Transfiguration, 2010
Text: St. Luke 9:27-36
The Rev. Jerry Kistler
St. Stephen’s Reformed
Episcopal Church
Tonight the veil is lifted between heaven and earth, and we see who this man, Jesus, truly is. This is the whole point of the Transfiguration. The Transfiguration happens, and is recorded in the Bible, to tell us in unmistakable terms that this truly human man is just as truly the Son of God.
On Christmas, we celebrate Jesus’ humanity. On Good Friday, we celebrate the full atonement He made for our sins by His innocent suffering and death on the cross. And on Easter, we celebrate the victory over the grave that He has won for us by His resurrection from the dead. But here on this day of the Transfiguration of our Lord, we celebrate, more than on any other day, that this Jesus, who was born, who suffered, who died and rose again, is in fact God Himself come to dwell among us—God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God. Tonight, more than on any other night, we see “the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2Cor.4:6).
We see with the eyes of our faith what is written in the Scriptures concerning Him, that “He is the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15). “For in Him the whole fullness of Deity dwells bodily” (Col. 2:9 ESV).
The details in the record of Christ’s transfiguration, which we heard tonight from the Gospel according to St. Luke, may seem a little strange or confusing, but they all point to this great truth that the Man Jesus is also the one true God.
The first important detail is, of course, Jesus’ transfiguration itself, by which we mean literally that Jesus’ figure changed. When Jesus had brought his three disciples—Peter, James, and John—up the mountain, it says that suddenly “the appearance of his face was altered.” Matthew says that “His face shone like the sun” (Mt. 17:2). And his clothes became dazzlingly white. Luke uses the same word as that for the flashing of lightning, that’s just how dazzlingly bright His appearance became. In other words, the glory that He had with His Father from all eternity, but which He voluntarily limited and concealed in becoming a man, was suddenly unveiled before the eyes of these three disciples, and for a moment they’re given a peek of what lies beneath His humanity. They see His divine nature. They see the deity of the Son of God shining through His humanity, and it shines like brightness of the Sun at noonday This is just like the old prophets described their visions of the glory of the Lord. Ezekiel says,
I saw “above the firmament over [the heads of the four
living creatures] the likeness of a throne, in appearance like a sapphire
stone; on the likeness of the throne was a likeness with the appearance of a
man high above it. Also from the appearance of His waist and upward I saw, as
it were, the color of amber with the appearance of fire all around within it;
and from the appearance of His waist and downward I saw, as it were, the
appearance of fire with brightness all around. Like the appearance of a rainbow
in a cloud on a rainy day, so was the appearance of the brightness all around
it. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord” (Ez.
Now in addition to seeing Jesus transfigured in all His glory—which would probably be enough for any of us—Peter, James, and John also see two of those Old Testament prophets themselves standing on the mountain with Jesus and having a conversation with Him. They see Moses and Elijah.
But have you ever wondered why? Why were there two Old Testament prophets there in the first place, and why Moses and Elijah out of all the Old Testament prophets? Some have said that Moses and Elijah represented the Law and the Prophets, and that both the Law and the Prophets pointed forward to the coming of Jesus. And so their presence on the mountain testifies to fact that the time of fulfillment had come, the time when Jesus would fulfill all that was written of Him. And that’s fine as far as it goes. But I think there’s much to it than that.
So I have a question for you: who
were the only two people that are recorded in the Old Testament to have ever
seen God’s glory on
Isn’t that interesting!
I’m sure you can recall the
situation with Moses. Moses was on the mountain, and he had just received the
covenant that God was making with
Likewise Elijah was on
You see, it was Moses and Elijah
who beheld the glory of the Lord on
The presence of Moses, in
particular, testifies to the fact that the God who revealed Himself to Moses on
the mountain by the Name “I AM”—“I AM WHO I AM”—is in fact the same God who is
revealing Himself to the disciples by the Name Jesus. When Jesus said to the
scribes and Pharisees, “Before Abraham was I AM” they knew exactly what He was
saying, and so they tried to stone Him, because He was claiming to be God (Jn.
Elijah’s presence testifies to the
truth that the God who revealed Himself to him in the still small voice, and
strengthened him and sent him back on His mission, is the same God who’s now
standing with His disciples and strengthening them on their mission. Just
before the Transfiguration, Jesus said to them, “If anyone desires to come
after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross
and follow Me (Lk.
So now what was it that Moses and
Elijah were speaking to Jesus about on the mountain? The text says they were
speaking to him about “His disease which He was about to accomplish at
Well now Peter was completely overwhelmed by the experience, like any of us would be. And like most of us who’ve had a sudden, unexpected and palpable break-through of the presence of God in our lives, he wanted to hold on to that experience and prolong it, rather than let it go, and literally “go back down the mountain” to get on with his life and mission. So as Moses and Elijah were about to depart, he makes the suggestion that they build three booth—one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. That way, you see, he could contain and retain the experience. But the text says, he didn’t really know what he was talking about. God just doesn’t work that way. We can’t box up our special experiences with Him to be our sort of daily bread. He might give us a so-called “mountain-top experiences,” but then, just like Moses and Elijah, he sends us back down the mountain, because that’s where He wants us to be most of the time, living out the life of faith by the aid of His usually means of grace—the Word and the Sacrament— not by extraordinary experiences. I wish we Christians would learn this principle!
And so instead of obliging Peter, the Lord brings the experience to its dramatic conclusion. Suddenly a cloud from heaven came and overshadowed them, and a holy fear fell over the disciples as they entered the cloud. This, of course, was no mere fog that just happened to blow in from the sea. This was the cloud of the divine presence.
Remember again what happened on
“Then Moses went up into the mountain, and a cloud
covered the mountain. Now the glory of the Lord rested on
And now on the