MARKAN MEDITATIONS

Meditations in the Gospel of St.Mark

St. Mark 9:2-6

=====

THE TRANSFIGURATION is a specially precious and sacred moment in the earthly life of Jesus. It was also a holy momentous event in the lives of the three disciples who Jesus took with him. Peter refers to it in the first chapter of his second letter as the 'majestic glory'. It was as if a crack opened up in the fabric of the universe so that a glimpse into heaven was granted to these disciples, and through their record also to us.

All the accounts in the separate Gospels seem to mention that it was after six days that Jesus took these three disciples up this mountain for this tremendous experience. I am not sure of the significance in this, except that, after Jesus had told them of the cross entailed in following him, he wanted them to have a glimpse of the glory that following him would ultimately bring. There can be no doubt that Jesus chose the isolated spot on this mountain to insure that only the disciples he had taken with him would see such a sacred moment.

There is no doubt that the Godhead of Jesus shines through all his earthly life, but the line in Wesley's hymn for Christmas is exactly true, where he says "veiled in flesh the Godhead see". However clear the revelation of the Godhead in Jesus is in the Gospel narrative, it is only a small tithe of the truth of his glory. In the Transfiguration the three disciples were privileged to see the glory of Jesus and his eternal divinity with much greater clarity. For the time of this event some of the veil was drawn back from the person of Jesus. I doubt whether they were given a totally unveiled sight even on this occasion, for then it would have been too much for them to be able to take. Only in heaven when we are wholly purified will we be able to look on the glory of Jesus with unveiled faces.

The disciples had a twofold experience. One was of wonderful ecstasy and the other was fear. In Luke's account it seems that the ecstasy came first, and revealed in the suggestion by Peter that he should put up three tents for Elijah, Moses and Jesus. He plainly wanted to perpetuate the wonderful experience that he had experienced. The fear came after, specially after the cloud descended and the voice of God was heard. To behold the beauty of the Lord in his heavenly glory is and will be untold ecstasy. This vision will be our joy for eternity. The fear is because of our sinfulness and defilement in this fallen world. It is the wonder of redemption we enjoy in Christ, that Christ has met all that is necessary for our total cleansing and for the making us pure for heaven, so the moment we believe, we are not only accounted perfectly righteous before God for ever, but we are given the pure nature by rising with Christ and regeneration, which the first Adam lost, which makes us immediately pure and spotless before God and fit for heaven. We are created to be like God. It is only our body and sinful flesh which remains defiled and is our constant grief in the remainder of this life, but this will be removed and a new body given us when we are taken from this life through physical death. This wonderful glory which the disciples were privileged to experience a foretaste of will be ours then, and we will find it by God's grace and power, our natural environment.

Let us notice what this beauty of heaven is. We are told here that Jesus shone with perfect whiteness and light. The beauty of Jesus and heaven is the beauty of holiness. We see in this revelation that the glory of heaven and of God is holiness and purity. It is this that the redeemed soul hungers after, because through the love of God in Christ, and the redeemed holy nature that has been created in him or her, we have this purity already created within us, and in spite of the cravings of our sinful flesh, we can do no other than long to conform in every way to that purity. This is the essence of the saints sanctification, which is strengthened and promoted by the Spirit who dwells within us.

Lastly let us learn one of the joys of heaven. We will retain our own particular identity in glory, though wonderfully changed into the image of Christ and his glorious holiness. We shall be known and will be able to have fellowship with all the other redeemed in heaven. Each one will be recognized by us, even though we may have never known them on earth. We shall know again those whom we knew and loved on earth. The new thing is that we shall have perfect fellowship and love with them, unmarred and spoilt by sin. This can be seen by Elijah and Moses retaining their identity, being recognized by the disciples, even though they had never seen them before, and in their communion with each other and more wonderfully with the Lord.

Let us think and meditate deeply on this instance recorded for our blessing, so that the glory and the blessing of it, and the revelation that it gives of heaven, fills our hearts. Let us also understand how near heaven is to us. It is not up in the clouds, but another dimension just the other side of this temporal world. Let us look forward with certain hope and longing to the day Jesus will call us home to be with him in his heavenly glory.