Transfiguration of the Lord

I’ve long wondered how Peter knew that the two men with Jesus were Moses and Elijah. The Gospel doesn’t say they introduced themselves. It seems they were speaking only with the Lord. Peter would never have seen a picture of them; photographs didn’t exist, of course, and Israelite religion—with the exception of the Ark of the Covenant and a few minor items—was aniconic. It did not depict God or people. To Peter, these might have seemed like two random men talking with Jesus, and yet he somehow knew who they were. Clearly, the whole event is supernatural.

Of course, we already expect the supernatural, since Moses and Elijah had been dead for centuries. Yet Peter, James, and John do not seem afraid of them. The cloud appears, and then they are terrified—but two men who have been dead for centuries? That does not seem to bother them at all.

Peter even says, in effect, “Why don’t I build some tents? Let’s stay here and keep enjoying this moment.” Everything about the scene is supernatural. The disciples are simply given knowledge of what is happening, and that knowledge allows them to experience it fully.

Then, suddenly, it ends. The vision is completely over, and the Lord says, “Don’t tell anyone.” They move on.

I think this story is, in part, preparation for the disciples. It allows them to see, to some extent, a vision of heavenly life in the radiance of Christ himself—a glimpse of what it will be like after the resurrection—so that they are prepared for that moment.

Peter’s temptation is to build tents, remain on the mountain, forget the world, and forget everything that still has to happen. That is the same temptation all the disciples experience after the resurrection. How often do we find them sitting together, alone and afraid, or returning to their former work? The risen Lord keeps coming to them, and perhaps they hope they can simply depend on his returning again and again so that they do not have to go out. But they do have to go out, and this moment has prepared them for that.

Here the Lord shows them: “You can’t stay on the mountain. You can’t remain here around me. We have to keep going; we have to keep working.” Because Peter, James, and John—the three main leaders of the disciples—have had this experience, they can say the same thing to the others after the resurrection: “We can’t keep sitting here. We can’t keep returning to our old ways. We have work to do, and it is time to go.”

The Transfiguration is purely a preparation for them. It gives them a taste of that experience so that they can become accustomed to it, move beyond the temptation to remain there, and be strengthened to encourage one another when the time comes.

I think we would all act in the same way. If the risen Lord appeared before us tomorrow, we would keep returning to that place, hoping again and again: maybe he will return; maybe he will remain here with us. But that would not be good for us, because we still have so much more to do.

This is true of every good spiritual experience in life. Sometimes we have a close encounter with the Lord, and we keep trying to recreate it, trying to return to it. But that is not what it was for. It was not meant to keep us in place. It was meant to inspire us, to push us outward, to send us out again and again to continue the mission.

So let us not hold too tightly even to those truly wonderful things in life, whether it be a vision of the Lord like the one the disciples had, or some consolation God gives us. Let us accept it for what it is and be grateful that it occurred. But let us also recognize that it was ultimately meant to build us up and send us out, so that we can keep drawing other people closer to the Lord.