Luke 9:28-36
28About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 31They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)
34While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” 36When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.
Jesus’ Transfiguration Prepares Us for Lent and for Life
You may have heard this one from me before, but I have a riddle for you today: What do caterpillars and Calvin and Hobbes have to do with Jesus? Let me put it this way:
In biology class, you probably learned about the process of a creepy, crawly caterpillar “magically” transforming into a beautiful butterfly, but do you remember the technical term for that transformation? Metamorphosis.
If you’re old like me, you might remember when the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip was in the newspaper. Calvin modified a cardboard box to transform him into whatever his wild imagination could come up with, whether that was a T-Rex, a frog, or an airplane. Do you remember the technical name he gave that cardboard box? The Transmogrifier.
We read about an amazing transformation that Jesus underwent that blows both those out of the water. For centuries, Christians have called it Jesus’ Transfiguration. Luke put it this way:
About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.
Can you imagine what this must have been like for them? Luke tells us that – yet again – while Jesus was faithfully praying on a mountain, his disciples were “very sleepy.” When they had arrived, Jesus looked completely normal. But then, Luke paints a picture of a group of groggy goons who must have heard a couple extra voices they didn’t expect to hear and when they were finally bothered to open their eyes and pay attention they were greeted by a sight that startled them awake.
It only lasted a minute, but the impact of that moment left ripples that the disciples would feel for the rest of their lives. And that was the whole idea. Jesus wanted them to see his glory. Jesus brought them there to see him as he really is, because there would come a time in the not-too-distant future, when Jesus would look very different again. Only that time, it wasn’t going to be gloriously bright; it was going to be deathly dark. Jesus wanted them to see his glory then to prepare them for the time that they would witness his suffering and death. Basically, Jesus was preparing his disciples for Lent. When those horrible things began to happen, Jesus wanted them to remember this moment, this event.
When Jesus’ passion began, Peter, James and John could have held onto the vision of Jesus’ transfiguration. Even as they saw Jesus betrayed, arrested, abused, crucified, they should have remembered this day and known that the only reason any of those horrific things were happening to Jesus was not because he was powerless to prevent them – his transfiguration proved otherwise. The only reason those horrible things happened to him was because he allowed them to; because he had chosen to, because that was the plan all along. In fact, Luke tells us that that was the very reason Moses and Elijah were there that day – to talk about Jesus’ “departure,” i.e. his death in Jerusalem.
When that departure came – when Jesus’ passion started – Peter, James and John should have remembered this moment. They should have. But, as we know from history, they didn’t. Peter still thought that his sword could save Jesus from certain death. John sat silently in the peanut gallery while Jesus stood on trial for his life. James ran away and cowered in a locked room for fear that he would be next.
If we were in Jesus’ sandals, it would have been so tempting to be disappointed in and frustrated by the disciples. It would have been totally justifiable to wonder whether it had been worth it to invite them to witness his transfiguration at all. That might be what we would have felt. But it’s not what Jesus felt.
One of our former pastors put it this way, “Is it not a marvel of Jesus’ grace and love? He knows that such will be the case; but his desire to give always trumps his knowledge of how little will be received.”
Did the transfiguration prevent the disciples from panicking during Holy Week? No. Did that mean that the transfiguration was worthless? No. What Peter, James and John saw that day enabled them to give a powerful testimony for the rest of their lives that this guy Jesus who died on a cross was not a common criminal, or even a mistreated martyr. He was the Christ, who gave his life for your sins and mine, who forgives even your doubt and disbelief, who continues to give you promise after promise to reassure you of his love, who continues to give you proof after proof of his faithfulness and commitment to you, even though he knows only a fraction of it will stick.
That’s the kind of God you have. Just as he prepared Peter, James, and John for Lent, he prepares you and me for life. Just as he prepared Peter, James and John to process the cross that he would carry, Jesus prepares you and me for the crosses that we will carry.
There are all kinds of tragedies and challenges that we will face in this life. Some of them will be physical, medical; they’ll knock us to our knees and wring tears out of our eyes. We will cry aloud to our God, “Why would you let this happen to me or to someone I love?”
At other times we will fear for our way of life. What am I going to do about all this economic news – tariffs and taxes and travel plans that look a lot different today than when I bought the ticket? What kind of world are my children or grandchildren going to grow up in? There is so much immorality around us; how do we ever put it back in the bottle?
Sometimes it’s personal. I don’t feel like I fit in; I don’t know what my place is in this world. My friendships aren’t what they used to be. Someone hurt me and I don’t know how I’ll ever recover.
We can and will even suffer for our faith in Jesus. You might get sent to the principal’s office for standing up for your Christian conviction in the classroom. You’ll be the butt of your buddies’ jokes. You’ll see the confusion and sometimes even the disgust on people’s face when they find out you’re a Christian.
There are all kinds of tragedies and challenges that we face in this life, and unfortunately, all too often, you and I react just like Peter, James and John did. In the heat of the moment, when you need comfort and confidence the most, you forget that Jesus is your Saviour, the Son of the living God. Your faith quails and you cower in fear. You don’t retain the knowledge that you gain here. It’s like it goes in one ear and flies right out the other. You feel confused and conflicted and afraid and maybe even angry.
In those moments we deserve every bit of criticism and condemnation, just like Peter, James and John did when they denied Jesus and abandoned him and lost their confidence in his promises. But here’s the good news for you. Even though we lose sight of, or confidence in, Jesus’ promises, he never does.
Don’t you think that Jesus would have agreed with Peter when he said, “Lord, it is good for us to be here”? Jesus didn’t want to suffer any more than his disciples did. But the difference was that Jesus willingly set his glory by, and while his inner circle denied him and abandoned him and sought to save themselves, he willingly allowed himself to be carried off and condemned and crucified. He didn’t try to save himself, like they did; he didn’t try to prolong this moment of glory, like Peter suggested; he committed himself to save them, and us. He was faithful to us to the point of death so that he could forgive you for being unfaithful to him. In undying love, he gave up his glory and his life, so that you could have eternal life in the presence of his unadulterated glory forever in heaven.
Jesus knows that his glory is wasted on us, but he shows it to us anyway. God knows how many of his commands and promises you will forget or ignore at the most crucial moments in your life, but he gives them to you anyway, if only so that after the dust has settled and you’ve recomposed yourself he can forgive you and restore you and remind you that even though you may have forgotten his promises momentarily, he remembers them forever; even though we are inconsistent in our faithfulness to him, he is as faithful to us as the day is long.
There are so many days when our lives will feel normal and boring. There are plenty of days that will feel dark and fill us with despair. But it is important even then to remember moments like this – that the same Jesus who is with us on each of those normal and boring or dark and scary days is this same glorious Son of the living God, the long-promised Saviour of the world who kept his promise to deliver you from sin and who will keep his promise to take you home to heaven.
We have seen the glory of the Lord. Jesus’ transfiguration prepares you for Lent and for life. May the light of his glory and the truth of his love carry you through to the end, when you will live with him and all the saints in glory everlasting. Amen.