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GLORY IN OUR LIFE
The Lord was transfigured before His Disciples for several reasons, among which was to strengthen them and to reinforce their faith before His departure for Jerusalem and the Road to the Cross. He was probably talking with Moses and Elijah about, "His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem." (Luke 9:31). Since that time, Christ walked on His way to the Cross. Our Lord Jesus commanded the three witnesses to tell no one of the vision they had seen, "Until the Son of Man is risen from the dead." (Matthew 17:9). This means that our Lord Jesus had started to announce the nature of His service of redemption. He had started to proclaim that He was taking quick steps towards the terrible agony and death, and that His message of fulfilling the Law of Moses and the prophecies (Elijah) would not be hampered by death.
In the life of following Christ the Lord, the glories of the Lord that strengthen our faith appear, and he proclaims His love for us. However, after these short transfigurations, we must continue on our road of struggle. The glories and the victories are not the characteristics of this life, "For our light affliction, which is for but a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." (II Corinthians 4:17).
St. John Chrysostom said, "When Peter heard that Christ intended to go to Jerusalem and suffer, he was afraid and trembled for Him. After the Lord blamed him saying, 'Get behind Me, Satan,' (Matthew 16:23), he did not want to say again, 'Far be it from You, Lord ..' so he proposed the same thing in a different manner for he feared for the Lord. When he found that they were in a quiet and solitary place, far from the Scribes and the Pharisees of Jerusalem, he wanted the Lord to remain there forever. Truly, his love for Christ was great, even though his proposal was unbalanced! So that the Lord might not blame him again, he said, 'If You wish, let us make here three Tabernacles...' (Matthew 17:4). Why did Peter say this? Did he consider the Lord one of the servants and equal to them? How little spirituality the Apostles had before the Cross! The Gospel describes him thus "He did not know what he was saying and they were frightened."
That was why this Transfiguration, described by the Evangelists included words about the agony of Christ that was near. It is a message that proclaims that glory is the result of the agony endured by the Lord of Glory until death.
The voice of the Father that came from the cloud, (Matthew 17:5) and proclaimed that Christ the Lord is His beloved Son, "in Whom He is well pleased," gives us the faith that with our obedience to Him and by listening to him, we enter the circle of the joy of the Father in Christ. The Lord gives us grace and blessings, not as a reward for a work done, because the true reward is in heaven (Matthew 6:6), but to give us an idea of the blessings that we will obtain by following Christ, we must therefore prepare ourselves for this path.
This Transfiguration had to be quick, because the permanent Transfiguration and Glory of the Lord come from His agony only, the subject of the conversation between the Lord and the celestial visitors (Luke 9:31). This was clarified by St. Paul in Philippians 2:5-11, that our Lord Jesus obeyed until death and God raised Him and glorified Him. St. Gregory of Nazianzus said, "The Lord on the Mount was illumined like a lighting and shining more than the sun, thus He revealed to us the mystery of the future."
In this manner we cannot expect to see glory in this world at all times, for "If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together." (Romans 8:17).
St. Cyril the Great, saw that Peter the Apostle did not know what he was talking about, because the time had not come, and Christ would never abandon His death of redemption for us. He said, "The disciples slept for a while, then they woke and witnessed magnificent and glorious changes. Peter may have thought that the time of the Kingdom of God had come, and therefore suggested the erection of dwellings on the mount. But he did not know what he was talking about because the end of the world had not yet come, the saints had not received the hope promised to them, and because at that time, as St. Paul said, 'The Lord Jesus Christ will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body.' (Philippians 3:21). As the disposal was still at its beginnings and was not complete, then how would Christ forsake His love for the world and relinquish His aim which is to suffer for the world? For He has redeemed all those under the heaven by enduring death in the body, then by crushing death by resurrecting from the dead."
Copyright © 2007 Saint Antony Coptic Orthodox Monastery, California, U.S.A. The above article may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of Saint Antony Coptic Orthodox Monastery, California, U.S.A. |
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