Anchor My Faith

The Transfiguration of Jesus

Scripture: Matthew 17:1; Mark 9:3; Luke 9:29

With this lesson we begin a new section about the transfiguration of Jesus high up on a mountain.

^{Mt 17:1} “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.”

The six days would be counted from the last recorded event, which occurred in the district of Caesarea Philippi, which was the time Peter said that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. Then Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go up to Jerusalem and suffer many things and be killed, to which Peter rebuked him saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Jesus replied, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Jesus then calling the crowd to gather around him, he told them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

Now six days later from this, Jesus takes his inner circle of disciples, Peter, James and John his brother, and they go up on a high mountain by themselves. Church tradition identifies this mountain as Mount Tabor, which is about 12 miles from the Sea of Galilee. This choice was probably due to the conspicuous position of that mountain, as it rises abruptly from the plain of Esdraelon. The Gospel narratives leave the locality altogether uncertain, but as Caesarea Philippi was the last place mentioned, and a journey through Galilee follows (Mark 9:30), it is more probable that the scene is to be found on one of the heights of Hermon. As a result, most scholars favor Mount Hermon, outside Galilee and rising 9,166 feet above sea level.

^{Lk 9:29} “And as [Jesus] was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white; ^{Mk 9:3} [they] became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.”

Matthew adds the statement that was left out of the narrative I am working from, which states that he was transfigured before them. Luke and Mark tell us what happened when Jesus was transfigured. The best English word that can express the meaning of the Greek word for “transfigured” is metamorphosis, which we use to describe the amazing transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. However, the word transfigured included the prefix trans-, which means “across.” Right before these disciples, Jesus crossed over from the natural to the divine. His humanity faded away as his glory became visible.

Jesus may have been praying to his Father, telling him that they were ready for the transfiguration to take place, and as it did, the disciples watched the appearance of his face change and the color of his clothing change to a dazzling, radiant, and intense white, as no one on earth could bleach them.

An example of this is found in Exodus 34:29 – 30 in connection with Moses: ²⁹ “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. ³⁰ Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.”

Another example is found in Hebrews 1:3 in connection with Jesus: “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

Before the three disciples could comprehend what was happening to Jesus, two men from out of the Old Testament show up and carrying on conversation with Jesus. We will get to that in the next lesson.

Conclusion

Jesus chose these three disciples to experience a touch of heaven. Jesus said that he must go up to Jerusalem and suffer many things and die and rise again and now he is giving them a glimpse of that resurrection. The Father chose us and gave us to Jesus and he will raise us up to glory with him.