Saturday, February 18, 2012
Mark 9:2 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.
JESUS' TRANSFIGURATION PREPARES US FOR HIS PASSION (2)
Jesus' transfiguration prepares us for His Passion in another way: It affords us a glimpse of the heaven He came to win for us. When Jesus was transfigured amazing things happened. His body glistened. His face radiated brightness. The radiance of heavenly glory shown all around. It was like getting a "sneak-peek" into what it will be like for us to be in heaven. This helps explain why Peter made the suggestion he did (to put up tents for Jesus and the two heavenly visitors). He wanted the blissful experience to continue a while!
Can you think of an experience from your life when you were especially happy? A merry Christmas holiday spent with dear family members? A relaxing vacation trip to an exotic location? Perhaps you thought to yourself, maybe even verbalized it: "Boy, I wish this experience would last longer!" Multiply that a couple thousand times. You wouldn't come close to what the disciples experienced on the mountain with the Son of God. It was a tiny slice of heaven!
But Peter's suggestion was rather foolish, though. Because Jesus still had things to do to make the glories of heaven ours. He needed to go to Jerusalem to die. For Peter's sins. James' sins. John's and yours and mine. He needed to suffer Golgotha's goriness to crush Satan, conquer sin, and annihilate death.
In the upcoming Lenten weeks we'll walk with Jesus down the mountain into the Upper Room, to Gethsemane, the Judgment Hall, the Way of Sorrows. We'll see His anguish. The pangs His soul sustained. We'll do it knowing that upon completion of His Savior-mission, He will be raised and glorified. The prayer He prayed in the upper room will be answered: "I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was" (John 17:4-5). In the words of Saint John: "Beloved, now are we are children of God; and it has not been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2).
