In our gospel lesson for today Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”[1] The question “who is Jesus?” has been asked for thousands of years and has been answered in thousands of ways. Still today people are asking “who is Jesus?”. Some say He is an 8lbs 6oz baby who wears a golden fleece diaper and dispenses gifts from His chubby infant hands like a tiny Santa Clause. Others say He is a life-coach, guide, or guru who helps us live purpose driven lives that lead to wealth and success. Still others say He is a spiritual muse who fills us with goodness and inspires us to be kinder gentler people.
We typically try to answer the question “who is Jesus?” with a little more insight. As theologians, and we are all theologians (just some of us are better than others), we try to answer the question by speaking of three offices; saying Jesus is a prophet, and He is a priest, and He is a king. Or we try to answer the question by speaking of two natures; saying Jesus is true God and Jesus is true man. Or we try answering the question by speaking of Jesus as one of the three persons in the one true God. But then we also read in scripture and see Jesus described as a piece of bread, or an open doo,r or a narrow road, or the cornerstone, capstone, and foundation of a building.
As you can see, even for theologians, such as ourselves, it is not easy to answer the question, “who is Jesus?”. Today we are going to get some assistance from Exodus 34:5-9as we try to answer the question, “Who is Jesus?”.
In this section of Exodus Moses is standing atop Mount Sinai waiting to see the glory of God. This is not the first time Moses stood atop Mount Sinai with God. As a matter of fact, he was just there to receive the Ten Commandments God had engraved on two stone tablets. Moses had to descend Sinai because the Israelites had taken the gold they had plundered from the Egyptian when God miraculously set them free from slavery and delivered them from death and decided to use that gold to forge a golden calf so that they would have an idol they could bow down and worship instead of the God Who miraculously set them free from slavery and delivered them from death. When Moses returned to the camp and saw the Israelites singing and dancing around the golden calf, he got so angry he smashed the two stone tablets on the ground, then he ground the golden calf into a powder and made the Israelites drink it, and then he executed about 3,000 people (Moses didn’t play when it came to idolatry).
After the Israelites rebellion, Moses needed a little reassurance that God had not forsaken them or him and that is when Moses asked to see God’s glory. God told Moses no sinner could see the face of the holy God and live. The most Moses could handle was to see God’s back, His hinder parts, His rear end. God agreed to show Moses a glimpse of His glory, but even more than that God told Moses He would also proclaim His name, the LORD (that is capital L O R D by the way.) God told Moses who would proclaim capital LORD in his presence.[2] This is not a simple “Hi, my name is Chuck” kind of thing. By proclaiming His name, the LORD, God was offering to let Moses know not simply what his God looks like but Who his God really is.
So, Moses goes back up the mountain to get a glimpse of God’s glory and learn Who his God really is. That is where our text for today begins. We are told, “the LORD came down in a cloud…”. Remember no sinner can see the holy God and live so God always must conceal Himself to reveal Himself. Here not only does God stick Moses in a cave and only allow Moses to see his hinder parts but God also wraps Himself in a cloud. You kind of get the impression Who God is, is more important than what God looks like.
From within the cloud God proclaims, “6… The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God…”. God reveals Himself to Moses as the LORD of compassion and grace. To be compassionate is to have affection for others; specifically, others who are in need. A synonym for compassion is pity. To be compassionate to the needs of others is a good thing, but it doesn’t really benefit the person in need. To benefit the person in need one must also be gracious. A gracious person has the ability, desire, and determination to give a person what they need. By calling Himself the LORD, God was telling Moses that He has a God Who knows what he needs and is going to do something about his need.
That in and of itself would be enough, but God isn’t done telling Moses who He is. Indeed, God is just getting started. God continues by telling Moses the LORD is “…6… slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness…”. God further reveals Himself to Moses as the LORD of patience and faithfulness. The way the Hebrew expresses patience is rather amusing. We translate it as “slow to anger” but the Hebrew is “long nostrils”. Maybe the idea is when you get angry your nostrils flare, or maybe the Hebrew wants us to imagine our God taking a deep breath? To learn that his God had “long nostrils” was comforting to Moses (especially after that whole golden calf incident). But even more comforting, in the next breath, God connects His patience with people with His own faithfulness. A faithful person is a a person who does what they say they are going to do regardless of what anyone else may or may not do. By calling Himself the LORD, God was telling Moses that he has a God Who is patient with sinful people and at the same time keeps His saving promise.
To build on the LORD’s patience and faithfulness, God tells Moses the LORD is “7… forgiving”; specifically forgiving of “wickedness, rebellion, and sin.” God reveals Himself to Moses as the LORD of forgiveness. When you forgive someone, you take away the punishment of the offense and lift the burden of guilt from them. God tells Moses the LORD forgives the “wicked”. A wicked person is a person who tries to warp twist or distort the truth. God tells Moses the LORD forgives the “rebellious”. A rebellious person does whatever they want to do even if it means breaking The Law. God tells Moses the LORD forgives the “sinful”. A sinful person is a person who misses the mark; fails to do what they should do. By calling Himself the LORD, God was telling Moses that he has a God Who takes away the punishment and removes the burden of guilt from people who quite frankly don’t deserve to be forgiven.
To balance the LORD’s forgiveness, God tells Moses the LORD, “does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.” God reveals Himself to Moses as the LORD of punishment. Let me explain that last part right away so you don’t get distracted and miss the point. The LORD does not punish innocent children. First of all, there are no innocent children and that is the point. Earlier in Exodus, when the LORD is giving Moses the first draft of the Ten Commandments, the LORD says these same words to Moses but there He more fully explains who He is punishing. In Exodus 20:5 the LORD says, “I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me…”. The LORD does not punish innocent people, He punishes people who are not sorry for their sin. He punishes God haters, people who dismiss His compassion and grace, people who test His patience and question His faithfulness, people who reject His forgiveness. By calling Himself the LORD, God was telling Moses that his God is not some indulgent deity who looks the other way, rather He is the punisher of the impenitent.
Even when you include the sobering description of the LORD as punisher of the impenitent, you can see how a proclamation of the LORD would be reassuring for Moses. Even after the Israelites bowed down to worship a golden calf instead of the God Who miraculously set them free from slavery and delivered them from death, God had not forsaken the Israelites and He had not forsaken their leader, Moses. Rather, God reassured Moses his God is a compassionate and gracious, patient and faithful, and, for the repentant, forgiving LORD.
We can see how a proclamation of the LORD would be comforting for Moses, and we are happy for Moses but, aren’t we supposed to be answering the question, “who is Jesus?”? What does this proclamation atop mount Sinai have to do with Jesus? Well, it has everything to do with Jesus. Martin Luther believed the one speaking to Moses atop Mount Sinai was none other than the second person of the trinity, the pre-incarnate Christ, that is Jesus as true God before He is conceived in the womb of Mary and becomes also true man. I tend to agree with Doctor Luther, not only because he was a pretty smart dude, but more because the New Testament writers seem to have no problem identifying Jesus as LORD. The writers of the New Testament identify Jesus as LORD directly by title but also by description. As the writers of the New Testament describe Jesus, they describe Him as the literal and physical embodiment of what it means to be the LORD.
Jesus saw how desperately we needed a Savior from our sin and in His compassion and grace Jesus chose to leave the right hand of God the Father Almighty so that He could be born among us, suffer instead of us, and die to save us. Jesus knows you are far from perfect; He sees how often and how badly you keep His Commandments, but His nostrils do not flare at you. Jesus is patient with you and even when you are faithless to His commands, He remains faithful to His promise. Finally, Jesus is forgiving. To the impenitent, to all who are sorry for their wickedness, rebellion and sin; to those appreciate His compassion and grace, who count on His patience and faithfulness, who cry out for His forgiveness, Jesus takes punishment away from them and lifts from them the burden of guilt. Jesus is the very embodiment of what it means to be the LORD, which is why I believe Jesus was the one talking to Moses atop mount Sinai.
Knowing that Jesus is the LORD is just as reassuring for us as it was for Moses and the Israelites. We may not have forged a golden calf to worship, but we are no less wicked, rebellious, and sinful. Who here has not tried to distort the truth of God’s Word to say what they want it to say? Who here has not knowingly and intentionally broken a commandment simply because it was preventing you from doing what you wanted to do? Conversely, who here has perfectly done the good they said they were going to do or perfectly resisted the evil they said they were not going to do? We may not have forged a golden calf, but we are just as wicked, rebellious, and sinful as those who did. Yet Jesus, our LORD, has not forsaken us.
When Moses heard the name LORD proclaimed he “8 bowed to the ground at once and worshiped”. “9… Forgive us!”, he pleaded. “9… Take us!”, he prayed. We have gathered here today to do the same. Dear Jesus, we plead, forgive our wickedness, rebellion, and sin. Dear Jesus, we pray, take us to be with you in paradise.
Who is Jesus? There are so many different ways you can answer that question. There are some not so good answers and there are some theologically sound scripturally supported answers. Today in Exodus 34:5-9 we learn the answer to the question is this. Jesus is the compassionate and gracious, patient and faithful, and, for penitent sinners like you and me, forgiving LORD. Or to put it simply and succinctly, Jesus is the LORD. Amen.
[1] Matthew 16:13-14
[2] Exodus 33:19