Tonight we move from Jesus’ first teaching about His cross and ours into one of the most amazing and important moments in Jesus’ life on earth. The transfiguration is a moment that most of us have read about but I’m not sure that we have thoroughly studied its importance to Jesus at the time and to us today. Very similar to Jesus’ baptism, where the Father spoke “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” The transfiguration was about the Father strengthening the Son, it has lessons for us, it had incredible importance to Peter, James and John but it was from the Father for Jesus. The reality is that Jesus, as a man needed the encouragement and help of His Father and the Father was willing to offer it, how much more, in our weak frame, are we in need and is our Father willing? Weariness is not weakness, it is an opportunity to confess our need and to receive God’s provision. I honestly believe that Jesus’ teaching of His coming suffering, rejection, death and resurrection, followed by His teaching that those that follow Him must also deny themselves, take up their cross and follow Him in the same path that He was about to walk, wearied Him and so the Father stepped in to encourage. We have to learn from Jesus to never be afraid to confess that we need to be lifted up and learn from the Father that He is never unwillingly to embrace us, encourage us and by doing so, empower us to keep running the race marked out for us. The transfiguration of Jesus is divine and miraculous but it is also a gift in a time of weariness and an encouragement in the midst of the path of suffering.