‘And as he was praying, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment became white and dazzling.'
His ostensible purpose in taking them up with Him was in order to pray (Luke 9:28), but as He prayed a great transformation took place in Him. His face shone and His clothing became white and dazzling, and His Apostles were there privileged to see something of the glory of God, of the glory of which He had emptied Himself (John 17:5), and of the glory in which one day He would come again (Luke 9:26). Here it was confirmed to them that He was indeed more than human. He was on ‘the divine side of reality'. When Moses went into the mountain his face had shone with God's reflected glory, but here the Greater than Moses shone with His own glory. The fact that His clothes also shone (revealing something of the glory that now lay beneath them?) demonstrates that this was a very different situation than that of Moses. Moses bore a reflected glory, Jesus one that was intrinsic (compare Luke 24:4). Here was a revelation that He was more than just human.