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*Transfiguration*
Mark 9:2–13 NIV
2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone.
There he was transfigured before them.
3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.
4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.
Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love.
Listen to him!”
8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
10 They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.
11 And they asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”
12 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things.
Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected?
13 But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”
This is an odd scene.
Even for Peter, who had been right there with Jesus for quite a while and had seen some pretty weird things.
Mark tells us in parentheses that even Peter doesn’t know what to make of this one.
And so if this is odd for Peter and the other disciples who were with Jesus, how much more for you and I who are centuries removed and reading about it.
Why this scene?
What is God up to by revealing this episode to be written down and included in the Bible today?
First of all, the original audience of Mark’s gospel would have made an immediate connection with this story.
The early Christians who were from the Jewish background knew their Old Testament scriptures very well.
And this is a story that has an immediate reference to the Old Testament.
It comes from Exodus 24.
We’ve been hinting all along in this series on the meaning of the cross that there is a connection between what Jesus did on the cross and what God did with the Passover and the Exodus from Egypt.
After all, we have noted several times now that Jesus chooses the Passover feast as the time for his sacrifice on the cross.
This is not an accident or coincidence.
Jesus does this on purpose.
And here again in this story of the transfiguration we see another very direct reference to the time of Moses and the exodus of God’s people from slavery in Egypt.
Exodus 24 records an event which occurs after the Israelites go out from Egypt.
Their journey first takes them to mount Sinai.
This is the place where God gives them the law—which includes the ten commandments written on the stone tablets.
Chapter 24 is where Moses first goes up the mountain to receive the word of the Lord.
Let me share just a few details of that passage to help connect some dots from there to the passage we are looking at today in Mark.
Moses is instructed by God to go up a tall mountain and take with him three other companions—Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu.
Once he is on the mountain the glory of the Lord is revealed for all there to see.
And God’s presence comes down in the form of a cloud and covers them.
The voice of the Lord is heard as loud as thunder.
Moses stays on the mountain forty days.
And when he finally does come back down to the Israelite camp at the base of the mountain—this is ten chapters later in Exodus 34—he enters the camp and his face is radiant and glowing from being in the presence of God.
Fast forward to the gospel of Mark and this story of the transfiguration.
Jesus takes three companions up a tall mountain.
God’s glory is revealed.
His presence descends as a cloud.
His voice speaks.
And Jesus is radiant and glowing.
For those to whom Mark is writing this story he intends for the readers to immediately make this connection.
What’s going on here?
Oh, that’s simple.
This is a reenactment of Exodus 24.
Whatever is taking place here on this mountain is supposed to connect our attention back to what God was doing with his people back in Exodus.
The people who remember the Old Testament story of Moses would make that connection.
Oh yeah, that's all about the time when God sent Moses to be the one who would lead God's people in their rescue.
Mark is connecting the dots for his readers.
This event with Jesus and his transfiguration is meant to signal God's rescue of his people.
Just as God had done so many years earlier with the people of Israel in Egypt through Moses, now God is doing it again for all people in all times through Jesus.
Then on the way down the mountain another curious conversation takes place, which Mark records for us.
The disciples ask Jesus why Elijah must come first.
This is an understanding about the Messiah that comes from the Old Testament prophet of Malachi.
Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament.
And this prophecy comes from the very last words of that book.
So for the Jewish people, these are the very final words of their ‘Bible.’
Malachi 4:5–6 NIV
“See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.
He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”
Jewish tradition held that Elijah would reappear before God’s promised Messiah would come.
Jesus answers the disciples by saying that Elijah has already come.
And Jesus says that Elijah has done his work of preparation for the Messiah by restoring all things.
Let’s unpack this a little bit.
Who is Elijah?
And what is this restoration that he has brought?
According to the gospels it is the cousin of Jesus, John the Baptist, who prepares the way for Jesus.
John fulfils the prophetic role of Elijah in preparing the way for Jesus.
And what was it that John the baptist did?
Very simply put, John called the people of Israel to repentance.
Repentance is a word that means turn around.
John was calling the people to turn their hearts back to God.
That was John’s message for the world.
Turn your heart back to God because the Messiah who brings his salvation is on the way.
Rescue is coming, turn to God and be ready for it.
But Jesus also shares that the message of restoration that John brought was largely missed and rejected by the Hebrew people.
And here Jesus also connects his own suffering and rejection to the suffering and rejection of John.
Mark 9:12–13 NIV
Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things.
Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected?
But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”
What’s going on here?
Jesus is making a point.
He is highlighting the nature of the kingdom and the nature of the restoration that his rescue is bringing.
And he is highlighting for his disciples that most people are missing it.
It is passing them right by.
It is not because they are unaware of the scripture.
It is not because they have no idea there is even supposed to be a Messiah from God.
They miss it because they were expecting something completely different than what Jesus brought.
*Correction*
The first place we see this is with Peter’s fumbling comment on the mountain while Moses and Elijah are there.
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