Like the first disciples, we sometimes have a hard time listening to God's plan for our lives.

“Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.  And he was transfigured before them…Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him...From a cloud came a voice, ‘This is my beloved Son.  Listen to him.’”

In the Transfiguration account, Jesus appeared with the law giver, Moses, and the great prophet, Elijah, of the Old Testament.  Moses and Elijah represented the best of the Old Testament.  But the clear message is that Jesus is more than a lawgiver and a prophet.  He is the Beloved Son. 

To this point, the disciples have not been able to grasp his predictions about his upcoming suffering, death, and resurrection.  They have not listened.  The voice of the Father to the disciples was to listen to Jesus.  They have balked at the future Jesus is insisting on. 

The Transfiguration account affirms Jesus as the Father’s beloved Son, and he is to be listened to.  The privilege of witnessing Jesus’ transfiguration was for the purpose of confirming Him as someone to whom they must listen.  They must open themselves to what Jesus is saying about His suffering and death.

Although at the center of this story will be a transfigured Jesus, it is more a story about what it means to be a disciple that it is a statement about the Jesus’ identity.  May we ponder the wisdom of this statement:  Say not, “I’ve been to the mountain.” Say, “I’ve returned to the earth and am walking toward Jerusalem.”

The real action of discipleship is not to be experienced on the mountaintop.  They were there but a brief moment.  The real commitment to discipleship happens on the journey to Jerusalem in which the disciples are to share in the suffering and the cross on the road to resurrection and new life.

The grace of the Transfiguration encourages the disciples in the struggle to allow Jesus to show them the way.  The disciples value the Transfiguration glimpse of the Lord’s risen glory of Jesus so that they can better understand the teaching of Jesus upon His upcoming suffering, death, and resurrection.

We too need to acknowledge that we have a hard time listening to the voice of God in life when the cross and suffering are involved.  As the first disciples, we sometimes balk at the plan of God for for lives.  Indeed, we need precious transfiguration moments in which God's love is revealed to us in ways that enable us to persevere in the journey when we are called upon to be disciples of the crucified Lord.