Transfiguration as transition
And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.”
Matthew 17:1–9
Since Christmas time, we have been focussing on who Jesus really is as God reveals him during the season of Epiphany. We are about to begin the season of Lent, which is a time of preparation, penitence, and prayer. The transfiguration is the transition point between Epiphany and Lent in more ways than one.
What it meant for Jesus
At this point in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus’ ministry has been underway for some time. Some incredible things have happened. He has been teaching and miracle-working all over the place and people were taking notice. He was sparking controversy by challenging the understanding of the religious leaders, but he was also igniting hope in people who were in desperate need of release.
Only six days before this experience on the mountain, Jesus had given his first of six Passion predictions. He knows what lies ahead of him. He is about to embark on his own lenten season of sorts as he prepares to face the suffering and death that he knows is coming. He’ll keep breaking the bad news to the apostles, but they can never fully understand until it happens.
Jesus is alone. Only he knows what’s coming. He knows what he will have to suffer physically and endure spiritually. He knows that no one else can do it. At the last minute, he will beg his heavenly Father to take this cup from him. He knows that his suffering and death is his purpose, his mission. He knows what it will mean for the world.
The transfiguration offers hope. As Jesus is about to start the journey to Calvary, he hears words of affirmation from his Father not heard since his baptism: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
This is not new information for Jesus. He knows who he is and what he has been sent into the world to do. He also knows what the outcome will be: resurrection, sanctification, glorification. After all the pain and suffering, Jesus will be raised from death and take his rightful place at the Father’s side. The transfiguration is a reaffirmation for Jesus that he is on the right path, and that the path he walks has a glorious destination.
From now until he utters those words, “It is finished,” he has laser-sharp focus because of the hope that spurs him on.
What it meant for Peter, James, and John
These three were among the first disciples to be called. Jesus selected them more than once to witness significant moments (Mt. 26:37; Mk. 5:37).
The mountain is also important—mountains were often places of significant moments: the tempting of Jesus (4:8), his greatest sermon (5:1), private prayer (14:23), and the feeding of the four thousand (15:29). God had also revealed himself to Moses and Elijah on a mountain (Ex. 19:3; 1 Ki. 19:8).
I’m not sure how Peter recognised Moses and Elijah by seeing them—it’s not like they had picture Bibles back then… He knows it’s them. Moses, the great law-giver, and Elijah, the great prophet, represent the whole Old Testament: the Law and the Prophets.
Jesus has a fair bit to say about the Old Testament, but one thing he says is especially applicable here:
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.
Matthew 5:17
In this moment, Moses and Elijah are not done away with or made redundant. Jesus completes their purpose. Peter, James, and John are are witnesses of Jesus’ transformation alongside Moses and Elijah, not instead of.
It would feel like the Don himself showing up to training at the local cricket club, or seeing William Shakespeare taking a book out at the local library. Understandably, the three apostles are completely starstruck if not because of Jesus’ dazzling shininess, because of the presence of the two greatest Old Testament heroes.
Peter’s suggestion isn’t a bad one. He recognises the significance of the moment and he wants it to last. After all, when Moses experienced God’s glory on the mountain, he set up camp for 40 days. Peter is merely following Moses’ example. However, God doesn’t always work in such a linear, uniform way.
Maybe it’s a good thing that Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone about what they’d seen—they would’ve struggled to explain it anyway. The transfiguration foreshadows Jesus’ resurrection, when he is raised up to glory. This event makes sense to us because we know the ending of the story, but those three would have been experiencing plot twist after plot twist. Don’t worry boys, it’ll make sense in the end.
What it means for us
What does the transfiguration mean for us? It’s easy to see it as something to merely “get over” on our way out of Epiphany and into Lent. It’s actually the perfect transition point. It reaffirms Jesus’ identity as the glorious Son of the Father, while also reminding us of the light at the end of the tunnel of Lent and, in particular, Good Friday. We get a sneak peek of the ending before the journey truly begins. That hope is what sustains us as a congregation through the sober days of Lent.
The transfiguration was a physical transforming of Jesus’ body and appearance, but it also applies to the Christian Church, which, after all, is understood to be the “body of Christ”.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
1 Corinthians 12:27
Our church is in a season of struggle, grief, and pain. Attending General Synod last week was a confronting experience. Everyone in the room was watching our beloved Lutheran Church of Australia and New Zealand splinter before our eyes. The debate around the ordination of men and women is far beyond resolution—no difference that goes on for three decades gets fully settled. We all know that. What we don’t yet know is how we can continue on as a church with that difference.
Thankfully, we agreed on something at Synod: that work be done to present a proposal for a plan to live together. Nobody knows what that plan will be or whether we can agree on it, but it’s a start. I have hope that the Spirit will do his work through our leaders and the people involved in those conversations so that the gospel will continue to be proclaimed in all the places where an LCANZ congregation exists.
Our encounter with Jesus should leave the church a transfigured community—present in the old age but shining with the light of the new.
Ronald J. Allen
Professor Emeritus at Christian Theological Seminary, Indianapolis
Disagreement in the church is not new. Division between cultures is not new. Difference among families is not new.
The ordination debate is simply a symptom of the condition this world has and we live with. It is just one way that we see that we sometimes simply cannot get past ourselves and our differences, no matter how hard we try to be loving, respectful, and diligent with God’s Word.
The transfiguration reminds us that we, as Christ’s body, the church, are a transfigured community. In baptism, God has made each of us holy and righteous in his sight. We have been made new, but we continue to live in the old. We are born into an old, dark world, but we shine a new light into it as we live in, with, and under Jesus Christ.
The transfiguration is finally a revelation of hope for our own mortal bodies, as the writer of Philippians says:
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.
Philippians 3:20,21
As he was transfigured on that mountain, may he transform us and make us subject to him so that we, too, may share in his glory. Amen.
