Now there is another thing to be observed. John leaves out the transfiguration altogether; because his proper work was to dwell, not upon Christ's outward manifestation to the world as Son of man in His kingdom, but on His eternal glory as the only-begotten Son of God; or, as he says himself, “We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father.”
In 2 Peter we have a most interesting allusion to this scene. It is said there (2 Peter 1:1717For 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. (2 Peter 1:17)), “He received from God the Father honor and glory” —confirming what I said, that this scene does not show us so much His essential glory, but that which He received from God the Father, “when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory,” or the cloud, which was the known, external symbol of Jehovah's majesty. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” But mark, “hear ye him” is omitted here. This is very striking. In the three Gospels, not one of them omits the words, “hear ye him.” In the Second Epistle of Peter they are omitted. Matthew gives us the fullest account. All that God the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him.” But the others, that is, Mark and Luke, give, “This is my beloved Son: hear him;” while Peter himself, who was an eyewitness of the scene, omits the words, “hear him.” Matthew shows us the complacency of the Father in Jesus, for the purpose of specially raising the hearts of the Jewish disciples above His mere place as Messiah, to the Father's peculiar delight in Him as the Son; and this as a ground for valuing His word above all. Peter leaves out “hear ye him,” because now, the revelation of Jesus having come out, the point that remains is the Father's delight in Jesus. I do not pretend to say how far the inspired writers knew all the mind of God in such a thing: they wrote as moved by the Holy Ghost.
There are two ways, I would observe, of looking at these differences in the accounts that are given us: the one is the infidel view, and the other the Christian. The infidel way is to suppose that Matthew, Mark, and Luke did their best as men; but that they sometimes made mistakes. The infidel way is always the most foolish in the world. It is not only unworthy of God, but, I repeat, also as absurd as possible when the facts are quietly looked into. How came it to pass that the man who wrote the first gospel gave this scene the most fully? If he had written it after the others, I could conceive his remembering and registering what the others had forgotten; but Matthew gives both the first and minutest account. Mark and Luke leave out some parts, and Peter leaves out what they had all put in— “Hear him.” Such criticism, therefore, is not merely pride of heart, but it is the folly of spoiled children against the word of God.
But, again, let us look at it in the other way. We are ignorant; we know nothing as we ought to know. Let us believe that what God says is perfect—that everything that He has given in His word is perfect; and that in the very differences there is a divine object. Matthew, writing to those who were under Jewish prejudices, brings out the Father's good pleasure in Jesus as His Son, which is the grand thing that lifts up the soul from earth. And as it was the Evangelists who were the first to bring out this new and blessed truth, they all put in, “Hear him.” But Peter, writing long after, makes the person of the Son to be the prime object, and not His revelation. What does Peter mean to teach us, when he says that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation? You cannot understand prophecy if you take it merely piecemeal and by itself. A prophecy confined to particular circumstances and persons loses its chief value. Christ is the substance of prophecy. It is His glory that the prophecies bring out. They are not connected merely with England or France or any other country you may choose: but you must see the connection of the prophecies with Christ; when you do, you have a sure light. God is thinking of His beloved Son, and commending His Son to us. He wants to have our hearts filled with His Son, and not with thoughts about our country or great men. The Son of God is the object of the Father. This is what the Holy Ghost is insisting upon here. He spews that prophecy is a lamp which shines in a dark place, but not when it is severed from the object of God. Take it in connection with its due aim, and all is bright; but connect it with self, and you turn the very prophecy of God into a false light which will lead you astray. Let us, therefore, settle it in our hearts. I am to trust in every word of God; to lay up and consider each word and thought, confiding in the Holy Ghost to lead me into all truth. I must wait upon God to see what the particular design and object of the Holy Ghost is: and “God is faithful who has called us unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” And if He has called us into fellowship with His Son, what will He not tell us about His Son? The Son is before Him; and the Lord grant that He may be before us.
As the disciples came down from the mount, the Lord charges them, saying, “Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.” It was no longer a question of testifying to the kingdom of Christ. That was rejected. This vision was for the disciples, for strengthening their faith in Jesus. The Lord was occupying Himself with the souls of believers, not with the world. There is always a period when testimony of an outward kind may close. You may remember the time when Paul separates the disciples that were at Ephesus from the multitude, and leads them into what more particularly concerned them. Now for the present time till the Holy Ghost was given, till the Lord was risen from the dead, and power came from on high to make these things a fresh starting point, it was no use to speak of them any further. “His disciples asked Him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come and restore all things; but I say unto you that Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed.” He shows that to faith Elias was come. If the nation had the word, Elias would have come in person, according to the prophecy in Malachi; but the nation refusing Jesus, the disciples were instructed to regard the testimony of John the Baptist as being virtually that of Elias: This accords with the statement that we have in chapter 11, where it was said, “If ye wilt receive it, this is Elias which was for to come;” showing that it was not Elias actually and literally, but the spirit and power of Elias in the person of John the Baptist. The Messiah is coming in glory by and by, and Elias is coming too. But the Messiah was come in weakness now, and humiliation; and His forerunner had been put to death. It was Elias who was come in the person of the suffering John the Baptist, and his testimony was despised. The disciples are let into the secret of this: “Elias is come already, and they have done unto Him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that He spake unto them of John the Baptist.”
But now another thing is noticed. The power of Satan is in no wise put aside by the effect of the glory of Jesus being revealed upon the mountain. At the fact of that same mountain where the Lord displayed the glory of the kingdom, Satan displayed his power. It was not broken yet. The kingdom was only a matter of testimony. The disciples failed to draw upon the resources of Christ to put down the power of Satan. It came out thus. A man comes to the Lord, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is lunatic and sore vexed; for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.” There was every kind of trial brought together. “And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil, and he departed out of him. And the child was cured from that very hour.” And when the disciples wanted to know how this was, that they could not cast him out, He tells them, “Because of your unbelief.” It is a wonderful thing, but nothing can be more sure, than that unbelief is at the root of the difficulties Satan foists in. He has lost his power over those that have faith. A believer could never, if walking with the Lord, fall under the power of Satan. We must distinguish the falling into sin from falling into the power of Satan; which latter I believe to be his power in eclipsing all confidence in the goodness of God. Hence when a man is put away from the Church, he is delivered unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, though it is that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Whenever a person is really and rightly put away from the table of the Lord, unless there is a restoration of spirit, which can only be when the power of Satan is defeated, exceeding power is acquired over the soul. But here we have it as to the body. This child is described as a lunatic and sore vexed. But unbelief entirely misses the power of God which ought to have been at the command of the disciples. “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place.” The very least working of faith in the soul is power available for present difficulties. The power of the world, the settled power of anything here, which is what the mountain sets forth, would completely disappear before the faith of the disciples. “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.” There must be dependence in the conflict with the power of evil. It was Christ's moral glory; it is one secret of strength. The assumption of power because of association with Jesus simply fails and turns to shame. There must be self-emptiness, and self-denial, that God may act. When Jesus descends, all Satan's power is broken and vanishes.
Then comes another declaration of His sufferings, but I will not dwell upon that now, beyond remarking that, as in chap. 16:21, we had His suffering through the Jews (elders, chief priests, and scribes), so here it is rather Gentile rejection. “The Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men.” This follows the manifestation of His glory as Son of man, while the other followed the confession of His still deeper glory as Son of God.
In conclusion, let us look at the beautiful tale of the piece of money demanded for the temple. Peter there answers quickly, according to his usual warmth of character. When the tax-gatherer came, who was connected with the temple, and the usual fee was demanded, Peter answered very hastily, that of course his Master would pay this tribute. His mind went not beyond their Jewish position. But our Lord anticipates Peter when they come to the house, and says to him, “What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute, of their own children or of strangers?” It was not that any king of the earth was demanding tribute now from them, but it was a payment for Jehovah's temple. Peter answers truly enough, Of strangers. Then Jesus says to him, “Then are the children free.” Nothing can be more beautiful. For the truth taught us here is this: whatever be the glory of the kingdom that is coming, whatever the power of Satan that disappears before the word of Jesus, whatever the faith that can remove mountains, nothing is to take the Son of God out of the place of grace. It may be that there is no claim, no right to ask—the children are free. It would be an absurdity to suppose that among the kings of the earth, the children would come under the same circumstances as strangers in the payment of tribute. They are exempt. Jesus takes that place, and most sweetly too He puts it in a general form. The principle of it would be true of others, as well as of Himself: the children were to be free. He puts it in the broadest form, in order to give an idea of the place of blessing into which the children of the kingdom would be brought—the children of Him in whose name this demand might be made. “Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money; that take, and give unto them for me and thee.” This is the great wonder of Christ, and the practical wonder of Christianity—that while we have the consciousness of glory, and ought to pass through this world as sons of glory as well as sons of God, for that very reason the Lord calls us to be the humblest, the meekest, taking no place upon the earth. I do not mean claiming no place for Christ. It is our business to live for nothing but for Christ and the truth: but where it is a question of ourselves to be willing to be trampled upon, and counted as the filth of the world and the offscouring of all things. Flesh and blood cannot like it; but it is the power of the Spirit of God raising us above nature. It is not hastiness of feeling. It is not persons talking about their rights or anything of the kind. Here we have the consciousness that the children were free—fullness of privilege their portion, but at the same time, “lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea.... thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.” This is the place of a Christian: not contending for anything that pertains to ourselves; yet earnest for what pertains to God; but in what concerns ourselves, the willingness to suffer. See the manner in which our Lord provides for all demands for this tribute. He directs Peter how to find the piece of money, and says, “That take and give unto them for me and thee.” What a joy to think that Jesus associates us with Himself and Himself provides for everything, if we would only let Him; that Jesus who proves Himself in this very thing to be God the Creator, displayed divine knowledge, having the command even of the restless deep, and as such working this most extraordinary miracle (making a fish to provide the money needed to pay the tax of the temple), should thus give us a place with Himself, and undertake for all our need. Nothing can more beautifully show us how, with the consciousness of glory, our place should ever be that of the bending and lowliness of Christ. How blessedly the Son stooped to be the servant, and leads the children into the same path of grace!
The Lord grant us to know how to reconcile these two things. We can only do it so far as our eye is upon Christ.