NOTES for Luk 9:28-36

In the account of the Transfiguration, the themes of Christ's glory and His sufferings merge into one. On the mountain He speaks with the prophets about His "exodus" - about Golgotha. Coming down from the mountain, Jesus foretells to the disciples what awaits Him in Jerusalem.

It is interesting that the disciples prove unable either to see the glory of the transfigured Jesus or to hear His words about the Cross. These things are connected with each other. This can be judged from one's own experience: the less we see the presence of the Lord in our life, the less we know what glory is, the worse we understand words about the cross. The cross appears to us as certain everyday troubles of ours, not as the path of faith and self-denial.

This new understanding of the cross can be acquired only by seeing the Glory, the living presence of God - openly, as the apostle Paul did, or hiddenly, through recognizing His action in the circumstances of life.