Luke 9:28-36
Today, millions of Christians around the world celebrate Transfiguration Sunday, one of the most significant events in Jesus and his disciples’ life. Let us get in context, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, this means that for three and a half years, His disciples observed Jesus as He taught, preached, healed the lame and the blind, cast out demons, accepted outcast and raised people from the dead. Yet, despite all this, the disciples were not entirely certain of who Jesus was and what his message was.
Jesus knew that something was missing and that they were not ready for what was coming. They were not prepared to face the reality of the cross. With His transfiguration, Jesus intended to show them beforehand who He truly was. A few verses earlier in the same chapter, we read that Jesus asked his disciples, ‘Who do the crowds say I am? The answer was, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.” Then Jesus made it more personal and asked, who do you say I am? And Peter answer, “God’s Messiah.”
Now Jesus knows what the crowds think of him. For them He was a great teacher, a healer, and a prophet equal to or greater than any in the Old Testament. Peter -and all the disciples- believed he was the Messiah. After this Luke says, Jesus told them, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” Matthew’s version says that Peter complained and then Jesus rebuked him. After all this we have the Transfiguration of the Lord. Therefore, I believe that the transfiguration served as an answer to the question Jesus asked His disciples ten verses earlier, “Who do you say I am?” It was also God the Father’s answer to the same question.
Jesus already knew who the crowds believed He was—a prophet. He knew who Peter and the rest of the disciples believed He was—the Messiah. But the disciples needed to hear and see Jesus and God the father’s answer. This is why -I believe- the transfiguration took place.
The gospels describe that Jesus’ face shone with all His glory, and a cloud—which in Jewish imagery represents God’s presence—covered Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. There should no longer be any doubt in the minds of Peter, James, and John. They have seen the glory of God; they have seen Jesus as He was before “He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” As Paul says in Philippians 2:7. Shining before them and being visited by Moses and Elijah was Jesus’ answer to the question, “Who do you say I am?” To reaffirm what the disciples saw, once again God the Father as he did in Jesus’ baptism, spoke to them, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to Him.” And this was -I believe- the Father’s answer to the same question. Now, we can say they know for sure who Jesus is.
Jesus took these three disciples so they could see His glory on top of the mountain before they witnessed His humiliation on the cross at Calvary. Jesus took these three disciples to see who he was before people start saying he was a fake prophet, a fake Messiah when they saw him hanging on the cross.
I am sure that in those moments when they felt discouraged because of persecution, imprisonment, torture and death, they remembered that moment… and they said to themselves, Jesus is real, “We saw His glory, we heard God’s voice,” and that memory helped them to continue. Because of the experience at the top of the mountain, and because they saw Jesus’ glory, they were able to endure with hope and faithfulness all the suffering that the Early Church endured.
What message does God have for us today? The same message Jesus meant for his disciples: Take heart, don’t be discouraged by the circumstances I am alive I am the Son of God.
After this Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem even when he knew what awaited Him. He did it because Moses, Elijah, and God the Father came to encourage him to continue. They came to remind Him of His departure, of His mission, which He was about to bring to fulfillment in Jerusalem. The next day -Luke reminds us-, Jesus and the disciples came down from the mountain and He continued healing and walking toward Jerusalem. He had received new strength.
The disciples also needed encouragement beforehand for what lay ahead of them after Jesus’ death and resurrection. They were persecuted, imprisoned, and condemned to die. They had the mission to take the Gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and all the earth. The experience they had on top of the mountain helped them to endure everything and to fulfill their mission… because before the darkness covering Jerusalem on Good Friday, they saw the light of God’s glory in Jesus.
This morning, the Holy Spirit wants to remind us that we are here today regardless of many circumstances that have happened in our lives, because at some point in our journey, we also had a mountaintop experience, a transfiguration moment. A moment when without any doubt, we saw the glory of God shining in our lives. A moment when without any doubt we knew Jesus was alive and active in our life. Those moments are what keep us going when things are not as we expected; those moments are the strength that helps us to continue our journey and fulfill the mission to take Jesus’ Gospel wherever we go.
When discouragement comes into your life, when you feel ready to give up, just remember those moments when you have seen the glory of God. When things do not go as planned and you feel as if God has left you, -as I am sure the disciples felt, when they saw Jesus and the cross, their brothers and sisters die in the Coliseum – just remember, “You have seen the glory of God.” Now that our world is in such a conflict, remember, when the leaders in Jerusalem thought they were in control, Peter, James, and John saw the glory of God. Transfiguration Sunday is a reminder that God holds the future in His hands. Darkness does not have the final say because the glory of Jesus still shines. Therefore, let us continue with what Jesus has entrusted us to do because we too have seen the glory of God.
