And after six days Jesus takes with [him] Peter and James and John, and takes them up on a high mountain by themselves apart. And he was transfigured before them
Jesus had just spoken plainly to His disciples about His own suffering. Six days later He takes three of them up a high mountain, and there His appearance changes in front of them.
The glory came soon after those words about the cross. One writer explains what the display was for.
He showed His glory in the kingdom before the kingdom was set up. He did it to strengthen His own people to take up the cross and follow their Master. The disciples, like the Christian world too, looked for progress and triumph. They overlooked faith and love tested by suffering with Christ, which is the pattern of all holy endurance. So the Lord told them plainly of His own sufferings and the glories that would follow.
Another writer asks what such a sight does for people who follow a rejected Christ.
The Lord passes a vision of the coming glory before us. It holds up their faith, and ours, as we follow a rejected Christ along His lowly path of suffering and shame. It shows that the path of outward weakness will end in "the Kingdom of God come with power."
Luke gives a different count of the days. One writer finds meaning in both numbers.
Matthew and Mark say "after six days"; Luke says "about eight days after." Six is man's number. It speaks of his week of labour. It is good to know that after all man's toil and struggle there will be a time of rest and glory. Eight is the number of resurrection. The risen Christ will bring the blessing in, and He will make it secure by divine power.
The Lord led them away from everyone else, "by themselves." One writer draws out what that means for us.
To see this glorious vision, the Lord leads Peter, James and John up a high mountain, apart by themselves. If we as believers are to look beyond the long dark night and greet the coming day, we too will need to rise in spirit above the turmoil of this poor world. We will need to find ourselves alone with Jesus. In such moments, as with the disciples, our souls will be taken up above all else with the glory of His Person.
Mark's Gospel has its own emphasis, and it shapes how he tells the scene.
In Mark we have seen the humble and devoted service of Christ in proclaiming the kingdom, whatever the divine glory that shone through His humiliation... The isolation of Jesus and the three disciples at this moment is marked more strongly in verse 2, and the facts are told without addition.
So what actually happened to Him on the mountain?
When He went up the mountain with His disciples, He looked to all appearance only a man among men. To the natural eye there was nothing to mark Him out from Peter, James, or John... But on the mountain this wonderful change (called transfiguration) happened. What kind of change was it? Can we not say that His essential purity or holiness broke out and filled the body in which it was housed, so that He stood before His disciples as a being of light?
One writer is careful to mark what did not change.
But let us be clear that with our Lord Jesus Christ there was never any hint of a change in His essential being as God. Before He ever came to our sad world, He already existed in the very form of God. He never needed to be changed to be like God, the way we are changed to be like Him. But Scripture uses this same word of His transfiguration in Matt. 17:2 and Mark 9:2. There it describes the change that came to the body He had taken when He became a Man. I think this is because it was a sample — an early taste — of that resurrection body, which is permanent and everlasting.
The same word used of Christ on the mountain is used again of His people.
Christ on the mountain shows us what His people will be when He comes to receive them to Himself. But this mighty change begins in them, in their character, while they are still here. So in Rom. 12:2 the apostle says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed [transfigured] by the renewal of your mind"... Then we learn a further thing. It is by beholding the glory of the Lord that we are changed [transfigured] into the same image from one degree of glory to another.
- Six days — man's week of labour runs out first, and glory follows the toil. Luke's "eight" adds resurrection, which makes the blessing secure.
- Apart — the vision came away from the crowd. It is still seen by those who rise above the turmoil and stay alone with Jesus.
- Transfigured — not a change in who He is as God, but His hidden holiness breaking out through the body He took as man.
- A sample — what the three saw was an advance sample of the resurrection body and of the kingdom coming in power.
- Changed — the same word covers His people. We will be like Him when He comes, and looking at Him changes us now.
and his garments became shining, exceeding white [as snow], such as fuller on earth could not whiten [them].
Three disciples went up a mountain with Jesus and watched Him change in front of them. Mark records the moment in one detail: the white of His clothes.
One writer compares the Gospel accounts and traces Mark's focus back to the way he presents Jesus.
Notice that Mark says less about the personal change and more about His clothing than either Matthew or Luke. "And He was transfigured before them; and His garments became shining, exceeding white, such as no fuller on earth could whiten them." He is always the Servant-Son. He is as deep in His lowliness as He is dignified in receiving what comes from above. That dignity shows where it comes from: its splendour puts the pride of earthly glory to shame. Matthew draws no contrast with a fuller on earth. True to his own style, he adds that "His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became white as light" — an image of supreme glory, suited to the great King.
The change added nothing from outside. It let out what was always there.
In the New Testament the transfiguration gives us a striking illustration of the meaning of these white garments. Our Lord's glory, His intrinsic character, was to shine out on that holy mountain. It did not shine as He went through the land in the lowly covering of badger skins, where the eye of unbelief saw nothing attractive in Him. Instead the outer coverings of God's dwelling place came off, as it were, and the personal, moral glory of that Holy One shone out. "His face shone like the sun"; "His clothing became shining, exceeding white as snow, so that no fuller on earth could whiten them" (Mark 9:3). This shows the essential and perfect purity of His nature.
A fuller was the tradesman who washed and whitened cloth. Mark measures the Lord's clothing against the best that trade could do. (The writers quoted here use an older translation: "no fuller on earth." The ESV reads "as no one on earth could bleach them.")
The word kabas simply means "to wash," as it is often translated, and would include "bleaching." The coming of the Lord is compared to a "refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap," when the dross and dirt will be cleared away (Mal. 3:2). At the transfiguration the clothing of the Lord became so white that it exceeded the whiteness any fuller on earth could produce (Mark 9:3). It was a reflection of heavenly glory.
Peter later wrote about what he saw that day. One writer notes which word he stressed.
In later years Peter, writing of this great scene, could say, "We made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." They speak not only of His coming, but of "the power" of His coming. They saw a sample of the mighty power that at His coming will change us into His likeness in the twinkling of an eye. In a moment He was "transfigured," and His garments of humiliation were changed into shining clothing "exceeding white as snow."
One writer reads that white as a picture of the life Jesus lived, and as a design God means to reproduce.
The Lord Jesus came into the world to do the will of God. He lived a life of complete obedience to God. Near the end of that life He took three of His disciples up the holy mountain. There He was transfigured before them: "and His clothing became shining, exceeding white as snow; so that no fuller on earth could whiten them" (Mark 9:3). This was an unearthly, heavenly whiteness, a picture of the life of righteousness He had lived on earth. And God's great purpose is to reproduce that life in His saints... We are not saved by works, but we are saved for works.
One writer applies the same words to us. The hope of being like Him will not leave us content with the dirt of this world.
If this is our high and holy destiny we cannot be content to accept the defilements of this world, whether they are inside us or around us. We must purify ourselves with such a hope in view... this process will go on as long as we are here. The standard of purity is "even as He is pure." We may apply Mark 9:3, which speaks of His clothing as "exceeding white as snow; so that no fuller on earth can whiten them." No fuller on earth can whiten us to that standard. We shall only reach it when we are like Him in glory.
- Servant. Mark keeps his eye on the clothing, not the face. He shows the Servant-Son: lowliness and glory in one moment.
- Shining. The white came from inside Him, not from outside. The covering drew back, and the perfect purity of His nature shone out.
- Standard. A fuller was the best whitener on earth, and earth's best fell short. That glory came from heaven, not from a workshop.
- Sample. Peter called it "the power" of His coming. It previews the moment He changes believers into His likeness in the twinkling of an eye.
- Shaped. That white pictures the obedient life He lived. God is weaving the same pattern into His people, and it is finished only when we are like Him in glory.