Welcome to Things Unseen, where this week our theme is big moments in the life of the Lord Jesus.

We've thought about him being baptized at the Jordan, and then about him being in the region of Caesarea Philippi.

And I want to think today of him being up in the Highlands, traditionally on Mount Hermon, often called the Mount of the Transfiguration.

Just before the Transfiguration, Jesus said that some of the disciples would not see death

before they saw the kingdom of God.

Or as Matthew puts it, before they saw the Son of Man coming in His kingdom, or as Mark

puts it, until they saw the kingdom of God after it had come with power.

And these words are linked by the gospel writers by a rare time marker.

The transfiguration took place just a week after Jesus had said this.

Perhaps his words include more, something greater than the transfiguration, but they surely certainly include the sight that

the inner circle of disciples saw Peter and James and John. He took them with him, and they saw

a foretaste of what was still to come. I imagine many of us have had that odd experience of feeling that you've a sense of something

that's going to happen, and then it does happen.

I remember watching a Philadelphia Flyers ice hockey match years ago, when one of their

star players got the puck in his own half and began to make his way towards the

opponent's goal. And from up above where I was seated, I could almost trace in the ice

where he would need to weave his way through the defenders to get there. Now, I'm certainly

not a nice hockey expert, but the amazing thing was he did exactly what I envisaged and scored a brilliant goal.

I felt a bit like a chess grandmaster seeing ten moves ahead.

And in a way, the transfiguration was like that.

It was a moment that prophesied the future.

It was a real, unique historical event, but it was also a glimpse of what

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