Luke 9:28-36
“Notice what you notice.” Luke’s account of the Transfiguration…
Posting from the plane – you’ll get it Tuesday morning. I’m always intrigued by what’s different in the Synoptic Gospel writers’ accounts. Two items come out in Luke’s account. First, Luke tells us that Jesus went up to the mountain to pray. The other writers simply have Jesus and His disciples going up to the mountain “by themselves”.
Second, Luke writes that the three disciples actually entered the cloud: As He was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. (v. 34) I was once at a conference on a high plateau at Petit Jean Mountain in northwest Arkansas. As we sat in a glass-enclosed conference room we watched a cloud coming in from the valley below, a huge cloud that completely enveloped the building in which we were sitting. It was a spectacular sight, to go from bright sunlight to zero visibility in seconds! Naturally, with our 20th century knowledge we had no fear as to what was happening. But I can imagine the fear the disciples had as they entered the cloud – and then that their fear was magnified (according to Matthew’s account) when the Father’s voice came from the cloud. The Father’s words were reassuring – they may have heard the same words at Jesus’ baptism, and finding Jesus alone certainly settled their souls. But for a few moments there…!!
Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him, the same three disciples that He took with Him when He went to Gethsemane – also to pray. And again, the three disciples were “heavy with sleep”. Strange that there are these parallels between Jesus’ Transfiguration, a major high point of Jesus’ life on earth and Gethsemane, a major low point… Intriguing.
Slava Bohu!