Revealing Christ's Glory: The Transfiguration Explained

I’ve always said if I had the opportunity to have been an eyewitness of anything in Jesus’ life, obviously I’d want to have been an eyewitness to the resurrection, but next to that, the one thing I would have wanted to see more than anything else with my own eyes was the glory of Christ in His transfiguration because that episode not only just gives us more information about Jesus, but it also communicates to us something of vital importance to the ministry that He had. [00:00:50]

One of the chief responsibilities of Jesus in His incarnation was to make manifest, to show forth the very glory of God. And this is what happens here to a small audience of three men, Peter, James, and John, who are known as the inner circle of the disciples of Jesus. Let me give you Matthew’s rendition of this event. In Matthew 17, he writes, “Now after six days, Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves, and He was transfigured before them. [00:01:17]

His face shown like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light, and behold Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him, and then Peter answered and said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, let us make three tabernacles, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ And while he was still speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him.’ [00:02:10]

And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid, but Jesus came and touched them and said, ‘Arise, do not be afraid.’ And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.” Now if you recall when we looked at the very beginning of this series at the incarnation, I mentioned that there was a general progression in the life of Jesus that moved from humiliation to exaltation, and that for the most part, the deity that He shared with the Father and the Spirit from eternity was cloaked. [00:03:23]

It was concealed. It was hidden behind the veil of His human nature. But now, as Jesus is winding up His public ministry that mostly took place in Galilee and is about to direct His movements towards Jerusalem, knowing full well what awaits Him there in suffering and death, which He had just announced to His disciples at Caesarea Philippi. Before that trek to Jerusalem begins, He draws apart to a high mountain with Peter, James, and John, and we’re told that while they… the three… four of them were there, Jesus was transfigured before their eyes. [00:04:22]

The word that is translated “transfigured” comes from a portion… a form of the Greek word metamorpho. And we have an English word that comes directly from that, which is the word metamorphosis. We speak of metamorphosis in this world when we see the worm spinning a cocoon, and after a season going through a radical change of his form, and what emerges from the cocoon is the beautiful butterfly. And so what transfiguration is or metamorphosis is, is fundamentally an alteration, a change of the outward form. [00:05:20]

And the change that takes place now in Jesus’ form, which is viewed by these three disciples is nothing less than astonishing. Listen to how Matthew describes it. “He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light.” The first thing he says has to do with His face, His countenance. It began to shine. It began to radiate. There was a certain refulgence of glory that is now being put on, displayed as right before their eyes they see Jesus’ face starting to shine with such an intensity that it is as bright as the sun. [00:06:23]

Now, the thing that we know about that episode was that the glory of God that radiated in such a brilliant way from the face of Moses was a reflected glory. It was an echo of God’s own glory. It didn’t come from inside of Moses. It came from the back of God. But what is happening now in the transfiguration is not a case where Jesus is now reflecting the glory of God. This light, brighter than the sun, that is shining in His face is emanating from within Him, not bouncing off of Him. [00:09:22]

It is in His own being, touching His deity that this light finds its origin. You recall when the author of Hebrews wrote his epistle and talked about Christ, he said that He was the express image of His person, namely of God, and the very brightness of His glory. Now, you think about that for a minute – that God the Father manifests Himself throughout Biblical history with this blinding glory of the Shekinah cloud, that glory that burst out on the fields of Bethlehem when the angels came to announce Jesus’ nativity, that glory of God that shone round about leaving people terrified. [00:10:11]

The promise for our future in heaven is the beatific vision, where we will see God as He is. And in the book of Revelation, when we are told of the appearance of the New Jerusalem out of heaven, and John gives the content of his vision on the Isle of Patmos, he says in chapter 21, verse 22, about the New Jerusalem, “But I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.” And the New Jerusalem, “the city had no need of the sun.” Can you imagine that in the new city, the sun doesn’t shine at all? [00:13:20]

There’s no moon. There’s no lantern. There’s no lamp. It sounds like John is about to describe a place of foreboding darkness, where there’s no light at all, but he explains why there’s no sun, and why there’s no moon, and why there’s no lamp in the New Jerusalem. Because the city doesn’t need it, for the glory of God illumined it, and the Lamb is its light. You see, when the radiance, the refulgence of God’s glory is unveiled plainly, not concealed, who needs a light bulb, who needs the sun? [00:14:07]

The place is perfectly illuminated, bright and open, by the radiance of the glory of God and of the Lamb. That’s the taste that Peter, James, and John are experiencing here on the Mount of Transfiguration. Here Jesus is showing them His glory and the very glory of God. Now, the second part of the description has to do with His clothes. His clothes became as white as the light. Luke adds that’s whiter than any fuller can make them – that is, any professional launderer can make them. Even Tide can’t make clothes more white than the clothes of Jesus were at this moment. [00:15:21]

They were absolutely white, not a fleck of gray, not a single blemish, not the most microscopic stain. His garments shine bright, as pure white, which is consistent with that light that’s coming from within that is more intense than the sun. When I preach on this passage, I always point to a child somewhere in the congregation and ask them a simple question. I’ll ask them the question, “What color is a lemon?” “What color is an orange?” is too easy, so I say, “What color is a lemon?” And the little kids all get it. [00:16:05]