And after six days Jesus takes with [him] Peter, and James, and John his brother, and brings them up into a high mountain apart.
This verse opens the account of the transfiguration. It follows straight on from what Jesus had just said about the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. Every part of this short line carries weight: the counted days, the three named men, the climb, and the words "by themselves".
This is not a fresh start but a fulfilment. The count of days and the choice of men both point back to words Jesus had spoken six days earlier.
So, "After six days" (a type of the ordinary span of work down here), "Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves" (v. 1). That is, He takes chosen witnesses. It was only a testimony to the kingdom — the sample of what He had referred to when He said, "There are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."
The glory of that kingdom rests on the Man at its centre, who suffered before He was exalted.
The glory of the kingdom, as we saw, depends on His being the Son of Man. He is the exalted Man who had once suffered, and all glory is committed into His hands. He had at every cost retrieved the honour of God, and He is to make the blessing of man effective.
Luke dates the same event "about eight days after", and readers notice the gap. Writers treat this as a difference of counting, not of fact.
Matthew writes from a Jewish point of view, where the seventh day is the day of glory. So he says "After six days". Luke looks at things from another angle, the resurrection aspect that the eighth day shows. So he says "about eight days". Both are correct. Matthew does not include the two end days, while Luke does. Exactly six days — complete days — came between the prophecy and its fulfilment. There is no discrepancy or mistake in this, or in any other Scripture.
Another writer looks past the count to what the six days picture.
The "after six days" that opens the account, here and in Mark, points, I believe, to the final character of what this scene pictures. It comes after the time of work and of overcoming is finished.
Matthew names three men, and what happened to them later shows how much hung on them.
John, Peter and James were the three witnesses Peter has in mind — they were on the holy mount, the mount of transfiguration. These three disciples were the eyewitnesses whom Satan tried to remove. He wanted to stop any divine and perfect testimony about the prophetic word, for that is the point before us.
The choice also had a purpose for the three men themselves.
What I said about the transfiguration was that those three men were going to be pillars (see Gal. 2), and that this was to clear and strengthen their faith.
The verb behind "led them up" carries a second sense in the New Testament.
The other word is ἀναφέρω, 'to bring up', and so 'to offer up'. In Matt. 17:1, Jesus 'brings up' Peter and the others; and in Luke 24:51 the Lord was 'carried up' into heaven. Hebrews 7:27 uses this word both of the high priest 'offering up' sacrifices and of Jesus who 'offered up' Himself.
Matthew never names the mountain. One writer draws a lesson from both the height and the small company.
The Lord takes only three disciples up with Him to witness it. They show us that if we want such disclosures, we need a closeness to Him that only a few have. The "high mountain" was most probably Hermon, near Caesarea Philippi. But it is not named, and even if we were sure, we could base nothing on it. Earth in fact has no knowledge of the heights where such visions of the future may be enjoyed.
Hard days lay ahead for the Lord and for these three. The glimpse of glory came first, and with a purpose.
The Lord Jesus had taken Peter, James, and John with Him. He brought them up into a high mountain apart, to show them a sample of His future glory. That sight would strengthen their spirits against the trying scenes through which both He and they had yet to pass.
- Promise — the count of days ties the scene to the words Jesus had just spoken about the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.
- Days — Matthew's "six days" and Luke's "about eight days" agree. Matthew counts only the days in between; Luke counts both ends as well.
- Witnesses — the Lord chose three men, so the testimony would be complete; Satan later went after them as the ones who had seen it.
- Ascent — the word for leading them up is the word for offering up. Scripture leaves the height unnamed, and only those close to Him climb it.
- Purpose — the Lord gave this sample of glory to men facing suffering, so that the sight would hold them steady.
And he was transfigured before them. And his face shone as the sun, and his garments became white as the light;
On a mountain, Jesus looked like any other man. Then He blazed with light in front of three of His disciples. Where did that light come from, and what was it meant to show?
Nothing about the Lord's body marked Him out as He climbed the mountain. One writer presses this point before explaining the change:
When He went up the mountain with His disciples, He was, to all outward appearance, only a man among men. To the natural eye there was nothing to distinguish Him from Peter, James, or John... But on the mountain this amazing change (called transfiguration) happened. What was its nature? May we not say this? It was His essential purity or holiness breaking out and flooding the vessel that held it. So He stood before His disciples as a being of light. For "his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light." This vessel — His body — screened these rays of His beauty and glory at other times. But now nothing held them back. They shone through and lit up both His body and His clothes, so that He stood there truly glorified before their eyes.
Moses' face once shone too. One writer marks the difference, and where the scene points:
In the middle of His service of humiliation our Lord was for a little while transfigured. It was not like Moses, whose face shone because he had been near the divine Presence. Our Lord was with His own here below... "His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him." It is a small picture of His kingdom. In that kingdom there will be risen and changed saints, along with others in their natural bodies, and the Lord at the centre of it all.
Writers read the two details as two glories — one of position, one of character:
"His face shone like the sun" would suggest a place of supreme power and authority. "And his clothes became white as light" would refer to His intrinsic purity. He had always moved in the light, and there was no darkness in Him at all.
Another writer ties the sun to a promise, and the white clothing to His coming rule:
The Saviour's face shone like the sun. As the Sun of righteousness He will yet rise upon this poor earth (Mal. 4:2). The sun is the emblem of supreme authority, which God will before long put into the hands of the Crucified. His clothing, too, became white as the light. It suggested the absolute purity of His coming rule.
One writer follows the same word into the letters, where it describes believers:
If that is so, Christ, as He was in His transfiguration, is the presentation of what believers will be when they are glorified with Him... Christ on the mountain shows us what His people will be when He comes to receive them to Himself; but this mighty change is morally begun in them while 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"... This Scripture shows that our transfiguration must begin from within... But how is this to be done? Passing now to 2 Cor. 3:18, we find the answer... "We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord"... it is by beholding that we "are being transformed (transfigured) into the same image from one degree of glory to another."
The scene was not only about Christ. Moses and Elijah were part of the message:
The whole purpose of the vision was to show the church her portion in the glory. The God of all grace has called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, and that is what this scene showed. So the transfiguration passed on the Lord, on Moses and Elijah — they all appeared in the same glory. Moses and Elijah were no longer what they had once been on earth, and neither was the Lord Himself. Their lowly bodies had been made like His glorious body. He appeared for a little while in glory, and they appeared in glory with Him.
Commentators differ in emphasis. Some read the scene as a preview of Christ's kingdom on earth. Others read it as a sight of the heavenly portion of His people.
- Veiled. The light did not fall on Jesus; it came out of Him. His body had been screening those rays all along.
- Unborrowed. Moses shone because he had been near God. Christ shone with His own glory, giving a small picture of His kingdom.
- Twofold. The face like the sun speaks of supreme authority; the clothing white as light speaks of purity with no darkness in it.
- Shared. The same word describes what happens to believers: begun now by a renewed mind, completed when we are glorified with Him.
- Beheld. The route from His glory to ours is looking — beholding the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image.