Transfiguration

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Sometimes through our human nature or perhaps, in my

case, just plain stupidity, I don’t know if any of you have ever

looked into a light bulb. If you have, then for the first couple of

seconds you are totally blinded, but after a couple of seconds, you

can gradually see the inside of the bulb, the element - something

so small yet it gives off light, power and heat.

The Transfiguration has two separate accounts. The first

in the Old Testament when Moses returned from the mountain

and secondly when Jesus ascends to the mountain with two of His

Disciples.

The first occasion when the people reject Moses - God

intervenes. when Moses comes down from the mountain his face

is shining so bright there can be no doubt in peoples’ minds -

God’s voice has spoken, the evidence is clear. The second is in

Luke’s Gospel. As Jesus prays, his clothes become so dazzling

white, his face changed and God’s voice again proclaiming “This is

my son with whom I am well pleased”.

God now putting the world back on track, the majesty,

dominion, power and glory. God’s supremacy coming through loud

and clear. This s our Lord revealed in His radiance, fulfilling and

superseding the law and the prophets before His passion.

As Christians, we are confident that the hope and sharing in

His likeness that the Kingdom of God is for all believers to share

in.

The radiance and the awe and majesty that surrounds these

passages of scripture were concepts that Old Testament

believers were familiar with, not for them the mateness of God

of some present day believers who seemed to have no trouble in

telling God what to do, and perhaps there is an element which

needs to be discovered. The closer we get to God, the greater is

our awareness of His majesty and glory and of our need as it

were to put shoes in a reverential response.

The Transfiguration of our Lord is something that can be

transferred to us and that we can be transformed by it. John

the Baptist saw the radiance of our Lord, he saw the glory of God

shining as bright as anything he had seen in his life and was able

to follow in the recognition that Christ was the chosen one,

serving and ministering in Christ’s name. We too are part of that

glorious light and we have a share in that as well.

The Transfiguration of our Lord took place because God

answered the question once and for all. Who is Jesus? Some had

said he was John the Baptist, some said Elijah and others said

Jeremiah. But this was God’s moment of glory. Jesus stood in

radiance glowing.

The interesting thing was that although he appeared with

Moses and Elijah, we are told that it was Christ whose face

transfigured. It was, if you like, God answering the critics in the

Old Testament, as I referred to earlier, but this was Jesus, this

was the final piece in the jigsaw. The law and the prophets had

served their turn. Jesus now the fulfilment for all humankind.

It was also God saying “The new era is on the horizon”. The

Old Testament times were now in the past and Christ the new

covenant was coming through his death and resurrection - the

people would be saved.

There was no doubt, there never was, there never will be,

the significant event that happened at the transfiguration was

that God the father told the disciples exactly who Jesus was.

“This is my son, I am fully pleased with him, listen to him”.

It wasn’t that far back where the Disciples were asking

Jesus to show us the father and we will be satisfied. Jesus’s

reply to that was “To have seen me was to have seen the father”.

This event brings that to fruition.

The point which many of the Jews and Pharisees and the

Scribes failed to grasp was that Jesus did not come and abandon

all the old ways, but mainly to fulfil them.

In one of my favourite passages of scripture which has

Jesus calming the storm, has the Disciples saying “Who is this

man that even the winds and waves obey him?” In the story from

Matthew’s Gospel tonight, we have that answered exactly who he

is. But as followers of Christ, he too must be the one who calms

the winds and waves in our lives. In our daily lives, Christ must be

the one that shines.

A few weeks ago, it was reported that Monday was the

worst day in the year, scientists had reckoned. They had come to

this conclusion because of the downside after Christmas when all