Luke 9:28-36 | Two Sons in One: The Transfiguration of Christ, Part 2 of 2 Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (54)

Jesus’ Double Glory

Today, we’re coming back to Luke 9 and the account of the transfiguration.  Some have said that this event feels out of place, like an actor who forgot his cue and prematurely burst onto the stage.  But there’s a reason why this event happens when it does.  This event is carefully placed where it is, serving as a hinge between the end of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee and the beginning of his mission to Jerusalem (Lk. 9:51).  It brings one phase to an end and introduces us to a new phase: Jesus’ suffering.

But amazingly the new phase begins with a revelation of Jesus’ glory.  Jesus is about to begin his march toward death, but first he manifests his victory.  Dark clouds are gathering, but for a moment the light of his glory is unshuddered.

As I said last week, Jesus’ glory is a double glory, or the glory of his double sonship.  The transfiguration reveals that Jesus is God’s earthly and heavenly Son.  He’s both the earthly and suffering messianic Son and the preexistent heavenly and eternally begotten Son.

In the transfiguration, we see Jesus’ former and future glory.  In the transfiguration, Jesus receives a glory that was already his.  It anticipates what’s to come and is an unveiling of what already is.  And it comes at just the right time, just as things are getting darker and darker for Jesus and his followers.

Last week, we saw this double glory, or double sonship, of Jesus by looking at the setting of the transfiguration.  Today, we’ll look at the signs and the sayings in this text and then consider the significance of this event.

The Signs

There are at least three signs in this event that are meant to show us Jesus’ double glory.  These signs are real things that really happened.  But their presence in the story signifies something or causes us to think of something beyond the thing itself.

The signs I want us to see are Jesus’ shining face and bright clothes, the presence of Moses and Elijah, and the bright cloud.  Let’s take these one at a time.

Jesus’ Shining Face and Bright Clothes

The first sign is Jesus’ shining face and his bright clothes (v. 29).  Matthew says his “face shone like the sun” (17:2).  Mark says his clothes “became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them” (9:3).  Was this light simply electromagnetic waves that hit the disciple’s optic nerves?  Or was it something else?

I’d suggest that this wasn’t mere light.  It was divine light, uncreated light.  John later declares, “God is light” (1 Jn. 1:5).  “Light” isn’t something God has, but something God is.  God’s light is the radiance and splendor of his being, the summation of the totality of his attributes.

Adam and Eve lost God’s light when they sinned, and the Old Testament ends in darkness as Israel is exiled and the temple no longer holds the glory of God.  Israel waits for God’s light to come back down to earth.

Then, in Jesus, God’s light returns!  And it returns as a twofold light: messianic and eternal.  Jesus’ messianic light is the glory he receives from the Father as the Chosen One who’ll carry out God’s mission on the earth.

As the Messiah, Jesus receives light and glory from the Father.  This is why Matthew and Mark say that Jesus “was transfigured” in the passive voice.  Jesus becomes light in the transfiguration.  His brilliant white garments also signify that he’s a “sent one,” like the angels who come in white garments (Lk. 24:4).  As Messiah, Jesus receives light.

But as the eternal Son of God, he is light.  His light is revealed.  His messianic light proceeds from his eternal light.  Notice that his shining face is mentioned before his shining clothes.  This is because Jesus’ light is a light from within.  When it touches his clothes, they also radiate his brilliance.

The closest Old Testament connection to this moment is Moses’ shining face when he comes down from Mount Sinai.  After meeting with God, his face is shining so brightly that he puts a veil over it (Ex. 34:29-35).  Jesus, like Moses, reflects God’s light on the mountain.  But, unlike Moses, he also reveals God’s light, as it’s a light that comes from his own being.  The brightness of Moses’ face was a reflection; the brightness of Jesus’ face was a revelation.  As Schreiner says, “Jesus’ face is the sun; Moses’s is the moon.”[1]

This means that the transfiguration is a return to the garden.  In it, the disciples see what we were created to see: the face of God.  In the Bible, God’s face signifies his blessing, presence, intimacy, glory, and favor.  This is why Aaron taught us to pray, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (Num. 6:24-26).

Sin hides God’s face from us.  Salvation means seeing God’s face again.  How do we see it?  By having hearts that see “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).  Have you seen this light in Jesus’ face?

Moses and Elijah

The second sign we see is the presence of Moses and Elijah (vv. 30-31).  Why are they here?  There are lots of theories about their presence, but I think we can boil them all down to two main reasons.  They’re there as old covenant representatives and as individuals who longed to see God’s glory.

First, they represent the Law and the Prophets and therefore point us to Jesus as the fulfillment of each as the messianic Son.  Their presence symbolizes the unity of the old and new covenants, the unity of the biblical story.  Jesus came to end what they began.

As an example of how this moment signals the fulfillment of the old covenant, consider that this is the first time Moses sets foot in the Promised Land.  He wasn’t allowed to go in with the rest of the Israelites.  But now he sees not only God’s land but God himself.

Moses and Elijah’s presence signal that Jesus is the long-awaited messianic Son who the Law and Prophets foretold.

But they’re also there as two individuals who longed to see God (Ex. 33:22, 1 Kgs. 19:11).  Moses and Elijah experienced a partial revelation of God’s glory on Mount Horeb.  They both desired to see God’s glory but only saw a glimpse of it.  Now, in the transfiguration, their longings are finally satisfied as they see the glory of God’s face.

The Bright Cloud

The third sign is the cloud that comes down on the mountain (v. 34).  Matthew calls it a “bright cloud” (17:5).

While Peter speaks about making tents, the cloud is God’s way of saying, “I’ll make my own covering.”  Peter’s proposal was overridden by a single, better, and very different tent – the glory cloud of God.  Schreiner says, “God, not Peter, decides how he will dwell with humanity.”[2]

Clouds in the Bible signify God’s presence.  A pillar of cloud leads Israel through the wilderness during the day.  A cloud comes down on Mount Sinai.  A cloud comes down on the tabernacle and temple.  The son of man figure comes riding on the “clouds of heaven” (Dan. 7:13).

The cloud of God’s presence specifically symbolizes the presence of the Holy Spirit.  This is how the prophets interpreted the cloud during the exodus (Isa. 63:10-14, Hag. 2:4-5).  The cloud refers to the Holy Spirit as the one in the midst of Israel during the exodus.  The cloud is an emblem of God’s presence generally and of the Spirit specifically.

This means that all three members of the Trinity are present at the transfiguration: the Father speaks, the Son is transfigured, and the Spirit appears as a cloud.  Only here and at Jesus’ baptism are all three persons of the Trinity distinctly manifested.

The Son is in the flesh while the Father affirms the Son from the Spirit’s cloud.  The transfiguration, like Jesus’ baptism, reveals the triune glory of God.

The Sayings

The three signs of Jesus shining face and bright clothes, Moses and Elijah, and the bright cloud all signify Jesus’ double glory as the earthly and heavenly Son of God.

Now let’s consider three sayings in this text that continue to show us Jesus’ double sonship.  We’ll look at Peter’s saying and then the two things the Father says.

Peter’s Saying

When Peter wakes up and sees the glory of Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, he said something that wasn’t necessarily wrong, but was misguided (vv. 32-33).

He’s right to say, “Master, it is good that we are here” (v. 33).  The disciples are in the presence of Goodness itself.  His words reveal the longing we all have to return to the good of the garden where we walked with God and saw his face.

But Luke notes that Peter didn’t understand what he was saying (v. 33).  Notice that the cloud comes down “as he was saying these things” (v. 34).  God interrupts Peter to help him understand what’s really happening here.

Peter misunderstands the singularity and the suffering of Jesus.  He wants to make three tents, assuming that Jesus, Moses, and Elijah are on the same level.  But God won’t allow this.  Jesus isn’t equal to Moses and Elijah.  He’s the singular Son.

But Peter also misunderstanding the nature of what Jesus came to do.  He errs by proposing to make tents, wanting to prolong the glory of this scene, to capture the glory of this moment and not let it go.  He wants Jesus’ glory to stay there in a tent.  He’s holding onto this moment too tightly.  He thinks he’s seeing the full revelation of the glory of the kingdom but doesn’t realize that the glory of the kingdom won’t come without the cross.  He thinks this preview is the final act.  He doesn’t understand that it’s Jesus’ suffering that will lead to his final glory.

The reason God interrupts Peter is because Peter doesn’t understand what he’s asking.  He wants to skip the cross and just go straight to the glory, not realizing that the final glory of God will only come after the suffering of the Son.

“This is My Son”

The second saying is the first thing the Father says out of the cloud, “This is my Son, my Chosen One” (v. 35).  Mark records the saying as, “This is my beloved Son” (9:7).  Matthew as, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased” (17:5).

The Father’s voice emphatically declares that Jesus is God’s Son.  As I’ve said, Jesus’ sonship is two-fold.  He’s God’s messianic and eternal son.  The two can’t be divorced.  Jesus’ divine mission flows from his divine essence.

This statement echoes Isaiah 42:1, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.”  Jesus is God’s chosen and glorified messianic Servant-Son.

But it also echoes Psalm 2:7, “The Lord said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you.’”  That the Father’s words echo these words from Psalm 2 mean that Jesus is the human king foretold there, the Davidic king who’ll rule Israel and the nations.  These words are about kingship.

But they’re also about kinship.  Jesus is also the Father’s eternally begotten Son.  His sonship is more than an office but is a profound and eternal relationship that binds Father and Son together.  Hebrews 1:1-5 quotes Psalm 2 to make this point, linking Jesus’ messianic vocation with his eternal sonship, using Psalm 2 as support.

On the mountain of transfiguration, the Father declares that Jesus is his Son, both in terms of his role as messiah and his essence as God.

“Listen to Him”

The final saying is the second thing the Father speaks from the glory cloud, “Listen to him!” (v. 35) There are lots of things this command means.  The immediate context tells us that it first means that the disciples need to listen to Jesus when he talks about dying and rising.  Peter wants to stay in the glory; God says the cross has to come first.

But the command also reminds us of when Moses said that God would raise up a new prophet like him to speak to the people of God, and that the people “must listen to him” (Deut. 18:15).  This also reminds us of the “Shema” in Deuteronomy 6, “Hear, O Israel” (v. 4).  Jesus is the God of Israel who demands to be heard.

Jesus is the new prophet like Moses and the Word of God (Jn. 1:1) to whom God’s people must obey.  We must listen to Jesus now if we want to see God’s face later.

The Significance

What does all this mean for us?  How should we respond to what we see here?  There are at least three responses called for: we should obey Jesus, worship Jesus, and wait patiently for Jesus.

First, we must obey Jesus.  If Jesus is the glory of God, then he’s the most important thing in the universe.  The transfiguration teaches us that Jesus is all-important and must be honored as such in our lives.  He’s the axis on which everything turns.  The command, “Listen to him,” means Jesus is Lord, not just a nice guy.  Jesus’ glory is either a sham or real, and if real, then we have to give him everything and align our lives to him.

Second, we must worship Jesus.  Jesus isn’t one more prophet pointing to God like Moses or Elijah.  He’s the overwhelming, shattering expression of God’s radiance.  Jesus points to glory and is glory.  Anytime someone got close to God’s glory in the Bible, they were undone and began to feel the weight of their sin (Isa. 6:5, Job 42:5-6).  This is why the disciples were terrified when the glory-cloud came down on the mountain (v. 34).  But the glory didn’t kill them!  Why not?  Because Jesus was there (v. 35).

Later we learn that when Jesus dies, the curtain of the temple is torn in two (Mt. 26), meaning that the glory of God is now available to all because of Jesus’ death.  The glory that used to be fatal is now available to you in Jesus.  Jesus set aside his glory so that you can receive it.

In The Silmarillion, there’s this evil spider named Ungoliant.  Tolkien says “she hungered for light and hated it.”[3]  This is true of us in our fallen condition (Jn. 3:19ff).  We long for the light of God but also hate it and run from it.  We see it as a threat to our existence.

Until you understand what Jesus did on the cross, his glory will be a threat to you.  But after you see the beauty of his death for you, your motivation to serve him is no longer duty but desire, no longer fear but love.

The transfiguration teaches us that at the heart of the universe isn’t a principle but a Person.  A glorious person who can be known and loved and adored.  A person who loves you and died for you so that you’ll worship him and enjoy his glory forevermore.

And third, we must wait patiently for Jesus’ glory.  The transfiguration happened as darkness was gathering around Jesus.  After the shudders were closed, and his glory dissipated, he didn’t come out like Samson and kill all his enemies.  No, he set his face toward Jerusalem to do what he came to do (9:51).  After the transfiguration, Jesus’ glory was hidden but at work.

Just because we can’t see something doesn’t mean it’s not real.  If you belong to Jesus, in every darkness, glory is at work.  There’s always more at work than meets the eye.

As darkness gathers around us, we patiently wait for glory to be revealed.  And it will be revealed.  As Paul says, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Rom. 8:18).

The transfiguration is a glimpse of the glory that we’ll one day see, given to us so that we won’t drown in despair.  It shows us what will happen when death is swallowed up and there’s nothing left but glory.

The transfiguration is like the Phial Galadriel gave Frodo to help him see when all other lights were dark.  It was the brightest of stars to light his way when he couldn’t see.

“We Will All Be Changed”

In the same way, the transfiguration lights our way on the dark roads we must travel in this life.  No matter how dark the road, the promise for those who belong to Jesus is that they, like him, will also be changed, will be “transfigured” and transformed “from one degree of glory to another” as we “behold the glory of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:18).

But this transformation won’t be complete until Jesus returns and “we shall all be changed” and our bodies are “raised in glory” (1 Cor. 15:51, 43).  Our “lowly bodies” will be transformed “to be like his glorious body” (Phil. 3:21).  When Jesus returns, John says, “we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is” (1 Jn. 3:2).

The transfiguration shows us the glory that we’ll one day share with Jesus.  It’s more than an event.  It’s our destiny.

[1]Patrick Schreiner, The Transfiguration of Christ: An Exegetical and Theological Reading (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2024), 70.

[2]Ibid., 75.

[3]J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion, ed. Christopher Tolkien (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2004), 65.