Have you ever wondered what Jesus actually looks like? Many of us grew up seeing pictures like this, one of the many paintings of Jesus created by a man by the name of Warner Sallman. Sallman’s first painting of Jesus, entitled “The Head of Christ,” has sold more than 500 million copies since 1941, and I can almost guarantee that at one time or another you’ve seen some of Sallman’s other well-known paintings of Jesus – including those with names like “Christ at Heart’s Door,” “Christ in Gethsemane,” “The Lord Is My Shepherd” and “Christ Our Pilot.”
This one is usually referred to as “Portrait of Christ” – and like the other Sallman paintings, it depicts Jesus as being tall and slender, with a rather long face, a high forehead, a full beard, long, flowing brown hair and dark blue eyes. Did Jesus actually look like this? Possibly. But probably not.
The fact of the matter is that none of the Gospel writers gives us any kind of description at all of what Jesus looked like. We do have Isaiah’s prophecy, 700 years before Jesus was born, that he would have “no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.” We also know that when Judas was hired to betray Jesus, he was instructed to identify Jesus by kissing Him – for otherwise, Jesus probably looked a lot like his disciples and those who followed him.
Historically, we know that Jewish men who lived in Israel 2,000 years ago generally were short, had dark hair and were somewhat dark-skinned. So was Jesus short, did Jesus have dark hair and was his skin darker than ours? Again – we just don’t know. In the overall scheme of things, it really doesn’t matter.
But on this day, the Sunday that we celebrate the Transfiguration of our Lord, the appearance of Jesus does matter. In today’s Gospel lesson from Luke chapter 9 and in the parallel accounts included in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, Scripture tells us how Jesus appeared – for just a brief period of time – to the disciples Peter, James and John. For what was probably no more than a few incredible minutes, the appearance of Jesus was transfigured. No matter how Jesus may have looked in his everyday life, on this occasion His appearance was changed. Luke writes that “his face was altered and his clothing became dazzling white.” Matthew tells us that “his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” Mark puts it this way: “his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.”
The word “transfigured” is similar in meaning to our word “transformed.” In the transfiguration, the appearance of Jesus was transformed – it was changed – and even though the disciples recognized who Jesus was, they were seeing Him in a way they had never seen Him before.
One of my Seminary professors, Dr. David Scaer, describes this scene far better than I could ever hope to do so, and I would like to quote from a 1988 sermon that Dr. Scaer gave on this same Gospel lesson. He said, “The Transfiguration is that one moment in the life of Jesus when three of His disciples could see who Jesus really is. In the Transfiguration Jesus’ humanity was transformed by His divinity. Every part of His body was permeated by the glory that belongs only to God.”
We remember that the word “epiphany” relates to revelations, and during these past weeks we have focused on the miracles and the events that have revealed Jesus to be the Messiah, the true and only Son of God. But today is different. As Dr. Scaer says, “In the transfiguration we do not see God’s glory in what Jesus did; we see the glory that is Jesus Himself.”
Even as the disciples see Jesus in His heavenly glory, they see Him joined by two other men – Moses and Elijah – and we are told that they also appear “in glory.” In verses 30 and 31, Luke tells us, “And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” The Greek word that we translate here as “departure” is pronounced “exodus” – just like the second book of the Old Testament is named and pronounced “Exodus.” “Exodus” means departure or going out – but if you’re going out from somewhere, then you must be going to somewhere else. In the Old Testament, the exodus referred to God leading His people from the bondage of Egypt to the glories of Israel, the Promised Land. But the exodus being discussed by Jesus, Moses and Elijah is much bigger than that. The exodus being discussed by Jesus, Moses and Elijah will lead all of God’s people from the bondage of sin to the glories of that greater and eternal Promised Land – Heaven.
The presence of Moses and Elijah gives witness to the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies that fill the pages of the Old Testament. Then God the Father, in a voice that came from the cloud, gave the greatest witness of all to the divinity of Jesus: “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!”
We know from our knowledge of the four Gospels that of all the disciples, Peter is the one most likely to be the first to speak whenever anything happens – and more often than not, he starts talking before he ever stops to think about what he’s going to say. In verse 33, Luke writes: “And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah’ – not knowing what he said.” Your first reaction might be that Peter seems to be putting Jesus on the same level as Moses and Elijah – putting Jesus the Messiah on the same level as the Prophets who foretold Him. Now that probably wasn’t his intention – that’s just the way his words sounded.
But when Peter talks about making three tents, his big mistake is that he wants to preserve that moment in time – he wants to keep Jesus on that mountain with Moses and Elijah and himself and James and John. This particular moment seems so great to him that he never wants it to end.
What Peter doesn’t realize is that if Jesus and the rest of them were to stay on top of the mountain, then God’s plan for the salvation of His people – the plan foretold by the prophets – would never have taken place, would never have been completed. “This is my Son, my Chosen One,” the voice of God told the disciples. Jesus must turn his face to Jerusalem, where he knows that he will suffer and die. Jesus must leave the mountain of transfiguration, where He briefly appeared in all of His heavenly glory, and begin His journey to the hill of Golgotha where His appearance will be nothing but that of shame, disgrace and suffering. Jesus must leave that glorious mountaintop so that his battered and murdered body can be place in the depths of the earth – in a borrowed tomb carved out of rock. Jesus is His Father’s “Chosen One” and He must leave the mountain of transfiguration so that He can complete the work of His Father.
Jesus must begin His exodus – the exodus that will lead us and all believers from the bondage of sin to the glories of heaven. In heaven we, too, will see Jesus in his glory as the disciples briefly saw Him on that day. And when we and all believers have been resurrected from the dead, our bodies will be glorified just as Moses and Elijah were seen to be glorified.
Today, the Sunday of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, marks a time of change in the Christian church year. Just a little over seven weeks ago, the glory of the Lord illuminated the skies over Bethlehem, as the angels announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds in the field. When Jesus was presented in the Temple at the age of eight days, Simeon proclaimed that he had seen “a light for revelation to the gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel.” On Epiphany we celebrated the arrival of the Magi, who came from the east to worship the King of the Jews – guided by the light of a great and mysterious star. And now, today, the disciples have been a brief glimpse of Jesus in all of His heavenly glory. “The appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white.”
Three days from now we mark Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten season. During Lent we will see how the forces of darkness – the forces of evil – will conspire to extinguish the light of the world who truly is Jesus Christ. They will see Him not in His glory – but as a common, hated and despised man who must be destroyed. They will scheme and plot and conspire against Him. They will convince one of His own disciples to forsake his Lord and betray Him. In those final hours and minutes before His death, a supernatural darkness will cover the land. Jesus will cry out from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” His lifeless body will be placed in darkness of that borrowed tomb. But not for long! At the first light of Easter morning, Jesus is resurrected from the dead. It was the first day of the week – the same day that God created light – and the tomb is forever empty.
Have you ever wondered what Jesus looks like? Could He look like he is depicted in this painting by Warner Sallman? Does it matter? No. What matters is that Jesus suffered and died for our sins, and on the third day he rose from the dead. What matters is that someday – when He is ready – we will see Him. And no matter how He may have looked during his brief life here on earth, we will recognize Him. We will recognize Him as our Lord and Savior. We will see Him in His eternal glory – not for a few brief moments as Peter, James and John saw him on the mountain, but for all eternity. For when Jesus began His exodus on the mount of transfiguration, He brought us – each and every one of us – with Him.
Quotations from Dr. David Scaer are from “In Christ; The Collected Works of David P. Scaer, Lutheran Confessor; Volume I: Sermons.”
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