Sermon Notes — March 2, 2025
Luke 9:28-43a
March 2, 2025
Revelation on the Mountain
Dr. Craig Goff
I have a question as I begin this morning. I don’t mean to be irreverent or disrespectful in any way, shape, or form, but have you ever noticed that Jesus‘s life was unusual?
I don’t mean in the sense of his being the Son of God and the King of Kings and the Lord of lords, and the One through whom everything that has been created has been created. I don’t mean in that sense, but I mean in his earthly life, Jesus was really, really unusual.
For one thing he was born in a barn. When I was growing up, to ask someone if they were born in a barn was kind of an insult. It usually meant that you had left a door open, so Jesus was unusual in that sense.
Also, for one at least part of his life, he was apparently homeless. The Gospels tell us how someone wanted to follow him and he said, “foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head.” To paraphrase a little he was saying, “if you’re gonna follow me, I hope you brought a sleeping bag. The entourage I am traveling with isn’t part of the Hilton honors program.”
He was also single that was unusual.
He was unmarried and he had no children.
In Biblical times the way to ensure that your identity and name would live on was through your children and Jesus had none.
Jesus also changed professions which is something we do all the time, but that wasn’t done in first century A.D. or for a long, long time.
Jesus was also unusual in the way he responded to those who wanted to be his followers.
When I meet with someone who is interested in joining the church and being followers of Jesus to be completely honest I tend to set the bar pretty low. I will meet people in my study and they tell me things like “now, preacher, we can’t be here every Sunday. We are not sure we can ever make it to Sunday school and don’t expect us to get our children in youth group or come to the Souper Bowl Cook-off. We are just too busy.”
And I say, “Oh that’s OK. Come when you can. When would you like to join?”
But what does Jesus say? When someone asks Jesus about following him, he said, “Do you hate your mother and father compared to your love for me? Because if you don’t then don’t even waste your time.”
Jesus was unusual and a lot of ways and he challenged the way people think about things.
He certainly challenged the expectations the Jewish people had of the Messiah.
True, different sects of Judaism had different expectations of the Messiah; the Pharisees, had certain expectations, Sadducees, the Zealots, the Essences all had certain expectations for the Messiah.
But, all the parties within Judaism, and Jesus’ own followers, expected the Messiah to do some things Jesus did not do.
No one expected the Messiah to die as a despised criminal hanging on a cross. In fact, the law clearly says, cursed is anyone who dies on a tree.” (Deuteronomy 21:23)
Jesus was unusual in a lot of ways and he challenged the way people thought about things.
Here in our text today, up on what has become known as the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus is teaching three of his closest disciples what it really means for him to be the Messiah.
Jesus was the Messiah. Jesus‘s name would be known throughout eternity, not because he had a lot of children, and not because some official party within Judaism adopted his program.
Jesus is known because he loves us all, and because he died on the cross for us all. Jesus is the son of God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Messiah, the one who died and was raised again. And because he gave himself for us, we are made new.
I do realize that my ministry is qualitatively different than the ministry of Jesus, but I want to share something about my ministry experience and my reflection on my ministry experience.
My days as a pastor are coming to an end. I can’t even begin to tell you how great of an honor it has been to serve as a pastor and to develop so many spiritual connections with so many people. It is humbling, and has been an amazing, incredible blessing.
However, there have been things that I thought that I might do, but I’m obviously not going to do.
For example, there have been those who love me and who believe in me who have read my doctoral dissertation who have said to me “you need to publish this as a book.” I always thought that someday I might, but I didn’t and am I not going to. I helped establish a health clinic for the working uninsured in Wilson County called Charis Health Center which is still in existence today. I thought I would do more things like that.
I don’t mean to imply that I am finishing my ministry in a spirit of disappointment. I have been able to do a lot of things I would’ve never have even dreamed of doing, but I do want to share one little story of something that I thought might happen that is obviously not going to happen.
I thought that as I come to the end of my pastoral ministry, there might be one person, like say my son, or my daughter who would follow my footsteps as a pastor. Someone who would inherit all my theology books, church history books, Bible commentaries and church leadership and administration books as sort of an extension of my ministry. But that is not gonna happen.
Now to be clear, I’m as proud of my son and my daughter as I would be if they were consecrated Bishop of the Southeastern Jurisdiction. I couldn’t be more proud of them, but I just thought there might be someone who would follow in my footsteps in the pastoral ministry.
That is not going to happen, but I will tell you what will happen, something I am looking forward to and I’m excited about.
I have talked to the District Superintendent and he’s allowing me to bring the books in my pastoral library to an upcoming Harpeth River District preachers meeting. I will place my books out in the conference room for any of those preachers to take home to use in their ministry.
So there won’t be one person who will continue my ministry but a whole district and maybe beyond if word gets out…
I realize my giving some books away isn’t exactly the same as Jesus giving himself for us, but it’s my way of trying to be a little like Jesus and acknowledging that God often works in ways that we would never have expected and that while sometime things don’t work out exactly like we would like for them to work out God is there to do something good.
Up on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John were beginning to learn that something good could come out of a suffering, Messiah, who would die on a cross who loves us, and has given his life for us so that we can learn to live as the children of God
Jesus was unusual in many ways and that is such a good, good thing.