Jesus, the Transfigured Christ of Contemplation
For many in the Church, calling Jesus “mystical” conjures up in their minds the “cosmic Christ” of the New Age Movement—an “exalted Master” of strange worlds and bizarre experiences that have little if anything to do with the Jesus of the Bible. This is not the mystical Christ. The Jesus I’m talking about appears in many guises in the Bible, from the Angel of the Lord who appeared to Abraham, and Melchizedek whom he honored, to the whirlwind that took Elijah up to heaven, to the Holy One seen by Isaiah, high and lifted up, his train filling the temple, to the white-haired, fire-eyed Ancient of Days revealed to John in the Book of Revelation. The mystical Christ appeared to two believers on Resurrection Day on the road to Emmaus, and to Paul on the road to Damascus. He appeared to the Promised Land-bound Israelites as the Pillar of Cloud and Fire, and to Peter, James and John as the transfigured Christ, speaking with Moses and Elijah. He is the burning bush that spoke to Moses, the fourth Man in the fire in the book of Daniel, the slain Lamb and Lion of Judah on the heavenly throne of Revelation. He is the Carpenter who alone can build a house for the Lord, and the Son of Man who can walk on water, who can change water to wine. The mystical Christ himself is the Mystery of mysteries, the true pearl of great price.
This is not the Christ of those who are content to merely accept, by faith, that there is a promised land they will someday see, a Savior they will someday know. This is not a pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by Christ. This is the Christ of those who say, don’t tell me about the giants in that promised land—God himself is my Zion, my promised land flowing with milk and honey (though it may seem a barren wilderness to others), and I won’t stop until, with his help, I’ve slain all the giants of the false self that stand in the way. This is the Christ of those who are willing to lay down their lives for the One who laid down his life for them, the Christ of those who live in the reality that walking in Christlike love is the true promised land. This is the Christ who reveals himself to those who just won’t settle for anything less than God, who will crawl across deserts and swim away from shipwrecks to follow the Savior who loves them. This is the Christ of passion, the revealed Christ who is the same now as in the New Testament, the same yesterday and today and forever. This is the resurrected Christ. The mystical Christ.
Book excerpt from Contemplation: Only the Crucified are Truly Alive
Gary Michael Hassig
From Chapter Seven, The Mystical Christ, pp. 155-6