The three experiences of Jesus, his temptation in the desert,  his Transfiguration on Mount Tabor and Resurrection are three stages – the problem, the application, and conclusion of a thesis, the thesis of the life of Jesus Christ. The three stages of Jesus’ life provides a model of our life. What could the experience of temptation say about you and me? What could the Jesus’ Transfiguration and Resurrection say about you and me? The reflection here for you and me is that we carry a God given glory within us, confirming us as His sons and daughters. We are baptised in Christ Jesus, a co-heir with Christ. As members of Christ’s body, Lent calls us to see the meaning of temptation, and of the Transfiguration of Jesus as a message about the inner light of God we all carry within us.

Lent as a renewed discipline while walking through our wilderness calls us to renounce our sin in order to walk in daily obedience to Christ. The problem is centred on our human curiosity that like to see the change in order to believe. The good news is that, though we carry within us Temptation, by the grace of God, we carry with us Transfiguration as a means of our transformation. As foreshadowed in the Transfiguration, Resurrection reveals the fullness of Christ’s glory, especially when we give ourselves anew to the Gospel. Transfiguration offers deliverance opportunity since our freedom was fractured by sin. In essence, the gospel on the Temptation of Jesus in the Desert and that of the Transfiguration on the Mountaintop are connected in the way Jesus shows us the pathway to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil in the desert of our life.

The victory over our desert opens the gateway of eternity. Lent as reflective of life therefore points to the centrality of the Transfiguration of the Lord in preparation for our eternal glory. Living Lent, transfigures our fractured human nature so as to experience the Resurrection power to which we are called and positioned in Christ Jesus. Lent calls us not just to observe the desert of our sin and weakness as annual ritual, but to move into the Mountaintop of eternal Truth and glory. Lent without the Mountaintop experience amounts to ritual of facial disfiguration rather than heart transformation. Beloved, there is a hidden glory under the veil of your mortal flesh and human condition. Lent is a preparation for such hidden glory to burst forth in unimaginable light and splendour. That is the revival we need today. Transfiguration is at the heart and core of the Lenten season and has the power to transform our hearts, strengthens  and confirms our faith in Jesus. Living Lent by following Jesus’ way transfigures our hearts, bodies and spirits for Resurrection encounter. Today, as we celebrate the Transfiguration, let the account of Jesus’ transfiguration become your transformation. We are to be transformed in our thinking and about the vision and mission of Jesus. Remember, Jesus exchanged his robe of heavenly brightness for the crown of thorn to safe you and me.