HIS FACE DID SHINE AS THE SUN, AND HIS RAIMENT WAS WHITE AS THE LIGHT

The late hour and strenuous climb had taken its toll. Three weary fishermen lay asleep on the slopes, Luke 9. 32. But high in the cool, rarefied air, the indefatigable and intrepid Christ, Mediator of the new covenant, holds vigil and keeps tryst with Moses and Elijah - His fellow mountaineers of the old order.

Appropriately, ‘Tabernacles’ was in prospect, v. 4, when Peter, James, and John woke to witness ‘the Son of Man coming in his kingdom’. Most likely, Mount Hermon was the setting for this preview of earth’s millennial day. ‘Transfigured before them’, His face shone ‘as the sun’, His robes were ‘white as the light’. And the ‘bright’ presence cloud defied the night. The divine approbation, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’, was first uttered at Israel’s lowest point, southwards, where Jordan enters the Dead Sea. Now, on Israel’s northern, tallest mount, whose snowy springs sourced that same river, the Father speaks again on the third anniversary of His baptism. Jordan presaged Christ’s death and resurrection: Hermon, His ascent to the everlasting throne and kingdom.

Following His baptism, our Lord, on ‘an exceedingly high mountain’, is offered ‘all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them’, 4. 8. He refuses these at Satan’s hand. Now aloft Canaan’s summit, He discusses His pending ‘exodus’ at Jerusa­lem. Only through sacrifice and death would Christ claim terrestrial sovereignty. That claim would be incontestable.

‘Tabernacles’ was cheered by the Father’s presence. But, at Passover, six months hence, Calvary’s brow would be dark­ened by divine wrath, its solitary silence interrupted only by the orphan cry. Distinguished companions graced the one, two thieves the other. There, the face that shone as the sun, was ‘so marred’ more than any man’s. Clothes brilliantly luminous on ‘the holy mount’, were blood-stained by Gabbatha’s jagged wounds, and divided among Golgotha’s brutal men.

Like morning mist melting in the sun, Moses the law-giver and Elijah, prophet par excellence, fade in His effulgence. The awed disciples saw ‘no man save Jesus only’.