Six days earlier, Jesus told his disciples plainly that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die, and Peter tried to talk him out of it. Now Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a mountain and lets them see, for a few minutes, who is walking toward that death. 2"His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light." This is his own glory, ordinarily veiled inside a human body and breaking through for one unguarded moment. What they see was always true of him. For once, they are allowed to see it.
Moses and Elijah appear, and Luke tells us what the three are discussing. They "spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem" (Luke 9:31). The subject on the mountain of glory is the cross the disciples cannot bear to think about. Glory and suffering turn out to be one conversation.
Peter offers to build three tents. That puts Moses and Elijah on Jesus' level and treats the vision as something that could be kept and lived in a while longer. Before he finishes, the Father interrupts him with a command: 5"Listen to him." Moses had told Israel that a prophet like himself would come, and of him he said, "it is to him you shall listen" (Deuteronomy 18:15). That prophet is standing in front of Peter, and Moses and Elijah fade from the scene once the Father has spoken. The law and the prophets have done what they were for, and now one voice is left to obey.
"Listen to him" lands hard, because Peter had tried to correct Jesus' account of his own mission only six days before. Now the Father corrects Peter. He points him toward Jesus' own words, including the hard ones about suffering and death that Peter cannot make peace with, and above Peter's own ideas about what the Messiah should do.
The glory is more than they can stand under, and they fall on their faces, terrified. Then comes the gentlest moment in the scene. Jesus touches them and says, 7"Rise, and have no fear." The same glory that flattens them has a hand that reaches down to lift them. Whatever terror holiness produces, it is never the whole story of this God. The hand follows the fire.
Coming down, the talk turns back to suffering. Elijah was expected first, and Jesus says he has already come in John the Baptist and was killed for it. 12"So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands." The mountain gave them one glimpse of who Jesus is, and exactly enough light to keep walking the road ahead.
Ask whose voice is loudest in your plans, and then listen to his, especially the parts you have been talking around. When his holiness puts you on your face, take the hand that lifts you.
Prayer
Father, thank you for the glimpses of glory you give before the hard roads we still have to walk. When your voice interrupts our plans, teach us to listen to your Son. And when your holiness leaves us on our faces, thank you that your hand reaches down to raise us and say do not be afraid. In Jesus' name, amen.