“God’s Unique Relationship with Moses & Elijah”
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our
Lord [Amen.]
“With Moses and Elijah nigh
The_incarnate Lord holds converse high;
And from the cloud the Holy One
Bears record to the only Son.
“O Father, with the_eternal Son
And Holy Spirit ever one,
We pray Thee, bring us by Thy grace
To see Thy glory face to face.”
(Lutheran Service Book, © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO.
413:2 & 5)
Old Testament Reading..... Exodus 34:29, 34-35 (esp. 29) & 2 Kings 2:1,
9-12a (esp. 1)
Exodus 34:29When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of
the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not
know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God.
2 Kings 2:1Now when the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven by a
whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha were on their way from Gilgal.
Prologue: Relationships are quite varied and intriguing. They
may be positive, negative, or neutral. They may be good, bad, or ugly.
They may be beneficial, detrimental, or inconsequential. They may be
exclusive, inclusive, or exceptional. They may be peculiar, irregular, or
unique.
[Today is / Yesterday was] Valentine’s Day, a day when people
largely celebrate[d] romantic physical-attraction love relationships.
Sadly, in this present society and culture those romantic
physical-attraction relationships more often than not take priority over
spiritual self-sacrificial love relationships. Today’s Old Testament
Reading along with especially today’s Holy Gospel Reading serve to remind
you that spiritual self-sacrificial love relationships with God and by
extension with one another are most important and beneficial, as illustrated
by …
“God’s Unique Relationship with Moses & Elijah.”
[Tomorrow / Today] is a pivotal Sunday in the liturgical church
year. [Tomorrow / Today] is the festival celebration of The Transfiguration
of Our Lord. That glorious event in the life of Immanuel in which He
epiphanied His divine nature in all its radiance is one from which we look
back at His conception by the Holy Spirit and Bethlehem birth of the Virgin
Mary, and from which we look forward to His crucifixion death on Calvary’s
cross and majestic resurrection from the dead.
But today you have the unique privilege to be on that mountain
with Peter, James, and John, together with whom we witness the
transfiguration of Jesus. The evangelist St. Mark described it this way in
today’s Holy Gospel Reading: “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter
and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he
was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely
white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them
Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And a cloud
overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, ‘This is my beloved
Son; listen to him.’” (St Mark 9:2-4, 7 ESV) In addition, today’s Collect
revealed that “in the glorious transfiguration of [God’s] beloved Son [God]
confirmed the mysteries of the faith by the testimony of Moses and Elijah.
In the voice that came from the bright cloud [God] wonderfully foreshowed
our adoption by grace.”
So, just what was the unique relationship God had with Moses and
Elijah? In the first place, …
I. God Spoke Personally with Moses to the Israelites. (Exodus 34:34-35)
34Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove
the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of
Israel what he was commanded, 35the people of Israel would see the face of
Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face was shining. And Moses would put the
veil over his face again, until he went in to speak with him.
Years ago as I developed the pre-marital counseling program that I
use with couples preparing for marriage I coined the proverb: “Open honest
communication is the key to the success of any organization or
relationship.” The communication that’s referred to is not an occasional
haphazard activity but an ongoing frequent and regular activity.
Along with that important “C” word is another important “C” word:
commitment. Those two concepts combine to provide a foundation that goes a
long way to forming a marriage relationship that, with Jesus as the
all-important Cornerstone, will virtually guarantee a marriage that lasts
until parted by physical death.
Speaking about communication, you were taught in your catechetical
preparation for confirmation that “Prayer is speaking to God in words and
thoughts.” But such prayer-communication is not a one-way street. No, it’s
a two-way street in which “[you] should ask for everything that tends to the
glory of God and to [your] own and [your] neighbor’s welfare, both spiritual
and bodily blessings. [You] should also praise and thank God for who He is
and what He has done.” At the same time “God hears the prayers of all
Christians and answers in His own way and at His own time.” (Luther’s Small
Catechism with Explanation. Copyright © 1986, 1991 Concordia Publishing
House, St. Louis, MO. Pages 174-177.) As such it’s a sacred conversation
in which you prayerfully speak to God and He faithfully speaks to you
through His Holy Word and His wonderful gifts of Holy Baptism, Holy
Absolution, and Holy Communion.
Moses enjoyed such a special sacred communication-relationship
with God. It was one in which he conversed with Yahweh face-to-face and
from which he came away with a glowing countenance that reflected God’s
glorious radiance. The most notable account of such communication was when
they conversed together on Mount Sinai, where God gave Moses the summary of
His Law, namely, the Ten Commandments. In them God communicated that “Love
is the fulfillment of all the commandments” (Ibid. Page 55.) as Saint Paul
attested to when he wrote: “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love
is the fulfilling of the law.” (Rom 13:10 ESV)
Sadly, what God intended to communicate blessing to mankind now
communicates a curse to you because of your sinful uncleanness. Your
breaking of God’s Holy Law in your thoughts, desires, words, and actions is
so repugnant to Him that He declared through His holy writers: “… the wages
of sin is death … .” (Rom 6:23 ESV) and “The soul who sins shall die.” (Ezek
18:20 ESV) On this transfiguration occasion you see that man Moses, through
whom God gave His Law, appearing with Jesus and thereby reminding you that
“Only Jesus Christ, the God-man” “alone has kept the Law of God perfectly”
for you. Thanks be to God that “Since Christ was [your] substitute before
God, [your] Savior’s perfect keeping of the Law is part of His saving work
for [you], and because of Him [you] are considered righteous before God.”
(Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation. Page 72.)
That Good-News message of God’s gracious gifts of forgiveness of
sins and salvation that you receive by Spirit-given faith in Jesus Christ
was the sum and substance of the message of the other Old Testament man with
whom God had a unique relationship. That other unique relationship was
illustrated by the fact that …
II. God Personally Took Elijah from Earth to Heaven. (2 Kings 2:9-12a)
9When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you,
before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please let there be a double
portion of your spirit on me.” 10And he said, “You have asked a hard thing;
yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you, but
if you do not see me, it shall not be so.” 11And as they still went on and
talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of
them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. 12And Elisha saw it
and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its
horsemen!” And he saw him no more.
Transportation is very important and beneficial to you. You cover
short and long distances today immeasurably faster than your parents,
grandparents, and great-grandparents ever even dreamed of doing. And you do
so in comfort that few, if any, of them ever experienced. I was utterly
amazed when that Trans-World Airlines jetliner transported me in just a
matter of hours from New York City to Frankfurt, Germany, en route to my
duty station in West Berlin, Germany during the Viet Nam War. That distance
that I covered in some 12-14 hours by jetliner took my father days to travel
by ocean liner in World War II … and was by far more comfortable than he
experienced.
Of course, that’s no comparison to the divine transportation of
Christ’s real body and blood to you in the consecrated vehicles of ordinary
bread and wine. And, it pales in contrast to the divine transportation by
which God moved Elijah from this earthly vale of tears to heavenly glory …
without even dying! Now please realize that, unlike your Sunday school
pictures and stories led you to believe, Elijah did not go to heaven in a
fiery chariot. No! God took him to heaven in a whirlwind separated from
Elisha by a fiery chariot!
The truly astonishing thing, however, is that he transitioned from
earth to heaven without having died. And, there in heaven “God gave Elijah
a glorified body, the body in which he appeared with Jesus on the Mount of
Transfiguration.” In fact, “Just as mighty horses and chariots are emblems
of a king’s strength, so Elijah had been the spiritual bulwark of God’s
people.” (Arno J. Wolfgramm in People’s Bible Commentary: 1 Kings 7 2 Kings.
Copyright © 1991 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis, MO. Page 169.)
That was truly a high honor to be given such an ultra class
transportation to his eternal heaven-destination. But it was an even higher
honor to appear together with Moses alongside Jesus at His transfiguration
as representative of the Old Testament prophets that foretold the coming
Messiah, who would suffer mercilessly for our sins, die sacrificially for
our salvation, and rise victoriously for our justification.
Now, as I draw this to a close, hear again the words penned by
Saint Paul in today’s Epistle Reading that proclaim the ultimate meaning of
our Savior’s transfiguration: “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but
Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For
God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ.” (2 Cor 4:5-6 ESV)
Yes, even as you have in the reading and hearing of His written
Holy Word once again witnessed …
“God’s Unique Relationship with Moses & Elijah,”
so also recall with praise and thanksgiving that through your Baptism God
has established a unique relationship with you in your Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. And, even as …
I. God Spoke Personally with Moses to the Israelites. (Exodus
34:34-35), so also He speaks personally with you through His Holy Word and
Blessed Sacraments reassuring you of His never-ending mercy and grace. And,
even as …
II. God Personally Took Elijah from Earth to Heaven. (2 Kings 2:9-12a),
so also on the Last Day Jesus will return to reunite the bodies and souls of
all who trusted Him alone for forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life in a
glorified state and usher them into everlasting bliss in the glorious
heavenly mansions.
In the meantime, as today’s Introit said: “Exalt the Lord our God,
and worship at his holy mountain; for the Lord our God is holy! Exalt the
Lord our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he!” (Psalm 99:9, 5 ESV);
and as today’s Gradual echoed: “Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him,
all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the
faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due
his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts!” (Psalm 117:1-2a;
96:8 ESV) May that offering be none other than faithfully loving God by
self-sacrificially loving one another with sanctified thoughts, desires,
words, and actions.
God grant it all for the sake of Jesus Christ, His humble Son, our
holy Savior. [Amen.]
In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
[Amen.]
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