I’ve always been struck by the popularity of self-help books, or what is even more popular now are self-help type internet shows or podcasts. There is a lot of content focused on how men can become truly masculine, make money and get women; women try to help women with their particular struggles in life. Something I would include in this category that is a more recent development are homesteaders showing how to be self-sufficient with the internet. (The irony is that they tend to really be relying on income from their internet shows!) That sort of content is appealing in my household. There is always a market for transformation of yourself. Why do you suppose that is? I believe that most people intuitively understand that something is wrong with their lives. That’s not just because they think our country is going downhill or something like that, it is really something that is universal through history and in all places. And they are right. There is something wrong with all of us. The message of Transfiguration Sunday as we heard in these readings that God changes us through faith.

Jesus gave his disciples a view of his true glory. When glory is used in all our readings this morning the first meaning is something visible: A shining bright light. The radiant glory of God shone on Moses and from Jesus. Jesus hid that shining divine light while he was with us bodily. But he was still truly God and Man at once. He showed his glory to Peter James and John to remind them that the suffering they would soon witness could not take away that fact- that he suffered willingly in our place.

Paul compares the glory of Moses with the glory that Jesus revealed on the Mountain: “7 If the ministry that brought death (which was engraved in letters on stone) came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look directly at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face (though it was fading), 8 how will the ministry of the spirit[d] not be much more glorious? 9 For if the ministry that brought condemnation has glory, the ministry that brought righteousness has even more glory. 10 In fact, in this case, what was glorious is no longer very glorious, because of the greater glory of that which surpasses it. 11 Indeed, if what is fading away was glorious, how much more glorious is that which is permanent!” Those letters are specifically the Covenant of Law that God gave Moses as a covenant with the people of Israel whom God had delivered from slavery in Egypt. These laws served a specific purpose to preserve a people whom God had promised to send a Savior through and to set them apart from the world for holiness. He laid demands on them and gave them rules to follow. The Law has a certain glory- it has to because it comes from God. But Paul calls it the ministry that brought death. God’s demands bring death to us not because they are bad, not because the Law is evil, or because it is flawed, but because we are bad and flawed. You see examples of the ministry that brings death throughout the Old Testament when God punishes Israel for their unfaithfulness to this covenant.

Christ came to bring a new covenant – really to fulill the original Gospel promise. The Law of Moses and all its requirements came later, after the original promise in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve, after the promises God gave to Abraham to send a Savior. Christs’ glory far surpasses Moses for several reasons: 1 – Christ grants us righteousness. Christ is not just setting an example for us to follow to get right with God and be better. Jesus substituted himself for us and transforms us from enemies of God into sons of God. 2 – The Law of Moses, as I have said, was temporary and laid for a specific purpose. Christ’s ministry of the spirit is eternal. Civic ordinances and religious regulations of the people of Israel are no longer in effect. Christ sends the Holy Spirit to remain in us and to stay with us.

All of this certainly does not mean that the Old Testament is not valuable for Christians. In fact, it is only for Christians that Moses has any value for at all! Paul continues: 12 Therefore, since we have this kind of hope, we act with great boldness. 13 We are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face, so that the Israelites could not continue to look at the end of the radiance, as it was fading away. 14 In spite of this, their minds were hardened. Yes, up to the present day, the same veil remains when the Old Testament is read. It has not been removed because it is taken away only in Christ. 15 Instead, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” Paul is talking about the Jews who rejected Jesus in his day. They had Moses and they valued the writings of Moses and the prophets. But they could not understand their true value because they wanted to keep hold of what was passing away. They thought they could get close to God through the Laws of Moses. But that blinded them from the reality of Christ and his glory. No, only Christ removes the block and the veil from reading the Old Testament. The point of the Old Testament is all about pointing us to our own inadequacy in the face of God’s holiness, and pointing us to Christ as our only hope of righteousness.

This hope of transformation through faith in Jesus is a powerful hope. Paul says it gives us boldness. Boldness here means we can speak clearly and plainly about what God says to us. We can speak boldly about the reality of sin which causes us to die. We can speak plainly about the deep need for salvation that everyone alive shares. And therefore we can speak clearly about how to solve that problem. Christ is the only one who can truly change anyone and truly save anyone. Christians are able to read about the ministry of Christ in the old Testament because the Holy Spirit reveals it to us.

Christians sometimes have a temptation to go back under the veil. Some Christians try to read the Old Testament as a way to divine some kind of secret or way of getting closer to God through outward means, or taking things that God says in the Old Testament as some kind of health advice. I’ve lately heard about Ezekiel bread, which is based on a recipe God gives to the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel chapter 4. That was part of a action prophecy to testify against the people of Israel for their sin, not the best way to eat bread! That doesn’t mean eating sprouted grain bread is bad, but the point of God’s Word is to point us to Christ. Another temptation some Christians face is to see the Civil Laws of Israel as a way we should be governing to be more godly. Those specific laws were good, but God has also given us reason and wisdom to be able to decide what kinds of laws are good for us now as well. When Christians read the Old Testament, we should look for Christ there.

Paul continues: 7 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” Christ’s ministry of the spirit gives us true freedom. What kind of freedom is there from the Gospel? Not a freedom that leads to sin and licentiousness, certainly. Not a freedom to do whatever our flesh desires, as some understand freedom today. This is a freedom from sin and the death and curses that sin brings. The account of transfiguration gives hope for those who find themselves stuck in some kind of habitual sin. Sometimes this looks like an addition to a substance, or simply some persistent inclination toward anger, or harsh words. We know we want to do what is God pleasing, we want to walk as a child of the light as we sang today. But that’s not as easy to do as it is to say. The advice that self-help books has might have some value to some degree. External disciplines, like setting our own rules or doing something like fasting can be something useful. But all those things merely clean the outside. We turn to Christ’s death on a cross to be truly transformed for good. Paul says we whohave unveiled faces are reflecting God’s glory. One interesting feature of this word is that it means beholding and reflecting. And we are being transformed even now. That means that even in this life we can become closer and closer to the true glory and holiness of God. But we receive it by turning to Jesus and by putting all our trust solely in Christ to change us! That means that its good to want to be good, and its good to want to be better than you were yesterday. When Jesus showed his glory to the disciples it was immediately before his lowest point down to his death.

There are many of you who are struggling through grief, sorrow, loss and other serious problems in your life. Jesus’ transformation gives us hope that we are not going to remain in those low places forever. We are changed by God’s glory to become more and more similar to Christ. The final transformation comes when we see God face to face in eternal glory, with all pain and grief of this life removed by Christ forever. Amen.