Sunday Sermon Manuscript – February 15

The Glory Revealed on the Mountain

Matthew 17:1–9

A City on a Hill: A Shining Ideal and a Weighty Warning

1. Last week, we shared Jesus’ words, “A city built on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matt 5:14). In the Gospel of Matthew, the meaning of the mountain is distinctive.

2. Just as Moses went up Mount Sinai, Matthew continues to record scenes in which Jesus goes up a mountain, and stories of Jesus going up the mountain with his disciples—such as the Sermon on the Mount and today’s passage—appear frequently.

3. Many biblical scholars have argued that Matthew’s concern was to write the Gospel in order to reveal that Jesus, as a Jew, is the one who possesses power like Moses.

4. To present Jesus Christ as one like Moses—the figure with the greatest authority among the Jews—would have been a work of reshaping traditional structures of faith and of proclaiming the gospel in a way fitting for Jewish Christians.

5. In last week’s passage, we shared well that a city set on a hill cannot be hidden, and that if it is filled with bright light, it can never be concealed. This means that standing in a high place is not merely about having a good view, but also that one cannot help but be seen from anywhere.

6. This meaning comes close to us as we read. Those who live aiming toward that high place—the place where life is exposed—will always have their lives revealed and seen, and to the extent that they are exposed, it also becomes a place of evaluation where responsibility is demanded and a fitting life must be lived.

7. Last week, I briefly visited Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego. Even though it was raining, the wide-open view came in refreshingly clear.

8. And right there, there was a restored old lighthouse. I thought it was a place where you might say, “It’s high, so the view is good,” but because it could be seen from anywhere, I realized that was precisely why a lighthouse had been built there.

   
   

   A High Place Is Both Glory and Burden

9. When you go up to a high place, you can see more broadly. But at the same time, you inevitably become more noticeable. People pay attention to those who stand in high places, interpret their words and actions, place expectations on them, and also become disappointed by them.

10. This is exactly what it means that a high place can be a place of glory, but at the same time a place of weight.

11. In American history, the phrase “a city on a hill” has often been used. In a speech on January 11, 1989, President Ronald Reagan, summing up his political life, said this.

12. “I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get there.”

13. Isn’t it a beautiful image? A city built on rock, blessed by God, full of life and opportunity. Reagan was not the first to use this expression. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy, before becoming president, also mentioned “a city on a hill” in his farewell address to the people of Massachusetts.

    
    

    All eyes are on us

14. Both presidents drew this phrase from a sermon preached in 1630 by John Winthrop. Winthrop was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Winthrop’s sermon was not an expression of celebration or satisfaction. It was a warning. He said to the Puritan settlers:

15. “We must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. So that if we shall deal falsely with our God… we shall be made a story and a byword through the world.”

16. Do you hear the difference? Winthrop was not saying, “We are great! Everyone will envy us!” He was saying, “We are exposed. Everyone is watching. If we fail, we will become a warning example.”

17. As I read today’s passage, it struck me that Jesus also went up a mountain here, and I realized that this passage records an event in which Jesus symbolically reveals to us the direction and shape of life for those who are exposed on the mountain.

18. To be noticeable is to be given the responsibility of becoming an example, and I think we, too, will face life through similar experiences today. And it seems that the final conclusion of this “being revealed” has two sides.

19. First, from the moment Jesus came into this world, he never deviated from that direction but walked the path of suffering; second, the event we can read in today’s passage—Jesus’ face being brightly transformed—can be seen as the direction of life we are to reveal, that is, the way of life for Christians.

    
    

    After Six Days: Between Confession and Suffering

20. The passage begins like this: “After six days.” This brief time marker shows that this event is not a disconnected mystical experience, but is deeply connected to the preceding story.

21. Just before this, Peter confessed, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” and immediately after that confession, Jesus predicted his suffering.

22. “The Son of Man must suffer many things, be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

23. We sense tension between the disciples’ expectations and Jesus’ declaration. If he is the Christ, shouldn’t there be glory? If he is the Son of God, shouldn’t there be victory? Wouldn’t they have expected that now a higher position, greater influence, and a stable life were about to begin?

24. Yet unlike the disciples’ expectations, Jesus never once departed from that direction, and he spoke about the suffering he would receive. After speaking those words of suffering, he took three disciples aside and went up a high mountain. In Matthew, the mountain is the place where God’s will is proclaimed.2

25. . Moses and Elijah, too, went up a mountain to hear God’s word. The Sermon on the Mount was given on a mountain, the end-times discourse was given on a mountain, and the post-resurrection commission was also given on a mountain. In that noticeable place described as a hill or a mountain, Jesus brought his disciples up. Yet this mountain is not a stage where the world applauds, but a place where one stands revealed before God.

    
    

    Transfiguration: The Revealing of the Glory That Had Been Hidden

26. “His appearance was changed.” This is a translation of the Greek word metemorphōthē (메테모르포테). The change described here does not mean that his essence changed, but that what had been hidden was revealed. Facebook changed its name to Meta, and that, too, comes from the same root. If a company used the term “meta” to mean it is pursuing change, then the difference is that we are to live with weight on the kind of change that is not about altering the essence but about uncovering what has been hidden.

27. “His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light.”

28. This brings to mind the scene in Exodus 34 where Moses’ face shone. Moses’ shining was the reflected glory of God; Moses himself was not the source of the light. Jesus’ transfiguration likewise is not the light of worldly success, nor the radiance of political victory. It is an event in which the glory of God is revealed—the change in which what was hidden is uncovered!

29. Here we can find many meanings.

30. The reason we stand out is because we invest ourselves in what is not yet revealed. And so people can pay attention to us. People notice the hidden capability they sense in a place, a community, or a person that is completely different from the world’s order of power—something unexpected, something not anticipated.

31. In a conversation I had with a pastor I met at the Growing Church Conference, we talked about why we cannot help but be amazed by something delivered through an unexpected speaker: because God’s work never happens only in predictable and obvious places, but happens in places we did not expect and did not anticipate, so we cannot help but live with tension and expectation about what might happen.

32. Taking one more step, we must remember that as Jesus reveals these expectations and unexpected events, he does not cancel the cross but advances step by step toward God’s glory. This is an event that shows the glory that will be completed after passing through the cross; Matthew places this event immediately after the passion prediction. This is intentional. Glory does not bypass suffering.

    
    

    The Desire to Build Shelters

33. Moses and Elijah appear—figures that seem to symbolize the Law and the Prophets. It is a scene where the whole story of Israel meets in Jesus. Then Peter says, “It is good for us to be here. I will build three shelters.” This is a very human response. We want to hold on to a good moment.

34. We want to make a glorious moment last forever. We want to remain on the mountain. We are the same. We want to be seen. We want a higher place. We want to be recognized. Even pastors are no exception. We want to be noticed and to have influence.

35. As I said earlier, such a “good place” is a testing place where we are exposed. The eyes of all people are upon us. Being revealed demands responsibility.

36. Jesus does not permit the shelters, because the mountain is not the destination.

    
    

    This Is My Beloved Son

37. At that moment, the passage records that a shining cloud covered them, and a voice was heard.

38. “This is my beloved Son. I love him. Listen to him.”

39. This declaration is the same as at Jesus’ baptism. But this time, a command is added: “Listen to him.” What are we to listen to? In the context of the passage, it is to listen to the passion prediction Jesus spoke.

40. It is to listen to the way of the cross. It is to listen to the way of the Kingdom of Heaven. At that moment, the disciples fall facedown and are afraid. A city on a hill, a noticeable place, a church brightly revealed along the road—what all these have in common is that they are places that make us afraid.

41. And that place is clearly the place where God’s glory is revealed, and that glory makes human beings humble.

    Glory Completed by Coming Down

42. Jesus comes near, touches them, and says, “Get up. Do not be afraid.” When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. And Scripture says, “As they were coming down the mountain…” This phrase is important. The transfiguration is completed by coming down. Glory does not remain on the mountain. It comes down toward the cross.

    
    

    On the Eve of Ash Wednesday

43. This week we will observe Ash Wednesday. We move from the season of light into the season of suffering. We like the mountain, but God calls us down to the place below. The glory revealed on the mountain is not to lift us up, but to prepare us for the way of the cross.

44. Beloved brothers and sisters, we stand on a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us. But what we must reveal is not the light of worldly success, but the glory of Jesus who is walking toward the cross.

45. Remembering the glory revealed on the mountain, may you and I, without fear, come down and walk the way of the cross. I bless you in the name of the Lord.