The Golden Goodness of the Transfiguration
Last Sunday we read about The Transfiguration, from Matthew 17:1-9:
After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus…a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
The glorious vision that the disciples received on the mountaintop would always remain with them, sustaining them through the awful events of Holy Week and Good Friday, when their Messiah died on the cross.
C.S. Lewis helps us understand how a vision of Christ’s glory can transform and sustain us throughout our lives. In The Magician’s Nephew, Lewis writes about a wild and good lion, Aslan, who is a Christ figure. In this story, two children have ventured into the magical world of Narnia. Before they return to their own world, Polly and Digory look up into Aslan’s face. Here we read:
The face seemed to be a sea of tossing gold in which they were floating, and
such a sweetness and power rolled about them and over them and entered in
to them that they felt they had never really been happy or wise or
good, or even alive and awake, before. And the memory of that
moment stayed with them always, so that as long as they both lived…the
thought of all that GOLDEN GOODNESS, and the feeling that it was still there,
quite close, just round some corner or just behind some door, would come back and make them sure, deep down inside, that all was well.
This vision of Aslan’s glory transformed the children—they were so much more alive, wise, and happy than ever before. This vision continued to assure the children in the days to come.
God wants to do the same for us today. God wants us to behold Christ here and now, and to look forward to his return. Then we, too, will be transformed by God’s love:
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!...Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:1, 2).
May it be so for me and for you! Go in peace to love and serve the Lord!
