Life of Christ 87
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| Mount Hermon |
The Transfiguration was
an unveiling or an uncovering of Jesus' flesh (Hebrews 10.20), and a revelation
of Jesus as He really was, Almighty God and King of Kings (Matthew 16.28). The
Transfiguration allowed Peter, James, and John, the only three of the Apostles
allowed to come along for this event, a peak behind that veil. In the process
Jesus shone. There is no other word for it. In this it reminds me of Moses'
time on Mount Sinai when his face shone with the reflected glory of being with
God for a month. It reminds me of the presence of God that hovered like a
shining cloud above the Tabernacle, that which we commonly call the Shekinah
Glory. In this it especially reminds me of Heaven, and of the fact that there
is 'no need of the sun' for 'the Lamb is the light thereof' (Revelation 21.23).
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| W. Graham Scroggie 1877-1958 |
Accompanying Jesus in
this majestic Transfiguration were Moses and Elijah. The three stood together
and talked. Their conversation revolved around the soon coming atoning death of
Christ (Luke 9.30-31). I have a wonderful old book in my office called 'The
Unfolding Drama of Redemption' by W. Graham Scroggie, a graduate of Spurgeon's
college who would later pastor that great church during World War Two. In it,
Scroggie takes the reader from one end of the Bible to the other, watching, as
acts in a play, the events unfold that point toward Christ. I believe that the
Old Testament saints in Heaven did exactly that, and Moses and Elijah had a
wonderful opportunity to leave the audience and actually converse with the
starring actor in the play just prior to the key scene. No wonder they spoke of
the atonement!
Peter, the mouth of the
Apostles, seems driven to always speak his mind. 'Master, it is good for us to
be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses,
and one for Elias' (Mark 9.5). In my opinion, Peter was here referencing the
temporary booths the Jews built each year during the Feast of Tabernacles. This
feast pictured Israel's past exodus out of Egypt, and her future exodus in
triumph into the millennial kingdom. Peter, perhaps, grasped that what he was
witnessing in the Transfiguration was a revealing of Christ's glory such as
will be seen in the Kingdom, and with Moses and Elijah returned from Heaven I
think that he thought the Kingdom had come. Whether he understood that or not,
he clearly and instinctively still wanted the Jesus on a throne rather than the
Jesus on a cross. In fact, he had made that exact argument earlier in the week
when Jesus spoke of His atoning death.
So much of the Christianity
of today is precisely the same. They say, 'it is good for us to be here', in the
brightness and glory of the kingdom, but when the valley of the shadow of death
comes all too often the response is, 'not so, Lord'. But the truth is that you
don't get the blessing of the former until you first go through the agony of
the latter. It is now cross bearing time. Later, we'll exchange our cross for a
crown.
As this scene in the
drama of redemption draws to a close a cloud arrived, and a voice out of the cloud
announced 'This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him'
(Matthew 17.5). This is, of course, similar to Jesus' baptism. The first direct
announcement was at the conclusion of Jesus' private life and at His entrance
into public ministry. The second announcement was at the conclusion of Jesus'
offering of Himself to Israel, and comes in conjunction with the rejection that
happens in Matthew 12, the transition of the kingdom and the parables in
Matthew 13, the founding of the Church in Matthew 16, and the direct turn
toward the atonement. Additionally, this announcement marks not only a hinge
pivot point in the life of Christ, but it also marks His Deity and His moral
perfection as well, and it calls us, most of all, to listen to Him.
We are at the point of
Jesus' ministry in which He is primarily spending His time ministering to the
Apostles, and preparing them for His absence and to be the human foundation of
the Church. In the next few months they will face the pressure and sadness of
Israel's ultimate rejection of Christ, the horror of His crucifixion, and the
loss of His physical presence permanently. With the Transfiguration He was able
to get across to His three key men such a deep rooted sense of His own glory
and divinity as to stay with them for the rest of their lives.
For instance, John
mentioned it years later. 'And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,
(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,)
full of grace and truth' (John 1.14). Peter refers to it as well, and even more
explicitly in the context of a strengthened faith. 'For we have not followed
cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received
from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from
the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And
this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy
mount' (II Peter 1.16-18).
In other words, via the
Transfiguration, Jesus was carefully storing up what they would need for the
days ahead. Here is the lesson: He is careful to do the
same for us.
He does this in two
ways. First, He does it by providing us with the Word of God. After
specifically mentioning the Transfiguration as a faith strengthener, Peter goes
on to reference the Scriptures themselves in the next verse. 'We have also a
more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well to take heed' (II Peter 1.19).
What a sweetly precious truth Peter give us here. What could possibly be a more
sure foundation for our faith than to see Jesus, Moses, and Elijah in one spot,
with Jesus' essentially divine glory shining through? Yes, you guessed it; the
Bible we sling onto the dashboard of our car so carelessly on the way back and
forth to church. The Word of God contains sufficient provision for our soul and
spirit this side of Heaven. Contrary to what our charismatic friends would have
us believe, we don't need extra-biblical dreams and visions and words of
knowledge. We have all we need in the Scriptures.
The second way God so
graciously stores up for us what we need is by providing encouragement for the
future. God is already in our future. He is, after all, El Olam, the
everlasting God. He never began and He will never end. He lives outside of
time. Thus, He knows that in the tough times to come we will need memories of
His previous goodness. We see this well-illustrated in the 77th and
42nd Psalms:
Psalm
77.7 Will the Lord cast off for ever?
and will he be favourable no more?
8 Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his
promise fail for evermore?
9 Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in
anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.
10 And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the
most High.
11 I will remember the
works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy
wonders of old.
Psalm 42.6
O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore
will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites,
from the hill Mizar.
When I find myself, for
instance, in need of God's provision, and it looks like nothing good is
happening, I remind myself of God's goodness to me in the past. I remind myself
of the time God gave me a good job at a steel mill at the last possible moment
as a freshman in Bible college. I remind myself of how often, as a struggling
young pastor with a new wife and a baby son, I found a bag of groceries on the
front seat of my car after church. I remind myself of the time I had just enough
gas to get to church for soul winning one Saturday and no money to buy any
more, and somebody handed me an envelope with $200 inside. 'I will remember.'
James and Peter would,
years later, die martyrs' deaths. John would, as an old man, undergo an attempt
on his life. In between the mountain top experience of the Transfiguration and
these martyrdoms would come a veritable plethora of persecution, pressure,
loneliness, burden, and rejection that comes with ministry to the lost and the
saved. They would need the memory of a singularly bright shining day in the
past, on top of the world, where they saw Jesus for Who He really was.
God knows what you need
for what you face in the future. And so He's given you the Word of God and the
memories of tremendous evidences of Himself in your past to succor you in that
time of need.
He's a good God, isn't
He?
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