Transfigured for Relationship

The story of Jesus’ transfiguration is a well-known and powerful moment in the Gospels. It is one of the times when it is made clear that Jesus is something more than another rabbi, something more than even the prophets, greater even than Moses. Peter, James, and John are invited to go to the mountain top with Jesus and there they are given a glimpse of his divinity. They encounter Jesus in a new way and are deeply affected by what they have experienced.

Many of us have had “mountain top experiences.” We have been on retreats, attended conferences, had times of prayer where we have experienced God’s love, power, might, glory in a deep and profound way. Very often after such an event we are reminded that we cannot live on the mountain top, cautioned not to lose the power of that encounter when we return to our ordinary lives, but too one of the most critical aspects of the mountain top experience is overlooked.

After the transfiguration, Jesus accompanies the disciples back down the mountain. The disciples do not remain on the mountain, in the place they experienced God’s glory, they have to return to their everyday lives, to their routines and responsibilities, but Jesus returns with them. This is the key, the crucial fact that makes leaving the mountain not only bearable but delightful. Jesus returns with them. Take a moment to let that reality sink in. The point of the transfiguration was not only that these Apostles would be given a deeper revelation of who Jesus is, seeing the reality of His divinity, but that having received that gift they would allow this revelation to shape their ongoing relationship with Jesus.

Yes, on the mountain they have had a profound experience of God, they have glimpsed His glory and His splendor, but God does not want them to simply have fleeting experience of Him. Jesus did not come to give us a glimpse, a hint of who God is while remaining otherwise remote, aloof. Jesus came that we might know God, be in relationship with Him. He wants to be a part of our everyday lives, to enter into our routines, our responsibilities.

There will be times in our life when we encounter Jesus in a new and powerful way. Those moments are beautiful, precious, and to be treasured. But those moments are not meant to be isolated experiences, separate from the rest of our lives. Rather they are meant to be reminders of the reality of who Jesus is, who God is, so that as we walk with Jesus in our everyday lives we can do so with renewed confidence and conviction that the Jesus we are in relationship with is the same Jesus whose glory we encountered on the mountain.