Listen, Then Look

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Have you ever taken a child to a shopping mall or museum or zoo? As soon as you get in the door, the child takes off running for the nearest attraction, and you struggle to catch up before he gets lost in the crowd or gets into trouble. You give chase, only to find him pressed up against the glass, googly-eyed over the newest and greatest toy, or the majestic tiger. Then, you are faced with the task of prying him away from the new-found object of his affections so that you can proceed according to an orderly plan so that you can accomplish what you intended.

Children are often wont to look before they listen. In the face of intensely appealing visual stimuli, no child I have known can sit still and listen to an adult's seemingly endless stream of words. And adults often are little different. Just watch people's reactions to the attendant's safety briefing at the beginning of a flight. Most people are looking, but paying no attention, except to find out when it is acceptable to turn on their iPods, close their eyes, and wake up in the next land.

A commercial aired during the Super Bowl which illustrates our difficulty with looking and listening. In the Pepsi Max ad, a man and a woman are on a first date. She is gazing across the table at him, thinking, I wonder if he has a good job... I wonder if he loves his mother... I wonder if he likes kids... and so forth. Meanwhile, he is staring at her, thinking, I want to sleep with her, I want to sleep with her, I want to sleep with her... I want her Pepsi Max, I want her Pepsi Max, I want her Pepsi Max. How different the conveyed thoughts of these two were!

So often, we have a great deal of trouble listening to the Word of God before we go looking for whatever it is we are seeking at the moment. What does the Word of God say to us? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” As I say that, some of you may already be glazing over, thinking, “Great. Another sermon on the First Commandment. I don't worship any false idols. There is no Buddha sitting in my living room. What's the problem here?” You may have just looked at your watch. But did you listen to what the Word says?

To love the Lord your God with your whole being is no easy task. In order to love Him fully, you must sacrifice yourself. You must give up any notion of your own goodness or merit. To love the Lord your God with your whole being means that you must despair of the fact that He is God and you are not. He is perfect, and you are not. He is love, and you, of yourself, do not know how to love. Left to your own devices, your love for God would be less than your love of the great outdoors or your love for chocolate ice cream or your love for the music of the Beatles. But the Word of God says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all...” To love the Lord is an all-or-nothing deal. You cannot love God and mammon. You cannot put your hand to the plow and look back. You must love the Lord your God with all you are and all you have.

Good luck with that. Since the Fall, such love for another, let alone God, is impossible. Oh sure, we see the neat, shiny slick God who makes us feel neat and helps us when we have spiritual heartburn and tells us how to live our best lives now. But that God is not the God who commands your love. We daily experience the malfunction of looking but not listening when we seek after a god that solves our problems, when we seek after a god who is easy on the eyes and easy on the heart. We like a god who can be found in the deep woods during hunting season. We like a god who can be found on the pillow on a lazy Sunday morning. We like a god who sits on the bookshelf between the car manual and the cookbook, ready to give the answer for what ails you at the moment. We like a god who gets along with everybody, who does not offend, who does not judge.

But when we look at this god, we are looking at an empty shell. The god just described is not a god, but closer to a pill. A god who is available to us anywhere and any which way is not a god who comes to us in love with his gifts. A god who gets along with everyone and never judges is not a god who saves. Such a god is not God the Lord of heaven and earth. Such a god is the god for which we look, but not the God to which we must listen.

For the God to which we must listen commands our love with our whole being. But how can we poor, miserable sinners ever hope to love God in such a manner? How can the Lord command something of us which is beyond our grasp, beyond our ability? Because the Lord our God has come to us in love and poured out His all-consuming love for us through His Son, Jesus Christ, our savior. In the person of Jesus Christ, we see the love of God come among us in the flesh, not to condemn us for our lack of love, but to give us the love of God in the forgiveness of our sins.

On the mount of transfiguration, Peter, James, and John saw Jesus transfigured, blazing as the sun, full of the glory of divinity. They saw the Lord standing there, talking with Moses and Elijah, and they wished to stay there. Seeing, they wanted to grasp what was beyond their reach. They wanted to partake of the glory of the only-begotten Son of God without partaking of the humiliation of the one innocent Son of Man. They wanted Easter without Good Friday. They were willing to drink the cup of blessing, but shied away from the cup of sorrow. That is, until the cloud overshadowed them, and the voice from heaven stripped away any pretense to which they might have been attached.

The voice came from heaven and pierced them with the glory of the knowledge of God: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him.” This one, transfigured in robes of blazing white, shining like the sun, is the very Son of God come into the flesh. It is Him to whom you do well to listen and heed. And the disciples fall on their faces before this awesome and aweful message. For this proclamation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ means that what He has said about Himself is true, what He has prophesied will happen, and so it did.

The Son of Man was handed over to the chief priests and teachers of the Law. He was beaten, mocked, and scorned by the Jews and the Romans. He was condemned to death for crimes He did not commit, and was nailed to the cross. He was stricken, smitten by men, and afflicted by God for the sins of the whole world. The Son of Man was lifted high upon the cross, and there He displayed to the world the glory of God in the face of His suffering. Jesus Christ displayed the love of God for His creation, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. The very Son of God gave His life into the hands of His creatures, so that He might die the death owed to us. Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, displayed His glory in becoming the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, so that we might become sons of God, full of His grace and love.

Now listen to Him. Listen to the beloved Son of God, arrayed in all His glory. He stands on the mountainside alone. Not with Moses and Elijah to proclaim the judgment of the Law. Not with the chief priests and Pharisees to tell you how to make it on your own. Not with the teachers of this age to tell you how to live with purpose and have your best life now. No, Jesus stands alone.

But Jesus stands alone before you and speaks His Word to you. And what is the Word He speaks? “Peace be with you.” He does not show you the Law and the Prophets and the mirror which displays your sin. Jesus shows you His hands and feet and His side, which bear the marks of His death for you. He speaks to you a word of peace. Jesus says to you, It is finished. Your sins are judged and your sentence is handed down. You are declared not guilty for My sake. I have borne the cost of your freedom, so that you may have My life, and have it abundantly. I give you My glory and my honor, so that you may enter the wedding feast of the King.

What you see in Jesus is not your best life now, but your best life eternally. Things will not go swimmingly here. Trials and tribulations will come. Sickness and death and heartache will come upon you. Martyrs and saints will give their lives for the faith. The ruler of this world will try to extinguish the light of the Gospel. But even as you stare at the open mouth of the grave, you will hear the voice of your heavenly Father, and not the voice of the prince of darkness. You will hear, This is my beloved son, with whom I am well-pleased. And until then, listen to the voice of Jesus as He says to you, “Take, eat, this is My Body, this is My Blood, shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. Peace be with you.” Listen, and you will see.

Fufiller of the past

And hope of things to be,

We hail Thy body glorified

And our redemption see.

'Tis good, Lord, to be here!

Yet we may not remain;

But since Thou bidst us leave the mount,

Come with us to the plain.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.