Matthew 16:28-17:3: Thy Kingdom Come

“Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter, James and John his brother and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.”

Christ, as he is God, is infinitely great and high above all. He is higher than the kings of the earth; for he is King of kings, and Lord of lords. He is higher than the heavens, and higher than the highest angels of heaven…He is so high, that he is infinitely above any need of us; above our reach, that we cannot be profitable to him; and above our conceptions, that we cannot comprehend him. Christ is sovereign Lord of all…His knowledge is without bound. His power is infinite, and none can resist Him. His riches are immense and inexhaustible. His majesty is infinitely awful. --Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) American Puritan theologian and preacher, from his sermon, “The Admirable Conjunction of Diverse Excellencies in Christ Jesus.”

What comes into our mind when we think about God is the most important thing about us.
-- A.W. Tozer, the opening sentence in his book, Knowledge Of The Holy

Near downtown Atlanta there is a road called West Paces Ferry Rd. This road is lined with the largest, most grandiose mansions in all of Atlanta. And the biggest mansion of them all along West Paces Ferry Road belongs to the governor (pronounced by locals as “GUUVna”) of Georgia. Behind a high wrought-iron fence and several security check points sits what is one of the more awe-inspiring sites in all of Atlanta. When we lived in the Atlanta area in the 1990s, I drove by the governor’s mansion a couple times each month.

One time while I was driving and gawking near the governor’s mansion, I believe the Holy Spirit spoke to me. The Spirit seemed to say, “Your view of God is about the same as your view of the governor of Georgia; that is as far as your faith and imagination can take you.” This was a rebuke. For my faith and my imagination could not grasp the glory and the power of the Creator of the Universe and the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. My view of God was, and still is, too small. Yet Scripture helps me and others like me to expand our too-small view of God.

That is the beauty of the Transfiguraton of Jesus as on display in the opening verses of Matthew 17. We have a picture from this passage of Jesus that is more than “meek and mild” or some Woodstock relic dancing through a meadow playing a flute with bunny rabbits at His feet and butterflies dancing around His head. Here we have Jesus in all His glory and power and wonder; simultaneously infinitely beautiful and infinitely terrible. “His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light,” Scripture tells us in Matthew 17:2.

And this is not the only place in Scripture where we see Jesus glorified. And each picture from Scripture of Jesus glorified shares some of the same characteristics. In Mark’s description of this same Transfiguration, we read, “Jesus garments became radiant and exceedingly white” (Mark 9:3). Luke’s version says, “His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming” (Luke 9:29). Paul had his encounter with the glorified Jesus on the road to Damascus. Even though that encounter happened with the noonday desert sun high over head, Paul spoke of a “very bright light [which] suddenly flashed from heaven all around me” (Acts 22:6). The apostle John’s vision of the glorified Jesus (Revelation 1:13-16) reads remarkably like Daniel’s vision of the “Ancient of Days” in Daniel 7:9. In John’s vision, just like Matthew, Mark, Luke and Paul’s vision, Jesus’s face “was like the sun shining in its strength” (Revelation 1:16).

These descriptions, both in their continuity and in their terrible glory, should stretch us. Do we pray to a Jesus that in our minds that looks like a buff, young Charlton Heston? Or do we pray to the “Son of Man coming in all His glory” (Matthew 16:27)? Have we given our very souls into the care of someone in the governor’s mansion in Georgia or to the risen Savior who is preparing a place for us in His Father’s mansion (John 14:2)? Is our vision of Jesus limited to a flannel board figurine from Sunday school days or do we envision the King of Kings and Lord of Lords leading a heavenly army (Revelation 19:11-16)? For the vast majority of Christians, our God is too small. No wonder we live our lives in fear, without taking risks, content in our comfort and dreaming dreams no bigger than our retirement to a beach villa.

Yet it does not end there. God, who was Transfigured before Paul, Peter, James and John, as well as Daniel, Isaiah and Moses, this same God pursues us. The Holy Awesome Righteous Lamb Who Was Slain limited Himself to a man’s body and died for our sins. Three days later He was alive again! And He invites us into fellowship with Him. Incredible! This same God with a face that outshines the sun, who sits in judgment over the rulers of earth, beckons us to draw near to Him. He invites us into His very throne room where we can find grace and mercy in our time of need (Hebrews 4:16). Because of this we cry out, “Abba! Father!”’ (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6)

Is there another God like our God? Why do we raise to idol status such trivial matters as politics, sports, security, even family, when the Great God of the Universe calls us to draw near? What an AWESOME God we serve! Hallelujah! He is WORTHY of our praise! He is WORTHY of all blessing, honor, glory and dominion! He is WORTHY of the praise of myriads of angels and every living thing! (Revelation 5:12-14). Hallelujah! Maranatha! Come, Son of Man in all Your glory! Come!