A Glimpse of His Glory
By Pastor John Eich Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Alma, MI
2 Corinthians 4:3-6
But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing. 4In the case of those people, the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from clearly seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is God’s image. 5Indeed, we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For the God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” is the same one who made light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ.
On January 9th, 2007, Joshua Bell sold out Boston's Symphony Hall. Seats were nearly $100 each. Bell plays a violin worth more than $3 million and is one of the best musicians in the world. Three days later he entered a metro station in Washington, D.C. wearing casual clothing and a ball cap. He opened his case and played his violin for 45 minutes. Only six people stopped, 20 gave money (a total of $32), but no one recognized him. They didn’t expect to see a world class musician in a subway.
When it comes to the glory of God in the person of Jesus Christ, many don’t recognize it. They are not expecting God to show up in Jesus because Jesus isn’t what they want in a god. They do not see his beauty and majesty, and therefore do not give him the honor he deserves.
When we see someone’s face, we get a lot of information that we can’t when we use electronic communication. There have been a number of times when I’ve been trying to say something 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 help to clarify our message.
The god of this age, Satan, works the same way in this world. He blinds people so they don’t see the glory of God in the Gospel of Jesus. How? He blinds their eyes by placing their own needs, feelings, and desires before what God is saying. Since he isn’t what they want, they can’t see who he is.
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 light of the gospel as “the glory of Christ, who is God’s image.” For Paul, seeing God’s glory in the face of Jesus means that we can see clearly the heart of God.
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. 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 itself. Nothing in this world can overcome God’s love for us. The ‘light of the Good News’ 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 why so many miss it. 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. God’s glory is seen in the blessings he gives. But to see God’s glory in the face of a dying Savior? That they don’t want. Paul says they do not believe, because they do not want the light of the gospel to shine into their lives. They don’t want to give up their sin or their self-righteousness. They want to live for themselves, not for Christ.
Paul is not the only one to make this sort of statement in Scripture. The Apostle John writes similarly in his Gospel, where he explains that although Jesus came unto His own people, they did not accept Him (John 1:1-8). .John explains why later. He says that they did not accept Him because their deeds were evil and they loved darkness rather than light (John 3:18-21). They did not want the light to shine in their lives, because they knew that if it did, they would have to change their beliefs and their behaviors, and so they chose to remain in darkness.
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.
You are so blessed that you see God in the face of Jesus Christ. In grace beyond imagination God has shone the light of grace into your hearts. You see His grace, his love, his forgiveness and his hope. That’s why you come each week and during Advent and Lent, more than once each week, so that you can keep the image of God clearly in your mind. This world takes its toll on us. It veils the Gospel behind troubles, persecutions, and our own sinful flesh.
Why do we sin? You might say, the world and the devil tempt us. But that’s not why we sin. Perhaps, building on last week’s sermon, you’d answer “because we are sinful.” That’s more fundamental, but still not the reason we sin. We sin…because…we love to sin. We enjoy it in our fallen nature. It excites us with pleasures. It satisfies us with revenge. It fills our greed. If we didn’t love sinning, we wouldn’t do it. As shocking as that might sound, it is also a freeing concept. Because if we sin because we love it, how do we overcome sinning? Rules don’t help. Scolding does help. If we want to stop loving something, we need to love something else more. A greater love overcomes sin. And so we need to grow in our love for Jesus. Love Jesus more and so love sin less.
That’s why we come to church and have home devotions. We want to keep the veil of sin from hiding the face of God’s love in Jesus. So we come to receive the Good News of salvation through word and sacrament. And so come to love him more and more.
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 shine our lights into the world because we know that it is all about what Christ has done for this fallen world – starting with us! We sin, we fail to shine our lights, we allow the veils of this world to hide our Jesus, so every day we need to remember that Christ is for us too. Because He faithfully served as the Light of the World, even though it would lead to His death, He has given us what we don’t have; a new relationship with God. You are forgiven. You are forgiven for failing to be faithful in your vocations. You are forgiven for hiding your lamp. You are forgiven for hiding behind the veils of the god of this age. Because you then have a new and loving relationship with God, you have a new relationship with those around you. You aren’t just family, friends, or neighbors, you are saints, children of God, to whom He has entrusted the Salt and the Light of Christ Jesus.
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 we see God’s glory 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. Our God comes to die to reconcile us to himself– dying to destroy our death, and rising to restore our life.
That’s the glory of God in the face of Jesus.