The Glorious Presence of Jesus; Psalm 97, Matthew 17:1-13

Someone said that the Transfiguration of Jesus is the opposite of the Wizard of Oz. In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy peels back the curtain to reveal not a great and powerful wizard, but an ordinary, even someone weak person. He is a sham without power. The reaction is not only disappointment, but disgust. At Jesus’s transfiguration, Jesus is shown to be more powerful, more glorious than Peter, James, and John could have ever imagined. A cloud comes over Jesus, not to obscure Him, but to further reveal His identity as the Beloved Son of God who is to be obeyed. The reaction to seeing Jesus as truly great and powerful is bewilderment, fear and trembling, and worship. The glorious presence of Jesus is no disappointment! The Transfiguration is unique in the life of Jesus, which is why we remember it every year. In this story, we get to see Jesus in all His glory and divinity, which the Son had before He was born as a baby. In Psalm 97, we see that this is the same glory Yahweh holds, further showing us that Jesus is indeed God. The Transfiguration gives us a glimpse of what our risen and ascended Lord is like as well. It’s interesting that Jesus tells the disciples not to speak of what happened on the mountain until “after the Son of Man is risen from the dead.” They didn’t even have clue then what Jesus was talking about—rising from the dead? What’s that? Only after the fact did they understand. Psalm 97 begins with the emphatic “Yahweh reigns!” We know that Jesus now reigns over all the earth from heaven and rejoice that Jesus is King. Verse 2 mentions clouds and great darkness surrounding the Lord. We have a cloud in our gospel reading as well. This is not a dark cloud, but a bright cloud. The psalm doesn’t say the clouds are dark either. The glory of God is so bright that everything else is dark in comparison. The bright cloud at the Transfiguration obscured the presence of God the Father, but it is the place from which the Father speaks. The disciples were frightened by the cloud and fell on their faces until Jesus touches them and tells them not to be afraid. The glorious presence of Jesus exposes all darkness. The light of the Lord exposes the sinful darkness within us. As we approach Him, we become more and more aware of our darkness, but He also comes to us and tells us not to fear. Darkness exposed by the light can be healed. Jesus removes our darkness from us and calls us to live in the light. We do that by staying close to Jesus, who is the light. This leads us to the end of Psalm 97—verses 10 and following. Here we read that the Lord preserves the souls of His saints and delivers us out of the hands of the wicked. Light and gladness are sown for us, so we always have a reason to rejoice and give thanks. Did you notice in the gospel reading that Jesus talks about His resurrection before He talks about His impending suffering? Here again, the light outshines the darkness, and the Lord cannot be defeated. The darkness exposed and overcome is the darkness of suffering. In our own dark suffering, we must remember that resurrection—life and light—lies beyond the darkness, and that Jesus is with us even in our darkness for He never leaves us nor forsakes us. His glorious presence is with us always. In fact, the word “sown” used in Psalm 97 implies this very thing according to Dr. William Barrick, who says, “God causes joy-filled blessings to sprout in the midst of the darkest times to show He cares for us.” Seeds are planted in the darkness of the soil, but burst forth in the light. The light of Jesus’s presence causes good things to grow out of the darkness of our lives. The Transfiguration also gives us a glimpse of how the glorious presence of Jesus will be when He returns. In our gospel reading, the disciples somehow know that what they have seen of Jesus has something to do with Messiah’s return and the coming Kingdom of God. We know this because they ask Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” They have just seen Elijah and wonder if this appearance is the one foretold by the prophets. Jesus does not connect this appearance of Elijah with that event, but tells them in effect that what the prophets spoke of had already happened through the ministry of John the Baptist. Much in Psalm 97 also describes how we will see Jesus at His second coming, referred to by the apostle Paul in Titus as “the glorious appearing.” For example, Ps. 97:3 says, “A fire goes before Him and burns up all His enemies.” We have several examples in Scripture of God using fire to destroy enemies, such as the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Ultimately, the devil and his angels along with death and the grave will be destroyed in the lake of fire as will all those who reject the Lord. In the book of Revelation, when Jesus returns, He is described as having eyes that are like coals of fire. Also in Revelation, the throne of God is described as having flashes of lightning going forth from it, just as we have described in Psalm 97:4. And like the psalm, Revelation says earthquakes follow the flashes of lightning—the earth literally trembling before the presence of the Lord. You may notice in your Bible that the first part of Psalm 97:5 uses the name Yahweh—the capital LORD but the second part when Lord is used, it is lower case letters. This Lord is a title—King or Master, which is the title given to Jesus, and yet we know that the whole verse is one description of God, so we see that Jesus is God, equal to Yahweh. The following verses continue describing the return of the Lord. Isaiah tells us that every valley will be exalted and every hill made low when the Lord returns. This is like the hills melting like wax in the presence of the Lord. Revelation also tells us there will be a new heavens and a new earth when the Lord returns and that there will be no need for a sun or moon because the Lamb, Jesus, will be the light. We know that all people will behold His glory and all will bow before Him. All powers, spiritual beings, will worship Him as well. Knowing that Jesus will return in all His glory call for action. Most of us don’t worship literal carved idols, but that doesn’t mean our lives are free from idolatry. Some we make ourselves. Some we buy. We don’t call them gods, but often they serve in that capacity, for they are where we spend our time and resources. They influence our choices and life direction. Someone said, “Today’s idols are more in the self than on the shelf.” Regardless of what type our idols are, we are called to cast them away. Lent is a great time for self-examination to discover and discard our idols. What idols might you get rid of this Lent? Where do you need to readjust your priorities? Because the foundation of God’s throne is righteousness and justice, we ought to be working on these things. We are called to hate evil. However, it is not merely the sum of our works that determine whether we will rejoice or tremble at the Lord’s glorious appearing, but how we respond to the light of His glorious presence now. Have you already embraced the presence of Jesus, or are you running from the Light, afraid of what Jesus might expose in you or about you? John 1 tells us that when Jesus came the first time many people, including Jesus’s own rejected the Light. In His conversation with Nicodemus as recorded in John 3:19, Jesus Himself said, “And this is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.” No matter what kinds of deeds you do, unless they are brought into the light, they are no good. The Light of Jesus is the Light of truth. For those that love Jesus, His glorious presence is a source of comfort. Even when we are convicted by the Light, His love overcomes our fear. Don’t fear the light, but come to the Light to find healing, redemption, forgiveness, and love.