MOUNTAIN-TOP GLORY

Peter, James and John seem to have been both startled and puzzled by this experience. Did Peter, telling this story to Luke, admit that they were half-asleep? Later he would write, “we were eye-witnesses of his majesty [when] he received honor and glory from God the Father…” (2 Pet. 1:16,17), but at the time they told no one, on Jesus’ instructions (Matt. 17:1–13; Mark 9:2–13). Luke records Peter’s muddled response, that he suggested building three shelters, perhaps implying that Jesus, Moses and Elijah were prophets of equal stature.

As the three were startled awake, they recognized these great saints of the past, Elijah and Moses, talking to Jesus about his departure in Jerusalem. The word departure is the Greek word exodus. N. T. Wright explains that Luke uses the word in three ways: first simply as departure or journey, second meaning death, but third, and primarily, that Jesus’ death and resurrection would echo the first Exodus, leading his people out from slavery to glory (Heb. 4:14–16).

The voice from heaven affirmed that Jesus is greater than even Moses and Elijah; he was not just another prophet come back (Luke 9:19). “Who is this man?” they were asking. Luke, writing after the ascension, could see that the voice from the cloud identified him as the royal Son of God, the chosen Messiah, Isaiah’s suffering servant and the prophet of God, to whom even Moses and Elijah bow. All three accounts of the transfiguration follow with the descent from the mountain—the next day, so perhaps they did get some sleep after all—to the humdrum and tragic ordinary world. This vision, showing Jesus as he is, always was and will be for ever, Lord of the universe, Creator God, highlights his deep humility in simply walking in our world as a man.

When have you experienced God in an unusual way? What happened? How did it change you?