Transfiguration
Transfiguration
By Fr Michael Casey
The accounts of the Transfiguration in the first three Gospels attest to the unseen status of Jesus during his lifetime. Mark’s account of Jesus’ baptism describes events reserved to Jesus alone: the heavenly voice addresses Jesus, using the second person pronoun in the singular. They are intimate words between Father and Son. An almost identical expression occurs in Mark 9:7, but it is couched in the third person. This is a message not for Jesus but for the disciples, with the added rider, "Listen to him".
All that transpires on the mountain is meant for the instruction of the three disciples whom Jesus had set apart for this purpose. They are given an insight into the divine mystery which underlies the ordinary, obscure and everyday appearance of the man Jesus. It was, in fact, the unexceptional public face of Jesus that made such a revelation necessary. Jesus was a man of the people with nothing to distinguish him externally from the common throng. He was able to slip up to Jerusalem and attend the festival incognito; even though many were looking for him, his presence went undetected (John 7:10-11).
Before the disciples’ wondering eyes the hidden nature of Jesus is revealed. Mark speaks only of the unearthly radiance of his garments whereas Matthew and Luke indicate that Jesus’ face was transfigured, as Moses’ was when he encountered God. The point being made is that in the seclusion of the place and the security of the company, Jesus is able to be more fully himself.
The disciples are enveloped by the cloud and witness something of the internal dynamic of Jesus’ being. By being instructed to listen to Jesus, the disciples are being informed that he is God’s voice on earth because this man is, in reality, the Son of God’s love. For a moment Peter, James and John have stepped out of space and time and visited eternity. The "transfiguration" is not so much a temporary event in the life of God’s Son — it is his permanent status — but it is a special moment in the lives of the disciples. Their eyes are opened to the invisible connections of the man Jesus with the spiritual world. Their finite minds are unable fully to comprehend what they have seen and they can find no language adequately to convey what they have experienced.
What the three disciples glimpsed in the incident and wished to share with other believers throughout the ages was their discovery of a qualitative difference in him. In a unique manner human language stumbles to express, Jesus is not merely a true being of earth but he belongs also and even principally to the sphere of God; he is God’s Son. "None of the rulers of this aeon knew this. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8).
This disclosure of the hidden dignity of the man Jesus dramatically demonstrates to us that there is nothing essentially incompatible between humanity and divinity. Although he was truly one of us, Jesus lived wholly in God. This raises the question of our own latent potential. If it is true that "of his fullness we have all received" (John 1:16), then we too are destined to become not only bearers of divinity, but sharers in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Only sin and time impede our divinisation. This is the goal of our existence. It is towards this that our journey leads.
All that transpires on the mountain is meant for the instruction of the three disciples whom Jesus had set apart for this purpose. They are given an insight into the divine mystery which underlies the ordinary, obscure and everyday appearance of the man Jesus. It was, in fact, the unexceptional public face of Jesus that made such a revelation necessary. Jesus was a man of the people with nothing to distinguish him externally from the common throng. He was able to slip up to Jerusalem and attend the festival incognito; even though many were looking for him, his presence went undetected (John 7:10-11).
Before the disciples’ wondering eyes the hidden nature of Jesus is revealed. Mark speaks only of the unearthly radiance of his garments whereas Matthew and Luke indicate that Jesus’ face was transfigured, as Moses’ was when he encountered God. The point being made is that in the seclusion of the place and the security of the company, Jesus is able to be more fully himself.
The disciples are enveloped by the cloud and witness something of the internal dynamic of Jesus’ being. By being instructed to listen to Jesus, the disciples are being informed that he is God’s voice on earth because this man is, in reality, the Son of God’s love. For a moment Peter, James and John have stepped out of space and time and visited eternity. The "transfiguration" is not so much a temporary event in the life of God’s Son — it is his permanent status — but it is a special moment in the lives of the disciples. Their eyes are opened to the invisible connections of the man Jesus with the spiritual world. Their finite minds are unable fully to comprehend what they have seen and they can find no language adequately to convey what they have experienced.
What the three disciples glimpsed in the incident and wished to share with other believers throughout the ages was their discovery of a qualitative difference in him. In a unique manner human language stumbles to express, Jesus is not merely a true being of earth but he belongs also and even principally to the sphere of God; he is God’s Son. "None of the rulers of this aeon knew this. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:8).
This disclosure of the hidden dignity of the man Jesus dramatically demonstrates to us that there is nothing essentially incompatible between humanity and divinity. Although he was truly one of us, Jesus lived wholly in God. This raises the question of our own latent potential. If it is true that "of his fullness we have all received" (John 1:16), then we too are destined to become not only bearers of divinity, but sharers in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Only sin and time impede our divinisation. This is the goal of our existence. It is towards this that our journey leads.
