Glowing garments

And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. Matthew 17:2

If you ever wondered where the whole angels wearing white thing came from, and pictures of a glowing Jesus were painted of, this would be one of the passages. The disciples had walked with Jesus for almost 3 years, and until this point, He looked like just an average guy. If we take the Bible as a whole, Isaiah says there was nothing about him that was attractive. He was common as dirt. I really think the movies overdo what he was really like. He was not necessarily talk, dark, or handsome. His robes were not white with a sash while everyone else work tunics. The pictures always seem to make him out as someone different in appearance, and I think that leads us to wonder how the rulers of the day couldn't tell by looking at him that He was different. Their complaint was that he was just an ordinary guy, with brothers and sisters, who hadn't gone to seminary and just wandered among the people telling stories and healing commoners.

Until that day when He took His three best friends and showed them who He really was. It was kind of like Undercover Boss, where He had played dress up and gone among the employees to find out what was really going on in the company. Then those few people that the boss got close to were taken into the office and got to see who they were REALLY interacting with for that period of time. In not one case of Undercover Boss did the people treat the boss the same after they knew who he really was. Their behavior changed when they knew who they were really dealing with. And this is probably why Peter and John wrote so prolifically on the life of Jesus afterward, though they must have really given Matthew an earful for him to recount this story. Jesus showed them who was boss that day for their benefit.

I get the fact that Jesus would glow in His heavenly glory, but so did His clothes. When Moses came off the mountain, his face glowed, but not his clothes. He reflected God's glory to the Israelites (and how they could then turn on him, knowing God met with him and had the inside track to be able to strike them dead, I'll never know), but it did not totally consume him with the glory. Jesus, well, everything about Him was glorious. Matthew doesn't recount John's reaction here, but in Revelation, John recalls his being dropped to his knees when he caught a vision of the shining Christ. In Matthew, it took the voice of God to drop him, and not just the shining Jesus. I guess the song “I Can Only Imagine” makes sense, since people would eventually bow down or turn away in fear, but the initial reactions can vary when we see Christ in His various roles and situations.

Everything Jesus touches is glorious, and all that look to Him will reflect His glory. It says in Revelation that God will illumine His people in the 22^nd chapter. There will be need of no sun. Some verses say that He will give them light, or indicate that He will be the sun of heaven. There will be no curse of darkness any more. It makes me wonder, since I am no Greek scholar, if we will be glowing, too. It says He will illumine us and we will reign forever and ever. That He will give us light. Will we have His light in us, or will His light just be around us. I guess we will have to wait and find out, but either way, it will be spectacular.

His glowing garments became a part of His glory, and I do believe that our own glow, the richness of our contemplative grins when we recount to one another what Christ has done for us, becomes a part of our communion with Him. We cannot help but to glow when we think of His touch on our lives, and if we feel as close as His clothes, clinging to Him as an adornment with adoration, we will reflect His contact in our lives.

And there is not a better place to be.