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The transfiguration was an important validation event in the ministry of Christ — not only serving to strengthen him, but also, quite importantly, to confirm and strengthen the disciples that Jesus’s way of the cross was stamped with the approval and desire of God. Why do you think the transfiguration occurred immediately after the confession at Ceasarea Philippi… and what principle may be found in the transfiguration which has practical relevance today?

I assert that the transfiguration occurred immediately after Peter’s confession of Jesus as Christ at Ceasarea Philippi because the mark of faith had been shown there. In Mark chapter 9, verse 1, Jesus says “Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.” after which, 6 days later, he is transfigured. The transfiguration then, clearly, is the appearance of the kingdom of God “with power.” I think that the transfiguration, then, followed Peter’s confession as visible confirmation of the admission by faith. This is why, I believe, that this section is sandwiched between chapter 8, where Jesus says “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation,” and the latter half of chapter 9, where the disciples fail to cast a demon out of a boy and Jesus says “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” What’s being contrasted here — and I believe throughout all of Mark — is the issue of faith. The confirmation of the power and glory of God’s kingdom is given only after the admission of faith.

In chapter 8, Jesus warns against the “the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod,” which is doubt,¹ doubt that spreads like leaven through flour.² After the transfiguration, when the father of the demon-possessed boy says “If you can” to Jesus, Jesus replies “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Both of these passages underscore the faith-versus-doubt paradigm, and emphasize that God does not — indeed will not — “give a sign” to those who don’t believe; quite to the contrary, he gives a sign to those who already believe.

This is, likewise, the message for today. We live in a society that, debatably more than ever, wants evidence to form a conclusion. We want to employ the “scientific method,” gather evidence through trial and error, and, more than anything, our culture wants tangible proof — qualifiable, quantifiable, verifiable “signs.” Christ says we will get none.³ The transfiguration, then, has relevance today in that it speaks to when we can anticipate a confirmation of our faith (a “sign”), when we can expect to “see the kingdom with power.” This will only ever happen after we believe. Faith is evidence of things unseen. Signs are not.

Footnotes

1 The Pharisees questioned Jesus’s “new” traditions and that he and his disciples did not observe the rituals of the day (Mark 7). Herod said that Jesus was John the Baptist, raised from the dead (Mark 6).

² Jesus also uses the metaphor of leaven and flour in Matthew to describe the kingdom of Heaven.

³ None, but his death, burial, and resurrection.