Luke 9:28-36--The Transfiguration

Luke 9:28-36
English Standard Version

The Transfiguration​
28 Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. 29 And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. 30 And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, 31 who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. 32 Now Peter and those who were with him were heavy with sleep, but when they became fully awake they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. 33 And as the men were parting from him, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good that we are here. Let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah”—not knowing what he said. 34 As he was saying these things, a cloud came and overshadowed them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!” 36 And when the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and told no one in those days anything of what they had seen.

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We're still focusing here on the identity of who Jesus is, and that identity is being revealed to the disciples, but not so much to the crowds right now.  Even within the disciples, there is going to be special revelation given to Peter, James and John who seem to be Jesus' closest friends among the disciples.  the other nine got plenty of instruction, but Jesus took a special interest in these three and showed them things that the others didn't see, such as allowing these three to come with Him when He raised Jairus's daughter from the dead.  We're going to see another such occurrence here where only these three witnessed it.

He took Peter, James and John with Him up a mountain (we don't know for sure which one) and He started to pray.  As He was praying, His appearance changed as His glory was at least partially revealed, but since no sinful man can look on the fullness of the glory of God and live, God made a cloud (I believe the same pillar of cloud that we see in the Old Testament) descend on the mountain so as to veil the fullness of Jesus' glory and allow these disciples to partially see what was going on without dying.

Whatever Jesus' normal skin tone was, we know it was not "white" as is described here (no one's skin tone is actually white as we are all shades of brown).  But we do see the color white associated with God's purity and holiness in the Old Testament and Jesus is showing all these attributes--He and the Father truly are one in nature and essence.

Now there were two men with Jesus talking to Him, and the disciples somehow recognized these men to be Moses and Elijah.  They had also been glorified (received their heavenly bodies that were incorruptible).  They could stand in the presence of Jesus and look on Him without fear of death, because death no longer had any reign over them since they no longer had their mortal bodies.  They were talking to Jesus about His departure--likely both of His death, burial and resurrection, but also likely is about His return to heaven.  Both were coming soon for Him, but both were also as good as done.  It seems interesting that these two which symbolized the Law and the Prophets (basically the entire Old Testament for the Jewish people) came to give comfort to Jesus before the hardest time of His life.  This was also to fulfill the prophecy about Elijah coming before the Messiah would be revealed.  We've talked about that one a few times--how John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah the prophet and was like him in many ways, but the Holy Spirit would also point to this incident as a fulfillment of that prophecy as well.

Peter, being the one that seemed to never be at a loss of words, even when he didn't know what to say, thought it would be good for him to make some shelters or tents (I imagine these are probably more lean-tos like the people made for the Feast of Booths as everyone knew how to make them, but maybe Peter was also a tentmaker as well as a fisherman) for these three so that they can stay on the mountain together as long as Jesus wanted.  Notice how the Holy Spirit told Luke that Peter said this, but didn't even know what he was saying.  I don't think Peter had any ill intent, but just spoke without thinking about what was said here.  Certainly Jesus couldn't stay on the mountain because He had to go do the things He was just talking about.

Now the cloud that I believe to represent one of the visible representations of the glory of the LORD overshadowed them (the same word used for how Jesus was conceived--that the Holy Spirit would overshadow Mary) and they could no longer see Jesus, Moses or Elijah. They were filled with fear though, which is a natural reaction when you come into the presence of the LORD as a sinful man.  A voice speaks from the cloud saying almost the same words as at Jesus' baptism, but with something important added.  "This is my Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him."

Wow! God just spoke from heaven and these three got to hear it!  Now they should be certain of the identity of Jesus as it has been established by the witness of Moses, Elijah, and the Father (for everything is established by at least two or three witnesses in Jewish law).  So then the Law, the Prophets, and heaven all agree on the identity of Jesus, and He is the Son of God, the Messiah, God's special Chosen One, and we must listen to Him.  In some ways, I'm sure this was a soft rebuke to Peter to tell him to close his mouth and open his ears, but it was meant for all them there, and all of us.  We must all come to Jesus to listen to Him (look at Mary and Martha and how one tried to stay busy serving and the other sat at Jesus' feat to listen to Him teach, and Jesus said that the one who sat to listen was doing what was more important--We'll get to this story in Luke 10).

After the voice from heaven had spoke, Jesus was once again alone with His disciples in His normal state (not glorified) and there was no more cloud, no Moses, and no Elijah to be seen.  They told no one during that time what they had seen--not like anyone would have believed them anyways--because this has been specially revealed to these three at this time, but it was not meant for Jesus to be revealed to this extent to the whole world yet.  That would come after His resurrection when it would be clear to everyone who He was because He raised Himself from the dead and only God could do something like that.