The transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ

It’s the Second Sunday of Lent and today’s gospel reading is about the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ in Mt. Tabor. I’m sure that many Catholics already know this story; after all it is always repeated and repeated during the Lenten Season. Perhaps you might want to know why did our Lord Jesus Christ reveal himself to his disciples in Mt. Tabor? We’ll discuss this later after you read it in Luke 9: 28b-36.

“28 Jesus took Peter, John and James and went up the mountain to pray. 29 While he was praying his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men were conversing with him. Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus that he was going to accomplish in Jerusalem.

32 Peter and his companions had been overcome by sleep, but becoming fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.33 As they were about to part from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” But he did not know what he was saying.

34 While he was still speaking, a cloud came and cast a shadow over them and they became frightened when they entered the cloud. 35 Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my chosen Son; Listen to him.” 36 After the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. They fell silent and did not at that time tell anyone what they had seen.”

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Perhaps we should close our eyes and try to picture ourselves being in Mt. Tabor together with Peter, James and John when this gospel passage took place. I’m quite lucky that three years ago, I was blessed by the Lord to visit the Holy land, courtesy of Delmar Travel and Tours where we made many TV footages for my talkshow in Straight from the Sky. One of the places that we visited was Mt. Tabor, which is a high mountain with a height of 1,886 ft. In comparison, Mt. Sinai is 2,285 ft. Nazareth; the hometown of our Lord Jesus Christ is just a few kilometers from Mt. Tabor.

We also learned that the Biblical Tal Megiddo or Armageddon as prophesied in Revelations, as the final battle against good versus evil is only 34 kilometers from Mt. Tabor. While we were on top of Mt. Tabor we took a lot of photos and I saw a wide plain, which later I learned, was Tel Megiddo. Honestly while I was there, I didn’t know that it was Tal Megiddo. Only much later did I realize that I had a glimpse of this Biblical place.

So to the question, why did our Lord Jesus Christ reveal his divinity to the three of his closest disciple’s? Theologians believe that by doing so, it was to strengthen their spirituality and prepare them for the horrors to come with the Lord’s passion and death on the cross, which the Lord Jesus already prophesied to his disciples in many of his talks.

Lest you already forgot, many of his disciples believed that the Messiah would come into this world to be their king and help them get rid of the Roman occupiers of Israel. But little by little, after many sermons and talks with his disciples, the Lord Jesus Christ was slowly revealing himself to those who believed in him as the Messiah, that he came in order to save souls rather than save the Jewish race. He was offering them eternal life, where no mortal king can obviously offer to anyone.

During the Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ, Peter, James and John not only saw the Lord turned into dazzling white, but they also saw two important Biblical and historical figures,  Moses and Elijah, which is clear proof of life in eternal life that the dead after all live in heaven.

But more importantly, these two Biblical personalities of great importance to the Jewish people and Judaism are that, both of their bodies did not suffer corruption. In the case of Moses, he was reported to have died in Mt. Nebo, which overlooks the Promised Land, all the way to Jerusalem.

Yet this greatest of men amongst the Jewish race had no tomb or grave for the Israelites to honor? Therefore we can conclude that Moses was bodily taken to heaven. This is also true to Elijah who was taken up to heaven in a flaming chariot. The Jews then even believe that Elijah would return, which is why many thought that he returned in the person of John the Baptizer or our Lord Jesus Christ. 

Thus the story of the Transfiguration is a story of hope that through our Lord Jesus Christ and for as long as we remain faithful to his Words and deeds, we would someday see his glory. That glory was presented by our Lord Jesus Christ to three of his loyal friends, Peter, James and John, that a few weeks later, when they see how the Lord was cruelly beaten and tortured by the Romans and nailed on the cross, they would know in their hearts that the Messiah had to suffer greatly in order to enter his kingdom.

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