THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION AND END OF CHRIST'S GALILEAN MINISTRY (Suggested Reading: Chapter 9:18-50)
The heart of man remains the same today as yesterday— alienated from God. Some time after the Second World War, I was sitting in a barber shop having my hair cut and trying to reach the barber with the gospel. He said to me, "You remind me of a customer of mine who is always sending money out of the country to support missionaries in the East. My question is, why don't the people in the East send missionaries to us? Isn't their religion as good as ours?" Well, if this man is alive today, which is doubtful, he would see his longing fulfilled, for there is a Buddhist church in his city now. I told him that all the great religions in the world were founded by dead men. Buddha is dead, Mohammed is dead, but Christ— who became dead for our sins, for death had no claim on Him— is alive forevermore and has the keys of death and Hades see Rev. 1:1818I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. (Revelation 1:18). Christianity is founded on an empty tomb and an occupied throne. That Man whom sinners crucified is now seated on His Father's throne in glory and will leave it one day to be the Judge of the living and the dead.
Peter's Confession of Christ—9:18-27
The heart of the barber was the heart of the men of two thousand years ago. The Lord said to His disciples, "Who do the crowds say that I am?" Their answers showed that men made no distinction between Him and the present and former religious leaders of the people. But Peter rightly answered, "The Christ of God.”
Christ's supreme and overriding claims must be acknowledged. All must bow to Him— there can be no equality to Christ except in the Godhead. Men must acknowledge Him as "The Christ of God" as Peter does here, for God will accept nothing less. When we do, our eyes are opened to see the glory of Christ. Here, however, the cross looms before Him and the Lord tells His Own why His sufferings were necessary before the kingdom can be ushered in in power and glory.
Now the Mount of Transfiguration foreshadows that glory, just before the close of the heavenly part of the kingdom. When the kingdom comes, it will be shared by Moses (representing the law) and Elias (the prophets), which, taken together, stand for the Old Testament saints; and Peter, James, and John, representing the New Testament saints. The saints of all ages who are in heaven will have glorified bodies –bodies suited to men entering the glory of God, of which the cloud is the symbol. The scene also has a present application, that is, it shows us our intercourse now with the Lord on high— calmly in communion with Him on heavenly subjects until the day when the power and the glory, postponed by His sufferings and death, are publicly displayed on earth. Following the transfiguration, and descended from the Mount, the Lord tells His own more about His coming sufferings and death. But it makes no impression (v. 45) as it did on the holy mount. It is only as we are in spirit with Christ in glory and not occupied with ourselves or our circumstances, that the impress of His death comes upon our spirits.
The Holy Mount—9:29-36
The opening and closing of the Lord's ministry is marked by prayer. Indeed, the Lord ascends the mountain for that distinct purpose— that He might be alone with God. At the Jordan, the lowly, depressed place where His ministry began, He prayed; at the mountain, the exalted place where His Galilean ministry formally ended, He prayed. God chose the physical features to portray first His Son's humiliation as a dependent Man at the beginning, and then His exaltation by God at the end. The theme opens up to us in Phil. 2, which is commended to the study of the reader.
Peter, John, and James accompany Him as eye witnesses. Peter writes of the event in his second Epistle. He tells us that he, John and James "were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honor and glory when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard when we were with Him in the holy mount." 2 Peter 1:16-1816For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 18And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. (2 Peter 1:16‑18).
And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and effulgent— that is, radiant, giving off light. This is a picture of Christ glorified, when He reigns in the kingdom. Because we belong to Christ, we too shall have bodies of glory like His own body of glory in that coming day.
"With Thee in garments white
Lord Jesus we shall walk
And spotless in that heavenly light
Of all Thy sufferings talk.”
Moses and Elias talk of the same theme as we shall when we appear in glory. Moses represents the law; Elias the prophets— both of which testified to "the sufferings of Christ and the glory which should follow." And so they "spake of His decease which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." In another sense, Moses represents the saints who have died; Elias, who was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:1111And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven. (2 Kings 2:11)), of the saints who will be raptured at the second coming of Christ. Many lines of truth converge on the Mount of Transfiguration, because it is the high point of Christ's ministry and God's verdict of its value. God's sentence on it is deferred, however, until man has the first say. And how unqualified even a great saint like Peter is to have any say! That he was a great saint is shown by his omission of all references to himself when Christ was present. He only says, "it is good for us to be here"— and gives Christ the first place before Moses and Elias. Even so, the inspired verdict is "not knowing what he said." Why? Because Christ must never be ranked with any other man, whether that man be the great of Israel like Moses and Elias, or the great teachers of other countries, whoever they may be. "That in all things He might have the pre-eminence" Col. 1:1818And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. (Colossians 1:18) is the great principle. And so the very moment man does this, God begins to speak and put an end to the matter: "And there came a voice out of the cloud saying 'This is My beloved Son: hear Him.'”
"Assured in faith we enter now
Thy presence where, most blessed
God Thy glory rests upon His brow
Who brought us nigh to Thee by blood.
To Him Thy voice from out the cloud
Once spoke Thy deep, Thy full delight
And now without a veil to shroud
In Him shines forth Thy glory bright.”
The above lines represent the believer's assurance now that the cross is past. Here on the Mount, it is still before Christ, although the very fact He is transfigured shows that His decease was divinely viewed as accomplished already so that God glorified Him in anticipation of it. Still "they feared as they entered into the cloud." "The cloud" in Scripture is always the symbol of the divine glory and presence. This cloud is the Shechinah glory, the dwelling place of the God of Israel. It is the cloud which guided Israel through the wilderness. They stopped or moved with it. Here the cloud is the entrance to the Father's presence, our eternal dwelling place. IC is from the cloud the Father's voice is heard, for He is our Father by virtue of the death of Christ, and so announced in His resurrection John 20. Man cannot be there without the shed blood of Christ. Moses could not enter into the tabernacle "because the cloud abode thereon and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle" Ex. 40:3535And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. (Exodus 40:35). No need for three tabernacles as Peter suggested, but of "a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands —that is to say not of this building" Heb. 9:1111But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; (Hebrews 9:11). No, "by one offering He has perfected forever those that are sanctified" Heb. 10:1414For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. (Hebrews 10:14). It is for this reason that the Father directs our attention to His Son.
The Father's Voice
At the Jordan— the beginning— the Father's voice had said, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." At the end, He does not need to say "in whom I am well pleased," for the Transfiguration itself is sufficient witness of that. Instead, He directs our hearts to the object of His delight, exclaiming, "hear ye Him" as He did to Peter, John and James— men on the earth— not to Moses and Elias. It is not the voice of Moses and Elias— the law and the prophets— to which the Father would open our ears, but the voice of His Son.
The Epistle to the Hebrews begins and ends on this note, which is morally connected with the holy mount. In time past, God had spoken to the fathers by the prophets, but now He is speaking, "in Son"— "who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His Person, etc." see Heb. 1:1, 21God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; (Hebrews 1:1‑2). Then it ends morally in the twelfth chapter "see that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven." V. 25. Then the message continues, "wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." V. 28. It is on this note that Luke's account of the Mount of Transfiguration ends— the kingdom is deferred— the foreshadowing of Christ's glory disappears— and Jesus is found alone. We leave our delightful meditations of the coming glory and walk down from the mountain to serve our rejected King in a world of sin— "and it came to pass, that on the next day, when they were come down from the hill, much people met Him." But let us not forget the Lord's words spoken just before the Transfiguration, which had the coming glory of the kingdom in view, "for whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when He shall come in His own glory and in His Father's and of the holy angels." 9:26.
Satan's Power Overthrown—9:37-50
It is remarkable that the Lord's ministry began by his confrontation with Satan in the desert; here it ends with the casting out of demons— Satan's power over man, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil." 1 John 3:88He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8).
The human race is helpless to deliver itself from Satan's power— it stands alone, defenseless against him until Jesus comes. That is why we have an only son-7:12 dead; an only daughter 8:24—dead; and here, an only child 9:39— indwelt by an unclean spirit who tore and bruised him. Our other great enemy is not Satan, but ourselves. So again, Jesus takes a child— this one a living child— and sits him by Him. The child gives us the secret of greatness once we are delivered, as the three other children showed us who our Deliverer was: Christ. Would we be great in God's kingdom— then let us be nothing that Christ may be all— "For he that is least among you all, the same shall be great." 9:48.
One more lesson is needed before the curtain falls. The heart of man is always sectarian. Lacking the vision of the whole Church of God in the unity with which God sees it, we champion a cause— part of the whole rather than the whole— "Master, we saw one casting out demons in Thy Name and we forbad him, because he followeth not with us." This was a remarkable prohibition on John's part. Hadn't the father of the child, who was possessed with demons, told the Lord, "And I besought Thy disciples to cast him out; and they could not"? Here is the perfect manifestation of the sectarian spirit which pervades the Church at the present time. Unable to do any work for God themselves, the sectarians forbid others who can, because "he followeth not with us." But the Scripture is our guide— not men. And what saith the Scripture— "we ought to obey God rather than men." Acts 5:2929Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29). Now God is speaking in His Son and has told us on the Mount, "Hear ye Him." His closing words, ending His Galilean ministry, are, "Forbid him not, for he that is not against us is for us.”