Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed, and his clothes became dazzling white, far whiter than any earthly bleach could ever make them. Then Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus.
Peter exclaimed, “Rabbi, it’s wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He said this because he didn’t really know what else to say, for they were all terrified.
Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, when they looked around, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus with them.
As they went back down the mountain, he told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept it to themselves, but they often asked each other what he meant by “rising from the dead.”
Then they asked him, “Why do the teachers of religious law insist that Elijah must return before the Messiah comes?”
Jesus responded, “Elijah is indeed coming first to get everything ready. Yet why do the Scriptures say that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be treated with utter contempt? But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they chose to abuse him, just as the Scriptures predicted.”
Transmogrified
When we were rewriting our mission statement this past year we were looking for a word that described the transformation process Christians go through as they mature. We put forth several words, transformation, sanctification and others. One member of the committee put forth transmogrifies, which means to change form grotesquely. We decided to go with “ever-growing” instead.
Obviously Jesus’ image is changed into something brilliant and beautiful at the transfiguration so why the discussion on transmogrification? I find it intriguing how the Bible talks about the image of Jesus. Here Jesus is dazzling and the disciples get a chance to see Jesus as God sees Jesus. Perfect even to the point of his clothing shining in radiant white.
The moment of brightness passes quickly and the disciples see Jesus again as they have known him for three years. Jesus immediately begins to talk with them about suffering. Isaiah tells us Jesus will be crushed, bruised and barely recognizable as a man. Jesus’ image is going to change again, this time into the wounded healer.
Peter, James and John are blessed. They have seen Jesus as a human being, as the glorified Son of God, and in the future they will see him crucified, and then resurrected. I think the transfiguration was more for the disciples than it was for Jesus. They have the chance to see Jesus as God sees him. They have a chance to hear God’s word of approval in preparation for a time when the outward appearance of Jesus is going to be transmogrified.
Both views of Jesus are essential. The transfigured Jesus reveals his divinity, the transmogrified Jesus his real humanity. We must see Jesus both transfigured (as God) and transmogrified (suffering servant) to have the full picture.
Jesus, I believe you are God who came to earth in human form to suffer and die for me. Help me to never lose sight of the total reality you possess: the God-Man who bridges the gap between me and God. - Dan Jones
Recip
e for FailureElijah succeeded precisely because he failed.
Elijah is a metaphor for John the Baptist who came as the last and greatest of a long line of Old Testament prophets. He was the warm up act, you might say, to get the crowd ready for the headliner, Jesus the Messiah. His life had one purpose, pave the way for his cousin Jesus.
But those who held power, religious and political leaders, rejected him, finally lopping off his head as payment for sexually provocative entertainment in the halls of government. Jesus didn’t do any better with this influential crowd. So just how successful was the latter-day Elijah?
I tend to define success by that mountain top peek into eternal realities. If only Jesus had all the movers and shakers up there to hear and see and embrace Jesus as King… If only every crag had been filled with adoring people… If the mountain top had indeed become the new reality in the valley below, now that would have been success!
Instead John loses his head to testosterone driven men and Jesus his life to, well, the same! Some success.
And it was. Jesus’ death throws our own miserable failure into our faces. He died because we have de-evolved into a race incapable of pure good. At our most beautiful and productive we bring along the gross and destructive. Every good is tainted with evil, not in a mystical yin-yang balance, but with a sad, corrosive interaction. Like alcoholics and drug addicts, before recovery can begin, we must reach rock bottom.
If we let it, the crucifixion exposes the rock bottom of our souls. This “failure” in the face of overwhelming Roman power, holds the key to successfully experiencing more than a mountaintop peek into eternal realities. The cross opens the door to living those realities daily.
Crucified God, break my arrogance and self-sufficiency. May I daily trust you to give me new birth and so to bring into my own soul the life and breath of eternity. - Mike Leamon
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