On August 19, the Russian, Serbian, Georgian, Jerusalem and other Orthodox Churches celebrate the Transfiguration of the Lord
Augustine Sokolovski, Doctor of Theology, priest
A true decoration of the golden time of summer, the Day of Transfiguration gathers many believers in churches, attracts the attention of theologians, and fascinates everyone with its rich historical, symbolic, and cultural component. Many sermons are devoted to the Transfiguration, literary works discuss it, wonderful liturgical texts have been written, churches and monasteries have been built in its honour.
During the festive Eucharistic liturgy on the very day of the Transfiguration, the text from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 17, verses 1 to 9 is read. It describes the event of the Transfiguration itself, in the presence of the closest disciples, and mentions the appearance of the Prophets to them. The same chapter tells how the Lord returned to the disciples and, at the very moment of his return, met a demon-possessed young man whom he healed. The chapter ends with Jesus’ prophecy about His impending death and Resurrection. The entire seventeenth chapter consists of 27 verses, but the story of the Transfiguration, so great in its meaning, is revealed throughout one third of the entire chapter, that is, those nine verses that are read during the liturgy. It is amazing how the human word, inspired by the Holy Spirit through the action of God, can convey great meanings in a brevity that is inexhaustible. As the ancient Church Father Augustine of Hippo (354–430) wrote about it, “the faith of the Church is conveyed in short words.” “After six days, Jesus took Peter, James and John his brother, and led them up to a high mountain alone,” begins the gospel narrative dedicated to the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1). Unlike ordinary home reading, when the texts of Scripture are read as a certain sequence of events and sayings, which is often subject to historical restoration, church readings during worship, as a rule, begin with the words: “At that time.” This practice is not only ancient, but also common Christian. Today it is preserved in various Churches around the world and in different languages. With this introduction “at that time,” the Church reminds believers that the time in which the Apostles were then and which the Apostolic Church is now experiencing as a Society of Believers is a messianic time. In this messianic time, the grace of the Holy Spirit overcomes all chronology. It makes the listeners of Scripture capable of becoming direct witnesses of what was once already accomplished by the Lord, each time reliving events like the Transfiguration, as signs of the completion of all history. In turn, the letter of the sacred text, which says that the Lord Jesus led the disciples up the mountain “after six days,” recalls amazing biblical symbolism. According to the first book of the Bible, Genesis, God created the world in six days. “And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, for on it He rested from all His work, which God had created and made” (Gen. 2:3). The event of Transfiguration, which by its very name speaks of the renewal and transformation of creation, in the smallest details of the human word recalls the original biblical creation of our world by God. It turns out that Jesus’ ascent to the mountain precisely “after six days” is both historical and theological.
The Lord took Peter, James and John with Him. Every time Jesus in the Gospel takes the disciples with Him to participate in some event. In fact, in the Transfiguration He is reproducing their original calling with which He once called them to follow Him. It is no coincidence that even the moment of the very initial calling of the Apostle in the Gospel texts seems to be repeated. Therefore, interpreters do not have a common opinion when exactly the Apostles were called for the first time. Was it when “the two disciples of Jesus, having heard what John had said about the Lamb of God, followed Him” (cf. John 1:36-37); or the Apostles were first called when the Lord told them to follow Him, promising to make them fishers of men, or, as in another reading of these words, “fishers” of the Lord Jesus, symbolized by the fish, for all people (Matt. 4:19). Such apparent ambiguity is created because each time the Apostles become witnesses of His special new unique revelatory action, in order to subsequently transfer it to the Church after the Ascension.
“He led them up to a high mountain alone,” says the Gospel. Whenever you turn to the sacred texts of Scripture, it is important to remember that the Bible is written in two languages.
The first language of Scripture is human speech in intelligent analogue narrative communication. The other language of Scripture is a biblical instruction woven from symbols, concepts, signs and reminders. The Lord really led the disciples to the mountain. The name of the mountain is not mentioned in Scripture so as not to distract the listener’s attention from this different language of the narrative. Indeed, in the language of biblical texts, the mountain symbolizes the closeness of the Creator. This is the place where God approaches man, where God reveals Himself in Revelation, and man becomes capable of perceiving the sacred, which is inaccessible in the bustle of days.
In the biblical understanding, God blesses human everyday life. Any contempt for ordinary, human reality is alien to the Christian worldview. But for the special mysterious approach of God, it is important to be distracted from the everyday fog. Jesus Christ is the Self-revelation of God. To perceive His words and deeds in this revelation of Himself, man must temporarily forget about his own everyday deeds.
In the gospel story, the Lord ascends the mountain “after six days,” that is, after the time of preaching and healing addressed to the people, he takes the Apostles with Him to ascend the mountain of standing before God. In such an ascending “presence of God,” the Transfiguration approaches.
The event of Transfiguration takes place within the chronology of the earthly life of the Savior. According to the logic of the development of the sacred text and according to the interpreters of Scripture, the Transfiguration took place shortly before the onset of the Passion of the Cross.
Despite the objective approach of the time of His Cross, the manifestation of the glory of good deeds and miracles became “habitual” for the Apostles due to their constant presence in His presence. The Transfiguration was designed to “hack” this usual course of things. It was intended to show that the extraordinary glory inherent in Christ was not due to the reception of Him by the people and the constant manifestation of signs, wonders and healings, in the image of the biblical prophets, and in a manner even superior to them, but was a revelation of the unity of Jesus with God and the Father, inherent in Him originally, as the Son of God.
Without a doubt, having ascended the mountain with his disciples, Jesus turned to the Father in prayer. This prayerful appeal was not an actualization of humility and need, as an ordinary sinful person experiences prayer, but became an extraordinary, incomparable glorification for the Lord.
“And He was transfigured before them: and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light,” the Gospel text further says (Matthew 17:2).
In Jesus the light was revealed which was in Him and was with Him when He spoke to the Father. And He was always with the Father, as the Gospel of John speaks about this elsewhere (cf. 17:21). Unlike other Evangelists, John does not describe the event of the Transfiguration. The peculiarity of his Gospel is precisely this construction of the History of Jesus, which emphasizes that Jesus was always transfigured.
The disciples had previously seen His Glory in His external works; this time, in an exceptional and unique way, they saw the glory that was in Him from the beginning. In a certain, mysterious sense, as the Church Fathers who interpreted Scripture emphasized, He made them sighted from the blind. “We were eyewitnesses of His greatness,” as the Apostle Peter writes about this in his Epistle, which is also read at the liturgy of the Transfiguration (2 Pet. 1:16).
The faith of the Church says that the Son of God, who became man in Christ Jesus, “for our sake as a man and for our salvation,” was born of the Father without any beginning and without any time. He has His glory, which is the Glory of the Father. He was glorified before the disciples, but this does not mean at all that He became someone He was not before. The glory of the Transfiguration was always with him. “And now glorify Me, Father, with You, with the glory that I had with You before the world was,” says the Lord in the Gospel of John in the text that theology calls the High Priestly Prayer (John 17:5).
“And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him” (Matthew 17:3).
The appearance, or better, in an absolute and truly biblical sense, the revelation of the prophets Moses and Elijah in the event of the Transfiguration is extremely important. Moses is the greatest of the prophets. He led the people out of Egypt. Through his hands God gave the people of Israel the Law. The first five books of the Bible, called the Pentateuch, have their own evolution and history. But, according to tradition, which has its basis in Scripture itself, these books are called the Law of Moses.
Elijah was a great prophet, who, however, did not leave behind written books. The history of his prophecy is described in the I–II Books of Kings, and he is spoken of in other biblical texts. In the history of the pious People of Israel, Moses and Elijah were the true personifications of the “Law and the Prophets.” The Lord Himself referred to the “Law and the Prophets” as a fundamental criterion for biblical piety (cf. Matt. 22:40).
In different eras, theology and biblical scholarship have answered the question of whether the Lord’s suffering was predestined in different ways. Thus, the era of the Ecumenical Councils and the Fathers of the Church preferred to insist that the Lord was predetermined to suffer due to the unbelief of the biblical people. Modern theology says that the death of Christ the Saviour on the cross did not mean doom. The Lord Jesus came as the Messiah sent by God to reveal His Kingdom. But the people rejected Him, and handed Him over to the Romans, who sentenced Him to death (Acts 2:23).
The Lord Jesus came as the Messiah sent by God to reveal His and Divine Kingdom. But the people rejected Him, and handed Him over to the Romans, who sentenced Him to death (Acts 2:23). This refusal to recognize Jesus as the Messiah, to “believe God, believe in God, and, most importantly, follow God,” according to the classical formula of faith in the biblical understanding, was clear, final and free. In this freedom to renounce the Lord lies the possibility of affirming that the Saviour’s Suffering was not predetermined. “He came to his own, but his own did not receive him,” says the Gospel of John (John 1:11). If the people had believed in Jesus as Messiah and Lord, His Kingdom would have been visibly established. But history, the history of the world and sacred history even more, does not know the subjunctive mood. Therefore, we can’t know the way how this would happen. Transfiguration is a visible indication that this would happen.
In the appearance of Moses and Elijah to the Lord Jesus, one more detail is important. Completing his earthly journey, Moses climbed the mountain to die. “And Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho” (Deut. 34:1).
The city of Jericho, the most powerful and huge pagan settlement, terrified the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land. It became the personification of death and the city of sin. “And Moses the servant of the Lord died there on the mountain <…> and was buried in the valley, and no one knows the place of his burial even to this day” (Deut. 34:5–6).
On Mount Sinai, Moses received the tablets of the commandments; the Covenant was made at Sinai (cf. Gal. 2:24). Scripture says that, unlike Moses, the prophet Elijah did not taste death, but ascended to Heaven in the mysticism of light and fire. “Suddenly there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, and Elijah went up into heaven in a whirlwind” (2 Kings 2:11). Since Elijah did not die, but was taken alive to Heaven, the biblical belief, expressed by the prophets and lived among the people, said that Elijah would return. He had to precede the Messiah in order to expose sin and prepare the people for the Coming of Christ. Thus, in the event of the Transfiguration, the Kingdom, Power and Glory of God inherent in Jesus Christ makes Moses alive and present, and Elijah is returned to earth.
“At this Peter said to Jesus: Lord! It’s good for us to be here, if you want, we’ll make three tabernacles here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah,” the Gospel quotes the words of Peter (Matthew 17:4).
Interpreters have explained these words of the Apostle in different ways. In their literal meaning they are very simple, but behind this apparent clarity of statement, as happens in the Scriptures, there is a lot of theology and edification hidden.
Thus, Orthodox ascetics of the era of hesychasts, that is, literally, the “silent ones,” in the 13th–14th centuries and earlier, saw in the event of the Transfiguration the justification of their mystical experience. In the constant repetition of the name of the Lord in the Jesus Prayer, they saw the light of the Transfiguration, and, literally, as St Peter said – “it is good for us to be here” – in solitude they testified the experience of the revelation of divine words and biblical mysteries.
Taken by themselves, the words of Peter are a sincere request for constant abiding in the real glorious presence of the Lord, there is a foretaste of the Last Supper and the Eucharist.
“I have come to bring down fire on the earth, and how I wish it had already kindled,” – this is how the Gospel of Luke conveys the apocalyptic confession of the Lord about His Messiahship (Luke 12:49). The Transfiguration was the fulfillment of these words. Peter’s exclamation indicates that a change has come. “You cannot see My face, because man cannot see Me and live,” Moses was told in the Book of Exodus (Exodus 33:20). Transfiguration means and demonstrates that the presence of God no longer terrifies, as it terrified the Old Testament saints, but delights the New Testament righteous, such as the Apostle Peter, and with him James and John. This is the threshold of the New Testament.
“While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold, a voice from the cloud said: This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; Listen to Him” (Matthew 17:5).
Human history in the biblical sense is the history of the Covenant. By Covenant here we mean not a will or a commandment of the departing person, but an agreement based on mutual fidelity. This is an agreement between man and God, or better and more correctly, between God and people. God always fulfilled His Covenant, being faithful to His people and loving them, while man constantly violated this covenant. God was faithful, man was not. It is in this “testamentary” sense that the biblical word “unbelief”, filled with reproach, sorrow and tragedy, should be understood. When in the course of human history, it became obvious that man could never fulfil his duty of loyalty, God Himself became the new human response.
In Christ Jesus God became man; He entered history; in Him was the correction of all previous human negations. “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we preached among you <…> was not
‘yes’ and ‘no,’ but in Him was ‘yes,’ for all the promises of God are in Him ‘Yes’ and in Him ‘Amen’,” – Paul writes about this (2 Cor. 1:19–20). Biblical scholars tell us that the Epistles of Paul were written before the first written Gospels were compiled. This means that the event of the Transfiguration can be perceived as a genuine descriptive confirmation of the salvific appearance of Christ.
Everything done by the Lord is life-giving; the Transfiguration indicates the voluntariness of the Cross; it prophesies about the Resurrection. In the Orthodox understanding, the significance of this event is extremely great. It reveals the coming Transfiguration of humanity with God in the presence of the Prophets, Apostles and all the saints, which is already taking place in the world and will finally be fulfilled at the end of history.
