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Text: 2 Corinthians Christ Unveiled In the name of the Lord of glory, dear brothers and
sisters in Christ: Two months
ago, at the very beginning of the season of Epiphany, we celebrated the Baptism
of Jesus. That event was like God the
Father’s unveiling and presentation of his Son to the world. For thirty years, Jesus had been living a
quiet life as a boy and then as a carpenter in the town of However,
when the thunderous voice stopped speaking and the heavens returned to normal,
after all the spectacular stuff was over, to anyone standing around Jesus still
would have looked pretty much like everyone else. Except for the testimony from above, there
was no way to tell by looking at him who he was. And because he had not yet begun his
ministry, he’d not said or shown anything about himself to make you think that
he was anything more than just some other guy.
You might say that his true identity and his message were still under
wraps. He was still under a veil of
mystery. But now as
we have followed him in his early ministry throughout the Epiphany season, we
have seen him lifting that veil a little at a time. He began by teaching with remarkable
authority in the synagogues. He went
around unpacking and explaining the Word of God like no one else ever had
before. Then he started driving demons
out of those held captive by Satan.
Sometimes the demons would even exclaim, “We know who are: the Holy One of God.” Somehow the people standing around never
seemed to get the message though. Then
we saw him miraculously healing the sick wherever he went. With a touch or a word he could cure
anything. It culminated last week with
his forgiving a paralyzed man of his sins.
The people around were shocked when he said it. “Only God can do that!” they thought
to themselves. And effectively saying,
“I’m glad you think so – because only God can do this too”, he turned and made
the man whole. It was like he was saying
to them, “Here I’ve taken the veil off for you.
You’ve got all the pieces of information you need. Put them together and draw the logical
conclusions about me.” Still, most folks didn’t get
it. It was shortly after this episode
that he pulls his disciples aside for a pop quiz. He asks them, “What are you hearing about
me? Who do people think I am?” They come up with a long list of
answers. “Some people think you are John
the Baptist come back from the dead.
Others think you’re Jeremiah.
Still others think Elijah, or one of the other prophets.” There are all kinds of wrong answers. Finally Jesus says to his disciples, “Okay,
what about you? Who do you believe me to
be?” And they answer, “You are
the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
Now they see this formerly concealed truth with their own spiritual
eyes. And so
today we read how Jesus takes a select few of them up to the mountain. There he pulls off the veil even farther and
reveals to them more of the divine nature that they had already said they
believed him to have. Standing before
them, the earthly form of his body fades away as if unable to contain the
majesty within any longer. Some of the
brilliance of Christ’s natural glory shines upon them. Heavenly visitors from Seeing the
radiance of God beaming forth from Jesus, Peter and the others want to shield
themselves from it. They want to cover
it up, to contain it to a nice shrine up on the mountain – like the Tabernacle
of Israel used to be – a tent, a veil, to hide all that frightening
holiness and glory. They want to erect
barriers between themselves and the divine presence now being clearly manifest
in Jesus. Why? It’s because Peter, James, and John were
experiencing the same kind of terror in God’s holy presence that their
ancestors had so many years before when Moses led the people out of The Lord agreed to work through an
intermediary, and Moses went to commune with God face to face; but when Moses
returned to speak with the people, they took one look at him and ran away in
fear. Just from having gone into the
Lord’s presence and having received his word, Moses himself was radiating with
holy light. They couldn’t bear to look
into his face. So Moses ended up having
to wear a veil over his face just so the people could stand to be with him and
listen to him relay what God had to say.
In time, the radiance would wear off; but every time Moses went back to
talk with God, it happened again, and he’d have to put the veil back on. This is what Paul is talking about
in today’s Epistle reading. What he is
saying is that there is a message in these events. Moses, he says, represents the law; he’s the
personification of the old covenant. The
people couldn’t stand looking at him because they couldn’t stand looking into
the holy law of God, which was the message he was to convey. So they had to put a veil over his face –
but, you see, the real veil was over their hearts. That’s where the sin was that they were
trying to conceal. They didn’t want the
law to “see into their hearts” as it were, so they erected a screen. The trouble is that a veil works
two ways. If the law can’t see in,
neither can the heart “see” out. The
truth of God’s message to them couldn’t penetrate, so they never understood
what the message was all about. The
truth stands before them, but they can’t see it. Paul says that even today, when people who
have such a veil over their hearts hear God’s word, they will never understand
it. As long as they are holding their sin
hidden behind the veil and pretending everything is okay in there, they will
never understand what God’s revelation to them is all about. But as we’ve seen, Christ’s
ministry has been all about removing the veils and barriers. He’s been revealing the true message of God’s
word in his teaching. He’s been opening
hearts, getting to the root of the problem of human sin and exposing it to the
light of the truth, not to destroy, but to cleanse and heal. He’s been revealing God’s glory, and a new
covenant of grace. He’s come to forgive
sin – and he can do it because of the sacrifice that he is going to make to pay
for it. You remember that under the old
covenant of Moses, God dwelt with the people behind a veil. Inside the Holy of Holies, in the Tabernacle
and later in the And once the veil is removed,
wonderful things begin to happen. First,
and of primary importance, is the cleansing and forgiveness of sin. We no longer have to hide the shameful
secrets of our hearts. Because Christ
died for us, there is freedom from the curse of the law – so that we no longer
perceive God as the frightful judge, but instead as the loving Father who wants
us to live happily in his presence forever. Second, the veil no longer clouds
our understanding of God’s Holy Word. We
can see the true intent and message of what God has to say – and what’s no
coincidence, we find that everything the Scripture says is telling us something
about Jesus Christ. In every story,
psalm, and ceremony, the Word is revealing something about him. In fact, it’s safe to say that if you read a
passage of the Scripture and don’t see Christ unveiled there, you haven’t
completely understood what the passage is saying. But when you do see Christ
as the key to the Scriptures, fantastic new vistas into the mind of God open
before you. This, of course,
builds and strengthens your faith, and allows the Spirit of God to dwell within
you in greater measure. And finally, because the Spirit of
Christ dwells within, and the veil is no longer there, his glory can shine in
your life. Like Moses, you begin to
reflect the light of God – not by actually beaming light from your face, of
course, but by saying and doing Christ-like things. That really is God’s goal, to let Christ be unveiled
in us, so that the glory of his love will be seen in our thoughts, words, and
actions. Therefore, since in his mercy God
has revealed his Son to us, and shown us that he is our Savior from sin, let us
not be fearful in his glorious presence like the Israelites at Soli Deo
Gloria! |
