Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and brought them to the top of a very high mountain where they were alone. He was transformed in front of them, and his clothes were amazingly bright, brighter than if they had been bleached white. Elijah and Moses appeared and were talking with Jesus.
Peter reacted to all of this by saying to Jesus, “Rabbi, it’s good that we’re here. Let’s make three shrines—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He said this because he didn’t know how to respond, for the three of them were terrified.
Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice spoke from the cloud, “This is my Son, whom I dearly love. Listen to him!” Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. (Common English Bible)
The transfiguration of Christ was a glorious experience on the mountain for those closest to Jesus. Yet, we are told that Peter, James, and John – the inner circle of Christ’s disciples – were terribly frightened.
Peter, always the extrovert of the group, and forever their mouthpiece, nervously babbled-on without making any sense because he was so nervous and afraid.
Have you ever wondered why Jesus would take three of his disciples with him to experience such an incredible vision? Why did Jesus show these men something so otherworldly that they nearly soiled themselves?
I will tell you why I think Jesus put his close disciples in such a glorious, yet frightening, position as this:
Because the only way to see Jesus as our only hope, we must face our fears, insecurities, and anxieties, squarely, without hiding from them.
Jesus did not relieve their anxiety. He let his disciples feel the full impact of their fear. The glory of Christ shone show brightly that Peter, James, and John could not hide from what was happening to them, and could not avoid what was in their minds and hearts.
Only through shining the light on the shadowy place of our fears and insecurities will we ever be able to accept that we need a savior. And that savior is Jesus, the light of the world, the Lord over fear, anxiety, and discouragement.
The invitation which Christ extends to us is to move further into our fears, face those fears, and sit awhile with our fears, so that we can see how desperately we need the Savior Jesus.
No one seeks a savior when they don’t even believe they need deliverance from anything. “I’m just fine, thank you very much!” says the independently self-sufficient person among us. To seek salvation, for such a person, is an intensely personal affair; they will look within, not without. It will take quite the desperate situation for them to consult someone who knows the ways of the soul.
But the one who sees what is truly inside of them, and is aware of their fear of connection; the scary prospect of confrontation; the anxiety of what will happen; or, the discouragement of failure; this is the one who is then able to hear the voice of God, and listen to Jesus give the answer to our most pressing life issues, worries, and concerns.
Jesus Christ wants to change us from the inside-out. He helps us by showing us not to avoid the fears which cause us to be beside ourselves, but instead, to face those fears and confront the anxieties within.
The bright light of God’s presence enables us to see very clearly all that is within us. And Christ’s intimate relationship with us assures us that change is possible. Then, the Holy Spirit comes and empowers us for transformation, so that we may shine, along with Jesus, and let the light help others, as well.
You and I are never alone; we always have the glorious presence of Christ with us as we walk through dark valleys and ascend high mountains.
It is the wonderful existence and omnipresence of God, in Christ, through the Spirit, which makes all the difference. We were created for connection with the divine, not for separation and loneliness in our fears.
Glorious Christ, you love me with a grace and mercy which always has my best interests in mind. Help me through my most pressing fears and failures so that I might see your glory, hear your voice, and know your constant presence. Amen.
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.
They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations…
“For I, the Lord, love justice; I hate robbery and wrongdoing. In my faithfulness I will reward my people and make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed.”
I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations. (New International Version)
This section of Isaiah’s prophecy looks forward to a better day. After centuries of downward spiraling into disobedience, the people found themselves on hard times.
In the prophet’s day, God’s people and their lives needed to be rebuilt, restored, and renewed; they needed salvation and deliverance; and the good news of healing, freedom, and comfort.
The proclamation of the year of the Lord’s favor is a reference to the Old Testament command to practice the year of Jubilee. The Jubilee was to occur every fiftieth year of Israel’s existence in the Promised Land. For forty-nine years there were individuals and families that would incur debt; indenture themselves into servitude in order to survive; perhaps land in a debtor’s prison; and, work hard in the fields that they once owned.
The Jubilee Year, by Yoram Raanan
These were, indeed, hard times. But after the forty-nine years, on the fiftieth year, the debts were erased; slaves were freed; fields allowed to rest; and, the land restored back to its original owners.
God’s deliverance is not only spiritual, but also very tangible and real. Salvation is not just otherworldly, merely looking forward to the end of the age; there’s also the anticipation of transformation here and now.
The recipients of good news are those who are in bad circumstances. God turns toward the oppressed, the brokenhearted, the captives, the prisoners, those who mourn, and the faint of spirit. God really does have a special concern for the lowly and the weak.
It’s significant to note that, Israel as a whole, found themselves in need – not because they were victims of adverse situations – but because they failed to obey the stipulations of their covenant with God.
For example, we have no evidence that the Israelites actually even practiced the Jubilee. By the time fifty years came down the pike, after God gave them the Promised Land, they had slid so far down the spiritual drain that it was completely off their radar to practice a Jubilee.
It seems no one had any intention of forgiving debts, freeing their indentured servants, giving back the land to original owners, and providing the land itself with a well-deserved Sabbath rest.
To not practice the Jubilee was to rob people of their land and be unjust to them. Yet, God loves justice and hates robbery. God pays attention to those who are not getting their very real and tangible needs met. So, God speaks words of hope and deliverance for those in circumstances beyond their ability to cope with.
The first few verses of today’s Old Testament lesson are the words that Jesus turned to and read in the synagogue when he began his earthly ministry. Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of this promise to deliver and provide. He came to usher in a Jubilee celebration that would have no end.
It may be easy to overlook these verses, believing that they don’t pertain to us. Gentiles are under no obligation to practice a Jubilee. After all, many people are blessed, both material and spiritual. Furthermore, we can always identify persons who are in much more need than we are.
And yet, it’s important to recognize that the maladies of our hearts are very real. There are specific conditions in our lives that leave us in bondage and in need of restoration, renewal, and revitalization, just like the Israelites of old.
Therefore, we must not suppress those realities and those needs, but name the conditions which are packed away in a closet of our heart deep inside us, such as:
the love of things and money
severed relationships
old grudges
hidden addictions
domestic violence
denial of depression
secret affairs
fear and anxiety
anger and hatred
hoarding of resources and greed
Outward smiles and small talk conversations may hide the truth from others, but they do nothing to hide ourselves from a God for whom everything is laid bare.
The good news is not just for someone else who has “obvious” needs. The gospel must touch our lives and bring us freedom, so that we can pass on good news to the legion of social ills that make our world sick.
There are people all around us who need spiritual and emotional, mental and material help. Yet we will not have eyes to see them, or hearts to help them, if we ourselves stuff our burdens so deep within that we are blind and unable to see others.
What’s more, on the other hand, we may too easily misread these verses in a manner it was never intended to be heard, as if we are more in need than we actually are:
“The Lord’s Spirit of consumer choices is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the middle-class. He has sent me to bind up the half-hearted, to proclaim more options for the limited, and release from Black Friday for the buyers, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s Cyber-Monday.”
We may not be so crass as to say this out loud, but we might tend to misinterpret Bible passages, so as to avoid our own great poverty of heart.
And when we become expert at stuffing our emotions and our needs, we then fail to see the year of Jubilee. We may believe that other people, “those people,” need Isaiah’s words. However, we are also in need of the year of Jubilee.
The truth for many is that they are either one paycheck, one prodigal kid, one mental health diagnosis, one serious illness, one drink, one affair, or one bad decision away from being one of “those people” – the people we typically identify as in need – the ones that bad things happen to – the ones we do not want to live next door to us.
We may not yet be vulnerable enough to admit our situation; and so, we keep practicing the denial of our spiritual poverty. Everyone is brokenhearted about something or someone, such as:
a wayward son or daughter
an unfulfilled dream
a lost relationship
a difficult illness or health diagnosis
a crisis situation
In addition, everybody is in bondage to something we would rather not admit; everyone needs renewal and restoration.
What should we do? Where are we to turn?
Let’s turn from the things that have caused us to be in poverty and in prison, and delight in the Lord our God. Rejoice in the Lord.
God will make a sprout come up, and cause it to grow.
God will rebuild our ruined souls.
God will restore the places of our lives that have been devastated.
God will even renew the places that have not seen renewal for generations.
It begins with you and me allowing the justice of God to work within us, and not only for other people.
God cannot bring comfort to those who do not mourn; the Lord cannot turn grief into joy if there is no acknowledgment of a dire situation. To be an oak of righteousness, there must be a confession of despair and an allowance of the justice of God through Jesus Christ to work its way completely through us.
Let the Lord replace a head of grief with a crown of beauty. Let God place a garment of praise to replace the stinky clothes of grumbling. And, in this season of Advent, herald the coming of the Christ child as the hope of us all, to the glory of God. Amen.
“When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation.” (New Living Translation)
Nature abhors a vacuum. A tilled plot of soil will be overtaken with weeds if nothing is planted and nurtured in the turned-over dirt.
The pecking order of a brood of chickens cannot handle the death of the top hen without filling the position almost immediately.
In the spiritual realm, the exorcising of a demon will not simply leave a person empty of evil – their life will be filled with something in its place.
Jesus told a story about a man who was delivered from an unclean (evil) spirit. It’s a powerful and simple narrative on the necessity of true repentance, that is, on what a real change of life is like.
Genuine freedom is more than getting rid of something bad and destructive; the evil must be replaced with something good and useful. In other words, biblical repentance, a true transformation of a person, is both a turning away from ungodliness and an embrace of righteousness.
We are delivered from evil so that we can start living into right and peaceful relationships, as God intends for us.
For example, the Apostle Paul exhorted the Ephesian believers to not only stop stealing but also to get a job and start sharing with others. They were not only to stop lying and using their tongues for gossip and slander and start using their words to speak truth that builds up others. (Ephesians 4:25-32)
The spiritual principle is the same as the nature principle: A empty vacuum will always be filled. The man who did not fill his life with God ended up having a problem with evil seven times greater than when he started. If anything, or anyone, is emptied of its unhealthy elements and practices, it is imperative that the hole be immediately filled with healthy disciplines for life.
Whether dealing with addictions, bad habits, or any kind of evil influence, a two-pronged approach is needed for its eradication. We expel the evil by replacing it with godliness.
For example, the man struggling with pornography or adultery must not only stop the behavior but take up the mantle of being a champion for women’s issues; or the woman who has no healthy boundaries and allows herself to be used and abused must not only separate from the problem or person but adopt her identity in Christ as a precious child of God and enforce righteous limitations.
These examples are not meant to be simplistic answers to complex situations. Rather, they illustrate why so many people do not experience freedom and continue to have even greater enslavement to their passions and sufferings. Freedom is realized through replacing old practices with new disciplines that directly attack the old.
We all have needs. How we get those needs met is often a mixed bag of both legitimate and illegitimate ways. In a perfect world, everyone would be aware of their needs and be able to express them to one another without shame, anxiety, or anger. Since we live on a blemished fallen planet, we end up trying to meet our needs indirectly through hustling for love, hoarding resources, and controlling others – all harmful ways which destroys souls and relationships.
In order to focus on meeting our needs in a wise and healthy manner, we must take a step beyond ending a toxic relationship, cutting up a credit card, or saying “no” to another responsibility. We often get into our mess to begin with because we are out of touch with ourselves and our needs. We need affection and encouragement, and there is no shame in needing this. We need security and safety, and there is no problem in acquiring this. There are some things we need to control, and that is okay.
If we fail to address our needs, we might do the necessary work of deliverance, then turn right around and become worse off than before by filling the empty place of our lives with:
Being all things to all people, as if we were the Messiah.
Being successful so that we stay ahead of being needy.
Pulling inside ourselves and trusting nobody.
Distancing from our needs and pretending they are not there.
Being continually vigilant so that we are never hurt that way again.
Keeping a positive spin on everything, as if there is no negative stuff in the world.
Challenging other’s opinions and behaviors to keep the focus off our needs.
Becoming a wallflower so that we can never be the brunt of someone else’s vitriol or evil.
Instead, we can let Jesus fill the emptiness with love, purpose, peace, joy, attention, and grace. Christ is the Savior who delivers us from evil, and the Holy Spirit is the Sanctifier who carefully applies the work of salvation to our lives. When our hearts and minds are full of God, there is no place for the demons to get in.
True change and transformation equally forsakes evil and embraces righteousness; replaces the unhealthy with the healthy; jettisons the illegitimate and seeks the legitimate; and puts away unnecessary suffering and pursues peace and joy in the Spirit.
O God, I no longer want to live with saying I’m sorry and going right back to the old pig slop of sin. I cannot change on my own. I need Jesus to both take away the sin and give me a new life of living for him. Help me to make choices that put to death the old way of life, and the courage to live into my forgiveness in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (New International Version)
Everyone sees things (and people) only in part. We all have our own unique perspective and take on life. And we interpret life from that particular angle.
God has brought us new life, and with it, a new outlook on life, made possible by the person and work of Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul gained a new orientation on his life because he encountered God’s love through Jesus Christ. And his experience of love caused Paul to live for Christ and not for himself. He gained a new perspective.
Conversion to Christ and following Jesus brings a new outlook on life that enables us to live a good and beautiful existence on this earth for the sake of the church and the world.
God brings a new outlook to us in three major ways. The way we look at ourselves, others, and God:
No longer do we need to compulsively demean ourselves, nor think of ourselves as better than we really are. Instead, encountering a new life in Christ, we see that we are truly loved by God and worthy of giving and receiving love. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!… This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. (1 John 3:1, 16, NIV)
No longer do we view others as tools to take advantage of; and neither do we look merely at one’s outward appearance. Instead, experiencing new life helps us to see other people as spiritual persons, important to God and needing divine love, just like us. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. (1 John 4:10-12, NIV)
No longer do we view Christ as merely a good teacher or a moral man. Instead, our new life gives us the lenses of seeing Jesus as Savior and Lord. This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:13-18, NIV)
With new life comes a new perspective that results in a new way of life. I was once walking with my late mother-in-law through an art museum. We came upon a piece of art that didn’t necessarily speak to me; and I really didn’t understand it. But my mother-in-law happened to know the artist who painted the picture. And she told me about the person, why she painted it, and what she was trying to convey with her art. This information completely changed the way I saw the painting.
As we progressively get to know God, it really ought to transform how we view the Lord and look at Holy Scripture. And when we discover God in Christ, we see a caring Lord who went out of the way to become one of us, become the pioneer of our salvation, and bring about redemption and reconciliation through an ignominious death on a cross.
God has deliberately sought us and brought us back into the divine dance through Christ – which is why we celebrate. And the highest form of celebration is imitation, that is, becoming ambassadors representing who Jesus is by being just like him.
We imitate Christ through our relationships. Whenever we act with humility, mourn over the world’s sin, deal with others according to grace and gentleness, seek right relationships and keep everything above board, are pure, merciful, and peacemaking in all our dealings, and love and pray for our enemies – then we are encountering God, imitating Christ, and living a new life from a new vantagepoint.
Because Christians have been reconciled to God through Jesus, it transforms how we see people and our desires in our relationships with them; and it changes our stance and perspective on the God who initiated and brought salvation and reconciliation to us. I want to:
Grow in a relationship with God through worship, prayer, and scripture reading
Grow in relationships with other Christians in fellowship, service, and love
Grow in relationships with my neighbors and everyone I encounter, to be an ambassador for Jesus, as if God were working through me to accomplish the compassionate loving of the world and demonstrating how to live a blessed and peaceful life.
In finding our true spiritual home, we find life. There’s nothing quite like being able to live a peaceful existence because of God’s reconciling work in Christ on our behalf.
Lord God, bring us together as one, reconciled with you and reconciled with each other. You made us in your likeness, and you gave us your Son, Jesus Christ. Enable us to know you and one another in the spirit of grace and love. Amen.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 
