Week of Transfiguration
Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” Mark 9:2-3, 7
The first half of Mark’s Gospel shows the Jewish crowds grappling with an important question: “Who is Jesus?” They see Jesus cast out demons (1:25-27) and ask, “What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”
They see Him forgive sins (2:5-7) and wonder, “Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
He quiets storms (4:39-41), and they marvel, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!”Jesus restores sight and hearing (7:35-37), and the crowds are astonished. “He has done all things well. He makes both the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
The people of Israel wrestled with this question during Jesus’ three-year public ministry. Mark, in his inspired record, is trying to get his readers to ask that same question. “Who is this Jesus of Nazareth?” It was clear to many that Jesus was a great teacher. But Jesus is more than a great teacher. Jesus was a great miracle-worker, acknowledged even by extra-Biblical sources as “a doer of wonderful works.” (The Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus) But Jesus is more than a miracle-worker.
On the Mount of Transfiguration, God the Father spoke from heaven to answer this question once and for all, “This is My Beloved Son!” Our Savior-God is more than a moral teacher, more than a powerful prophet—He is God Himself. And how shall we respond to this vision of Jesus? “Hear Him!”
Swift the cloud of glory came:
God proclaiming in its thunderJesus as the Son by name! Nations,
cry aloud in wonder: Alleluia!Worship Supplement 719:3