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Transfiguration and Betrayal of Jesus

by Paul George  
8/28/2008 / Bible Studies


Matthew 17:1-27

The Transfiguration confirmed three important facts. First, it confirmed that the kingdom would be established in the future. Second, it confirmed that Jesus was the promised Messiah. Third, it confirmed that Messiah had to suffer.

In his account of the Transfiguration, Matthew claims what happened on the mountain fulfilled what Jesus predicted would happen in Matthew 16:28. The reference provides a link between the two events, prediction and fulfillment, interestingly when Moses ascended Mt. Sinai he took with him Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu (Exodus 24:1), Jesus takes, Peter, James, and John. Both Moses and Jesus fulfilled the requirement of two or more witnesses to verify an incident.

Matthew's statement that Jesus was transfigured before the disciples indicates that the transformation was for their benefit. Jesus' face shone, as Moses' face had, and His garments became as white as light because they radiated God's glory. This vision of Jesus would have strengthened the disciples' faith that He was the Messiah. It would also have helped them understand that the sufferings He said He would experience would not be final. They would see Him glorified coming in His kingdom (Matthew 16:28).

Matthew probably mentioned Moses first because he predicted the coming of a prophet God would raise up who would be like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:18). Elijah was the prophesied forerunner of Messiah (Malachi 4:5-6). Both Moses and Elijah played key roles in God's plan for Israel. Moses established the covenant under which Israel proceeded to live, and Elijah led the people back to God after their worst apostasy. Both experienced a vision of God's glory on a mountain. Both experienced rejection by Israel.

Moses was the greatest figure associated with the law, and Elijah was the greatest of the Old Testament prophets. The disciples would later learn that Jesus was greater than Moses and Elijah, however now the disciples saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus.

In addressing Jesus, Peter called Him "Lord," a title of general respect. That title would later take on the idea of unqualified supremacy when applied to Jesus, but Peter's appreciation of Jesus was not mature enough to recognize that yet. The proof of this is Peter's rebuke of Jesus (Matthew 16:22) and his putting Jesus on a par with Moses and Elijah. Peter did not speak because someone had spoken to him. He spoke because he perceived the greatness of the occasion, and he wanted to offer a suggestion. The tabernacles Peter suggested erecting were temporary structures that the Jews pitched for the feast of Tabernacles every year. This seven-day feast looked forward to the time when Israel would dwell in permanent peace and rest in the Promised Land (Leviticus 23:42-43). It anticipated kingdom conditions.

The cloud was undoubtedly the Shekinah glory of God. God had hidden Himself in a cloud through which He spoke to the Israelites on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 19:16). He led the Israelites with it after the Exodus (Exodus 13:21-22), and it manifested His glory to His people in the wilderness (Exodus 16:10; 24:15-18; 40:34-38). The prophets predicted that Messiah would come to set up His kingdom with clouds and that clouds would overshadow the kingdom (Psalm 97:2; Isaiah 4:5; Daniel 7:13). If the three disciples remembered these passages, they would have seen another reason to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. The presence of the bright cloud should have reminded them of the closeness of God's presence and linked Jesus with God in their thinking.

The voice from the cloud essentially repeated what the voice from heaven had said at Jesus' baptism (Matthew 3:17). It confirmed Jesus' identity as both God's Son and His Suffering Servant (Psalm 2:7; Isaiah 42:1). The voice from the cloud, God's voice, identified Jesus as superior to Moses and Elijah. The words "Listen to Him" with Moses present indicated that Jesus was the prophet greater than Moses whom Moses predicted would come.

The Transfiguration was mainly for the disciples' benefit. Jesus brought the three disciples to the mountaintop, the Transfiguration happened before them, and the voice spoke to them. The disciples did not understand the significance of all they saw immediately. However, it was a revelation that God continued to help them understand especially after the Resurrection (2 Peter 1:16-19). It gave them a deeper conviction that Jesus was the Messiah.

The purpose of the transfiguration was primarily confirmation. It confirmed several vital facts. One of these was the reality of a future kingdom. The presence of Old Testament saints on earth with Christ in a glorified state is the greatest possible verification of the kingdom promises in the Old Testament. The reality of this kingdom is also evident from the connection of the transfiguration with the promise of Matthew 16:27-28. The Son of

Man is coming some day to judge the world and establish His kingdom. As an earnest of the coming of the kingdom, three disciples were permitted to see the Son of Man in His kingdom.

Verse 9 contains the last of five times Matthew recorded Jesus telling His disciples to keep silent (Matthew 8:4; 9:30; 12:16; 16:20). This time He told them that they could tell others after His resurrection since this is the first time He told them to keep quiet after He had revealed that He would rise again.

The proclamation of the coming of the King and the kingdom would begin again after the Resurrection. Temporary silence was important because of popular political views of Messiah and because the signal proof of Jesus' Messiahship would be His resurrection, the sign of Jonah.

It is unlikely the disciples with Jesus viewed Elijah's appearance in the Transfiguration as the fulfillment of Malachi 4:5-6. If they did, their question would have been why did Messiah appear before Elijah when the scribes taught the reverse order of appearing? Moreover, Elijah's appearance in the Transfiguration did not turn the hearts of the people back to God. Peter, James, and John's question evidently arose over an apparent inconsistency involving Jesus' announcement of His death. Elijah's appearance on the mountain probably triggered it. Elijah was to come and turn the hearts of the people back to God before Messiah appeared (Malachi 4:5-6). If that restoration happened, how could Jesus die at the hands of Israel's leaders? The disciples were struggling to understand how

Messiah's death could fit into what they believed about the forerunner's ministry.

Jesus confirmed the scribes' teaching about Elijah coming, but they need to consider John the Baptist's ministry. John's ministry had been a success as far as it had gone, but he had restored all things to only a limited degree. The scribes perceived the ministry of

Messiah's forerunner correctly, but they did not realize that John the Baptist had been that forerunner. Here Matthew is dealing with a spiritual matter; Elijah had already come in John the Baptist. However, Israel's leaders had rejected him, and he had died without accomplishing the complete restoration of Israel. John had not fulfilled his mission but died doing so. Likewise, Jesus would die at His enemies' hands without fulfilling His mission of establishing the kingdom. John had restored all things as much as he could and yet died. Jesus, too, would fulfill His mission as much as He could and yet die. This was the answer to the disciples' question. The fulfillment of John's ministry and Jesus' ministry will occur following the rapture of the church. In other words, just as the messianic forerunner's coming has two phases, John the Baptizer, to suffer and die, and Elijah the Prophet, restoration and glory, so also would the Messiah's coming. The response to the forerunner foreshadowed the response to the Messiah and necessitated the postponement of the fulfillment of the promised kingdom. God predicted through Malachi that a Jewish revival would precede Messiah's kingdom, and the revival did not come. Consequently, that revival and the kingdom must still be future.

The disciples now understood that John the Baptist fulfilled the prophecy about Elijah returning. However, their continuing problems with Jesus' death seem to indicate that they did not really understand that He had to die. This incident reveals another step of understanding that the disciples took, but it was only a small step. In His teachings of His death, resurrection, and the postponement of the coming of the kingdom Jesus taught the disciples the principles that clarified His work and His person.

There are many instances of the disciples' failures in Matthew's account of the life and ministry of Jesus. Jesus said the source of their failures and lack of understanding was their weak faith. It was not the quantity of their faith that was deficient but its quality. In spite of the revelation of Jesus that they had received, the disciples did not responded to it with trust as they should have done. They had some faith in Jesus, but it should have been stronger. This same problem exists in the church today.

An example of the disciples' lack of understanding of their mission, prior to the Resurrection of Jesus and the Day of Pentecost is the authority Jesus had endowed the disciples with to cast out demons. The disciples were treating the gift of healing that Jesus had given them as a magical ability that worked regardless of their faith in Him. When the man brought his son to Jesus to be healed (v 14-15) because the disciples could not heal him and they asked Jesus, why they could not heal the man's son Jesus said it was because of the littleness of their faith (v 20). Now they learned that their power depended on their faith in Jesus to work through them to heal.

The lesson of this miracle for the disciples was that simple belief that Jesus is the Messiah might be adequate when a person first realizes who Jesus is. It can even result in spectacular miracles, however, through additional revelation of who Jesus is, and the purpose of His ministry there is increased responsibility to trust totally in Him. Failure to do this weakens faith and restricts Jesus' work through the disciple (John 15:5).

In His teachings of His death and Resurrection, Jesus did not tell them all He could have. If He had told them all He could have told them, it would have created questions and problems that He did not want them to face at this time.

Verse 23 is evidence necessary to prove the disciples understood what Jesus had told them and they did not like to hear what lay ahead. They understood Jesus' death but did not understand His resurrection. It was not until after Jesus arose from the dead that they understood the Resurrection.

Everything Jesus taught the disciples as well as the miracles were for building their faith in Him. Jesus used the question concerning taxes as a means of building the faith of the disciples. Jesus turned this inquiry from the tax collector into a teaching situation for Peter and presumably the other disciples. Jesus changed the tax from a religious one to a civil one to make His point clearer. The principle is the same in both cases, but it was easier to illustrate in the civil arena of life.

Jesus' point was that as the sons of kings are exempt from the taxes their fathers impose, so He was exempt from the taxes His Father imposed. He meant the temple tax. The temple really belonged to Jesus (Malachi 3:1). Jesus was teaching Peter and the other disciples the implications of His deity. He was not teaching Peter to fulfill his civic responsibility.

Even though He was exempt, Jesus would pay the tax because He did not want to offend anyone needlessly. Failure to pay the tax would create unnecessary problems. Because Peter was one of Jesus' disciples and one of God's children through faith in Jesus, he also had no obligation to pay the temple tax. Paul later followed Jesus' example in a similar situation (1 Corinthians 8:13; 9:12, 22), as all God's children should.

God had declared Jesus His Son clearly in the Transfiguration as well as at Jesus' baptism. Yet Jesus' glory remained veiled as He moved toward the Cross. This established a pattern for His disciples. Since the sons of God are exempt from maintaining the temple and its service, the end of this system of worship appeared to be approaching, as it was. Here is another indication that Jesus ended the Mosaic Law. Again, the disciples failed to grasp the major significance of these things until after the Resurrection.
Even though Jesus was free from the law's demands, being God's Son, He submitted to them and miraculously provided for His disciples to do so. This demonstration of humility and power is even more impressive since it follows the announcement of Jesus' passion. Jesus proceeded to teach His disciples the importance of following the examples that He provided for them in chapter 18.

Retired pastor,Church of the Nazarene

Author of web site Exploring God's Word

www.thewordofgodonline.net

New American Standard Bible

King James Version

The World English Bible

Sermons and Bible studies preached and taught by author

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