Jesus Could Have Been Raptured at the Transfiguration

At His Transfiguration (Luke 9.28-31)

On the Mount of Transfiguration the Lord manifested the peak of His humanity before God as well as before men. The Bible never teaches that we are without blemish in this life (we do indeed have faults and blemishes); it only maintains that God is able to keep us blameless in this life. But in this life our Lord is without any blemish at all. I have spoken before concerning the transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain. Many commentators agree that the Lord could well have ascended to heaven from that mount and God could not have refused receiving Him back into heaven. In this connection, take note of this passage: "The earth beareth fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the fruit is ripe, straightway he putteth forth the sickle, because the harvest is come" (Mark 4.28,29). Since the Lord had ripened (that is to say, He had by this time become fully matured), He could have been received back. Yet He talked with Moses and Elijah about His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. And when He returned to the valley below, Jesus was even more determined to go to Jerusalem: His face was unalterably set towards that objective. He chose death.

Here, then, we see another choice of our Lord. Jesus is able to refuse to ascend to heaven from the Mount of Transfiguration and to choose the way to Jerusalem and death because He had eaten the butter and the honey of heaven. He is able not to ascend to see His Father but to descend to the cross because He has tasted the grace as well as the love of God.

Without God’s grace and God’s love, who can endure such suffering? Some children may suffer for their parents, but they suffer unwillingly. Some parents may suffer for their children, yet not without murmuring at times. Some students may obey their teachers under compulsion. Only Christ is able to make the difficult though good choice with a willing heart because He has eaten butter and honey—the most abundant and the sweetest of things.