Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration (Luke 9:27-36)

This sermon was preached on 9/5/2013

It has often been observed that many notable events in biblical history occur on mountains. Noah’s ark rested on a mountain after the flood had dried, Abraham was asked to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice on one of the mountains of Moriah, the Ten Commandments were given on Mount Sinai, Moses and Aaron died on mountain tops, and other notable events are found throughout the Old Testament. In the life of Jesus, he gave his Sermon on the Mount and his Great Commission from mountains.

A lot of pointless discussion has been spent on trying to find out on which mountain the transfiguration of Jesus occurred. It is common for tourists to be told that it is Mount Tabor, although this claim has been disputed because archaeological remains of a military fort from the time of Jesus have been found there. If the fort was manned at that time it is not likely that Jesus and his disciples would have gone there. Another suggestion is Mount Hermon, but since it is a high mountain it is unlikely that it could be ascended in a few hours. The reality is that we don’t know which mountain it was.

The event described by Luke here is one that made a deep impression upon the three disciples. Undoubtedly we could say this about many of the experiences that they went through in the company of Jesus. Yet since Peter does refer to this incident in 2 Peter 1:16-18 – ‘For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For when he received honour and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain’ – it clearly made a deep impression on him. We can imagine that the three disciples would often have spoken of this occasion.

This incident follows on from the one where Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. His confession was a true one, although it is likely that he did not fully understand what he was saying. Connected to that incident was Peter’s refusal to accept that Jesus would voluntarily die; imagine his surprise when he heard Moses and Elijah speaking about that death and calling it an exodus, indicating that it would be a death that would result in deliverance from slavery.

This incident can be approached from many angles. For example, it reminds us that we are often not aware of the glory of which the human body is capable. Connected to this is the splendour of the resurrection body displayed in the fact that Moses and Elijah appeared in glory. We are going to be glorified. And we are going to be glorified individually without losing our own identities.

1. The Transfiguration and Jesus

Evidently, this occasion was one of great significance for Jesus. He anticipated it because he informs his disciples that it would happen in a few days’ time. Also he prepared for it by prayer. Although we have no way of understanding the nature of communion that the sinless Jesus, even in his human nature, had with his heavenly Father it is very striking that he prepared for this heavenly experience by prayer. This is a challenge to us as we prepare for what is ahead of us.

This event is known as the transfiguration. The Greek word is the one from which we get the term metamorphosis, that is, a great change such as happens when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. In order to appreciate something of the wonder of this event, we have to remember that Jesus did not look very different from others. There is no hint in the Gospels that he had a striking physical presence. In one way this would be a reason why many had no desire to follow him; his ordinariness was what marked him. On the other hand Moses, who had experienced something like a transfiguration after spending time in the presence of God, was a leader and a man with a striking appearance. Stephen in Acts 7:22 describes the impression that Moses gave before he rejoined the Israelites: ‘And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.’ Elijah, too, was also an imposing leader, one who was usually fearless and prominent in fulfilling his role.

This great change in the appearance of Jesus came from within. This was a marked difference from what had happened to Moses. The glory that Moses displayed was a reflection of the glory of God, but Moses was not the source of it. Jesus did not receive this glory from outside of himself, as it were. We can put it this way. The glory that Moses experienced was like the light of the moon, which comes from the sun; the glory that Jesus experienced was like that of the sun, belonging to himself.

The heavenly visitors were also prominent in the sense that they pictured what the Old Testament is about. Moses represents the law and Elijah the prophets. They had been used by God to give divine revelation and instruction to his people. Yet they are here confessing before the three disciples, devout Jews, that Jesus was the One about whom they spoke. Peter was learning that Jesus was different in his authority.

Perhaps we can see another way by which these two men highlight the distinctiveness of Jesus when we consider their exoduses from the world. Moses had that beautiful demise on Mount Pisgah when kissed his breath away and took him to heaven. Elijah had a spectacular exit when he ascended in a chariot of fire to glory. But their exoduses did nothing for other people. In contrast, the exodus of Jesus was to bring great blessing to others because his death was going to be the means of delivering millions from their sins and his resurrection and ascension would be his going ahead of his people leading them through the wilderness to heaven.

There is another way in which the heavenly visitors contrast with Jesus. Both of them had their moment of importance on a mountain. Moses had received the Ten Commandments and other matters from God on Mount Sinai, but when he came down the mountain he found the people, his disciples as it were, in rebellion against God and worshipping a golden calf made by Aaron. Elijah had defeated the prophets of Baal and slew them, but when he came down the mountain his main enemy Jezebel was still on the throne and he fled miles away to the Sinai desert out of fear. Jesus, when he came down from the mountain on which he was transfigure, faced his enemy head on and in a sign of what he was yet to do in empowering his disciples and defeating the devil he cast the evil spirit out of the boy.

The fact that Jesus revealed his glory before he died shows that he could have become a glorified man at any stage in his earthly experience. But that he chose to go to glory via the cross shows the strength of his love for his people. He wanted to pay the price for their sins before he would enter into the permanency of glorification.

2. The Transfiguration and Elijah

Almost a thousand years have passed since Elijah had his dramatic exit from this world. What wonderful experiences he must have had in that long period, one after the other, in the heavenly world. No doubt we would like to ask him many questions about life in heaven, about what takes place there, about whether or not they know about life on earth. Yet, in a sense, he does not want to talk about heaven, instead he wants to talk about Jesus. So to help us think about Elijah on the mountain, here are several suggestions. After all, if his exit was remarkable, so was his re-entry into this world.

First, we must note that Elijah was a man to who was given unique privileges. Like Enoch, he did not die, but Enoch was not given the privilege of standing with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. Krummacher commented on this amazing feature of Elijah’s experience: ‘How wonderful to find a man who thus keeps upon the stage of the world’s history for thousands of years; and passes, though a son of the dust, with equal ease from earth to heaven, and from heaven to earth, to fulfil the great designs of Him whose minister he is!’

Second, we can observe the change in the theme that Elijah speaks about. There is no record that Elijah spoke about the coming Messiah in his messages – he seems to have been a prophet who spoke to the times in which he lived. Yet these times have passed away, and important as his indictments of Baalism were, there is now to need to mention them. The prophet of fire has no interest in visiting the places of his best moments or of speaking about his previous experiences. He now has a better theme to speak about – the death of Jesus, or more literally, the exodus of Jesus.

The third detail that we can observe is that Elijah, along with Moses, is already transformed. Of course, we do not know what it is like to be glorified. Yet we assume that he has been transformed for a millennium (of course, it is possible but unlikely that he experienced the current transformation because he was in the presence of Jesus on this occasion, and it was the time of the prophet’s change). Transformation does not deteriorate. Here is Elijah, now over one thousand years of age.

Fourth, Elijah here was given a taste of his own future experience. Of course, he has had a millennium of amazing encounters to enjoy. Yet not one of them involved interacting with Jesus as the God/man. Obviously Elijah would have been aware of God as triune and of the roles that the Second Person of the Trinity would perform when he came to earth. But to be in the presence of that Person in his human nature, in his glorified human nature, Elijah had not known before. Yet it would be his eternal experience to come. And here on the Mount of Transfiguration, a few months before Jesus would ascend in glory to heaven, Elijah and Moses were given a foretaste of it. I wonder what they said when they went back to heaven that day.

Fifth, the topic of conversation tells us that Elijah was trusting in Jesus. He and Moses are speaking about the Exodus that Jesus would accomplish. This description reminds us that Jesus, through his work on the cross and subsequent resurrection, would achieve something to which the exodus under Moses pointed. The Mosaic exodus delivered a people from slavery and brought them to the land of promise. In a far higher way, the exodus of Jesus would deliver a countless number from the slavery of sin and bring them all to the real promised land.

So this was Elijah’s final appearance in this world before the second coming of Jesus. What a privilege was given in him in his life, in his exit from this world, and in his return to it! Yet he would say to us if he could, ‘Whenever you speak of me, don’t forget to speak more about my Master and what he did for all sinners!’