CRITICAL NOTES
Matthew 17:1. After six days.—Within a week of Peter’s confession. St. Luke has “about an eight days after,” according to the common Jewish reckoning, by which each part of a day is counted as a day (Carr). An high mountain.—Since the fourth century tradition has fixed on Mount Tabor, in Galilee, as the locality of this event. This opinion is, however, evidently untenable. Not only was Mount Tabor inhabited to its summit at the time (see Robinson), but it seems exceedingly improbable that Jesus would have so suddenly left His retreat in the highlands of Gaulonitis, and transferred the scene of one of His most secret revelations to Galilee, where He was everywhere persecuted. The mountain seems likely to have been Hermon (Lange).
Matthew 17:2. Transfigured.—The transfiguration proper, the general statement that Jesus “was transfigured before them,” is immediately followed out into explanatory details. It was twofold: the radiance of His face, and the gleaming whiteness of His raiment, which shone “like the snow” on Hermon, smitten by the sunshine. Probably we are to think of the whole body as giving forth the same mysterious light, which made itself visible even through the white robe He wore. This would give beautiful accuracy and appropriateness to the distinction drawn in the two metaphors, that His face was “as the sun,” in which the undiluted glory was seen; and His garments as the light, which is sunshine diffused and weakened. There is no hint of any external source of the brightness. It does not seem to have been a reflection from the visible symbol of the Divine presence, as was the fading radiance on the face of Moses. That symbol does not come into view till the last stage of the incident. We are then to think of it as arising from within, not cast from without. We cannot tell whether it was voluntary or involuntary (Maclaren). Are we to think of night or of day? Perhaps the former is slightly the more probable, from the fact of the descent being made “the next day” (Luke). Our conception of the scene will be very different, as we think of that lustre from His face, and that bright cloud, as outshining the blaze of a Syrian sun, or as filling the night with glory. But we cannot settle which view is correct (ibid.).
Matthew 17:3. Moses and Elias.—The appropriate representatives of the law and the prophets. And as all the distinguishing peculiarities of the law and the prophets pointed, as with outstretched finger, to the Messiah, and waited for their accomplishment in His person and in His work, it is not to be wondered at that Moses and Elijah should have had much in their hearts which they would like to say to Jesus, and that Jesus should have much in His heart which He would like to say to them. See Luke 9:31 (Morison).
Matthew 17:4. Let us make.—I will make (R.V.). The transition to the singular is in keeping with Peter’s temperament (Carr). Tabernacles.—Little huts made out of boughs of trees or shrubs (ibid.).
Matthew 17:9. The vision.—See Mark 9:9; Luke 9:36.
Matthew 17:10. Elias must first come.—If Elijah was to come and prepare the way, why had he thus come from the unseen world for a moment only?
Matthew 17:11. Elias truly shall first come.—Cometh (K.V.). Our Lord’s words are obviously enigmatic in their form, and, as such, admit of two very different interpretations. Taken literally, as they have been by very many both in earlier and later times, they seem to say that Elijah shall come in person before the yet future day of the Lord, the great second advent of the Christ. So, it has been argued, the prophecy of Malachi 4:5 shall yet have a literal fulfilment, and John the Baptist when he confessed that he was not Elijah (John 1:21) was rightly expecting his appearance. The words that follow in the next verse are, however, more decisive (Plumptre).
Matthew 17:12. Elias is come already.—So far as the prophecy of Malachi required the coming of Elijah, that prophecy had been fulfilled in the Baptist, all unconscious of it as he was, as coming in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 1:17) (ibid.).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Matthew 17:1-13
A glimpse of glory.—This passage is connected very intimately with that immediately before it. The occurrence it describes took place about a week—about “six days” (Matthew 17:1; Mark 9:2) according to one way of counting—about “eight days” (Luke 9:28) according to another way—“after” the prediction of Matthew 16:28. We may look upon it, therefore, as a following up of what the Saviour had said in the concluding portion of that chapter (Matthew 16:21-28) to the disciples at large, and as intended still further to prepare them all, by preparing three of the chief among them (two of whom were afterwards spoken of as “pillars,” Galatians 2:9), for His (most unexpected) coming passion and death. And it certainly seems to have been well calculated to have this effect, partly by the impressive assurance which it gave to these three of the coming glory of Christ; and partly by the significant way in which it connected that glory with His previous passion and death.
I. The coming glory of Christ.—This was testified to them in various ways. First, by what they are now shown of His person. They see Him (Matthew 17:2) as He is to appear when He comes in His “glory” (Matthew 25:31)—“transfigured” till His very “garments” have the radiance of “light.” Next, by what they are shown of those who appear with Him in “glory” (Luke 9:31). Two chief representatives of the faith of the past, one representing the “law,” and one the “prophets,” are seen in attendance upon Him; and are heard “talking with Him” of that which had yet to be accomplished by Himself (Luke 9:31). Thirdly, by the striking effect thus produced on themselves. It fills them at once with rapture and fear. It overwhelms them, at the same moment, with both confusion and joy. What they ought to say they none of them know. What one of them does say shows what they all feel, viz., that nothing can be better, in their judgment, than for things to stay as they are (see Matthew 17:4). Oh! what fervour and depth, what wonder and joy, what utter contentment there breathes in those words! And how prophetic they are also of that which is to be verified with regard to all faith at the end! (1 Thessalonians 4:17). Fourthly, by that which they are now permitted to see of the glory of the Father Himself. For such we take that “bright cloud” of which we read here to have been—something akin to that mysterious “Shekinah” of which they had heard tell in old days, and which filled them with “fear,” therefore, as they “entered into it,” and felt it both above and around them, on every side. And lastly, by that which they are now permitted to hear of His voice—coming “out of the cloud,” as it did, and proclaiming aloud as well the supremacy and Sonship, as the faultless perfection of Jesus, and calling upon all those who would listen to the Father to listen to Him (end of Matthew 17:8); and testifying to Him so as He who was to come hereafter in the “glory of the Father” (Matthew 16:27). Almost all, in short, that is to mark the consummation itself is anticipated here, as it were. On that “high mountain apart,” these three disciples catch the radiancy of that yet unrisen Sun; and see in this vision what is at last to be seen openly by every eye in the world (Revelation 1:7). The whole scene, in a word, is both a pledge and a sample of the future glory of Christ.
II. The previous passion of Christ.—This vision of His glory was connected with His passion in two remarkable ways. It was so, on the one hand, at the time of the vision itself. In the very midst of its glory, when the Saviour Himself is seen in “glory,” and when the same is true of those visitors from heaven who are heard speaking with Him, this subject of His passion is, as it were, that brought to the front. It is the subject, St. Luke tells us, of which they converse (Luke 9:31). They spake of it also under a peculiar title—viz., as a departure or “decease”—perhaps, because when looked at in the light of that glory it was not so much a death or dissolution of nature as a mere change of place, a going away. They spake of it, at the same time, as being something of great importance and necessity, something to which both they and He were then looking forward as that which had yet to be “accomplished.” They speak so much so, in fact, as even to name the place where it had to be done. And thus show, as it were, that to them His future glory was to follow His passion. First the cross and then the crown. First the shame and then the glory. First death, then fulness of life. So it is, in the very midst of that vision, that their language declares. Hardly less remarkable, next, in the same direction, is that which follows this vision. When it is all over, Jesus touches them and they gain courage thereby to “lift up their eyes” and look round. They see “no one save Jesus only” (Matthew 17:8). Then, rising up together with Him, they come down from the mountain—apparently, for the present, too full of thought to say much. But their Master speaks; and that so as to show at once what is still in His thoughts. See the order of thought. In the distance that coming in glory of which the vision was an assurance. In the foreground that death of which He had previously told them, and which they had heard spoken of during the vision itself. Between the two His “rising again”—whatever that meant (Mark 9:10). Much the same is it, when, perplexed by this saying, they ask Him about Elias (Matthew 17:10). For His answer is such as to fix their attention immediately on that fulfilment of the prophecy of Elias, which was to be found in the appearance of John the Baptist, and to that termination of the career of the Baptist which was a prophecy, as it were, of His death (Matthew 17:11-12). That great catastrophe is what He is thinking of now the vision is over; as that was also what He had thought of and spoken of so plainly before (Matthew 16:21) the vision began.
On the whole, therefore, we see how strikingly mingled is the character of this scene; and, therefore, how doubly calculated to effect the object apparently in view. By one, at least, of those mentioned here, we learn that this assurance of Christ’s future glory was never forgotten (2 Peter 1:16-18). And we can well believe that it would be with the darker lines of the intimation (and with that touch of light in reference to the resurrection by which these were brightened in turn), as we know it was with that very similar twofold intimation of John 2:19-22. And thus would all the disciples through these three, and these three through this special deposit entrusted to them alone for the time (Matthew 17:9), be prepared to overcome that coming trial which was to try them indeed. Forewarned and fore-encouraged; and so doubly forearmed!
HOMILIES ON THE VERSES
Matthew 17:1-9. The transfiguration.—
I. The witnesses of the transfiguration: Peter, James, and John—why these three?
1. Because three could keep a secret, but twelve could not. The context shows that it was of extreme importance that the transfiguration should be kept hid till after the resurrection.
2. Because, probably, these three were in deeper sympathy with the Saviour.
3. Notwithstanding their sympathy, the A.V. represents them as falling asleep (Luke 9:23). Trench proposes another translation—“Having kept themselves awake throughout, they saw His glory and the two men that stood with Him.” The A.V. teaches that they slept at the commencement of the scene, but awoke before it was over. But according to the other rendering, they were eye-witnesses of the whole transaction. Either way the language implies that they felt drowsy, that they wanted to sleep. Was this drowsiness natural? Not altogether; the excessive splendour around them produced a sensation of heaviness.
II. The principle of the transfiguration.—
1. One of the Evangelists notes that as “He prayed” the marvellous change in His appearance was effected. In communion with His Father such intense rapture possessed His soul that it visibly glowed through the dark covering of the body. Are we to perceive in this notable occurrence a principle illustrated or a principle defied? Is there anything in it for the race? I believe there is; it is only a marked exemplification of a universal principle—that the outward form receives its lustre or its baseness from the spirit.
2. The word “transfigured” means literally “metamorphosed.”
3. Many critics of no mean ability maintain that the emphatic words in the verse are—“before them.” Professor Tayler Lewis, for instance, says that the tense of the verb suggests that transfiguration was not a rare exception in the Saviour’s career upon the earth. Communing night after night with His Father on solitary mountain tops, it was not unusual for Him to be transfigured; the sweet joy of His soul often pierced like sunbeams through His frail tenement of clay; the extraordinary thing on this occasion was that He permitted the Divine ecstasy to be witnessed by others. Professor Godwin in his “Notes” throws out a similar hint.
III. The celestial visitants at the transfiguration.—Moses and Elias.
1. These departed saints appeared probably as representatives of the ancient economy. Moses was the founder of Judaism, Elias its reformer. Now, the system which the one inaugurated and the other ratified, was about to undergo a change, not, indeed, of destruction but of transfiguration.
2. They further appeared, probably, as representatives of the other world. Jesus is on the eve of His passion. Consequently the attention of the other world is concentrated on this—two appear as a deputation to convey to Him the sympathy of the saints already made perfect. The grandest purpose of this scene was to gird Him for the hour of His agony and death.
3. “They appeared unto Him in glory, and spake of the decease,” literally, exodus or departure. What a strange commingling of colours! Glory and decease, heaven and death, are brought into close juxtaposition.
4. “They talked of the decease which He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem.” In death others are passive, save as they struggle against the dissolution of the nature; but He was active, focussing the everlasting energies of His being upon its performance.
IV. The witness of the Father at the transfiguration.—
1. The bright light—a cloud made luminous by the Divine effulgence within.
2. The voice.
3. “Hear Him.”
V. The effect of the transfiguration.
1. The effect upon the disciples was to exhilarate them, to throw them into a rapture of wonder and joy which they could hardly restrain.
2. The effect upon the Saviour was to gird Him for the coming conflict.—J. C. Jones, D.D.
On the Holy Mount.—Some of the more general lessons which we may learn from this striking scene.
1. We are reminded that seclusion is needed for the highest sort of devotion. Luke tells us that the transfiguration of the Lord took place as He was praying, and so we are warranted in concluding that Jesus and His three disciples withdrew to the mountain-top for special communion with God.
2. We are reminded that a devotional spirit sees new glory in Christ and in His Word. When Peter and his brethren retired apart with Christ He was transfigured before them, and Moses and Elijah shared His brightness. Now, when we give ourselves to the devotional study of the Scriptures, new radiance breaks forth from its pages for us.
3. We are reminded that devotion is not the whole of life. Peter wanted to remain on that summit altogether. But he knew not what he said. There was a world to be redeemed, and how could that be accomplished if Jesus were held back there from the cross? There was, even at that very moment, a poor demoniac in the valley, waiting their descent, in order that he might be cured.
4. We are reminded that devotion furnishes support for the performance of the duties and the endurance of the trials of life. The Redeemer Himself, even in the garden and on the cross, was upheld by the remembrance of this voice from the midst of the cloud; and we know that Peter, long after, when contemplating his decease, looked back upon the whole scene as one of the strongest verifications of the gospel (2 Peter 1:16-18).—W. M. Taylor, D.D.
The transfiguration.—When we set ourselves deliberately to consider what the obstructions were which then lay in the way of a true faith in Christ on the part of the Apostles, we can discern how singularly fitted, in its time, its mode, and all its attendant circumstances, this glimpse of the glorified condition of our Lord was to remove these obstructions and establish them in that faith. For:—
I. It helped them to rise to a true conception of the dignity of the Saviour’s person.
II. It was not a little perplexing, the position which Christ assumed towards the Jewish priesthood and the Mosaic ritual. But if there entered into the minds of our Lord’s Apostles a doubt as to the actual inner spiritual harmony between their Master’s teaching and that of Moses and the Prophets, the vision of the mount—the sight of Moses and Elias, the founder and the restorer, the two chief representatives of the old covenant, appearing in glory, entering into such fellowship with Jesus, owning Him as their Lord—must have cleared it away, satisfying them by an ocular demonstration that their Master came not to destroy the law and the prophets—not to destroy, but to fulfil.
III. The manner of Christ’s death was thus, and of itself, a huge stumbling-block in the way of faith—one over which, with all that had been done beforehand to prepare them, the Apostles at first stumbled and fell. It formed the one and only topic of that sublimest interview (Luke 9:31).
IV. The peculiar way in which Jesus spake of His relationship to God was another great difficulty in the way of faith. It seemed so strange, so presumptuous, so blasphemous, for a man—with nothing to mark him off as different from other men—to speak of God as His Father, not in any figurative or metaphorical sense, not as any one, every one of His creatures might do, but in such a sense as obviously to imply oneness of nature, of attributes, of authority, of possession. So from that cloudy glory which hung for a few moments above the mountaintop the Father’s own loving voice was heard, authenticating all that Jesus had said, or was to say, of the peculiar relationship to Him in which He stood, and saying, “This is My beloved Son,” etc.—W. Hanna, D.D.
Matthew 17:8. Christ central and alone.—The surface lesson of the text is this, that Jesus Christ does not leave us when the extraordinary manifestations of His glory are taken away—when the joy and the splendour of the vision are gone He is still left to His faithful disciples. As Matthew Henry quaintly puts it: “After the special feast is over daily bread will yet be ours.” Let who will depart, then; He lives! He remains! “Jesus only”—it sums up the common heritage of the saints of God through the dim centuries of the past, and it will do so right on until the end.
I. Jesus Christ stands alone here, as elsewhere in Christian experience.—Moses is gone and Elias is gone; law-giver and prophet have vanished; the disciples see only the Master Himself, present in their midst. And this, too, is significant, for the gospel offers to us, not the law and not the prophets, but Christ, and Christ only; Christ linked with the law if you will, Christ fulfilling the law; Christ revealed in the prophets, Christ testified to by the prophets; but Christ standing alone in the matter of salvation to every one of us. To men with eyes turned heavenward, looking toward the unseen, longing, it may be, for visions and revelations, it offers “Jesus only”—the revelation of the Father in the face of the Son.
II. The pre-eminence, therefore, given to Jesus in these exalted moments of discipleship.—Moses and Elias appear, law-giver and prophet stand there, that they may “testify of His glory.” Then they have gone, and you may say of them their splendour has been dwindling ever since, even as the stars disappear when the sun itself has arisen. “These are they,” said Christ of all the prophets and of all the Scriptures, “that testify of Me.” And if you search the New Testament through and through it is always so of Him who is the Author and Finisher of this faith, the Prophet, Priest, and King of this new dispensation. And if men miss this they miss everything, the one point above all else of importance. For long centuries astronomy went wrong and made no progress, until it learned to place the sun in its true position as the centre of the solar system; and so it is with men and with creeds until they come to see Jesus as He is and as the Father has revealed Him.
III. All this points to the sufficiency of Jesus in the life left to these disciples coming down from the mount.—If the vision means anything it means this—whatever else it may imply—Jesus Christ is presented alone to His people, because Jesus Christ alone and in Himself is enough for His people.—W. Baxendale.
“Jesus only.”
1. It is the summing up of revelation.—All others vanish; He abides.
2. It is the summing up of the world’s history.—Thickening folds of oblivion wrap the past, and all its mighty names get 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.
3. 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. There are many fragmentary precious things, but one pearl of great price.
4. Then this may be a prophecy of our deaths.—A brief darkness, a passing dread, and then His touch and His voice saying, “Arise, be not afraid.” So we shall lift up our eyes and find earth faded and its voices fallen dim, and see “no one any more, save Jesus only.”—A. Maclaren, D.D.
“Jesus only.”—Consider the words as they are connected with:—
I. Christian doctrine.—
1. The solitariness of Christ’s personal grandeur—Jesus only is the Son of God.
2. The exclusiveness of Christ’s official work—Jesus only is the Redeemer of the world.
3. The permanence of the dispensation of Christ—Moses and Elias are gone, but Jesus remains, and “Jesus only.”
II. Experience of the believer.—Christ is the only unchanging source of the believer’s comfort.
III. The only hope of the sinner.—“Jesus only” is the way to God. “There is none other name,” etc.—Edward Steane, D.D.