Jesus' Morph Pt3

The Mountain Top Experiences For Jesus 
(Mountain Top Experiences- A Glimpse of Christ's Glory Part 3)
Matthew 17.1-13, Mark 9.2-13, Luke 9.28-36b
Click Here for combined reading of the 3 evangelists
This mountain top experience happened for Jesus and His disciples about seven days after Peter's great declaration of Jesus as "the Christ the Son of the living God" Jesus took the 3 disciples to a high mountain to pray. Peter, James & John, all the future pillars of the church and the inner group of the 12 disciples, James & John priests from a priestly family and by the way cousins of Jesus.
Now getting to the story here,  we may ask which "high" mountain was it? According to many of the commentators it was most probably Mt. Hermon, being 9400 metres high and snow capped.



Jesus was transformed in prayer
Take note here, that our Lord was not changed in respect of his body while he was simply walking the mountain, but when he got upon the mount and was actively engaged in prayer Luke 9.29. This is a lesson for us, that this is the way of change, this is the way of transformation in our lives and "the time when we are more particularly to expect the influences of God's Spirit, is, when we are engaged in prayer." (George Whitefield Sermon 30 Christ's Transfiguration). How often have we been transformed in prayer. There is no transformation in our Christian life without prayer. No change to Christ's likeness without it, no change unless we have that praying relationship with our Father in Heaven. 
 Whitefield was a man of prayer and said, "If Christ did thus, who had few wants of his own to be supplied, and nothing to confess and lament over; if Christ was such a lover of prayer, surely, you and I, who have so many wants to be supplied, so many corruptions to mourn over; you and I should spend much time in prayer. I do not say that you are to lock yourselves up in your closets, and not mind your shops or farms, or worldly business; I only say, that you should take care to husband all your time: and if you are God's children, you will frequently retire from the world, and seek a visit from your God. Was the Lord Jesus transformed or transfigured, while he was praying? Learn hence, to be much in spiritual prayer. The way to have the soul transformed, changed into, and make like unto God, is frequently to converse with God. We say, a man is as his company. Persons by conversing together, frequently catch each others tempers: and if you have a mind to imbibe the divine temper, pray much." (George Whitefield Sermon 30 Christ's Transfiguration)
Prayer is and should ever be the life-blood of a Christian. Jesus is our supreme example here as one who was totally dependent on prayer and the Father. As we learn of Christ we become more like Him and reflect our glory in our lives also (2 Corinthians 3.18).


Jesus' earthly body was morphed to a glorious Heavenly body

http://www.wayfaring.info/2009/06/08/metamorphosis-of-butterflies/

Luke 9:29 says that "when He was praying" He was morphed, he was changed and a metamorphosis took place [Greek metamorphoow] (c.f. Romans 12.1, 2 Corinthians 3.18). His manhood was transformed to a glorious heavenly body. His face shone, similarly to Moses coming down from the mountain in Exodus 34.29-35 (see also the priestly prayer Numbers 6.25, Psalm 31.16, Psalm 34.5). Jesus for a time stepped out of His manhood and stepped into a glorious state in the Glory of the Father. His clothes "became exceedingly white and glistening such as no launderer on earth could whiten". He was glistening also interpreted as "flashing like lightning"

F Dale Bruner

How do we make sense of this trasfiguration then? A scholar named F. Dale Bruner helps us to understand it further here. He said, "What Jesus was within was once made visible without...a preview of the heavenly transfiguration awaiting believers in the person of their Head. The rabbis taught that Adam lost the radiance of his face by his sin and that the Messiah would give this radiance back; the Gospels' transfiguration stories show us the beginning of this restoration of radiance." Frederick Dale Bruner, The Churchbook - A Historical/Theological Commentary, Matthew 3-28 [Waco, Texas: WORD Books] 1990, p. 603 
The three disciples, namely Peter, James and John saw the glory of God and the glory of Jesus. Luke says "they saw His glory and the two men who stood with Him" Luke 9.32. Jesus became the glory and the embodiment of the presence of God even though the people of Israel had no "Ark of the Covenant" in the Temple. The Ark went missing after the time of Jeremiah, who hid the Ark in a cave in Mount Nebo as the historian in 2 Maccabees 2.4-6 reveals to us. But Jesus is there now. The prophet in Ezekiel 8-11, speaks of the departing Spirit from Jerusalem but Jesus from His baptism becomes the returning presence and glory of the Father to Jerusalem and Israel.

Jesus was transformed in His mind
Jesus was then taught by Moses and Elijah, being representatives of the "Law" and the "prophets" respectively. Jesus was not all knowing and omniscient in His humanity and earthly life but still needed instruction regarding His death and exodus (reminiscent of the events of the Exodus for Israel with the sacrifice of the lamb and the deliverance of the people Rom. 12.1-2). Jesus was soon to become the living sacrifice for the world. In  Mark 9:12 Jesus explains to the disciples "Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things. And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt?
This was no doubt a great source of strength and encouragement to Jesus and just what He needed to get through the next step of facing the daunting and horrible death on the Cross.