Credit where credit is due: Kristina has been translating these by herself for weeks and weeks.
We Have Seen His Glory (v. 1-8)
Usually this is called the transfiguration of Christ. Only three of the twelve were allowed to be there, those who were closest to Jesus. That which happened here was a confirmation of what they just had confessed. Jesus was God’s Son. In the carpenter from Nazareth “all the fullness of God was dwelling”, as Paul put it three decades later. They experienced that which the Gospel of John is witnessing about. Christ is “the true light which...was coming into the world”, and “we have seen his glory”. But they first saw the glory in the shape of humility. Then they were allowed to see a glimpse of it unveiled and glorified.
Tradition has long pointed to Tabor as the Mount of Transfiguration. This is probably not correct - Tabor is in the southernmost part of Galilee, it is not a very high mountain and the summit seem to have been built upon in the ancient world. The real Mount of Transfiguration is most likely Hermon, where Cesarea Philippi lies. It is the highest mountain of Syria, 700 meters higher than Kebnekajse (translator’s note: highest mountain in Sweden). Jesus brought the disciples up to solitude, to a height that they never before had imagined. And there they had the strange and wonderful vision.
Matthew uses the sun and light to try to describe something that really is not possible to describe. He tells about the terror of the three, when a bright cloud overshadowed them and they heard a voice talking to them. It is the terror before God himself, that fear which all God’s servants have felt when they suddenly stand before the Holy One. But here is something new, something that the prophets did not have. The disciples have Jesus, who touches them and tells them not to fear. They look up. The vision is gone, everything is back to normal. But they have Jesus, and they know in whom they believe.
Has The Prophecy Been Fulfilled? (v. 9-13)
On the way down the disciples are ordered to not tell anyone what they have seen. They are not allowed to say anything before the resurrection. It is maybe easier for us to understand this, than it was for them. Between the transfiguration and the resurrection is the cross. On the cross it became clear how the Messiah was to “enter into his glory” (as Jesus himself said on the road to Emmaus). His way did not go through earthly accession to power and a political empire, as so many of his countrymen thought. When Jesus had died on the cross, there was no longer a danger that belief in him would lead to rebellion and bloodshed.
At this time, the three disciples were occupied with other things. They had learned that Elijah was to come before Messiah, and that he would prepare a people for him and restore faith and a right relationship with God. Now Messiah had come. But Elijah?
Jesus answered them, that Elijah really had come. But the unrepentant people and its blind leaders had not understood anything and not prepared themselves. And they did whatever they wanted with Elijah. In the same way, they would also do with the Son of Man. This is what may happen, when God fulfills his promises: people do not receive the fulfillment.
