The Glory of the Cross - A Sermon on the Transfiguration (2024)

Today is the Feast of the Transfiguration, the day on which the glory of God is revealed to us sinners in the person of the God-man Jesus Christ. Today on Mount Tabor, He Who opened the eyes of the blind now opens the noetic eyes of the apostles — hitherto blinded by sin — and, in the words of the festal troparion, “[reveals His] glory to [His] disciples as far as they could bear it.” And — as long as we ourselves are willing — He will without any doubt reveal that very same glory even to us sinners as well.

Of course, today on Mount Tabor was not by any means the first time that God revealed to us His pre-eternal glory. On the contrary, such glory was made manifest from the very moment of the creation of the world, as the Psalms clearly witness: “the heavens declare the glory of God.” Moses and Elias, who appear today on Mount Tabor conversing with Christ, had both conversed with God beforehand on another mountain, and afterward even the reflection of divine glory that shone on Moses’ face was more than the Israelites could bear to look upon.

Yet the glory of God revealed today is fundamentally different from such past revelations, and indeed far surpasses anything that came before. How so? St. Gregory Palamas writes: “Even the face of Moses was illumined by his association with God. Do you not know that Moses was transfigured when he went up the mountain, and there beheld the Glory of God? But he (Moses) did not effect this, but rather he underwent a transfiguration. However, our Lord Jesus Christ possessed that Light Himself.”

Today we no longer see the glory of God only insofar as it can be mediated through created things, but rather we see the Uncreated Light shining forth from the face of the Giver of Light Himself. Before, even Moses himself was not able to see such glory in its fullness, as it is written:

And the Lord said… it shall come to pass, while My glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with My hand while I pass by: And I will take away Mine hand, and thou shalt see My back parts: but My face shall not be seen.

Exodus 33:21-23

Yet today “God hath appeared in the flesh” (Troparion for St. John the Forerunner), and “the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God” (Eph. 3:9) is revealed to us sinners, shining in transcendent glory on Mount Tabor in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But what mystery is it that has now been revealed? What is the nature of the glory that before was hidden even from the angels (cf. I Pet. 1:12) and is today unveiled before both prophets and apostles, before both the living and the dead? St. Paul gives the answer to all who seek to understand true nature of the glory of God: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Gal. 6:14).

It is no coincidence that the Transfiguration occurred immediately after the Lord first told His disciples of His Passion: “From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day” (Matt. 16:21). It is no accident that during the Transfiguration itself Christ spoke with Moses and Elias precisely “of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). And it is no mere chance that this Feast is celebrated during the Dormition Fast, which begins with the Procession of the Cross, and ends with the death of Her whom every Christian (and especially every monastic) desires above all to emulate.

The glory of God is none other than the glory of the Cross.

How easy it is to overlook, or forget, or ignore this great truth! How easy it is to imagine that the Cross is but a doorway through which we must pass in order to come to divine glory. But when did Christ say: "The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified” (John 12:23)? At the hour of His Resurrection, or His Ascension, or His great and terrible Second Coming? No: He said it at the hour He went to the Cross. And what icon do we Orthodox name “The King of Glory”? The icon of the Resurrection, or the Ascension, or of Christ sitting enthroned beside His Father in Heaven? No: it is the icon wherein He hangs naked upon the Cross.

Why is this? Why do all the Scriptures and all the Fathers, all our iconography and all our hymns, associate the glory of God so strongly with the crucified Christ? Quite simply because the Cross — in the words of Fr. Thomas Hopko of blessed memory — is “the ultimate revelation of God as love.” If God is love, then the glory of God must needs be the glory of His love. And as Christ Himself said: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

If I am not too bold, perhaps this is part of the reason Christ commanded His disciples in today’s Gospel: "Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead” (Matt. 17:9). Perhaps this is also part of the reason Scripture tells us that St. Peter did not know what he was saying when asked to remain there on Mount Tabor with Christ and Moses and Elias. The glory revealed today on Mount Tabor cannot in any way be separated from the Cross of Christ. It cannot possibly be understood apart from the Cross of Christ. And above all, it cannot be obtained except by embracing the Cross of Christ.

And truly, the glory with which Christ shone on Mount Tabor is the very same glory with which He desires each one of us to shine as well. Indeed, it was for this very purpose that He came to earth, took on our nature, suffered on the Cross, and was raised again on the third day. Today in His Transfiguration Christ reveals not only Who He truly is, but also who we ourselves are called to be: “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4), "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together” (Rom. 8:17; emphasis added).

The Cross — whether the Cross that our Savior carried Himself, or the one that He has given us to carry — is not merely a test to be passed, a trial to be endured, or an obstacle to be overcome before we reach our destination and receive our heavenly reward. The Cross is itself our destination, and our exceeding great reward. Because the Cross is the self-revelation of God Himself; it is the love of God made manifest. And Paradise itself is nothing other than that love — and any “paradise” we might find apart from the Cross is nothing but a mirage, a fraud, a trap, and a dead end.

To quote again from Fr. Thomas Hopko:

And so, once again, if we have learned anything at all in our theological education, spiritual formation, and… service, we have learned to beware and to be wary of all contentment, consolation, and comfort before and without co-crucifixion in love with Christ. We have learned that, though we can know about God through formal theological education and classroom learning, we can only come to know God by taking up our daily crosses with patient endurance in love with Jesus and for Him.

Listen to the hymns of our Church, and listen to the lives of the saints: the martyrs found the greatest joy of their lives precisely in their death, because it was there — and there alone — that they at long last became completely united with the Lord Jesus Christ, and partakers in truth of His divine and transcendent love. It is as St. Sophrony once said: "It is impossible to live as a Christian; you can only die as a Christian," and as our Lord Himself has told us: “whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it” (Matt. 16:25).

This great mystery is the key to our whole lives as Christians. And it is the only key that in turn will open to us that other great mystery of which Christ spoke only a few brief moments later — the mystery which is now revealed to us so gloriously today: “Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom” (Matt. 16:28).

“There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death.” These words of our Savior are not only for Peter, James, and John, but also for each and every one of us standing here today. If we become willing to truly lay down our lives, if we find the courage and the faith to truly take up our Cross and follow Him, then — just like the apostles on Mount Tabor — Christ will open the noetic eyes of our heart, and all of our suffering and self-emptying will be transfigured by the transcendent glory of God, and in very truth we will “see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” The mystery of this feast is that the fullness of the glory of God can be found nowhere else on earth, except on the Cross.

But ultimately, this mystery cannot be explained, or understood, or comprehended: it can only be partaken of. The Cross will always appear to be only pain and suffering and death until we finally ascend it. Only then will our eyes be opened, and only then will we see Christ transfigured in glory, "His face…. [shining] as the sun, and His raiment… white as the light” (Matt. 17:2). Only then will we ourselves also be transfigured and resurrected, partakers of all His grace, and shining with the fullness of His own glorious and Uncreated Light.

May He make us worthy of His Cross. May He make us worthy of His death. May He make us worthy of His glory, and of His life unending and everlasting.

“O Christ God… let Thine everlasting light shine upon us sinners through the prayers of the Theotokos. O Giver of Light, glory to Thee!”

Troparion of the Transfiguration

Amen.