TOPIC:"The Shining Face of the Savior"
by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap
TEXT:Matthew 17:1-9
"And was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light" (Matthew 17:2)
The transfiguration of Jesus is recorded by all of the Gospel writers with the exception of John. Present at that occasion were three of His disciples - Peter, James and John. This was a special revelation of the divinity of Jesus to these disciples in all of His splendor, majesty and glory. Imagine it taking place at night 11,000 feet into the heavens at the summit of Mount Herman.
I tell you, it is good to be the possessor of some mountain top experience. Not to know life on the heights is to suffer an incomplete Christian life. We were made for the heights. We were made to walk with the stars. It is here that God's presence is marvelously made manifest to us. As someone has put it: "He walks in glory on the hills, and longs for men to join Him there." Or to put it in the words of Isaiah: "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up as wings like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31). I ask: Will you join Him? God gave these disciples a vision of the stars that would take them through the dark valleys that were to come.
What a bright and striking sight that must have been to those disciples. The word "transfigured" refers to a change in form or appearance as a caterpillar changes to a butterfly. Here it has reference to the supernatural change of Christ's body of humiliation to one of divine glory. Phillips in his rendering of verse 2 has it: "His whole appearance changed before their eyes."
For a short period of time Jesus shed Himself of His limitations and permitted these disciples to behold Him in the splendor of His body of glory. It was an overpowering and overwhelming experience for them. Never before had they seen the face and eyes of Jesus lit up with such beauty and splendor - a brilliant light, a dazzling white as glittering snow. Kenneth Wuest, famous Greek scholar, writes: "This is a picture of what Christ will be like in the Millennium when He reigns from the throne of David."
Let us now take a closer look at this marvelous event.
I.
Think, to begin with, of the BACKGROUND in which the face of Jesus shined so brilliantly. In Mark's account of the transfiguration he begins with this authoritative statement by Jesus: "And He said to them, 'I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before . . .