The Garments of the Saviour

by J. Flanigan (Northern Ireland)

5. GARMENTS OF MAJESTY

The Holy Mount! So Peter calls it as he remembers the transfiguration. We were eyewitnesses of His majesty, he recalls. They had seen the King and they had been given a preview of Kingdom glory. They were privileged men, these three, Peter, James, and John. The Saviour had earlier announced to them again that soon He would suffer and die, rejected by the nation, but now He will permit them to see His glory, the glory of the kingdom that was to come. It was "after six days" say Matthew and Mark; "after eight days" Luke says. There is no discrepancy for Matthew and Mark count the intervening days and Luke includes the two days at the beginning and the ending of that week.

Matthew and Mark both record that Jesus had taken them up into a high mountain apart. Contextually and geographically it was probably one of the spurs of Mount Hermon. At the commencement of His ministry the Devil had taken Jesus up into an exceeding high mountain, Matt.4.8, and from that vantage point had offered Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, in exchange for His homage. Surely Satan knew that this glory already belonged to our Lord. In patience He could wait, and now, three years later, on another mountain, with the close of His ministry in view, He allows these favoured disciples to catch a glimpse of that glory.

He was transfigured. His personal glory shone out. "His face did shine as the sun" and even His garments became radiant, Matt.17.2. Centuries earlier Moses had climbed the mount with three men and as he came down, his face shone. That was a reflected glory which even a thin veil could conceal, Ex.34.29-35; 2Cor.3.13. But no veil could hide the glory of Him who is the effulgence of glory Heb.1.3, and His garments radiated with the splendour.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record this effect on the Saviour’s garments. Together they say that His raiment was "white as the light," "white and glistering," "white as snow." Mark adds that they were whiter than any fuller on earth could make them. A fuller was one who dressed cloth, a launderer skilled in the art of either dyeing or bleaching. Not the most efficient fuller could have produced the whiteness with which the garments of Jesus shone on that mount. In a little while coarse men would callously strip these garments from Him. Undoubtedly they would then be stained with blood. But now they were glorious, alight and alive, as it were, with the glory of Him who wore them. Galilean homespun they might be, the garments of one who came from a carpenter’s home in Nazareth, but Jesus of Nazareth was the Lord of Glory, and now that glory which was His personally, inherently, and eternally, shone out through His raiment. It is touching to remember that these were the garments of mercy whose border that poor woman reached out to touch for healing. They are now garments of majesty.

Two men from heaven join the three men of the earth to see that glory. Heaven is in accord with all that is about to happen. Moses and Elijah talk with the Saviour, but only Luke reveals the theme of their conversation. They speak of His approaching death, calling it "His decease, (His exodus) which He should accomplish at Jerusalem." The approaching events were all in the hands of sovereignty. He Himself was ordering all. It was fitting that Moses and Elijah should be there. Moses had led the people through the waters of the Red Sea, Ex.14.22. Elijah had passed through Jordan, 1Kg.2.8. But for both Moses and Elijah those waters had been miraculously parted, so that they passed through on dry ground. It would not be so for Him with whom they now talked. He would be deluged in a flood of suffering and sorrow. Nevertheless, it would be an accomplishment, and He would ultimately triumph in resurrection.

The law and the prophets had together predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow, and so it was indeed appropriate that Moses and Elijah should converse with the Christ on this Holy Mount. Moses had had his Mount Sinai. Elijah had his Mount Carmel. This was different. This would be known ever afterwards by the saints as "the Mount of Transfiguration," where the garments of majesty had been ablaze with Messiah’s glory.

As for Peter, James, and John, sadly, they slept, until a bright cloud descended and overshadowed them. This was no ordinary cloud. It was, says Peter, "the excellent glory," 2Pet.1.17. Doubtless it was the Shechinah, the cloud that had descended on Sinai, Ex.19.16, the cloud that had covered the tent of the congregation and that had led the children of Israel on their wilderness way, Ex.40.34-38. This was the symbol of the awful Presence. It was the glory cloud, and the disciples were afraid. Now it was fitting that the law and the prophets should withdraw, so that none should be seen but Jesus only. He must be supreme and solitary in His glory. Then came a voice out of the cloud confirming this. "This is My beloved Son, in whom I have found My delight; hear Him," Matt.17.5 (JND).

For the second time the Father has, from an opened heaven, expressed His delight in His Son. Formerly it had been at the commencement of the Saviour’s ministry, no doubt in retrospect of thirty years of holy living in Nazareth. Like a tender plant Jesus had lived for God’s pleasure in a parched and barren ground. He brought delight to God when there was little else in Israel for Him. There was plenty of ceremonial and ritual and religious activity, but there was corruption and defilement too. In the midst of it all Jesus had lived for God’s glory. Then, looking back over those thirty years, the Father had spoken of His delight in His Son. Now, on the Holy Mount, the commendation is the same. Three years of busy ministry have come and gone. Throughout those years, with all the opposition of Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians, and the adversity of scribes, rulers, and elders, He had lived impeccably, and served faithfully as the perfect Servant of Jehovah. Looking back over those years of busy public ministry, the Father again expresses His delight.

Now, however, a further word is added, "Hear ye Him." Peter had proposed three tabernacles and staying there in the glory, but it was neither the time nor the place. Jesus knew that, and so the Father says, "Hear ye Him." The Saviour is, after all, the Word. He is God’s message to men. He will convey the mind and will of God perfectly to those who will hear Him. And so He speaks, charging them that they should tell no man of the vision that they had seen, until after He was risen from the dead. How well He knew that He had already been rejected. The day of visitation had all but ended. Israel had failed to recognise her Messiah, and not until He was risen would His disciples again preach His Messiahship to that nation. They must now leave this mount of glory and make their way to Jerusalem and to Golgotha.

These three favoured men never forgot that sight of glory! Peter confirms that in his second Epistle, written maybe forty years later. What an encouragement and stay it must have been to them. James was to become an early martyr. Peter was to be the bold spokesman of the Day of Pentecost. John was to be exiled, and then live on and on until the close of the century. The memory of the garments white and glistering, like the glory itself, would never fade.

— to be continued (D.V.)