It was for the benefit of the disciples—something they needed if they were to continue to make progress on their spiritual journey. It is something we need if we are to grow spiritually.
The story of Jesus’s transfiguration on the mountain is told by all three of the synoptic gospel writers. Although they each relate the same facts, each told the story with a different focus and emphasis. In the gospel of Mark, the focus is on the disciples. The way Mark related it, Jesus’s transfiguration was for their benefit.
Mark tied two experiences together—what we call “the great confession” at Caesarea Philippi and Jesus’s transfiguration on the mountain. The link is seen in the reference “six days later” (Mark 9:2).
The experience at Caesarea Philippi (Mark 8:27-30) reflected progress in the disciples’ understanding of who Jesus was. In the first half of the gospel, the disciples did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah. They struggled to understand what he taught. Using the imagery of the blind man whose healing required a second touch (Mark 8:22-26), they were blind. At Caesarea Philippi, for the first time they said out loud what they had begun to whisper behind Jesus’s back: “You are the Messiah” (Mark 8:29). Again, using the imagery of the blind man, the disciples could now see. They recognized that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah. The problem was, they—like the blind man after the first touch—could see, but not clearly.
Their failure to see clearly is reflected in what happened after they acknowledged to Jesus that they knew he was the Messiah.
The gospel writer indicated that Jesus sought to build on their understanding. Now that they knew he was the Messiah, Jesus then began to teach them what being the Messiah entailed. “Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again” (Mark 8:31). Jesus sought to teach them that the Messiah was also the Suffering Servant described in Isaiah 52:13-53:12. (Jesus was the first person in Jewish history to put these two figures together.)
Of course, the disciples did not think of the Messiah in terms of the Suffering Servant. They thought of the Messiah as a warrior-king like David—one who would defeat their enemies and reestablish the nation as a leading world power. Naturally, they rejected what Jesus tried to teach them. “Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him” (Mark 8:32).
This interchange reflects a critical issue in the disciples’ growth—an issue we all encounter over and over again in our spiritual journey. How we resolve this issue determines whether we continue to make progress spiritually or become spiritually stuck and stagnant.
The issue occurred when what Jesus taught contradicted what the disciples believed and how they thought. Jesus captured the issue in his response to Peter, “you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (Mark 8:33).
The disciples’ thinking reflected the world’s thinking—power used over, down against others for personal benefit, at the other’s expense. (Compare Mark 10:41-42.) Their thinking reflected the comparing and competing ways of the world (Mark 9:33-37). It was shaped by the self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit that permeates the world’s way of thinking (Mark 10:35-37).
In contrast, Jesus’s teachings reflected the ways of God—the ways of grace and forgiveness that views and values, accepts and embraces every person as a beloved child of God. In contrast to the self-serving, what’s-in-it-for-me spirit, Jesus taught his disciples to live out of a servant spirit (Mark 9:35), using their power to serve (Mark 10:43-45). His teachings reflected thinking shaped by the character of God, by the steadfast, faithful love of God, and by the servant ways of God.
The essence of the spiritual journey is captured in this interchange—moving beyond how the world trained us to think and live to thinking shaped by the character of God and the ways of God. This shift in how we think inevitably impacts what we think and believe. It is what the apostle Paul referred to as “the renewing of the mind” (Romans 12:2). It is how our lives are transformed into the likeness of Christ (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:22-24; Colossians 3:9-11). It is how we grow spiritually.
In order to embrace the teachings of Jesus, we must move beyond our resistance—resistance rooted in how the world trained us to think, in what the world trained us to believe. That’s where the transfiguration experience came in for the disciples.
Jesus took Peter, James, and John—his inner circle—with him on his mountain retreat. There “he was transfigured before them” (Mark 9:2b). They caught a glimpse of his glory in the spiritual realm—a glory greater than the glory they imagined for him as a conquering hero. The saw Moses and Elijah, representing the Law and the Prophets, i.e., the Hebrew Scriptures. Their presence suggested the teachings of the Hebrew Scripture supported what Jesus had taught them about the Messiah. They were enveloped in a cloud, indicating the presence of God. They heard a voice from the cloud (i.e., the voice of God) say, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him” (Mark 9:7).
The first part of what they heard affirmed their understanding about Jesus being the Messiah. It was a line from Psalm 2, the coronation psalm that was sung whenever a new king was crowned in the nation. This line indicated their understanding that Jesus was the Messiah was on target.
The affirmation was followed by a command: “Listen to him.” The command confronted their resistance to what Jesus taught them about the Messiah. It called them beyond their resistance. It called them to be willing to hear what Jesus was saying. It called them to learn from him. It called them beyond how the world had trained them to think and what the world had taught them to believe so they could embrace a new, different way of thinking—a way of thinking shaped by the character of God and the ways of God. As long as they continued to cling to how the world trained them to think and to what the world taught them to believe, they would remain seeing, but not clearly. They would only see clearly when they embraced what Jesus taught.
Like the disciples, our spiritual journey involves moving beyond how the world trained us to think and what the world taught us to believe. It involves recognizing, learning, and embracing the ways of God Jesus taught. It involves learning a different way of thinking—one shaped by the character of God and the ways of God.
Progress on our spiritual journey can only happen as we move beyond our resistance to what Jesus taught. Our resistance is an indicator that we are clinging to our old ways of thinking—to how the world trained us to think, to what the world taught us to believe. Such resistance blocks our spiritual progress, keeping us stuck in old thinking and stagnant in our spiritual life.
The experience of Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration once again invites us to recognize and relinquish our resistance to what Jesus taught. It invites us to embrace a teachable spirit so that we might continue to make progress on our spiritual journey.
Which raises the question: about what might God
being saying to us “Listen to him!”?
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