Our senses are important. Recently, my dad, who will be 84 years old, got hearing aids. For years we knew that he needed them. We always accused him of selective hearing – hearing only what he wanted to hear. But I guess he really wasn’t hearing everything. So he got them and he was asking one of his buddies about his hearing aids. “How does your family like your hearing aids?” “Well, I haven’t told them that I got them yet. But now that I can hear what they have been saying I have changed my will three different times.” I think my dad was warning me!!

If hearing is important eyesight is just as important. Recently in Riverton, Wyoming a 26-year-old man was arrested for stealing a bottle of schnapps from a grocery store. After he stole the bottle his escape plan was not the best!! He ran and hid in the building next to the store, which was the police station. I guess he just didn’t see where he was going!!

Here at Ascension we have more than our fair share of people who have had trouble with their sight. Corrective lenses, contacts and laser eye surgery are common. Lots of you have had cataract surgery. Some have battled glaucoma or macular degeneration. Sight, for many of us, is a major issue!!

And sight for Moses was all that God gave him concerning the Promised Land. Moses was 120 years old, “yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone” (Deuteronomy 34:7) and he climbs to the top of Mt. Nebo. (If Mary Farley can get to the top of Mt. Sinai in her 80’s, Moses can go to the top of Nebo at 120!!) And he sees the Promised Land but he is told that he would never enter it. How sad!!

The account of Moses is quite amazing. He is put into a basket when he is a child and floated down the Nile River. He is adopted into the household of Pharaoh and rises to a great place of power. But when he can stand the sin no longer he leaves the royal family, becoming a shepherd until God appears to him and makes him into the savior, the leader of Israel. For 40 years he leads them, teaches them, and takes them from slavery to the edge of their new home. But he never gets to place a toe into this holy place. Moses had failed to uphold the holiness of God among the people of Israel and God said, “Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel.” (Deuteronomy 32:52)

Of the greatness of this man the Bible says, “Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those miraculous signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt – to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.” (Deuteronomy 34:10-12) He could look but he couldn’t touch. He could anticipate but he couldn’t experience. He had struggled with these people and for these people and he could see the Promised Land, what he had preached about for decades, but he couldn’t get there. There is such a limitation to sight!!

But 1,500 years later God allowed him to not only step into the Promised Land but to see the Promise – Jesus Christ!! Jesus had hiked to a mountain to pray, “[And] as He was praying, the appearance of His face changed, and His clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about His departure, which He was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:29-31) For Peter, James and John, the three that had gone with Jesus to this mountain, this was quite a sight!! The splendor of Jesus that He was hiding beneath His skin was apparent. He glowed like the sun. His deity was in full view. They saw it. But this viewing of Jesus came not just with eyes but it came with ears and heart and faith. Just like at His baptism the voice of God the Father spoke, “This is My Son, whom I have chosen, listen to Him.” (Luke 9:35)

In that moment Moses got to see clearly the majesty and the purpose and ministry of Jesus. He saw the brightness, but then they got to talk about His purpose – Jerusalem and the cross, suffering for the payment of sins and the greater, more glorious day of defeating the enemies of darkness by His resurrection. Moses got to truly see!!

Have you caught a good vision of Christ? Sometimes it is so hard to see Him. Our eyes get clouded. They lose focus. We get distracted from a clear focus on him. Sin, darn sin, gets in the way. We forget His purpose of saving, calling and transforming us into His own people. Back in 2005 I had been here for 3 weeks and I ran into Pastor Voigt who had just retired after 30 years in this pulpit. He asked how things were and I said that I had already used up my three good sermons and I didn’t know what to say next. And very astutely he told me that I only had one good sermon. (I guess he had heard me preach!!) He meant I only had one message, only one thing to say, only one hope for us all - Christ. What do you see? We only have one thing to share around here – Christ!!

St. Paul in Ephesians 1 centers on the One that we must see, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints.” (Verses 17-18)

In the hymn Amazing Grace the writer says, “Amazing grace – how sweet the sound – that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see!” (LSB 744, verse 1) Christ made us see our great need, our deadness and blindness and then we have a clear vision that His love has sought us and found us and made us alive and restored our sight. Our focus is clearly on Jesus Christ. In Him sins are forgiven. In His resurrection death is destroyed. Our heart sees Him!!

And we see Him not because we are smarter than others, or somehow better!! We see Him because we have been gifted with faith. Paul paints the picture of someone who has a veil in front of their eyes in unbelief but when faith is given the veil is lifted. “But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” (II Corinthians 3:14-16) It is my prayer that in our Bible classes, our Sunday School, in our Worship services and all that we do we can see Christ, the Promise. We can be like Moses who on that Transfiguration Day saw the glory and listened to the love.

The work of Christ is not only what you see – Christ, clearly our only Savior and our Lord, but it is also how you are seen. I read that therapists and photographers say that by a certain age, somewhere around 25 years-old, attractiveness becomes increasingly a dimension of the personality rather than of the body. (For most of us that is the best news we have heard today!!) In other words, the way we appear is more emotional or spiritual than physical. Beauty is more of who we are than simply our genetic makeup.

What do you see? How are you seen? God’s good Word says, “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (II Corinthians 3:18) Transfiguration Sunday is His Sunday – it tells us of His greatness, but this is also our Sunday. We can experience transformation, change and improvement – all by the strong hand of God.

What do you see? I hope you see Him at work in your life and our lives. But what is even more amazing is that work of God in the lives of those who still have the veils over their eyes, who don’t see Christ yet as their Savior, who haven’t accepted that Christ needs to be their Lord. What we want to see, what our mission is as a Christian church, what our purpose is as disciples of Jesus Christ, is for many others to see Him as you see Him – A Savior, a Strength, a Promise, a Leader and a Friend.

What do you see? Our Jesus is a majestic Lord doing majestic work. Amen.