Glory and Glorification

Light illuminates what is present. Light reveals. It exposes flaws, imperfections, shortcomings and weaknesses as well as showing all that is commendable, attractive, beautiful, useful and winsome. Light exposes, makes vulnerable, yet it also protects because it reveals the true situation. It enlarges trust because of the clarity, the enlarged vista and exposure of detail that light reveals. The clarity light provides generates a comfort, an assurance, a confidence, a trustworthiness.

During the transfiguration where the Light of God shone, it is interesting to contrast the demeanour and behaviour of Moses, Elijah and the disciples. Moses and Elijah were able to move, to listen and speak and engage with Christ with surety. They could bask in His Light, His glory. They were not disturbed or disquieted by Christ’s glory. Unlike the disciples, they were familiar with His Light. It was His trustworthy presence. By contrast the disciples were seemingly incapacitated, frightened (Mark 9:6), able to see and hear but when they spoke, or at least when Peter spoke, it was panicked words propelled by fear, not comfort or ease. The writer of Luke’s gospel says of Peter’s words, “He did not know what he was saying.” (Luke 9:34).

For the disciples, Christ’s Light was a fearsome novelty. The writer of Mark’s gospel says of Peter “..he did not know what to answer; for they became terrified.” (Mark 9:6, NASB). Other translations use similar words such as “sore afraid” (KJV), “frightened” (NIV) or in the Greek, literally “out of one’s wits”. So here, all three disciples were filled with terror and fear, and when Peter blurted out his keenness to erect shelters, so wrapped in fright was he, that he had no idea what he was actually saying. By contrast, the interaction with Christ by Moses and Elijah was empathetic, purposeful, engaging and lacking in terror. In short, Moses and Elijah were comfortable in the presence of the glorified Christ whereas the disciples were not.

Peter had seen the confident comfort of Moses and Elijah in the presence of Christ. Yet by contrast, Peter was panicked and babbled. Later, on reflection, he would know, for he had witnessed it, that it was possible to be in the company of Christ, in His glory, and to be at ease. On the mount, Peter was disquieted; Moses and Elijah were not.

The fear experienced by the disciples when exposed to God’s glory was not unique. Decades earlier, the shepherds near Bethlehem were left terrified when one of God’s angels appeared to them and the “glory of God shone around them.” (Luke 2:9).

It was many years later when Peter, then an older man, would write “let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.” (1 Peter 3:4). Moses and Elijah were like Adam and Eve in Eden before the Fall. In Eden, there was ease and harmony. Fear, discomfort and terror were absent. Adam and Eve were sinless, at ease in the company of God with no compunction to hide. They had no reason to be ashamed or frightened. Similarly, at the transfiguration Elijah and Moses felt no shame. They were not cowered by the Light of Christ. They were at ease, confident to interact. By contrast, the disciples, marred by sin, in the presence of transfigured Christ were sore afraid, disquieted and panicked. It is Christ who needs to call to His prostrate disciples, “Get up, don’t be afraid.” (Matthew 17:7).

Sometimes fear is so powerful that our senses are impaired. We fail to hear all that is said. We act in seemingly irrational ways. Sometimes our memory seems to bury or blot out aspects of exceedingly painful, fearful events. Yet the disciples obviously did remember much of this fearful interaction with Christ. Even Peter, who succumbed to panicked babbling on the mountainside, later is able to write:

"For he received honour and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.” (2 Peter 1:17-18)

For Peter the transfiguration was a powerful reality that stayed with him. Remembering the event was a source of confidence and comfort; not re-lived fear and unease.