Today, the final Sunday of Epiphany, traditionally is focused on the Transfiguration of Our Lord. It was on the Mount of Transfiguration that three of the disciples, James, John, and Peter, saw the glory of Jesus with unveiled faces. This is what Paul refers to when he writes in 2 Corinthains 3:12-13, “Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold. We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away.”

In the Old Testament, when Moses saw the glory of the Lord face-to-face, he wore a veil because the people were frightened when they saw the glory of the Lord continue to radiate off the face of Moses. However, we, like the disciples on the Holy Mount, are not to wear a veil to hide the glory of the Lord that should radiate through us as the Holy Spirit does His work in our hearts and lives.

It is interesting how Paul describes the reason the Israelites wanted Moses to hide his face. It was to prevent them “from seeing the end of what was passing away.” The glory of the Lord that radiated from Moses was meant to be an encouragement of what was new, but if we, like the Israelites, are holding on to the old, the new is frightening. When we proclaim the truth of God’s Word, even though the most recent parts of it were written nearly 2000 years ago, it still proclaims the coming of something new and the end of the old. This is frightening to those who are holding desperately on to the old. This is why they want us to live our faith under a veil. This is why they want to try to silence the truth of God’s Word.

But Paul says that as believers we are not allowed to do this. Wherever we go, we are to let the light of God’s truth radiate from us. We are to be salt and light in every part of this world. To faithfully radiate that light, we need to always do it in the same spirit with which God sent His light into the world – to rescue those who sit in darkness. We are not on a mission to condemn the world but to save it by pointing people to the glory of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

This world tries to tell us that its ways are the “new” and we are the ones holding onto the “old,” but the opposite is true. The recycled ideas of this sinful world are nothing new; they use the same lies. It is the Gospel of Jesus alone that proclaims something entirely new and distinct from the ways of the world, and we must never been ashamed of its transforming power.