Transfiguration -- A Reflection



                On Sunday we will climb the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. Along with Peter, James, and John, we will observe what happens to Jesus. Living as we do in a disenchanted world, this story of Jesus’ transfiguration has lost much of its punch. As I prepare to preach this coming Sunday on this defining event in the life of Jesus, when Peter, James, and John caught a glimpse of who Jesus truly was, I’ve been turning to Eastern Christian sources like the medieval theologian St. Gregory Palamas and the twentieth-century Orthodox theologian Vladimir Lossky.

                The reason for this turn on my part as a Mainline Protestant who serves within a rather rationalistic denomination is that I’m sensing the need for something more mystical than our tradition offers. Is there more to the story than we’ve allowed ourselves to experience? I should note that when Peter, James, and John witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus, there were terrified. Therefore, Peter didn’t know what to say to Jesus. Then, no sooner had he offered to build booths/tabernacles for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, but God spoke to them from the heavens, letting them know that Jesus was the Son, the beloved and that they should listen to him (Mk, 9:8).

                So what happened up there on the mountain that terrified these three followers of Jesus? Could it be that they saw something that they could not comprehend, something we might find difficult to comprehend? Our challenges today are not new. Vladimir Lossky notes that in the Medieval Orthodox community, there was a debate between the mystics and the rationalists. Gregory Palamas defended the mystics and ultimately paved the way for the embrace of mystical theology. In fact, Lossky suggests that it is through mystical experience that we can experience (see) the divine light present in Jesus. [Lossky, Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, pp. 220-221]. He writes “most of the Fathers who speak of the Transfiguration witness to the divine and uncreated nature of the light which appeared to the Apostles.” Thus, he writes that “the light seen by the apostles on Mount Tabor is proper to God by His nature: eternal, infinite, existing outside space and time, it appeared in the theophanies of the Old Testament as the glory of God—a terrifying and unbearable apparition to created beings, because foreign and external to human nature as it was before Christ and outside the Church.” [Lossky, pp. 222-223].

                With Lossky as a foundation, I want to share this word from Gregory Palamas that I likely will use in some fashion in my sermon on Sunday. This is from one of his Transfiguration sermons.

Given that when He was transfigured the Lord shone and displayed glory, splendour and light, and will come again as He was seen by His disciples on the mountain, does this mean He somehow took this light to Himself, and will have forever something He did not have before? Perish the blasphemous thought! Because anyone who says so imagines that Christ has three natures: the divine, the human, and the one belonging to this light. It follows that He did not manifest a radiance other than that which He already had invisibly. He possessed the splendour of the divine nature hidden under His flesh. This light, then, is the light of the Godhead, and it is uncreated. According to the theologians, when Christ was transfigured He neither received anything different, nor was changed into anything different, but was revealed to His disciples as He was, opening their eyes and giving sight to the blind. Take note that eyes with natural vision are blind to that light. It is invisible, and those who behold it do so not simply with their bodily eyes, but with eyes transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. [Palamas, St. Gregory. The Saving Work of Christ: Sermons by Saint Gregory Palamas (pp. 45-46). Mount Tabor Publishing. Kindle Edition].

Note the phrase that I italicized. According to Gregory, it’s not as if a light suddenly got shone on to Jesus from above. Instead, the veil was lifted from the eyes of the observers so they could see what was already present. The saw that uncreated light that belongs to God alone present in Jesus. No wonder they were terrified. They couldn’t comprehend this reality, which might be why Jesus told them to keep silent about their experience until after the resurrection (Mark 9:9).

                Affirming the divinity of Christ is problematic to many. It doesn’t fit well with our modern understandings. It seems to get in the way of acknowledging the humanity of Jesus. But perhaps Transfiguration Sunday gives us a chance to dive deeper into the divine reality so that we might participate in that light that is present in Jesus, the light revealed on the Mountain, and which Lossky and others believe can only be apprehended through mystical experience. Perhaps if we allow ourselves to enter into this mystical experience, we will be transformed ourselves. I say this as one who struggles with contemplation and carving out time for prayer. Nevertheless, I desire to experience the divine light, which Lossky calls the “principle of our understanding; in it we come to know God, and we come to know ourselves. It searches out the depths of the person who attains union with God, it is for that person the judgement of God, before the Last Judgment.” [Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, 233].


Transfiguration of Christ, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56416 [retrieved February 10, 2021]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Transfiguration_-_Google_Art_Project_(715792).jpg.

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