Text: Luke 9:28-36

S. Transfiguration.10 (Winkel) Luke 9:28-36 “Exodus”

Preach one thing, Dr. Luther said, just one thing… “the wisdom of the cross”. He got that from St. Paul who told the Corinthians he preached just one thing—Christ and Him Crucified, not sometimes, not here and there, not just in Lent, but always.

Now, we might think this week would be a bye week, with the Transfiguration and all. A week to preach something… different. Here’s a Gospel just dripping with glory, begging for a thorough-going theology of glory, Luther and Paul notwithstanding. Isn’t it all about glory, this mountain-top experience? Isn’t it the culmination of the happy season of the church year before we start the long, dark slog of Lent? Isn’t it a little Mardi Gras of glory to delight the folks before the heaviness of the cross sinks in?

No. In a word… no! Oh, the glory is there all right, something to reckon with. But it isn’t the center. It isn’t the point. It’s peripheral, and if we don’t find the cross at the center, well then, I’m afraid we’ve missed the whole point of the Gospel, again. And all our wisdom and eloquence and insight will be just a mask covering the folly of this world which has an appearance of wisdom but is passing away, for it does not, cannot, endure.

There is a word at the center of this Gospel which is the still point of the turning world, the center of the text, the secret of the wisdom of the cross which few in this world have understood, fewer still believe. This word is not printed literally by any English translation of which I know, which just goes to show how much the theology of glory pulls the wool over all eyes.

The word is exodus (no, I didn’t make a mistake in reading). We all know what that word means too, so there’s no excuse not to use it when it occurs. It’s a way out, literally, a departure from slavery to a promised land of freedom. It also means a decease, a death, which is the only way out of the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into from the start with that business in the garden over the snake and the apple. It’s a good word for any who are seeking an out, an escape from this world’s present darkness.

When Jesus’ face and clothes are shining with an unearthly light, Moses and Elijah appear to talk with Him and what do you think they talked about? His exodus that He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and the others are bored with such heavy cross talk. They get sleepy and doze. Most of Christendom feels the same when we start in with Exodus talk. It’s nobody’s favorite book after all, none that I’ve ever heard at least. It’s one of many reasons why we often find something else to preach than the wisdom of the cross. Exodus and cross is heavy talk, puts many to sleep, and we like to see a lively crowd in the pews.

But when the cloud came and jolted them awake, and they saw the glory shining all around, and Peter says something stupid about camping out right there, then the voice from the cloud silences the foolish talk with a commanding: “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”

And this is the way it always goes when you preach one thing, the wisdom of the cross, the Exodus of Jesus which He accomplished once for all in Jerusalem 30 AD. Most aren’t interested and go: “Ah, do we have to move? I just want to stay put.” But Moses and Elijah and the saints—well, exodus talk is right up their alley, gets them energized, alive, and moving.

This all happened, we read, “eight days after these sayings…” and we the dutiful exegetes go “what sayings?” Well, it’s very interesting what Jesus had been saying right before the Transfiguration: Peter had just confessed Him to be the Christ, the Son of God, and Jesus responded that He was on His way to the cross to die and Peter thought: “terrible idea. I hate that defeatist trash talk”. And Jesus showed Peter he was on the side of the devils, saying that “if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it…”

That’s what Jesus was saying… He was preaching one thing, the wisdom of the cross. And the disciples were having none of it. They were eager to change the subject to something more glorious. So, on the mountain, this is what God shows them: real glory, the true light of heaven shines from Jesus’ Body and comes always and only from cross talk, exodus speaking. God turns the tables on them. You want glory? Okay here it is, dazzling in the One who speaks always of the cross. Now, if you are ashamed of this cross Word, He’ll be ashamed of you, in the End…

To speak of the Exodus is to talk journey, and we are creatures who like to stay put. This is what sin has done to us, made us heavy, sleepy, slow to move. We’d prefer to build a comfortable way station for ourselves here in the desert, or maybe just stay back in Egypt where the food was better. By the cross, Jesus puts an end to our stay in Egypt. By His body and blood He gives us manna from heaven that keeps us moving with Him through the desert (which those slaves of Egypt didn’t like much). An exodus is an arduous trek. It’s not for the faint of heart.

This is why it’s Moses and Elijah, by the way, on the mountain. They are the reliable old Exodus hands. Moses led the first one through the Red Sea, prefiguring our Holy Baptism. And Elijah made a spectacular Exodus in a fiery chariot, sidestepping death, prefiguring the Spirit’s descent and the world’s end in fire. Yet all they wanted to talk about, these two Exodus heroes, was the Exodus of Jesus at Jerusalem accomplished on a rough, wooden cross. Because they knew this world is a desert in which none can live long. They knew, first hand, this old world to be a slave making place, such that God’s people are the ones always on Exodus, always traipsing through the desert to find the way out.

And arduous as the journey through the desert is, the Exit of the cross is tougher still. When dying with Jesus is the only way out of our predicament, it’s easy to see why many go “maybe the old slave’s life isn’t so bad.” Moses and Elijah though have seen the Light of the promised land and can attest: losing our old lives is well worth the glory of the Kingdom to come.

We want the glory, but usually fail to see it comes only by the Exodus of the Cross, that is, by Holy Baptism, Holy Supper, Holy Absolution, and the Most Holy Preaching of Christ and Him Crucified as the divine means of escape, through faith, into a better Kingdom with Christ. If you would stand one day on the mountain speaking with Jesus, as friends, in the light of glory, then learn now His language—the rough, hard words of the cross… which speak not of souls we’ve saved for Him, but of loss we’ve endured with Him; not of fiefdoms we’ve built for Him here, but of a City rising there, in the distance, on the horizon of this desert we sojourn through now, with Him. This is the Word that burned Isaiah’s lips in the Sanctuary.

The disciples were quiet about it then. Well, better silence than the folly of worldly wisdom! Better still, it’s given to us to rely only on the wisdom of the cross; by this the Peace that surpasses all understanding guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Pastor Kevin W. Martin