And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone. And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen.
And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone. Moses and Elias are gone. Their work is done, and they have disappeared from the scene, feeling no doubt with their fellow-servant the Baptist, "He must increase, but I must decrease." The cloud too is gone, and the naked majestic Christ, braced in spirit, and enshrined in the reverent affection of His disciples, is left-to suffer! Matthew (Matthew 17:6-8) is more full here: "And when the disciples heard [the voice], they fell on their face, and were sore afraid (Luke 8:6). And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid (Luke 8:7.) And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man except Jesus alone (Luke 8:8).
And they kept it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen - feeling, for once, at least, that such things were unmeet as yet for general disclosure.
Remarks:
(1) We know how the first announcement which our Lord made to the Twelve of His approaching sufferings and death startled and shocked them. We how, too, with what sternness Peter's entreaty that his Lord would spare Himself was met and put down (Matthew 16:21, etc.) But it is only by studying the recorded connection between these disclosures and the Transfiguration that we gather how protracted had been the depression produced upon the Twelve, and how this probably reacted upon the mind even of our Lord Himself. After the lapse of a week, and during a night of prayer spent on a mountain, that death, the announcement of which had been so trying to His most select disciples, is suddenly presented in a new and astonishing light, as engaging the wonder and interest of heaven. No doubt, such a view of it was needed. As the Twelve were beyond all doubt reassured by it, so it is not to be doubted that the Redeemer's own spirit was cheered and invigorated by it.
(2) We have tried to conceive what might be the strain of those "prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears" which Jesus poured out on that mountain, before the glory broke forth from Him. But much must be left unimagined, 'He filled the silent night with His crying,' says Traill beautifully, 'and watered the cold earth with His tears, more precious than the dew of Mount Hermon, or any moisture, next unto His own blood, that ever fell on God's earth since the creation.'
(3) "As He prayed the fashion of His countenance was altered." Thanks to God, transfiguring manifestations are not quite strangers here. Ofttimes in the deepest depths, out of groanings which cannot be uttered, God's dear children are suddenly transported to a kind of heaven upon earth, and their soul is made as the chariots of Amminadib. Their prayers fetch down such light, strength, holy gladness, as makes their face to shine, putting a kind of celestial radiance upon it. (Compare 2 Corinthians 3:18, with Exodus 34:29-35.)
(4) What a testimony have we here to the evangelical scope of the whole ancient economy. Not only is Christ the great End of it all, but a dying Christ. Nor are we to dissever the economy from the saints that were reared, under it. In heaven, at least, they regard that "Decease" as all their salvation and all their desire, as we see beautifully here. For here, fresh from heaven, and shining with the glory of it, when permitted to talk with Him, they speak not of His miracles, nor of His teaching, nor of the honour which he put upon their Scriptures, nor upon the unreasonable opposition to Him and His patient endurance of it: They speak not of the glory they were themselves enshrined in, and the glory which He was so soon to reach. Their one subject of talk is "His decease which he was going to accomplish at Jerusalem." One fancies he might hear them saying "Worthy is the Lamb that is to be slain!" Those, then, who see no suffering, dying Messiah in the Old Testament read it amiss, if this Transfiguration-scene mean anything at all.
(5) In the light of this interview between the two great representatives of the ancient economy and Christ, what are we to think of that theory which some modern advocates of the personal reign of Christ on earth during the millennium contend for-that the saints of the Old Testament are never to be glorified with the Church of the New Testament, but to occupy the lower sphere of a resurrection to some earthly or Adamic condition? The speculation in itself is repulsive enough, and void enough of anything like Scripture support. But in the light of such a scene as this, may we not call it intolerable?
(6) What think ye of Christ? Are ye in sympathy with heaven about Him? Doubtless the hymn of the New Testament Church which best accords with this celestial talk on the mount of Transfiguration is that of the rapt seer in Patmos: "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen" (Revelation 1:5-6).
(7) How cheering is the view here given of the intermediate state between death and the resurrection! No doubt Elijah was translated that He should not see death. But Moses died and was buried. We speak not of those shining bodies, which we know that even angels put on when they came down to talk to the women at the sepulchre of their Lord. But the disembodied saints cannot be conceived to have come down from heaven and talked with Christ as living conscious beings, if the state of the soul between death and the resurrection be one of unconscious sleep; no, nor if it be in a state perfectly passive, as some good but too speculative divines endeavour to make out. For here is active thought and feeling, aye, and deepest interest in what is passing on earth, particularly what relates to the work, and so, the kingdom of Christ. We presume not to "intrude into these things which we have not seen, vainly puffed up by a fleshly mind." But to the extent we have just expressed, we seem to be on sure Scripture ground.
(8) "This is my beloved Son." Is He our Beloved?
(9) "Hear Him" Are we doing that? Is His word law to us? Do we like it when it speaks sharp as well as smooth things; when it tells of the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched, as well as of the many mansions in His Father's house! Does Christ's word carry it over everything that comes into collision with it? And would it not help us just to think, that whatever Christ speaks, the Father is standing over us, as it enters our ears, and saying, 'Hear that.'
Thus, "Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God" - `Hear Him.' "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" - `Hear that.' When dark and crushing events are ready to overwhelm us, "What I do thou, knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter" - `Hear Him.' When walking through the valley of the shadow of death, "I am the Resurrection and the Life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live; and he that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die" - `Hear Him!'
(10) "It came to pass, as they departed. from Him." Ah! Bright manifestations in this vale of tears are always "departing" manifestations. But the time is coming when our sun shall no more go down, and the glory shall never be withdrawn.
(11) "Jesus was left alone." And alone He abidingly is and ever will be in the eyes of all heaven, earth, and hell-unique, sole: the Alpha and Omega of all God's purposes, the Church's hopes, and hell's fears!
(12) When the three disciples heard the voice from heaven, "they fell on their face, and were sore afraid." But Jesus was not. He was not in the least discomposed. He "came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid" (Matthew 17:6-7) How was this? Why it was His proper element. A mere man would, as we say, have had his head turned by such a demonstration in His behalf. At least he would have taken time to recover himself, and get down to his proper level But Jesus-amidst all this blaze of glory, and celestial talk, and the voice from within the cloud, the voice of God Himself, proclaiming Him His beloved Son, whom all are to hear-is perfectly at home. But indeed it was only a faint anticipation of what He will be when He shall come in His own glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
(13) Well might Peter, looking back, near the close of his life, to this scene, say, "We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory х megaloprepous (G3169) doxees (G1391)], This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven, we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount" (2 Peter 1:16-18). But, as that chastened disciple delightfully adds, there is something better than even this: "We have also what is firmer, the prophetic word х Kai (G2532) echomen (G2192) bebaioteron (G949) ton (G3588) profeetikon (G4397) logon (G3056)]; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the, day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts" (see the note at 2 Peter 1:19). "Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my Beloved, and be thou like a roe, a young hart, upon the mountains of Bether" (Song of Solomon 2:17).