<p>9:29 <i>And as he was praying- </i>The idea seems to be that just as He had taken the twelve into Gentile areas for a period of intense teaching of them, so even within the twelve He focused upon these three and wanted to spend time alone with them. He &ldquo;took&rdquo; them means to desire association with, to come close to. This was His intention, and one wonders whether the transfiguration was therefore unexpected for Him. Previously when He had tried to get the twelve away by themselves, there had been unexpected events which hampered that, such as the crowds following them, and even in Gentile areas the Lord seems to have been surprised by the faith and need to perform miracles which He encountered. In this case, it would be unintentional that the transfiguration is recorded as following straight after His words about His coming in His Kingdom; it wasn&rsquo;t as if the Lord said those words knowing that some would witness the transfiguration. According to Lk. 9:28, the Lord&rsquo;s intention was to go up the mountain &ldquo;to pray&rdquo;, but whilst He prayed, the transfiguration occurred. See on Mt. 16:28.&nbsp;He started praying and then there was a theophany; but in their human weakness they missed much of it because they fell asleep. This was exactly the situation in the Garden of Gethsemane, with the same three involved; it was as if He was seeking to train them for it. They were &ldquo;heavy&rdquo; with sleep (Lk. 9:32), and the word is only used elsewhere in the Gospels to describe how the same three were &ldquo;heavy&rdquo; with sleep in Gethsemane (Mt. 26:43; Mk. 14:40). Even if Jesus Himself wasn&rsquo;t consciously doing this, we have here an example of how the Divine hand leads us through experiences in order to prepare us for others which are to come later in similar form.&nbsp;</p><p><i>The appearance of his face was altered- </i>Mt. &quot;His face shone as the sun&quot;. 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. 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;&nbsp;</p><p><i>And his garment became white and dazzling</i>- The same description 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;<i>exodus</i>&nbsp;at the cross which He must fulfil at Jerusalem.&nbsp; </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;<i>man</i>&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.</p>