Daily Bible Reading 12th August 2026 // Luke 9:28-36
28 Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. 34 As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” 36 And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.
Finally, we may see the Transfiguration and what followed it as an 'acted parable', so to speak, an enactment in dramatic, symbolic form, of our Lord's whole purpose on earth and the meaning of His coming into the world. As such, it was manifestly an instruction to Peter on the lines of Jesus' words at Caesarea Philippi about the Cross. What we mean is this: The Transfiguration shows us who He was, His intrinsic Godhead; but the whole story, the rest of the story, shows us what He did. For He came down from the Mount, turned His back on the glory, came down to where we were, where we all are, gripped by dark powers, torn by deep and tragic mysteries, and broken by sin and shame. This is the point of the miracle that He performed on the demon-possessed boy that His disciples could not help. As Paul puts it in the famous passage in Philippians 2, 'He was in the form of God... and equal with God... but made Himself of no reputation... and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross'. It is as if He had said to Peter, 'Peter, you say, “Not so, Lord”, when I speak of suffering on the Cross. But this is the whole purpose of my coming down from the Father. Not to do so would be to deny My calling.' In other words, the message to the disciples was that this is the true way of discipleship: the Cross comes first, and the glory follows. The voice from the cloud said, 'Hear ye Him'; and He had said, 'Take up the Cross and follow Me'. And this is the source of His power in the world today - not that He is God, as such, but that as God He came down and was obedient unto death.