Luke 9:28-36

The above passage was too long to include here, so I included a link for your reading pleasure. This passage is widely known as “The Transfiguration.” In this passage, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up on a mountain to pray, and he later transforms in front of them, showing him his real glory, with his face changing and his clothes becoming dazzling white (v. 28-29). This is such a great passage; here are some nuggets that I found really interesting.

First, this passage shows Jesus becoming his true and intimate self with a select few. This passage reiterates the practice of having an inner circle with whom you can be your truest self. Not everyone deserves or can handle us as we authentically are, and that’s okay. Here, Jesus shows us that having a trusted few with whom you can be fully known is quite alright.

Second, Jesus spent a lot of time with God before he revealed himself to his friends. And we know Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer because his guys were asleep by the time Jesus was ready to reveal his true self. True intimacy with the Father is necessary before we can achieve true intimacy with others. Jesus became his truest self while he was spending time with God in prayer (v.29). His face changed! Jesus’ most identifiable feature, the physical essence of who he was, was transformed when spending time with the Father. God gives us our identity. We can’t share who we are with others, even a select few, if we don’t know who we are for ourselves. I could write a whole entry on that point, but I digress. Intimacy with God must proceed true intimacy with others.

And intimacy with God was so important for Jesus because when he did finally reveal his truest self to Peter, James, and John, they almost couldn’t handle it. They saw Jesus as he truly was and Peter started talking out his head, and they all got super scared and mute (v. 33-36). In their defense, Jesus basically looked other-worldly at the time, so I get it. But had Jesus not grounded himself in his time with God, the reaction of his friends could have rocked him, made him question who he was, or what he was there to do–or he could have at least felt those feelings before reminding himself who he was. After all, these were his three closest friends, hand-picked by him, to see him in the most intimate way. And they didn’t understand him or get him, when he revealed who he really was. That whole scene would have left anyone else feeling abandoned and completely misunderstood.

But not Jesus. Because he was intimate with God. He had spent time with the Father, and he was sure of who he was and what he came to do. And because of that God-intimacy, Jesus was able to show himself to his closest people and be okay with them not understanding him fully–because God did.

Intimacy with God grounds us and helps us walk out this life with confidence, knowing that the God who made heaven and earth made us, too. And we are good in his sight.