Lifting the Veil
By Rev. Heidi L. Barham | March 2, 2025
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Read 2 Corinthians 3:12 – 4:2 (NIV)
If we were to take a look at the traditional calendar, we would see that today is March 2nd, the first Sunday in the month of March. Now according to some meteorologists, the month of March should theoretically be the point when we begin the shift from winter into spring... since technically, the preceding three months are supposedly the worst winter weather months. (Clearly, those weather people must not be from around here...)
However, if were to take a look at the liturgical calendar, we would see that today is Transfiguration Sunday... the last Sunday before the Lenten season begins... when our focus makes the shift from celebrating the birth of Christ during the Advent and Christmas season to remembering the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.
It is during the season of Lent that we are encouraged to reflect on Jesus’ sacrifice for us... His willingness to take on the punishment that our sins deserved.... the punishment that ultimately led to a cross at Calvary.
Lent is a season of reflection and remembrance as well as intentional introspection that culminates with our celebration of Jesus’ definitive victory over the grave on Resurrection Sunday.
It is during the 40 days of Lent, that we are called to take an account of our personal walk with Jesus... as we engage in various disciplines, including prayer and fasting and studying... all of which are designed to help us on our journey to become more and more like Christ.
Looking at our text this morning from Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Church, we are provided with the opportunity to think about what it means for us to be changed to reflect the image of Christ... and it is from that frame of reference that I want to invite us to ponder the subject: LIFTING THE VEIL.
Now, as we are preparing to look more closely at this text, I would like to read it again as it comes from the Message Paraphrase:
With that kind of hope to excite us, nothing holds us back. Unlike Moses, we have nothing to hide. Everything is out in the open with us. He wore a veil so the children of Israel wouldn’t notice that the glory was fading away—and they didn’t notice. They didn’t notice it then and they don’t notice it now, don’t notice that there’s nothing left behind that veil. Even today when the proclamations of that old, bankrupt government are read out, they can’t see through it. Only Christ can get rid of the veil so they can see for themselves that there’s nothing there. Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.Paul starts out by calling our attention to our Old Testament reading this morning... pointing back to the time when Moses went up on Mt. Sinai and came down with the second set of tablets containing the Ten Commandments (see Exodus 34:29 – 35).
Since God has so generously let us in on what he is doing, we’re not about to throw up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard times. We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don’t maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don’t twist God’s Word to suit ourselves. Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God.
Now, unbeknownst to Moses at the time, his face was radiant with a glow that came as a result of having spoken directly to the Lord. And according to the scriptures, this radiance was so brilliant... it caused Moses’ brother, Aaron, and the Israelites, to stay back because they were afraid to get too close to him.
However, Moses did not let that deter him from telling them about everything that God had told him up on Mt. Sinai. And once Moses finished recounting what had happened... he covered his face with a veil but, whenever he would go before the presence of God to speak with Him again... Moses would remove the veil.
Now whenever Moses would come out from speaking to the Lord, he would tell the Israelites what God had commanded... and they would be able to see that his face was radiant... that is, until Moses put the veil back on again.
However, reflecting on Paul’s account of all this in our text for this morning... he suggests that Moses put the veil on to keep the Israelites from seeing that the radiance was fading away... and he went on to explain that the old covenant that the Israelites lived by was like that veil... covering up what was fading away... hiding the truth that they were living by a set of laws and commands that would never set them free.
But Paul lets them (and us) know there is hope for those who turn to the Lord because by LIFITING THE VEIL from our faces... Christ is transforming us to become more and more like Him...
And that brings us to the first point I want to highlight from our text, which is that as a result of Jesus LIFTING THE VEIL from our faces... we have the promise of being changed forever.
Now, this story of Moses actually calls to mind another mountaintop experience... one that involved the transfiguration of Jesus... particularly fitting since today is Transfiguration Sunday.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke all contain the story of Jesus taking His inner circle of disciples, Peter, John and James, up onto a mountain to pray (see Matthew 17:1 -13; Mark 9:2 – 13; Luke 9:28 – 36).
And while Jesus was praying, the gospel accounts tell us that the appearance of His face changed, and his clothes became blinding white... radiant even. And that suddenly, the disciples saw, not only Jesus, but Moses and Elijah as well.
And as if that were not enough to take in... each of the gospel writers tell us that in the midst of all this... the disciples suddenly heard a voice from the cloud saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him” (Luke 9:35).
And then just like that, Jesus was standing before them alone once again.
Now with that story as the backdrop... what Paul draws our attention to in our text this morning, is that... in a sense, like Jesus, we, too, are being transfigured... and that by LIFTING THE VEIL from our faces... Jesus reveals just how bright and beautiful our lives will become.
And that brings us to the second point I want to highlight from the text... which is that because of Jesus LIFTING THE VEIL, we are now able to show others what it means to be changed and shaped more and more in the image of Christ.
Now, as we keep reading Paul’s letter, we are reminded that being transformed to become more and more like Christ does not come without some challenges along the way. But no matter what may happen, Paul offers encouragement for us to keep the faith... and to speak the truth... even when that truth may be hard for some people to hear.
Paul’s admonition to the church, and to us as well, is not to lose heart on the journey and not to give into deceptive practices. We need to be sure we are not distorting God’s Word... and we need to live in such a way so that anyone who is watching us and listening to what we say will get the truth about who God is.
It is not about simply saying what other people want to hear to make them feel good... it is about living and proclaiming the truth, even when it might make some people uncomfortable.
It is why Paul later wrote to his young protégé, Timothy,
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:3-4)We are living in a day and time when people need to hear the hard truth and not simply quick sound bites that are pleasing to the ear. And as His followers, Jesus helps us to discover those hard truths by LIFTING THE VEIL... so we can continue to draw closer and closer to Him.
And once we know the truth, we have a duty and an obligation to share it with others... letting them know that following Christ will not always be easy... but it will always be worth it.
I want to share an illustration I came across that speaks to the transformation that results from following Christ. It is attributed to someone named, David Roher and it reads:
The motor home has allowed us to put all the conveniences of home on wheels. A camper no longer needs to contend with sleeping in a sleeping bag, cooking over a fire, or hauling water from a stream. Now he can park a fully equipped home on a cement slab in the midst of a few pine trees and hook up to a water line, a sewer line and electricity.Sadly, however, that is exactly why some people are so hesitant to surrender their lives to Christ and are so resistant to the call to be transformed... because they have become too attached to all the trappings of their old life.
[The author continues] One motor home I saw recently had a satellite dish attached on top. No more bother with dirt, no more smoke from the fire, no more drudgery of walking to the stream. Now it is possible to go camping and never have to go outside. We buy a motor home with the hope of seeing new places, of getting out into the world. Yet we deck it out with the same furnishings as in our living room. Thus nothing really changes. We may drive to a new place, set ourselves in new surroundings, but the newness goes unnoticed, for we've only carried along our old setting.
[He closes by saying] The adventure of new life in Christ begins when the comfortable patterns of the old life are left behind. (Patterns of the Old Life Left Behind | Bible.org)
But material wealth has no lasting value in the grand scheme of things. It can all be swept away in an instant... but Christ calls us to a new life, one that is built on a relationship and a firm foundation that will last for eternity.
Which is why if we were to keep reading just a couple of more chapters into 2 Corinthians (5:17), we would read, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
And that new life in Christ does not depend upon the size of one’s bank account, the amount of square footage in one’s home or the make and model of one’s luxury vehicle. It depends solely on the unconditional and everlasting love of a Savior who gave His life for us at Calvary.
And that calls to mind another image of LIFTING THE VEIL.
Some of you may have participated in, or at least attended, or perhaps watched a traditional wedding ceremony where the bride comes down the aisle wearing a veil over her face. And after the couple has said their vows and the minister has made the final pronouncement... the veil is lifted... and the wedding vows are then sealed with a kiss.
In this context, LIFTING THE VEIL reveals the new bride and the kiss marks the start of the couple beginning their new life together... prayerfully so they can live happily ever after.
Well, throughout the scriptures, there are references to the fact that we are that bride... the “bride of Christ” that is... and in our text Paul refers to our faces being covered with a veil.
Now when anyone becomes a Christian, Christ is the one who removes the veil... giving us the gift of eternal life and freedom from the legalism of this world... which is truly the only way for us to live happily ever after.
By LIFTING THE VEIL as the bride of Christ... we are set free from the sins of our past that would condemn us... and we are given the gift of God’s grace through Jesus the Christ.
LIFTING THE VEIL reveals that because of Christ... we have become like mirrors that reflect God’s glory so that we no longer see the person we used to be... we see only the possibilities of what is yet to come as we become more and more like Christ.
And by LIFTING THE VEIL, we are given a glimpse of what the future holds as we look forward to what God has in store for us. Because no matter how bleak things may look in this present moment... God has given us the promise of hope and a future (see Jeremiah 29:11). As Paul writes further in his letter to the Corinthians:
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4:16 – 18).And so, on this Transfiguration Sunday, as we are preparing to move into the season of Lent, I want to encourage us to thank Jesus for LIFTING THE VEIL and allowing us to open our eyes so we can see beyond the temporary and look toward the eternal glory that awaits us.
And with that thought in mind, I want to invite you to stand now and join in singing our Hymn of Discipleship: Open My Eyes #586. Back
