Commentary - Matthew 17:1-13

Bird's-eye view

The Transfiguration is not a strange, isolated miracle. It is a pivotal moment of revelation, strategically placed between Peter's confession of Christ's deity and the Lord's deliberate march to the cross. On this mountain, the veil of Christ's humanity is momentarily pulled back, and His inner circle gets a glimpse of the intrinsic, effulgent glory of the Son of God. This is not a preview of a future, distant glory, but a revelation of the reality of who He was, right then and there. The appearance of Moses and Elijah signifies that the entire Old Testament revelation, the Law and the Prophets, finds its culmination and fulfillment in Him. The voice of the Father from the cloud is the ultimate divine testimony, confirming Jesus' unique Sonship and commanding ultimate allegiance to Him. The event serves to fortify the disciples for the coming scandal of the crucifixion, showing them that the suffering servant is, in fact, the glorious King. It is a divine summit meeting, where the Old Covenant makes way for the New, and all authority is audibly declared to rest in the Son.

Following this peak experience, the conversation on the way down the mountain grounds the revelation in redemptive history. The disciples, connecting the dots with scribal teaching, ask about the coming of Elijah. Jesus confirms that the prophecy is true but that its fulfillment in John the Baptist was missed by the religious establishment. He then ties the rejection of the forerunner directly to His own impending rejection and suffering, making it clear that the path to glory is necessarily the path of the cross. The glory on the mountain is the fuel for the suffering in the valley below.

Outline

Context In Matthew

This event is inextricably linked to the preceding chapter. In Matthew 16, Peter makes his great confession: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matt 16:16). Immediately following this high point, Jesus delivers the first prediction of His passion: He must go to Jerusalem to suffer, be killed, and be raised on the third day (Matt 16:21). Peter, scandalized by the idea of a suffering Messiah, rebukes the Lord and is in turn sharply rebuked himself. The Transfiguration, occurring just "six days later," serves as the divine confirmation of Peter's confession and the necessary corrective to his misunderstanding of messiahship. It demonstrates that the one who is going to suffer is indeed the glorious Son of God. It provides the glorious "why" that will sustain the disciples through the horror of the cross. It is the Father's own "amen" to Peter's confession and a bracing dose of reality for the difficult road ahead.

Key Issues

Glory on the Mountain

We often treat the Transfiguration as a beautiful but somewhat bizarre outlier in the gospel narrative. But it is central. It is a glimpse behind the curtain of ordinary history into the true nature of reality. For a few moments, the Son of God stopped veiling His glory and let it shine forth. This was not a light show put on for the disciples' benefit; it was a revelation of who He truly is, in His very nature. The God who dwells in unapproachable light was standing on a mountain in Galilee, and for a moment, the disciples saw that light. This event is a foundational anchor for Christian faith. The one who went to the cross was not a mere martyr; He was the effulgent Lord of glory, and the disciples who saw it, Peter, James, and John, became the bedrock witnesses of His majesty.

Verse by Verse Commentary

1 And six days later Jesus brought with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves.

The timing is deliberate. Six days after the staggering revelation of His coming death, Jesus provides a staggering revelation of His essential glory. He takes the inner circle, the same three who will later be with Him in Gethsemane. They will witness His agony because they have first witnessed His glory. Mountains in Scripture are places of divine encounter and revelation, most notably Sinai, where God gave the Law. Jesus, the new and greater Moses, ascends a mountain not to receive revelation, but to be the Revelation.

2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light.

The word for "transfigured" is metamorphoō, from which we get our word metamorphosis. This was not a change of costume or a superficial shining; it was a change in form, an unveiling of His essential nature. The glory came from within Him. When Moses came down from Sinai, his face shone with a reflected glory that faded. But Jesus' face shone "like the sun," for He is the source of all glory. His very garments became incandescent, "white as light." This is the raw, unveiled glory of the second person of the Trinity.

3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.

This is a summit meeting of redemptive history. Moses represents the Law. Elijah, the greatest of the prophets, represents the Prophets. The two great pillars of the Old Testament revelation appear, not as equals to Jesus, but as his attendants. They are "talking with Him." Luke tells us they were speaking of His "departure" (exodos) which He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). The Law and the Prophets were not being replaced, but rather fulfilled, and they bear witness that the cross is the divinely appointed culmination of all that they wrote and spoke.

4 And Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three booths here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”

Peter, ever the impetuous one, speaks. He is overwhelmed, and in his confusion, he blurts out a proposal. He wants to prolong the experience, to set up camp on the mountain of glory. His suggestion to build three booths, or tabernacles, is likely a reference to the Feast of Tabernacles, but it reveals a deep theological error. He puts Jesus on the same level as Moses and Elijah, making them a committee of three. He wants to build monuments to the servants alongside the Son. He is trying to manage a moment that is meant to overwhelm him. He has not yet grasped the unique supremacy of Christ.

5 While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”

God the Father interrupts Peter's foolish chatter. The "bright cloud" is the Shekinah, the visible manifestation of the presence and glory of God that filled the tabernacle and temple. God Himself descends. And from the cloud, the Father speaks. His words are a direct rebuke to Peter's "three booths" proposal. He does not say, "These are my three great servants." He singles out one. "This is My beloved Son." This is the same declaration made at Jesus' baptism, but now it is given as a direct command to the disciples. And the command is the climax of the entire event: "Listen to Him!" The era of listening to Moses and Elijah as the final word is over. The Law and the Prophets have done their work of pointing to the Son. Now, He is the one to be heard. All authority, all revelation, is now consolidated in Him.

6-7 And when the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, “Get up, and do not be afraid.”

The disciples have the only proper reaction to the unmediated voice of God: abject terror. They fall on their faces, undone. This is the holy fear that is the beginning of wisdom. But the story does not end there. The one whose glory they witnessed, the one whose Father's voice terrified them, now comes to them in gentleness. Jesus, their master and friend, touches them. The mediator bridges the gap between the terrifying holiness of God and the fearful weakness of man. His touch and His words, "Get up, and do not be afraid," are the essence of the gospel. Grace comes and finds us in our fear and raises us up.

8 And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.

When the experience is over, the witnesses are gone. Moses is gone. Elijah is gone. The cloud is gone. The voice is silent. Only Jesus remains. This is the central lesson of the Transfiguration. The old covenant has receded. The servants have departed. The Son stands alone, supreme and sufficient. He is the one to whom everything pointed, and He is the one who remains when all else has passed away.

9 And as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”

The experience on the mountain must be followed by a descent into the valley. Jesus commands them to keep silent about what they have seen. This is the "messianic secret." Why? Because the glory of the Transfiguration can only be properly understood through the lens of the cross and resurrection. To preach a glorious, shining Messiah without the suffering, crucified Messiah would be to preach a distortion, a gospel of glory without suffering. The resurrection would be the public announcement and vindication of all that they saw in private on the mountain.

10-12 And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things; but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.”

The disciples are trying to fit this experience into their theological framework. They know the prophecy from Malachi 4:5-6 that Elijah must come before the great and awesome day of the Lord. Jesus affirms the prophecy but corrects their timeline. He says that Elijah did in fact come, in the person and ministry of John the Baptist. But the establishment "did not recognize him." They rejected the forerunner. Then Jesus makes the direct and chilling application: just as they rejected and killed the forerunner, so they will reject and kill the King. The fate of John is a preview of the fate of Jesus.

13 Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.

The pieces click into place. They understand the prophetic role that John fulfilled. This understanding is crucial, because it shows that the rejection and suffering of the Messiah were not a tragic accident, but the fulfillment of a divine pattern. The path to glory for the King, as it was for His herald, leads directly through the valley of suffering and death.

Application

The central command from the Transfiguration echoes down to us today with undiminished force: "Listen to Him!" We live in a world that wants to do exactly what Peter wanted to do. It wants to build booths. It wants to put Jesus on a shelf alongside other great religious teachers, philosophers, and moral guides. It is happy to have Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, or Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed. But the Father from heaven will have none of it. Moses and Elijah disappear. Jesus alone remains.

We are commanded to listen to Him, not just as one voice among many, but as the final and ultimate Word from God. This means our lives, our families, our churches, and our cultures must be brought under the absolute authority of Jesus Christ as He is revealed in His Word. We do not get to pick and choose. We do not get to domesticate His teachings to fit our modern sensibilities. We are to listen and obey.

And like the disciples, we must understand that the glory revealed on the mountain is what sustains us in the valley of suffering. We follow a King who was glorified and then crucified. Our own lives as Christians will follow that pattern. There will be moments of glorious encouragement, but they are given to strengthen us for the path of self-denial and cross-bearing. We look to Jesus alone, the one who is both the transfigured King of Glory and the crucified Lord of Love, and in Him, we find the grace to get up and not be afraid.