The Transfiguration of Our Lord
(A)
February 15, 2026
Text:
Matt. 17:1-9
The Transfiguration of Our Lord is
this comprehensive snapshot of our holy faith in its entirety. Here is what I mean. There is Jesus as the center and focus of
everything else. It all orbits around
the Son. All eyes are on Him, and all
eyes are enlightened by Him. He is the
source of Light. Everything else
reflects light, but the divine Light, the Light that is God, comes from within
Him. (St. Paul says this amazing thing:
“God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ” [2 Cor. 4:6; ESV]. So the
Light of light’s Creator shines out of the face of Jesus and enlightens
us! And then we shine, just like
the face of Moses, who stood in the presence of that divine Light [2 Cor. 3],
and didn’t even realize his face was shining with reflected glory. That is an incredible thought! Anyway…)
Our Lord’s face shines like the sun, and even His clothing is white as
light (Matt. 17:2), because He is the Light of the world (John 8:12). And the point of it is, this Man,
Jesus of Nazareth, is God. God
in human flesh—Incarnation.
He is the eternally begotten Son of
the Father. And sure enough, there is
the Father, just like at Jesus’ Baptism in the Jordan, saying much the same
thing: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him”
(Matt. 17:5). Well-pleased with
Jesus, and so well-pleased with all of us who are baptized into
Jesus. Baptism. Justification. In Christ alone.
And, the Word… Listen to
Him. And there is the Spirit. Now, this time, not in the form of a dove,
and so, perhaps, harder to spot. But not
for a good Israelite who knows about the Exodus. Where is He?
The cloud, enveloping the whole scene. And so, working in the hearts of His chosen
people, the disciples, who are hearing the Words of the Father in the Presence
of Jesus. So, the Trinity, Israel in
the wilderness, the Spirit’s enlightening and sanctifying work, and the
gathering of the Church around the presence of Jesus. All of it, right here.
What else? Moses and Elijah. The Law and the Prophets, which is to say,
the Hebrew Scriptures, the whole Old Testament.
It’s all about Jesus. Luke even
tells us in his version that they are discussing Jesus’ “exodus,” which is to
say, His divine, saving mission, and in particular, His death and resurrection
(Luke 9:31). The whole Old Testament, in
every word, by type and prophecy, by providence and preservation of God’s
chosen people, is all about the Christ, the Messiah, and it all comes to its
fulfillment in this one Man, now radiating God’s glory.
There is the New Testament,
too. Peter, James, and John. (You know, come to think of it, Paul wasn’t
present at the Transfiguration, for obvious reasons, but He did see this
Light, didn’t he, on the Damascus road!)
But so also, we see that these great New Testament figures are here by
grace alone. They don’t deserve
this beatific vison. Peter has just
made his big blunder in forbidding the Lord to die on the cross. Right after his great confession, “You are
the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:16), Jesus has to rebuke
him, “Get behind me, Satan,” because he’s hindering Jesus from making
the great sacrifice for our sins. That
happens in the Chapter immediately before this.
And James and John, those sons of thunder? Not much better. Ready to call down fire from heaven on a
Samaritan Village for rejecting Jesus (that’ll show ‘em!) (Luke 9:54),
preachers of God’s wrath rather than preachers of the Gospel, not afraid to
exploit their own dear mother as they jockey for position on Jesus’ right and
left hands when He comes into His Kingdom (little did they know, those seats
feature nails and wood and nakedness and shame and darkness and death) (Matt.
20:20 ff; 27:37-38).
What else? Peter, yapping. As usual.
Like us, in our faltering praise.
Yet saying profound things in spite of Himself. It is good that we are here
(17:4). You bet it is. Heaven has come down. God Himself is present. And so are a couple of saints. Moses, who died on Mt. Nebo, and is buried God
only knows where (literally… God buried him, and nobody else saw the location)
(Deut. 34:5-6); and Elijah, taken up into heaven by chariots of fire (2 Kings
2:11). By the way, notice how the
disciples know who these guys are. I
don’t know, maybe introductions were made, but it seems to me we simply
recognize one another in heaven. And, of
course, in Jesus, Peter, James, and John, and we are seeing an image of our own
future, heavenly, resurrection glory. Let
us make three tents, Peter says.
Let’s celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, the yearly remembrance of, and
participation in, YHWH leading His people (by a cloud!) through the wilderness,
and into the Promised Land. On some
level it dawns on Peter, “This is it!
This moment is what all of that was about! It is all fulfilled, here, in Jesus!” Well, he’s right.
It’s just that he’s ahead of
himself. What is this grand vision of
the Transfiguration, but a glimpse of the Lord’s divine glory, to prepare these
three disciples… and us, who believe in Jesus on account of their
Word… for the descent down the mountain, and into Jerusalem… and into our
Lord’s Passion, His suffering and death, for us (that is why we have this
reading just prior to Lent). This is
preparing us for Calvary. Preparing us
for the cross. See, it’s undeniable,
now, after what has happened on this mountain… This Man is God. And so, if He dies, that means God
dies. And that is what it takes to
rescue us from our sins, from death, and from the power of Satan. And so, also, it is foreshadowing of what is
to come, a picture of the glory Jesus will take up again when He rises from
the dead.
The disciples need this for
what they’re about to face. Betrayal. At the hands of their own dear friend. The arrest of their Teacher and Lord. Their own defection. Injustice.
Torture. Crucifixion. Locked up in the prison of their own paralyzing
fear. In the heat of the moment, they’ll
forget what they saw and heard on the holy mountain. But this is how our God works. He often gives a gift at one point in
your life, that carries and preserves you, imperceptibly, through some
deep, dark valley, so that you come out the other side—with wounds and scars,
to be sure—but alive and on the way to healing in Christ. That is what the Transfiguration did for
Peter, James, and John as they descended into the darkness of Good Friday. It kept them… the Lord kept them
by means of it… into the Light of Easter morning, and the empty tomb, and the
risen Jesus, who said to them, “Peace be with you” (John 20:19).
You know, it does that for us,
too. Okay, the divine Light doesn’t
shine on our optic nerve the way it did for those three, and the booming Voice
of the Father doesn’t beat unmeditated upon our ear drums, nor are we enveloped
by the Glory Cloud. You get the
difference. It doesn’t happen to us,
visibly, and audibly, the way it happened to them. But it does happen to us. Peter, himself, tells us how (2 Peter
1:16-21). Look, he says… we
were eyewitnesses of His majesty when Jesus received honor from the Father, the
voice being borne to Him by the Majestic Glory.
We were with Him. We heard the
Voice. We saw it all happen. But there is something better… more sure,
even… than this spectacular experience, and it is available, not only to us,
but you: “the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention
as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star
rises in your hearts” (v. 19). You
want to see the Light of the Transfiguration?
The divine Light of the light’s Creator, shining from the face of Jesus,
enlightening you, and illuminating your path through the wilderness to the
Promised Land of eternal life with God?
Go to the Word. To the
Scriptures. To the preaching. Go where Jesus Christ is present for
you. Where the Spirit gathers you
together, with all His chosen people, your brothers and sisters in Christ, with
angels, and archangels, and even the whole company of heaven. Go where Jesus is at the center of
everything. Listen. Hear.
See. Taste. Because, what Peter, James, and John
witnessed in the Transfiguration, is given to you here and now. Here is the Light. Here is the Voice. Here is the Cloud. And here you are. And what happens, but Jesus touches you
(quite literally), and bids you “Rise, and have no fear” (Matt. 8). And that is when you lift up your eyes and
see no one, and nothing else, but Jesus only. And when you see Jesus only, then you
see all things aright. In the Name of
the Father, and of the Son X, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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