His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them

 

Icon of the Transfiguration/Metamorphosis

 

 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.  His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.  And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.  Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles:  one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah" -- because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid.  And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son.  Hear Him!"  Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves.  

 

Now as they came down from the mountain, He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.  And they asked Him, saying, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"  Then He answered and told them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things.  And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt?  But I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him."

 

- Mark 9:2-13 

 

Yesterday we read that Jesus and His disciples went out to the towns of Caesarea Philippi; and on the road He asked His disciples, saying to them, "Who do men say that I am?"  So they answered, "John the Baptist; but some say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets."  He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"  Peter answered and said to Him, "You are the Christ."  Then He strictly warned them that they should tell no one about Him.  And He 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.  He spoke this word openly.  Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.  But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, "Get behind Me, Satan!  For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."  When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, "Whoever 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 and the gospel's will save it.  For what will it profit 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 whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."  And He said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power."

 

 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.  His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.   Jesus' radiance is a sign of divine light, which includes in its reality wisdom, truth, goodness, and beauty.  This light is also a sign of His identity as Logos (written extensively in the language in John's Gospel; see for example John 1:1-5).  This color of Christ's clothes, described as shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them is often portrayed in icons with a blue tinge, indicating it is an ineffable hue, normally not discernible to human beings, beyond white, and hence of spiritual nature.   It would not be amiss to remember that white light is a combination of the whole known color spectrum of light, and that this light goes beyond the spectrum we know to include that which we don't commonly know and cannot perceive.  This is a sign that what these disciples witness is a theophany, or manifestation of God, through a display of Christ's uncreated, divine energy. 

And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.   The presence of Moses and Elijah is representative of the Law and the Prophets, respectively.  My study bible says that Moses not only represents the Law but also all those who have died.  Elijah did not experience death (2 Kings 2:11), and so represents all those who are alive in Christ.   Their presence therefore shows that the law and the prophets, the living and the dead, all bear witness to Christ as the fulfillment of the Old Testament, the Messiah.  

Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles:  one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah" -- because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid.   It is noted here that Moses and Elijah are immediately recognizable to Peter, therefore an indication of the communion of the saints (Hebrews 12:1).   Both speak with Christ, showing that normal boundaries of time and space are not present in this communion.  Peter's confused and stunned statement is not as disjointed as we might think, as he innately understands the presence of the Kingdom.  The Feast of Tabernacles, commemorating the time when Israel wandered searching for the Promised Land is known as the Feast of the Coming Kingdom.  A tabernacle is a tent, symbol of temporary dwellings of the people and the tabernacle of the Lord at that time.  My study bible calls these structures symbols of God's dwelling among the just in the Kingdom.

And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son.  Hear Him!"  Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves.  These actions describe a theophany, a manifestation of the Holy Trinity.  The Father bears witness concerning the Son, and the statement is an expression of the timeless reality of Christ as Son.  My study bible suggests that this event not only proclaims Christ's divine sonship, but also foreshadows His future glory when, as the Messiah, He will usher in the long-awaited Kingdom.  The bright cloud recalls the temple worship and the cloud going before the Israelites in the wilderness, as the visible sign of God being extraordinarily present.  The Father speaks, Jesus is revealed as Son, and the Spirit is present in the form of dazzling light which surrounds Christ's person, and overshadows the whole mountain.   And seemingly just as suddenly, this manifestation is gone.

Now as they came down from the mountain, He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant.  And they asked Him, saying, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"  Then He answered and told them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things.  And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt?  But I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him."  My study bible makes note that the disciples, having witnessed Moses and Elijah speaking with Christ, can now understand Jesus' words that "Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him" as a reference to John the Baptist.  It 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 to Elijah himself. 

If our lives as Christians are meant to live "in Christ" and to participate in that life, then how does the Transfiguration apply to us?  How are we to live this exalted moment of Christ's true glory manifesting to the disciples?  In Greek, the word for this Transfiguration is Metamorphosis.  Jesus' sudden change in appearance to the disciples is a manifestation of the truth about Him, the true inner nature of Christ and at the same time the reality of the Kingdom.  And this is our life in Christ, our life in the ongoing action of worship and prayer and the practices that the Church has set down for the care of our souls, that our true nature be manifest through it and the synergy of grace at work.  Our "true image" is in the One who has created us, and whose truth sets us free to become that true self.   The Greek word "metamorphosis" indicates a change that is a result of "being with" (meta-), and changing form in keeping with an inner reality (morpho).   Therefore it is a manifestation of true inner reality or identity, but happening for us through some form of agency or action, with which we cooperate or accept at a very deep level of the heart.   At times, it seems to me, I am not even aware of the deep level of the soul at which this "yes" to grace takes place.  Like the butterfly which matures out of the chrysalis, our own nature evolves out of this action of transfiguration which is possible through our faith in Christ, the communion which we enter via faith.  It is a divinely mysterious reality that our prayer can build, something that happens when we are truly touched by our faith and grow in it.  It is the same sense in which we may become carriers of that Kingdom within us and into the world.  When we overlook this event, or fail to grasp its meaning, we might choose to think that somehow our faith in Christ is simply akin to a set of values or principles, a philosophy which we work out to the best of our abilities and intellectually claim to represent His word.  But the Transfiguration defies all of that realm of the pure intellect, and puts us within an entirely different kind of framework for our faith.  This is a framework that is all-inclusive, and not only includes the intellect and the rational process and information we already have in our own minds, but puts us in the realm of the unknown, of participation in the life of Christ, of the divine, with all its attendant spiritual help and energies and reality.  That this Transfiguration event manifests to the disciples the communion of saints, the timeless eternity of the Kingdom and its presence to us in full, as well as the Trinity itself, teaches us that to walk in the light of Christ is far more than to symbolically take communion or consider His teachings as moral dicta.  We enter into the unknown, and its energies and grace slowly reveal to us, through a mysterious process, the equally mysterious reality of who we are through time, and through our lives in faith.  The early Church understood this right from the beginning, our earliest theologians proclaimed it so from the start.  Our is a mystical reality that permeates the known cosmos, right down to the details of our inner life of the heart in the present moment, the blades of grass, the very hairs of our head, and the small sparrows.  It is all at once, a reality that expands far beyond anything that we know, and down to the unknown details of life at our fingertips and below the line of our sight.  Through the mystical life of the Church, through our ongoing prayer and worship, all is included in the loving embrace of God.  The real question is whether or not we can, through faith, accept it, and move on into its embrace, giving up the things we cling to that keep us outside of where it would lead.  This event, the Transfiguration, is all about what they the disciples, or you or me, or anyone else might be missing when we think we have it all within our grasp and the construction of our limited sight and knowledge.  God would lead us to something much grander, beyond what it is we think we know now, into a place of sharing God's vision in God's love for us.  And this is what Christ came into this world to do for us.