Transfigurationof Jesus

February 10, 2013  By Lay Leader Rick Rounds

Today is Transfiguration Sunday where we celebrate the Transfiguration of Jesus.  How many have heard this story before?  Was it new to anyone?  Before we can discuss it we have to have a foundation to work with so let’s look at the word transfiguration.  If you look p the word in a dictionary, it will tell you that it is: A marked change in form of appearance; a metamorphis. Thus, a change that glorifies or exalts.  In the biblical sense it is the sudden emanation of radiance from the person of Jesus that occurred on a mountain.  On a side note, kind of FYI comment it is also a Christian feast commemorating this event, observed on August 6 in the Roman Catholic and Anglican Churches, on August 19 in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and on the Sunday before Lent in most Protestant churches.

The Transfiguration of Jesus is an event in the New Testament in which Jesus is transfigured (or metamorphosed) and becomes radiant  on top of a mountain.  The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36) describe it, and 2 Peter 1:16-18 refers to it.

In these accounts, Jesus and three of his apostles go to a mountain (the Mount of Transfiguration). On the mountain, Jesus begins to shine with bright rays of light. Then the prophets Moses and Elijah appear next to him and he speaks with them.  Jesus is then called “Son” by a voice in the sky, just as in the Baptism of Jesus.

The transfiguration is one of the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels.  But, this miracle is unique among others that appear in the Canonical gospels, in that the miracle happens to Jesus himself.  Thomas Aquinas considered the Transfiguration “the greatest miracle” in that it complemented the baptism of Jesus and showed the perfection of life in Heaven.  The Transfiguration is one of the five major milestones in the gospel narrative of the life of Jesus, the others being His Baptism, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension.

In the Christian faith, the Transfiguration is a pivotal moment, and the setting on the mountain is presented as the point where human nature meets God: the meeting place for the temporal and the eternal, with Jesus himself as the connecting point, acting as the bridge between heaven and earth.

In the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-8, Luke 9:28-36) the account of the transfiguration happens towards the middle of the narrative.  It is a key event and almost immediately follows another important event, the Peter’s confession: “You are the Christ”.  The Transfiguration narrative acts as a further revelation of the identity of Jesus as the Son of God to his disciples.

In the Gospels, Jesus takes Peter, James, son of Zebedee and John the Apostle with him and goes up to a mountain, which is not named. Once on the mountain, Matthew (17:2) states that Jesus “was transfigured before them; his face shining as the sun, and his garments became white as the light.”  At that point the prophets Elijah and Moses appear and Jesus begins to talk to them.  Luke is specific in describing Jesus in a state of glory, with Luke 9:32 referring to “they saw his glory”.  Then just as Elijah and Moses begin to depart from the scene, Peter begins to ask Jesus if the disciples should make three tents for him and the two prophets.  This has been interpreted as Peter’s attempt to keep the prophets there longer.  But before Peter can finish, a bright cloud appears, and a voice from the cloud states:  “This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased: listen to him”. The disciples then fall to the ground in fear, but Jesus approaches and touches them, telling them not to be afraid.  When the disciples look up, they no longer see Elijah or Moses.

When Jesus and the three apostles are going back down the mountain, Jesus tells them to not tell anyone “the things they had seen” until the “Son of Man” has risen from the dead.  In addition to the principal account given in the Synoptic Gospels; in 2 Peter 1:16-18, Peter describes himself as an eyewitness “of his sovereign majesty.”  The Gospel of John may also briefly allude to the same episode in John 1:14. In our Luke passage it just says, “they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.”

Although Matthew 17 lists the disciple John as being present during the Transfiguration, the Gospel of John has no account of it.  This has resulted in debate among scholars, some suggesting doubts about the authorship of the Gospel of John, others providing explanations for it.  One explanation (that goes back to Eusebius of Caesarea in the fourth century) is that John wrote his gospel not to overlap with the synoptic gospels, but to supplement it, and hence did not include all of the narrative.  This is not the only incident, not present in the fourth gospel, and the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper is another key example, indicating that the inclusion of material in the fourth gospel was selective.  The general explanation is thus the gospel of John was written thematically, to suit his theological purposes, and has a less narrative style than the synoptics.

Christian theology assigns a gread deal of significance to the Transfiguration, based on multiple elements of the narrative.  In Christians teachings, the Transfiguration is a pivotal moment, and the setting on the mountain is presented as the point where human nature meets God: the meeting place for the temporal and the eternal, with Jesus himself as the connecting point, acting as the bridge between heaven and earth.

The Transfiguration not only supports the identity of Jesus as the Son of God (as in his Baptism), but the statement “listen to him”, identifies him as the messenger and mouth-piece of God.  The significance of this identification is enhanced by the presence of Elijah and Moses, for it indicates to the apostles that Jesus is the voice of God “par excellence”, and instead of Elijah or Moses, He should be listened to, surpassing the laws of Moses by virtue of his filial relationship with God.  2 Peter 1:16-18, echoes the same message: at the Transfiguration God assigns to Jesus a special “honor and glory” and it is the turning point at which God exalts Jesus above all other powers in creation, and positions him as ruler and judge.

The Transfiguration also echoes the teaching of Jesus (as in Matthew 11:32) that God is not “the God of the dead, but of the living”.  Although Moses had died and Elijah had been taken up to heaven centuries before (as in 2 Kings 2:11), they now live in the presence of the Son of god, implying that the same return to life can apply to all who face death and have faith.

The theology of the Transfiguration received the attention of the Church Fathers since the very early days.  Origen’s theology of the Transfiguration influenced the patristic tradition and became a basis for theological writings by many others.  Among other issues, given the instruction to the apostles to keep silent about what they had seen until the Resurrection, Origen commented that the glorified states of the Transfiguration and the Resurrection must be related.

In the 7^th century, Saint Maximus the Confessor said that the senses of the apostles were transfigured to enable them to perceive the true glory of Christ.  In the same vein, building on 2 Corinthians 3:18, by the end of the 13^th century the concept of “transfiguration of the believer” had stabilized and Saint Gregory Palamas considered “true knowledge of God” to be a transfiguration of man by the Spirit of God. The spiritual transfiguration of the believer then continued to remain a theme for achieving a closer union with God.  In the New Testament, Paul’s reference in 2 Corinthians 3:18 to the “transformation of believers” via “beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord” became the theological basis for considering the Transfiguration as the basis for processes which lead the faithful to the knowledge of god.

So what are we to take from all of this?  Simply this, 1) the transfiguration of Jesus was a miracle confirming and expounding on Jesus identity as the Son of God. 2) that the disciples and anyone who follows Jesus are to “Listen to Him.” And 3) that through faith in and the grace of Jesus Christ we too can be transformed or transfigured, that we too, can know what to look forward to in Heaven. This is why we celebrate Transfiguration Sunday.