The Transfiguration of our Lord
Sunday, February 9 (Transfiguration)
The Lord hath said unto Me:
Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee.
Why do the heathen rage,
And the people imagine a vain thing?
—Psalm 2:7b; 1
A writing for the Holy Gospel, Matthew 17:1-9:
“Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.””
Matthew 17:9
Today the Church, according to the historic liturgical calendar, commemorates the Transfiguration of our Lord. On this day, we recall that our Lord, having brought Peter, James, and John to a mountaintop to pray, began to shine with immense light. Moses and Elijah then appeared with Him, and together they conversed. The disciples were greatly troubled by this vision, yet Jesus touched them and rebuked their fear.
Then, Moses and Elijah disappeared. Jesus stood alone; the glorious moment had passed. Yet as they descended the mountain, Jesus instructed them to tell no one what they had seen “until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” Similar commands are seen throughout the Gospels, usually after He performed miracles.
In Jesus’ command we find two revealed truths: first, that the Son of Man must die, and second, that the Son of Man will rise again. How trivial it may seem, yet our Lord has revealed a marvelous and glorious truth in His command to the disciples.
One might first wonder why Jesus forbade the disciples from telling others what they had seen. How could they not? They witnessed the power and glory of the only Son of the Father. They beheld the intense ray of heavenly sunshine that comes only from Christ. They saw the glory that illumines the heavens and gives light to the earth. Must they be forbidden from sharing such a glorious sight?
Indeed, the Transfiguration of our Lord was a foretaste. It was a divine preview of the splendor and glory of things to come. The Transfiguration was not necessarily a standalone event, though it certainly demonstrated the independent and unsurpassable power and glory of the Son of God. Yet it is not a standalone event because it points toward a greater glory—a marvelous light so great it cannot be eclipsed. Jesus pointed His disciples toward His Resurrection.
Yet the glory of His Resurrection could not be understood until after it had occurred. Had the disciples spoken of the Transfiguration before the Resurrection, many may have misunderstood the messianic mission for which Christ was sent into the world. A revelation of the glory of the Transfiguration may well have distracted from Christ’s ultimate purpose: to suffer and die for the sins of the world.
That is the true glory revealed in the Transfiguration: the Son of Man must die. The glory that surrounded Him at His transfiguration will be veiled. The world will look upon Him in derision, disgust, and mockery. How could it be that this Son of Man, who appeared in heavenly glory on the mount, soon will be crucified on a tree? How is it that He who had conversation with Moses and Elijah will soon have conversation with the Father: “Father, why have you forsaken Me?” Why must the Son of God die?
Indeed, He must die for us.
The vision of the mount was a significant sight. Peter, James, and John beheld glory as of the only Son of the Father, whose voice came down from heaven and proclaimed: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Yet this transfiguring light cannot eclipse the unimaginable and inextinguishable light of the Resurrection.
Those present at the Transfiguration were to tell no one. The vision on the mount was to be kept a secret until the Son of Man was raised from the dead, for that vision on the mount was but a foretaste of the eternal glory to come in the Resurrection. Our Lord’s Transfiguration was glorious in itself, but that to which it pointed is the true joy of His people: the promise of life everlasting in His glorious kingdom.
The glory of the Transfiguration—and the ever-powerful glory of His Resurrection—is given to us. As He died for us, so also does He bestow this light and grace to us. This is our transfiguration, for in the waters of Holy Baptism we are made His own. We are washed from the stain of our sinful nature; we are freed from the just wages of our sin. We are made to be His children, holy and redeemed, set apart as His faithful servants. At our Baptism, we are made to hear the Father’s voice, who speaks over us: “You are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased.”
We are His beloved children on account of His only-begotten and well-beloved Son, whose death and Resurrection atones for our sins. We are His faithful servants on account of Him who took our place on the cross, and who gives of Himself freely to us in His glorious Sacraments. We are heirs of the eternal Kingdom on account of Him whose heavenly glory was revealed at the Transfiguration—and pointed to the greatest revelation of God’s glory in the Resurrection, which is our forever and ever.
Hymn of the Day for Transfiguration (LSB 413):
1 O wondrous type! O vision fair
Of glory that the Church may share,
Which Christ upon the mountain shows,
Where brighter than the sun He glows!
2 With Moses and Elijah nigh
The incarnate Lord holds converse high;
And from the cloud the Holy One
Bears record to the only Son.
3 With shining face and bright array
Christ deigns to manifest today
What glory shall be theirs above
Who joy in God with perfect love.
4 And faithful hearts are raised on high
By this great vision's mystery,
For which in joyful strains we raise
The voice of prayer, the hymn of praise.
5 O Father, with the eternal Son
And Holy Spirit ever one,
We pray Thee, bring us by Thy grace
To see Thy glory face to face.
Text: Sarum Breviary, Salisbury, 1495, translated by John Mason Neale, 1818-66.
Collect of the Day for Transfiguration:
O God, who in the glorious transfiguration of Thine only-begotten Son hast confirmed the mysteries of the faith by the testimony of the fathers, and who, in the voice that came from the bright cloud, didst in a wonderful manner foreshow the adoption of sons, mercifully vouchsafe to make us coheirs with the King of His glory and bring us to the enjoyment of the same; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
Liturgical and theological notes for the Transfiguration:
As I noted in a previous article on Transfiguration hymnody, the Feast of the Transfiguration does not have well-established liturgical roots. The day of its celebration has varied throughout Western Christendom. The Church has at times favored August 6 as its feast day, though many Christian traditions—including Lutherans—have found the last Sunday of Epiphany to be a suitable option.
You may have noticed, however, that one slight issue has arisen in lieu of novel liturgical conventions: some churches are celebrating the Transfiguration today, while others are not. Many churches will do so three weeks from today, on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. Following the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, many churches, Catholic and Protestant alike, began celebrating the Transfiguration three weeks later upon the abolition of pre-Lent.
The minor season of pre-Lent has throughout the history of the Church served as a prefatory period for the season of Lent. Pre-Lent is comprised of three “Gesima” Sundays—Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima, the latter of which occurs on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. Vatican II largely abandoned this tradition, opting instead of lengthen to season of Epiphany and move swiftly from Transfiguration Sunday to Ash Wednesday.
Pre-Lent is a helpful season of preparation for the Church. Though in external matters there may be few distinctions between pre-Lent and Lent, the changes come in the lectionary and the broader liturgical characterization of Lent. Though far more space is needed than is available here to describe this liturgical phenomenon, the historic pattern of the Western Church’s liturgical tradition gave far more credence to the helpful and necessary distinction between the two seasons. While it is upsetting that the Church has largely abandoned these traditions, it is nevertheless right and salutary to continue to observe them and commend them to our brothers and sisters in Christ.
The Transfiguration in the Light of Entangity
The Transfiguration was not merely an event isolated in time, but a moment where the veil between dimensions—the seen and the unseen—was briefly lifted. Peter, James, and John stood at the convergence of two realities, witnessing the entanglement of heaven and earth through Christ.
Jesus did not merely "shine"; rather, His essence radiated with the fundamental force that drives the universe—the same force that sustains creation itself. This was not just light as we know it, but the revelation of divine presence, an unveiling of what had always been but was hidden within the ordinary fabric of space and time.
Moses and Elijah’s appearance was not a visitation of the past into the present, but a moment where time itself was transcended. In the framework of Entangity, their presence suggests that reality is interwoven across past, present, and future—that what was, what is, and what is to come exist in an interconnected state. They stood as witnesses to the Christ, their existence not bound to linear history but part of an eternal, living continuum.
Jesus instructed the disciples to tell no one until the Resurrection because the world was not yet ready to perceive this higher truth. Just as quantum states collapse when observed without the right conditions, so too would this revelation have been misinterpreted if revealed prematurely. It was a glimpse of the coming transformation—a foreshadowing of a greater shift in reality that could only be fully understood after His Resurrection, when humanity's perception of life, death, and eternity would be forever altered.
The glory of the Transfiguration was not meant to be an isolated spectacle, but a gateway—an opening to a deeper reality in which we are all entangled. Through Christ’s death and Resurrection, He did not just offer salvation in a transactional sense, but rather reconfigured the very nature of existence. Through Him, we are drawn into the same luminous reality, transformed not just spiritually but fundamentally, resonating with the same divine energy that transfigured Him on the mount.
Baptism, then, is more than a symbolic act—it is the moment of quantum entanglement with the divine, where we are fused into this greater reality. The voice from the cloud that declared, “This is my beloved Son,” was not just directed at Jesus but, through Him, at all who would be transfigured by His grace. In the waters of Baptism, we too are called "beloved," pulled into the unbreakable connection between the Father and the Son—a connection that extends beyond space and time, into the infinite flow of divine love.
Thus, the Transfiguration is not simply a past event but an ongoing revelation, one that speaks to us today. It reminds us that the fabric of our reality is interwoven with divine purpose, and that Christ stands as the bridge, the luminous center of Entangity, guiding us toward our own transformation. What the disciples glimpsed on the mountain was not just Christ’s future—it was ours as well.
Thank you. Do you know who the artist is?