Have you ever been on a camping trip when all it did was rain? Everything you owned was muddy and moldy and musty by the time you got back home. I recall spending ten days in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota and Canada on a hundred-mile canoe trip. It was late September. As it will do in late September in the Boundary Waters, it rained. And it rained. And it rained. It rained nine of the ten days we were in that special part of God’s country. We were so soaked that our skin was soggy. But on that second to the last day, when the clouds parted, and the sun made its debut, it made it all worthwhile. If I hadn’t been a Christian, I’d have become a sun-worshiper right then and there. The sun made all the difference in the world. It made the whole trip enjoyable. It made us forget all the rain. I guess, in a way, I am a Son-worshiper. We all are. We worship the Son of God. And the Son does make all the difference in the world…and out of this world. Despite all the cloudy and rainy days in our lives…GOD’S SON IS SHINING
1. Through God’s Workers
Let’s go up an isolated mountain in Israel to witness a rather remarkable event. A very unusual thing happened up there on that mountain: Jesus was transfigured. God’s Son Was Shining. His face and clothes were shining like the sun in the sky. Momentarily the glory, which Jesus had voluntarily set aside to undertake His divine rescue mission, was restored. The Transfiguration recharged His spiritual batteries for the ordeal that lay ahead. Jesus was literally shining.
Peter, James, and John – Jesus’ inner circle of disciples and His closest comrades and confidantes – were granted a glimpse of God’s great glory at the Transfiguration. They were being prepared to weather the storms that were looming on the horizon as Jesus began His death march toward Jerusalem. They needed to see God’s Son shining in a blaze of glory up there on that mountain because it wouldn’t be very long before those three found themselves on another mountain. There they would not see a blaze but, at best, a flickering flame. That mountain, of course, was the Mount of Olives in the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was never more intensely human, where He told His disciples: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.” They needed to see God’s Son shining up there on that Mount of Transfiguration because shortly after Gethsemane’s grief would come grim Golgotha’s gore – yet another mountain – and this time, the flickering flame was seemingly doused entirely, as God’s Son was eclipsed.
They needed to see God’s Son shining for yet another reason: the torch would soon be handed to them. After Jesus had returned to His heavenly glory, it would be up to them to keep the Son shining in a darkening world. Remember the parting words of God’s Ascending Son to His disciples: “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Peter was doing precisely that. He was speaking as an eyewitness and an earwitness of that spectacular event on the Mount of Transfiguration: “We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” Peter was not fabricating any fables or spinning any yarns. He was playing the role of a reporter, bringing us a firsthand report. Eyewitness news. He was there!
He not only saw the glory of God, but he also heard the voice of God: “For He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.’ We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with Him on the sacred mountain.” John spoke the same way about His mountaintop experience: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched -- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard.”
These apostles were God’s spokesmen, letting the Son shine through them as they spoke and wrote of what they saw and heard. They were doing what the prophets of old had done. However, the prophets had only shadows of the Real Thing, but the apostles had the Real Thing, the Shadow-caster Himself, Jesus Christ, to point to and speak about: “And we have the word of the prophets made more certain, and you will do well to pay attention to it.” The prophets saw only the hope; the apostles saw the hope fulfilled. The prophets saw only the promise; the apostles saw the promise kept. While the Son was shining in the Old Testament, it never shone with the intensity that it was now shining through the apostles.
God’s Son has not stopped shining even though a couple of millennia have intervened. He has continued to shine, sometimes only a shimmering ray due to man’s obstructions and eclipses; at other times a bright beacon, where those obstructions and eclipses were removed by reformations. But He has never stopped shining on a world darkened by sin. He does His shining through His workers now, even as He did then. His workers are none other than His pastors, His teachers, and His people.
Across our land, the Son is shining from countless pulpits, platforms, and places like Crean Lutheran High School. Unfortunately, clouds of rationalism and humanism dim the Son’s bright rays in many places. By the grace of God, the Son is and will remain undimmed from this place here at Crean Lutheran. We say with Paul: “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified...so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” The Son must shine from Crean Lutheran’s pulpit so that, in turn, it can shine from each of your pulpits: your homes, your jobs, and your neighborhoods. Christians never step out of their pulpits. They are always preaching by what they do and say – either a positive or a negative sermon. Saints, keep that Son shining in your lives so that others may see the light of the Son shining forth from you. God’s Son is Shining Through God’s Workers because we know that God’s Son is Shining…
II. Through God’s Word
By human standards, Jesus’ ministry was a flop. He never gathered more than a fickle following. He left no congregation behind – only a ragtag handful of disciples. Thank goodness we don’t have to judge Jesus’ ministry by human standards because He gave us something much more significant than a large congregation. He gave us His Word. Peter has a few things to say about that Word: “You will do well to pay attention to it.” Then he tells us why: “Pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” The Word is a lamp that shines in our dark world, darkened to a pitch black by sin. But that Word lights up our path and shows us the Way through this life to Life Eternal, pointing out the obstacles, detours, and roadblocks and helping us avoid them altogether or make it through them when they come our way.
There are many dark moments in life, but the soft glow of the lamp of God’s Word comforts us because the Son shines through that Word. That’s why it’s so vital to know God’s Word, to read it, to revere it; to learn it, to love it; to memorize it, to meditate on it, because God’s Son is Shining through it. Saints, do you see why it is so critical that you become every week attenders at your church and every day contenders for the truth of God’s Word?
We’re putting a lot of weight on God’s Word — a lot of weight. Everything is riding on it. What if it gives? What if it bends? What if it breaks? What then? Don’t worry; it won’t give; the only thing it’ll give is eternal salvation. It won’t bend; the only thing it’ll bend is our stubborn will to be more like God’s will. It won’t break; the only thing it’ll break is Satan’s grip on us. Peter tells us why we can be sure: “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, but men spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.”
See why can we so confidently say that God’s Son is Shining through God’s Word – precisely because it is God’s Word. God’s Word, not man’s. God is the Author of the Bible, not man. Even as Jesus was born miraculously by the conception of the Holy Spirit within the womb of a sinner named Mary, the Scriptures were born miraculously through the work of the Holy Spirit within the lives of sinful men. The Spirit is responsible for the very thoughts and words contained in the Bible. No mere man could have done it.
God had to be the Author of the Bible. Consider the chances of a book written by a single human author being 100% accurate. Now consider that the Bible is a Book containing 66 books, written by over 40 men over a period of 1500 years. And there is not a single contradiction in Scripture. The OT fits into the NT and the NT into the OT like a hand into a glove. It had to be inspired by God. After reading this Saturday Devotion, suppose all of us were to write a short summary of it. Do you realize how many different versions and contradictions we’d get? And we are all reading exactly the same thing at pretty much the same moment in history. We have to agree with Timothy: “All Scripture is God-breathed.”
Since the Bible is God’s Word and God’s Work, that also makes it inerrant because God is truth. John says: “Your Word is truth.” That allows for only one way to interpret Scripture. We’ll let Luther tell us: “The Holy Spirit Himself must expound Scripture. Otherwise it must remain unexpounded.” In other words, let Scripture interpret Scripture. Let God speak for Himself. We cannot put words into God’s mouth. We cannot inject our foolish futile reason into our understanding of Scripture. We must let God be God. And where Scripture is silent, we must be silent as well.
Since the Bible is God’s inspired and inerrant Word, we can be sure that God’s Son will shine through that Word. Peter says to pay attention to that Word through which the Son shines: “Pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” God’s Son is Shining through the Word to light up our hearts and lives.
Through God’s Word, we get glimpses of God’s glory that give us strength for the journey. Those glimpses of glory help us navigate the road ahead, which, as you well know, isn’t always easy to follow. It’s even harder to follow when we are facing the pelting downpours and the buffeting headwinds of cares and concerns, pleasures and problems, sicknesses and sadnesses, or anything at all that brings dark shadows over our paths and makes our journey difficult and dangerous.
A little Son for the trip sure does help, doesn’t it? Amen.
