CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
Mark 9:2. Transfigured.—A strong word, implying that the change was not due to any external influence, but proceeded from Christ’s own inner being. “While the form of our Lord remained the same, the fashion of that form underwent a change. His whole sacred Person seemed to be living with light—light flashing outward from within, and rendering luminous and bright in unspeakable glory His face and form and dress.”
Mark 9:3. Omit as snow. The Evangelists seem to vie with one another in their efforts to depict the splendour and brilliancy of this “golden link in the iron chain that bound our Lord’s career.” Cp. Matthew 17:2; Luke 9:29: see also John 1:14; 1 John 1:1; 2 Peter 1:16.
Mark 9:12. See R. V. for punctuation. Set at nought.—Treated as a nonentity.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Mark 9:2-13
(PARALLELS: Matthew 17:1-13; Luke 9:28-36.)
The Transfiguration.—Unlike other prominent events in Christ’s life, the Transfiguration finds no place in the ordinary cycle of art representations in the early Church. It is represented emblematically in mosaics of the sixth and eight centuries, but it was reserved for Raphael’s genius to portray it in a worthy manner. His noble picture in the Vatican was the apotheosis of his art; but death snatched the brush from his hand before it was finished, as if Providence would teach us that no human art or genius, tongue or pen, can sufficiently and completely portray that sublime spectacle.
I. The scene.—It was when the Master was in the neighbourhood of Cæsarea Philippi, far away in the north of Palestine, that the event occurred. To any one visiting the spot, and seeing the stupendous form of snowy Hermon rising before him, till its summit has left the valley eleven thousand feet below, it appears almost certain, it is said, that this was the high mountain to which the Saviour led His chosen disciples. Through a scene of surpassing loveliness they wend their way. At every step the prospect expands, till at length a glorious panorama opens before them, “embracing a great part of Syria, from the sea to Damascus, from the Lebanon and the gorge of the Litany to the mountains of Moab; or down the Jordan valley to the Dead Sea; or over Galilee and Samaria, and on to Jerusalem,” all bathed in the splendours of the setting sun. But these sunset glories presently fade. Night falls. The stars one by one shine forth. The moon rises in silvery radiance, reflected back in dazzling beauty from the broad patches of snow on the mountain-side. And now we see Jesus bowed in prayer in the moonlight, His disciples praying with Him a short distance apart, till, overcome by fatigue, they sink in slumber. But what sudden light is that which bursts forth upon the scene, hiding by its dazzling brilliancy all the glories of the moonlit night? The disciples are wakened by the splendour, and their astonished eyes behold a marvellous sight. Jesus is transfigured before them. His face shines with the brightness of the noonday sun; His raiment is white and glistering; and as they gaze in a transport of awe, behold! two shining forms appear with Him in glory, whom they, by the intuition which is given to the spirit in moments of ecstasy, recognise to be none other than Moses and Elias. The apostles gaze in wonder and adoration, till presently there comes a bright cloud, which enwraps in its folds of light the three figures. It is the Shechinah, and the apostles fear as they see the face of Christ and the faces of Moses and Elias disappearing within it. And now from out that cloud of awful glory comes a voice, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye Him.”
II. Its purpose.—
1. It was intended to strengthen and brace the spirit of Jesus Christ for the solemn and awful work which lay before Him, culminating in Gethsemane and Calvary.
2. As regards the purpose of the Transfiguration with reference to Moses and Elias, it is difficult to speak with any degree of positiveness. Remembering, however, what St. Peter tells us, that the angels bend over the mystery of redemption as the cherubim bent over the mercy-seat on the ark, desiring “to look into” its secret meaning, we may infer that glorified saints, such as Moses and Elias, must have felt the most earnest and absorbing desire to understand the mystery of the atonement which Christ was about to make for their sins and for the sins of the whole world. For them the Transfiguration must have been a new revelation of the wisdom and glory of God, in the consummation of His eternal purpose to redeem a ruined world.
3. So far as the three apostolic witnesses of the Transfiuration were concerned, its intent is perfectly clear. They could not grasp the conception of a suffering Messiah. It was an offence to them. So they are taken up into the Holy Mount, and shewn the great lawgiver and the great prophet of Israel engaged in ecstatic converse with their glorified Master concerning the decease which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem. The lesson was plain; they had misread the prophecies: the Messiah of Moses and the prophets must be a suffering, dying Messiah. And this Jesus, whom they are almost ready to forsake, because He tells them He is to die the shameful death of the Cross, God the Father, on the Mount of Transfiguration, crowns with honour and glory.
III. Its significance.—
1. It marks the topmost step in the progressive glorification of the manhood of Jesus Christ. He rose to that height of glory because of the inner power of His holy life, because of the transfiguring virtue of His consecrated soul. The doors of eternal glory open before the Son of Man: He has only to enter in, to step up from the summit of Hermon into the presence of God Himself, and to sit down in glory for ever! But He puts aside this possible glorification; He leaves all that glory which He might have had with the angels of God and the glorified saints, and descends into the valley of humiliation, into this desert of sin and sorrow and suffering, into the dark and gloomy depths of Gethsemane and Calvary, in order to redeem a world!
2. It may be looked upon as the inauguration of the New Covenant. As on rugged Sinai was inaugurated the law which proved a ministration of death, so on snowy Hermon, amid a scene of exquisite natural beauty, was inaugurated the gospel by that voice from the excellent glory. God proclaims Him the Head and Lord of all. “HEAR YE HIM.” You have heard and obeyed Moses, you have heard and obeyed the prophets: now hear and obey Christ the Son of God.
3. It represents to us the investiture of Jesus Christ as High Priest. From this point on to the end Christ’s prophetical office appears to recede more and more, while His priestly office comes into prominence. From Hermon He descended into the valley of humiliation, and moved right on to the altar of sacrifice, even His Cross on Calvary.
4. It is above all designed to exhibit to us the transcendent value of the sufferings and death of Christ. In the Basilica at Ravenna there is a mosaic of the sixth century representing in emblematical form the Transfiguration of Christ,—a jewelled cross set in a circle of blue studded with golden stars, in the midst of which appears the face of Christ, the Saviour of the world; while from the cloud close by is thrust forth a Divine hand that points to the Cross. Those early artists were right in their reading of this sublime event. The Transfiguration sets the Cross of Christ in the centre, surrounds it with a radiant firmament of God’s promises and of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and shews us the hand of God Himself emerging from the cloud of glory and pointing to the Cross, as though God the Father would say to man what John the Baptist said: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
5. Its prophetic significance. Standing on Hermon with these three apostles, a long vista stretches out before us into the distant future, including in its scope that great day when the Son of God shall take to Himself His power, His mighty power, in order to reign. His kingdom has come at last; and what is the manner of it? It is a kingdom of redeemed men—of men who stand like Moses and Elias with Christ in glory, not only redeemed, not only delivered from sin and suffering and sorrow and trial and pain, but transformed and transfigured with that same glory by which the person of Jesus is enwrapped.
6. It symbolises the transformation and transfiguration of our spirits, our whole reasonable, moral, and spiritual nature, into the image of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Lessons.—
1. If we desire to behold the glory of the transfigured Redeemer, we must climb with Him the mount of prayer.
2. The metamorphic, transfiguring power of a life of prayer. I have seen the face of a dying servant of Christ lit up, whether by a light from the unseen world, or by a radiance shining out from within, I could not tell; but in either case it was a kind of transfiguration which only those attain who have been often with Jesus on the mountain-top of prayer.
3. Consecration to the path of suffering is the preparation for transfiguration.
4. The true relation of the contemplative to the active life. We cannot spend our lives on the mountain-top of vision, or of ecstasy, or of contemplation. The voice of God calls us down to grapple with the problems and the duties which wait on every side. Sin is here; sorrow is here; darkness is here; unbelief is here. If God has revealed to us the glory of His Son, it is not that we should give our lives up to its contemplation, but that we should gain thereby inspiration and strength to tread the path of duty or of suffering—that we should consecrate ourselves to the work of lightening the darkness, and lessening the suffering, and cleansing the defilement of the world in which we live.—R. H. McKim, D. D.
Mark 9:5. “It is good for us to be here.”—We need not inquire too closely what thoughts were uppermost in the apostle’s mind when he said this. If asked, he could not perhaps have told himself. He was not himself. Suddenly waking out of sleep (Luke 9:32), he and his fellow-disciples found themselves the amazed spectators of a vision of glory for the contemplation of which neither their minds nor their bodily organs were framed. All that we can certainly infer from this involuntary exclamation of Peter’s is that his mind was cast into a pleasurable frame, so blissful that he longed for its continuance.
I. The state of mind which gave rise to this exclamation.—
1. It was the acknowledgment of a present good. Peter felt himself happy, and at once avowed it. He looked neither backwards nor forwards; he saw no more than what was before his eyes. The narrow plot of ground on which he and his companions lay, and so much more as would suffice to erect three tabernacles upon, was then all the world to him. Such moments and such feelings were rarely granted to those who shared the human condition of the Son of God. At other times they said not, “It is good,” but “When will it be good?” (Matthew 19:27). When the past supplies nothing but painful recollections, and the present nothing but painful experiences, it is our duty to look forward and to inquire, When will our happiness begin? But when we are happy, it is equally our duty to be sensible of it—to feel it, enjoy it, dwell upon it. Let us cherish such moments as the oases of this life. This applies especially to things spiritual. As “the elect of God, holy and beloved,” possessing “the firstfruits of the Spirit,” we ought to “abound in hope,” “with all joy and peace in believing.”
2. Happiness depends upon the state of the feelings. “It is good for us to be here,” says Peter. What! good to have nowhere to lay one’s head? good to be out all night in a bleak desert place, without shelter or food? good to be far from home, lost to the world and to the endearing relations of family life? This is all true, would Peter have replied, but it is all beside the mark. Happiness or wretchedness is in the mind (Proverbs 14:10). Outward circumstances can only influence our happiness by acting upon our feelings. Let us look well, then, to our inward frames, and watch over the thoughts which arise in our minds (Proverbs 4:23).
3. Peter here mistook a mere transitory frame for a permanent state of mind. He said, “It is good for us to be here,” and so far he was right; but his thoughts went further than this; he said in his heart, It would be good for us to be always here—to gaze for ever on “the King in His beauty.” The same feeling made the apostles dread our Lord’s departure; but He shews them that there is a higher “good” dependent on it (John 16:6-7). So we too have our short-lived and occasional frames as well as our general and permanent states of mind; and we are in danger of mistaking one for the other.
(1) In regard to temporal gratifications. When we find ourselves in some unusually agreeable and enjoyable situation, does not our vain heart unconsciously suggest to us, Would that I were always so! Oh that to-morrow might be as this day, and still more abundant!—forgetting that it is the nature of such delicious moments to be but moments; that these pleasures would lose half their sweetness if they did not come and go—just shew themselves and disappear.
(2) In respect to spiritual delights. If you possess any religious sensibility, if you ever commune with your own heart, if you have any experience of prayer, if you ever long to see the Divine power and glory as you have seen them in the sanctuary,—if in any of these ways you have “tasted that the Lord is gracious,” you will understand. At such moments has not the thought of your heart been—Vain world, adieu! It is good for us to be always so! Such is the language of nature; but let us beware how we listen to it. Cherish such moments; acknowledge them; be grateful for them; enjoy them while they last; but do not think of “building tabernacles for them.” They were never meant to dwell with the tumult of the world or the sober realities of life. Even as spiritual refreshments they are not so good for us as many other fruits which hang from the less elevated branches of the tree of life. The true “peace of God which passeth all understanding” is not that which goes out of the heart, but that which stays in it, and “keeps as with a garrison the heart and mind of its possessor, through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).
II. Some common occasions in life to which the words of the text apply.—
1. “It is good for us to be here”—in the house of God. Here we may by faith “behold His glory.” Moses and Elias, the law and the prophets, those lesser lights and glories of which the meridian is past, still appear, as tributary to His brightness, like stars lingering after the sun is risen. And although “no man hath seen God at any time,” yet in His Word and Sacraments we behold, if not the Divinity itself, at least the bright overshadowing cloud which at once veils and indicates the Divine Presence.
2. “It is good for us to be” in the house of affliction (Ecclesiastes 7:2-3). Who that believes this would not take the wings of a dove and fly from that mirth whose end is heaviness to that heaviness whose fruit is holiness?
3. “It is good for us to be” in this mixed and chequered world. There is nothing to hinder us from conceiving a world without pain, or a world without sorrow, or a world without sin; nor from wishing that our own lot were cast there. But however such imaginary systems might be suited to their respective inhabitants, let us be assured of this, that it is good for us to be where we are. Only consider what we are: men, sinful men, mortal men—each undergoing his separate trial—all moving on to eternity. To place such beings, with such a design, in a perfect and unmixed state of existence would be absurd. The longer we live in the world, the firmer shall we hold by this principle, that “whatever is, is best.” What a blessing it is, e.g., that we are not all rich, or all poor, or all midway between the two. Such a dead level would extinguish some of the noblest and holiest feelings of the human heart, besides annihilating half the duties and all the charities of life. Or would you banish pain and sorrow from the world? But that, were it possible, would be the reverse of a boon, since “sweet are the uses of adversity,” etc. The same line of argument applies to differences in age, temperament, knowledge, etc.
OUTLINES AND COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Mark 9:2. “After six days.”—Why did Christ defer the performance of His promise for six days? He deferred it to increase their desires before it came, their joys when it came. To inflame their desires; for things easily come by are little set by. To increase their joys; for that which hath been long detained is at last more sweetly obtained. Moreover, if Christ after the promise of this vision had immediately singled out some to the participation of it, this would have bred envy and grudging in the rest.—Thos. Adams.
Christ always better than His word.—It was after six days. He stayed no longer. Why? He might have deferred longer. It was in these terms that He promised—before they die. Time enough therefore hereafter. Indeed for us, if we promise anything to God before we die, we must do it presently, because we know not the time of our death. As the Rabbins say, if a man vowed to be a Nazarite one day before his death, he was to be so presently, because this day may be the last day. But God knows these times and seasons, and the number of our days. What then? Yet after six days He performs it. In all His promises He is better and fuller and speedier than His word.—Bishop Brownrigg.
The first week of suffering on the part of the disciples, previous to the sufferings of the Lord Himself.
1. Its beginning: the confession of Peter and the announcement of the Lord’s sufferings.
2. Its employment: familiarising their minds with thoughts of the Cross.
3. Its close: a glorious Sabbath on the Holy Mount.—J. P. Lange, D. D.
The three chosen apostles.—
1. Peter was the forward, zealous disciple, who led the way to the rest in that noble confession of Christ; therefore he is singled out to be partaker of this vision. Again, Peter is now overtaken with an error, is sorry to hear of Christ’s death, dissuades Him from it; by this vision therefore he is comforted, reformed, instructed in the mystery of Christ’s death and passion.
2. James was appointed to be the first apostle that should die for Christ: Herod sucked his blood first. As they who must be in the front of the battle have the choicest armour because they are to undertake desperate services, so because James was to be the first in the army royal therefore he was admitted to view the glory of this Transfiguration.
3. John was fore-appointed to be the publisher and penman of Christ’s Divinity; and so above all he soared highest into heaven. Therefore was this manifestation of Christ’s glory and Divinity made to him. He urges it (John 1:14).—Bishop Brownrigg.
Why these three?—We cannot for a moment imagine that there was favouritism in the selection of certain apostles to share in what the others might not witness. It was not because these were better loved, but because they were better prepared—more fully receptive, more readily acquiescing, more entirely self-surrendering.—A. Edersheim, D. D.
What mountain?—
1. According to an old tradition Christ had left Cæsarea Philippi, and the scene of the Transfiguration was Mount Tabor. But
(1) there is no notice of His departure, such as is generally made by Mark;
(2) on the contrary, it is mentioned by him as after the Transfiguration (Mark 9:30);
(3) Tabor was at that time crowned by a fortified city, which would render it unsuitable for such a scene.
2. Modern opinion fixes upon one of the southern peaks of Hermon—the only “high mountain” in Palestine—as the place.
Mountains.—The devil took Christ into a mountain when he shewed Him the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them. So our Saviour took His apostles up into a mountain when He shewed them the kingdom of heaven and glory of the world to come. Moses went up to a mountain to speak with the Lord; now the Lord goes up to a mountain to speak with Moses.—Thos. Adams.
Hermon.—It was meet that Hermon should be chosen for this high honour, whose hoary head rose among the other hills, wreathed with the white shroud of eternal snow. Just as in human life snow-white locks are ever a mark of honour and command respect and reverence, so in the world of nature the hoary mountain, grey with years and white with the snows of many ages, ever commands respect among its fellows, rising high overhead—a Saul among the people—its wreath of perpetual snow being at once a proof of its great age and great height among the neighbouring hills.—W. F. Low.
Consecration to the Lord changes man.—
1. Internally; he is elevated into the spiritual world and surrounded by blessed spirits.
2. Externally; he is renewed, adorned, transfigured.—J. P. Lange, D. D.
Transfiguration.—If our previous investigations have rightly led us up to this result, that Jesus was the Very Christ of God, then this event can scarcely be described as miraculous—at least in such a history. If we would not expect it, it is certainly that which might have been expected.
1. It was, and at that particular period, a necessary stage in the Lord’s history, viewed in the light in which the Gospels present Him.
2. It was needful for His own strengthening, even as the ministry of the angels after the Temptation.
3. It was “good” for these three disciples to be there—not only for future witness, but for present help, and also with special reference to Peter’s remonstrance against Christ’s death-message.
4. The Voice from heaven, coming after the announcement of His Death and Passion, sealed that testimony, and in view of it proclaimed Him as the Prophet to whom Moses had bidden Israel hearken, while it repeated the heavenly utterance concerning Him made at His Baptism.
5. For us all the interest of this history lies not only in the past; it is in the present also, and in the future. To all ages it is like the vision of the bush burning, in which was the Presence of God. And it points us forward to that transformation, of which that of Christ was the pledge, when “this corruptible shall put on incorruption.” As of old the beacon fires, lighted from hill to hill, announced to them far away from Jerusalem the advent of solemn feast, so does the glory kindled on the Mount of Transfiguration shine through the darkness of the world and tell of the Resurrection Day.—A. Edersheim, D. D.
Prayer accompanied by glory.—Luke gives a pregnant hint in connecting it with Christ’s praying, as if the calm ecstasy of communion with the Father brought to the surface the hidden glory of the Son. Can it be that such glory always accompanied His prayers, and that its presence may have been one reason for the sedulous privacy of these, except on this one occasion, when He desired that His faithful three should be “eye-witnesses of His majesty”?—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Mark 9:3. Christ in glory.—Look upon all the beauties that are in the world, the most glorious and resplendent creatures, and unite all their excellences, and raise up thy thoughts by them, and from them to the contemplation of that glory which is in heaven. View the curious rarities of art and nature. Is the snow, a vanishing meteor, so white? the material heavens so pure? the lily so beautiful? Oh! our Solomon in His glory is clothed more richly than any of these. Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, the heart cannot conceive the greatness of His glory.—Bishop Brownrigg.
Mark 9:4. Why did Moses and Elias appear, rather than David and Abraham, from whose loins Jesus came, and who were so famous among the people?
1. To manifest a difference between the Lord and the servants. Moses and Elias were of high esteem with the Jews, Christ not regarded, a man of no repute among them; therefore He would now shew that He was the Lord and they but His servants.
2. If it be granted that Moses was dead and that Elias died not, this declares that Christ is the Saviour of both quick and dead.
3. Moses was called the law-giver, and Elias was (after a sort) the law-restorer; now the Jews traduced Christ for a law-breaker. Moses and Elias were witness that He was obedient to the law.
4. They meet that brought the law with Christ who brought the gospel, to shew that law and gospel must be joined together. We must still serve God according to His law, or He will not save us according to His gospel.
5. To shew that this was the true Messiah, to whom both law and prophets bare witness.
6. Christ proposed two such famous men as Moses and Elias to His apostles for patterns, that their spirits might be well tempered in them. Moses, a man most meek on the earth; Elias, a man exceeding zealous. These two are brought hither, that the apostles may learn to mix Moses’ meekness with Elias’ ferventness.—Thos. Adams.
Christ the centre.—All true teachers of duty and all inspired witnesses for God are found at last commending and adoring Christ. And all that is good fits into the gospel and helps to prepare its way.
1. Man, like the Son of Man, has latent glory which the presence of God brings out.
2. Obey God, and the glorified befriend you.
3. The Cross of Christ is not the weak point in the gospel, but its grandest feature—that into which the glorified desire to look.—R. Glover.
The consecration of Jesus to His suffering and dying by a visit from the dwellers of heaven.
1. Necessary, on account of His true humanity.
2. Fitting, on account of the high momentousness of the event.
3. Of great value for the disciples, as well then as afterwards.
4. Continually important for the Christian world of following centuries.—J. J. Van Oosterzee, D. D.
The meeting of the Lord with Moses and Elijah shews—
1. The bearing of the future upon the present world.
(1) The dead are waiting the appearance of Christ.
(2) The most exalted of the departed spirits here do homage to Him.
2. The bearing of the visible upon the invisible world. This may be regarded as the earnest and commencement of Christ’s preaching to the spirits in prison (1 Peter 3:19; 1 Peter 4:6).
3. How this world and the next meet and coalesce in the resurrection of Jesus.—J. P. Lange, D. D.
The Sun makes the stars more glorious.—The Jews thought if Christ were advanced Moses must down. Whosoever preached Christ spake against Moses. No, Moses was never so glorious as in this attendance. It is otherwise with the Sun of Righteousness and the saints. Then with the body of the sun and the stars: these do, occidere heliace, not appear when they come nearer to the sun. But our Sun of Glory makes these stars, the nearer they be, to be the more glorious. As in Joseph’s dream, the sun, moon, and stars were all shining together.—Bishop Brownrigg.
Communion with Christ now and hereafter.—Moses and Elias were men of much communion with God upon earth; many heavenly intercourses passed between them; and now they are admitted into a near and sweet and familiar communication. Men of communion with God here shall be received with more free access and familiar conversation with Christ in heaven. They who never maintain speech with God here, how can they look to have access in heaven? They who love to come into His presence, delight in hearing Him speak to them, and they to Him by prayer and meditation—they shall have nearest and freest and sweetest communion hereafter.—Ibid.
Christ seen with His foreannouncers.—What could so befit the Creator’s Christ as to manifest Him in the company of His own foreannouncers? to let Him be seen with those to whom He had appeared in revelations? to let Him be speaking to those who had spoken of Him? to share His glory with those by whom He used to be called the Lord of Glory, even with those chief servants of His, one of whom was once the moulder of His people, the other afterwards the reformer thereof?—Tertullian.
Mark 9:5. The good intention and the error of Peter.—
1. He was anxious to display the agreement between the Old and New Covenants; but by an outward amalgamation, not by their internal connexion.
2. He was ready to renounce the world; but by an outward institution (such as monasticism and anchoretism), not by an inward Acts 3. He wished to perpetuate this season of spiritual fellowship; but by giving it an outward and fixed form, not by converting it into a spring of hidden life.—J. P. Lange, D.D.
Heaven on earth.—
1. Where it may be found.
(1) In secret fellowship with God.
(2) In a life of spiritual love and friendship.
(3) In the courts and at the altar of the Lord.
2. How it should be sought.
(1) By preserving purity of heart (or by perseverance in the faith).
(2) By constant increase of spirituality in our wishes and inclinations (or sanctification).
(3) By ever keeping before our minds and hearts our eternal calling (or watching and prayer).—Rambach.
Good to be with Jesus.—If we find it as impossible as Peter did to live retired from all conflict and intercourse with all kinds of men; if, like Peter, we have to descend into a valley ringing with demoniac’s cries; if we are called upon to deal with the world as it actually is—deformed, dehumanised by sin: is it nothing that we can assure ourselves of the society and friendship of One who means to remove all suffering and all sin, and who does so not by a violent act of authority, but by sympathy and patient love, so that we can be His brighter instruments, and in healing and helping others help and heal ourselves!—M. Dods, D.D.
Calvary or not Calvary?—That was the issue. It was the alternative that comes to each one of us at some time or other in life. Ease and safety, or duty and sacrifice? Retire from the conflict and live in glorious peace? or fight on and fall?—J. Halsey.
Danger of saint-worship.—The same feeling which induced Peter to utter these words has probably been the foundation of the errors of the Church of Rome with respect to the worship of saints. If his desire had been permitted, and three tabernacles had been erected, these would have become three temples of worship, and that homage which was due to Christ alone would have been divided with His saints. Such practically has been the case in the Church of Rome. Men have been attracted by the glory of the saints, and, forgetting that it was all derived from Christ, have treated them as if they were each alone and by themselves worthy of their homage. The tabernacle of the saints has been preferred too often to that of the King of saints, on the supposition that, because they have themselves suffered all the trials which we suffer, they are better able to sympathise with human weakness, and therefore will become intercessors for men with Christ. But need we any intercessor with Him?
There are mountains in the kingdom of God.—The soul can withdraw from the multiplied cares and distractions of the work-a-day world life to find restful influence and inspiring companionship on their quiet heights. On the hill-tops of gracious ordinances, in special seasons of fellowship with the Eternal Father, through the revealing Son, by the blessed whisperings of the Spirit, the soul will feel and manifest the reality and blessedness of upper-world revelations and voices in a way not otherwise attainable. Enjoying these things in heavenly places, with Peter it will say, “It is good to be here.” In that clear upper air the eye will behold, as never before, the beauties of holiness and the deformities of sin. The soul shall put on a radiancy born of an atmosphere purified from the influences of malarial levels. But it is not the will of God that the soul should seek selfishly to abide there. It is not to be drawn away from and raised uninfluentially above the crying needs of fallen men. The healing power of its contact with Divine things is needed in the plain below. The attractions of a contemplative life must not therefore lead to forgetfulness or neglect of the demands for practical toil and self-denial. Neither, on the other hand, must those quiet seasons of withdrawal from earthly distractions be forgotten or neglected. The soul then puts on new strength by nearer fellowship with God. All this must not be defeated by the despotic tendencies and imperious claims of practical work. If so, the soul will suffer loss, power be paralysed, and blessings withheld from men. It is the union of both that will make the well-balanced, healthy, Christlike soul.—Wm. M. Campbell.
Mark 9:7. The overshadowing cloud.—The outer skirts of the central glory began to advance—to enlarge their borders and to encompass the chosen three. Peter and James and John stand for a while in the golden suburbs of the heavenly Jerusalem. “A bright cloud overshadowed them.” He who “tempers the wind to the shorn lamb” softened the dazzling brightness with a luminous curtain. Nevertheless, even in the haze of the cloud that relieved the blaze, they were affrighted. The majesty was veiled to them, yet they were afraid. The glory was tempered to them, yet they trembled. But if the subdued flashing of the clouded splendour alarmed them, the thunder of the voice that came out of the cloud appalled them. It was the voice of God!—Prof. T. S. Evans.
That overshadowing cloud warns us as it warned St. Peter, that this world is a battle-field, not a vision of peace, a working time, not the rest that remaineth; the Mount of Crucifixion, not the Mount of Glory. To our Blessed Lord Himself that overshadowing cloud was a type of what His earthly life was to be. Says Jeremy Taylor: “His transfiguration was a bright ray of glory; but then, also, He entered into a cloud, and was told a sad story of what He was to suffer at Jerusalem. For this Jesus was like the rainbow, which God set in the clouds as a sacrament, to confirm a promise and establish a grace. He was half made of the glories of the light, and half of the moisture of a cloud.”
Divine secrets.—There is no manner of absurdity in supposing a veil on purpose drawn over some scenes of Infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, the sight of which might some way or other strike us too strongly; or that better ends are designed and served by their being concealed than could be by their being exposed to our knowledge. The Almighty may cast clouds and darkness round about Him for reasons and purposes of which we have not the least glimpse or conception (Romans 11:33; Sir. 16:21-22; John 20:29).—Bishop Butler.
God’s glory veiled in mercy.—When the eye gazes on the sun, it is more tormented with the brightness than pleased with the beauty of it; but when the beams are transmitted through a coloured medium, they are more temperate and sweetened to the sight. The Eternal Word shining in His full glory, the more bright the less visible is He to mortal eyes; but the Incarnate Word is eclipsed and allayed by a veil of flesh (Hebrews 10:20), and so made accessible to us. God, out of a tender respect to our frailty and fears, promised to raise up a Prophet clothed in our nature (Exodus 20:18-19; Deuteronomy 18:15-19), that we might comfortably and quietly receive His instructions (Job 33:6-7; John 1:18; Luke 4:20-22).—Dr. Bates.
The vision withdrawn.—A Christian’s highest enjoyments are sometimes put an end to by God Himself. He may think that he has sinned away his previous privilege, or trifled it away, or by some means driven it away; and this is perhaps very generally the truth. But it is not always so. The intercepting cloud, like that which we are now considering, is sometimes of God’s sending. The vision has done its work—its appointed, strengthening, comforting work; and that done, the vision is withdrawn.
The gospel cloud.—The law, that is a cloud, dark and obscure; but the gospel, that is a clear cloud. Still, indeed, the gospel is a cloud, it gives no full evident view; but yet it is a clear cloud, it hath many rays and beams of light in it. The law had a dark cloud, we could not see through it; their shadows were remote and obscure. Their circumcision was a dark cloud, immediately signifying God’s covenant with Abraham. Our baptism is a cloud, a bodily, material type, an outward element; but it is a clear cloud, representing distinctly the washing away the filth of the flesh by the blood of Christ. Their Passover was a dark cloud, representing their delivery out of Egypt immediately, but darkly the Messias. Our Lord’s Supper is a cloud, a veil of bread and wine is over it; but yet it is a clear cloud, immediately shewing Christ and all His benefits. Their covenant was a cloud, covered with temporary promises, with the promise of Canaan. Ours is a cloud indeed, we cannot see those things that it promises; but yet a clear cloud, immediately presenting to us immediate promises of heaven. The light of the law was like the light of a candle; ours, as the day-star.—Bishop Brownrigg.
“Hear Him.”—
1. He has truth which can never deceive you, a wisdom which knows what you need, a goodness which will command nothing but what will bless.
2. If you hear Him, He has promised to hear you (John 16:7).
3. He speaks to you on the subject of greatest importance, and speaks with a clearness, emphasis, authority, decision, which scatter all doubts and solve all perplexities.
4. God has declared what will be the consequence of refusing to hear Him (Deuteronomy 18:19).
5. If you hear Him not, and keep not His words, you are building your hopes upon the sand; and when the tempest comes, as come it will, your fabric of happiness must fall, and great will be the fall of it.—J. Sanderson, D.D.
“Hear Him”—
1. Reverently.
2. With docility.
3. With personal, special, and practical application.
4. With a deep, solemn sense of your responsibility.—Ibid.
Mark 9:8. “Jesus only.”—
1. Moses and Elias, the law and the prophets, have but a temporary station and abode in the Church. Christ being brought into the world, they are withdrawn.
2. Christ’s office and glory and government in His Church, ’tis lasting and perpetual.
3. The eye and observation and faith of the Church is fixed upon Christ only.—Bishop Brownrigg.
The eye of the Church fixed on Christ.—The eye of the Church looks only upon Christ, fixes upon Him, and expects no other. This is the main difference betwixt the Jewish Church and ours. They were all in expectation, and were waiters for better times. But our faith hath Him exhibited and presented, and rests upon Him. Hence Christ forewarns them not to listen to or look after any other. The sun arising, darkens all the stars; so all the former saints are obscured to the eye of the Church, and He alone must shine in His full glory. As when the king enters into any city all authority is resigned up to him, all viceroys and lieutenants must resign up to him, so Moses and the prophets all yield up their place in the Church to Christ.—Ibid.
Christ the Sum of revelation.—It is the summing up of revelation; all others vanish, He abides. It is the summing up of the world’s history. Thickening folds of oblivion wrap the past, and all its mighty names become forgotten; but His figure stands out, solitary against the background of the past, as some great mountain, which is seen long after the lower summits are sunk below the horizon. Let us make this the summing up of our lives. We can venture to take Him for our sole Helper, Pattern, Love, and Aim, because He, in His singleness, is enough for our hearts.—A. Maclaren, D.D.
Mark 9:9. Reasons for concealment.—This vision of Christ’s Divinity and glory must be concealed till after His resurrection.
1. Till then Christ is in statu humiliationis, and so He will have His majesty and glory to be covered. Now He terms Himself the Son of Man. He was declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead (Romans 1). Thus He was pleased to veil His glory, and to become vile, and of no reputation.
2. It is documentum modestiœ. His glory, He is not ambitious to publish it—as St. Paul fourteen years concealed his revelations. He glories in his infirmities and weaknesses; but till he was constrained he kept his rapture concealed.
3. Till His resurrection these apostles were inepti, weak and carnal, not sufficiently grounded in this doctrine of Christ’s Divinity. After His resurrection, then they were endued with strength from above, and then those mysteries that they could not bear the Comforter revealed to them.
4. Quia incredibile. The infidelity of the world was not yet to be removed; it would not believe there had been such a vision. Infidelity deprives us of many truths that God would otherwise reveal to us.
5. Ne impediret passionem. It troubled Pilate to hear it mentioned that Christ was the Son of God. And St. Paul saith, had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Life and Glory. He purposely concealed His Deity to give way to His passion. And hence it is that He spake of His Divinity very reservedly. He charged they should tell no men who He was (Mark 8:20), but (Mark 9:32) He spake plainly of His passion.—Bishop Brownrigg.
Reasons for silence.—
1. Because the Jews were to have no sign, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: they had seen enough to leave their unbelief without excuse.
2. Because among the rude, after the publication of such a glory, the following Cross would have bred scandal. If He were invested with such glory, why could He not keep Himself in it?
3. Because till His resurrection had made way for it, the world would never have given credit to this wonder.
4. According to that (Sir. 11:28), judge no man blessed before his death. Then they witnessed it, preached it, wrote it: we hear it, let us all believe it, that we may one day enjoy it in the everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ.—Thos. Adams.
The silence enjoined was the first step into the Valley of Humiliation. It was also a test whether they had understood the spiritual teaching of the vision. And their strict obedience, not questioning even the grounds of the injunction, proved that they had learned it.—A. Edersheim, D.D.
Transfigurations not to be talked about.—
1. Transfigurations are not themes for common gossip. Those bitter conflicts that turn to raptures are things we had rather not speak of. The common, prosaic, worldly mind would not understand them—would, indeed, only find food for ridicule in them.
2. Besides, our transfigurations do not need to be talked about. They proclaim themselves. If we have experienced a great spiritual uplifting, the thrill of an inward illumination, the world will know it without our saying anything about it.—J. Halsey.
Even to His fellow-disciples the believer cannot relate all that the Saviour has often let him taste.—J. J. Van Oosterzee, D.D.
How some Christians are perpetually tormented with a notion that they must testify to whatever manifestation of God is granted to themselves, at the risk of bringing shallowness and weakness upon their own experience!—C. C. Starbuck.
Mark 9:10. Submissive silence.—So entire was their submission that they dared nor even ask the Master about a new and seemingly greater mystery than they had yet heard—the meaning of the Son of Man rising from the dead. Did it refer to the general resurrection? was the Messiah to be the first to rise from the dead, and to waken the other sleepers—or was it only a figurative expression for His triumph and vindication?—A. Edersheim, D.D.
Learn—I. Even the best Christians are by nature and of themselves slow to conceive and understand the mysteries of faith and doctrines of Christ taught in the gospel.
2. True faith and sanctifying grace in this life may stand with ignorance in some points of Christian faith, at least for a time.
3. It is a good and profitable cause for Christians to confer and reason together by mutual questioning one with another about those points of Christian religion whereof they are yet ignorant or doubtful.—G. petter.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 9
Mark 9:2. Doxologies to God for the mountains.—In their mineral treasures, in the liberal toll taken from the clouds and disbursed in channels of blessing, in their worldwide sanatory influence, felt where unseen, what a boon are they to men! Often have they given friendly shelter to the hunted spirit of liberty. They have made a higher civilisation possible. They have quickened desire for the same by furnishing so largely the needed instruments of agriculture, manufacture, commerce, and the arts. How vivifying and ennobling the influence which their beauty, variety, sublimity, repose, and strength exercise upon the minds and hearts of men! Rich and varied is the inheritance of the high and holy in intellectual, moral, and spiritual things which but for the mountains would be unenjoyed by men. In a thousand ways how the “everlasting hills” help men upward nearer heaven and God! They are the cathedral spires of the world for ever pointing the nations to the things above. Streams of physical, intellectual, political, moral, and spiritual good have enriched human life through its relations with the everlasting hills.—W. M. Campbell.
Christ’s transfiguration.—I have stood by the side of the tall mast in Madison Square, New York, at early evening, wondering at the unique and surprising structure, recognising it as something extraordinary, and yet not knowing exactly what it meant or what was its effect, when suddenly the rushing of an unseen force was heard, there was a flash, and a circle of fire surrounded the top of the mast and cast its weird light far out into the surrounding darkness. So to the disciples on the mount came the transfiguration of Christ. He stood before them in the impressiveness of a rare and wonderful Manhood, when suddenly that Manhood glowed with an internal fire. God was within the Man, and the mountain summit became on the instant resplendent with the Divine glory flashing forth.—A. P. Foster.
Mark 9:3. The beauty of the snow.—The white wonder of the snow is spread so often before our eyes every winter that many of us forget how wonderful and how beautiful it is. With impatience and fretful complainings we look up at the threatening sky, where the grey clouds drive before the wind thick with the coming snow. Presently the delicate crystals, star-shaped, feather-soft, white and sparkling, begin to fall as silently as the slippered foot of Time; at first coming down slowly and timidly, then gathering courage, and whirling down as if in delight at their own beauty. No fewer than ninety-six separate exquisite forms have been discerned among the flakes of the snow, every form as perfect as geometry can imagine or the sculptor’s art devise.—Dr. Talmage.
Mark 9:5-6. Religious enthusiasm cannot be detained.—I have seen in the little English city of Salisbury the great cathedral. It was built when a flood-tide of religious enthusiasm was sweeping over the world. Thousands might worship, thousands have worshipped, within that splendid fane, and its walls were not able to contain the great flood of devotion. But the tide has ebbed; the ecstatic vision has faded. The mighty cathedral stands; but a handful of worshippers can scarcely keep a sleepy rivulet of praise flowing in a corner of the building. No tabernacle can detain a moment of religious enthusiasm; and if Peter and his friends had built the grandest cathedral in the world on the ridge of Mount Hermon, it might have been empty and bare to-day.—H. Van Dyke, D.D.
Mark 9:8. Jesus only.—When Bishop Beveridge was on his death-bed, his memory so failed that he did not know even his nearest relative. His chaplain said, “Do you know me?” “Who are you?” was the answer. His own wife asked him, “Do you know me?” “Who are you?” was the only answer. On being told that it was his wife he said that he did not know her. Then one standing by said, “Do you know Jesus Christ?” “Jesus Christ?” he replied, reviving as if the name acted on him like a cordial; “yes, I have known Him these forty years; He is my only hope.”