For most people, suffering and glory are two opposites. They would
never think of them as two sides of the same coin. Yet that is just what the gospels communicate to us the story of the Transfiguration of the Lord Jesus.
The story of Jesus’ Transfiguration appears in all of the first three
Gospels. It is a brief, flashing moment in which the glory of God is seen
directly by the naked human eye. In Luke’s Gospel, we find the following
strange sentence: “Suddenly there were two men there talking to [Jesus]; they
were Moses and Elijah appearing in glory, and they were speaking to him of
his passing which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem.”
Moses is the great Lawgiver of Israel. Jesus speaks with
Moses of his “passing” in Jerusalem Israel through the Red Sea , in which God drowned Pharaoh’s army. The Exodus
is a passing out (of slavery) and a passing through (the Red
Sea), and passing is associated with passion, and passion with suffering.
The Good Friday service, in fact, contains these lines: “I opened the
Red Sea before you; but you opened my side with a lance.” Jesus appears here
with Israel’s greatest lawgiver, and shows that he fulfils the entire Old
Testament Law, by leading his people from the slavery of sin to freedom with
God, through the waters of baptism.
Elijah is regarded as the great Prophet of Israel. A
prophet is someone sent by God to call his people back to faithfulness to the
Law. Since his words are the words of God, they must be fulfilled. The
prophets also promised the coming of the Suffering Servant of God, the Messiah.
The suffering of the Messiah becomes a way from death and sin to life with God.
Jesus speaks with Elijah of what he was to “accomplish” in Jerusalem Israel
But Jesus’ death is much more than just an example for us to follow. It
is something which he alone can do. Luke speaks of “All that he was to accomplish.”
He uses the little Greek word pleroun, which
means, literally, to fulfil. From it comes pleroma, fullness. It is the Biblical word used to
describe the dazzling glory which surrounds God when he appears to Israel
Strange, is it not, that the suffering and death which Jesus was to
pass through in Jerusalem, should be spoken of as a fulfilment, using
the same word that is used to speak of God’s glory? It is this
word that links the two; in it, suffering and glory become one and
the same thing. Jesus is glorified in his suffering and death, which is his
complete obedience to the Father. Through it our salvation is accomplished.
Do you see how closely woven is the story of our salvation, from the
Flood to Calvary and the empty tomb? Do you see, too, how Jesus’ all the
incidents of Jesus’ life up to this point are brought together into a perfect
whole. From this moment, his life moves quickly forward on the road to Calvary . The Transfiguration is a single lightning flash
of blinding truth which lights up everything, and allows us for a moment to see
everything clearly.
On this feast day, then, we share the vision which the three chosen
disciples were privileged to see. We see Jesus in his glory, an unbearable
sight for sinful human eyes, and in it we see a his promise of glory for us.
But we also see the suffering and death that forms part of that glory: His
suffering and death. And it is made clear to us that without Jesus’
suffering and death, there is no hope for us. And we have to follow him, sharing
in our own way in his suffering and death. But in that flash of glory we see
the one hope to which we can cling; that because of what Jesus has done
for us, if we can only take up our own small crosses daily and follow him, the
glory which for a moment he reveals today, is the same glory which he has promised
us forever, living with him.
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