Holy Transfiguration

By: Milica Yaksich

"And He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light" (Matt. 17:2).

  As we celebrate this major feast, the Transfiguration of the Lord, to which our beautiful monastery is dedicated, let us take time to understand what it is that we are celebrating.

  The story of the Transfiguration of the Lord is told in the books of Matthew 17:1-13, Mark 9:2-13, and Luke 9:28-36 and all three accounts agree on what occurred. Rather than make you dig out your bibles, let us review what Matthew writes and then consider the meaning:

  Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." While he was speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!" And when the disciples heard it they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. But Jesus came and touched them and said, "Arise, and do not be afraid." When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only. Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead." And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" Jesus answered and said to them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands." Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist. (Matt. 17:1-13)

  The dictionary defines the word "transfiguration" as "a change of form or appearance, and Christ's appearance in radiant glory to three of his disciples". The word "transfigure" is defined as "change in form or appearance esp. so as to elevate or idealize". To His disciples, Christ's appearance changed, but it is important to understand that this was a revelation and not a true change in the Lord. He did not become, at that moment, the Son of God, the Messiah, rather He was revealed as such to His disciples so that their faith in Him as God could be firm. The Transfiguration is a manifestation of God. This is referred to as a "theophany" and another example of this is the Baptism of the Lord in the river Jordan, where His divinity is revealed by the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."(Matt. 3:16,17) The Transfiguration begins "up on a high mountain" and a "high mountain" is generally a place of revelation in Scripture (Ex. 19:3,23; Is. 2:3; 2 Pet. 1:18). In 1 John 1:5 we are told that "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all". The vision of Jesus' face shining like the sun and His clothes as white as the light, together with the bright cloud all represent divine glory and affirm that Jesus is God. The bright cloud like the "pillar of a cloud" (Ex 13:21) that led the way for Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness is a visible manifestation of the presence of God the Father. From heaven above, God the Father, through the bright cloud, bears witness, "This is My beloved Son". There can be no doubt or confusion about this statement. He does not state that Jesus has become His beloved Son, rather He affirms that He is and always has been God's Son from the beginning of time, God of God and that this divinity is Christ's by nature.

  St. Gregory Palamas states it clearly, "Thus Christ assumes nothing foreign, nor does He take on a new state, but He simply reveals to His disciples what He is."

  God the Father not only declares, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased", but He goes on to say, "Hear Him." This may sound strange because it is a literal translation. The Greek verb for "hear" in the present imperative means "listen always".

  The Transfiguration not only reveals the divine nature of the Christ, the God Man, but also points to the time of His coming glory as the Messiah and the long anticipated Kingdom. He tells His disciples that He will suffer and not to tell anyone of this vision until "the Son of Man is risen from the dead" so that when they see Him crucified they will remember the transfigured radiance of Christ in His uncreated glory and know that He suffered willingly to save mankind from the bondage of the evil one. He refers to Himself as "the Son of Man" which is an obscure Old Testament messianic title (Dan. 7:13) and which Jesus clearly considered more appropriate and less problematic at that time in His ministry than "the Christ". Though His disciples at times confess Him to be "the Christ", only rarely does He use or accept this title, which in Hebrew is the same as "Messiah" or "the Anointed One" and about which there were common nationalistic misunderstandings. It was a popular notion that the much anticipated "Messiah" would deliver the Jews from Roman oppression and much like a political or military hero make them masters of the world. Few, if any, could comprehend the divine nature of Christ or the spiritual glory of the Kingdom. The only sign of His divinity that is greater than His Transfiguration is His Resurrection.

  Moses represents the Law and all those who have died. Elijah represents the Prophets and, since he did not experience death, all those who are alive in Christ. Their presence shows that the Law and the Prophets, the living and the dead, all bear witness to Jesus as the Messiah, the fulfillment of the whole Old Testament. (O.S.B.)

  The presence of Moses and Elijah also manifests the communion of the saints (Heb. 12:1). Both men are immediately recognizable, and talk with the Lord. The disciples are able to understand Jesus' words that "Elijah has come already" referring to John the Baptist. Their eyes have been opened to the fact that Malachi's prophecy (Matt. 4:5,6) refers to one coming "in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17) rather than to Elijah himself. (O.S.B.)

  Peter perceives the radiant glory of the transfigured Christ and the appearance of Moses and Elijah talking with Him as a sign that the Kingdom has come. The Feast of the Tabernacles is the feast of the coming Kingdom and so he naturally asks to build "three tabernacles" (or booths): one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah, as was the custom at that feast, to symbolize God's dwelling among the just in the Kingdom.

  The Transfiguration is a manifestation of the Holy Trinity: the transfigured Christ, Son of the Father, radiant in uncreated glory, the Father speaks from heaven to proclaim Christ's divine sonship, and the Holy Spirit surrounds the Person of Christ as bright light overshadowing the entire mountain.

  It is important to recognize that the divinity of Christ had to be revealed in this manner. No one but God could say, "This is My beloved Son". More than that, this was something that had to be witnessed, experienced, and not by just anyone. It was necessary that the apostles' faith in Jesus as God be firm, but they also had to be capable of receiving such a revelation. Not everyone can look into the face of the sun, and not be blinded by the light. It is also significant that these witnesses would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (at Pentecost), for without the enlightenment of the Spirit they could not completely comprehend the full import of what they had witnessed.

  Still there is more to consider. Leonid Ouspensky expresses it this way, "The future transfiguration of the entire human nature, including that of the body, is revealed to us in the transfiguration of the Lord on Mount Tabor…The Lord no longer appeared to His disciples in His "form of a servant," but as God. The whole body of Christ was transfigured, becoming, so to speak, the luminous clothing of His divinity. In His Transfiguration "on Mount Tabor, not only divinity appeared to men, but humanity also appeared in divine glory." (Metropolitan Philaret)

  What does this mean? Ouspensky and in the last sentence Metropolitan Philaret speak of the Christian hope for glorification in God's eternal Kingdom. St. Paul writes, "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed" (1 Cor. 15:51). In 1 John 3:2 we are told, "We know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is".

  "God said: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen 1:26) This suggests that God intended man to not only be made in His image but to be like God, to resemble God. However, when man is created there is no mention of "likeness". "So God created man, He made him in the image of God" (Gen. 5:1). Man was made in the image of God and so has the potential to become like God. This is something he must work at. This is his task to accomplish in life. Leonid Ouspensky writes, "the Son of God, in His Incarnation, recreates and renews in man the divine image soiled by the fall of Adam. Christ, the New Adam, the first-fruits of the new creation, of the celestial man, leads man to the goal for which the original Adam was created." We are already in the image of God. By attaining His likeness we reveal what we were intended to be.

  When we look at Christ, we know the Father by the Son. "He who sees Me, sees Him who sent Me." (Jn. 12:45) "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect" (Matt. 5:48).