Transfiguration Sunday

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As we hear the Holy Scriptures read to us today about the glorious Transfiguration of JESUS Christ on Mt. Hermon before the eyes of Peter, James, and John, we would be remiss to separate two other events from this glorious ‘vision’, as JESUS calls it. The first is St. Peter’s confession that JESUS of Nazareth is the Messiah of GOD, and the second is JESUS’ call to His disciples to follow Him in the majesty of His Kingdom, in several specific ways. 

Seeing JESUS transfigured and hearing the honorific words of GOD the Father spoken about Him, Peter and his cohorts must have never looked upon JESUS in the same way again. Perhaps this is what JESUS meant when He said that some in His fellowship would not die “till they had seen the Kingdom of GOD after it has come with power” (St. Mark 9.1). Even though this was an event filled with glory more than power, nonetheless, it is an important event in the biblical record that attests to the inscrutable prejudice that JESUS is the eternally begotten and Divine Son of GOD the Father, while also being the Son of Man – born of a woman and born under the law. (cf. Gal. 4.4) 

Having seen the glorious Transfiguration, JESUS’ core disciples, Peter, James, and John, could now attest that JESUS the Man became JESUS the Divine – glorified before their eyes and verbally certified as such from the Voice that came from Heaven. In his testimony about JESUS’ Transfiguration, St. Peter confesses: “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our LORD JESUS Christ but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from GOD the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ And we heard this voice which came from Heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain” (2 Peter 1.16-18). 

Peter’s confession of the two natures of JESUS, His divinity and humanity, both subsisting in one Person but not confused or distorted by the other, was only a reaffirmation of what he had confessed in Caesarea just before the affair of the Transfiguration on Mt. Hebron transpired. — On their retreat from Jerusalem and all its polemical, religious, and political drama, JESUS had asked His disciples who they thought He was. To this question, Peter confessed, by divine revelation of the Father: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living GOD” (St. Matthew 16.16). — Undoubtedly, Peter confessed it before all the disciples, though none of them could have known how it could be so. — Then, about six days after Peter’s blessed confession at Caesarea on Mt. Hebron, “the appearance of JESUS’ face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening” (St. Luke 9.29). Thus, St. Peter’s inspired faith-statement was satisfied in the eyewitness by the metamorphosis of JESUS beheld by the three disciples.   

The teaching about the hypostatic union, or Incarnation of the two essences of divinity and humanity in the one Person, JESUS, is important and most necessary. So important is it, that the ancient and present Church has faithfully fought with the blood of her saints to preserve this aspect of the Christian Faith ‘once delivered.’ — And what is this, Faith? That Faith is this: “That the LORD JESUS Christ, the Son of GOD, is GOD and MAN; GOD, of the substance of the Father, begotten before all worlds; and MAN of the substance of His mother, born in the world”¹ in the end times of the First, Covenant Order.  

St. Leo builds on the necessity of what Peter proclaimed, saw, and re-proclaimed, when he wrote in the 5th century: “[Let us underscore the fact that the catholic (universal) Faith is this, that] the Christ is to be believed to be at once the Only-begotten of GOD as well as the Son of Man, [born of woman]. For the one without the other is of no avail to salvation, and it is equally dangerous to have believed the LORD JESUS Christ to be either only GOD without Manhood, or only man without Godhead, especially since both must equally be confessed. For, just as true Manhood existed in His Godhead, so true Godhead existed in JESUS’ Manhood.”²     

Besides this ‘Wondrous type and Vision fair of glory’, the three chosen ones most receptive to King JESUS’ beauty, perceived ‘Moses and Elijah nigh, holding with the Incarnate LORD, convers high.’ (cf. O Wondrous Type! – Hymn 182 BoCP) — Why? — Why did Moses and Elijah need to be present at the Transfiguration? — Was it not enough that JESUS was transformed and Peter, James, and John saw it and were able to testify to the Church of their eyewitness account of the authentic as not a cunningly devised fable? – Obviously, it was not enough. — There was a purpose to their presence, which we can discern by what the Voice from the Glorious Cloud said in the presence of Moses, the Giver of the Law, and Elijah, the Prince of the prophets.  

The Voice, being that of GOD the Father, spoke from the Cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” (St. Luke 9.35). Hear Him? Hear JESUS instead of who? — Until that moment, all faithful members of Israel had been taught to only listen to Moses and Elijah – the Law and Prophets. God commanded His chosen people to understand His desire through the Law and the Prophets, so that they might live, move, and have her being according to the LORD’s statutes. But now, the mighty Voice – the Voice of GOD – was saying to the elected representative leaders of Christ’s movement, the Church, ‘Hear JESUS, my Son, the GOD-Man, and no longer Moses and Elijah as the solitary and principal voices who speak for me and my will. Now, principally, hear JESUS, my Son. — The point is well taken – Moses (the Law) and Elijah (the prophets) had always pointed to the person and ministry of JESUS Christ as the fulfillment of the narratives, parables, prophecies, and proverbs in the Tanakh, or Old Testament. Now, the students of those oracles were to listen to JESUS, the GOD-MAN – for through Him, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God would be known in the face of JESUS Christ. (cf. 2 Cor. 4.6)  

The Jewish Bible always pointed (to those with ears to hear, and eyes to see), to JESUS as the Antitype of it of the Old Testament’s types – JESUS as the Essence of those writings and oracles – JESUS as the true Logos Form of the ancient Scripture’s mere shadows. And to accentuate this truth, Moses and Elijah came to point visually to JESUS, and to speak with Him about His ‘decease’ – translated exodus in Greek. — JESUS, the King of the prophets, in His humanity, came to call the True Israel to repent and return to GOD. Further, JESUS, in His divinity, as the True Moses, came to lead those who will heed His call through the perfectly realized exodus of redemption, by His decease on the Cross. JESUS’ death and resurrection lead all who trust in Him as LORD and Savior, out of the bondage, of both spiritual bondage to sin and the human destiny of eternal death in separation from GOD. This scene can be summarized as follows by the Apostle Paul: “For by the Law is the knowledge of sin; but now, the righteousness of GOD, without the Law, is manifested [by grace through JESUS Christ]” (Romans 3.21). 

The scene had only a second witness to bear its legitimacy in the disciples’ minds, and the Voice from Heaven had sealed the meaning and drama of Moses’ and Elijah’s appearing. — “But, how long the silence had lasted after they heard the Voice, and the last rays of the Cloud had passed, we know not. Presently, though … it was the Hand of JESUS, companioned with His euphonious and mellifluous Voice that stirred them when they heard: ‘Arise, be not afraid.’ And as startled as they were, the three-elect looked round about them and saw no man, save JESUS only. The Heavenly visitants had departed, the last glow of the Light-Cloud had faded away, and the echoes of Heaven’s Voice had subsided. It was night, and they were on Mount Hermon with JESUS, and with JESUS only.”³ 

What was it then that He wanted His disciples to do with this experience? How were they to respond? It was certainly not to build tabernacles, nor a physical temple to offer sacrifices to JESUS on the mount, nor was it to construct a hybrid form of the Mosaic Law with influential teaching by the prophets. Instead, the faithful followers of JESUS were to follow Him down from their ‘mountain-to-experience’ they were to follow JESUS, looking to Him even more keenly and listening to Him more intently. He told them four things they need to do to be His true worshippers and to obey the Voice of GOD which spoke from Heaven. 

First, He told them, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his Cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it” (St. Luke 9.23-24). — The way of the King is the way of the Cross, which includes being led by the Laws He has written on our hearts, and not by the laws written in our flesh – the spiritual laws of Heaven lead to life, while the fleshly laws of the fallen world lead to corruption and death. — Through our Christian Baptism, the Holy Spirit imbues us with hearts of flesh, excising from us our old hearts of stone that tend toward absorption in flesh-perception and away from absorption in Spirit-perception. Our new hearts inform our minds to follow Jesus and not the prince of this world – to be influenced less and less each day by fleshly sense perception and to grow more and more in perception of the things of the Holy Spirit that in the workshop of our hearts and minds, we will listen to Him and be delivered from the disquietude of this world, while being permitted to see, and obedient follow the beauty of life found in our King JESUS. 

JESUS also told His disciples that to be the greatest in His Kingdom, His true followers must become the least. That is, we are to be servants to all, counting ourselves no better than another. To emphasize this point, JESUS “took a little child and set him by Him, and said to them, ‘Whoever receives this little child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me. For he who is least among you all, will be great” (St. Luke 9.47-48). The humility of a child is to become the constitution and canon of the Christian’s habitual manner. St. Cyril of Alexandria (ca.375-444) described JESUS’ command to be converted and to become like little children in the following way. He said, “A babe then, as knowing either very little, or nothing at all, is justly acquitted of the charge of depravity and wickedness: thus, it is our duty to endeavor to be like them in the very same way, by putting away from us, entirely,  habits of wickedness, that we too may be regarded as men who do not even know the pathway which leads unto guile. Like little children, who, unconscious of malice and fraud, live in simple and innocent manners, practicing gentleness, and a priceless humility; readily forbearing from wrath and spitefulness. For such we affirm are the qualities found in those who are still babes, in Christ.”⁴ 

And finally, among other things, the LORD says that to be the King’s followers and listen to Him, we must be ready to count the cost of discipleship in His Kingdom. “No one,” JESUS says, “having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of GOD” (St. Luke 9.62). — The illustration is clear enough. To plow a field and to reap a fruitful harvest, the plowed troughs of earth must be straight and true for the proper planting of seeds, the proper and efficient watering of those seeds, and the reaping of vines unencumbered by thatches, tangles, and weeds of consternation. — If we are going to follow JESUS, we cannot look back at what used to be our way, but ahead only, to the Way of the King. — To be at the plow, and to turn away is to misunderstand the cost of and calling of discipleship. It is a great departure from the King’s Way and certain way to the broad path of destruction.  

We see such a sad case occur in Holy Scripture by one called Demas, which should cause us great sadness and warrant unto warning. It was Demas who St. Paul exhorted, along with Aristarchus and St. Luke the physician, as “my fellow laborers [in the Gospel]” (Jude 1.23). Yet, later, when Paul was under house arrest in Rome, awaiting trial and execution, Demas turned back from the plow of discipleship and fled. Paul says of him in 2 Timothy 4.10: “Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and has departed for Thessalonica.”  

To walk in the Way of the Cross, the be a servant to all, and turning not away from the work and commission the LORD has called us unto. These are some of the ways we can and must listen to Him, as the Voice from the glorious Cloud has commanded us.   

In final reflection, consider the words that Philip hath said to Nathaneal: The Holy Scriptures report that “Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, ‘We have found him, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph’” (St. John 1.45). We too have found Him to whom the Law and Prophets confess, thus, brothers and sisters of St. Mark’s, let us ‘listen to Him’ and follow Him in His way, according to His will. For in JESUS, true divinity and manhood perfectly subsist, and we, following Him, with new life, will He invigorate. Amen. 

1 ACNA, To be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism, “The Creed of St. Athanasius”, (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011) 130. 

2 Leo the Great. On Lent XI: Sermon LI. Accessed 5 August 2025.  https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf212/npnf212.ii.v.xxvi.html?scrBook=Matt&scrCh=17&scrV=1#ii.v.xxvi-p2.4  

3 Edersheim, Rev. Dr. Alfred, The Life and Times of JESUS the Messiah, (Peabody: Hendrickson Publishing, 1993), 542 

4 St. Cyril of Alexandria. Upon the Gospel According to St. Luke, Vol. 2. (Oxford: University Press, 1859), 252-3. Accessed 7 August 2025. https://archive.org/details/2-commentary-upon-the-gospel-according-to-st.-luke-by-st.-cyril-of-alexandria.-v_202306/page/n3/mode/2up?q=%22a+price-less+humility%22