February 15, 2026 Sermon
Sermon title: “The Transfiguration”
Scripture: Matthew 17:1-9
(Other lectionary suggestions include Exodus 24:12-18, Psalm 99, and II Peter 1:16-21.)
Matthew 17:1-9
The Transfiguration
1Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” 6When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” 8And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. 9As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Today’s sermon title is called “The Transfiguration,” and we are told that Jesus took three of his favorite disciples with him up to that mountaintop. Did you ever wonder why Jesus felt the need? One suggestion is that he had to be absolutely sure what he was doing (going to Jerusalem and dying on the cross) was God’s will. The fact that Moses and Elijah were there indicate that he was being backed up by all the Law and the prophets. Moses, of course, indicates the Law, and Elijah symbolizes all the prophets.
One of our lectionary suggestions for today has a passage from Exodus 24. (Exodus 24:12-18: 12The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” 13So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. 14To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.” 15Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. 16The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. 17Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. 18Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.) For Matthew, Jesus is the New Moses. In a way, Peter is almost funny in wanting to build three booths or tents. Peter is happy to be there, and he doesn’t want to LEAVE! I think Peter’s words are directed at some of us modern-day folks: we’re happy right where we are, and we don’t want to be pushed out of our comfortable surroundings. But I hope you noticed how the passage ends: Jesus and the three disciples leave the mountaintop and go back down into the valley of reality. You and I need our mountaintop experiences, but we can never forget God’s creation, not forget the fact that God has work for us to do.
Our Scripture for today is from Matthew, but Luke has this Transfiguration story, too. Speaking about Luke’s account, a Lutheran minister named Jim Page says that Jesus was showing his disciples what he came to do, and that was not to stay where everything is comfortable and good, but to show up in the lives of others to serve and share God’s love. (Not that it matters, but the Rev. Mr. Page is from Eau Claire, Wisconsin.) And Page says this about us: “That is what we are to do as followers of Jesus Christ: grow up in order to show up.” He mentions Peter, and you and I know what a flawed, imperfect human being Peter was. “But the one thing he did do was he followed Jesus down the mountain. Regardless of his weaknesses, his past, and even his insecurity, he still never left Jesus’s side. In that relationship, his faith grew when he put his needs aside in order that others would be blessed. He showed up to the point that the Christian church, the reason we are here to worship today, is because of Peter’s leadership in sharing the gospel message in the world.”
What God did through Peter is amazing and inspiring. Page says, “Imagine what God can do for and through you. Imagine what God can do for and through all of us together!”
The Rev. Jim Page likes to say that God showed up in your life through someone else. “Your faith grew over time through the challenges and joys of life,” he says. He also encourages you and me to “speak a word of forgiveness to that relative you’ve been avoiding.” (That might be one for me!) He also says, “Show up to pray with your kids. Show up to give a co-worker a compliment.” And he concludes by saying, “Grow up to show up in living our faith. As Christians, that is what we do.”
Says N. T. Wright, “Jesus himself went through the mountaintop experience, knowing that it was preparing him to follow where the law and the prophets (here represented by Moses and Elijah) had pointed: down into the valley, to the place of despair and death, the place where demons shriek and sufferers weep, the place where the son of man will be handed over to sinners (Luke means the Gentiles). The disciples were overwhelmed by the transfiguration..... They were unable to understand how it was that the glory which they had glimpsed on the mountain, the glory of God’s chosen son, the Servant who was carrying in himself the promise of redemption, would finally be unveiled on a very different hill, an ugly little hill outside Jerusalem.” Wright goes on to say that sometimes we too often find it bewildering to figure out all that God is saying or doing, “both in our times of great joy and our times of great sadness. But the word that comes to us, leading us on to follow Jesus even when we haven’t a clue what’s going on, is the word that came from the cloud on that strange day in Galilee: ‘This my son, my chosen one. Listen to him.’” Amen.
Pastor Skip
