Transfiguration

In chapter 15 of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus withdraws from the crowds into the region of Tyre and Sidon so that he might teach his disciples without distraction. In Chapter 16 the penny drops for Peter: 'You are the Christ' he tells Jesus, 'the Son of the living God'. Yet he immediately demonstrates his lack of understanding when he protests against Jesus' warnings that the Christ must suffer. Now in chapter 17, the Transfiguration, Jesus offers Peter, James, and John a private tutorial. These apostles were shown a glimpse of their final end, the glory that they will share in through Christ if they persevere through the trauma and desolation of the cross. At the same time Jesus showed them the means or way to this final end, that is, the body of Christ.

We can read the entire episode of the Transfiguration, then, as a peculiarly explicit kind of holy teaching. Jesus' choice of a mountain as the scene is meant to remind the apostles of the revelations received on the mountain by Moses and Elijah. Moses and Elijah suffered enormously in their struggles to implement and embody the revelations that they received. Here, then, we have a hint of the struggles that Jesus will face. At the same time, the presence of Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus at the Transfiguration shows the continuity between the law, the prophets, and Christ. Jesus fulfills the law, he does not replace it.

Just as Moses' face shone after his encounter with God on the mountain (Exodus 33-34), so at the Transfiguration Jesus' entire body is radiant with the light of his soul and of his divine nature. Peter grasps that this divine light is not simply a reflection, but that it somehow comes from within Jesus. He proposes to build three tents so as to more appropriately 'tabernacle' this divine presence, just as the Tent of Meeting housed the Ark of the Covenant during Israel's sojourn in the desert. Peter, like Mary Magdalene in the Garden (John 20:11-18), wants to cling to this moment in God's presence. He has not yet understood that Jesus must undergo the cross before his glory can be fully revealed. It is easy to sympathise with Peter in this instance: we too only really grasp the power and meaning of the resurrection when we have fully embraced our cross.

The voice of God coming from the cloud that so terrifies the disciples again emphasises the presence of God in this encounter. The voice repeats what was said at Jesus' baptism: 'This is my beloved Son, listen to Him'. Jesus is reconsecrated and reconfirmed in his redemptive mission. In the context, then, of Jesus' final journey to Jerusalem, the Transfiguration acts as a balance to all the passion predictions and calls to follow Jesus into the suffering of the cross. It represents a preview of the glory of the resurrection, a resurrection that we share with Christ if we die with Christ.