You Look Marvelous!

Let’s take a moment to describe the human being in broad, sweeping terms. We are vertebrates: mammals that when healthy and unimpaired walk upright on two legs. We speak philosophically of ourselves as rational creatures that, concerning human nature possess physical bodies, rational minds, and souls. Perhaps we could say generally a person looks most impressive and comely when healthy, and ennobled by a high purpose.

Picture an Olympic athlete standing on the gold medal stand. A healthy deserved pride and gratitude is swirling within her or him. In such athletes, we see human magnificence there, as they joyfully receive their symbolic reward. Think of a couple at their wedding. The presider pronounces them married, they turn, and are introduced. They look amazing, and it is not just raiment and makeup. Their thoughts and emotions show in their expression. The moment affects their countenance, making them appear radiant, glorious.

The First Sunday after the Epiphany always presents us with Jesus standing with John the Baptist and with many looking on. He is soaked with the waters of the Jordan River. There is a visual of the Spirit coming upon him, and the audible sound of the voice of the Father telling him, “You are my beloved Son, in you I am well-pleased.”

On the Last Sunday after the Epiphany, we are presented with Jesus on a high mountain. Peter, James, and John are there, but also, mysteriously, the great prophets of Hebrew salvation history, Moses and Elijah. Moses had liberated the Hebrew people of God from Egyptian enslavement fourteen hundred years earlier. Elijah delivered Israel from the wicked King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom and from the corruption of Baal worship eight hundred years before. Yet here were these personages representing the Law and the Prophets standing with them, present and visible.  So, we see Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, John, and of course, Jesus on the mountain.

With all there is to see, it is Jesus we focus upon. Here is the Savior, shining more gloriously than a gold medal athlete, more radiant than the couple just married. He is fully human as they are, but there is something else manifested here. He is not just a human rabbi, sweaty and smelly from the climb up the mountain. The text in Mark 9:2-3 says, “And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. Another Gospel adds, “…and his face shone like the sun…” (Matthew 17:2)

Then after the vision of brilliance, a cloud forms and overshadows them. The voice of the Father announces aloud from within the cloud, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” (Mark 9:7) The Father’s voice had spoken to Jesus at his baptism announcing to him to be His Son, announcing His pleasure in him. Now, on the mountain, the Father addresses the witnesses, saying this is His Son and they are to listen to him. These are both Trinitarian visions. The Father’s voice speaking to the Son. The Spirit is the Person of the Trinity descending on Jesus like a dove at the Baptism and shining as glory and splendor from his garments and his face, at the Transfiguration. You can see why these two scenes are selected to bless us at the beginning and the end of the “Epiphany Season.” They manifest the divinity of Jesus.

On the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus is standing with persons of that day, the three fishermen. Eternity itself is manifesting, given that he is standing with two from centuries earlier. The uncreated light of divinity is on display with the shining brilliance of Jesus’ divine nature miraculously and momentarily shining, visible to the disciples. Jesus who is truly human is revealed also to be truly divine.

Now, let’s think about you. No matter how you view yourself, I am telling you that you are beautiful. You have a body because you are a beloved creature of God. For the same reason, you have a reasoning mind; you are created in the image of the Creator. By your creation, you also have a human soul designed to receive the very Spirit of God. I am telling you, you are beautiful.  You are wonderfully created, yet more wonderfully redeemed and restored to a state of grace by the Son of God. To be glorious, you do not have to be in the moment of celebration, like at a wedding standing before your guests. You do not have to be an Olympic athlete in the moment of your highest honor to be spectacular.

You are ennobled, esteemed, and magnificent by who made and saved you. You are simply a human being, but the human being, Jesus, was the beloved, eternal Son of the Father, saturated in the Holy Spirit. Because of God’s love and saving work for you, you are being transformed into the very likeness of Christ in the steady process called sanctification. The Orthodox Church has always held up the Transfiguration reality in the life of Jesus as the sign to us all, that we are invited into the company of the holy women and holy men through the ages. You are brought into the company of the Holy Trinity. By the saving embrace of Jesus the Transfigured One, the uncreated light of God is shining upon you, defying you, bringing you steadily into perfect union with the holy energies of God. I am saying, my friend, you are radiant, simply divine.