Ep. 53: The Transfiguration
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MATTHEW 17:1-8, MARK 9:2-8, LUKE 9:28-36
Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ also identified his followers as the Church. It separated them, as it separated him from all around. It gathered them into one and it marked out the foundation on which the building made without hands was to rise. Without a doubt, this confession also marked the high point of the Apostles’ faith. Not until his Resurrection did it reach so high. It was necessary that at this stage in the history of the Christ and immediately after his proclamation, the sufferings and the rejection of the Messiah should be prominently brought forward.
Peter’s denial of this brought the response, ‘Get thee behind Me; thou art a stumbling-block unto me.’ Peter’s remark was surely a re-enactment of the great initial temptation by Satan after the forty days’ fast in the wilderness. Six days later we see the Saviour climb the Mount of Transfiguration with the three Apostles, Peter, James and John. There can scarcely be a reasonable doubt that Jesus and his disciples had not left the neighbourhood of Caesarea and so that ‘the mountain’ must have been one of the slopes of gigantic, snowy Hermon.
Edersheim paints a picture:
‘What a background for the Transfiguration; what surroundings for the Vision, what echoes for the Voice from heaven! It was evening when they climbed the path that led up to one of the heights of Hermon. In all the most solemn transactions of earth’s history, there have been few who have witnessed God’s great doings. Alone with his son, as the destined sacrifice, did Abraham climb Moriah; alone did Moses behold the burning bush amid the awful loneliness of the wilderness and alone on Sinai’s height did he commune with God; alone was Elijah at Horeb and with no other companion to view it than Elisha did he ascend into heaven. But Jesus, the Saviour of his people, could not be quite alone, save in those innermost transactions of his soul: in the great contest of his first Temptation and in the solitary outpourings of his heart with God. In the most solemn turning points of this history, Jesus could not be alone, and yet was alone with those three chosen ones, those most receptive of him, and most representative of the Church.’
As Luke alone informs us, Jesus took them up that mountain to pray. And the Transfiguration was God’s answer to that prayer. Jesus needed prayer so that his soul might lie calm and still, perfect in the unruffled quiet of his self-surrender, the absolute rest of his faith and the victory of his sacrificial obedience. And he needed prayer also as the introduction to and preparation for his Transfiguration. By contrast, it was natural for these men of simple habits, after a night-time climb in that strong mountain air, to be heavy with sleep.
It was in a state of semi-stupor when they witnessed what passed between Moses and Elijah and Jesus but they were fully awake to see his Glory and the two men who stood with him. What they saw was their Master, while praying, ‘transformed.’ The ‘form of God’ shone through the form of a servant. The appearance of his face became other. It shone like the sun. They saw with him two men, who they immediately recognised as Moses and Elijah.
Suddenly, a cloud passed over the clear brow of the mountain, a cloud filled with light. As it laid itself between Jesus and the two Old Testament representatives, it parted and enveloped them. The Presence of God was revealed, yet also concealed by a luminous cloud. And this cloud overshadowed the disciples, the shadow of its light fell upon them. A nameless terror seized them. Such vision had never before been seen by mortal man. In the confusion of their terror, they were keen to keep things going, by getting busy in making booths for the heavenly visitors!
A Voice came out of the cloud saying, ‘This is my Beloved Son. Hear him.’ This was the testimony to seal it all, one Voice to give both meaning and music to what had been the subject of Moses’ and Elijah’s speaking. That Voice had now come, not in testimony to any fact, but to a Person - that of Jesus as his ‘Beloved Son’.
So how does the Transfiguration fit in with our story? To begin with, if Jesus was the Christ of God, then this event was a necessary stage in the Lord’s history, viewed in the light in which the Gospels present him. Secondly, it was needed for his own strengthening, even as the ministry of the angels after the Temptation. Thirdly, it was good for these three disciples to be there, not only as future witnesses but also for present help. Lastly, the Voice from heaven, in the hearing of his disciples, was of the deepest importance. Coming after the announcement of his death and passion, it sealed that testimony and proclaimed him as the Prophet that Moses had spoken of.
Edersheim provides a solemn epitaph to this episode:
‘But, for us all, the interest of this history lies not only in the past; it is in the present also, and in the future. To all ages it is like the vision of the bush burning, in which was the Presence of God. And it points us forward to that transformation, of which that of Christ was the pledge, when ‘this corruptible shall put on incorruption.’ As of old the beacon-fires, lighted from hill to hill, announced to them far away from Jerusalem the advent of solemn feast, so does the glory kindled on the Mount of Transfiguration shine through the darkness of the world, and tell of the Resurrection-Day. On Hermon the Lord and his disciples had reached the highest point in this history. Henceforth it is a descent into the Valley of Humiliation and Death!’
This is an extract from the book, Jesus : Life and Times, available for £10 here (Finalist for Academic Book of the year at 2023 CRT awards)