What is the Significance of the Transfiguration of Jesus?

With over 2,000 years of revelation in our rear-view, it is easy to forget the natural wonder that the disciples would have experienced as they got to know Jesus. For many of us raised in the Christian faith, Jesus’ identity is as obvious and accepted as the tangible world around us, and even for those who do not believe in the hypostatic union of Christ, the historical events surrounding Him have had an undeniable impact on our world. But how astonishing must it have been to be present for the gradual unveiling of a fully human and fully divine Messiah? At the Transfiguration, Jesus’ closest disciples glimpsed a sliver of the glory that awaited Him in heaven.

The story of the Transfiguration itself begins with a timestamp. The gospels of Matthew and Mark state that it happened six days after another event (Luke also marks the time, but calls it “about eight days” following). As with everything in Scripture, this is significant. Six days before He went up the mountain of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John, Jesus asks His disciples:

 “…Who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15).

I want to know so much more about the moment that question was asked. Was there hesitation? Was there a proverbial shooting up of hands with disciples eager to answer? Were some of the men experiencing the internal struggle of confronting their true doubts or beliefs? All we know for certain is that Peter answered:

 “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Matthew 16:16)

After proclaiming that revelation to be true and establishing Peter as the rock upon which His church would be built, Jesus decrescendos this pinnacle moment and orders the disciples to tell no one that He is the Messiah. He foretells His death and resurrection, emboldens them to take up their cross and follow Him, and reveals that “…the Son of Man is to come with His angels in the glory of his Father…” (Matthew 16:27).

Six days later, Peter, James, and John accompanied Jesus up the Mountain of Transfiguration. This was not the first time Jesus called to those three disciples exclusively, nor would it be the last. They had been with Him when Jairus’ daughter was raised from the dead, and would again be summoned to His side in the Garden of Gethsemane before His arrest. Peter, James, and John were trusted witnesses of some of Christ’s most holy and human moments, including what would happen at the top of that mountain:

“And He was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became dazzling white.” (Matthew 17:2)

In Mark’s account it was even more clear that Jesus’ appearance was unearthly: “…dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them.” (Mark 9:3)

“No one on earth”. No earthly being could have appeared as Jesus did, in his fully human divinity. 2,000 years later, we are constantly exposed to “unearthly” things; the bright colors of a cartoon, the synthesized sounds of manufactured music, flavors that no natural location could have produced in full. Imagine the certainty Jesus’ friends would have had on that mountaintop, unencumbered by the constant merging of nature and hyperreality, seeing the supernatural and knowing they were in the presence of God.

Now imagine if they had missed it.

Imagine if Peter hadn’t spoken up six days prior and declared his belief in the Messiah. Just before he did so, while Jesus was traveling with the disciples, they encountered the Pharisees and Sadducees who asked for a sign from heaven. Jesus abruptly denied this appeal, saying: “An evil and adulterous generation asks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” (Matthew 16:4) Yet because of the faith of His followers, they were granted not only a sign but a personal audience with the glory of God.

Imagine if they had said “I’m tired, Lord - I will greet you when you come back down the mountain,” as they very well might have been tempted to do, as Luke’s account tells us that “Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him.” (Luke 9:32)

Peter, James, and John didn’t miss the Transfiguration. And they didn’t miss what happened next:

“Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ While he was speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said: ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” (Matthew 17:3-5)

God pronounced the identity of Jesus with these words. Rather than each holy man requiring a temple in which to dwell, Jesus is named as the authority - even in the presence of Moses, pillar of the law, and Elijah, pillar of the prophets. Moses and Elijah were participants in God’s plan - Jesus was the completion of it.

Six days before the Transfiguration, Jesus ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that He was the Messiah. As they came down the mountain after experiencing the glory of God and encountering Moses and Elijah, Jesus once again commanded: “‘Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.’” (Matthew 17:9)

Tell no one. This is the other counter-cultural tenet of the Transfiguration that is worth noting. The disciples who accompanied Jesus up the mountain were ready to receive the gift He had for them. The gift was meant to follow faith, not placate fears. Did He later command the disciples to go into the world and tell everyone what they had witnessed in the death and Resurrection? Well…no. What He said was: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

“Go.” “Make.” “Baptize.” “Teach.” These are the means by which we are asked to show the world who Jesus is. Having someone tell you about an encounter is a very different experience than observing someone who has been transformed by one. Just as Jesus was Transfigured by the presence of God, we will be transformed by it.

Who do you say that He is?