From the Word

Mark 9:2-10

2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them,
3 and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
4 Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus.
5 Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
6 He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
7 Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."
8 Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them.
9 As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
10 So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant.


People change. It is, ironically, one of the unchanging facts of life. Children grow up, adults marry, and people age. We often think of change as bad, particularly among our close friends, as the more they change, the farther they drift from us. But at the Transfiguration we say the glorious change awaiting all of us who believe, the change that is nothing but good.

On the Mount of Transfiguration (traditionally considered to be Mount Tabor), the Glory of Christ shown forth, his divinity overtop his humanity. Here he is revealed as the Son of God, the glorious one, to whom we are supposed to listen.

This change, however, is not limited to Christ. Peter, James, and John say, along with Jesus, Moses and Elijah, also glorified (the text does not explicitly say this in Mark. Luke, however, says that the other two were “glorious”). In heaven, we are without sin and without any trappings of the fallen world. Our bodies will remain, or rather will be remade, new creations with Christ. Without sin, the Glory of God shines forth from his creations.

As they journey down the mountain Jesus orders his disciples to tell no one of what has happened until after he is resurrected, at which point his Glory will be visible to all. The three apostles got a foretaste of what was to come on earth, which is in itself a foretaste of what will come in heaven, the great wedding feast of the Lamb.

This change is facilitated through Christ, for we are “more than conquerors” through him. We get to partake in the divine nature of Christ, for he became like us in order that he may make us like him (cf. 2 Peter 1:4). On the mountain Truth and Glory were revealed together.

posted by J.M.R. Burgard @ 1:19 PM