"The Transfiguration of _________”
- Dr. Todd R. Wright
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
So how would you fill in the blank in the sermon title? The transfiguration of … Jesus, right?
Exodus 24:12-18 and Matthew 17:1-9
February 15, 2026
Dr. Todd R. Wright
Welcome to the end of the season of Epiphany – nearly 8 weeks of light and illumination!
Welcome back to the mountain-top – that place where God is regularly encountered!
Welcome to Transfiguration Sunday!
Do you remember how in school fill-in-the-blank quizzes were always the easiest?
If you knew anything about the subject, context clues helped you figure out the answer!
So how would you fill in the blank in the sermon title?
The transfiguration of … Jesus, right?
You’ve heard about the pastor asking the children what is grey and likes nuts and has a big bushy tail. The kids are all silent until one brave soul pipes up: I know the answer is Jesus; it’s always Jesus, but it sure does sound like a squirrel!
The answer may always be Jesus … but it would have been understandable if you had answered Moses. After all, his story comes first and it captures Israel’s imagination.
He went up a mountain, just like Jesus.
He did not go alone, just like Jesus.
He was enveloped by a cloud, just like Jesus.
Later, the skin of his face will shine after talking with God. Jesus’ face shines too!
And Matthew cites Jesus’ shining face as proof that he has been transfigured.
Does that mean Moses was transfigured first?
Maybe.
But David Lose contends that we could have filled in the blank with Peter’s name. He writes:
“We understandably focus on Jesus’ transformation — and well we should, what with the blazing face, and dazzling white clothes and all. But I think Peter gets transfigured as well, or at least the beginning of Peter’s transformation may start right here, on the mountain with Jesus.”[2]
Peter goes up the mountain, with Jesus.
He is enveloped in the cloud, with Jesus.
He hears the voice of God and is called to respond – a calling that will change him.
Lose makes his case:
“We tend to think Peter’s [transforming] ‘moment’ happened six days earlier, when Peter confessed that Jesus was the Messiah and he was called ‘the rock.’ But I wonder if Peter’s real sense of call didn’t happened here, when the voice interrupts all his plots and plans and announces that this Jesus is none other than God’s beloved Son and so the most important thing Peter can do is simply listen to him. I suspect that in that moment everything for Peter, was still … and clear … and made sense.”
Or maybe his transforming moment came weeks later when Jesus was arrested and hauled off into the night. All the disciples deserted him and fled, but Peter followed him at a distance.
Maybe he was just a little bolder than the rest or a little more foolish, the same as always.
Or maybe he remembered the face of Jesus shining on the mountaintop and the voice of God and something in him changed, like he really had been listening.
It didn’t last. When confronted, he denied even knowing Jesus, three times.
Surely that means he was not transformed by his time on the mountain.
Except, after the cock crowed, we are told that he wept bitterly. He was heartbroken.
Did he weep because he had denied his Lord, or because he had failed to live out his calling?
Maybe you have been there.
Maybe like Peter you’ve talked a good game only to have your faith falter at critical moments.
Maybe that has caused you to question whether the soul change you embraced was ever real.
Do not fear.
Did you notice that in Matthew’s account, when the disciples hear the voice of God, Peter and the others fall to the ground overcome with fear?
Chelsey Harmon explains,
“It’s not just any fear, it’s the fright of their life. There is a word present in the Greek that modifies fear, which is translated as ‘overcome’ by the NRSV. So just be clear, this is the highest extent of fear any of them have ever experienced; this is as afraid as they can possibly be. Their falling to the ground may be just as much ‘duck and cover’ as it is reverence!”[3]
But Matthew, and only Matthew, says Jesus came and touched them, and told them not to be afraid. There is something healing in his touch, something encouraging, something forgiving.
For all the changes wrought on that mountain, some things do not change.
Jesus is not distant; he has not suddenly become off limits; he is as close as a touch.
And they are still loved.
Lose thinks this is critical. He writes …
“This pattern, I think, shapes the life of every Christian. We, too, [like Peter], try our best, sometimes succeeding and sometimes coming up short. We, too, have moments of insight and moments of denial. We, too, fall down in fear and are raised up again to go forth in confidence. We, too, are called to listen, called to discern God’s way in the world, called to partner with God and in this way be transformed.”[4]
If he is right, then there is one more name that we can fill in the blank with: yours!
We are each transformed by this encounter with the divine presence … and what follows!
But if this story teaches us anything, it is that transformation is hard to hold onto.
On the mountain it is easy to be dazzled into saying yes!
It is easy to believe that the glow will never fade.
It is easy to imagine that the road will be as smooth and wide as newly paved blacktop.
But down in the valley storms produce potholes.
Choices are harder than we imagined and the consequences more costly.
And when that is the case, perhaps you will find yourself grasping desperately.
Lady Gaga sings of a moment like that in her song. “Million Reasons”:
“I bow down to pray
I try to make the worst seem better
Lord, show me the way
To cut through all his worn out leather
I've got a hundred million reasons to walk away
But baby, I just need one good one to stay.
Every heartbreak makes it hard to keep the faith
But baby, I just need one good one.” [5]
May the story of the transfiguration – of blinding light and a gentle touch – serve as your reason as we enter the season of Lent. Amen
[1] “Transfiguration”, giclée art print on canvas of modern icon by Ivanka Demchuk
[2] Here and following from “Transfiguration of Peter” 2/27/11
[3] From her reflections on the text for cepreaching.org, 2/15/26
[4] Also from “Transfiguration of Peter”
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