The Ultimate Mountaintop Experience (Matthew 16:28–17:13)

There are certain sections of Scripture that seem especially holy, accounts like Moses at the burning bush, the Hebrews at the foot of Mount Sinai, the Christ-welcoming night in Bethlehem, and the women at the empty tomb. These are sacred scenes that invite God’s people nearer God’s glory, power, and grace. The transfiguration of Jesus likewise falls into that magnificent category. In his book, The Training of the Twelve, A. B. Bruce suggests that “the transfiguration is one of those passages in the Saviour’s earthly history which [a preacher] would rather pass over in reverent silence” (p. 190). It’s as if handling it and explaining it risks adding filth to and distracting from something otherwise pristine and breathtaking, akin to throwing a rock into a calm, silent, and picturesque mountain lake. But handle it we must as this is a text that is as essential as it is awesome, a text by which God’s people need to be both dazzled and shaped.