Manifestation of Glory (Luke 9:28-36)

The Glory of God’s Son
Luke 9:28-36

INTRODUCTION:
Medieval theologians liked to speak of the “Beatific Vision”, the moment after death when the faithful see God in all His splendor and glory. Thomas Aquinas believed that at least two mortals, Moses and Paul, experienced that blessed event before they died.

But the apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:6 – “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shown in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” Three others need to be added to Aquinas’s list of those who have seen God in His splendor and glory.

Peter, James, and John saw the radiant glory of God’s Son during an unforgettable mountain-top experience. Luke 9:28-36 and its parallel passages in Matthew 17 and Mark 9 help us relive that experience with the apostles. It also helps us realize why those who want to see God must look at Jesus, and why those who want to hear God must listen to his Son.

THE BACKGROUND:
9:28 tells us this event happened “some eight days” after the previous sayings. That is an approximation; Mark & Matthew tell us it was six days. The most immediate saying was that “there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God” (ver. 27). In order to give support to that affirmation, as well as the one from verse 20 – Peter’s confession that Jesus was “the Christ of God” – we have this event recorded on, what is now called, the “Mount of Transfiguration” – that term comes from Mark & Matthew’s account, a verb that means “to transform“. And this seem to happen at night – verse 32.

THE GLORY OF THE SON OF GOD - 9:29-30:
Jesus went up on the mountain to pray. Perhaps He was there to pray about His upcoming crucifixion – that’s what He and Moses and Elijah are going to talk about – perhaps He was also praying for His disciples, that their faith would not waver – He tells them in 9:23 that they need to take up His cross daily and follow Him. Perhaps He is praying about the establishment of that Kingdom, that, indeed, nothing would hinder it.

Jesus knew suffering was in His immediate future and He knew how horrible that suffering would be. He knew when the temptation to flee would come, He knew that He would have to voluntarily relinquish His will to the Father’s will. The temptation to not deny self was going to be intense and Jesus asks the help from the Father. And the transfiguration is the Father’s response.

“While He was praying”, Luke writes. The appearance of His face became different. Mark doesn’t say anything about His face, but Matthew says His face “shone like the sun.”

His clothing – His robes, no doubt – became white and gleaming – literally, flashing like lightning (only occurrence)! Mark says they were “radiant” and so “exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.” Matthew says they were “as white as light”!

This is what Luke says in verse 32 was Christ’s “glory”. The clear OT parallel to this is God’s appearance to Moses on Mount Sinai in Exodus 19. Exodus 19:16 tells us “there were thunder and lightning flashes and a thick cloud upon the mountain and a very loud trumpet sound” and the people trembled in fear.

But that wasn’t all the experiences God was going to provide the Israelites relative to His presence. In Exodus 19:18, the Lord descended upon Mount Sinai in fire and the subsequent smoke ascended like a furnace and the whole mountain quaked violently. When God spoke on that occasion, Moses writes, He spoke with a thunderous voice.

With that image in our minds, do we really need a definition of God’s glory? So the light with which God appears – the light in which Jesus now appears – is a visible expression of God’s authority, God's power, God’s overabundance of spiritual riches. In John 2, after Jesus turned water to wine, John writes in verse 11 that He “manifested His glory.” Glory is equivalent to power – to God’s nature.

Jesus’ face and clothes – His entire being – shining as bright as the sun, as bright as light, as white as it could be – illustrates to us the teaching in John 8:12 where Jesus says, “I am the Light of the world”!

CHRIST’S DISCUSSION - 9:31:
There appeared on the mountain, two well-known men from the OT – Moses and Elijah. Surely these two men represent the Law and the Prophets, respectively.

But what is interesting, and only Luke tells us what they discussed, is that Moses and Elijah came to talk to Jesus about His “departure”. The original word is exodus – the term that denotes the second book in our Old Testaments – the departure from Egypt. This was Jesus’ departure from this world. What could Moses and Elijah possibly have contributed to Jesus’ knowledge of His coming transfer from this physical world to the spiritual world? We do not know.

The death of Moses is recorded in Deuteronomy 34. If anyone ever died in as close proximity to the God of heaven, Moses did. He went up to Mount Nebo where the Lord showed him all the land to which Moses had marched for 80 years, if we count his entire life, for 120 years. God told Moses – “This is the land which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Then the text says in a surreal way – “So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And He [that is, God] buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, …but no man knows his burial place to this day” (34:5-6). Whoever wrote this final obituary of Moses – and the likely candidate was Joshua – said that Moses died at 120 years old, as healthy as a horse – “his eye was not dim, nor his vigor abated.”

Elijah’s departure is recorded in 2 Kings 2:11. With his successor, Elisha, walking along beside him, the Bible says “behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire which separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven.”

Elijah did not die. He did not pass through the valley of the shadow of death as we frequently call our death bed. He did not lie awake starring at the ceiling, wondering when the angel of mercy could come and take the spirit from his body and carry it into Abraham’s bosom. Only one other individual went to heaven without experiencing the separation of the soul from the body – Enoch, in Genesis 5:24. Jesus’ departure would not be like that of Elijah.

Nor would His death be like that of Moses. Again, if anyone ever died in the presence of Jehovah God, it was Moses. I picture him lying down on the soft grass, closing his eyes with his hands folded across his chest and – just like when I was put to sleep during my colon surgery – so Moses simply drifted off into his final rest – in the very presence of God. Jesus would not die like Moses.

Jesus was going to die a horrible death. And He was going to die, separated from the presence of the Father. Jesus needed encouragement and God gives it to Him. God gives Jesus a taste of that glory that Jesus had before He relinquished it and came to earth. In John 17:5, Jesus prays to the Father, “glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.”

But there are connections between both Moses and Jesus and Elijah and Jesus that are more significant to the ministry and death of Jesus, the Son of God. For one, Moses predicted that God would raise up a prophet like Moses – Deuteronomy 18:15 – and the Israelites should listen to Him. He would have God’s words put directly into His mouth and He would speak all that God commanded – verse 18.

And one of the prophets – who happens to be the last prophetic word in our OT before John the baptizer appears on the scene in the NT – is Malachi. And Malachi preached, recorded in 4:5-6, that God was going to send Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord. This second-Elijah would restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Second-Elijah is the messenger whom Malachi preaches in 3:1 will clear the way before Jehovah and he would be the messenger of the covenant. Second-Elijah would prepare the way for the Messiah. In Matthew 17:12-13, Matthew tells us clearly that John the baptizer was the “Second-Elijah”. So the appearance of Elijah here to speak with Jesus is yet another message to these three apostles and everyone else that the kingdom promised in the OT, announced by John the baptizer, was about to be established.

THE SON, IN CONTRAST TO MOSES AND ELIJAH - 9:32-36:
Peter, James, and John, like the Israelites around Mount Sinai, trembled with fear. And Peter, being the impetuous one, spoke up. What had the Israelites done at Mount Sinai? They built a tabernacle for God. Here, Peter presumes that would once again be a good idea. Luke tells us that both Moses and Elijah were also appearing in glory – verse 31 – and perhaps Peter believed that that indicated they should have their own tabernacles.

So Peter suggests they construct three tabernacles – one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Peter did not realize what he was saying but he was implying that these two other men deserved to be worshipped just as Jehovah God was worshipped at Mount Sinai.

But then God caused a cloud to overwhelm them all and the voice of the Father in heaven once again broke the silence – He broke it previously at the baptism of Jesus when He said directly to His Son – “You are my beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.”

On this occasion, the Father spoke from heaven to Peter, James, and John and tells them five things about Jesus from Nazareth:
This is My Son.
This is My beloved Son – Mark & Matthew add.
This is My Chosen One – My elected One – the Israelite of Israelites who would finally and completely, and faithfully fulfill all that God required. Who would completely live-up-to the expectations of the Law of Moses and the Prophets.
Matthew adds – “With whom I am well-pleased.” Jesus always did everything the Father wanted Him to do and thus Jesus never, ever disappointed the Father.
Finally and, most importantly, in all three Gospel accounts, God’s final words are: “Listen to Him!”
That is when Moses and Elijah disappeared and Jesus was standing there alone.

In what ways can we listen to Jesus today? First of all, we listen to Him personally – as we have His own direct words recorded in the Gospel accounts. Because He is the light of the world – John 8:12 – Jesus tells us: “He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” We are to listen to Jesus when He Himself talks.

The Hebrew writer tells us: “God, after He spoke long ago to the Fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son” (1:1-2). Moses served his role and he did so faithfully but we don’t listen to Moses anymore. He pointed us to Christ. Elijah and the other prophets served their role and they did so faithfully but we don’t listen to the prophets anymore, except as they point us to Christ and to His kingdom, the church. We listen to Jesus. He rules us; He regulates our behavior.

Second, we listen to Jesus by following His example. The apostle Peter writes that “Christ has suffered for us and left us an example to follow in His steps” (1 Peter 2:21).

Third, we listen to Jesus when we listen to the apostles and prophets whom Jesus guided and directed through His Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 14:37 – “If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that the things which I write to you are the Lord’s commandment.” Paul was not writing on his own authority. He tells us in Galatians 1:11-12 – “I would that you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

THE BENEFIT FOR THE APOSTLES - 9:36:
Jesus did not take all 12 apostles on the mountain with Him – just three. And, in verse 36, Luke writes they kept silent and reported to no one any of the things which they had seen. Mark tells us why – He gave them orders not to relate to anyone what they had seen, until the Son of Man rose from the dead. Mark also tells us that the apostles did not understand “what rising from the dead meant” (9:10). They had just seen Moses and Elijah appear – rising from the dead – and talk with Jesus. What would it mean that Jesus too would rise from the dead? The apostles did not know; they did not understand.

But Jesus gave them this revelation of His glory also to give them strength and courage to face the trials that Jesus knew were on the horizon. The apostles come down from the mountain with Jesus the next day and there is a crowd there, brought about by a father whose son was demon possessed. Jesus cured the boy, expelling the demon from him.

And in the context of that miracle and the miracle of the transfiguration fresh on their minds, Jesus tells His disciples: “Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men” (Luke 9:44).

ONE LAST POINT:
The apostle Peter refers to this incident, about thirty years later, when he writes his second letter – 2 Peter 1:16-18.

In that context, the apostle Peter is talking about his imminent death – verse 14 – and the assurance he – and all Christians have – that we can have an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – an entrance abundantly supplied to us – vs 11.

Why did Peter have that assurance? Because he saw Jesus transfigured on the mountain – the glory of God’s Son – His power, His majesty, His authority – and He saw Jesus risen from the dead. In one other passage, John writes: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is” (1 John 3:2). That is possible – our glorification is possible – in Jesus Christ – the new Tabernacle of the Divine Glory.

That’s what the transfiguration means to us.

Take home message: In the Transfiguration, Jesus was glorified. We need to listen to Him so that we, too, can be glorified.