Luke 9.28-36 Study Guide

The Glory of Jesus

An Orderly Account:

Encountering Jesus in the Gospel of Luke

Luke 9:28-36

The Text

Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray…

Introduction:

Apart from Easter morning itself, the Transfiguration is the pinnacle moment of the gospels.

Throughout Luke’s gospel we’ve seen moments when Jesus’ glory breaks through: miracles and healings. And, if the miracles are like steam vents opening up through the earth’s crust, then the Transfiguration is a volcanic eruption. It has the power to reshape and transform your entire life.

So, what does the Transfiguration teach us about Jesus?

1. Who He Is
2. What He Came to Do
3. How We Receive It

1. Who He Is

More than almost any miracle, the Transfiguration tells us who Jesus is. And you really see this in three places: the voice from heaven, in relation to Moses and Elijah, and in Jesus’ own appearance.

First, look at verse 35:

And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One

Let’s just say, it doesn’t get much clearer than that. The Father identifies Jesus Christ as his Son, his Chosen One. That’s pretty clear.

But we also see who Jesus is in relation to the two men who appear next to him: Moses and Elijah. Now, if you know anything about the Hebrew Scriptures, you know that Moses and Elijah feature prominently.

Moses led Israel out of Egypt and to the borders of Canaan. He also authored of the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah, or the Law.

After the Law, in the Hebrew Scriptures, came the Prophets. And there were loads of prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, but the most famous Old Testament prophet was Elijah. People regarded Elijah as the most effective, most successful, most powerful prophet.

And, essentially, these two men appear as representatives of all God’s previous revelation. The “Law and the Prophets” actually serves as a shorthand to refer to all the promises, all the stories, all the foreshadowing of the Old Testament.

Here is Moses, the great lawgiver, and Elijah representing the prophets, and here is Jesus, head and shoulders above them both. What’s Luke saying: Jesus is not just another prophet pointing to God. He is the one to whom all of the law and the prophets point. He is not here to merely continue their ministry, he has come to fulfill it.

We also learn who Jesus is from his own appearance. He goes up the mountain to pray, a cloud descends, God speaks from heaven, and his face radiates with light.

Now, in Exodus 33 & 34 something very similar happens. Moses goes up a mountain to pray, a cloud descends, God speaks from heaven… and Moses asks God, “Show me your glory.” And God says, “Moses, you cannot see my face, for man shall not look at me and live. But,” says God, “I will hide you in the cleft of a rock and as my glory passes by, I’ll shield you, and then you can see my back, but not my face.” And after this happened, he came down the mountain, and his face shone because he had talked to God.

You see what’s happening here? It’s almost the same story, but with one fundamental difference. When Moses went up the mountain the light of God shone upon him. But when Jesus is on the mountain Luke tells us the light of God shone from him. To put it another way, Moses’ face reflected the light, but Jesus face produced and projected the light.

If you go outside at night and look at the Moon, you aren’t seeing moonlight. You’re only seeing reflected Sunlight. That was Moses. Moses reflected glory. But when you see the unveiled glory of Jesus, you’re staring directly into the noonday Sun.

This text shows Jesus Christ emboides the dazzling beauty of the glorious God.

You know, when you and I try to appear beautiful, what do we do? We adjust the light. You ladies know that’s all makeup really does. It brightens or it darkens features. Anyone who is on video calls knows that lighting makes a difference. You have to have the right temperature light, at the right angle, at the right intensity to appear beautiful.

But, when Jesus reveals his own beauty, it isn’t light that shines on Jesus—it’s light that streams from him. In other words—he doesn’t just appear beautiful—he is beauty beyond bearing—why? Because all of the fullness of deity dwells in him bodily. (Col. 2:9)

That’s who he is.

2. What He Came to Do

Luke’s account of the Transfiguration contains several details that neither Matthew nor Mark tell us in their own accounts.

For instance, while Matthew and Mark both tell us they went up on a mountain. Only Luke tells us they went up the mountain in order to pray. (9:28)

Luke alone tells us that when the transfiguration took place, the disciples (Peter, James & John) had actually fallen asleep.

Both Matthew and Mark record that Moses and Elijah appeared, and they talked with Jesus, but only Luke tells us what they talked about.

³⁰ And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, ³¹ who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

Now, you can’t see it in the English, but there’s a Greek wordplay happening. What Luke writes is this:

“two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his exodus.”

When the original audience of Luke’s gospel read that line, they instantly would have understood the connection being made. The word itself means “departure,” but because he’s talking to Moses, we understand what he’s really alluding to: Jesus explains his crucifixion, connecting it to the Old Testament deliverance of God’s people.

Pharaoh enslaved the children of Israel. He was their master and forced them to do his bidding—every single day, with no choice and no escape. They had no freedom. Pharaoh owned their time, their strength, their lives. And so, God sent Moses to deliver them out of their bondage to Pharaoh.

When Moses and Elijah speak with Jesus about his exodus—they are pointing to a greater enslavement and a greater deliverance.

You and I were made to serve God; to know him and delight serving him. But instead of serving the true God, all of us have said in our hearts, “I will be my own master.” But instead becoming our own masters, we’ve actually made ourselves slaves to something else: sin.

You see, sin isn’t just mistakes we occasionally make. It’s a power that rules us. Jesus said, “Everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34)

• We all know times when we knew the right thing to do yet we chose to give in to anger, lust, greed, or anxiety anyway.

• We say, “Never again,” yet the patterns of bitterness & selfishness continue to draw us back in.

• You know, if I say, “You’re a sinner,” you may fight against that label. But deep down, no matter how many resolutions we make, no matter how much effort we exert, we all feel the gravity of sin pulling us down.

Sin is a master that owns us, and left to ourselves, that slavery ends in death and ultimate separation from God.

The message of the Bible is this: we’re all enslaved—not to Pharaoh—but to a much worse master—sin and death. But because God is merciful, he sent a greater deliverer than Moses: he sent his only Son, Jesus Christ.

And he lived as we should have lived. As a man, he served God fully and perfectly. His heavenly Father was his master. He never once sinned. He never once made himself his own master. And yet, at the cross, he received the ultimate separation from sin that we deserved: death.

Now, if Jesus Christ had no sin, whose sin was he dying for? Ours.

You see, the Transfiguration and Calvary stand as photonegatives of each other.

• On the mount of transfiguration Jesus two prophets surround Jesus. On the mount of crucifixion he is surrounded by two thieves.

• On the mount of transfiguration, Jesus’ garments radiate with glory. On the mount of crucifixion soldiers stripped him naked.

• On the mount of transfiguration, light pierces darkness. At the crucifixion the darkness swallows up the light in divine judgment.

• At the transfiguration, Jesus prays and the Father answers. But at Calvary, Jesus cries out to God, but heaven does not answer.

Do you see? He received what we deserved, so that we can receive the glory and the beauty of God.

What does the Transfiguration reveal? What does the cross and Easter accomplish? What did Jesus come to do? He came to deliver his people from their sins, by becoming sin for them and bearing the punishment they deserved.

3. How Can We Receive It?

One of the reasons we know the gospel narratives are not fabrications is because the gospel writers never airbrush the mistakes of Jesus’ followers.

Throughout the gospels, the disciples almost always misunderstand Jesus. They forget what he tells them to remember. They don’t do what he asks, and they do what he tells them not to do.

And frankly, if you were fabricating a story to get people to follow you, you’d never portray yourself the way the gospels portray the disciples. The same is true here.

Luke portrays the disciples as weak and clueless.

First, they’re supposed to be awake with Jesus to pray. That’s why they went up the mountain. But in verse 32, Luke says, “Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep,” – as the transfiguration happened!

Now, don’t miss this—they get the chance to see the unveiling of the glory of the eternal Son of God—but they almost missed it because they were dozy. Jesus has to turn on the light of his glory to wake them up. They’re weak. Their minds and bodies give out.

But not only are they weak (as we all are), they’re clueless. They don’t even understand that they should keep their mouths closed and let Jesus do the talking.

In verse 33, Peter tries to run the show: “Master, it is good that we’re here. Let’s make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” And Luke adds this editorial comment: “for he did not know what he was saying. At that moment a voice from heaven shouts, “This is my Son, my Chosen one, listen to him!”

This is the polite way of translating: “Would you shut up for a minute and let the Son of God talk?” Walter Liefield writes that God is correcting the human tendency to substitute our own opinion for divine revelation. The disciples didn’t earn this moment. They didn’t understand it. They couldn’t even stay awake for it.

They received the glory of Jesus by grace alone. Unless Jesus wakes them up, they stay in the darkness and miss the light. Unless he explains himself to them, they misunderstand everything.

And so will we. We’re no different than the disciples.

We do not receive the glory of Jesus because we’re spiritually sharp, morally strong, or wide awake. The good news of Easter declares that the love of God, the deliverance from sin and death is ours, not by right, but by sheer grace.

Your exodus does not depend on how much you come to church, how well you perform, or how perfect your theology is. It depends on the Son of God, his Chosen one. Just listen to him. Trust the one who woke the disciples. He can wake you too. Trust the one who walked through death, who rose on the third day, and leads the way into glory.