And He was transfigured before them

 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.  His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.  And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.  Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles:  one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."  While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  Hear Him!"  And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.  But Jesus came and touched them and said, "Arise, and do not be afraid."  When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead."  And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things.  But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished.  Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands."  Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.

- Matthew 17:1-13

In yesterday's reading, we were told that from that time (after Peter's confession of faith, and Jesus' affirmation that He is the Christ, or the Messiah), Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.  Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, "Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!"  But He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan!  You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."  Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.  For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.  For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?  For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.  Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."

Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves . . .  My study bible lets us know that a high mountain is often a place of divine revelation in Scripture (5:1; Genesis 22:2; Exodus 19:3, 23; Isaiah 2:3; 2 Peter 1:18). 

. . . and He was transfigured before them.  His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.   My study bible has several important comments here which I will endeavor to share.  First of all, the Transfiguration is considered a theophany, which means a "manifestation of God" -- especially of the divinity of Christ, through a display of "uncreated, divine energy."  For the Eastern Christians it is a major feast day.  My study bible says, "Because God is light (John 1:5), the bright cloud, the shining of Jesus' face like the sun, and the whiteness of His garment, all demonstrate that Jesus is God."  There are many icons that show this light as beyond white, represented as a blue-white, meant to express something indiscernible by us, a light that is so much more than the light we understand that it is beyond our capacity to fully perceive, showing its spiritual origin.

And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.  My study bible says that Moses represents "the law and all those who have died, and Elijah represents the prophets and -- since he did not experience death -- all those who are alive in Christ.  Their presence shows that the law and the prophets, the living and the dead, all bear witness to Jesus as the Messiah, the fulfillment of the whole Old Testament."  The presence of Moses and Elijah also testify to the reality of the communion of saints, present in the great presence of Christ, in whom all live.  My study bible points out that both of them are immediately recognizable to the disciples, and that they talk with the Lord. 

Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles:  one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."  While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them . . .  My study bible says that this bright cloud is a sign that recalls temple worship and the cloud that went before the Israelites in the wilderness, "the visible sign of God being extraordinarily present.  Peter sees this as a sign that the Kingdom has come.  Knowing that the Feast of Tabernacles is the feast of the coming Kingdom, he asks to build booths, as was done at that feast, to serve as symbols of God's dwelling among the just in the Kingdom."

. . . and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  Hear Him!"  My study bible tells us that "the Father bears witness from heaven concerning His Son.  He does not say, 'This has become My beloved Son,' but 'This is My beloved Son', indicating that this divine glory is Christ's by nature.  From eternity past, infinitely before Jesus' Baptist and Transfiguration, He is God's Son, fully sharing in the essence of the Father:  Jesus Christ is God of God."

And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid.  But Jesus came and touched them and said, "Arise, and do not be afraid."  When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.  Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead."  And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"  Jesus answered and said to them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things.  But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished.  Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands."  Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.  Because of the presence of Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration, the disciples are now able to grasp what Jesus teaches here about the return of Elijah and prophecy regarding the coming of the Messiah.  My study bible says that "their eyes have been opened to the fact that Malachi's prophecy (Malachi 4:5-6) refers to one coming 'in the spirit and power of Elijah' (Luke 1:17), rather than Elijah himself."

The Transfiguration of Jesus, coming so soon after His revelation as Christ, and His warning that He is to be made to suffer, and be killed, and to be raised on the third day, gives us not only an idea of His true origin and identity as Christ, but also a sense of how we are to understand our own world and our own lives.  In fact, if we take seriously our spiritual relationship to Him, we begin to see things more clearly as not static, not engraved in stone, so to speak, as we perceive things around us, but living and rooted in the great reality that is far beyond us, which comes into the world to intersect our lives and to make us into something beyond what we know.  Even the understanding that Elijah would not literally return in the flesh, but rather Elijah's spirit is present in John the Baptist, gives us a hint, a suggestion, of the new reality into which we step when we understand the things of the Kingdom that Jesus is bringing into the world.  This is a Transfiguration of light, a light that is beyond anything we know, something so full because it is heavenly or spiritual in origin (as in the phrase "heaven and earth are full of your glory") , that we can't have the ability or the faculty to perceive it.  But the Transfiguration is in a central place in the Gospels.  It teaches us that all around ourselves, in ways we can't perceive, the Kingdom of heaven intersects our lives, our world, even our time and space, with a kind of light that is truly filling everything.  This is something so full of life and light that we can't really perceive all there is in this fullness, and yet, we are invited into it, to dwell in it with Him, to receive the abundance of meaning and revelation it will offer us, in our capacity to grasp what we can of spiritual things as they are revealed or manifested to us.  And, of course, the coming of the Spirit would mean this opening up of deeper capacities to perceive, and to grow.  In this sense, the Transfiguration not only shows us who Christ truly is, and gives us a sense of the divine origin that is before and within all things, for an eternity beyond our understanding, but it is a roadmap for our own journey into faith, a roadmap of what it is to find ourselves in Christ and to grow in His light, so that we may become His children, and grow in the fullness of what that might mean.   The word for Transfiguration in the Greek is "metamorphosis."  Let us consider carefully all that this means to us.