Transfiguration
The magnificent event of Jesus’ Transfiguration—when His divine glory, which was otherwise mostly hidden, shone so beautifully and powerfully—begins very simply enough: After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with Him and led them up a high mountain where they were alone by themselves. By this time the disciples had been with Jesus for about three years. The things that they saw and heard from Jesus, we got a bit of a glimpse at during these few weeks of the Epiphany season. Jesus had shown the disciples His glory with each miracle and with each of His teachings. In the same way, as we are with Jesus around His word and in church, and read and hear of His miracles and teaching, we are catching glimpses of His glory. But now with the disciples, their time with Jesus was drawing to a close. So Jesus asks them: Who do men say that I am? And they gave the various responses. And then Jesus asked them that most vital question: But who do you say that I am? To which Peter, speaking for the 12, responds You are the Christ—that is, the long awaited Savior and Son of God. So far, so good—they recognize Jesus rightly. Then Jesus adds something to the mix. St. Mark records a few verses before our text: And [Jesus] began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. So now, six days after St. Peter’s beautiful confession of Jesus, which was the confession of the other 11 disciples and of all Christians down through the ages, and Jesus beginning to teach them of His suffering, death and resurrection—with the disciples focusing on and tripping over the suffering and death part—Jesus took these three disciples with Him to the mountain to strengthen them for these upcoming events. By letting His divine glory shine forth, [John 1.14] the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, Jesus was indeed confirming that their confession of Him was correct—even though they would see Him suffer and die; and they would see rise again from the dead. That’s why Jesus’ Transfiguration gives strength—both to the disciples then and to us today in every trial and struggle.
Our text: There He was transfigured in front of them. His clothes became radiant, dazzling white, whiter than anyone on earth could bleach them. Transfigure mean to transform/ change totally. There Jesus revealed Himself in all of His divine glory and majesty. When Jesus was transfigured, He expressed His true nature. Yes, He is true man, born of the virgin Mary—that’s what we celebrated not that long ago at Christmas. That’s how the disciples—and everyone else—saw and interacted with Him—as man. When St. Peter confessed [Mt. 16.16], “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven." Hearing Jesus’ words and seeing His miracles did not necessarily work faith, after all Jesus’ enemies saw His miracles and heard Him teach and precisely that hardened them in their unbelief. But faith is that wonderful gift of God by which with the outward eyes we see a mere man, one who as St. Paul writes [Ph 2.7]: [took] the form of a servant, and [came] in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man..., but with the eyes of faith see our Savior, the true God Himself. And that’s what the Transfiguration does—it makes visible to the eye what the eye of faith sees and knows.
The transfiguration is not Jesus suddenly becoming God. Instead, this glory and majesty of Jesus is always His. From the first moment of His conception in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, the Son of God became true man and the Person of Jesus has this divine glory and majesty but at the transfiguration what changed is how He appears as man. For at the Transfiguration, Jesus, the man, appears in His glory that He always has, but for the most part concealed while on earth carrying out His work for us and our salvation.
Just imagine that lovely, pleasant light; it certainly wasn’t an ugly glaring and blinding light. But yet as our text says: [the disciples] were terrified for here they recognized that they were sinners in the presence of God; in fact, with the great OT saints Moses and Elijah there, one could say that heaven had come down to earth. Did Jesus stay glorified this way? No. He again concealed His divine majesty as we read after the appearance of Elijah and Moses and after the Father spoke from the cloud: Suddenly when [the disciples] looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus alone. –That same Jesus who has all this divine glory and majesty, now conceals it once again, and they see the Jesus they “can handle”; that is, they looked at Jesus and saw only “lowly” Jesus—they saw Him again in the form of a servant. And then they were calmed.
Jesus’ Transfiguration shows that the One born that first Christmas of Mary is in the one Person both true God and true man, just as St. Peter and all Christians confess: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
And the Transfiguration goes even beyond that. As we reflect on it a bit, Jesus’ Transfiguration also teaches us about Jesus’ work and the certainty of His work. Our text: And Elijah appeared to them together with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And St. Luke [9.31] tells us what they were talking about: His suffering and death that would free His people from slavery to sin, death, devil and hell. But remember that here Jesus is in all of His divine glory; here He is: His clothes became radiant, dazzling white, whiter than anyone on earth could bleach them. This beautiful, dazzling white, that beautiful pleasant light pointing out that Jesus is the true God, that true Light [John 1.9; 1 John 1.5] that He is God [who] is light. So here we see Jesus, the true God, talking with Elijah and Moses about how He would bring about the salvation of the world. The very fact that this is the true God who would be doing this is shown by this whole scene! And what that means and what it shows is that Jesus’ suffering and death is a voluntary offering of love! Remember, before this Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. Jesus could have stopped/ prevented these sufferings and death from coming upon Him —after all, think of this scene with Jesus in His divine glory: He’s God almighty; He can do whatever He wants. And what does He want to do? He wants to suffer and die and bring about the salvation of the world! That’s who Jesus is; that’s the God that we have. Elsewhere Jesus says [John 10.18]: No one takes [My life] from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
Not only would Jesus’ work for our salvation be voluntary but He would be successful. Jesus is God; that’s what the Transfiguration shows us. Who could deny, who could stop God almighty from carrying out His will? No one and nothing! Our text: A cloud appeared and overshadowed them, and a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, whom I love. Listen to Him.” Notice the Father speaks and says what about Jesus? This is My Son. This divine glory that Jesus appears in is His by nature; He is the very God, the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. And then the Father also calls Jesus His Beloved, whom I love. That means that Jesus is perfectly carrying out the work He came to do! He is walking perfectly in the path of redemptive obedience for us and our salvation. And here is the assurance that He would continue to until He is obedient to death on the cross. How this whole scene should have strengthened the disciples that day! Here they saw beyond doubt that Jesus although true man is also the true God. Here they saw He would willingly lay down His life—just as He had been showing/ teaching them. So when they saw Him go through His rejection, suffering and death they shouldn’t be shaken—He is the almighty God, after all.
But, of course, we know what happens come Good Friday—they flee from the Lord and are behind locked doors. Although Jesus strengthened them here and in so many other places, in their frail humanity and weakness they failed. And here is a call for us to examine our own hearts and minds and lives. And we will find much weakness and frailty, much timidity and fear when it comes to the Lord and living out our faith in a world hostile to Him and His dear Christians and the faith. And where we find that fear and weakness in living out our faith, may we repent and run to the Lord for forgiveness and may we then, rejoicing in that forgiveness we have in Jesus, also return to the account of the Transfiguration and let it strengthen us. We need this strengthening as we make our way on the path to heaven; we need the clear sense of our goal as we walk this arduous path.
Our text: A cloud appeared and overshadowed them, and a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, whom I love. Listen to Him.” Suddenly when [the disciples] looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus alone. As we live our lives as Christians, let us look only to Jesus. Let us look on and see the face and heart of Jesus—the kind face of our Savior, who in love humbled Himself to come and be our Savior, who concealed His divine glory and majesty so that He could be rejected, condemned and put to death; who willingly laid down His life. Let us look at the heart of Jesus filled with love for us sinners; a heart filled with mercy toward us. And so each time we feel our sin or discover a sin as we examine our lives and hearts according to the holy Ten Commandments, let us run to Him in repentance for forgiveness and so be strengthened in our love of Him and His mercy, love and work for us as we look to Him alone and listen to Him as He tells us in the absolution: I forgive you all your sins. Here we do not lose heart but are strengthened and encouraged on our way to heaven.
Let us also be strengthened as we hear in our text of Jesus’ divine glory shining through: His clothes became radiant, dazzling white, whiter than anyone on earth could bleach them. As we hear about His dazzling, radiant clothes, that’s Jesus’ perfect divine holiness and righteousness shining through. And that’s the holiness/ His righteousness He gives us now in Holy Baptism; in Baptism we are united with Jesus and clothed with Him. Through faith we receive that righteousness and stand before God/ in His sight as His dear righteous, holy children—not with our own holiness but with that of Jesus.
And here too we get a taste of heaven. Not only by seeing Jesus’ garments shine through with His divine righteousness are we reminded of the white garments of holiness and rightness that we receive now in Holy Baptism and will have in the glories of heaven—and so are pointed forward to our future glorious eternity—but also we see at the Transfiguration Elijah and Moses. They appeared with glorified bodies on the mount of Transfiguration. Here we are pointed to the goal/ end of our faith—we will be soul and glorified body in heaven. Here as Moses and Elijah appeared at the Transfiguration, we are sure of our Lord’s promise of heaven is sure. They made it by God’s grace and on account of the work of Jesus and so too will we!
And along the way as we by God’s grace are being led on the path to heaven as we endure various sufferings and trials from the devil and His allies, Jesus is there with us strengthening us with His holy word and Sacrament. For although they may not look like much—some words, water, bread and wine—they, like Jesus, shine forth with His gifts and graces and blessings.
The account of the Transfiguration gave the disciples that day strength by giving them a glimpse of the reality; and it also strengthens us today as Jesus leads us through this life to our heaven. INJ Amen.