<p>17:2&nbsp;<em>And he was transfigured before them-&nbsp;</em>Christ's transfiguration was a cameo of the change that should be apparent deep within us, for Paul says that&nbsp;<em>we&nbsp;</em>should likewise be transformed (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18 s.w.), and he uses a related word in speaking of how Christ is to be &ldquo;formed&rdquo; within us (Gal. 4:19).&nbsp;<em>Metamorphoo</em>&nbsp;means a change of&nbsp;<em>morphe</em>; not necessarily of essential nature, because we too are to be transformed in this life, and have a new&nbsp;<em>morphe</em>&nbsp;develop in us (Gal. 4:19). But it could be that the &lsquo;other form&rsquo; in which the Lord now appeared was in the form in which He will be in the Kingdom. The idea of a change of&nbsp;<em>morphe</em>&nbsp;of the Lord Jesus recurs only one other time- in the hymn concerning the Lord&rsquo;s death in Phil. 2:6,7 where we read that although Had the&nbsp;<em>morphe</em>&nbsp;of God, He went through a seven stage progressive humiliation until He took on the&nbsp;<em>morphe</em>&nbsp;of a slave in the final death of the cross. One purpose of the transfiguration was for Moses and Elijah (who had both had Divinely arranged deaths or departures from ministry) to encourage the Lord concerning His upcoming death (Lk. 9:31). And yet He appeared as He will in the Kingdom, with shining Kingdom glory. The suffering and the glory were thereby manifested to and upon Him at the very same time, to show how inextricably linked they are. Perhaps too the point was being made that when He would hang there with the&nbsp;<em>morphe</em>&nbsp;of a dying and rejected slave, in Heaven&rsquo;s eyes, He was in Kingdom glory. John&rsquo;s equivalent of this is to record how the Lord spoke of His death as a &lsquo;lifting up&rsquo;, an idea which in Hebrew has connotations of &lsquo;glory&rsquo;. The shame of the cross was only from the world&rsquo;s viewpoint, whereas from a spiritual viewpoint, His death was the very acme of spiritual glory. The blood drenched garment became in God&rsquo;s eyes a glistering white raiment (Lk. 9:29). This would explain why in one sense the transfiguration was a Kingdom vision, and yet it was also about the Lord&rsquo;s death. Peter later reflected that he could preach with conviction about the coming of Christ because he was present at the transfiguration (2 Pet. 1:16-18). The Kingdom element of the experience cannot be divorced from the fact it was also an encouragement from Moses and Elijah concerning the cross. Note that John was also powerfully inspired by the transfiguration, opening his Gospel with an allusion to it in saying that &ldquo;We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father&rdquo; (Jn. 1:14). James likewise appears to reference the transfiguration when he writes of how the Lord's glory is so surpassing that there should be no jostling for human glory amongst us His people (James 2:1). The descriptions of the Lord Jesus are very similar to the language used about the scene at His resurrection- Angels in shining garments (28:3; Lk. 24:4), frightened and uncomprehending disciples (28:5). And yet the theme of the conversation was the Lord&rsquo;s death (Lk. 9:31)- but it took place with a preview of the resurrection scene.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>And his face shone</em>- The same word used about the shining associated with the Lord's second coming (Lk. 17:24). Having taught that we too should be transfigured (2 Cor. 3:18 s.w.), Paul goes on to say that God has &ldquo;shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ&rdquo; (2 Cor. 4:6). This is transfiguration language. We are to be transformed into that same image. He there becomes the picture of what each of us in Him are evolving into.</p>
<p><em>As the sun</em>- The Lord's return will be as the rising of the sun (Mal. 4:2). The same figure is used for the Kingdom age and His return in Mt. 13:46 and Rev. 1:16.&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>And his garments became white as the light</em>- The same word used about the white clothing of the Angels at the resurrection (&quot;white as snow&quot;, Mt. 28:3, just as in Mk. 9:3; Mk. 16:5; Jn. 20:12). In the midst of the conversation about His upcoming death (Lk. 9:31), there was the encouragement of what the resurrection glory would be like. The same word is also used about the Lord's current appearance in Heavenly glory with clothes &quot;as white as snow&quot; (Rev. 1:14- the very phrased used in Mk. 9:3). Indeed, the description of the risen Lord in Rev. 1 has many connections with the language used about His appearance at the transfiguration. Again the idea was to show Him how He would be after His glorification, to motivate Him to go through with the&nbsp;<em>exodus</em>&nbsp;at the cross which He must fulfil at Jerusalem.&nbsp; &ldquo;As the light&rdquo; is hard to understand, but the Codex Bezae reads &ldquo;as the snow&rdquo;, in line with Mk. 9:3.</p>
<p>Mark adds that the Lord's clothing was &quot;white as snow, such that no fuller on earth can white them&quot; (Mk. 9:3). The Hebrew mind would have obviously thought of the clothing of God Himself, the &quot;ancient of days&quot; of Dan. 7:9, which is described likewise. The comment that no&nbsp;<em>man</em>&nbsp;could ever make them so white is also a hint in that direction. He was clothed with the clothing of God. This doesn't make Him God, for Revelation has many descriptions of the faithful having the same kind of clothing. Against this background, the promise of Is. 1:18 becomes the more awesome- that even although our sins are red as crimson, yet they can become white as snow. This can only be achieved by the wearing of God's own clothing, the gift of His imputed righteousness, which Paul extensively glories in throughout Romans 1-8. Rev. 7:14 speaks of plunging our robes in the blood of the lamb, and them becoming white. It's all so paradoxical- that this whiteness cannot be achieved by man, no fuller on earth could do this, but by plunging [surely an allusion to baptism] into the red blood of Christ. This is the challenge of faith- to believe that the promised whiteness can be achieved through Christ. It was possible even in Isaiah's time, on the basis that God looked ahead to the work of Christ which as it were enabled Him to do this. Therefore the reference to &quot;no fuller on earth&quot; suggests that there is a fuller in Heaven who can do this. And Mal. 3:2 is specific that the Messiah heralded by the Elijah prophet, John the Baptist, would be like &quot;fuller's soap&quot; in cleansing men through the judgment of their sins. David in the depth of his sin appealed to God to 'full' him (&quot;wash me&quot;, but s.w. 'fuller'- Ps. 51:2,7); and this was done for him, on account of the future work of Christ which the Father then held in view.&nbsp; The Lord's glistering garments are therefore available for all of us. And it is with that connection that the scene there becomes no mere spectacle to behold in awe from afar, but a real picture of our own possibility before God.<br />
Luke adds that the disciples &ldquo;saw his glory&rdquo; (Lk. 9:32). This is absolutely the language of Moses and the Old Testament heroes seeing Divine glory in theophanies, and like the disciples, hearing God&rsquo;s voice (Ex. 33:18 Heb. &ndash; &ldquo;shew&rdquo; is the same word translated &lsquo;to see&rsquo;&rsquo; Isaiah- Jn. 12:41; Ezekiel- Ez. 1:28). Yet again the Lord was seeking to show those secular men that they were called to work on the level of Moses and the prophets in the new Israel which the Lord Jesus was creating out of manual labourers, prostitutes, tax collectors, swindlers and sinners. See on :5&nbsp;<em>cloud</em>.&nbsp;</p>