The Transfiguration of Christ is one of the central events recorded in the Gospels. Immediately after the Lord was recognized by his apostles as “the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” he told them that “he must go up to Jerusalem and suffer many things … and be killed and on the third day be raised” (Matthew 16:21ff). The announcement of Christ’s approaching passion and death was met with indignation by the disciples. Then the Lord took Peter, James, and John up to Mount Tabor and revealed himself to them:
“Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became white as snow and behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” He was still speaking when 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 with awe. 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” (Mt 16:28-17:9).
Peter later described this awesome experience:
For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain (2 Peter 1:16-18).
In the Transfiguration Jesus did not change. Rather, the spiritual eyes of the apostles were changed, for a moment. The eye is the lamp of the body, and if your eye is whole then your whole person will be full of light (Matthew 6:22). Practicing the laws of the Kingdom of God puts you in line with what God is doing by grace, so that you can be made a participant in him (2 Peter 1:4). Be purified, illumined, and filled with light.
“I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings; that forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward unto those things which are ahead, we may press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 1:17-18; Philippians 3:10-14).<.p>
