The Transfiguration of Jesus

Mark 9:1-4

Rev. Billy Kristanto

The transfiguration of Jesus is a well-known and perhaps familiar story to many of us. But before we enter into a deeper exegesis of this passage, we should again be reminded of the importance of Mark 8:29. Jesus asked, “But who do you say that I am?” This question is decisive. Although we may learn about Jesus from teachers, pastors, and others, each of us must answer this question personally before God. Mark 8:29 therefore sets the direction for the second half of the Gospel of Mark. We cannot continue reading without responding to Jesus’ question: Who is Jesus Christ for us?

To answer this question, we must think about Jesus and use our mind to know him. As we read in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament, the most important commandment is that we love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. The mind is certainly important. We should be careful of Christian sentimentalism or Christian romanticism, which reduces Christianity merely to emotion. We must not neglect understanding or the need for precise definitions concerning God, the Trinity, Christ, and other doctrines. Loving God with all our mind is important because it is the commandment of God. We cannot approach or believe in God without using our mind.

On the other hand, we must also emphasize, in a balanced manner, the importance of seeing or beholding the glory of Christ. We use our mind to contemplate and to have a clear understanding of who Jesus is. All of this is very important. But when we speak of beholding, which is the subject of the transfiguration, we are speaking about sensory perception. It is not merely contemplation with the mind, but also involves our senses, including tasting, hearing, smelling, touching, and seeing. It certainly includes seeing with our own eyes. Peter, James, and John saw the glory of God with their physical eyes. Such an experience, however, may not be possible for us. Therefore, we must understand the beholding of the glory of God in a spiritual manner.

It is no coincidence that we also celebrate Holy Communion today. We are invited to participate not only through the contemplation of our mind, but also through our sensory perception. We eat the bread, drink the wine, and physically taste them. Yet we should not remain in the realm of physical tasting. This should lead us to spiritual tasting and spiritual beholding. Without this spiritual dimension, we will easily fall into physical sensualism. We use our mind when speaking about God, but direct our senses only toward food, comfort, entertainment, and other physical pleasures. This becomes sensualism because we fail to relate physical sensing to spiritual sensing.

Holy Communion is not merely about eating the bread and drinking the wine. According to Reformed teaching, we eat the very flesh of Christ and drink the blood of Christ, in a spiritual manner. Without this spiritual dimension, it is not Holy Communion. We sometimes speak of the bread and wine as symbols, and this is correct, but the meaning of a symbol must be properly understood. In the Greek word symbolon there are at least two things: the signifier and the thing signified. We cannot speak about a symbol without the thing signified. Suppose we see a sign indicating an exit, but when we follow it, no exit actually exists. Such a sign would be an empty symbol. It is not even qualified to be called a symbol, since there is no reality referred to by it. Therefore, when we partake of Holy Communion, we eat the bread and drink the cup as symbols of eating the flesh of Christ and drinking the blood of Christ in a spiritual manner. Without this spiritual dimension, they are not true symbols. They will be reduced to empty symbolism.

More broadly, without spiritual and sacramental understanding, we can easily fall into mere physical sensualism. We may find Christianity attractive only because it satisfies our mind, but not our senses. For sensory satisfaction, we then turn to other things that have nothing to do with Christ. The Bible itself uses sensory language in a spiritual and metaphorical sense. Psalm 34:8 says, “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!” The goodness of the Lord is to be tasted and seen. Of course, this must be understood metaphorically and spiritually. Yet the Bible uses the language of sensory perception to describe spiritual reality. If we do not understand how to taste the goodness of the Lord, this becomes too abstract for us. We may be able to articulate it intellectually through theological explanations, yet fail to really understand the richness of Christianity.

Christianity can be seen as a dry religion when it is reduced to mere intellectualism. We like to debate, pursue theological precision, and discuss new insights. We demand new insight because we value only the broadening of our horizons or worldview. But we fail to participate in the invitation to rich sensory perception in a spiritual manner. We may understand Christian theology, while our affections remain unmoved. That is why it is also important that we sing before listening to the sermon. If we fail to engage our affections, singing becomes merely a way of passing time before the sermon. Because our affections are not touched, we cannot enjoy the songs and sing them from the depths of our hearts.

Without the transformation of our affections, we can hardly speak of spiritual growth. Spiritual growth cannot be reduced to the intellectual aspect alone. Perhaps we may gain a broader horizon or deeper knowledge, but without the transformation of the affections, there is no real spiritual growth. Of course, we should not reduce Christianity merely to the level of emotion since that would be another problem, which we might call Christian romanticism or Christian sentimentalism. Yet Christian intellectualism is also a real danger within the church. If we cannot feel God’s presence in worship and fail to see and behold the glory of God in our everyday lives, then something is very wrong with our spirituality. Once again, nothing can explain this better than Holy Communion, because in the true sense of the word, we taste the goodness of the Lord. We taste it not only in a physical sense, but also in a spiritual sense.

The transfiguration of Jesus took place because God wanted to reveal the glory of his Son to the disciples. This revelation was especially important because, after this, the Gospel of Mark moves toward the Passion. Without beholding the glory of the Lord, we will lose the courage to suffer for and with Christ. We will think that this is just a radical religion that asks us to suffer. Yet the transfiguration was not merely an extraordinary or triumphalistic display of how glorious Christ is. As recorded in the Gospel of Luke, Moses and Elijah were there speaking about the suffering of Christ. That is the content of the transfiguration. The vision of the suffering of Christ was demonstrated in glory through the transfiguration.

This is also one of the secrets of Christian spirituality. Without a vision of God’s glory in our lives, suffering becomes unbearable. We become easily offended, discouraged, and indifferent. We make excuses and ask why we should care for anyone else when our own lives are already difficult and no one seems compassionate toward us. The failure to behold God’s glory can therefore have a devastating impact on our Christian life. It leads not only to physical sensualism, but to many other problems as well.

And yet the transfiguration happened by divine revelation. It was not up to us. This is one of the differences in emphasis between Arminianism and Reformed theology. It does not mean that we do not emphasize human responsibility; we have to. But if we emphasize human responsibility in such a way that we no longer acknowledge God’s initiative, then there is a problem. Life is then no longer seen as a gift. Instead, it becomes something that we desperately try to earn, attain, or obtain through our own strength, strategies, and wisdom. But that is not the story we found here. The transfiguration was not planned by Peter, James, or John. It was a divine revelation, a blessing from God, that allowed them to participate in the transfiguration of Jesus.

In verse 2 we read, “And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John.” This echoes the story of Moses waiting for six days on Mount Sinai, as recorded in Exodus 24:16. There is therefore an allusion to Moses’ experience. Moses himself was also present at the transfiguration. The event on Mount Sinai was a type that was fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ. A high mountain, such as Mount Sinai, is often a place of divine revelation and encounter between God and humanity. The encounter happens on high ground, away from this busy world with all its difficulties and affairs. We read in Revelation 14:1, “Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb…” Mount Zion is described as a mount of glory, as is the mountain in the account of the transfiguration.

There was an outward and visible transformation in Jesus’ appearance. How should we understand this? I am persuaded by a certain theologian who explains that what fundamentally changes was not Jesus, but rather it was the eyes of the disciples. Jesus’ glory always remains the same. Because of our limitations, fallenness, sin, and weakness, we often have a veil that prevents us from beholding the glory of God in our lives. Of course, when the Logos became flesh, there was also a kind of hiddenness or concealment of his great glory, as Calvin puts it. At the transfiguration, however, not only their physical eyes, but the spiritual eyes of the disciples were opened. The veil was removed from Peter, James, and John, so that they were able to see and behold who Jesus truly is.

Once again, thinking, contemplating, and using our mind are certainly very important. The commandment tells us to love our God with all our mind. Responding to the question, “Who do you say that I am?” certainly includes the response of our mind and understanding. But beholding the glory of God is also very important. Without seeing the glory of Christ, Christianity loses its important attraction. Without it we may think of Christianity as a kind of puzzle that needs to be solved with our intellect and that gives us satisfaction once we solve it. But God is more like a mystery than a riddle or a puzzle to be solved. That is not the right way to approach God. That is why seeing and beholding the glory of Jesus is very important.

In the accounts of transfiguration in the Gospel of Matthew and the Gospel of Luke, we read that Jesus’ face shone as well. We behold the shining and beauty of Jesus’ face. This heightens the comparison with Moses. In the story of Moses, his face also shone, but then it slowly dimmed. That is not the case with Jesus. Paul dares to say that the knowledge of Jesus means beholding a glory that transcends that of Moses (2 Corinthians 3). The shining face of Jesus does not dim like with the case of Moses whose shining face eventually dimmed.

We may ask why Moses and Elijah appeared rather than Abraham, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, or other Old Testament figures. Moses represents the law of God, the Torah, because the Torah was given to Israel through Moses. Elijah represents the prophets in the Old Testament. Both Moses and Elijah were also great deliverers of Israel. When we talk about deliverance, I am reminded of the word used in the Heidelberg Catechism. In the original German, the second part uses the word Erlösung. In English, it is commonly translated as deliverance. To be delivered means to be liberated. When we speak about liberation or deliverance, we presuppose a certain oppression in life. There is oppression and slavery, hence people need to be delivered.

Both Moses and Elijah were great deliverers. Moses liberated Israel from the hands of Pharaoh and from Egyptian bondage. But what about Elijah? The name Elijah is a compound name: El means God, and Yah/Yahu is a shortened form of Yahweh. Hence, the name means, “The LORD is God.” This was not merely his name, but also the calling of his life. Elijah fought against idolatry and syncretism. The people worshipped the Lord while also worshipping Baal. He was sent by God to deliver Israel from this syncretism. We may think that this problem belongs only to the ancient people because we no longer worship such gods. Yet we are not immune to the danger of syncretism. We may follow an ideology that we think is compatible with the gospel, although it is actually incompatible with it. We think that we can create a beautiful synthesis between the narrative of the kingdom of God and the narrative of the kingdom of the world. The triumphalistic success stories of many people inspire us. We think how wonderful it would be if we could become successful while remaining Christian.

Idolatry is not merely an ancient problem, but also a modern one. As a deliverer of Israel, Elijah was used by God to liberate the people of God from false gods and idol worship. When we speak about idolatry and idols, we are also speaking about enslavement and oppression, whether we realize it or not. There is only one God whom we worship who gives us true and flourishing life, and that is found in Jesus Christ. All other idols oppress our lives, whether we are aware or not. There is no idolatry without enslavement and oppression.

We should also read Malachi 4:4-6 in order to understand the transfiguration better. The passage says, “Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” We read a warning here because blessing does not come without warning. It is not a cheap blessing. The passage speaks about the remembrance of Moses, the holy servant of God through whom the Torah was given, and also Elijah. Moses and Elijah are mentioned together in this passage. And this is fulfilled at the transfiguration of Jesus, where both Moses and Elijah appeared to speak about the suffering of the Messiah.

Let us therefore learn from the beauty of this story and again see the importance of beholding the glory of God. Christianity is not only about understanding and contemplating with our mind. It also involves tasting the goodness of the Lord, so that we will not so easily be trapped or oppressed by the idols of food, drink, other sensual experiences, or even sinful pleasures. We often turn to these things because we fail to behold the glory of God. We need the story of Jesus’ transfiguration in our daily lives. Without seeing the glory of the Lord, we will easily be attracted to the vain glories of the world. May God bless us. (T.F.L.)