Epiphany Part 4

Epiphany Part 4 -- "Transfigured"

Mark 9:2-32

There is a good deal of imagery going on in this passage. There is a symbolic image of Moses and Elijah being "present" because of the idea of the law being among them. This points to Christ's redemptive aspect. They both prophesied him and so it is of great importance that they were here in the transfiguration passage. 

The idea of the mountain and clouds were not by accident. It has always been through Scripture an image of God being present when mountains are mentioned. Abraham with his sacrifice of his son, Moses and the law, Elijah...with each there was a mountain and the presence of God. 

Clouds are also a picture of the coming of Christ and His dominion. Throughout Scripture we find the image of clouds with the image of God. 

We are already living in the age to come as we live with Christ. This is visited in God's people, we do live in this present wicked age, but we are to walk as one who lives in the times to come. We are to walk in the age of Christ, we are to be like Tolkien's character Legolas, who is said to have walked through two realms. 

Honor and glory are the words used to described the enthronement of Christ when God says "This is my beloved Son". This is a reference to the previous passage in Psalm 2:7 when it speaks of God in the image of Father and Son. The King has come. 

Our salvation is complete. Christ calls for a difficult life. Christ did not come to co-exist. He came to bring life to those who would believe. He came to bring judgement to those who would not believe. Christ was a man who could relate to us, he remained a man, as the son of man, to be a corporeal image to us as humans. Matter matters.

"Christianity does not claim to convey merely religious truth, but truth about all reality. This vision of reality is radically different from a secularist vision that wants Christianity to scuttle into the corner of the hearth by the coal shovel conveniently out of the way of anything but private religious concerns." -D.A. Carson