On Sunday, we celebrate the transfiguration of the Lord, a supernatural event recorded in Matthew 17, Mark 9, and Luke 9. In each of these gospel accounts, Jesus took Peter, James, and John with Him up a high mountain to pray. As He was praying, His face shone like the sun, His clothes became as bright as lightning, Moses and Elijah appeared with Him, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and God the Father spoke from the cloud to the disciples. The Lord’s transfiguration must have been a spectacular sight to behold!

Matthew and Mark employed the ancient Greek term "metamorphosis" (meaning "to change or transform") to depict Jesus’ transfiguration. This word appears only four times in the New Testament: in these two gospel accounts of the transfiguration and in Paul’s letters to the Romans and Corinthians (Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 3:18), with a key difference. The gospel writers used it to describe Jesus’ transfiguration, whereas Paul applied it to the Christian's transformation from worldly likeness to Christlikeness.

Why might someone embrace such a radical transformation? There are two main reasons. First, God’s explicit desire for us is to become like Christ, which requires radical transformation. Second, as we grow to resemble Jesus, we reveal God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will (Romans 8:29; 12:2).

The transfiguration of Jesus foreshadows his resurrection and our future resurrection (Revelation 20:4-6). Until that day, may we continue to be transformed into His image as we await a future that “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined” (1 Corinthians 2:9). Therefore, let us pray: O God, who before the passion of your only-begotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen