Luke 9:29

THE VISION ON THE MOUNT

‘As He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered.’

Luke 9:29

The vision of the Transfiguration was the joint experience of three men.

I. A loftier mount.—The Mount of the Transfiguration is a loftier mount than the Mount of the Beatitudes. The lowlier leads to the higher. If you hear Christ, and if you ask Him for those things which make man blessed, that will lead you up to a higher mount by and by. But for the most part the children of the Mount of Teaching never expect on this side of death to ascend to the Mount of Open Vision; they do not look for it. But Christ says that some shall.

II. Prayer and transfiguration.—If our Lord Jesus Christ went up into a mountain to pray, and as He prayed the fashion of His countenance was altered, are we not most forcibly taught the service and value of prayer in relation to our own transfiguration? Prayer is the elevation of the soul to God in a yearning and receptive condition. Prayer is actual communion with the Father of glory. And actual communion of the soul with the Father of glory changes the substance and the form of the soul.

III. Spiritual vision opened.—We are not to suppose that the glory in which Christ appeared was shed on Him at the time. The glory was inherent in Christ. He is the Lord of glory. And the spiritual vision of the disciples, for the time being, being opened, they saw the glory, that they might bear witness.

IV. The effect of the vision on the condition that the men were in caused them to fall on their faces. They became sore afraid, for the poor outer man is quite incapable of the glory of the inner world until he is changed into the same image. Divine powers are slumbering in our inner man; but the body of our flesh and the fleshly life bring a heavy stupor on the finer powers of our spiritual body, and for the most part the inner man in most men and women is often asleep, as good as dead, just as good as dead. But this can be in a moment reversed.

Illustrations

(1) ‘As the glory of the sun makes a new earth, so the glory of Christ makes a new man. And nothing is more freely given than Christ’s glory to every repenting and deserving soul. From the operating of His glory on the soul’s nature comes that mysterious wedding garment.’

(2) ‘ “To pray!” Luke’s is the Gospel of the Manhood. “Behold the Man” is its keynote. Hence it is full of prayer. It was “as He prayed that the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistering.” And there is a transfiguration for you and me. It has not to be sought on mountain-tops of rapturous experience, or in fervid assemblies under the spell of the masters of human speech. It is effected for us as it was for Him. A life of prayer, a life in which prayer is no mere morning and evening incident, but a life that is ever turned heavenward—such a life will carry a transfigured face, whether its lot be cast among the elegant surroundings of culture and wealth, or amid the trials and stress of busy labour and humble commonplace.’