The Revelation of Jesus: Mark 9:1-10

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Picture yourself for a moment in a dark room. I don't mean a dim room -- I mean DARK -- no windows, no cracks around the door, no lights, lamps, candles, matches, no source of illumination whatsoever. It is so dark in this room that you can't see your hand in front of your face. You have no way of knowing what else may be in that room with you, no way of finding an escape, no way of knowing if you are in imminent danger, no way of knowing if there is any hope. Your only hope in that state is that someone will come along and light the room for you. Only when someone outside that room chooses to come to your aid and crack the door, or flip a switch, or shine a light into that room will your darkness be penetrated. Will this person ever come? Will such light ever be shed? Maybe there is someone out there who loves us; someone who will show mercy to us; someone who will show us grace in our state of need and send the light that we so desperately need. That person would be our only hope, and we are utterly dependent on them to light the way for us.

You may say that you have no interest in ever being a state such as this. However, speaking spiritually, this is the state into which we are all born. God, in His mercy, has shone the light of His revelation generally to all men. He has given us two great indicators to let us know that He is there. He has given us creation, which points to Him as its maker. Psalm 19:1-4 says, "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the work of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words; Their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world." Similarly, Paul says in Romans 1 that God has made some truth about Himself known to all people, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse."

No man can say, "I didn't know God was there." The information He has revealed to all men is sufficient to convince even the most skeptical that there is a God, that He is powerful, glorious and transcendent. We know He is there. This is a truth that is so pervasive that in order to NOT believe, we suppress this truth about God. In Romans 1:18, Paul says that the wrath of God is being revealed because ungodly and unrighteous men have suppressed this truth in unrighteousness.

A part of this revelation in creation is our own conscience. We all have a sense of right and wrong, and we all have a knowledge that we are very often guilty of the wrong. So, we know God is there, and we know that we have violated the standard of righteousness that He has placed within each of us. Herman Bavinck writes, “It is owing to general revelation that some religious and ethical sense is present in all men; that they have some awareness still of truth and falsehood, of good and evil, justice and injustice, beauty and ugliness." However, even though we have knowledge of God, we do not know God. We are cut off from Him, firstly because of our sins, and secondly because of our ignorance of how to get to Him. We are groping in the shadowlands, trying to find Him, and hoping that in His mercy He will reach out a saving hand to us.

This God has done in the person of Jesus Christ. In the fullness of time, Paul said in Galatians 4:4, God sent forth His Son. The writer of Hebrews says, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son.” God came to us in the form of a man, so that we can know Him personally and be reconciled to Him. But again, we are totally dependent on the grace of His revelation to us, for as the prophet had spoken centuries before -- there was nothing in this man's appearance which attracted us to Him. He looked like an ordinary man. Many assumed He was just a simple carpenter's son. But He began to perform miracles and make Himself known to mankind, and in particular to the twelve men whom He chose to follow Him. And He began to teach them wondrous things and show them demonstrations of His mighty power. Yet time and time again we see them dumbfounded in misunderstanding of who He really is and what He had come to do.

We finally get some indication that the truth is penetrating their density when, in Mark 8:29, He asks, "Who do you say that I am?" And Peter shows some sense of spiritual receptivity in answering, "You are the Christ!" But the next statement out of Peter's mouth demonstrates that he is still a long way off from fully understanding what this means for humanity. When Jesus explains to the disciples that He must suffer and die, and be raised from the dead, Peter protests. This cannot be, Peter thinks AND SAYS! His mind is set on the things of man, not the things of God. Jesus begins to teach all those around Him that the call of discipleship will involve hardship and suffering on their part as well. This doesn't sound at all like what they had in mind when they were invited into fellowship with God and His Messiah! But here in Chapter 9, more revelation comes to assure them of God's plan for redemption and disclose to them more fully who Christ is.

We refer to this narrative in the Gospels as the "Transfiguration," and indeed it is a story of Christ's transfiguration before the eyes of three of His disciples. However, it is more than just a narrative of a visual experience -- it is a record of God's revelation to them concerning this Jesus who has called them to follow them.


I. The Revelation of Jesus Is the Result of Divine Initiative (vv1-2a)

Information about God comes to us as God chooses to make it known. Revelation is His divine initiative. He chose to make Himself known to us in creation, in our conscience, and in Christ. And we see here that the revelation these disciples will receive on the mountain is the result of His divine initiative to make Himself known.

Jesus says to the disciples in verse 1, "Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Kingdom of God after it has come in power." It is hard to know what the disciples understood this to mean. Perhaps they assumed He meant that they would live to see the glorious advent Jesus spoke of in 8:38 -- "When He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." Perhaps some of them thought they would live to see the day when Christ no longer speaks about suffering and death and finally marches victoriously into Jerusalem and overthrows the puppet government that held all Israel under the thumb of the Roman Empire. Maybe it would be months or years, decades or more away, and some of them would live long enough to see it. But if these things are what they understood, then they were mistaken, as they will soon see.

Jesus said, "Some of those" would see the inbreaking of His glorious and powerful Kingdom. Whichever ones of them would see it and which ones would not are determined, not by their will, for which one among them would say, "No thanks. I'd rather not see that." No, it is determined by His will -- His initiative. And when it would occur would be up to Him as well. Would it be months, years, decades before they see this? No, in fact, we are told in verse 2 that it would be about a week. It is readily apparent that Jesus was referring to the event that would transpire on the mountain six days later. This is apparent from the context here, for Mark rarely gives precise time markers, but he does so here in order to show that the events of verses 2 and following are connected to the announcement in verse 1.

And we see the divine initiative of Christ played out in His selection of three disciples to accompany Him up the mountain. These are they who are chosen by Christ to be the “some” of whom He spoke in v1. Why these three? It was certainly not because of any merit in themselves. None of the disciples deserved this experience. They had all displayed spiritual denseness repeatedly. But these three were chosen by the divine will and initiative of the Savior. It was a matter of His grace and mercy to choose some to join Him, and to choose these three in particular. They were chosen by Christ to be the recipients of this revelation for reasons known only to Him.

We must not lose sight of the divine initiative in revelation. Many of us here in this room have been granted revelation of Christ as Lord and Savior, and have responded in faith to that revelation and been saved. But why have others not? Others in our family, our community, our workplace, I dare say in this sanctuary – why have we said yes to Jesus and they have not? R. C. Sproul writes, “Did we exercise faith in Christ because we are more intelligent than they are? … Did we respond to the gospel positively because we are better or more virtuous than our friends? … I cannot adequately explain why I came to faith in Christ and some of my friends did not. I can only look to the glory of God’s grace toward me, a grace I did not deserve then and do not deserve now.” So we would respond, and so Peter, James and John would respond about their invitation to accompany Christ up the Mount of Transfiguration. It was all of grace, all of God’s divine initiative in Christ. Revelation is always the result of divine initiative.

II. The Revelation of Jesus Imparts Divine Information (vv4-9)

Slowly, but surely the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place for the disciples. We begin to see some grasp of spiritual reality in them as Peter confesses Jesus to be the Christ in 8:29. But there is much more about Him they have not yet learned. And all that is about to change for Peter, James, and John. The experience they will have with Jesus on this mountain will reveal to them His divine glory, His supreme authority, His unique nature, and His ultimate victory. In so doing, they will get a preview of His Kingom coming with power, just as He promised in v1.

A. The Transfiguration Reveals His Divine Glory (v3)

With the brevity that is typical of Mark, he states simply in v2 that Jesus was “transfigured before them.” The Greek word used there is one with which you are familiar. It is the word from which we get the English word metamorphosis. When something undergoes a metamorphosis, it changes radically. And so Jesus did right before their eyes. “His garments became radiant and exceedingly white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them.” Now, I know, in every picture of Jesus you have ever seen, He is wearing white, but in fact in that day, it was rare for a person to wear white. In the dirty and dusty environs of that region, white garments would become soiled too easily, and as Mark specifies, they would require a costly laundering job to clean them. In the Bible, brilliant white garments are usually the attire of heavenly beings. But it was not just His garments which transformed before their eyes. Luke says His face became different, and Matthew says that His face shone like the sun. Here in this moment, Jesus allowed the divine glory that was inherent to His nature to shine through the veil of His earthly body. His nature did not change – He is the divine God of the universe before the transfiguration and after. But His appearance changed in order to reveal to these disciples the divine glory that He bore.

B. The Transfiguration Reveals His Supreme Authority (vv4-8)

Elijah and Moses appeared on the mountain with Jesus and conversed with Him. We don’t know if Peter, James and John recognized them immediately, or if they wore nametags, or if there was some introduction made, but Peter’s statement in verse 5 indicates that they knew who these men were. But why were they there? These two men stand at the heads of the streams of God’s prior revelation. God had revealed Himself to Israel in the Law, given to them through Moses at Mount Sinai. And so Moses represents the revelation of God found in the Law. And Elijah was the first of the great line of prophets who declared God’s word to His people to turn them back from sin. And so he represents the revelation of God in the Prophets. We aren’t told here what they discussed, but Luke says that they “were speaking of His departure which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem” (9:31). It is interesting that the Greek word used there for departure in Luke is the word, exodus. Moses led an exodus of Israel out of the bondage of Egypt. Elijah led an exodus of Israel out of the idolatry of Baal worship. But these exoduses prefigured the ultimate exodus – the exodus Jesus would accomplish at Jerusalem to deliver all humanity from the bondage of sin.

Jesus said in John 5:46, "If you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me.” In Luke 24:44, He said that all things written about Him in the Law of Moses and the Prophets must be fulfilled. They had written and spoken things about Christ which were being fulfilled in this generation of the first century.

Peter, the apostle with the foot-shaped mouth, speaks up. Verse 6 tells us that he didn’t know what to say, he was afraid. But suffering under the burden of undelivered speech, he feels the need to say something, so he offers to build dwelling places for Jesus, Moses and Elijah in verse 5. The Feast of Tabernacles had been an observance of Israel since the days of Moses, when the people would build shelters to dwell in temporarily in remembrance of the days of wilderness wandering when God met with them in the Tabernacle. They were also expressing their hope that one day God would dwell in their midst again. So, Peter assumes, this must be it! Let’s build some tabernacles, and the six of us will enjoy one another’s company for eternity.

At this suggestion, a cloud formed and enveloped them all, and a voice came out of the cloud – the very voice of God the Father – saying, “This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!” And when the cloud lifted, only Jesus was left. In this God was saying that Moses and the Prophets had served Him well for a season, but now His supreme revelation to mankind was being given in the person of Jesus. The witness of the Law and the prophets had culminated in Christ. They had written about Him, and now He was on the earth in the flesh. His word and His will have absolute authority, superseding all who had come before Him. When John says in that great prologue to His gospel that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, the word John uses for dwelt is a Greek word that is used to translate the Hebrew word for the Tabernacle. In Jesus, the dwelling of God is among men. Peter cannot build a tabernacle for Christ, but Christ Himself is a tabernacle in which Peter and everyone else must enter to have fellowship with God. We must listen to Him, believe on Him, and obey Him. His authority is superior to the Law and the Prophets, and the Transfiguration reveals this.

C. The Transfiguration Reveals His Unique Nature (v7)

As God declared “This is My beloved Son,” the cloud lifted and only Jesus was left. While there are various ways we can speak of this person or that one being a child of God, we speak differently when we refer to Christ. Though God is fatherly to all those whom He has created, and the adopted Father of all who trust in Christ, Jesus is the only begotten Son of God. This unique relationship with the Father, a mystery of the Holy Trinity that was announced at His Baptism, which was known to the demons whom He cast out, but which, up to this point, had been unknown to these disciples. They knew He was the Christ – the Messiah, the anointed servant of God sent to redeem His people. They knew He was endowed with divine power which they had seen in His miracles, and wisdom they had heard in His teaching – but they did not know that He was God the Son, the unique incarnation of God in the flesh. It is revealed to them here in His transfiguration.

D. The Transfiguration Reveals His Ultimate Victory (v9)

Coming down from the mountain, Jesus again demands secrecy of the disciples as He has done in the past. But here for the first time, He reveals the expiration date of this vow of silence. The silence can be broken after He is risen from the dead. Already, Jesus has told them that He will suffer and die, but that He will be raised from the dead after three days (8:31). But the ensuing conversation on that occasion a week earlier indicates that the disciples did not focus on this raising from the dead part, but on the suffering and dying part. Here again, Jesus reminds them that He will rise from the dead. But again, there is confusion on the part of the disciples. Verse 10 says, “They seized upon that statement, discussing with one another what rising from the dead meant.”

Now, here is a curious thing. Sometimes, these disciples are guilty of taking the figurative statements of Jesus too literally – such as when He said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.” They thought He was talking about bread, but in fact He was talking about the errors in the thinking and teachings of these two groups which spreads like yeast. Yet, here, they take something Jesus intended literally and assume that there is some figurative meaning behind it. What did he mean that He would rise from the dead? Dead men don’t rise, they reason, so He couldn’t mean this literally. But what they have just witnessed should convince them beyond all doubt that He is no ordinary man, and rising from the dead in fact literally does mean rising from the dead.

This is a continuing problem with people who handle, and often mishandle the Word of God today. The Bible contains metaphors, parables, hyperbolic speech, poetry, apocalyptic language, symbolism and other figures of speech which are not meant to be taken literally. When Jesus said, “This is my body, take and eat,” no one assumes that He ripped off His arm and passed it around for the disciples to gnaw on. We understand He was using symbolism. But there are, in far greater abundance, statements spoken by Jesus and the inspired writers of Scripture which are meant to be taken at face value – no matter how unsettling they may be. The context always determines whether or not we interpret literally or figuratively. What was the context of this saying? He had already spoken of rising from the dead. He had demonstrated visually His glorious power, and He reminded them to not tell of these things until He had risen from the dead. Everything points to a literal interpretation. But the disciples once again fail to grasp it. It seems for the better part of Mark’s Gospel that the disciples take one step forward and two steps back in their spiritual perception. But nonetheless, the revelation is given. It does not mean whatever they want it to mean – it means what Jesus intended it to mean. He is going to suffer and He is going to die. But He is going to rise from the dead after three days, conquering sin and death victoriously through His resurrection.

Of course, in time, the meaning of this statement would become clear enough. That dreadful day would come when Jesus would be betrayed at the hands of Judas Iscariot, tortured by the authorities in Jerusalem, and put to death on the cruel cross at Calvary. But on the third day, after His disciples found His tomb to be empty, He appeared to them in bodily form, risen from the dead just as He said. And their silence was broken. As the Holy Spirit came upon the church at Pentecost, Peter began to boldly proclaim Jesus as Lord and Christ, and all the rest of the New Testament church with him. And we find ourselves living on this side of the resurrection, and we must proclaim Him too. He is risen from the dead! The vow of silence and secrecy has expired and been replaced by the Great Commission to go into all the world and make Christ known. These are Christ’s marching orders to the Christian Church. Go and make Him known, proclaim His salvation to the ends of the earth! His resurrection will mark the glorious and powerful onset of His Kingdom foreseen in His transfiguration.

Of the three disciples who accompanied Jesus on the mountain, we have written eyewitness accounts of two of them concerning their experiences with Jesus. James was an early martyr of the Christian church, being put to death by sword. His death is recorded in Acts 12. There are no writings from him which have been preserved. He is not the James who wrote the New Testament book of James. However John, the brother of James and also an eyewitness of the Transfiguration, writing many years later says in 1 John 1 that his testimony about Jesus is based upon what he has heard, what he has seen with his eyes, and what he has looked at and touched with his own hands. And Peter, who strongly influenced Mark’s Gospel, also left us with two letters which he wrote. In 2 Peter 1, he writes, “We did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.” And what event does Peter point to as the validation of His power and majesty? He says, “For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, ‘This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased’—and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.” Decades later, Peter is pointing back to this event – the Transfiguration – as fundamental for understanding who Jesus is and what He has come to do for us. This is a crucial moment of revelation wherein Jesus, upon His own initiative, discloses more of His true nature, glory, authority, and victory, to the men who would be influential in the early spread of Chrisianity across the globe.

Since the days of Enlightenment, there has been one attempt after another to unearth the so-called “historical Jesus,” a quest that disregards the eyewitness accounts preserved for us in the New Testament by those who received direct revelation from God Himself concerning Christ and His Kingdom. What can we know about Jesus apart from the New Testament? Very little indeed. And why should we trust the New Testament? Because it was written by the eyewitnesses who received this revelation themselves. There are other reasons as well, but this one should by no means be minimized.

If it weren’t for the divine initiative of the Triune God revealing Himself to mankind, we would be groping in darkness trying to find the light. By His grace, this light has shone into our darkness. Many have seen their lives transformed by this grace as they turn from their sins and place their faith in Christ as Lord and Savior. Others have not. If you have never placed your faith in Christ as Lord and Savior, then heed the testimony of those who saw with their own eyes His glorious power unveiled—heed their call to turn from sin and trust Him to be saved. He died on the cross for your sins and conquered death by His resurrection so that your sins could be forgiven and you may have eternal life. God has revealed Himself fully and completely in Christ. How shall you escape His righteous judgment if you turn away in disbelief? Receive Him today if you never have before and be saved. And if you have already received Him, how can you keep silent about His power, His glory, His authority and His victory? This is good news that is meant to be shared. Someone you know needs to hear it today. May each of us go out with joy and make Him known as He has made Himself known to us.