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Religion

2009-04-01 14:39:00

Purpose behind the Transfiguration

Question: My question deals with the Transfiguration. Most of the things I read about in the Bible or have heard our pastor discuss, I can understand why the event occurred. I cannot however understand the purpose behind the Transfiguration. As He did with our Lord’s Baptism, God the Father let us know this was His beloved Son in Whom He was well pleased, but other than that…why did this event occur?

Answer: Notice the context in the gospels: Matt. 17:1-9 and Mark 9:2-10 and Luke 9:28b-36. The narrative of Jesus’ Transfiguration occurs shortly after “He began to teach his disciples that the Son of Man had to suffer much, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, be put to death, and rise three days later.” He said these things quite openly. . . He summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them: “If a man wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross, and follow in my steps” (Mark 8:31-34). Jesus realized that such teaching fell upon deaf ears. His disciples and hearers didn’t understand or believe that so popular a preacher would have to suffer. Even less that they too would have to suffer, if they would be his disciples. At the time those who heard Jesus did not take notice of his mentioning the resurrection. Like most people, they were thinking about the here and now. Jesus knew that his disciples would be shocked and scandalized by his passion and death, and that they would be hurting so much that most - if not all - of them would no longer believe in him, and some would look for another messiah. As happened at the time of his teaching about the Holy Eucharist (John 6:25-64), “Jesus knew from the start, of course, the ones who refused to believe, and the one who would betray him. . . .From this time on, many of his disciples broke away and would not remain in his company any longer” (Jn 6:64-66). Jesus knew how weak was the faith of his disciples. They had witnessed his many miracles, but their faith in him would be supremely tested by his passion and death, and many more persons, who had believed in him, would abandon him at his death. Therefore he determined to strengthen their faith by providing them with an extraordinary experience, which would help them persevere in their loyalty to him during the terrible ordeal just ahead. Jesus was concerned about the faith of his friends. So he chose his three close associates, Peter and James and John, who were among his first disciples and had been with him throughout his public ministry. This is the Peter, who had confessed before all the others: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:16). The other disciples would learn from those three witnesses of the Transfiguration. Their faith was shaken but did not fail during the dark hours of Jesus’ death and burial. And so upon a high mountain Jesus showed those three Apostles a glimpse of his glory as the Son of God, something they would experience again after Jesus had risen. He anticipated for them the outcome of his passion and death, showing them something of his resurrected body. He invited the great leaders of the Jewish Law and the Prophets (Moses and Elijah) to appear with him in conversation about his approaching passion and death. “They appeared in glory and spoke of his passage, which he was about to fulfil in Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). This vision was so wonderful that the chosen Apostles didn’t want to leave the mountain, but preferred to remain there forever, as they felt they were already in heaven. God the Father’s testimony, repeating what he had said at the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, i.e. at his Baptism, confirmed what the three Apostles were experiencing. This event occurred only a short time before Jesus’ passion. That experience of the Transfiguration remained indelible in the minds of those Apostles. They told the other Apostles about it, and all the Apostles shared it with the other disciples of Jesus. Some decades later the Christian author of 2 Peter recalled St. Peter’s testimony about the Transfiguration: “We were eyewitnesses of his sovereign majesty. He received glory and praise from God the Father when that unique declaration came to him out of the majestic splendor: ‘This is my beloved Son, on whom my favor rests.’ We ourselves heard this said from heaven while we were in his company on the holy mountain” (2 Peter 1:17-18). So now you can understand the reason for the Transfiguration. It wasn’t that God the Father needed to make himself heard again, but rather it was to strengthen the faith of the disciples of God the Son during the terrible dark hours of his suffering and death and burial. That testimony can also encourage us in times of suffering, darkness, persecution and death. Therein we know that a better condition of life awaits us, who are united with Jesus in his suffering and death, but also in his resurrection and glory.