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

            While Peter was still talking, look! (Matthew says) a radiant cloud overshadowed them; and, look! (he says again) a voice from the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him.” Peter, stop talking and listen to Jesus. But what should they hear? Before and after they go up on the mountain, Jesus tells them that He is going to suffer, die, and rise from the dead. On the way down the mountain, He says, “Don’t tell anyone what you saw until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” And when He touches them, He says, “Rise, and stop being afraid.” Which is what the women hear twice in the last chapter of Matthew, from the angel and from Jesus: “Stop being afraid.” Listen to Him: He is going to die and be raised from the dead.

            Listen to Him. And when they lifted up their eyes and looked around, they saw no one except Jesus Himself only. No voice, no cloud, no Moses and Elijah. Just Jesus. Hear Him only. It might be nice to have the vision of Jesus transfigured on the mountain, but only those three disciples saw it. The rest of the disciples did not. And they may not even have heard of it until Jesus was raised. Tell no one. But even Peter, who saw that sight and heard that Voice, writes, “We have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you would do well to pay attention, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” Something more sure than that vision? Something more sure than seeing Jesus talk to Moses and Elijah, who hadn’t been on the earth in thousands of years? Yes, something more sure: the prophetic word. The only thing we have: the word that prophesies of Jesus, and now the apostolic word that bears witness to the Jesus who fulfills that prophecy. Listen to Him!

            It is clear; God Himself commands it: Listen to Him. Hear His words, the words inspired by the Holy Spirit, every one of which testifies to Him. Hear those words. Don’t take them for granted. Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them. Chew on them. Meditate on them. What you eat becomes who you are. Eat these words, like Ezekiel. Memorize them. Start with your favorite verses. Memorize a psalm. Write it on a piece of paper and carry it around with you. You never know when you will need the comfort or encouragement or promise or exhortation that you memorize. Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will bring to your remembrance everything He said. But it’s hard to bring it to your remembrance when it was never in your memory at all. So hear those words and commit them to your mind and heart. They are not dead words, but the living word of the living Jesus. Will you go away, too, Jesus says to Peter and the disciples? No, Lord. Where would we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.

            But there’s more. It is a great temptation to think that Jesus’ words belong in here, as if we were stuck on that mountain. As if His words were only valid in here, or only true in here. But Jesus is not Lord only in here. He is not alive only in here. He is not the Truth and the Life only in here. Jesus hasn’t come only for Christians. When you go out there, wherever you go, you have not left behind the lordship of Jesus. God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. In His death and resurrection, He didn’t only begin a Church, He began a new creation. That means that He is Lord over all of it. It may look like the devil is in charge out there. And no doubt, wherever sin and death reign, there is a sense in which he is the god of this age. Of this age, but not of this creation. God is making all things new.

            And there’s another temptation, another danger for us. That is to hear the words of Jesus for a little time, maybe this short time when we’re here. But think about how many hours and how many other words there are. Certainly, Jesus’ words are more powerful than all those other words. But for us, to whom the sinful flesh clings, which does not want to hear Jesus or for Him to have His way, it is easy for us to let the millions of words in the hundreds of hours overwhelm, obscure, and hide the words of Jesus that we hear. But we do not hear Jesus’ words alongside other words, as if they were equivalent. No, if Jesus is Lord and if this is still God’s creation, which He will reveal on the last day as made new in Christ, then we don’t hear Jesus’ words alongside other words. We hear all those other words through Jesus’ words. It is easy, of course, to start hearing Jesus’ words through all those other words, to filter the only living words through all the dead and passing words in this world. But it is to you, just as much as to Peter, James, and John, that the Father speaks: This is My beloved Son, in whom is all My good pleasure; listen to Him. Listen to Him only. And hear everything else through the one who is Lord now and forever, who will put all things under His feet: every rule, power, authority, government; sin, devil, and death as well. He is Lord, and this is our Father’s world.

            So when you go out there, wherever you go, hear Him. Every class you go to, everything you learn, anything true and good is His. Every time you go to work, the people you serve, whether you know them or not; they are all His, and your good works for their sake are His. Everyone you meet, everything you do, everything you see, all is under His dominion. So whatever you do, see, or hear—all those words in all those hours: hear it all through the word of absolution: I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Everything you hear, hear it all through the identity and the new birth He has given you in Holy Baptism. Everything you do and everything you see: do and see it all through the living body and blood of Jesus that you eat and drink in this place. What Jesus does here, as your Lord, will become evident for all creation on the day He appears. Every eye will see and every ear will hear. The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof. Hear Him, now and always.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Amen.

– Pr. Timothy Winterstein, 2/13/26