Transfiguration Sunday is February 11, 2024.

This is also Quinquagesima Sunday — the fifth before Easter — and the last Sunday in Epiphany, as well as Shrovetide, the three weeks before Lent begins.

Readings for Year B can be found here.

The Gospel is as follows (emphases mine):

Mark 9:2-9

9:2 Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them,

9:3 and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them.

9:4 And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

9:5 Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

9:6 He did not know what to say, for they were terrified.

9:7 Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”

9:8 Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

9:9 As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Commentary comes from Matthew Henry and John MacArthur.

John MacArthur puts this reading in context for us, summarising the end of Mark 8:

Peter’s confession, you remember, was the high point of chapter 8. That confession in verse 29, where he says, “You are the Christ.” That confession is also recorded in Matthew and Luke, and the full confession that he made on behalf of all the followers of Jesus was, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” That is the apex of Mark’s gospel.

That is the midpoint of Mark’s gospel. Everything leads up to this, everything flows down from this. To acknowledge Jesus to be the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God, is to make the right judgment concerning Him. Peter made that judgment not for himself only but for all the apostles and all the disciples who were followers of Christ. What Peter said there is verified in the passage before us. Peter said it by faith; he will now see it by sight.

This is a very important moment in the life of the apostles and for us as well. Remember, Peter makes this great confession, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” with the anticipation that the kingdom would come immediately. But no sooner had he made that confession then, in verse 31, “Jesus began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and then after three days, rise again.”

This was so offensive to Peter and the rest that Peter began to rebuke Jesus in his ignorance. Jesus turned to him and said, “Get behind me, Satan, for you’re not setting your mind on God’s interests but man’s.” Peter was committed to the Glory but not the cross. He was committed to the exaltation but not the humiliation. This was the introduction of the scandal of the death of Christ, which, to the Jews, was a stumbling block. This is so hard for them to swallow that our Lord needs to lift them up after this massive disappointment.

So in verse 38, same day, same time, same place, He says, “The Son of man will also come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” This is not in place of the glory, this is not in place of the kingdom, this is not in place of the second coming, this is not in place of Messiah’s promised reign, He will come – He will come.

It was very difficult for them to handle the word about the death of Christ. It would be even more difficult for them to handle the reality of it as it unfolded a few months from this moment. When He is arrested, they scatter. And Peter, the self-confessed strongest of them all, who says, “I will never forsake You,” denies Christ on three separate occasions, and the rest of them [except for John, who was at the crucifixion] disappear in terror. It’s a horrendous thing for them, the cross. And they will also suffer as martyrs, virtually all of them but John, and John died as an exile, an old man on a rock in the Mediterranean.

Suffering was coming. They needed to be able to survive it. They needed to have the strength and endurance to get through it. And consequently, the Lord does something for them that is very rare in the New Testament – in fact, this is the only time, really. He moves their faith to sight. He lets them see His glory. If you look at a list of miracles, you probably won’t find this one. If you find a book on the miracles of Jesus, this won’t be one of them, and yet this is the single greatest miracle recorded on the pages of the New Testament prior to the resurrection. Let’s pick it up in verse 2.

Six days later, Jesus took Peter, James and John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves; there he was transfigured before them (verse 2).

Matthew Henry says that this was to prevent the offence of the Cross for them:

… he gives them this glimpse of his glory, to show that his sufferings were voluntary, and what a virtue the dignity and glory of his person would put into them, and to prevent the offence of the cross.

He took these three Apostles because they were the most senior and He had the best rapport with them. They were also among the very first He called when John the Baptist was still preaching at the Jordan, Andrew being the other.

Henry says:

Christ did not take all the disciples with him, because the thing was to be kept very private. As there are distinguishing favours which are given to disciples and not to the world, so there are to some disciples and not to others. All the saints are a people near to Christ, but some lie in his bosom. James was the first of all the twelve that died for Christ, and John survived them all, to be the last eyewitness of this glory; he bore record (John 1 14); We saw his glory: and so did Peter, 2 Pet 1 16-18.

Both our commentators agree that the mountain was in the Caesarea Philippi region.

Henry reasons:

Tradition saith, It was on the top of the mount Tabor that Christ was transfigured; and if so, the scripture was fulfilled, Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name, Ps 89 12. Dr. Lightfoot, observing that the last place where we find Christ was in the coasts of Cæsarea-Philippi, which was far from mount Tabor, rather thinks it was a high mountain which Josephus speaks of, near Cæsarea.

MacArthur tells us:

Some have said Mount Tabor, that can’t be, that’s too far south and too low. This is a high mountain. They’re in Caesarea Philippi, the region to the north of Galilee, and a high mountain in that area would be Mount Hermon. Mount Hermon towers over the Caesarea Philippi region where Peter’s confession and these moments have taken place. Very likely that mountain.

Henry explains ‘transfigured’:

He was transfigured before them; he appeared in another manner than he used to do. This was a change of the accidents, the substance remaining the same, and it was a miracle … See what a great change human bodies are capable of, when God is pleased to put an honour upon them, as he will upon the bodies of the saints, at the resurrection. He was transfigured before them; the change, it is probable, was gradual, from glory to glory, so that the disciples, who had their eye upon him all the while, had the clearest and most certain evidence they could have, that this glorious appearance was no other than the blessed Jesus himself, and there was no illusion in it. John seems to refer to this (1 John 1 1), when he speaks of the word of life, as that which they had seen with their eyes, and looked upon.

MacArthur discusses the Greek word used for ‘transfigured’:

The word is metamorphoō, from which we get metamorphosis, two Greek words, morphē, meaning body or form, and meta, meaning change. His form was changed. Nothing changed on the inside, right? He’s God. But the outside changed. This word literally means to transform the morphē, the form, the body, the exterior. It’s used four times in the New Testament and always means a radical transformation. It’s used here once and Matthew 17:2 in that text on the transfiguration. It’s the same verb to describe the same thing …

So we’re talking about a radical kind of transformation. His nature could not change, only His appearance. And that’s exactly what changed. His appearance changed. Matthew 17:2, Luke 9:29 says, “His face shown like the sun.”

Our Lord’s clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them (verse 3).

MacArthur describes what the three Apostles saw:

Listen, these are Jewish men who knew their Old Testament. They knew that when God showed up, He showed up as light. He showed up as light. He showed up radiantly, and He was shining like the sun.

By the way, this is not some kind of mental experience. This is a physical experience for them. This is a real experience, not a vision. Yes, the glory of God shines in the face of Jesus spiritually but here, it happens actually. The blazing glory of His divine nature came through His humanity, pulled the veil of His humanity back. And He was like the sun at high noon.

… “His garments became radiant,” stilbō is the word. It means to glitter like flashing facets reflecting back the blazing sun at high noon on a diamond, an exceeding light. Not flat light but blazing light. Luke says white and gleaming, like linear lightning.

And then I like what Mark says … He says, “His garments became radiant and exceeding white as no bleacher on earth can whiten them,” no gnapheus, the old word used to be fuller, a fuller was someone who bleached things white. This is white – this is white, white, white, blazing white, glittering white, like the sun’s white.

And appearing to them — the three Apostles — were Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus (verse 4).

MacArthur addresses something I have been wondering about for years — how Elijah and Moses received glorified bodies when the Second Coming has not yet happened:

We go from the Son’s transformation to the saints’ association, verse 4, “Elijah appeared to them along with Moses.” Whoa! And they were talking with Jesus. Was this really Moses and Elijah? Yes. But aren’t Moses and Elijah glorified spirits in heaven? Aren’t they part of the just men made perfect, the spirits in heaven? Yes. Don’t they wait to get a glorified body until (Daniel 12:2 says) the establishment of the kingdom and the resurrection of the Old Testament saints? Yes. However, for this occasion, the Lord provided them a visible form.

MacArthur surmises what the three were talking about:

I’ll tell you exactly what they were saying. You say, “How do you know what they were saying?” Because it’s in the Bible. And I will promise you I only know what’s in the Bible, I have never had a vision – I married one, but I haven’t had one. Now – precisely my sentiments.

Listen to what it says in Luke 9:31. “Two men were talking with Him and they were Moses and Elijah who, appearing in glory” – see, they’re in a glorified form, too. “They were speaking of His departure, which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” What’s the subject? His death. His death. They’re talking about His death – talking about His death – the subject matters.

I suppose the disciples might have thought they would be talking about the kingdom and the glory and the overthrow of the Romans and the establishment of the Messiah’s throne over the whole earth, but they’re not. They’re talking about His death because that’s what the transfiguration event is intended to communicate to the disciples, that He has to die, and it doesn’t negate the glory, but it isn’t some interruption of the plan. Here are Moses and Elijah, talking about the death of the Messiah.

Again, these are two men and two very special men, and the testimony of these two men is a confirming testimony because they’re two witnesses and they’re talking about the death of Christ, Moses and Elijah. You mean, Moses and Elijah are aware that the Messiah must die? You mean that this stumbling block to all of us, which we cannot understand, is part of the plan and Moses and Elijah affirm this? That’s exactly what this is about.

Moses is the greatest leader in Israel’s history, rescuer of the nation from captivity, its greatest general, can we say? God was the one who drowned Pharaoh’s army but Moses was the victor by divine power. In authority, he was a king, though he never had a throne. In message, he was a prophet. In service to God, he was every bit a priest, serving God on behalf of His people. He was the author of the Pentateuch, the agent by which God gave His holy law. He’s the greatest.

If you’re going to have somebody give testimony to the fact that the Messiah needs to die, you couldn’t get a better witness than Moses – unless it was Elijah. He could stand with Moses because he fought against every violation of that law. He battled the nation’s idolatry, and he battled it with great courage and words of judgment, and he validated his preaching with miracles. There are only two miracle eras in the Old Testament, the time of Moses – and you know what the miracles were, they were in Egypt – and the time of Elijah. You can read them in 1 Kings 17 to 19, 2 Kings 1 and 2.

There was no lawgiver like Moses and there was no prophet like Elijah. Moses gave the law; Elijah was its greatest guardian. Here are the most trustworthy eyewitnesses. No one could bring the apostles more assurance and confidence that the death of Jesus was in the plan than to hear it from Moses and Elijah, the very men that they look to as the heroes of the Old Testament faith.

So this is in the plan. And here they are, in glory, confirming the glory to come, talking about Jesus’ death. So you have it all there. His death is a part of it, but His glory is coming. And they actually appear, I just read, in glory, in some form like Christ. That shouldn’t surprise you because we’re going to have a body like unto His glorious body. That was a glimpse there.

Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’ (verse 5).

Peter, having heard our Lord say that He would have to die, wants to circumvent this.

MacArthur says:

Holy fear is mixed with stunning, exhilarating wonder at the most divine and incomprehensible experience of their lives. But what’s running through his mind still is this problem of suffering has got to go away. He’s not giving up on this. He’s a tenacious guy. So his plan is this, let’s end all this here. We’ll make the tabernacles and we’ll finish off this deal right here, and we’ll go right into the kingdom, this is good – this is good. Moses and Elijah are talking about the cross. Peter interrupts their conversation, he wants to establish the kingdom on the spot.

… oh, by the way, Matthew says he added, “If you wish.” This is humble. He’s not asking for a tent for himself and James and John, just the glorious ones. He’s wanted the kingdom from the start. His excitement is heightened by what he sees. He hates the idea of death.

It is important to note when the Transfiguration takes place:

He [Peter] knows Elijah is supposed to come at the end (Malachi 3 and 4), and get this: the timing of this event is in the month of Tishri, six months before Passover, when He will die.

And in the month of Tishri, a special event was happening right at this time in Jerusalem. You know what it was? It’s called the Feast of Tabernacles. And what did it commemorate? It commemorated God leading the exodus from Egypt. What perfect timing. This is the time we commemorate the great exodus. What a great time to have our exodus right now. We’ve got Moses, we’ve got Elijah, we’ve got Jesus in glory, let’s just have the Exodus out of this corrupt life of bondage into the glorious kingdom.

Peter’s got his theology pretty well wired. Forget dying, let’s just go to the kingdom. You know, the picture here is really powerful. As one writer said, “This shows that Jesus is not a walk-on in the divine economy.” This is Moses, this is Elijah. The presence of Moses and Elijah signify that this is God’s Son, the King who will reign in glory, and here they are talking about His cross, which means that’s a part of the plan, that’s not an interruption.

Then Mark tells us that Peter did not know what to say; the three Apostles were terrified at what they saw (verse 6).

In the King James Version the word ‘wist’ is used for ‘know’, as we see in Henry’s explanation of the verse:

… whatever was incongruous in what he said, he may be excused, for they were all sore afraid; and he, for his part, wist not what to say (v. 6), not knowing what would be the end thereof.

Then a cloud overshadowed them and from the cloud came a voice saying (verse 7), ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’

Henry says:

… This is my beloved Son, hear him. God owns him, and accepts him, as his beloved Son, and is ready to accept of us in him; we must then own and accept him as our beloved Saviour, and must give up ourselves to be ruled by him.

MacArthur describes the enormity of the cloud and the message from God — for Peter:

So you have the Son’s transformation, the saints association, and then the sleeper’s suggestion, bad suggestion. There’s one more thing, the Sovereign’s correction. This is amazing. Verse 7, “Then a cloud formed.” Guess who showed up? “A cloud formed, overshadowing them.” Matthew 17:5 says, “A bright cloud and it engulfs Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.” They’re engulfed. It symbolizes the Lord’s presence. Luke says Jesus, Moses, and Elijah entered the cloud. They’re all engulfed in the arrival of God. Then a voice came out of the cloud.

Friends, this is the third witness. Moses is one, Elijah is two, here’s the third witness, “This is my beloved Son.” Luke adds that the voice said, “My chosen One.” Matthew adds, “In whom I am well pleased.” And here comes the Father’s testimony. He says this, “Listen to Him.” Listen to Him. Shut your mouth, Peter. That is a very direct rebuke. He has just been rebuked by Jesus and now he gets rebuked by God Himself. “Listen.” Listen. Listen to what? “Listen to what He has to say about His death.”

The kingdom will come in its time – listen to what He says about His death. The transfiguration, obviously, is a glimpse of glory, but its main point was to demonstrate that the glory is later and the cross was now.

Suddenly, when the three Apostles looked around, there was only Jesus (verse 8) — as He was before the Transfiguration.

Henry explains:

Suddenly when they had looked round about, as men amazed to see where they were, all was gone, they saw no man any more. Elias and Moses were vanished out of sight, and Jesus only remained with them, and he not transfigured, but as he used to be. Note, Christ doth not leave the soul, when extraordinary joys and comforts leave it. Though more sensible and ravishing communications may be withdrawn, Christ’s disciples have, and shall have, his ordinary presence with them always, even to the end of the world, and that is it we must depend upon. Let us thank God for daily bread and not expect a continual feast on this side of heaven.

MacArthur says that the three Apostles re-entered reality, life as it was and would be — even unto the Cross:

The preview of the kingdom is gone. Kingdom’s not going to come. The only one left is Jesus, and He’s not in glorious form anymore, it’s Jesus alone, and He’s on the road to the cross, and they will follow. That’s the plan and that’s the message the apostles preached, didn’t they? They preached Christ, crucified and risen again.

Someday, according to Philippians, we will appear ourselves in a body like unto His glorious body. Someday we’ll have that experience, but in the meantime – in the meantime, we suffer for the sake of the cross, we suffer for the sake of the gospel, because it’s suffering and then glory. They had a hard time with the cross, as you can see. They eventually got the message, but it wasn’t easy. And I imagine that when it was hard to handle the suffering, they remembered this experience. The glory will come, and they gave us their witness, “We beheld His glory. We were eyewitnesses of His majesty.”

As the three Apostles descended the mountain with Jesus, He told them not to say anything about what they had seen until He — the Son of Man — had risen from the dead (verse 9).

Henry explains why Jesus said that:

He charged them to keep this matter very private, till he was risen from the dead, which would complete the proof of his divine mission, and then this must be produced with the rest of the evidence, v. 9. And besides, he, being now in a state of humiliation, would have nothing publicly taken notice of, that might be seen disagreeable to such a state; for to that he would in every thing accommodate himself. This enjoining of silence to the disciples, would likewise be of use to them, to prevent their boasting of the intimacy they were admitted to, that they might not be puffed up with the abundance of the revelations. It is a mortification to a man, to be tied up from telling of his advancements, and may help to hide pride from him.

MacArthur has more:

He gave them a command and the command is a “not to” command, not to relate to anyone what they had seen until the Son of man rose from the dead. I can’t imagine how hard that would be. I don’t know whether I could do that. There had been other commands to silence, chapter 5, verse 43; chapter 7, verse 36; chapter 8, verse 30. These are commands to silence … When Jesus did certain miracles and certain healings, He said, “Don’t tell anybody.” When Peter gave the confession on behalf of all of them, “You’re the Christ, the Son of the living God,” He warned them, “Don’t tell anybody.”

And now they come down the mountain, having had this amazing experience, indescribable experience, something like being caught up into the third heaven, I’m sure. And they can’t wait to talk about this and they’re told to say nothing – to say nothing – nothing at all until after the resurrection …

The message is not that Jesus is a healer. The message is not that Jesus is a political liberator, which is what the Jews thought. This would have added fuel to their fire. This would have poured gas on the fire. This would have fanned the flames of Jewish messianic expectation for a liberator.

Already thousands of Jews have been killed in insurrections and rebellions against Rome, trying to overthrow the Roman occupation.

MacArthur answers another question I had about the Transfiguration, namely, could the three Apostles discuss it amongst themselves? MacArthur says:

Interestingly enough, as hard as it must have been, they obeyed. Luke 9:36 says, “And they kept silent and repeated to no one in those days any of the things they had seen.” It must have been good that they could at least talk to each other about it, but they didn’t talk to anyone else.

Ultimately, here is the lesson from this glimpse of future glory in the Apostles’ present day:

There would always be the temptation, and there are people who think this is the message of Jesus, that Jesus is a healer. There would always be the temptation to present Jesus as God, as the Messiah, as the Lord, but those are incomplete. That’s not the gospel. The gospel is that Jesus died and rose again. And He restrains those people who are His followers from giving an incomplete message. “Don’t say anything until you get the full message.” It’s only after His death and resurrection that the great commission comes, to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

It’s only after that that the Spirit comes and they become witnesses to the glories of the gospel, which the heart of the gospel, of course, is the cross and the resurrection, as indicated in Acts 1:8, and they spread that message around the world.

… the important message is the cross and the resurrection.

… Without it, there is no salvation, there is no kingdom, there’s no hope, and there’s no heaven for anyone.

Re that last sentence, I really wish that someone had explained that to me when I was a youngster! I could never understand why Jesus did not stay on earth, with mankind.

Readers might wish to examine verses 10 through 12, which I wrote about in 2012.

I wrote an exegesis on Matthew’s version of the Transfiguration in 2023, Year A.

Next week is the first Sunday in Lent. Shrove Tuesday (for some, Fat Tuesday, literally Mardi Gras) is February 13, and Ash Wednesday is on February 14. I hope that does not put too much of a dent into anyone’s Valentine’s Day.