A repetition of the Divine approval.
The Transfiguration does not stand alone in our Lord's life. There are two other scenes with which it may be compared. "The one is the descent of the Holy Ghost on him, under the symbol of a brooding dove, after his baptism." The other is the sound as of thunder, and the responding voice of the Father, saying of his Father-Name, "I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." And it should be noticed that the first direct manifestation of God to Christ—at his baptism—occurred as the beginning of his active mission as a Teacher. The second—at the Transfiguration—occurred as the starting of Christ on the suffering portion of his mission. And the third—the thunder voice—as a precise assurance and encouragement when our Lord was entering upon his Passion.
I. THE KEYNOTE OF CHRIST'S LIFE WAS DOING HIS FATHER'S WILL. See his words at twelve years of age. He would not only do his Father's will, but do it in the Father's way; and bear it, if it involved bearing. Our Lord's meat and drink were to do the will of his Father.
II. THE JOY OF CHRIST'S LIFE WAS TO RECEIVE SIGNS OF THE DIVINE APPROVAL. We can hardly imagine how delightful to the obedient Son must have been these voices out of heaven. And never was the voice more strengthening than when our Lord was proposing to himself a full surrender to the Father's will, which involved humiliation, suffering, seeming failure, and death. Christ purposed to "accomplish a decease." The term is a striking and suggestive one. Christ's death was something he did, "accomplished;" it was not merely something he suffered. His own will was in it. He laid down his life. He gave himself for us. He offered in sacrifice his obedient Sonship. That saves us. That Moses and Elias approve. That God the Father approves. The Transfiguration was chiefly intended for our Lord himself. "It was a great gift of his Father, an acknowledgment of his faithfulness up to this point, and a preparation for what lay before him." "To Jesus the recognition of his Father's voice must have been a repetition of the transcendant joy of the baptismal greeting. Must we not say that for the moment all else was forgotten, or in that absorbed; that
"He heard not, saw not, felt not aught beside,
Through the wide worlds of pleasure and of pain,
Save the full flowing and the ample tide
Of that celestial strain"?
R.T.