They saw His glory
And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!”
(Luke 9:35).
The journey to Jairus’ home was a bustling one as the people crowded around to see Jesus. It only became quiet after the Lord dismissed the mourners, and in the quietness of a home Jesus raised the young girl to life. The next journey was a steady climb up a mountainside to pray.
I was at the funeral of a dear Indian brother who was one of the gentlest Christians I have known. At the service his nephew recalled a visit he had made to the UK to stay with his uncle. The uncle took him to see the Lake District and together they climbed one of the hills. It was a steep climb, the young man found the going tough and he was not enjoying the experience. When his uncle saw he was tired, he stopped and asked his nephew to turn round and look at the view. He remembered how his breath was taken away as he looked down on the beauties of the Lakes. As they continued and arrived at another vantage point, they would stop to take in what they could not see when they were in the valley below. He related the story as an illustration of the spiritual help his uncle was to him during his life.
The Lord always wants to take us higher. He does not want us to be earthbound, but to be taken up to where He is and empowered to live for Him in this world. Moses’ face shone because of his mountaintop experience with God. And Jesus Christ took Peter, James and John to the top of another mountain, not to look down, but to see the glory of Christ and hear the Father’s pleasure in His Son and His command to listen to Him.
How does this relate to our daily living? The overwhelming evidence from the people of God in the Old Testament is that their spiritual power came from the revelation of God to their hearts through His word. In the New Testament we read in John 1, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (v. 14). God came down. The moral glory of the Lord Jesus Christ as a man was seen in this world. His power witnessed to His deity. The transfiguration was about being taken up into a place where the disciples saw His intrinsic glory. Moses and Elijah were on the mountain with Him, not as equal with the Lord, but representing the Law and the Prophets that bore testimony to His sufferings, which they talked of, and His glory. They disappear, and the Father declares His pleasure in His Son. Peter would write about this at the end of his life, “For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honour and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’. And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain” (2 Peter 1:16-18).
A day is coming when we shall behold the glory of the Lord and be changed into His likeness (1 John 3). In the meantime, we have the privilege of communion with Him through the abiding Spirit of God. By faith we see Jesus in glory and learn to listen to the Son of God. And what we learn we take into our daily lives. This was the experience that moved the apostles and the early Christians and that has moved the hearts and lives of Christians throughout the generations to this day. We don’t need to climb a mountain: we just need to find the time and a place to quietly enter His presence in worship and listen to and be transformed by the Son of God.
