He was transfigured before them

Transfiguration icon, Theophanes the Greek (1340-1410), early 15th cent.

 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.  Mark tells us this event of the Transfiguration happened after six days -- that is there are an intervening six days between the time of Peter's confession of Christ and Christ's exposition to the disciples that He will suffer (see yesterday's reading above), and the event described in today's reading.  Thus, Luke's Gospel says it is "about eight days" afterward (Luke 9:28).  Therefore we may understand the Transfiguration to be an event of the "eighth day," giving it the significance of a glimpse of the realities of the life of Resurrection, the eternal day of the Lord.  A high mountain, my study Bible tells us, is often a place of divine revelation in Scripture (Matthew 5:1; Genesis 22:2, Exodus 19:2, 23; Isaiah 2:3; 2 Peter 1:18).  Christ's transfiguration is a revelation, called a "theophany" in Greek, meaning a revelation or manifestation ("showing forth") of divinity. 

His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them.   This is a display indicating an ontological reality; that is, a revelation of the truth of Jesus Christ in His divinity.  This shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten clothing is a display of Christ's uncreated, divine energy.  It is a revelation to the disciples coming soon after they are made to understand the suffering Jesus will undergo as Messiah.  John's Gospel teaches us that God is light (1 John 1:5), and therefore this exceedingly white, shining light coming from Jesus and His clothes demonstrates that Jesus is God.  In some icons, this light is shown as beyond white:  a blue-white, ineffable color, which indicates its spiritual, not earthly, nature and origin.  (See the icon, above.)

 

 And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.  My study Bible tells us that Elijah represents the prophets -- and since he did not experience death, all those who are alive in Christ.  Moses represents the law and all those who have died.  It says that their presence shows that the law and the prophets, the living and the dead, all bear witness to Jesus as Messiah, the fulfillment of the whole Old Testament.   

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.  Peter's seemingly confused response comes out of an association that makes sense; he is grasping at the reality of what he and the other disciples are witnessing by proposing the building of tabernacles such as occurs at the Feast of Tabernacles, also known as the feast of the coming Kingdom.  These serve as symbols of God's dwelling among the just in the Kingdom, as God dwelt in the tabernacle (or tent) among the Jews as they followed Moses toward the promised land.  Note that Moses and Elijah are immediately recognizable to Peter and the other disciples, and they speak with the Lord, a manifestation of the communion of saints (Hebrews 12:1). 

And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son.  Hear Him!"   Here is again a complete theophany in this occasion of the Transfiguration of Christ:  Christ is revealed as Son by the Father.  The divine brilliant light which surround Him and in the bright cloud reminiscent of the cloud that went before the Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus 13:21-22), the visible sign of God being extraordinarily present, reveals the Holy Spirit.  The Father's voice bears witness from heaven concerning the Son.  "This is My beloved Son" is a statement of an eternal reality, outside of time, indicating that the divine glory they witness is Christ's by nature.  My study Bible states that from eternity past, infinitely before Christ's Baptism and Transfiguration, He is God's Son, fully sharing in the essence of the Father:  God from God, as the Creed proclaims.  We are also commanded by the Father to "Hear Him!" for He is the Word (John 1:1).

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."   After the experience of the Transfiguration, the disciples are now able to understand Jesus' words that Elijah has also come, as referring to John the Baptist.  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 (Matthew 17:13). 

 

The revelation of Christ in the Transfiguration is a revelation of true reality.  That is, it is a revelation of the foundation of all reality, the eternal truth of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  As the disciples have recently been taught that Jesus will suffer and die (and on the third day rise again, which they could not understand), they are now given a taste of an eternal reality as distinguished from the worldly reality that will come.  They are thus now more prepared to accept the meaning and the reality of the Resurrection that is to come after Jesus is in the tomb.  But what of this contradiction between the realities of the world and the eternal reality of God?  How are we to understand the distinct difference between the suffering Christ will undergo in the world and on worldly terms, and the truth of His divinity as has been revealed through the Transfiguration?  Perhaps it is this tremendous contradiction that so magnifies the state of our human condition for us, the place for the faithful believer in a world which is so full of suffering.  When we consider the astonishing beauty we can read into the Transfiguration -- especially the dazzling divine light, of a character that reaches beyond a worldly light but still expresses a beauty to us we seem to grasp -- then we can somehow come to terms more deeply with the love of God.   Because of the Transfiguration we are able to discern more viscerally the love of God for human beings, the extraordinary and unfathomable love that would have to be there for Christ the Son to voluntarily take on human life, and live and suffer and die the painful death He would endure in order to bring us closer to God, to give us a way to enter into God's life as well.  This is the astonishing beauty we take from the Transfiguration, because have to ask ourselves why Christ would live as one of us once we understand Him through this revelation of His true identity and divine origin.  It is this astonishing transfiguration that also gripped the minds of our Christian ancestors, coming to understand God as love and light but who loves and seeks us out to share in that love and light.  We need to discern how we are loved even within a world of imperfect sorrows that accompany sin in the form of lies, manipulation, hardship, toil, oppression, injustice, and so much more -- even as we know that God has brought brilliant, divine, heavenly love and light to us, so that we can also experience God's love for us.  This isn't simply conjecture or theory, but God's manifestation -- this theophany of the Transfiguration (and other occasions such as Christ's Baptism) -- has brought God's life to us in ways that we may also experience through prayer and the mystery of God drawn near and become one of us.  Our Church worship services and traditions are also meant to facilitate that place of mystery to us as spiritual experience, and this is why the ancient services and framework of mystery truly invite us in to an experience of God such as we are capable of accepting, even as the disciples John, James, and Peter were taken up to the mountain for an experience -- a taste -- of the reality of God, even if we are incapable of knowing God fully, as God knows God.  But let us ponder a moment to think about God's reality as one so far beyond us, a light and intelligence beyond our capacity to discern, and the tremendous love that can breach that gulf.  For Christ comes into the world as one of us, suffers as one of us, but leads us forward to His promised life with Him in the dazzling light so far beyond what we know.