‘And Peter answers and says to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here (or ‘it is good that we are here'). And let us make three booths, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” For he did not know what to answer for they were filled with a dread sense of awe (were dreadfully afraid).'
If anything confirms the genuineness of the account it is this. As always Peter could not keep quiet. James and John could watch in silent awe, but not Peter. And when he did speak it was with the vain babbling of a man overcome by an ‘out of this world' experience. But he clearly did not see it as ‘out of this world' or as a ‘vision' because otherwise he would not have spoken of erecting three booths for them (out of branches and leaves). To him at least they were real live persons. How he must have cringed when he thought of what he had said later, and how typical of him that he did not attempt to hide the truth. No one would later have invented this of Peter (Mark excuses him with ‘he did not know how to respond to the situation'). And interestingly he called Jesus ‘Rabbi' (‘my revered teacher'), the tender word by which he knew Him, another touch of authenticity. In the circumstances it was incongruous. Only Peter's familiarity with Jesus could have produced it. He called Him that because he always called Him that. An inventor in such circumstances would have introduced ‘Lord' or ‘Son of Man'. But there may well also be an indication here that Peter saw here three of the great teachers of Israel.
It may also be that there was relief in his words. His spirit had rebelled against the idea of the Master suffering, and it must have come home to him that now perhaps it would not be after all. With Moses and Elijah here things would be very different. Even the Scribes would see that. (How often we struggle within ourselves against what God has willed).
The idea behind the building of the booths would appear to be in order to keep Jesus' two companions on earth for a while. He may have thought in terms of them being able to spend time with them, providing a foretaste of heaven, or even of what a testimony this would present to the Pharisees. And what a source of teaching for the world - Jesus, Moses and Elijah! It would be natural for him to think that now that Elijah had finally come, and had come with Moses, men would surely flock and believe.
(But they had not so flocked and believed when they were on earth. Nor on the whole did men permanently flock and believe under John the Baptiser and Jesus. Peter did not know men's hearts as Jesus did. How like us he was. What we would give to have Moses and Elijah present with us, preaching in our churches. But we have God with us. What want we more? When men like them do come they will be treated summarily - Revelation 11).
‘And they were filled with a dread sense of awe and fear.' We are so used to the Transfiguration scene that it may no longer fill us with awe. But if we pause for a moment and think about it perhaps the awe will overtake us. They had come up unsuspectingly into the mountain with Jesus and suddenly this immense change had taken place in Him, something brighter and more glorious than the sun in its splendour, together with a sense of extreme whiteness, of awful holiness and purity. And then two of the greatest men ever known, as far as the Jew was concerned, had appeared there with them talking with the glorified Jesus. No wonder it was all too much and turned Peter into a babbler. John would later say, ‘and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only son of the Father, full of grace and truth' (John 1:14). But that was after later reflection.
We should note how often Mark speaks of Jesus followers being ‘afraid' or ‘awestruck'. They were afraid when they realised how He had stilled the storm at a word (Mark 4:41). They were afraid when they saw Him walking on the water (Mark 6:50). They were afraid when they saw His glory here. They were afraid when He spoke to them of His coming suffering, death and resurrection (Mark 9:32). They would be afraid at the way that Jesus seemed to be pressing on towards Jerusalem (Mark 10:32). And the women would be afraid when they learned of His resurrection (Mark 16:8). All these were experiences which took them away from the ordinary, and from what they could understand. Their fear was a sign of how human and inadequate they were. But it was also a sign of their appreciation of what they saw or heard. They recognised that they were in the presence of the divine, and they were afraid and filled with awe.