Matthew 17:1-13
17 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; 2 and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. 4 Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” 6 And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. 7 But Jesus came and touched them and said, “Arise, and do not be afraid.” 8 When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
9 Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.”
10 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?”
11 Jesus answered and said to them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. 12 But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist.
Introduction
What is so important about The Transfiguration? Why does God tell us about it in the Bible? It seems like it doesn’t really fit. It seems like the story of Jesus is interrupted by this trip to the mountain. What does it mean? Why is it so important?
A Biblical Theology of Mountains and the Mount of Transfiguration (v. 1-8)
Six days after Jesus explains to his disciples about the nature of the church and their role in it, he takes Peter, James, and John up to a high mountain. Before we go any further, we need to stop for a moment and think about a biblical theology of mountains. The Bible has a lot to say about mountains, and when we put it together we can understand what mountains mean. The first mountain in the Bible is not even mentioned explicitly. It is the mountain that the garden sat on top of (we are told the four great rivers of the world flowed from this place; this was clearly the central mountain in the antediluvian world). It was on this mountain that Adam and Eve lived in the presence of God. After his rebellion, Adam was ejected from this mountaintop garden. Later men tried to build themselves a mountain like this one, that would reach to the heavens, but God came down in judgment upon them, at Babel. When Israel had been delivered out of slavery in Egypt, God led them to Mount Sinai, where He had Moses ascend the mountain alone and where He gave Moses His Law. In addition to His Law, God gave Moses instructions to build a mountain that would reach into the heavens, a portable Mount Sinai, a mountain like the mountain of Eden, with a garden sanctuary in the center, a garden that men were still restricted from entering except once every year; this mountain was the tabernacle. We don’t think of it as a mountain, but that is what it is. It is a mountain tipped on its side. The entrance where all the people gathered is the base of the mountain, the courtyard where the priests and levites would work, the holy place where only priests could ascend so far up the mountain, and then the holy of holies at the very top. Later, the even more glorious temple would be constructed in the exact same way. This is why when the Psalms and Prophets talk about Mount Zion, they treat it as though it is the highest mountain in the world, when it isn’t even the tallest mountain near Jerusalem. Because of the temple, it is a mountain that reaches all the way to the heavens. Later, after Israel and her kings had forsaken her covenant with God, the prophet Elijah was forced to flee. And he came to Mount Horeb (Mount Sinai) and there, like Moses, met God. And there God told him His plans for Israel and that Elijah was not alone and that God would deliver Israel. And after this, the Prophet Isaiah said this:
2Now it shall come to pass in the latter days
That the mountain of the Lord’s house
Shall be established on the top of the mountains,
And shall be exalted above the hills;
And all nations shall flow to it.
3Many people shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
4He shall judge between the nations,
And rebuke many people;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore.
Mountains are gates to heaven. Even those who worshipped false gods had an understanding of this. This is why they worshipped on high places. You go up on high places to meet your gods. It is a perverted understanding of what the Bible shows, yet they knew something of it.
In our passage, Jesus is taking his three closest disciples with Him to witness this event. Jesus gets to the top of the mountain, and there, His face shines like the sun, and His clothing becomes bright white. You can imagine what this must have been like. You could not even have looked directly at His face without your eyes hurting. Nothing but pure glory streaming out of Him. And in that same moment, the three disciples saw Moses and Elijah standing there with Jesus talking to Him. It is interesting that these two appear, because these are two examples of men who ascended Mount Sinai to meet with God. And now Jesus does something very similar, and what this means we will get to in a moment.
But first, the three disciples are caught up in the moment. Peter sees these great men from Israel’s history and want to build a place for each of them to stay. He wants Moses and Elijah and Jesus to live up on the mountain. But God interrupts him. God appears in His glory cloud just like He did in the Old Testament on Sinai and in the Wilderness and out of this cloud He declares to them all “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!” If you had heard a voice booming out of God’s terrifying glory cloud, your spine would tingle, too. The disciple hide their faces in the ground. But Jesus comes over to them and touches them, telling them not to be afraid. As soon as they looked up, all of it was gone. The glory cloud, Moses, Elijah. Now there was only Jesus.
Coming Down From The Mountain (v. 9-13)
If the disciples plan to build tabernacles was any indication, they wanted to stay on the mountain. But they cannot stay. They have to come down from the mountain. And once they had come down, Jesus commanded them to tell no one what they had seen until after He has risen from the dead. This is another example of Jesus concealing who He is from Israel. Their rejection of Him means the Transfiguration is not for them to know.
This provokes a question from the three. The scribes correctly interpreted the Prophet Malachi’s prophecy that Elijah would come before the Great and Final Prophet that Moses spoke of. The disciples want to know what this means. After all, they had just seen Elijah with their own eyes.
Jesus tells them what it means. They are right. Elijah must come first. And he already did, and he was rejected and abused by Israel, just like the Son of Man will be. From this, the disciples cracked the code. They realized He was talking about John the Baptist.
Conclusion
The Transfiguration is an event that does not often hold much place in our theology. We don’t think about it that often. Understandably, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension dominate. The Transfiguration takes a back seat. But it is an important event for us. Most of the time, we think of it as the brief moment when the divinity of Jesus was clearly revealed to the disciples. This is true, but it leaves out an important detail. Yes, the Father visibly glorifies the Son in the Transfiguration, which the disciples are witness to, but think about who was being glorified and what is different about this. God is not only glorifying the Second Person of the Godhead, the eternal Son who has always existed with the Father, but He is also glorifying the man Jesus. There is no division between the humanity of Jesus and His divine person. He is fully God and fully man. In the Transfiguration, Jesus is glorified by the Father. God and man in one. Human flesh is glorified by Almighty God. That is what is so profound about the Transfiguration. Humanity is glorified in Christ. The glory of God shines forth in a man. And this man, this God-man, Jesus Christ, you are united to. We will share in that Glory. We already do share in that glory.
And what’s more, each and every Lord’s Day, we gather together at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration, at the base of Sinai, at the base of the Edenic Mountain, at the entrance to the temple, and we ascend into the presence of God Almighty. The glory cloud meets us, and His voice speaks to us. And we behold His glory and He makes His face shine upon us. And we, like the disciples would love to live on top of this mountain. We would like to stay here. One glorious day we will, but not yet. We must climb down from the mountain and go do what God has called us to. Down from the mountain, there is a war to fight, a war with death. A war that is won by suffering and dying ourselves. By filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.
In this war, we are sustained by the vision of His glory. That face that shines like the sun, will be anointed with His own bloody sweat. Our king will suffer and die. And this presents the pattern His disciples will follow and the pattern we must follow. You ascend the mountain to behold glory, and you descend to do battle with God’s enemies by picking up your cross and dying. That is the life those in His kingdom must lead. That is the life you must lead. You ascend the mountain to be refreshed by His glory and go back down to conquer in His name. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!