Feast of the Transfiguration 2025
Tonight, we celebrate a key event in the earthly ministry of Our Lord - the Transfiguration - an event recorded in all three of the synoptic gospels - Matthew 17; Mark 9 and the Gospel appointed, Luke Chapter 9.
St. Luke records that the Transfiguration occurs eight days after “these sayings” - referring to the declaration of Peter that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Not as some folks were saying - that Jesus was Elijah or one of the other prophets. You recall that Peter followed up with rebuking Jesus when later in that discourse he tried to convince Jesus it was wrong to go to Jerusalem to die and be raised again. So, our Gospel for this feast occurs after the dual declaration that Jesus was the Son of God and that Jesus must go to Jerusalem be crucified and raised the third day.
Some of the Church Fathers saw in both of these elements the key features in our Gospel for this evening.
Notice that they all go up on a mountain to pray. It is on the mountain that God grants a revelation of God’s glory and purpose through Christ. While our Lord prays, while the Son communes with the Father, it is then that Our Lord was transfigured. You will recall that Moses had his countenance transformed by being in God’s presence. He received the glory of God’s fellowship when receiving the law. It diminished over time because the glory was not intrinsic to Moses. It was gifted to him by God’s presence. Our Lord talked often of his fellowship with God the Father. It is while he was in this sweetest of fellowship - in prayer - that the true glory of Our Lord’s divine power became evident. Not only did his face radiate in a manner that reminded people of Moses; the simple clothes of Jesus became whiter than any bleach could make them.
“The earthly robes were so beautified by contact with this Divine light that human language is exhausted by the evangelists to find terms and metaphors to picture them. St. Matthew compares these garments of the Blessed One to light; St. Mark, to the snow; St. Luke, to the flashing lightning.”
When one reads the accounts of Jesus’ most pressing moments, we read that on a few occasions he invited Peter, James and John to come along. There were present when Jesus prayed here on the Mount of his Transfiguration and when he labored on the Mount of Olives on the night of his betrayal; You will recall our Lord prayed and communed with God while the disciples slept. Maybe we can relate a bit. Does sleep/weariness attend our prayers? We are in good company. In any case, while they slept Jesus met with Moses and Elijah who appeared in glory.
God tended to Moses in death and hid his mortal body from human sight and preserved his body from mortal corruption. Jude 1:9 seems to teach that God protected Moses’ body until this event. Moses never entered the promised land until this moment. He was denied entry, you may recall, because of his disobedience. He saw it from afar but died outside the promised land. Elijah never tasted death as being taken up to heaven by a chariot in the presence of Elisha.
Moses mediated the Old Covenant and Elijah was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. Their collective presence meant to communicate what the Old Covenant looked forward to. All the Law and Prophets longed for a time when there would be restoration of mankind’s relationship with God. Elijah and Moses corroborated Our Lord’s purpose - what St. Luke calls Jesus “decease” which he should accomplish in Jerusalem. “Decease” can also be translated as exodus.
They discussed the greater exodus that would lead God’s people out of bondage. He would accomplish this in Jerusalem on the mount of Calvary, Jesus accomplished the redemption of mankind, ransoming us from sin and death, through his sacrificial death and resurrection.
The apostles were awakened by the Transfiguration. Peter’s response was to build residence - to remain on this mount of glory and power. To make Tabernacles, tents for Jesus, Elijah and Moses. As Peter proposed this action, all were covered with a cloud and then the voice of the Father. “This is my beloved Son, hear him!” Hear him when he says he must go to Jerusalem. Listen to the Incarnate Son as he declares the necessity of His laying his life down as a ransom for many. Hear Him. Obey Him. Our Lord received encouragement from Elijah and Moses. The Apostles were strengthened by the Transfiguration - the glory of the Godhead breaking though the humble frame of the Carpenter from Nazareth.
It was glory, glory of the only Begotten full of glory and truth. True glory accomplishing salvation through suffering. The lonely path to Calvary and the miraculous rising from the grave. The point of Jesus’ divinity which Peter declared, which the Father revealed, was to taste the fulness of death so that he might, in his resurrection, restore us to the Father and remove the sting of death. He was to give us new and eternal life in His name. On this feast of the Transfiguration, let us meditate on our present sufferings in light of the glory that shall be revealed. Our Lord was no mere mortal but the eternal Son of God in human flesh. For only he, and he alone, could restore us to God. Only the perfect Son of God could save us and promise us that we will share in his glorious resurrection. He did all this through his perfect loving sacrifice. Let us in the words of our collect - be granted such a vision of Jesus' divine majesty that we being purified and strengthened by his grace, may be transformed into his likeness from glory to glory.
May the power of God radiating in our Lord’s transfigured body transform us more and more into the likeness of his perfect holiness. Amen.