Title: The Glory of God in Jesus
2007.02.18.
God's Glory in Jesus
text description
It would have been difficult for people outside the church to understand today's story. Not only them, but also people who have already become believers are unfamiliar with this story. Those who claim to have good faith receive grace from all the words even if they do not understand them, so there is no problem, but for those who want to know and believe, today's story is quite difficult. Think about it. Are you saying that Moses and Elijah are some kind of living spirit? It appeared suddenly and then suddenly disappeared again. Let's follow what happened on the mountain that day, as the text explains.
Among the many stories about Jesus in the Gospels, it is difficult to find the same content as today's text. We mainly find in the Gospels stories of Jesus healing the sick, bringing the demon-possess to his senses, teaching the kingdom of God in parables, and sometimes arguing with the Pharisees for the Law. Today's text is on a completely different level. It is clear, however, that this story was very important to the early Christian community, given that it was all recorded in the Synoptic Gospels. What is the writer of Luke trying to convey through this story?
God experience
As you read the text, you may have noticed that the word glory is mentioned with great importance. Moses and Elijah appeared in glory (verse 31), and the disciples saw the glory of Jesus in their sleep (verse 32). What does the word “glorified” or “glorious” mean? Glory, translated from the Greek word 'serpent', does not refer to any specific thing or condition. Of course, these words are also used in everyday life. It would be an honor for the student to receive the first prize at the graduation ceremony. However, the relative glory we experience in our daily lives is different from the absolute viper of the Bible. The viper is called "Herrlichkeit" in German. ‘Herr’ means ‘Lord’, but in a religious sense it means God. In other words, glory refers to the manifestation of the divine. We can't say what it is specifically. We cannot describe it directly, we can only describe it indirectly.
There are many expressions related to glory in today's text. According to verse 29, the appearance of Jesus as he was praying changed and his clothes shone dazzlingly. Here glory was portrayed as light. In Korean, we also use the word for “glorify” and “light”. However, on a physical level, it is impossible to say that light itself is God or divine. It just means that the most appropriate concept for us to describe the manifestation of God is light.
Another word to describe glory is cloud. According to verse 34, a cloud rose and covered them, and Moses and Elijah disappeared into the cloud. The clouds and the sky were understood by the ancients as the dwelling place of God. Verse 35 says that a voice was heard from the cloud. The sound that breaks through the clouds is also an indirect description of glory. In other words, the transfiguration of Jesus, the shining clothes, the clouds, and the sound from heaven were the channels through which people in the Bible times experienced the glory of God. It is a God experience.
Such experiences are common in the Old Testament. It is said that a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night led the Israelites while they were living in the wilderness after the Exodus. God's experience through clouds and fire. Elijah experienced God in a small voice, and Isaiah experienced God through the seraphs, the holy angels, in the temple.
What is a glory experience?
When you hear an explanation like this, you're probably thinking, "Is that right?" or that's too far-fetched for me. Because these experiences are not very real to us. That's right. God revealed to Jesus, or the unity of Jesus and God, is something we do not feel very much in our daily lives. As we go through life, we don't feel the light, we don't make a sound, we don't feel someone appearing. However, there is a similar experience in artistic practice.
In a movie called Seopyeonje, the father who sings says to his son who is hungry after learning the sound and his daughter who learns the sound without babbling. “Sound is better than rice!” He will speak of the realm of gain and sound. There are many singers, but those who have entered the realm of