Unfinished Business

 

Jesu Juva

Deuteronomy 34:1-12                                                     

February 27, 2022

Transfiguration C                             

Dear saints of our Savior~

          Today’s Old Testament reading is about the death of Moses.  And although everybody has to die sometime, I think it’s safe to say that nobody died quite like Moses died.  For starters, Moses knew the time and the place of his death.  The place was Mount Nebo, just east of the Jordan River, across from Jericho.  The Lord had directed Moses to climb to the top, to take a good look at the Promised Land off in the distance, and then to “die on the mountain” (Deut. 32:50).

          Now, the top of a mountain doesn’t particularly sound like a bad place to die, especially if you’re 120 years old, like Moses was; but here’s the back story—the rest of the story as old Paul Harvey used to say.  Forty years had gone by since Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, through the Red Sea waters.  Forty years of mumbling and grumbling in the desert, forty years of trials and tribulations, forty years of manna and quail were almost over.  The Promised Land—a land flowing with milk and honey—was just across the Jordan River.  They were almost there.  But Moses would never set foot there.  God’s promise would not be fulfilled—Israel would not set foot in the Promised Land—until Moses was dead and gone.

          So, join me on the mountain with Moses, for just a moment.  Take a look around.  Thanks to modern technology you really can see what Moses saw from that mountain.  Later today do a google image search for “Mount Nebo,” and you’ll see what Moses saw:  All the Promised Land, north to south, east to west, as far as the [Mediterranean] sea.  To put this in context for you Wisconsinites, the view from Mount Nebo is even better than the view from the observation tower up in Peninsula State Park in Door County—minus the lush, green forest and the deep, blue Bay.

          You’ll need a computer to see what Moses saw; but you don’t need a computer to feel what Moses felt.  Of course, we aren’t told exactly how Moses felt, but it must have been bittersweet.  For there was a reason why Moses was not permitted to enter the Promised Land.  To put it simply, Moses had screwed up.  Moses had sinned.  It was because of his own sin against the Lord that he could only look at—but not enter—the Promised Land.

          What, exactly, did Moses do?  Well, that’s a good question.  To our way of thinking it was really a rather minor infraction that got Moses banned from the land of promise.  It started as a familiar scenario:  Moses and the Israelites were in the wilderness.  There was no water.  The people were whining.  So the Lord told Moses to bring forth water from a rock.  Moses was to “tell the rock” to yield its water.  But rather than “tell” the rock, Moses struck the rock two times with his staff (Num. 20:10-13).  It doesn’t seem like the crime of the century to us.  But God, who sees deep into the heart, saw that Moses did not believe Him—that Moses did not honor Him—that it was a lack of faith that prompted Moses to improvise upon the Lord’s command.

          That shameful episode must have been running through Moses’ mind as he stood atop Mount Nebo.  His sin, his failure, his regret, his remorse, his “if onlys,” his shame.  He had 120 years of life to get it right, but even Moses fell short.  Moses would die with unfinished business on his plate.

          You don’t have to live as long as Moses to feel what Moses felt—to recognize in your own life all of your own sins of omission—all of the things you should have done, but didn’t.  For God who saw deep into the heart of Moses also sees deeply into your heart.  And what He sees there is that you—like Moses—have not believed, have not trusted God’s Word, that you have not honored the Lord and have faithlessly refused to follow His commands.  Where God’s Word is concerned, you’ve edited and improvised, you’ve tweaked and twisted—all to make things easier for you.

          We need to join Moses on Mount Nebo and repent.  We need to survey our own sins of omission—all the things that we’ve left undone:  our lack of love for those who matter the most to us (and our indifference to the least and the lowly).  We have not obeyed God’s commands and we have not trusted His promises.  We haven’t forgiven others as God has forgiven us.  We haven’t set good examples for our children.  We haven’t been good stewards of the treasures God gives.  We haven’t used our bodies to glorify God or believed that these bodies are temples of His Holy Spirit.  So much good left undone.  So much unfinished and incomplete—too much to ever be able to make things right again.

          But we can’t stop there.  We can’t stop with Moses at Mount Nebo; because Moses himself didn’t stop at Mount Nebo.  Oh sure, Moses died there.  And somewhere on that mountain the earthly remains of Moses were buried by the Lord Himself.  But that wasn’t the end of Moses.   For today we hear of how Moses makes an all-star appearance on another mountain—the Mountain of Transfiguration.  And on this mountain (more than a thousand years later) we see Moses alive and well with Jesus.  Moses and Elijah appear in glory, together with Jesus—Jesus who shines brighter and purer than all the angels in the sky.

          Note well this scene, my fellow sinners:  Moses, who died a bittersweet death, who left this world confronted by his own sin and failure, Moses who never got to finish (in Canaan) the job he started (in Egypt)—there on the mount of Transfiguration stands this same Moses together with Jesus—Son of God and Son of Man.  And there, in that spot, together with Jesus, you also will one day stand.  You will stand where Moses stood!  One day you too will take your place with Jesus in glory.

          How do I know?  Well, the Holy Spirit did a little eavesdropping on the conversation between Jesus and Moses and Elijah.  And that Transfiguration conversation holds the key to your future.  It seems that they were talking about Jesus’ “departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.”  They weren’t admiring the view from that mountaintop.  They weren’t catching up on old times.  No, they were looking ahead to yet another mountain.  They were discussing Jesus’ cross—Jesus’ suffering—Jesus’ deathly departure on Mount Calvary.  For there the sins of Moses and Elijah—the sins of the whole world—would be paid for with the precious blood of Jesus.

          The view from Mount Calvary was horrific and dark.  It was a place of execution, where criminals were put to death on a tool of torture perfected by the Romans.  But there on that mountain we do need to see Jesus, your substitute.  For He hangs there in your place.  He bears your sins.  All your minor and major infractions, sins of omission and sins of commission, adultery and idolatry, murder and mayhem, Jesus bears it all away for you. 

          And right before Jesus dies, He declares the best of news for you:  It is finished.  Jesus’ saving work was finished; but that’s not all.  All the good in your life that remains unfinished and incomplete—all that good has been finished by Jesus.  What you have so miserably failed to do in your life, Jesus has perfectly completed for you.  It is finished.  Your incompletes are perfectly completed by Jesus’ holy sacrifice.  Through faith in Jesus, His perfect record of obedience counts for you.  Your guilt is taken away.  Your sin is atoned for.  And you are destined one day to stand with Jesus in resurrection glory.

          Today your life is still something of an unfinished symphony.  We know how things will turn out.  We glimpse that glory today with Jesus on the mountain peak.  But we don’t yet walk with Jesus on streets of gold.  Our days on this earth remain as a strange mixture of delights and dangers, bitter and sweet, joy and sorrow, sin and grace.  That’s why we’re here today.  Tis good, Lord, to be here.  Here Jesus shares His glory with you—hidden in the words of this sermon—hidden in the bread that is His body and the wine that is His blood—hidden in the cleansing words of absolution.  Your sins are forgiven.  Your unfinished business is all finished in Jesus.  That means you can live today with joy and contentment—with no regrets, no remorse, no if only’s, no shame.  For soon enough you too will see Jesus, just as Moses did:  face to face in the life of the world to come. 

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