Peter Writes His Last Letter Remembering the Transfigurationby emmanuel_higgins
17:1Matthew 17:1
And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,
After six days from His plain foretelling of His humiliation and shameful death and the cross His followers must bear, Jesus led Peter, James and John out of the noisy town and up a steep, lonely high mountain apart from the crowds and the other disciples. Those six days had been long days of grief, perplexity and fear for disciples who loved Him yet could not understand His voluntary humiliation. He brought His three most trusted disciples there to pray and to give them proof of His Messiahship by revealing the glory He had with the Father, His divinity shining through His humanity. On the mount His face shone like the sun and His garments became white as light while the Father's voice declared Him the beloved Son to be heard and obeyed, to remove doubt and strengthen them to endure His coming suffering and crucifixion as part of the divine plan. With Moses and Elijah talking of His coming death at Jerusalem, the scene gave a miniature of His kingdom, with Moses representing the resurrected and Elijah the living translated at His second coming.
Time Place and Setting
After six days counts six long, gloomy days from when Jesus gathered His disciples and told them plainly that He must live as a humble, homeless wanderer and go to Jerusalem to suffer humiliation and shameful death as a malefactor at the hands of His persecutors. He had discouraged all their hopes of His temporal aggrandizement as a mighty king, and told them they also must bear the cross, suffer corresponding humiliation, reproach and shame, and be crucified to the world, resigning all hope of its pomp and pleasure, or they could never share His glory. Because they loved their Master, sadness oppressed their hearts and doubt harassed their minds, for it seemed incomprehensible that the Son of God should be subjected to cruel humiliation and leave them in greater darkness, and they were deeply grieved and could not understand why He would voluntarily meet such an ignominious fate. They thought of taking Him by force to a place of security but dared not because He had denounced such projects as suggestions of Satan, and they comforted themselves that some unforeseen circumstance might avert His doom, and thus they sorrowed and doubted, hoped and feared through the six days. Those were days of sadness and perplexity, grief, sorrow, doubt and fear, when they feared their hopes would be crushed yet still saw daily evidence of His divinity.
After those six days Jesus led Peter, James and John out of the noisy town, across the fields, and up a steep, rugged, lonely high mountain apart from the crowds and from the other disciples. The climb is recorded as taking them apart up into a high mountain, opening future scenes before them. The ascent took place near evening at sunset, with the setting sun leaving the valleys in shadow and lingering on the mountaintops before dying out into night darkness in harmony with their sorrowful lives. He took them up at night to pray, and He resorted to that mountain solitude and spent the night there in prayer to His Father.
The climb followed a day of travel, teaching and healing the sick, and both Jesus and the disciples were very weary and fatigued from labor and from toiling up the steep ascent. Though accustomed to retiring into solitudes for prayer, the disciples wondered that He would climb the rugged mountain after such fatigue, yet they asked no questions about His purpose and patiently accompanied Him. He sought the high elevation for retirement from the crowds that continually sought Him, and for solitude, meditation and prayer away from the crowds. Having gained the place He sought, He engaged in earnest prayer to His Father hour after hour with tears and importunity.
Three Disciples Chosen
The three taken apart were Peter, James, and John, the three most devoted disciples in especially close and trusted relationship with Jesus. James was among those brought into the closest relationship with Christ. There on the high mountain they witnessed Jesus transfigured and glorified.
They were favored to witness a manifestation of His divinity, for Jesus the Majesty of heaven and King of glory had clothed His divinity with humanity, and on the mount His divinity shone forth in all its glorious brightness. They were given a glimpse of the Saviour's future glory and majesty to strengthen them to endure the test and trial of their faith in His coming humiliation and death. This close experience made them chief witnesses of Christ after His death. Peter thus had firsthand testimony of Christ's glory on the holy mount, having witnessed His majesty and heard the Father's voice declare Him to be His beloved Son. They were to bear testimony of what they had seen to the other disciples, that their faith might be strengthened also.
These same three who had seen His glory on the mount were later chosen to go farther with Him into Gethsemane to watch and pray with Him in His agony. They had been with Him at the transfiguration where they saw Moses and Elijah speaking with Jesus and heard the voice from heaven. Their earlier experience of His glory stands in contrast with their presence beside Him in the garden during His coming struggle. Judas was not among the three chosen to go up the high mountain to witness the transfiguration, and his exclusion aroused his jealousy.
Purpose and Divine Revelation
Jesus led them up to pray and to give them added proof of His Messiahship, revealing the glory He had with the Father before the world began as His divinity shone forth through His humanity. He sought that revelation in prayer for Himself and for them, that their faith would not fail and that they would know His shameful death belonged to the divine plan of redemption and was necessary for His glory, the Father's glory, and humanity's share in that glory. The prayer was answered when heaven opened with holy radiance enshrouding the kneeling Christ until He stood in God-like majesty with soul-agony gone, meeting glory descending from heaven. His face shone like the sun with serene light, and His garments became white as light and glittering like the noonday sun.
The Father's voice from the cloud and the Excellent Glory declared Him God's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased and commanded all to hear Him, lifting Him above humanity to commune with Him. Much concerning Christ is to be learned from this, revealing the character of the Father as manifested through the Son. Christ stands pre-eminent above every teacher and authority in the world, and every word He utters is to be obeyed as law and as life for eternal interest. The manifestation was to forever remove unbelief and lingering doubt, giving undeniable evidence and sure proof that He is the promised Messiah and Son of God, so that sorrow and disappointment at His crucifixion would not destroy confidence.
It was meant to strengthen their faith to endure the test of His humiliation, suffering, and crucifixion, giving them a glimpse of the Saviour's future glory to bear testimony to the other disciples that their faith might be strengthened also. The glory also strengthened Jesus Himself before His betrayal and crucifixion, glorified by His Father to bear His afflictions and final sufferings. The vision was to be kept secret until after His resurrection and then borne as testimony to others to strengthen their faith and confirm that He was the Son of God. Peter later recalled being on the holy mount as an eyewitness of His majesty and hearing with his own ears the voice from the Excellent Glory giving Him honor and glory, as proof of the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and not cunningly devised fables, standing together with the more sure word of prophecy as a light shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in hearts.
Moses Elijah and Prophecy
The six days in Matthew 17:1 fulfill the promise that some standing with Jesus would not taste death till they saw the Son of man coming in His kingdom and saw the kingdom of God come with power. Six days after that promise He was transfigured before Peter and James and John, His face shining as the sun and His raiment white as the light, with Moses and Elias appearing talking with Him. The event gave the three a glimpse of the future glory of the Saviour to strengthen their faith for the trying scenes of His humiliation and crucifixion. They saw His majesty and heard God's voice from the overshadowing cloud declare Him His beloved Son and command them to hear Him.
On the mountain Jesus appeared in heaven's glory, His divinity shining through His humanity and meeting the glory descending from heaven, with His face shining like the sun and His clothes white as light and glistening. Moses and Elijah appeared beside Him in glory and talked with Him, opening future scenes before the disciples. The scene was the kingdom of Christ in miniature and a miniature representation of the kingdom of the redeemed. In the glorified figures the disciples saw a preview of His future kingdom.
Moses, who talked with God face to face amid the thunder and lightnings of Sinai, and Elijah, who did not see death but was conducted to heaven in a chariot of fire, were sent from the Father to the Son as bearers of light and glory. They came as messengers to comfort Jesus and to converse with Him concerning the completion of His mission, especially His coming sufferings at Jerusalem. There Moses, Elijah, and Christ spoke about the humiliation of the cross and the deliverance it would bring to those who follow Him. Moses had been honored by God, had spoken with Him face to face, and had seen God's glory.
They were chosen as messengers rather than angels because they had lived on earth as men and had experienced human sorrow, suffering, and the trials of earthly life. Having shared His longing for the salvation of souls, they could sympathize with Jesus in a way the hosts around the throne could not. Elijah had represented Christ as prophet to Israel, and Moses had stood in the place of Christ as leader of Israel, making them fittest to minister to the Son of God. Together they represented the law and the prophets, teaching that the teachings of the Old Testament are not done away with the preaching of the gospel of Christ but are fully in accord with the New and embraced in the new dispensation. Moses thereby stood within the heritage of his people and bore witness to Christ, in whom the promises to Israel centered, fulfilling his long-standing prayer to share in Israel's inheritance.
Moses represented those who will be raised from the dead at Christ's second coming, while Elijah represented those who will be alive then, changed from mortal to immortal and translated to heaven without dying or seeing death. Elijah represents the saints who will be alive at Christ's second advent and be changed and taken to heaven without experiencing death, and Moses represents those raised from the dead then. Thus the two figures display both classes of the risen righteous and the translated living in the kingdom of the redeemed.
Memory and Wider Connections
The voice from the cloud on the mountain was one of two testimonies to Christ as the Son before the cross, the other being given at His baptism. It was the second of three occasions during His ministry when God's voice was heard.
Peter, James, and John witnessed the transfiguration and heard that voice, and what they saw and heard strengthened their faith that Jesus was the Son of God. They remembered it during His trial, though they still hoped He would use His power to escape death and defeat His enemies. They remembered the glory surrounding Him and God's voice from the cloud again in Gethsemane, and seeing heavenly glory there reassured them that God was caring for Him. They recognized the bright light of the angel shining upon and around Jesus as the same glory that had encircled Him at the transfiguration and in the temple, and because God had taken Him in charge and an angel was present to protect Him from His foes they had no further fear for their Master. Even so they were weary and heavy with sleep and dropped again into unconsciousness.
These same three had seen His glory on the mount, Moses and Elijah speaking with Him, and the voice from heaven, and that earlier experience stands in contrast with their presence beside Him in the garden during His coming struggle. The contrast presents redemption as the Divine One stooping to rescue the lost.
After descending from the mountain Jesus met a demon-afflicted child and freed him, so within a few hours the disciples saw both Christ's heavenly glory with heavenly messengers present and the voice from the radiant glory proclaiming Him the Son of God, and His power to rescue the suffering boy enslaved by Satan. The mountain experience leads back to service, for souls possessed by demons wait in the valley needing release through faith and prayer. Those who have stood with Christ on the mount beholding His beauty as the chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely become radiant with the glory of the Lord risen upon them, receive the word to arise and shine, and go down into the plain where souls enslaved by Satan wait for the word of faith and prayer to set them free. His servants must thus leave moments of spiritual illumination to help suffering people in the plain, having drunk most deeply of His self-sacrificing love that vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and moves the disciple as it moved the Lord to live and labor and sacrifice even unto death for the saving of humanity.
Call to Watch and Serve
Jesus took them up that they might watch and pray with Him while He pleaded hour after hour for strength to bear His afflictions and for grace for them to bear the terrible trials ahead, and at first they united their prayers with His in sincere devotion. As the hours dragged on they were overcome by weariness and loss of sleep and fell asleep even while trying to keep interest. They therefore heard little of what passed between Christ and the heavenly messengers, and by sleeping they did not receive the light God desired to give them, a knowledge of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
By sleeping they lost the blessings that might have been theirs by sharing His self-sacrifice, showing themselves slow of heart to believe and little appreciative of the treasure with which Heaven sought to enrich them. Because they did not remain watching, when His predictions came to pass and they were brought over the ground of test and trial, they failed to endure the proving. Peter denied his Lord before His enemies, and they lost their faith as they beheld the Son of God dying upon the cross, where some rays of hope would otherwise have lighted up the darkness and sustained their faith.
Peter's offer to build shelters reflected the mistaken hope that Elijah had come as prophecy foretold and that Christ's kingdom was about to be established on earth, with the heavenly messengers protecting Jesus from death and establishing His earthly rule, forgetting that His suffering and death were necessary to fulfill the plan of salvation. For James the meaning of sharing Christ's cup and baptism of suffering was brought home more fully later by his imprisonment and execution. The mountain meeting with Jesus was a time of communion that prepared the disciples for their mission, showing that communion with God precedes power as later seen in the power and glory of Pentecost.
The transfiguration did a special work in their hearts by revealing God in its brightness and glory, and it still urges that same heart-work, giving the living power of His example beyond mere theory, joined to His life as the humble, self-denying worker bearing weariness to reach multitudes in the thoroughfares and help souls walk the narrow path of holiness. Those who stand with Christ on the mount beholding His beauty as chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely become radiant with the glory of the Lord risen upon them. They receive the word to arise and shine, and to go down into the plain where souls enslaved by Satan wait for the word of faith and prayer to set them free, having drunk most deeply of His self-sacrificing love that vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and moves the disciple as it moved the Lord to live and labor and sacrifice even unto death for the saving of humanity.
The glory that strengthened Him before His betrayal and crucifixion and prepared Him for His final sufferings points to the glory that will attend God's faithful people in their final conflict, when strengthened by the latter rain they will share in the light and power of God's closing work. The mount stands as an image of arduous spiritual ascent marked by strength, endurance, fervor, self-sacrifice, and turning from worldly idols toward knowledge and love. Jesus still comes to people at times in that bright raiment of transfiguration glory, just as at other times He comes in the humble garments in which He walked the hills and valleys of Palestine, to be received by faith with delight in finding Him in that bright form.
After six days from His plain foretelling of His humiliation and shameful death and the cross His followers must bear, Jesus led Peter, James and John out of the noisy town and up a steep, lonely high mountain apart from the crowds and the other disciples. Those six days had been long days of grief, perplexity and fear for disciples who loved Him yet could not understand His voluntary humiliation. He brought His three most trusted disciples there to pray and to give them proof of His Messiahship by revealing the glory He had with the Father, His divinity shining through His humanity. On the mount His face shone like the sun and His garments became white as light while the Father's voice declared Him the beloved Son to be heard and obeyed, to remove doubt and strengthen them to endure His coming suffering and crucifixion as part of the divine plan. With Moses and Elijah talking of His coming death at Jerusalem, the scene gave a miniature of His kingdom, with Moses representing the resurrected and Elijah the living translated at His second coming.
Time Place and Setting
After six days counts six long, gloomy days from when Jesus gathered His disciples and told them plainly that He must live as a humble, homeless wanderer and go to Jerusalem to suffer humiliation and shameful death as a malefactor at the hands of His persecutors. He had discouraged all their hopes of His temporal aggrandizement as a mighty king, and told them they also must bear the cross, suffer corresponding humiliation, reproach and shame, and be crucified to the world, resigning all hope of its pomp and pleasure, or they could never share His glory. Because they loved their Master, sadness oppressed their hearts and doubt harassed their minds, for it seemed incomprehensible that the Son of God should be subjected to cruel humiliation and leave them in greater darkness, and they were deeply grieved and could not understand why He would voluntarily meet such an ignominious fate. They thought of taking Him by force to a place of security but dared not because He had denounced such projects as suggestions of Satan, and they comforted themselves that some unforeseen circumstance might avert His doom, and thus they sorrowed and doubted, hoped and feared through the six days. Those were days of sadness and perplexity, grief, sorrow, doubt and fear, when they feared their hopes would be crushed yet still saw daily evidence of His divinity.
After those six days Jesus led Peter, James and John out of the noisy town, across the fields, and up a steep, rugged, lonely high mountain apart from the crowds and from the other disciples. The climb is recorded as taking them apart up into a high mountain, opening future scenes before them. The ascent took place near evening at sunset, with the setting sun leaving the valleys in shadow and lingering on the mountaintops before dying out into night darkness in harmony with their sorrowful lives. He took them up at night to pray, and He resorted to that mountain solitude and spent the night there in prayer to His Father.
The climb followed a day of travel, teaching and healing the sick, and both Jesus and the disciples were very weary and fatigued from labor and from toiling up the steep ascent. Though accustomed to retiring into solitudes for prayer, the disciples wondered that He would climb the rugged mountain after such fatigue, yet they asked no questions about His purpose and patiently accompanied Him. He sought the high elevation for retirement from the crowds that continually sought Him, and for solitude, meditation and prayer away from the crowds. Having gained the place He sought, He engaged in earnest prayer to His Father hour after hour with tears and importunity.
Three Disciples Chosen
The three taken apart were Peter, James, and John, the three most devoted disciples in especially close and trusted relationship with Jesus. James was among those brought into the closest relationship with Christ. There on the high mountain they witnessed Jesus transfigured and glorified.
They were favored to witness a manifestation of His divinity, for Jesus the Majesty of heaven and King of glory had clothed His divinity with humanity, and on the mount His divinity shone forth in all its glorious brightness. They were given a glimpse of the Saviour's future glory and majesty to strengthen them to endure the test and trial of their faith in His coming humiliation and death. This close experience made them chief witnesses of Christ after His death. Peter thus had firsthand testimony of Christ's glory on the holy mount, having witnessed His majesty and heard the Father's voice declare Him to be His beloved Son. They were to bear testimony of what they had seen to the other disciples, that their faith might be strengthened also.
These same three who had seen His glory on the mount were later chosen to go farther with Him into Gethsemane to watch and pray with Him in His agony. They had been with Him at the transfiguration where they saw Moses and Elijah speaking with Jesus and heard the voice from heaven. Their earlier experience of His glory stands in contrast with their presence beside Him in the garden during His coming struggle. Judas was not among the three chosen to go up the high mountain to witness the transfiguration, and his exclusion aroused his jealousy.
Purpose and Divine Revelation
Jesus led them up to pray and to give them added proof of His Messiahship, revealing the glory He had with the Father before the world began as His divinity shone forth through His humanity. He sought that revelation in prayer for Himself and for them, that their faith would not fail and that they would know His shameful death belonged to the divine plan of redemption and was necessary for His glory, the Father's glory, and humanity's share in that glory. The prayer was answered when heaven opened with holy radiance enshrouding the kneeling Christ until He stood in God-like majesty with soul-agony gone, meeting glory descending from heaven. His face shone like the sun with serene light, and His garments became white as light and glittering like the noonday sun.
The Father's voice from the cloud and the Excellent Glory declared Him God's beloved Son in whom He is well pleased and commanded all to hear Him, lifting Him above humanity to commune with Him. Much concerning Christ is to be learned from this, revealing the character of the Father as manifested through the Son. Christ stands pre-eminent above every teacher and authority in the world, and every word He utters is to be obeyed as law and as life for eternal interest. The manifestation was to forever remove unbelief and lingering doubt, giving undeniable evidence and sure proof that He is the promised Messiah and Son of God, so that sorrow and disappointment at His crucifixion would not destroy confidence.
It was meant to strengthen their faith to endure the test of His humiliation, suffering, and crucifixion, giving them a glimpse of the Saviour's future glory to bear testimony to the other disciples that their faith might be strengthened also. The glory also strengthened Jesus Himself before His betrayal and crucifixion, glorified by His Father to bear His afflictions and final sufferings. The vision was to be kept secret until after His resurrection and then borne as testimony to others to strengthen their faith and confirm that He was the Son of God. Peter later recalled being on the holy mount as an eyewitness of His majesty and hearing with his own ears the voice from the Excellent Glory giving Him honor and glory, as proof of the power and coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and not cunningly devised fables, standing together with the more sure word of prophecy as a light shining in a dark place until the day dawn and the day star arise in hearts.
Moses Elijah and Prophecy
The six days in Matthew 17:1 fulfill the promise that some standing with Jesus would not taste death till they saw the Son of man coming in His kingdom and saw the kingdom of God come with power. Six days after that promise He was transfigured before Peter and James and John, His face shining as the sun and His raiment white as the light, with Moses and Elias appearing talking with Him. The event gave the three a glimpse of the future glory of the Saviour to strengthen their faith for the trying scenes of His humiliation and crucifixion. They saw His majesty and heard God's voice from the overshadowing cloud declare Him His beloved Son and command them to hear Him.
On the mountain Jesus appeared in heaven's glory, His divinity shining through His humanity and meeting the glory descending from heaven, with His face shining like the sun and His clothes white as light and glistening. Moses and Elijah appeared beside Him in glory and talked with Him, opening future scenes before the disciples. The scene was the kingdom of Christ in miniature and a miniature representation of the kingdom of the redeemed. In the glorified figures the disciples saw a preview of His future kingdom.
Moses, who talked with God face to face amid the thunder and lightnings of Sinai, and Elijah, who did not see death but was conducted to heaven in a chariot of fire, were sent from the Father to the Son as bearers of light and glory. They came as messengers to comfort Jesus and to converse with Him concerning the completion of His mission, especially His coming sufferings at Jerusalem. There Moses, Elijah, and Christ spoke about the humiliation of the cross and the deliverance it would bring to those who follow Him. Moses had been honored by God, had spoken with Him face to face, and had seen God's glory.
They were chosen as messengers rather than angels because they had lived on earth as men and had experienced human sorrow, suffering, and the trials of earthly life. Having shared His longing for the salvation of souls, they could sympathize with Jesus in a way the hosts around the throne could not. Elijah had represented Christ as prophet to Israel, and Moses had stood in the place of Christ as leader of Israel, making them fittest to minister to the Son of God. Together they represented the law and the prophets, teaching that the teachings of the Old Testament are not done away with the preaching of the gospel of Christ but are fully in accord with the New and embraced in the new dispensation. Moses thereby stood within the heritage of his people and bore witness to Christ, in whom the promises to Israel centered, fulfilling his long-standing prayer to share in Israel's inheritance.
Moses represented those who will be raised from the dead at Christ's second coming, while Elijah represented those who will be alive then, changed from mortal to immortal and translated to heaven without dying or seeing death. Elijah represents the saints who will be alive at Christ's second advent and be changed and taken to heaven without experiencing death, and Moses represents those raised from the dead then. Thus the two figures display both classes of the risen righteous and the translated living in the kingdom of the redeemed.
Memory and Wider Connections
The voice from the cloud on the mountain was one of two testimonies to Christ as the Son before the cross, the other being given at His baptism. It was the second of three occasions during His ministry when God's voice was heard.
Peter, James, and John witnessed the transfiguration and heard that voice, and what they saw and heard strengthened their faith that Jesus was the Son of God. They remembered it during His trial, though they still hoped He would use His power to escape death and defeat His enemies. They remembered the glory surrounding Him and God's voice from the cloud again in Gethsemane, and seeing heavenly glory there reassured them that God was caring for Him. They recognized the bright light of the angel shining upon and around Jesus as the same glory that had encircled Him at the transfiguration and in the temple, and because God had taken Him in charge and an angel was present to protect Him from His foes they had no further fear for their Master. Even so they were weary and heavy with sleep and dropped again into unconsciousness.
These same three had seen His glory on the mount, Moses and Elijah speaking with Him, and the voice from heaven, and that earlier experience stands in contrast with their presence beside Him in the garden during His coming struggle. The contrast presents redemption as the Divine One stooping to rescue the lost.
After descending from the mountain Jesus met a demon-afflicted child and freed him, so within a few hours the disciples saw both Christ's heavenly glory with heavenly messengers present and the voice from the radiant glory proclaiming Him the Son of God, and His power to rescue the suffering boy enslaved by Satan. The mountain experience leads back to service, for souls possessed by demons wait in the valley needing release through faith and prayer. Those who have stood with Christ on the mount beholding His beauty as the chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely become radiant with the glory of the Lord risen upon them, receive the word to arise and shine, and go down into the plain where souls enslaved by Satan wait for the word of faith and prayer to set them free. His servants must thus leave moments of spiritual illumination to help suffering people in the plain, having drunk most deeply of His self-sacrificing love that vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and moves the disciple as it moved the Lord to live and labor and sacrifice even unto death for the saving of humanity.
Call to Watch and Serve
Jesus took them up that they might watch and pray with Him while He pleaded hour after hour for strength to bear His afflictions and for grace for them to bear the terrible trials ahead, and at first they united their prayers with His in sincere devotion. As the hours dragged on they were overcome by weariness and loss of sleep and fell asleep even while trying to keep interest. They therefore heard little of what passed between Christ and the heavenly messengers, and by sleeping they did not receive the light God desired to give them, a knowledge of the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.
By sleeping they lost the blessings that might have been theirs by sharing His self-sacrifice, showing themselves slow of heart to believe and little appreciative of the treasure with which Heaven sought to enrich them. Because they did not remain watching, when His predictions came to pass and they were brought over the ground of test and trial, they failed to endure the proving. Peter denied his Lord before His enemies, and they lost their faith as they beheld the Son of God dying upon the cross, where some rays of hope would otherwise have lighted up the darkness and sustained their faith.
Peter's offer to build shelters reflected the mistaken hope that Elijah had come as prophecy foretold and that Christ's kingdom was about to be established on earth, with the heavenly messengers protecting Jesus from death and establishing His earthly rule, forgetting that His suffering and death were necessary to fulfill the plan of salvation. For James the meaning of sharing Christ's cup and baptism of suffering was brought home more fully later by his imprisonment and execution. The mountain meeting with Jesus was a time of communion that prepared the disciples for their mission, showing that communion with God precedes power as later seen in the power and glory of Pentecost.
The transfiguration did a special work in their hearts by revealing God in its brightness and glory, and it still urges that same heart-work, giving the living power of His example beyond mere theory, joined to His life as the humble, self-denying worker bearing weariness to reach multitudes in the thoroughfares and help souls walk the narrow path of holiness. Those who stand with Christ on the mount beholding His beauty as chiefest among ten thousand and altogether lovely become radiant with the glory of the Lord risen upon them. They receive the word to arise and shine, and to go down into the plain where souls enslaved by Satan wait for the word of faith and prayer to set them free, having drunk most deeply of His self-sacrificing love that vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and moves the disciple as it moved the Lord to live and labor and sacrifice even unto death for the saving of humanity.
The glory that strengthened Him before His betrayal and crucifixion and prepared Him for His final sufferings points to the glory that will attend God's faithful people in their final conflict, when strengthened by the latter rain they will share in the light and power of God's closing work. The mount stands as an image of arduous spiritual ascent marked by strength, endurance, fervor, self-sacrifice, and turning from worldly idols toward knowledge and love. Jesus still comes to people at times in that bright raiment of transfiguration glory, just as at other times He comes in the humble garments in which He walked the hills and valleys of Palestine, to be received by faith with delight in finding Him in that bright form.