness has even more glory. In fact, in this case, what was glorious is no longer very glorious, because of the greater glory of that which surpasses it. Indeed, if what is fading away was glorious, how much more glorious is that which is permanent!  “Therefore, since we have this kind of hope, we act with great boldness. We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face…It has not been removed because it is taken away only in Christ.  But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. But all of us who reflect the Lord’s glory with an unveiled face are being transformed into his own image, from one degree of glory to another. This too is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” 

Yes, there’s glory in the Law, but the glory of the Gospel far surpasses it. For the glory of the Gospel does not bring death, but life, not a fading glory, but a permanent glory. Why? Because the veil is removed. How is the veil removed? It is only taken away in Christ, it is only taken away when we turn away from ourselves and turn to Christ. And this is the Lord’s Work! Do you see this? We are transfigured by seeing the Lord’s glory. We are transfigured, presently, actively changed from the inside out by contemplating the Lord’s glory with an unveiled face. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. And as we contemplate the Lord’s glory, we reflect that glory. But this glory doesn’t fade, it gets stronger and stronger from one degree of glory to another. This too is the work of the Holy Spirit. This is God’s promise every time the gospel is proclaimed. This is the only way true transfiguration takes place, by contemplating the glory of the Lord. 

And where is that glory best seen? It’s not best seen on the Mount of Transfiguration, but rather on the Mount of Calvary. We cannot stare at God in all his holiness and live. That pictures God as a God of judgment, which he is. However, when God’s glory is most hidden, then it is most on display. It’s on the cross that God’s glory is most hidden, and yet most fully displayed. It’s on the cross in full display that we see both the judgment of God, but more importantly the love of God for us.  And because this glory is hidden, we can gaze and gaze upon it, completely unafraid. This hidden glory doesn’t look glorious to the world, but this is the glory that transfigures. This is the glory that shows us the suffering and death that should have been ours, but instead became Christ’s. It shows us the righteousness that was his and now is ours. And as we gaze on this glory at the cross, with the veil of our works removed, Paul says that we are being transformed, transfigured from glory into glory.

C.S. Lewis is perhaps most famous for his Chronicles of Narnia Series. You can see Christian undertones in just about everything he writes. While I don’t normally do this, I’m going to read a longer section of his book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which beautifully illustrates this transfiguration that God has given to each of us. In the story, Eustace was overcome with greed and stole some treasure from the cave of a dragon. He fell asleep and when he woke up, he realized that he has turned into a dragon. The bracelet he had stolen and put on his arm was now pinching his much larger dragon leg and is causing him extreme pain that he desperately wants to be rid of. He meets a lion who tells him to be rid of the pain he must get undressed. As I read, think about how Eustace’s journey from dragon back to boy is really your journey from death to glory.

So, I started scratching myself and my scales began coming off all over the place. And then I scratched a little deeper and, instead of just scales coming off here and there, my whole skin started peeling off beautifully, like it does after an illness, or as if I was a banana. In a minute or two I just stepped out of it. I could see it lying there beside me, looking rather nasty. It was a most lovely feeling. So I started to go down into the well for my bath. But just as I was going to put my feet into the water I looked down and saw that they were all hard and rough and wrinkled and scaly just as they had been before. Oh, that’s all right, said I, it only means I had another smaller suit on underneath the first one, and I’ll have to get out of it too. So I scratched and tore again and this underskin peeled off beautifully and out I stepped and left it lying beside the other one and went down to the well for my bath. Well, exactly the same thing happened again. And I thought to myself, oh dear, how ever many skins have I got to take off? For I was longing to bathe my leg. So I scratched away for the third time and got a third skin, just like the two others, and stepped out of it. But as soon as I looked at myself in the water I knew it had been no good. Then the lion said–but I don’t know if it spoke—”You will have to let me undress you.” I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back and let him do it. The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off. You know–if you’ve ever picked a scab of a sore place. It hurts like billy-oh but it is such fun to see it coming away. Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off–just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt–and there it was lying on the grass: only ever so much thicker and darker, and more knobbly looking than the others had been. And there I was smooth and soft as a peeled switch and smaller than I had been. Then he caught hold of me and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and I found that all the pain had gone from my arm.”

We can scratch and claw at our sinful nature with the law, by our own works, but to no avail. The pain will always remain.. Only Jesus can remove the scales of sin and transfigure us through the waters of baptism to reflect his glory. We all need transfiguration. By the power of the Spirit, may we turn to Christ and reflect his glory and be transfigured into his own image, from one degree of glory to another. Amen.