The Transfiguration of Our Lord - 6th August 2023
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord, one of the great feasts of the Lord which replaces the normal Sunday liturgy.
The Transfiguration is significant in Jesus’ life and ministry because it confirms His Divinity and demonstrates how He fulfils the Old Testament Scriptures. On this day, we see in the presence of Moses and Elijah how Jesus fulfils the Law and the Prophets. In the Old Testament, the Levitical law was given to God’s people as a temporary administration, demonstrating their need for a Saviour. Later, the prophets told of a coming Messiah, Who would mend the rift between God and man that had been caused by sin. Jesus was the only man able to satisfy the Law, the perfect, sinless sacrifice.
The Transfiguration also shows God the Father affirming Jesus as His Son, confirming His deity, and telling the disciples to listen to Him. Peter, James, and John now see a glimpse of Jesus’ true glory: God the Son, Who reigns eternal, and against Whom the gates of hell shall not prevail. God the Father shows Himself as He appeared to the Israelites of the Old Testament: in a cloud, because His glory is too great to be witnessed. That same glory is reflected on Jesus, Whose clothes become dazzling white. This event emphasises both the mystery and necessity of the Incarnation - in order for man to be made right with God, God had to become a man, because we in our finite and sinful state are unable to behold His full glory. In His Transfiguration Jesus strengthens the faith of His three friends and prepares them for the terrible struggle of which they were to be witnesses in Gethsemane, by giving them a foretaste of the glory and heavenly delights which we all can attain by accepting the suffering and challenges of life and picking up our cross and following the Lord Jesus.
