Bible Study Notes: St Luke's Gospel
Session 24 Chapter 9:28-36
The Transfiguration - Glory on a Mountain
About eight days after saying this, he climbed the mountain
to pray, taking Peter, John, and James along. While he was in prayer,
the appearance of his face changed and his clothes became blinding white.
At once two men were there talking with him. They turned out to be Moses
and Elijah-and what a glorious appearance they made! They talked over
his exodus, the one Jesus was about to complete in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, Peter and those with him were slumped over in sleep. When they
came to, rubbing their eyes, they saw Jesus in his glory and the two men
standing with him. When Moses and Elijah had left, Peter said to Jesus,
"Master, this is a great moment! Let's build three memorials: one
for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He blurted this out
without thinking.
While he was babbling on like this, a light-radiant cloud enveloped them.
As they found themselves buried in the cloud, they became deeply aware
of God. Then there was a voice out of the cloud: "This is my Son,
the Chosen! Listen to him."
When the sound of the voice died away, they saw Jesus there alone. They
were speechless. And they continued speechless, said not one thing to
anyone during those days of what they had seen.
© The
Message
One of the persistent problems of the Christian religion is that its members spend too much time with religious words and thoughts that are not based on an experience of Jesus. Many people study theology but never experience the love that flows from direct contact with Jesus. They substitute word games and scholar's one-upmanship for the joyful exchange of affection between themselves and Christ. The "blah-blah" of the din of religious words replaces the exultation of a direct encounter with the divine.
Theology is obviously supremely important, but it works best when it exudes with the vitality of a spirituality that grounds it. Real religious discourse should be like God talking through the lips of people who devote time each day to meditative prayer. It should be more than brain-to-brain exchange or a dull transfer of abstractions from one little gray cell to another. Position papers divorced from religious experience are tiresome. One has the right to hear the echo of love in the religious words that are spoken.
This is the principal message of the Transfiguration of Jesus. Peter, James and John - the select three whom Jesus singled out for special training - have heard many of Christ's sermons. His words have flooded their ears and perhaps begun to cling to their brains. They had experienced Jesus as a person, felt his affection for them, sensed the power of his personality, and witnessed his remarkable miraculous powers.
What they needed was a defining experience to gather the diverse strands of Christ's impact on them into a more unified force. Jesus wanted to reach them at the most silent part of their souls when they would feel love as never before. He wanted to enlighten them in a far deeper manner than he had up to this time. He took them up to a mountain to pray. He often drew them to meditation. They were now ready for one of the more profound effects of meditative prayer. They sank into a tranquillity in which they were asleep to the world around them but wide-awake to the spiritual presence of Jesus.
They beheld Christ's glory. Light caused his face to shine like the sun and his clothes to become white as snow. They were doing more than merely physically looking "at" Jesus. (One can see the sun, but when its warmth is felt then it opens one up with its pleasant embrace.) Their intimacy with Jesus transformed them. The transfiguration of Jesus was a transformation of the apostles.
Jesus enlightened them, meaning that his light entered into their inmost being. This religious experience put meaning into the words and deeds they had heard and seen. Up to this time they believed that what Jesus said was true. Now it "seemed" true as well. They knew it with more than their brains. They accepted him with their hearts.
In that mystical enlightenment event, they saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. They heard of Christ's exodus - his forthcoming saving death and resurrection. Peter wanted this moment to last forever. He wanted to contain love in physical shrines for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. He did not know what he was saying, for such a unique and transcendent experience is too personal to be fully expressed in a physical representation.
As the enlightenment event came to a close, a shining cloud enveloped them, a cloud of "unknowing" in the human sense. It is a paradox, a seeming contradiction, for the cloud stills the reason and yet fills the whole person with light. They hear God the Father affirm that Jesus is his Son to whom they should listen.
This was a lot to take in all at once. "They fell silent" (verse
36). A religious experience of this magnitude can only be assimilated
in the quiet of one's being. The mystery would silently unfold in each
one of them until they had the images and words that would give the world
some inkling of that astonishing event on the mountain.
© Fr Michael Fuller: December 2009