On August 6th, millions of Christians around the world will celebrate the Great Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord.
This is an ancient Christian feast attested by many of the Church Fathers, and has probably been celebrated by billions of Christians through the centuries.
Around the time of the Great Feasts of the Church I usually get this question:
Aren’t there feasts in the Old Testament? And, if so, aren’t they different than the Christian feasts? In addition, didn’t God tell us to celebrate these Old Testament feasts?
The fear is that if God told us to celebrate the Old Testament feasts, and we aren’t doing so, then we are disobeying God!
How can we be good and loving Christians if we are disobeying God? Isn’t that what got Adam and Eve into trouble to begin with?
THE OLD TESTAMENT FEAST OF SUKKOT = TEMPORARY TENTS
To answer this question, I want to look at one specific feast called Sukkot.
This feast is also called the Feast of the Tabernacles, or the Feast of the Booths.
God asked that we celebrate this feast in Leviticus:
You shall dwell in booths for seven days; all that are native in Israel shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. (Lev 23:42-43 RSV)
SUKKOT REMEMBERED THE HEBREWS’ TIME IN THE DESERT AFTER EGYPT
You see, God had freed the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.
Through Moses, God had freed the Hebrews by performing miracles. After they had been freed they had a long journey ahead of them – a journey through the desert, which would take them into the Promised Land.
While they were in the desert, God took care of them.
He fed them with heavenly bread called manna – in the same way he feeds us with the bread that is the Body of Christ every Sunday.
God also sheltered the Hebrews in temporary, fragile tents called tabernacles or booths or sukkah (the plural of sukkot).
The Feast of Sukkot, therefore, remembers how God helped the Hebrews in the desert before they were able to reach the Promised Land.
THE FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION = A GLORIFIED TENT
Fast-forward a few thousands years to the first century A.D. Now we have Christ, the Son of God, walking among us.
At one point in his ministry, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up Mt. Tabor.
While there, Christ is transfigured, and his clothes shine brightly. Beside him stand Elias (Elijah) the Prophet and Moses the Law-giver.
The three disciples don’t know what to do, and so Peter, after summoning all his courage, asks,
Lord, it is well that we are here; if you wish, I will make three booths here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elias. (Mat 17:4 RSV)
Hmm. What is going on here? Peter mentions three booths. Perhaps there’s a connection between the Transfiguration and the Sukkot?
ST. GREGORY SAYS TRANSFIGURATION IS SUKKOT
Indeed, there is something going on here!
The early Church Fathers saw the Christian celebration of Transfiguration as the Feast of Sukkot – the Feast of Tabernacles!
St. Gregory of Nyssa, in his book On the Soul and the Resurrection, wrote,
…the God of all…has appeared to us to inaugurate the feast with a covering [of branches], by the word ‘covering’ signifying the feast of the Tabernacles which was legislated of old by the tradition of Moses. …while the feast was always being celebrated, it had not yet been accomplished. Although the truth was being revealed in a type by the symbolism of what was being done, the true tabernacle had not yet been pitched. According to the prophetic word, however, the God and Lord of all revealed Himself to us in order to inaugurate for human nature the feast of the tabernacle of our destroyed dwelling, which would again be covered with a body when the elements should come back together. For the word ‘covering’ according to its proper meaning, signifies a garment and the adornment which this produces.
CHRIST TRANSFORMS OUR TEMPORARY HUMAN “TENTS”
The transfigured Christ shows us that the true human “tabernacle” isn’t a body subject to death, but it’s a resurrected, glorified, and transfigured body.
We know that in Christ we will participate in the resurrection, and we too will be raised in gloried “transfigured” bodies.
For now, however, we, like the Hebrews, are in the desert of this world.
Instead of transfigured bodies, we remain in fragile, temporary dwellings as we wander the desert (this life) looking for the Promised Land (the resurrection).
The feast of Sukkot is not only the remembrance of the Hebrews’ dwelling in temporary tabernacles in the desert, but it’s also a realization that our current bodies, which are subject to disease and death, are only temporary.
The Feast of Sukkot is fulfilled in the Feast of the Transfiguration that points to the resurrection.
P.S. THE TRANSFIGURATION IS A FEAST OF HOPE
The Feast of the Transfiguration is a feast of hope that looks forward to when our temporary bodies are transfigured from mere tabernacles, or tents, into gloried bodies!
I encourage everyone to come, this Sunday to St. Elias Church, click here, and be transfigured by Jesus Christ (10:30, 2001 Asbury Rd, Dubuque)(or find your nearest Orthodox Church, here).
Reference: St. Gregory of Nyssa, On the Soul and the Resurrection, translated by Catharine P. Roth (Crestwood: SVS Press, 1993).