The chapter at which we have been last looking, has shown us Jesus rejected as Christ or Messiah, confessed as the Son of the living God, and about to return in glory as the Son of man. But along with the glory in which He is to come, and reward each according to his works, we have His suffering: not merely rejection, but His being put to death—raised, no doubt, the third day, but still the suffering Son of man, and, as the Son of man, returning in glory. Following up this subject of His Father's glory, in which He declares He is to come with His angels, and judge in His kingdom, we have now a picture given on the holy mount: a picture most striking, and this in a twofold point of view. The glory, as we saw, of the kingdom, depends upon His being the Son of man, the exalted man who had erst suffered, and into whose hands all glory is committed—who had, at every cost, retrieved the honor of God, and is to make effectual the blessing of man: who, by virtue of His suffering, has already brought to naught the power of Satan for those who believe, and who eventually, when the kingdom comes, is to expel Satan altogether, and bring in that for which God has been waiting—a kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world. Accordingly, “After six days” (type of the ordinary term of work here below), “Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart.” That is, He takes chosen witnesses; for it was merely a testimony to the kingdom—not exact the kingdom, but the sample of it that He had referred to when He said, “There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.” The point there is the Son of man coming, rather than the kingdom itself; and what follows in our chapter is only a partial view of it, as illustrative of the glory of the rejected Son of man. But partial as it was, nothing could be more blessed, save the thing itself; and faith brings us into wonderful present realizing of that which is to be. It is “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of thing not seen.” The kingdom, of course, of which our Lord spoke, is not yet arrived. When it is said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,” it is clear He speaks of a kingdom which we do enter now. For John does not speak of it as a thing of mere outward manifestation, but was giving a deeper revelation of the kingdom, as it is true now, into which every one that is born of God comes, anal which shall yet be displayed with its heavenly and its earthly things. But Matthew, who takes up the Jewish part, or Old Testament prediction of the kingdom, gives us the presentation of the Son of man coming in His kingdom.
The Lord, accordingly, fulfilling His word, takes these disciples “up into an high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.” The sun is the image of supreme glory, as that which rules the day. “And behold there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him.” Moses was the great person by whom the law was given; Elias, the grand sample of the prophets, who recalled the people to a broken law. They were thus the pillars of the Jewish system, whom every true Israelite looked back to with the deepest feelings of reverence: one of them singled out as the only Jew taken to heaven, without passing through death; the other, lest he should become an object of worship after his death, having the singular honor of being buried by the Lord. These two appear in the presence of our Lord. They were known to be Moses and Elias: there seems to have been no difficulty in recognizing them. So, in the resurrection-state, the distinction of persons will be kept up thoroughly. There will be no such thing as that kind of sameness which blots out the peculiarities of each. Though there will be the termination of earthly relationships, and no peculiar links will survive in heaven which connected one with another, no matter how closely, upon earth. Yet each will retain his own individuality—with this mighty difference, of course, that all saints will bear the image of the heavenly. All men are after the pattern of the earthly now: for we all in the body resemble fallen Adam now, yet are we not all lost in one common undistinguishable throng. We each have our own proper character and our peculiar conformation of body. So in glory, each will be known from what he is. Moses and Elias are seen here as glorified, but as Moses and Elias; and the Lord is transfigured in their midst. “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, one for Moses, and one for Elias;” showing that he perfectly well knew which was which. “While he yet spike, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them: and, behold, a voice out of the cloud which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him.” I conceive there is the grand depth of the whole passage. Peter, meaning to do honor to his Master, but in a human way—Peter, still savoring in a measure the things of men and not of God, proposes to put his Master on common ground with the heads of the law and of the prophets. But it must not be. The Father at once breaks silence. New revelations were about to follow, and indeed were being made. Whatever might be the value of Moses—whatever the special charge of Elias, who were they, and what, in presence of the Son of God? The Son may make nothing of Himself; but the Father loves the Son. Peter may put Him on a level with the most honored of mankind; but the Father's purpose is, that every knee should bow to Him—that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. Man never does this, seeing simply man in the Son, in no adequate way honoring Him with divine homage. Faith does, for it sees God in the Son—hears God in Him, and also hears Him in the peculiarly blessed relationship of Father. For if Jesus were conceived to be simply God, and not the Son, it would be an incomparably less blessed a revelation than that which we have in Jesus. If such a thing could be as divine nature, without the blessed relationship of Sonship with the Father, we should lose the very sweetest part of our blessing. For it is not barely the deity of Jesus that has to be owned—though that lies at the bottom of all truth; but the eternal relationship of the Son with the Father. Not merely was He Son in this world: it is most dangerous to limit the Sonship of Christ to that, for it is from all eternity. People reason that, because He is called Son, He must have had a beginning in time, subsequently to the Father. All such argumentation ought to be banished from the soul of a Christian. The Scripture doctrine has no reference to priority of time, but He is called Son in respect of affection and intimate nearness of relationship. It is the pattern of the blessed place into which grace brings us through union with the Lord Jesus Christ, though of course there be ineffable heights and depths beyond in Him. But if we are simple about it, we gather from it the deepest joy that is to be found in the knowledge of the true God—and that, in His Son.
The Father, then, interrupts the word of Peter, and answers Himself. The bright cloud that overshadowed them, Peter well knew to be the cloud of Jehovah's presence: but the Father adds, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” It is not, This is your Messiah—though, of course, He was this; but He brings out the grand New Testament revelation of Jesus. He reveals Him out as His own beloved Son; and, further, asserts His unqualified delight in Him. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him:” this last, also, a statement of all importance. What was Moses, and what Elias now? They are entirely left out in the word of the Father. I need not say that every one who heard Jesus was the Son of God would be very far from despising Moses and Elias. They who understand grace have a far deeper respect for the law than the man who muddles grace and law together. The only full way to value anything that is of God is in the intelligence of His grace. I do not understand myself nor God till I know His grace; and I cannot know His grace, except as I see it in the person of His Son. “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” He was full of grace and truth.
The Father therefore directs attention to Him. He says, “Hear ye Him.” It is no longer, Hear Moses, or hear Elias, but “Hear him.” Could anything be more startling to a Jew? All must give place to the Son. The dignity of the others is not denied, nor their due position slighted. To assert the glory of the sun that shines all day is in no way to despise the stars. God made Moses to be what he was, and Elias received in like manner what He saw fit; but what were they compared with His Son? How fearful it is that men should be at this present moment making two tabernacles—one for Moses (if not, for Elias), and one for the Lord Jesus! What Peter was rebuked for doing is what men have continued to do. They talk about God being the unchangeable God. But He who ordained the night made the day; and as surely as He once spike the law, He has now sent the gospel. I see there the display of the glory of God, showing out now one part of His character and now another. That is not changing. God gives us to see His different attributes, and His various wisdom, and His infinite glory; but I must see each in its own sphere, and understand the intent for which God has given each. Moses and Elias were the two great cardinal points of the Jewish system; but now there is One that eclipses all that system—Jesus, the Son of God; and in presence of Him not even the representatives of the law or the prophets are to be heard. There is a fullness of truth that comes out in the Son of God; and if I want to understand the mind of God, as it concerns me now, I must hear Him. This was most difficult for a Jew to enter into: and, indeed, it was, if possible, more important for him to heed the call than for anyone else; because he had already a religion based upon the law and the prophets. Now the beloved Son of God, in whom the Father Himself expresses His perfect satisfaction, is commended to all. “Hear ye him.” As Jesus, the Son of God, is the object of the Father's infinite love, so He is the means of that same love reaching even to us. If I see Him to be the beloved Son of the Father, my soul resting upon Him, enters into communion with the Father. “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” What is fellowship? It is our having common joy in a common object which we share with one another. Our joy now we share with the Father and with the Son. The Father bids me hear the Son, and the Son declares the Father. We have fellowship with the Father who points out to our hearts Him in whom He Himself delighted; we have fellowship with the Son, inasmuch as He makes known to us the Father. How shall I know the Father?—how know His feelings? But by one way. I look at His Son, and have now seen the Father. The Son speaks, and I have heard His voice also. I know how He acts—His love going out to the very vilest. Such was Christ; and now, I am sure, such is the Father also. I know what God the Father is, when I follow the Son and listen to the Son. It is the Father He is revealing, not Himself: the Son came to make known what the Father was, in a world that knew Him not. Even those who had faith, what thoughts had they about the Father? We have only to look at the disciples, to see that there was no answer to the Father's heart, and no sympathy with it. Although they were born of God, up to this time it was just what Philip said, “Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” Not that he did not divinely know Jesus as the Messiah; but he had not entered into the blessedness of what He was as the Son revealing the Father. It was only after the Holy Ghost came down, after the Son's departure to heaven, that they acquired the consciousness of the grace wherein they stood. So, yet more, the Apostle Paul says, “Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” To know Christ at the right hand of God—to appreciate what He is there, is to know Him far better than if we had heard every discourse, and seen every miracle, of His upon earth. The Holy Ghost brings it out more and more fully through His word. I am not saying now how far we enter practically into what the Holy Ghost is teaching, because this depends upon the measure of our spirituality. But the Holy Ghost is here to take of the things of Christ, and show them to us—to make His glory known and His sufferings, as it is the Father's delight that He should be known. But there were many things that they could not then bear. When the Holy Ghost was come, He should lead them into all truth. This was the great object of the Father. He takes advantage of the very glory of Jesus, seen as Son of man, to show that a still deeper glory attaches to Him. The kingdom of Christ by no means exhausts the glory of His person: and it is as connected with His deeper glory that the existence of the Church is brought out. So the confession of His Sonship brought out the word, “Upon this rock will I build my church.” This is the pith of the New Testament revelation—it is the Father revealing His Son, and the Holy Ghost bringing out what the Son is, both as the image of the invisible God, and as introducing us into fellowship with the Father. It is not God merely known as such, but the Father in the Son, made known by the Holy Ghost. Hence it is, then, that here, in a gospel specially written for Jewish believers, the Holy Ghost takes particular pains to show us this. (Compare the close of chap. xi.) When Peter would have put the Son of God upon an equal ground with the most exalted and favored servants of God, a higher object is brought out. When before Him, Moses and Elias rejoice to take the place of servants merely. The Son is commended of God to us as the One whom we are to hear. This is a truth of all importance, in order to a soul's getting thoroughly settled upon Christian ground. Christians are often afraid of distinguishing between the ways of God, and afraid of bringing out the full place of our Lord. But to give Jesus His rightful place is the first duty of the soul; even as the Father Himself proclaims it. He spoke of Jesus as God the Father speaking of God the Son. We want more singleness of eye, a more fervent spirit, and greater intelligence, to give increasing honor to the Son of God. All heresy has as its root the slighting of Christ. One man makes doing good his object, another the gospel, another the Church, each rising perhaps above the other; but he is practically nearest to God who makes everything a question of Christ. This is the highest spirituality, because it is the most simple reproduction of His own thoughts and feelings.
The disciples, confounded by what they heard, fall on their faces and are sore afraid. There was no communion with it yet. For the present they enter into it but slightly, though it was afterward recalled to them by the Spirit of God. “And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.” The heavenly vision had passed away for a time: they were on the mount alone with Jesus. What a joy that, if it vanish, He abides!
Let us just refer briefly to the account of this scene as given in the other Gospels. In Mark 9 we have this same vision of glory, and it is opened in a similar manner. I am not now going to enter into all the points of difference, for there are several. But what was chiefly on my mind was this: in what the Father says about Christ, the words, “in whom I am well pleased,” are left out. The emphatic point, forgotten nowhere, is that He was the Son; and in Mark, as in Matthew, He is the Son (not a servant only, though truly such), who is to be heard. But the Holy Ghost by Matthew adds, “in whom I am well pleased.” The satisfaction of the Father in the Son is given as the ground why He should be heard, as the full expression of His mind. In Luke we have another thing. (Luke 9:30.) “Behold there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias.” They are called “men” here in a distinct manner, this Gospel having been written more particularly in view of man at large. These men “appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem.” There we have the subject of their conversation—a thing of the deepest interest for us to learn. The death and sufferings of Jesus are the great theme on which men in glory converse with Himself, the Son of God. And Jerusalem, yea, Jerusalem, would be the place of His death, instead of welcoming Him to reign! But then we find the sad trait of human weakness. Peter, and they that were with him, were heavy with sleep. There again we find the Father's affection for His Son. The highest glories of Judaism wane: the Son is to be heard. The moral features are prominent throughout.