Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John,
and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
Mountains had often been the places where God had revealed himself, especially to Moses (see Exodus 24:16), but also to Elijah (see First Kings 19:11-13). Both of those experiences were proceeded by dramatic weather. But this one was different.
For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them (see Hebrews 12:18-19).
On the one hand, perhaps because it brought to mind that context, Peter and the others were terrified. On the other, they didn't want it to stop. Peter wanted to make three tents so to prolong the encounter.
But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering (see Hebrews 12:22)
The veil between earth and heaven had been made thin so that the true reality that was always present in Jesus was able to be seen with human eyes. He was the ladder upon whom angels ascended and descended (see John 1:51). The heavenly Jerusalem was the city where God would eventually dwell together with mankind forever, and where every tear would be wiped away (see Revelation 21:1-4).
The glory cloud of God that had been present on Sinai, that had come to rest on the Ark of the Covenant, and that had overshadowed Mary was a sign that the dwelling of God had come among men. At the Transfiguration this union of heaven and earth was manifest, but had not yet been definitively accomplished. It had been foreshadowed in the Old Testament, begun through Mary in the incarnation, but was still waiting on the death and the resurrection of Jesus to finally remove the obstacle of human sinfulness and inaugurate the recreation of the human race in the person of Jesus himself. In our current age of the Church we await his second coming when he shall appear on the clouds of heaven and finally make all things new.
What was the purpose of the Transfiguration? There are many things we might say. But possibly the most important was that it demonstrated that Jesus himself was the definitive revelation of God in human form. Everything that had gone before, symbols indicating God's presence, and prophetic figures, all pointed toward him. Thus Moses and Elijah would now disappear leaving only Jesus himself. The only words spoken by the Father in the Gospels were to tell the disciples of Jesus to listen to him. This was apt, because Jesus was the word of the Father, expressing everything that the Father wanted to say.
In times past, God spoke in partial and various ways to our ancestors through the prophets;
in these last days, he spoke to us through a son, whom he made heir of all things and through whom he created the universe,
who is the refulgence of his glory,
the very imprint of his being,
and who sustains all things by his mighty word (see Hebrews 1:1-3).
This understanding was critical for Peter, James, and John. They were to have their faith tested and shaken. They were there on the mountain so that they could withstand also being present in the Garden of Gethsemane. And even that was not even to prevent them from running and from leaving Jesus alone, or even betraying him as Peter did. But it was certain that the Transfiguration was part of the reason why they were able to believe that even all of that, the darkness of the Passion, and their own lack of fidelity, it might not necessarily be the end of the story. If God was truly present in Jesus as he had revealed himself to be, and if he himself had taken into account in advance all that would happen and still revealed himself anyway, then he might not- no, could not, intend for their walk of faith to end in failure. Those whom he justified he would yet glorify (see Romans 8:30).
At a smaller scale than that of Tabor God reveals his glory to us in our lives in various ways. We are meant to treasure these revelations as grace for when we face darkness ourselves and are tempted to despair. The one who shines with the light of God has foreseen these things and is more than capable of bringing us at last to the heavenly city where he himself dwells forever.
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