Not Distant, Not Relative, Not Hidden

The Transfiguration of our Lord confronts us with a basic and unavoidable question: Can God actually be known? Not speculated about, not felt toward, not vaguely sensed, but known.

Much of present-day spirituality answers that question with hesitation. God, we are told, is ultimately mysterious, perhaps even unknowable. Truth is said to be relative, especially about God and religious things. Religious claims are treated as personal expressions of opinion rather than statements about reality. God, if He exists at all, is distant, certainly not the sort of God who speaks clearly or acts decisively in history or Who is present with His people.

The Transfiguration stands directly against that spirit. On the holy mountain, Jesus does not become less accessible or more abstract. He becomes clearer. Brighter. More definite. And the Apostle Peter insists that this was not a subjective religious experience, but a real event, witnessed, heard, and testified.

That is why he writes: “We did not follow cleverly devised myths … but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” The Transfiguration reveals that Christ is knowable, objective, and present.