Matthew 17:1-27 NIV
The Transfiguration
1After six days JESUS Took With Him Peter,
James and John the brother of James, and Led them Up a high mountain by
themselves.
2There HE Was Transfigured before them. His
Face Shone Like the sun, and His Clothes Became as white as the light. 3Just then there appeared before them Moses
and Elijah, talking with JESUS.
4Peter
said to JESUS, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If YOU Wish, I will put up
three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”
5While
he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them,
and a Voice from the cloud
Said,
“This Is My SON, Whom I Love; With Him I AM Well Pleased.
Listen to Him!”
6When
the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7But
JESUS Came and Touched them. “Get up,” HE Said. “Don’t be
afraid.” 8When
they looked up, they saw no one except JESUS.
9As they
were coming down the mountain, Jesus Instructed them,
“Don’t Tell
anyone what you have seen, until The SON of Man Has Been Raised From The Dead.”
10The
disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the Law say that Elijah must
come first?”
11Jesus
replied,
“To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way The SON of Man Is Going To Suffer at their hands.”
13Then the disciples understood that HE Was Talking To them about John the Baptist.
“To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way The SON of Man Is Going To Suffer at their hands.”
13Then the disciples understood that HE Was Talking To them about John the Baptist.
JESUS Heals a Demon-Possessed
Boy
14When
they came to the crowd, a man approached JESUS and knelt before him. 15“Lord,
Have Mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He
often falls into the fire or into the water. 16I
brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”
17“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” JESUS Replied, “How Long
Shall I Stay with you? How Long Shall I Put Up with you? Bring the boy here to
ME.” 18JESUS Rebuked
the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.
19Then
the disciples came to JESUS in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it
out?”
20He Replied,
“Because
you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a
mustard seed,
you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it
will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” [21]
Jesus Predicts His Death a
Second Time
22When
they came together in Galilee, HE Said to them,
“The SON of
Man Is Going To Be Delivered into the hands of men. 23They will kill Him, and on the third day HE Will Be
Raised To Life.”
And the disciples were filled
with grief.
The Temple Tax
24After
JESUS and His disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma
temple tax came to Peter and asked, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?”
25“Yes,
HE Does,” he replied.
When Peter came into the house,
JESUS Was The First To Speak. “What do you think, Simon?” HE Asked.“From whom
do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes—from their own children or
from others?”
26“From
others,” Peter answered.
“Then the
children are exempt,” JESUS Said
to him. 27“But so that we may not cause offense, go to the lake and throw out
your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a
four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours.”
The Transfiguration of CHRIST
And after six days. We must first inquire for what purpose
CHRIST Clothed Himself with Heavenly Glory for a short time, and why HE Did Not
Admit more than three of His disciples to be spectators.
CHRIST Intended To Show that HE Was Not
Dragged Unwillingly to death, but that HE Came Forward of His Own Accord, to
offer to The FATHER the sacrifice of obedience. The disciples were not made
aware of this till CHRIST Rose; nor was it even necessary that, at the very
moment of His Death, they should perceive the Divine Power of CHRIST, so as to
acknowledge it to be victorious on the cross; but the instruction which they
now received was intended to be useful at a future period both to themselves
and to us, that no man might take offense at the weakness of CHRIST, as if it
were by force and necessity that HE Had Suffered. It would manifestly have been
quite as easy for CHRIST to protect His Body from death as to clothe it with
Heavenly Glory.
We are taught that HE Was Subjected to
death, Because HE Wished it to be so; that HE Was Crucified, because HE Offered
Himself subject to the Will of The FATHER. That same flesh, which was
sacrificed on the cross and lay in the grave, might have been exempted from
death and the grave; for it had already partaken of the Heavenly Glory.
We
are also taught that, so long as CHRIST remained in the world, bearing the form
of a servant, and so long as His Majesty was concealed under the weakness of
the flesh, nothing had been taken from Him, for it was of His Own Will that HE
Emptied Himself, (Philippians 2:7;) but now His Resurrection has drawn
aside that veil by which His Power had been concealed for a time. Our Lord Reckoned
it enough to select three witnesses, because that is the number which the Law
has laid down for proving anything; at the mouth of two witnesses or three
witnesses, (Deuteronomy 17:6.)
The difference as to time ought not to
give us uneasiness. Matthew and Mark reckon six entire days, which had elapsed
between the events. Luke says that it happened about eight days afterwards,
including both the day on which CHRIST Spoke these words, and the day on which
HE Was Transfigured. We see then that, under a diversity of expression, there
is a perfect agreement as to the meaning.
And HE Was Transfigured before them.
Luke says that this happened while HE Was Praying; and from the circumstances
of time and place, we may infer that HE Had Prayed for what HE Now Obtained,
that in the brightness of an unusual form His Godhead might become visible; not
that HE Needed To Ask by prayer from another what HE Did Not Possess, or because, during the whole course of
His Humiliation, HE always Ascribed to The FATHER whatever HE Did as a Divine
Person, and because HE Intended to excite us to prayer by His Example.
His transfiguration did not altogether
enable His disciples to see CHRIST, as HE Now Is in Heaven, but gave them a
taste of His Boundless Glory, such as they were able to comprehend. Then His Face
shone as the sun; but now HE Is far beyond the sun in brightness. In His Raiment
an unusual and dazzling whiteness appeared; but now without raiment a Divine
Majesty Shines in His Whole Body. Thus in ancient times GOD Appeared to the
holy fathers, not as HE Was in Himself, but so far as they could endure the
rays of His Infinite Brightness; for John declares that not until they are like
Him will they see Him as HE Is, (1 John 3:2.)
There is no necessity for entering here
into ingenious inquiries as to the whiteness of His Garments, or the brightness
of His Countenance; for this was not a complete exhibition of the Heavenly Glory
of CHRIST, but, under symbols which were adapted to the capacity of the flesh,
HE Enabled them to taste in part what could not be fully comprehended.
And, lo, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah. It is asked, Were Moses
and Elijah actually present? or was it only an apparition that was exhibited to
the disciples, as the prophets frequently beheld visions of things that were
absent? Though the subject admits, as we say, of arguments on both sides, yet I
think it more probable that they were actually brought to that place. There is
no absurdity in this supposition; for GOD Has Bodies and Souls in His Hand, and
can restore the dead to life at His Pleasure, whenever HE Sees it to be
necessary. Moses and Elijah did not then rise on their own account, but in order
to wait upon CHRIST.
It will next be asked, How came the
apostles to know Moses and Elijah, whom they had never seen? The answer is
easy. GOD, Who Brought them forward, Gave also signs and tokens by which they
were enabled to know them. It was thus by an extraordinary revelation that they
obtained the certain knowledge that they were Moses and Elijah
But why did these two appear rather than
others who equally belonged to the company of the holy fathers? It was intended
to demonstrate that CHRIST Alone Is The End of the Law and of the Prophets; and
that single reason ought to satisfy us: for it was of the utmost importance to
our faith that CHRIST did not come into our world without a testimony, but with
commendations which GOD Had formerly Bestowed. I have no objection, however, to
the reason which is commonly adduced, that Elijah
was selected, in preference to others, as the representative of all the
Prophets; because, though he left nothing in writing, yet next to Moses
he was the most distinguished of their number, restored the worship of GOD which had been corrupted, and stood unrivaled in his exertions for vindicating
the Law and true godliness, which was at that time almost extinct.
And they conversed with JESUS.
When they appeared along with CHRIST, and held conversation with Him, this was
a declaration of their being agreed. The subject on which they conversed is
stated by Luke only: they talked of the death which awaited CHRIST at Jerusalem.
This must not be understood to refer to them as private individuals, but rather
to the commission which they had formerly received.
Though it was now a long time since they
had died and finished the course of their calling, yet our Lord Intended once
more to ratify by their voice what they had taught during their life, in order
to inform us that the same salvation, through the Sacrifice of CHRIST, is held
out to us in common with the holy fathers. At the time when the ancient
prophets uttered their predictions concerning the Death of CHRIST, HE Himself,
Who Was The Eternal Wisdom of GOD, Was Sitting on the invisible Throne of His Glory.
Hence it follows that, when HE Was Clothed in flesh, HE Was Not Liable to death
any farther than as HE Submitted to it of His Own Free Will.
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