The CROSSroads: Personal Lessons from Mark's Gospel by Rev. Mitch Schultz

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:34:20utc

Lesson Thirty: THE CLEARING OF THE FOG (Mark 9:1-13)

"There he was transfigured before them." (vs.2)

"Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; but then we shall see face to face." (1Cor. 13:12) I have shared often with people that in the months when I felt the weight of suffering over my family situation that I have been able to know the reality of God's presence more than ever before. It is as though suffering lifts the veil, and the things of Christ become so much clearer. Even such momentary activities as sports and entertainment fade to the background, as that image of Jesus fills those spaces in my life. In short, God becomes more important to us when we suffer.

We come to that climactic moment at what is called the Mount of Transfiguration. Here Jesus gives to the disciples a rare glimpse of his glory. Philippians 2:7 informs us that when Jesus came to take on the form of a servant that he essentially laid aside his majesty. He made himself nothing, was found in the appearance of man, he humbled himself. This means that during those years on earth there was something about who he is eternally that was not evident. His glory was not visible to the naked eye. But here on top of that mountain that day "his divine majesty shone gloriously through his human nature." (New Commentary on the Whole Bible)

I don't believe Jesus changed who he was that day, or what he was like. The change was in his disciples. Jesus permitted them to see something otherwise denied to ordinary human beings, a glimpse of his divine glory. Many other scenes from the Bible tell us that viewing God's glory, or visibly seeing God for who he really is, was something humans would not be able to handle. Later in Revelation 1, John would fall as though dead when he saw Jesus in his glory. Peter would later refer to this place as the sacred mountain in 2 Peter 1:17, because here the glory of God was viewed as a token for what lay ahead in eternity.

A day will come when we will all have the privilege of seeing him as he truly is. In our own glorified bodies, free from sin and corruption, nothing will keep us from seeing the fullness of his glory. He will not have to hide his glory because of our sinfulness. While that moment on the mountain was a rare exception, what we will experience then will be the norm. We shall see him face to face.

The road to glory is not strewn with flowers. Jean de La Fontaine (1621–1695)