<p>9:4 <em>And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus</em>- It was a &quot;vision&quot; (Mt. 17:9). They appeared &ldquo;in glory&rdquo; (Lk. 9:31), as the Lord did- this is clearly a vision of the Kingdom. The Lord Jesus was the firstfruits from the dead, who opened the way to immortality. So there is no way that they were already glorified before His death and resurrection. It was a vision (Mt. 17:9), of the Kingdom. Just as Jesus was not then glorified Himself at that time, neither were they. They spoke of how the Lord was going to &ldquo;fulfil&rdquo; the&nbsp;<em>exodus</em>&nbsp;in His death at Jerusalem (Lk. 9:31). It was Moses who could supremely explain this to the Lord, having himself slain the Passover lamb and experienced the&nbsp;<em>exodus</em>&nbsp;made possible thereby.</p><p>The transfiguration follows straight on from the Lord&rsquo;s talk about the Kingdom at the end of chapter 8. It was a foretaste of the Kingdom. Yet the Kingdom is fundamentally a&nbsp;<em>relationship</em>&nbsp;with God. Thus the foretaste of the Kingdom presented at the transfiguration was of faithful men in spiritual conversation with the glorified Lord Jesus, with His face shining as the sun as it will in the Kingdom, as the &ldquo;sun of righteousness&rdquo; (Mal. 4:2).&nbsp;</p><p>Luke adds that the disciples&rsquo; eyes were heavy and they fell asleep at the critical moment. But earlier, &ldquo;having remained awake&rdquo;, the same disciples were blessed with a vision of the Lord&rsquo;s glory (Lk. 9:32 RVmg.). If they had remained awake in the garden, they would have seen the Lord being glorified by Angelic visitation. But they didn't perceive how the circumstances were repeating, and thus didn&rsquo;t find the strength and inspiration which was potentially prepared for them through the similarity of circumstance.</p>