There are plenty of ways for us to communicate in a digital age. We can send text messages, email, use social media of various types, video call, or we can even use more traditional technology and talk with someone on the phone.
However, there is nothing quite like seeing someone face to face if we are going to really get to know them.
When we see someone’s face, we get a lot of information that aren’t there when we use electronic communication. There have been a number of times when I’ve been trying to say something to another person through text message or email when my words have been misinterpreted because the other person couldn’t see the look in my eyes, or hear the inflections or tone in my voice. When we talk face to face, there are a lot of things in our faces and voices that not only help to communicate clearly, but give the other person a better understanding of who we are.
The same is true in our relationship with God. Hebrews 1:1 tells us that there were lots of ways God communicated with his people over the centuries, especially through the prophets that he sent to his people. There were a few occasions in the Old Testament when we are told that some people were able to see God (eg Exodus 24:9-11) but generally God spoke with his people through mediators because God’s holiness meant that people could not see God and live (see Exodus 33:20).
That is what makes the Transfiguration of Jesus an amazing event. When Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mountain and revealed his heavenly glory to them, they were seeing something that very few people had ever seen. Jesus gave his three closest disciples a glimpse of his heavenly glory to help them understand who he is. While Jesus is an ordinary person according to his humanity, his transfiguration showed his followers that there is much more to him than meets the eye. Jesus was the presence of God with them. He brought the fullness of God’s goodness to them so they could know God face to face rather than having to rely on what others said about God or who they thought God might be. In the face of Jesus, we see the face of God – not what God looks like, but who God is.
Understanding the nature and character of God through the person of Jesus became critical for the Apostle Paul. When he wrote to the Christians in Corinth, Paul described the ‘glorious light of the Good News’ being the ‘message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God’ (v4b NLT). For Paul, seeing God’s glory in the face of Jesus means that we can know God and have a relationship with God through the person of Jesus. He gave a glimpse of this glory to Peter, James and John in his Transfiguration, and to us as we hear this story. As Paul says, if we want to see God’s glory, the place to look is the face of Jesus (v6).
We see the full glory of God not so much in the transfigured face of Jesus, but in the human face of Jesus. That is where we see a God who does what no one else has ever done. Jesus is different from every other religious, philosophical or political figure I have ever come across. He reveals to us the glory of a God who meets us in our broken humanity. Jesus shows us a God who doesn’t try to explain why people suffer in the world, but instead enters into our suffering. In Jesus we meet a God who would rather die than see his children separated from him by sin and death. Jesus shows us how high, how wide, how long and how deep God’s love is for us by sacrificing everything for us on the cross. In the resurrection of Jesus, we see that God’s love is stronger than death, and nothing in this world can overcome God’s love for us. The ‘glorious light of the Good News’ (v4) of Jesus shows us a God who is compassionate and kind, who forgives sinners and justifies the unrighteous, who does everything to reconcile with those who have turned away from him and restore broken relationships. The glory of God we can see in the bruised and bloodied face of a crucified man is the glory of the God who sacrifices everything in love for people who deserve it the least but need it the most.
This is a very different way to think about glory. Usually we think about God’s heavenly glory, seated on his throne, surrounded in light with angels singing his praises. When Paul points us to look for God’s glory in the face of Jesus, though, he wants us to see the glory of the God who suffers with us, who suffers for us, who gives everything out of love for us. Paul wants us to see the face of the God whose love is stronger than anything in this world and who promises us something better than what we are experiencing right now. As Paul knows from his own personal experience, seeing this kind of glory in the face of Jesus can change our lives.
To see God’s glory in the face of Jesus gives us a new way to connect with God. We don’t need to find our way to heaven to try to connect with the Divine, or to try to find some spark of the Diving within us. Instead, God makes himself known to us through the person of Jesus. Just as every good relationship means spending time face to face together, when we grow in our relationship with Jesus, and with the body of Christ that is our Christian family, we also grow in our relationship with God. This growth equips us to live as people who carry the light of God’s glory into the world by living and loving others the same way Jesus did, full of forgiveness, compassion, mercy and grace. This connection, growth, equipping and sending is what it means to live with the light of God’s glory in us.
We can try to get to know God in lots of different ways, but most of them are like trying to get to know someone through text messages, emails, social media or even phone calls. There’s nothing like seeing someone face to face. In Jesus’ transfiguration, we see God’s glory face to face as we encounter the God who sacrifices everything to overcome the distance between us and who gives us new life as the people he loves.
St John's Lutheran Church, Tea Tree Gully 