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Intrepretation

Interpretation

Sunday of Transfiguration

2Peter 1:16-21

February 6, 2005

Rev. Dave R. Garwick

Today we celebrate the Transfiguration of Our Lord. This word, transfiguration, is a word that you probably never hear except this one time each year. It’s an expansion from the word “figure” – when something is TRANSfigured, it’s figure or appearance is changed. The younger generations these days use a different word all the time to refer to the same thing: “morphing”. There are cartoon characters that “morph”, and toys that “morph” – or change their appearance – from, say a harmless looking toy car to a really scary looking monster. Science fiction movies have make-believe “shape shifters” that turn from things like kittens to demons.

Now, “morphing” and “shape shifting” are make believe things, but the Transfiguration was real, when all of a sudden the appearance of Jesus changed to a dazzling white, when a cloud came down around Him on a mountaintop, “….and a voice from the cloud said, "This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!" As fantastic as it sounded, the Transfiguration really did happen. But apparently even then, it was a hard thing to sell to some people because in this morning’s Epistle Lesson the chief of the apostles was defending the truth of this account against accusations of false testimony when he wrote:

“We did NOT follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we WERE eyewitnesses of His majesty …. We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with Him on the sacred mountain.”

So, how do we know for sure that any of this is true? How do we know that Jesus really WAS transfigured? Now THAT may not seem like such a big issue in itself – whether His appearance changed on top of a mountain or not. But it DOES seem so fantastic, like so many other things we say about Him. If THAT event can be doubted, then how do we know that even more amazing things really happened - that He really DID rise from the dead? How do we know that by doing so, He really DID put an end to the permanent effects of sin and death and that all this really IS sufficient to keep us out of hell?

How can we really know for sure? Well first off, this is the problem with just about everything. Every eyewitness account or testimony or so-called “proof” in any realm of human endeavor can be disputed. Nevertheless, every juror, every judge, every scientist and every Christian needs to make a decision about whom and what to trust.

If you have not decided that you can trust God to clearly say what He meant to say in the Bible, then every bet is off, because then nothing – especially the Resurrection itself – can be trusted. But the fact is that every promise in Holy Scripture that has come to pass has come to pass exactly as was promised. That is why the Old Testament is so necessary to the New Testament, so that we can know that God’s holy Word has been accurate in the past, and we can trust His Word in the present and count on it in the future.

In the controversies facing the Church these days, our faith is being directly attacked in the form of a seductive little temptation which answers every truth claim like this: “It all depends on how you INTERPRET it.” But this is nothing new – ever since the Garden of Eden, the Tempter has always provided all kinds of ways to reinterpret and confuse what God has clearly said: “Did God REALLY say that you should not eat that fruit?”

These days to get Christians to bless things which God has forbidden in Holy Scripture, the identical temptation takes the form of this seduction: “It all depends on how you interpret the Bible.” But hear what the chief of the apostles says in this morning’s Epistle: “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man ….”

He went on to say this: “….but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” Since “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever,” (Heb 13:8), those who really are carried along by the Holy Spirit will not claim the right to interpret God’s Word any way they want, according to their own will, but will interpret His Word in line with how the Holy Spirit has always caused it to be interpreted, no matter what good and modern reason people may think they have to lie, or to sleep with someone they’re not married to, or to personally attack another person, or to get an abortion, or to divorce their spouse or to go on a drunk, or to encourage homosexual behavior, or to refuse to forgive another person. You bet there are lots of ways to interpret God’s Word and Jesus has already told us where most of those lead.

It is the Great Deceiver who is the one who tempts us to re-interpret God’s clear Word when it clashes with our will. God’s way has always been radically different: His solution is our repentance and His forgiveness. He does not reinterpret things – He transfigures those He loves, which is what is about to happen. In a moment we will receive the body and blood of Jesus not as a toast to what WE think is right, but for the forgiveness of sins that GOD has declared and that we have confessed – not to ignore them or to bless them or to reinterpret them but to put an end to them, and a new beginning for us.

Amen. May it be so.