Mark 9:2-7 “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 enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!"
There are times in our lives when one experience can reinterpret everything that we believe in a certain area. In Mark 9:2-7 Peter, James, and John are confronted with just such a moment. Invited by the Lord onto a high mountain for some personal time with Him, I would expect that they were both excited and honored to be there with this great prophet and teacher. They were growing in their certainty that He was the long awaited Messiah. But it seems from this experience that they still had little idea that Jesus was the central piece to God’s plan of redemption for the human race.
These three men accompany Jesus to the mountain top. He has brought them to a solitary place where there are both no distractions and no witnesses. Once they are alone Jesus exposes them to an experience of a life time. Suddenly the Jesus that they had always known was completely transformed in front of their very eyes. This was no magic trick but rather and unveiling of what had been right in front of them the entire time. They had walked with Jesus for years now but had never been allowed to see the real Jesus until that moment. Like a person wearing a full length coat and hat who never shows you the outfit underneath, Jesus concealed the real measure of His glorious person from them until this moment.
It is fascinating to notice that even in this moment of glory at first Peter still manages to miss the true message of this experience. Jesus is not alone but is met in this experience by Moses and Elijah. The problem with this is that Peter interprets this fact as a statement placing the three men on a peer level rather than recognizing that the point of it is the elevation of Jesus above the other two in the view of heaven. For so long in the Jewish culture the people reverenced Moses and Elijah as two of the primary leaders of their faith along with Abraham. Yet even at the moment that Peter is misinterpreting this revelation the voice of the Father comes and leaves no room for doubt.
The Father has not sent these two historical saints with the goal of establishing Jesus as their peer. In the Father’s heart is one goal, to lift up His son! Peter’s initial response is to build three huts for the purpose of revering these three men of renown only to be interrupted by the booming voice of their heavenly Father. “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him.” With this one sentence everything that these men have believed is reinterpreted. Already greatly shaken by this mystical experience, their doctrine is now blown apart. In two short phrases the Father elevates Jesus to the status of Son-ship, exalts Him above Moses and Elijah positionally and directs them to value the teachings of this man of mystery and wonder above the teachings of Moses and the miracles of Elijah. “Listen to Him!”
The teachings of Moses were the central pillar of the Jewish belief system and with one short experience they are brushed aside as secondary to the message of Christ. In this short window of time, the landscape of their faith was completely altered and now everything they believed had to be reinterpreted through this new lens. Now instead of interpreting the teachings of Christ through the lens of what Moses said, essentially they are being asked to reinterpret the teachings of Moses through the lens of what Jesus has been saying! This is the way of God. This is the glory of Jesus.
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