Sermonette: Why the Transfiguration?

Sermonette: Why the Transfiguration?

#282s
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 29-Mar-97; 22 minutes

listen:

description: (hide) Richard Ritenbaugh, reflecting on a question for which he had waited 20 years for the answer, focuses on the marvelous glimpse of God’s glory given to three of the disciple, namely the Transfiguration. Only a handful of people throughout the pages of the Bible had ever witnessed anything of this splendor or magnitude. This event occurred after Christ had determined the Pharisees didn’t have the capacity to understand the signs they were seeking because of their leavening (traditions substituting for the truth), and Jesus Christ’s determination to build His Church to accomplish His spiritual work. Jesus gives specific instructions to His disciples about how their responsibilities in the cause He has called them. The Pharisees were not expecting the Lamb of God, but expected the Messiah to be the Lion of Judah. They didn’t expect the Messiah to be God, and furthermore charged Jesus with blasphemy for declaring Himself the Son of God. The disciples were also steeped in the old time religion – Judaism. They had to unlearn the past before they could absorb God’s truth. Peter, James, and John had their focus adjusted by experiencing this overwhelming vision, and hearing God the Father’s approbation of Jesus Christ, declaring Him to be more important than the law (represented by Moses) and the prophets (represented by Elijah).No one is higher than Jesus Christ; John Peter, and James had to internalize this fact. Jesus is the way and the truth, accounted to more glory than Moses. The Creator has more glory than the created.