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What Jesus’s Transfiguration Says About His Deity and Our Fear
A Glimpse of Jesus’s Glory
In Matthew 16:16–28, the disciples hear a series of startling revelations. Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. He will build an enduring church and entrust its keys to his disciples. Nonetheless, his path—and theirs—will include travail, even death, before it ends in glory. Six days later, Jesus leads his closest disciples, Peter, James, and John up a high, unidentified mountain for a time apart. The time reference, “after six days,” establishes the link between Jesus’s predictions of his death and this proof of his glory (Matt. 17:1). Mountains were places of revelation for both Moses (Exodus 3–4; 19–20; 34) and Elijah (1 Kings 19), and Jesus goes to mountains to pray (Matt. 14:23; Luke 6:12).
Throughout Jesus’s incarnation, human flesh has veiled his glory, but the transfiguration reveals Jesus in his divine majesty, as “his face shone like the sun.” Even his clothes join his wondrous appearance (Matt. 17:2). Peter will remember the event to the end of his life (2 Pet. 1:16–18), and rightly so, for it is unique. After Moses spent forty days with the Lord on Mount Sinai, his face shone with a reflected and fading glory (Ex. 34:28–35). And it is possible that the redeemed will reflect the glory of Jesus forever in the new creation (1 John 3:2). But on this occasion Jesus shines with intrinsic glory.
If the transfiguration is reassuring for Jesus, it is revelatory for the disciples, who will later realize that the event offers a flashback of Jesus’s preincarnate glory (John 1:14; 17:5; cf. Phil. 2:5–7) and a preview of his coming splendor (Rev. 1:14–16; 19:12).1 The Father designed the event to assure the disciples that Jesus is both a suffering Messiah and the Lord of glory. When the work of redemption is complete, the faithful will see more fully the extent of Jesus’s sacrifice for his people in both his incarnation and his death.
ESV Expository Commentary
Three New Testament scholars offer passage-by-passage commentary through the narratives of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, explaining difficult doctrines, shedding light on overlooked sections, and making applications to life and ministry today. Part of the ESV Expository Commentary.
What Happens on the Mountain
On the mountain, Moses and Elijah appear and speak to Jesus.2 Both men are major actors in redemptive history, but they denote more together than they do separately. First, they represent the Law and the Prophets. Second, both had epoch-shaping roles. Moses led Israel out of Egypt and into nationhood. Elijah worked for renewal when much of Israel succumbed to idolatry with Baal. Third, both had an unusual “exodus” or departure from this world. Moses died alone with God on a mountain, and God took Elijah to heaven on a chariot of fire. Fourth, both had singular revelations from God. Finally, both were forerunners of the Christ.
Matthew merely reports that the three speak together. Luke includes how they discuss the departure (Gk. exodos) that Jesus is “about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). In short, their topic is his death. Indeed, Jesus is the great Prophet, whom Moses had foretold (Deut. 18:15–18), and he finishes the work of Elijah by leading God’s people to him.
Peter is dazzled but confused, glad to be present at this unveiling of Jesus’s deity but casting about for the right response. He reverently proposes, “If you wish, I will make three tents here” (Matt. 17:4). The proposal is respectful (“Lord,” he begins) but misguided. The three will not be staying. Jesus has turned toward Jerusalem (Luke 9:31, 53), as Peter eventually understands (Acts 2:14–41).
While Peter flounders, the Father acts, dispatching a cloud of light to “overshadow” or envelop them all. This should remind Matthew’s readers of the glorious, glowing cloud that guided and protected Israel after her exodus from Egypt (Exodus 13–14), the cloud from which God revealed himself and by which he entered the tabernacle (Exodus 33; 40). From the cloud the Father reveals three essentials: First, Jesus is the Father’s beloved Son. Second, the Father is well pleased with him, even if others are not (Matt. 12:24; 15:1–2; 16:1). Third, the disciples should listen to him, especially, the context suggests, when he foretells his suffering, death, and resurrection (Matt. 17:5).
The voice, together with the vision, knocks the reverent but frightened disciples to the ground (Matt. 17:6). This was a common response to theophanies in the OT (Gen. 17:3; 28:17; Dan. 8:17), and the apostles echo it here and in Revelation 1:17 when they see Jesus in his glory. The Bible mentions two kinds of fear: the awe of the redeemed in God’s presence and the terror the wicked feel in the presence of God. The first are regularly exhorted to “Fear not.” Here Jesus tenderly touches his fallen disciples, lifts them up, and reassures, “Have no fear” (Matt. 17:7). The others remain in their fear (Matt. 28:4–5). The scene ends with the three lifting their eyes and seeing Jesus only, for Moses and Elijah have departed.
Matthew artfully concludes with all eyes on Jesus. Such is fitting, for Moses and Elijah are Jesus’s forerunners, not his peers. The alert reader may recall Deuteronomy 18:15–22, where Moses reminded Israel that when God’s voice and theophany terrified them, they asked that a less frightening prophet speak on God’s behalf. That prophet was Moses (Ex. 19:18–19). Yet Moses also foretold another prophet like him, saying, “To him you shall listen” (Deut. 18:15; cf. Matt. 17:5).
Jesus’s superiority to Moses continues Matthew’s “Jesus is greater than” theme. He is greater than Adam and Israel in faithfulness (Matt. 4:1–11), greater than the scribes and Pharisees in righteousness (Matt. 5:17–6:18), greater than John the Baptist (Matt. 11:11–15), greater than the temple (Matt. 12:3–6), and greater than Jonah (Matt. 12:41) and Solomon (Matt. 12:42). John and Hebrews concur. John writes of how Jesus is greater than Jacob, John the Baptist, and Abraham (John 4:12–14; 5:33–36; 8:53–58). Hebrews 1–12 continually presents the superiority of Jesus to prophets, angels, Moses, priests, and heroes of the faith.
The experience of the transfiguration is both intense and tender. Jesus’s deity shines out and the Father’s voice thunders, yet Jesus touches the three and stills their fears. Nonetheless, Peter, James, and John do not yet comprehend what they have experienced, and so, for the final time, Jesus commands them to “tell no one the vision” until the resurrection (Matt. 17:9; cf. Matt. 8:4; 9:30; 16:20). Until the disciples grasp the bond between death and resurrection, suffering and glory, they cannot accurately proclaim the transfiguration. Besides, if they tried, who would believe them? Who would understand them? After the resurrection, the transfiguration will make sense.
The majesty and holiness of God should lead everyone, even believers, to fear God.
The Transfiguration Leads Us to Worship
The transfiguration evidently deepens the disciples’ conviction that Jesus is the Messiah, but it also prompts a question: “Then [oun, commonly “therefore”] why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?” (Matt. 17:10). “Therefore” means the disciples are drawing an inference: If Jesus is the Messiah, where is Elijah, whom the scribes call his forerunner? Perhaps seeing Elijah (Matt. 17:3) prompts the query, but there is more. Interest in Elijah is high (Matt. 16:14; John 1:21), since Malachi foretells a return of Elijah to restore Israel (Mal. 4:5–6). Besides, if Elijah will “restore all things” before the Messiah’s arrival, why has Jesus spoken of suffering and death (Matt. 16:21–17:9)? In short, if Jesus is the Messiah, where is Elijah?
Jesus replies, “Elijah does come, and he will restore all things,” but “they did not recognize him” and treated him as “they pleased” (Matt. 17:11–12). By “Elijah” Jesus means John the Baptist, who has come as Elijah and forerunner. Jesus endorses much, but not all, of the scribes’ ideas. “Elijah”—John—must come and restore Israel, but not in the order they suppose. When John came, the people ultimately rejected him. Further, if John, the forerunner, was mistreated, could Jesus expect a better lot? So, Jesus says, “The Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands” (Matt. 17:12). Then “the disciples understand” that Jesus is speaking of John the Baptist (Matt. 17:13). Soon enough Jesus will repeat that the Son of Man must suffer and die (Matt. 17:22–23). How important, then, that they remember the transfiguration.
Above all, the transfiguration displays the deity of Christ, which ought to lead all mankind to know him and worship him, privately and publicly, on the Lord’s Day and every other day. Second, since Jesus is Lord, his disciples and all men should listen to him, even—especially—when his words challenge cherished ideas. Third, this passage lets us consider the fear of Christ when we meet him in his holiness and our sin. Hebrews warns that believers should “offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:28–29). The majesty and holiness of God should lead everyone, even believers, to fear God. Yet, while unbelievers properly fear his wrath and judgment, believers should expect a gentle touch and comforting words: “Fear not.”
Notes:
- Carson, D. A. Matthew. In Matthew and Mark, 23–670. Vol. 9 of The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, edited by Tremper Longman III and David E. Garland. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2010., 437.
- When the Gospels call Moses and Elijah by name, it shows that people retain their identity after physical death. There is no absorption into the Godhead or a collective human spirit.
This article is by Dan Doriani and is adapted from ESV Expository Commentary: Matthew–Luke (Volume 8).
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