Preached at Christ Church, Billericay for the youtube video service only
Title: ‘Seeing’ God
Purpose: How we ‘see’ God, and the effect that has.
Reading: Exodus 12v24-50; Matthew 17v1-9
Introduction
How do you see God? Well, you can't – right? Because Paul says in Colossians 1 that Jesus is the image of the invisible God. But when we talk about God, what sort of image goes through your mind? The classic very old man on a throne in the heavens? A youngish long haired bearded man in flowing robes? Are either of them wearing a crown? Is it something more sophisticated, perhaps?
My Image of God
I don’t have an image of a person in my head when I think about God. It’s more the sense of a presence, a connection, a power, than it is a person. Of course, when we talk about Jesus, I have an image of a man, but not with any specific features.
What follows
As I look at these two passages this morning, I am going to consider how each of the characters that we meet sees God, and how that affects what they believe, and therefore what they do.
Exodus 12:24-50 (Moses)
We’ll start with the Old Testament reading, Exodus 12:24-50. I’ll treat Moses and Aaron as one person for the purposes of this discussion. So, Moses is issuing God’s instructions to the elders of Israel. They are probably the most important instructions that could possibly be given – how to avoid the angel of death – the destroyer in verse 23.
Ten plagues
You will, I hope, remember that Egypt, where the Israelites were slaves, had suffered 9 plagues:
Water turning to blood
Frogs
Lice
Flies
Pestilence
Boils
Thunderstorms of Hail
Locusts
Darkness
and the tenth is about to arrive – death of the firstborn. In all of this Moses had been the person that God worked through, so despite his initial doubts about his ability and the crimes he committed, he is now a faithful servant of God. He sees God as his master, and the saviour of his people. He will do what God tells him to, even when the Israelites are less than happy to obey. Putting blood on the doorposts would not seem as awful to them as it might to us.
The Israelites
The Israelites see God as a great power, they have seen the plagues come, and they now have enough experience of God to be ready to obey – even when the commands seem a little odd. Then we get to a phrase that occurs only a couple of times in the whole Old Testament, “The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded”. Now, I’ll bet that a lot of them were afraid. They had seen the plagues escalate and realised that this was the final one, so best do as you’re told. Sadly, their complete obedience would not last.
Pharaoh
Pharaoh thinks of himself as a god, and the owner of the Israelite slaves. He, therefore, sees Israel’s God as a rival -a competitor. Someone who will steal his slaves. He is not convinced at all by the plagues so far, indeed they have largely served to strengthen his resolve (the Bible calls it hardening his heart). But the final plague strikes closer to home than any of the others. He loses his own son. That pushes him over the edge, and now he’s determined to get rid of the whole troublesome lot of them and hopefully their invisible God too. Not just letting them go, but evicting them.
His change of heart doesn’t end there, though. Look at the end of verse 32. “And also bless me”. Pharaoh is asking for a blessing from Moses, which will, of course, come from the competitor God.
Egyptians
Some of the Egyptians saw the Israelites and their God as something more, something different, something better, and decided to leave with them – and took their livestock – their whole way of life with them. It’s hard to know whether they cared for God, or just decided to follow the winner. This led to a whole raft of laws about who may or may not celebrate the passover. They are designed to ensure that only those truly committed to God can partake of the most important remembrance ceremony of the time.
Matthew 17:1-9
In the New Testament reading, Peter, James and John see Jesus in an entirely new light (sorry, for the rather obvious pun). Have you ever tried to picture the scene? I found an episode of Star Trek TNG, called ‘Transfiguration’ that is clearly inspired by this event. Here’s what the special effects crew made of it.
[video]
That’s a pretty good attempt, I think, and it helped me to imagine the scene a little more clearly.
Peter
More important to us this morning is what Peter, James and John made of it. Peter is his usual self, a man of action, trying to do the best thing in any situation he finds himself in. When Moses and Elijah appear he wants to put up shelters for them. Mark tells us he did not know what to say because he was frightened. That is probably an understatement – they had only gone up the mountain to pray.
James and John
We have no record of what James and John thought, but I would expect they were as frightened as Peter was. Maybe they were stunned into silence.
Moses and Elijah
Luke tells us that Moses and Elijah were talking to Jesus about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfilment at Jerusalem. So this would have happened after the disciples had been with Jesus a long time.
Voice
It’s the voice that really makes a difference to them, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him, I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
If they were afraid before, now they are all terrified and fall to the ground face down to worship God.
Jesus tells them to “Get up”, and to not be afraid, and the event is over.
‘Proof’
If they were having any doubts at all about who Jesus was, this was an important event for them. It can only have helped to convince them that there was something very special about Jesus. After all, Moses and Elijah are the two most important people in their scriptures (our Old Testament). They have seen something of the amazing power of God, and yet there is Jesus, gently telling them not to be afraid.
Don’t Tell
On the way down the mountain, they are told not to tell the others what they have seen. This story must be kept until after Jesus’ death and resurrection. It is too close to a proof of who Jesus really is.
Changed
Because of what they have seen, Peter, James and John, now have a different view of Jesus, who He is and what He is about to do. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, they still find it hard to accept that He has to die and be raised from the dead.
Aspects of God
We have seen quite a few different views of God this morning.
Power
His power has been shown to us through the plagues in Egypt, where he controlled events to bring about a particular outcome. His power has been shown through the change in his son, from looking like any other man you might meet to being something quite different – that’s a power over the physical being, not just people’s actions.
Love
His love is shown in His plans for the Passover feast to happen every year in remembrance. It will not only teach his people about their heritage, but will bring them together.
His love has been shown to his Disciples too, as he prepares them for events to come that they will struggle to deal with and as always He assures them that they never need to be afraid in His presence.
Initiative & leading
In both readings, we see God taking the initiative and leading His people forward. The plagues show us that God has a plan, He set out to rescue the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, and the plan succeeded. He set out to redeem the world through His son, coming as a man and dying on the cross to pay for our sins. We only saw a small part of that plan this morning with the transfiguration, but unlike the Exodus, this plan is still in progress, and we are part of it.
Amen.
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