Transfiguring the Transfiguration, Part 1

He saw it! The apostle Peter was one of three eyewitnesses to the transfiguration of Jesus Christ (Matthew 17:1-2, Mark 9:2-3, Luke 9:28-29). What an amazing experience of the splendor of the Lord! To behold the Lord bright and glowing, radiating the glory of God is an event he’d never forget.

And he never did.

Decades later, Peter recounted the incident in his second letter to Gentile Christians in the provinces of what’s now the country of Turkey. (I’m using the NASB20 version for most of the Bible quotes in this post.)

For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. 17For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such a declaration as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory: “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased”– 18and we ourselves heard this declaration made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. – 2 Peter 1:16-18

Unlike false teachers and heretics (people he confronts in chapter 2), Peter didn’t spin tall tales to promote the gospel. He just told the truth about what he’d witnessed.

But he’s not a reporter; he’s an apostle. An elder. Someone who cares about the spiritual growth of followers of Jesus.

So Peter declares the Transfiguration, but he also applies it in creative ways. We could say that Peter transfigures the Transfiguration.

He does this in three ways, so to deal with them adequately, we’re going to look at one per week for three weeks.

In today’s post, I want to explore the eschatology of the Transfiguration.

Eschatology?

It’s a term theologians use to refer to the study of the end times or “last things.” It covers topics like the future of Israel, final judgment and the defeat of evil, the return of Christ, and the new heavens and new earth.

Eschatology deals with personal matters, too, like death and one’s eternal state in blessing or turmoil.

At first glance, the passage above doesn’t have anything to do with the end times. Peter was describing an event that happened about 30 years before he wrote this second letter. It’s history, not future.

But he sets up the Transfiguration by referring to “the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (vs. 16). The Greek word for “power” is dunamis and it’s pretty common in the New Testament, occurring 119 times. (In the Greek Old Testament, dunamis occurs 383 times.)

Certainly, power characterized Christ’s ministry. Jesus healed the sick (Matthew 8:1-17), cast out demons (Mark 5:1-13), stilled a storm (Luke 8:22-25), and raised the dead (John 11:41-44). All four gospel writers affirm the power of God at work in and through Jesus Christ.

The second word is where things get interesting. “Coming” is parousia in Greek and according to the Blue Letter Bible website, it has the following meanings: presence, coming, arrival, advent. The word is not as common as dunamis; it occurs 24 times in the Greek New Testament (and not at all in the Greek Old Testament).

We usually associate this term with Christ’s second coming. Out of the 24 verses, 16 of them relate to the return of Jesus to this world (Matthew 24:3, 27, 37, 39; 1 Corinthians 15:23; 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2 Thessalonians 2:1, 8; James 5:7, 8; 2 Peter 3:4, 12; 1 John 2:28).

Most of the remaining verses (1 Corinthians 16:17; 2 Corinthians 7:6, 7; 10:10; Philippians 1:26; 2:12) deal with travel-related issues, with one exception. 2 Thessalonians 2:9 talks about a person Christians identify as the antichrist. Paul calls him the man of lawlessness as he prophesied about the arrival of this evil man on the world stage.

If two thirds of the verses concern the Second Coming, and 2 Peter 3 uses parousia in a discussion about Christ’s return, it makes sense to treat the word that way in 1:16.

Except Peter doesn’t.

He refers to the Transfiguration, not the Second Coming. One already happened; the other has yet to transpire.

It seems odd that Peter would phrase things this way, unless he had a purpose.

And I think he did.

The Transfiguration presages the Second Coming. It reveals ahead of time what will be released universally when Jesus comes back. The world–its current corruption and degradation–will end at Christ’s return to establish His kingdom on earth. The Lord will transform the whole world. Peter writes that “according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” (2 Peter 3:13). At the Second Coming, we’re going to get it!

What Peter, James, and John saw on the mountain was a display of divine glory that will go global. The Transfiguration is a portent of the future God intends for those who honor His Son. Jesus is God in human flesh, and for a moment, the apostles got a chance to view His brilliance. While that occasion was brief, it points to something permanent. 

Something that involves us.

And that’s what we’ll look at next week!