Matthew 17:1-9 / Mark 9:2-10 / Luke 9:28-36…
Jesus sometimes brings us to a “mountaintop experience”, and we see and hear wonderful things. We want to stay there and glory in His presence, yet we must come back down to earth, as it were. When we do we find difficulty again. This is why we didn’t want to come back down in the first place. It is no wonder, the person who meets Jesus as glorious has a taste for heaven. Yet we must bring our bodies back to the natural day to day scene.
However, that is what Jesus wants to do for us, to transfigure our sight, to change our daily lives, to reflect the Light we have seen (Philippians 2:15). We see a true glimpse of the big picture, and we are transformed (2 Corinthians 3:18). Surely we must still go back to the grind, but after a glimpse of glory that light should affect our sight. We see that the grind is actually grand when given this grace (1 Corinthians 15:58).
The Transfiguration shows the glory of Jesus. It gives us a hint of that glorious kingdom that is yet to come. The voice of the Father confirms it. Yet while this great event, this mountaintop experience, this bright shining moment is wonderful, this experience isn’t the goal. It simply prepares us for that other mountain, called Calvary, where Jesus does what He really came to do, die for sinners like us.
The Transfiguration, a picture of glory, actually points us away from such glory to the darkness and scandal of the cross. This is God’s kind of glory, power made perfect in weakness, salvation through suffering, life through death. You must see Jesus on both these mountains to more fully understand what real glory is all about. The glimpse is to help you get through the grind. We will be glorified like Him (Philippians 3:20-21), but by grace we must go through the grind to finally get the full picture (1 John 3:2-3).
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