Life, Death and Resurrection, a Foretaste of What’s to Come / Luke 9:29-31 / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday March 2nd 2025 / Transfiguration Sunday / Mount Olive Lutheran Church

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday March 2nd 2025: Transfiguration Sunday / Luke 9:29-31 “Life, Death and Resurrection, a Foretaste of What’s to Come”

Now about eight days after these sayings [Jesus] took with Him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as He was praying, the appearance of His face was altered, and His clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with Him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of His departure, which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and those who were with Him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw His glory and the two men who stood with Him. And as the men were parting from Him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!” And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all are hearts be acceptable in Your sight O, Lord. Amen.

Grace, peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: Good Christian friends, you don’t suggest making a tent for a ghost: today we start with the prophets Moses and Elijah but we finish with Jesus upon the Cross.

First the Old Testament prophet Elijah a man who received an unexpected gift: Elijah is one of just two people[1] recorded in Scripture to have left this life without dying a mortal death. This dramatic moment is described like this: “behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated [Elijah from his disciple Elisha]. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.”[2] With this Elijah was taken in the flesh to be with the Lord to dwell in the promised heavenly paradise in a way we are not. And even though Elijah had had a remarkable life dotted with miraculous events—like the raising of the dead to the glory of God—Scripture also teaches us that “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours,”[3] so we need to remember that what Elijah received by being whisked away into heaven wasn’t his by some special virtue that he personally possessed, what Elijah received truly was an unexpected gift from God, given to him for a purpose, not as a reward for good works.

Now Moses: Our Old Testament reading finds the prophet Moses standing on a mountain top, but not the same mountain top from our Gospel Reading in the Gospel of Saint Luke. The Mountain Moses was standing on was Mount Nebo in the land of Moab just outside of the Promised Land. At this point Moses is an old man, but in good physical shape for being 120 years old – we’re told his eyes had not dimmed and he could still climb a mountain. 40 years earlier God had spoken to the then eighty year old Moses from the burning bush as Moses was tending his sheep. The LORD had command that eighty year old Moses to bring the Hebrew people out from their slavery in Egypt, so Moses was compelled to return to the land of his youth and the royal court of Pharaoh, the very place he had run from after committing murder there when he was around forty years old.[4] And it was the same Moses who, at God’s command, brought forth the ten plagues against Egypt and who parted the Red Sea for their escape, the same Moses who saw the great and mighty LORD of hosts manifest in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. The same Moses who had then received the Law, the Ten Commandments from God upon yet a diffident mountain Mount Sinai, and now in Our Old Testament Reading Moses stands on Mount Nebo, right up on the pinnacle, right up on Pisgah. And after 40 years of waiting in the wilderness because the people would not trust God, they were all finally about to cross into the Promised Land; the Land promised to Abraham, the land Moses was told to bring the children of Israel to.

For the first time Moses sees with his own eyes that Promised Land which God had been working to bring His people to. From a human perspective this was the fruit of Moses’ labours, the long expected fulfillment of everything Moses had likewise been working for over those forty years and he could see it, it was so vivid Moses could almost taste it. Of course, even though the prophet Moses had had a remarkable life dotted with miraculous events, Moses had not arrived at that day without the grace of God who brought him safely there to the top of Mount Nebo. It wasn’t by Moses’ work or faithfulness, it was by the work and faithfulness of the LORD; and it was the voice of the LORD that broke the silences saying to Moses, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob … I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not go over there.”[5] And with that Moses died in the land of Moab on that mountain seemingly so close to the fulfillment of the promise and yet so far very, very away.

Have you ever felt that way? Everything seems to be pointing in one direction. You are ready, prepared; you have waited so long – then suddenly the plans seems to change in an instance – it seems like God has changed His mind and your plans have changed along with His. So, on the one hand we have poor Moses standing there seeing the Promised Land and being told that he would not go over there and on the other hand we have Elijah whose days in this life are unexpectedly cut short, yet not in a sad or tragic way but rather in a uniquely amazing way. Elijah had had a day of deep darkness where he had begged the LORD for death[6] but God had other plans for Elijah and that death didn’t happen, in his prayer Elijah would have had no idea that some twenty years later he would escape death upon a chariot of fire whisked up to heaven in a whirlwind.   

We often say God answers prayer in one of three ways, “Yes, No, or Not Yet,” yet sometimes we could say His answer might be, “You have no idea what I the LORD Your God am about to do! It is beyond your imagination” That said, how do you feel when the LORD answers “No” or “Not Yet” to your prayer? Disappointed? Yes? When this happens the devil would like you to feel abandoned. He would like us to feel as though God has given us over to Satan and forsaken us.

Here is some remarkable comfort. When the great prophet Moses died three things happened right afterward;

1) First: even though it seemed like the LORD had abandoned poor Moses – taking Moses right to the edge of the Promised Land, then leaving him there to die – this was not the case. Unlike Elijah Moses was not taken up into heaven in his body before his death there was no fiery chariot to take Moses away, even still Scripture does tell us what happened next, and it is in some ways just as remarkable. Saint Jude in his little letter (you can find it right before the book of Revelation at the end of your Bibles) tells that the Archangel Michael fought with the devil, contended with Satan for the physical body of Moses.[7]

2) Second: even though Moses died there God did not abandon Moses on that Mountaintop. In fact our Old Testament reading from Deuteronomy tells us that God Himself buried Moses in the valley of Moab.[8] After the devil was driven away by the LORD’s servant, the Archangel Michael, Moses was taken down from the mountain by the LORD and laid to rest by His Almighty hand.

Dear ones, the God that Moses served and believed in, the one that we worship here today, the one and only true God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – took special personal interest in the life of Moses and He takes a special and personal interest in your life and He extends to you the same grace and love and concern. When you pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “deliver us from evil,” He sends His Holy angels to protect you in the same way He sent the Archangel Michael to protect Moses, even in death.

Now you might be asking yourself how this all fits into the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus?  This should come clear with our third point.

3) Third: This third point is again greatly miraculous and comforting for each of us as Christians. The third thing that our Triune God does for Moses is something He will do for you too. You see, even though the Book of Deuteronomy says that in Israel there had not arisen a prophet like Moses following Moses’ death, Moses did not receive special treatment in this next part. First Moses received the promise of being saved by God through the coming messiah; the same promise of resurrection that all the Old Testament people who waited for the coming messiah receive because of their faith.[9] Moses received his promised resurrection.

But why do Elijah and Moses physically arrive that day upon the mountain peak? Think on it: clearly by the end of our Old Testament reading this morning Moses is dead, and clearly Moses is alive in our Gospel reading. And by contrast Moses stands with one who was taken to heaven without death. Picture it, our Lord Jesus as He stand on the mount of Transfiguration, with His face and clothing dazzling like lightning filled with heavenly glory, is flanked on one side by Elijah who did not taste death and on the other side by a dead man, Moses, made alive in his resurrection. And this all happens before Jesus goes to the cross of His crucifixion; and why: as encouragement for what is to come.   

The meeting of these three men is the crucial turning point. It is after this experience on the mountain top that Jesus turns toward Jerusalem where He knows that He will be going to His suffering and death. After this transfiguration Jesus sets His face like flint, comes down off the mountain top and goes forward into danger for us, so that we like Moses can be raised from the dead to new life with Jesus in heaven. 

At the cross Jesus would forgive every sin that Moses ever committed against Him. Every sin that you have ever committed is forgiven along with all of Moses’ sins as Jesus hung upon the cross, even Moses’ sin of murder, even your most horrible of sins. Saint Luke in his Gospel writes, “two men were talking with [Jesus], Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of [Jesus’] departure, which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”[10] Moses and Elijah were there in their glory to talk to Jesus about His cross and passion, about His crucifixion and death, and burial about His Easter morning resurrection from the dead.

How wondrous it is that Jesus, who Saint Paul later explains is the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep, the firstfruits the dead[11]  the first to be resurrected – the very source of all resurrection – stands on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses who is to be counted amongst the resurrected.[12] Moses standing there with Jesus before Jesus was crown with thorns, before even one nail was driven into Jesus’ hands and feet, before Jesus was lifted up upon the cross is a perfect example of the term retroactive. We know only too well how often we live in the present with the outcome of the poor choices we made in the past, and how we will live in the future with the consequences of our sinful actions today. That all points forward and that’s not how retroactivity works: the term retroactive refers to something happening now that affects the past. Or in the case of Jesus’ death upon the cross and His resurrection from the dead how the outcome and consequences of this pivotal event affected not only the day in which it took place but also the past (straight the way back through to before the beginning of time) and then you can leave retroactivity as it impacts the future (all the way forward to our time and to The Last Day and to the time beyond The End of Time). Moses standing there with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration is counted as a recipient of the resurrection we will all experience on The Last Day: Moses is foretaste of our shared resurrection in Christ Jesus.     

This means when Jesus raised the widow of Nain’s son[13] and Lazarus from the dead[14] and when the prophet Elijah raised the widow of Zarephath’s son[15] back in the days of the Old Testament these were not resurrections in the final sense because these people lived out their lives and eventually would died again – their being raised from the dead was a foretaste of The Last Day, what they experienced simply pointed forward to that coming Easter Morning resurrection of Jesus: The one that made resurrection possible for us all, the one that made Moses’ eternal resurrection possible, the one that makes your eternal resurrection on The Last Day possible. 

From this you can take great comfort that when you die and The Last Day comes, you like Moses, will have your resurrected body and it will be glorious. Moses didn’t come back as a ghost, he had his resurrected body. You don’t suggest making a tent for a ghost. 

But more than this, some people worry that they might not be able to recognize their loved ones in heaven once they get there, if everyone is so changed. Today’s Gospel reading gives you a very comforting answer to this question: Saint Peter and Saint John and Saint James were there with Jesus when the prophets Moses and Elijah showed up. And what does Saint Peter say? Does he say ‘Who’re these men with you Jesus?’ No, Peter says “Master it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Even though Saint Peter had never seen the prophets Moses or Elijah; and they had no photography or sculptures or paintings of these men Peter knew them and could name them: isn’t this wonderful. Why would it not be this way for us and for all the faithful resurrected and gathered together in the new heavens and the new earth in paradise?    

To wrap everything up: Jesus far exceeded both Elijah and Moses as a prophet, as amazing as Elijah and Moses are by the grace of God, Jesus is more amazing still. Here’s one last detail regarding the account of the Transfiguration: remember earlier when I said God answers prayers by saying either “Yes, No or Not Yet,” or even “You have no idea what I the LORD Your God am about to do! It is beyond your imagination,” consider this, Moses stands looking out from a mountain in Moab  he can see the Promised Land but he is not allowed to go there and he dies, God protects his dead body and buries him. When Moses comes from heaven in his eternal resurrected body to speak with Jesus about Jesus’ cross and passion where does that take place? It takes place in the Promised Land, the same Promised Land he was not able to go into in life, Moses in his resurrection from the dead is granted to go into that Promised Land in his new life in Christ Jesus. What amazing grace Jesus gives to those He loves. Whether it is sooner or later you too can look forward with assurance that you will be with Jesus in the heavenly Promised Land in all the glory of your resurrected body. Dear ones remember what Saint Paul says, “All the promises of God find their Yes in [Christ Jesus]. That is why it is through [His Son Jesus] that we utter our Amen to God for His glory.”[16]

The peculiar account of the Transfiguration of our Lord that we celebrate today reminds us that death is no longer a barrier for us to fear, we need not worry that God will abandon us at our death. And while you likely won’t experience a direct translation into heaven without experiencing death via the fiery chariots as the prophet Elijah did – unless of course you happen to be alive on The Day of Jesus’ Second Coming on The Last Day[17] – you can rest assured that like the prophet Moses you will find new life in the resurrection of your body in Christ Jesus. Either way you are in the best of hands. Jesus went to His cross knowing what the outcome would look like, what enduring the suffering would win.  

Now, as we turn towards the Season of Lent, as we turn towards the cross with Jesus, as we walk down from the Mount of Transfiguration we do not walk that path alone. This new path leads to the blessed crest of Mount Calvary where our sins, and every transgression have been washed away in the blood of Christ Jesus and now we can keep in our hearts the words of God our heavenly Father to Saint Peter and Saint John and Saint James, when He said, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him.”

And what is it that Jesus says that we should listen to today? Dear ones remember this comforting exchange between Jesus and the thief on the cross when “[the thief crucified there with Christ] said, “Jesus remember me in Your kingdom.” [And] Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in paradise.”[18] This promise is for all who believe; it was for the prophet Elijah, it was for the prophet Moses and it is for you. Amen.

Let us pray:
">Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
Amen.”

[1] The other is Enoch the great, great grandfather of Noah, father of Methuselah; Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:15
[2] 2 Kings 2:11 
[3] James 5:17
[4] Exodus 2:11-22
[5] Deuteronomy 34:4
[6] 1 Kings 19
[7] Jude verse 9
[8] Deuteronomy 34:6
[9] Job 19:26–27, “And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!”
[10] Luke 9:30-31
[11] 1 Corinthians 15:20
[12] Christian Dogmatics, Volume III, (Eschatology, or The Last Things), F. Pieper, Concordia Publishing House 1953, Pg 515. 
[13] Luke 7:11-17
[14] John 11:1-44
[15] 1 Kings 17:17-24
[16] 2 Corinthians 1:20
[17] 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:17
[18] Luke 23: 42-43

Photo Credit: triptych montage of Camille Bellanger - Esquisse pour l'église de Dugny , La Transfiguration , La Résurrection du Christ from getarchive.