Shining transformation

The Transfiguration - Artist unknown

TODAY’S SPECIAL: Matthew 17:1-13

TO CHEW ON: “And He was transfigured before them, His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.” Matthew 17:2


During His time on earth Jesus occasionally gave His disciples glimpses of heavenly reality. His transfiguration was one of those times.

It started as another simple mountain getaway for Jesus, Peter, James, and John. The Luke account tells us this incident began unspectacularly enough with Jesus praying. But then--wow! “As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered and His robe became white and glistening” Luke 9:29. And Old Testament characters appeared and talked with Him.

“The appearance of Moses and Elijah would have confirmed Jesus’ Messianic identity to the inner circle of disciples. The entire scene was reminiscent of Mount Sinai: the cloud, the light, and the presence of God’s voice - Exodus 19:16-19” - NIV First Century Study Bible.

Indeed! And in that Sinai period, we find more details that resonate here.
- Remember the leadership retreat we read about several day ago, where God showed up in glory - Exodus 24:10,17.
- Then later, Moses’ face shone when he came down from communing with God on the mountain - Exodus 34:30-35.

During Jesus’ lifetime we have this display of glory here at His transfiguration and again at His resurrection - Matthew 28:3.

I love how Paul pulls these threads together to make an application for our lives as Christians. In 2 Corinthians 3, referring to the glory on display at the giving of the law (which he calls “the ministry of death”) Paul argues that the ministry of the Spirit is much more glorious - 2 Corinthians 3:7,8. He ends his treatise on Christ’s glory and how it exceeds the glory of the law with an inspiring declaration:

“But we all with unveiled face, beholding in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord” - 2 Corinthians 3:18 (emphasis added).

May we cooperate with the Spirit to effect such heavenly transformation in us!

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, thank You for these glimpses of Your glory in the Bible, May Your indwelling Spirit transform me so that I reflect Your shining presence. Amen.

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

God's glory brought down to earth

 Detail of "Transfiguration" by Raphael (1516-1520)

See the entire painting and read its history on Art and the Bible.

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Luke 9:21-36

TO CHEW ON: "Now it came to pass, about eight days after these sayings, that He took Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray." Luke 9:28


Luke links Jesus' sobering words of Luke 9:23-27 (where He speaks of His death, the need for the disciples to face their own deaths daily, the Father being ashamed of those who are ashamed of Jesus and His words, and some disciples not seeing death till they see the kingdom of God) with Jesus' transfiguration. It's as if Luke is saying, With Jesus' pronouncements ringing in their ears the disciples experienced this (Luke 9:28 - 36).

How might the two be connected?

• The transfiguration conversation between Jesus, Moses and Elijah underlined the fact of Jesus' impending death - Luke 9:22,31. (My Bible's Harmony of the Gospels dates the transfiguration somewhere in the beginning to middle of AD 29, about a year before the crucifixion.)

• The disciples were given a taste of the glory Jesus referred to in Luke 9:26. The glory the disciples experienced was visible. Jesus' clothes became white and glistening. It was a glory of well-being. Peter wanted to stay in it and the disciples only became fearful as the cloud that eventually separated them from it overshadowed them - Luke 9:34. This experience gave them a foretaste of what it was like to be in God's penetrating, all-seeing, all-knowing, all-revealing presence—a place they would not want to enter with the shame of having denied Jesus and His words.

• God's words from the cloud ("This is My believed Son. Hear Him" - Luke 9:34) supported Jesus' claim of being on the side of His Father and the angels - Luke 9:26.

And then, kathunk! The voice was silent. The cloud lifted. They were alone with Jesus. I can imagine their thoughts: What just happened? Did it really happen? What does it mean? To their credit the puzzled disciples kept this experience to themselves for the time being.

Some takeaways from this story for me, for us...

1. God's  revelations, when He pulls back the curtain to show us glimpses of the divine, will line up with what He has said in other places, e.g. the teachings of the Bible.

2. We don't want to enter His presence ashamed because of our short-sighted fear of man.

3. It's okay to keep divine encounters to ourselves until we gain insight into what they mean.

PRAYER: Dear Jesus, help me to live in such a way that I can someday stand unashamed before You in all Your glory. Amen.

 *********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Peter's prattle

The Transfiguration 
- Alexandre Bida

TODAY'S SPECIAL: Mark 9:2-13

TO CHEW ON: "Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, 'Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah"—because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid." Mark 9:5,6

Tradition says that the Gospel of Mark is actually Peter's version of the life of Jesus. ("The earliest witness to Marcan authorship stems from Papias bishop of the church at Hierapolis [about A.D. 135-140] .... Papias describes Mark as 'interpreter of Peter'" - J. Lyle Story, "Introduction to Mark," New Spirit-Filled Life Bible, p. 1346).

That is borne out by the little aside we are focusing on today. It's as if Peter was recalling to Mark, his scribe, 'I remember saying this (about the tabernacles...) but I was just prattling, not knowing what I said or why I said it, because I was so frightened.'

The Bible talks about many kinds of speech. Peter's here might fall into the category of "vain words" of the sort spoken of in Job 16:3: "Shall words of wind have an end? Or what provokes you that you answer?"

What these words of Peter's illustrate is that sometimes it's better to say nothing than to fill the uncomfortable silence with proof of our ignorance. After the vision ended and the disciples were descending the mountain, Jesus said as much: "He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen till the Son of Man had risen from the dead" - Mark 9:9.

I think there are things that we would also be wise to hold our counsel about till we see them in their larger context. As the writer of Proverbs said: "Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue" - Proverbs 17:28

PRAYER: Dear God, please help me to consider the necessity and appropriateness of my words before I say them. Help me to be comfortable with uncertainty, questions, silence. Amen.

*********
Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.