The Transfiguration

Rubens.

Jesus took Peter, James, and John
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them,
and his clothes became dazzling white,
such as no fuller on earth could bleach them.
Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses,
and they were conversing with Jesus.
Then Peter said to Jesus in reply,
"Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents:
one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified.
Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them;
from the cloud came a voice,
"This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."
Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone
but Jesus alone with them.

As they were coming down from the mountain,
he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone,
except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
So they kept the matter to themselves,
questioning what rising from the dead meant.

--Mk 9: 2-10.

Bloch

As usual, today's gospel is a funny bit. The punch line is Peter's offer to build three tents, one for Jesus, one for Elijah, and one for Moses. Elijah and Moses; long dead. How could they need tents to shelter them from the elements? And he knows very well who they are—he cites them by name.

The gospel says he is confused; but what is he thinking?

Raphael

One would necessarily assume that a dead person is an entirely spiritual being, would one not? If there is survival after death, it is only the spirit, and not the body, that survives. We see the body rot. The natural assumption, therefore, on Peter's part, should have been that Moses and Elijah, if they have reappeared, have done so purely as apparitions—visions, wraiths, ghosts, that sort of thing.

The point of his offer, and perhaps of his confusion, must be a strong impression, nevertheless, that these men before him were not, in fact, apparitions. To all appearance, they must have been plainly there physically, solid flesh. The impression must have been so strong as to overcome the obvious assumption that they were disembodied spirits.

Rather like the man the apostles met, later, on the road to Emmaus, who actually ate with them, as an apparition could not.

Russian icon

The passage notes that Jesus himself, undeniably still in the flesh, was “transfigured.” In what way the gospel does not say, but his clothing became supernaturally white—a perfect white. Might it therefore be that Jesus here assumed his perfected body, as all our bodies will be perfected at the Resurrection. As the cosmic Christ, he was of course capable of doing this; and after his own resurrection from the tomb, he seems to have assumed just this transfigured, perfectged body. This body was able to eat, but could also pass through walls, or be in two places at one time.

But given that Jesus had been transfigured onto his post-resurrection body, what about Moses and Elijah? Might, they too have appeared in their perfected post-resurrection bodies, and so be genuinely physical?

This seems to be what the gospel suggests. But then, what are Moses and Elijah doing in their post-resurrection bodies before the resurrection? Jesus can do these things; he's God. But they are just men. Or, indeed, what are they doing popping up at all before the resurrection of Jesus? Isn't everyone supposed to be in Hell, or in Sheol, until Jesus harrows it, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, cancels the stain of original sin, and opens the gates of heaven?

Byzantine icon

It all has to do, I think, with the nature of eternity. Eternity is not, cannot be, an infinite extension of time. All real, as opposed to theoretical, extensions into infinity are logically impossible, as is demonstrated by the Kalam cosmological argument. So that is not what eternity is. But what it is seems perfectly obvious. It is a state of not being bound by time—in which time is perfected, and has no limits.

In our temporal, earthly, physical experience, we can move through time in only one direction, from the past through the present into the future. Isn't that an absurd limitation? It is as though we could only walk in one direction. Conceptually, then, eternity is a simple matter of being able instead to move at will from past to future or future to past. Or, indeed, to jump suddenly about, out of any necessary sequence. That would be a genuine eternity, but does not require the logical contradiction of an infinite extension in time.

This is how Jesus is able to assume at any time his post-resurrection body. This is how Moses and Elijah, too, can assume their post-resurrection bodies, before Jesus opens the gates of heaven, and before the Last Judgement.

Greek icon.

It explains what happened to the righteous who died before Jesus was crucified: the grace of his sacrifice effects the past as well as the future.

It explains a lot more that is otherwise puzzling in the Bible. This is why Jesus might say, “it is given to man once to die, and then the judgement.” There is no distinction between the particular judgement, that we each face at the moment of death, and the general judgement that comes at the end of time. At death, we enter eternity, and have immediate access to the end of time.

It explains how he could say, two thousand years ago, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” and that the Kingdom of Heaven shall appear on earth before all of his listeners, the present generation of his time, would pass away. This was no failed prophecy: it was the literal truth, and remains the literal truth for every generation that reads the Bible.

And it explains how Jesus could say on the cross to the good thief that he will join him that very evening in paradise, despite a prior engagement harrowing hell.