The Transfiguration

"And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart. He was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles—one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias (Matthew 17:1-4)."

Peter had very recently confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. And just six days before this moment on the mountain, Jesus had begun to tell them that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders. That was when Peter began to rebuke Him - and Jesus responded by saying Peter was savouring the things of men, not of God. Peter had it all wrong. Jesus was going to die. In fact, He told them plainly: if anyone would be His disciple, he must take up his cross and follow Him.

All of this must have seemed to those men so bleak, so discouraging. They were like us - so earthbound. But what happened here on the mountain was just what they needed. Suddenly, they were seeing things they had never seen before - Christ in His glory for a moment unveiled in majesty. And suddenly, these men were no longer as earthbound as before. Now heavenly realities were before them. What a shift in perspective this must have been.

Think about what these men saw: the Lord Jesus was transfigured before them. His physical body changed - His face shone like the sun, and His garments became white as light. Luke says His clothing was white and glistening. Mark says it was "shining, exceedingly white as snow, such as no fuller on earth can whiten them." What a revelation!

What was happening?  Donald Macleod says, “It was also a momentary unveiling of the underlying divine splendour of Jesus.” John Calvin writes, “His Godhead became visible.” R.C. Sproul called it "a breakthrough of divine glory."  All along, Jesus was fully God. He had taken on flesh and was given the name Jesus, but He never ceased to be the second person of the Trinity. He had become fully man, but He had always remained fully God. His glory, however, was veiled. Men saw no beauty or comeliness in Him. Even after His resurrection, though He was different - sometimes unrecognizable - there was still something ordinary about Him.

But this was not ordinary. This was a glimpse of the majesty of God. For a moment, the divine splendour of Jesus was unveiled, and Peter, James, and John saw it. They beheld His glory with their own eyes.

Is it any wonder that Peter said, “Lord, it is good for us to be here”? 

Do you remember when John, Jesus’ closest friend on earth, saw Him again on the island of Patmos? This was the Jesus who loved him, with whom he had shared such familiarity. But he saw there something of His divine glory - His head and hair white like wool, His eyes as flames of fire, His feet like brass glowing in a furnace, His voice like the sound of many waters. In His hand were seven stars, and from His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. His face was as the sun shining in its strength. And John says, “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead.”

If we saw Him today, we would fall at His feet as dead. And how strange and inferior all the things of this world would seem in that moment in the light of His glory.  One day we shall see Him. And in that place, there will be no need for sun or moon - for the glory of God will give it light, and the Lamb will be its lamp.  And we will say with Peter, “It is good to be here.” What an understatement - and yet such rich truth in those words.

Peter didn’t want to come down from the mountain. There he was with Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, in His majesty, and it was good. So he offered to build tabernacles for each of them. He didn’t ask for one for himself; he was content to lie under the stars, if only he could stay.

Consider Peter’s words. Mark tells us he said this because he didn’t know what to say - for they were terrified. This was a godly fear, a holy fear. Peter was overwhelmed - it was good, but he was afraid and didn’t know how to respond.

Would we know what to say? 

Still, I love this man’s enthusiasm. Peter was many things, but he wasn’t lukewarm. Here, as often, he spoke from the heart. But what he said was only partly right.

He was right — it was good. It was good to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus. And this is the ordinary experience of the born-again believer. We are not merely persuaded that He is good or lovely; we have tasted and seen that He is. We know it by experience. On the one hand, by faith we have beheld His glory; on the other, we know what it is to have fellowship with God. In the place of prayer, we have been with Jesus, so that we could sincerely and affectionately say, “It is good to be here.” In other words, we know what it is to have real communion with the living God. We have known something of what the bride expressed in the Song of Solomon when she said she wanted to cling to Him and never let Him go.

And so we can understand Peter.  He wanted to stay.  Better to be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

But Peter was also wrong.  This wasn’t why Jesus came. He could have come unveiled from the very beginning. He could have come as a great King, with armies of angels and royal pomp. But He chose a stable in Bethlehem. He took on flesh. He made Himself of no reputation. Because He had set His face toward the cross. He came to die.

And this is why Moses and Elijah were there. Moses representing the Law, Elijah the Prophets - and all of it bearing witness to Jesus. Jesus Himself said so. All of it declares in so many ways that Christ must suffer and that His blood must be shed for the remission of sins.

Peter had been dead wrong before. He wanted Jesus to spare Himself. But the cross was everything. The whole plan of redemption - every page of Scripture - was leading not to the transfiguration, but to Calvary.

So why did Jesus allow them to see this glory? On one hand, that they might say, “We beheld His glory.” But on the other, that they might be strengthened for what was coming. Two of these men would be martyred. All of them would suffer horrendously. Each had a cross to bear. And soon, they would stand near Jesus as He was crucified.

This was a glorious confirmation of Peter’s confession. And it was a tremendous help to their faith. What Peter needed was a more heavenly, eternal perspective. He had been savouring the things of man. But now he had caught a glimpse of the divine glory. And oh, how insignificant everything else must have seemed! How small and petty the riches of this world! How pale the pleasures of life beside the brightness of Jesus’ face shining like the sun!

Isn’t that what we need?  We cannot live on the mountain.  We are not yet home. We are sojourners. We will rest one day - but not now. For now, we have a cross to bear. But what a gift when God lifts our eyes to heaven and gives us a taste of His goodness, when by faith we behold Him and find Him altogether lovely.