The G. Campbell Morgan Archive

XVIII. THE DAZED DISCIPLES
AVING considered the transfiguration of Jesus, and the presence and passing of Moses and Elijah, it now remains to turn the attention to the disciples, and this subject is of supreme interest. The principal purpose of the transfiguration is declared in the statement, "He was transfigured before them."
he experience of the holy mount had its place in the process of the work of the Master, in that it was the fitting consummation of a life innocent in Childhood, and holy through all the testing of growth into Manhood. Born without sin, triumphing over every attack made upon Him by the powers of evil, He at last passed not by the way of death, but by that of transfiguration into communion with the spirits of just men made perfect, into the very presence of God.
oreover the presence and passing of Moses and Elijah, representing as they did the great movements of the past, have been seen to be full of suggestiveness.
he aspect of the transfiguration, however, which is of supreme value, is that the disciples were taken to the mount, were permitted to behold His glory, to listen to His converse with Moses and Elijah, themselves to speak in the light of the glory, and to hear the answer of God to that speech.
he consideration proceeds along three lines. First, a contemplation of the men; secondly, a consideration of their speech; and thirdly, attention to the answer of heaven to the suggestion of Peter.
I. he names of Peter, James and John are associated on more than one occasion, and the fact certainly must have significance. Very many reasons have been suggested for the fact that the Master took these men to certain places to which the other disciples were not taken. Without discussing those theories, one reason may be considered. To discover this it will be helpful to call to mind the occasions upon which it happened. They are three in number. These men were taken to the house of Jairus, to the mount of transfiguration, to the garden of Gethsemane.
n each case they were brought into the presence of death, and in that fact lies a partial solution of the problem. Peter's attitude towards death was revealed in the memorable conversation with his Lord chronicled in Matthew. While Jesus had spoken of a kingdom and keys, Peter had listened with calm complacency, but when He proceeded to speak of death upon a cross, Peter had been strangely moved, and had exclaimed, " Be it far from Thee, Lord." Thus it will be seen that he had followed Jesus to the point of death, and then had halted. This distinctly proves that Peter had no true conception of his Master's attitude towards death.
ark gives the account of the coming of James and John to Jesus, and their asking that when He should come into His kingdom they might sit one on His right hand and one on His left. In great pity and love the Master had looked at them and said: "Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink? or to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They answered, "We are able," feeling that there was no cup that He should drink that they were not able to share with Him, and no baptism through which He should pass in which they were unable to have fellowship with Him. They were "sons of thunder" and what could make them afraid? If He could pass through baptism, so also could they. If He were able to drink some strange cup, so also were they. James and John had followed Jesus to the point of death, and dared all results. Peter was afraid. James and John were blindly courageous. Both attitudes were wrong. None of these men understood the death towards which the Master moved, nor the triumph that awaited Him through death. They must be taught, and the teaching began before their speech revealed their attitude, and was continued after the experience of the holy mount. The sequence of the teaching is most clearly revealed in the Gospel of Mark.
irst there is recorded the story of the visit to the house of Jairus. "He suffered no man to follow with Him, save Peter, and James, and John. . . . He, having put them all forth, taketh the father of the child and her mother and them that were with Him, and goeth in where the child was. And taking the child by the hand, He saith unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, Arise." She obeyed, and He handed her to her parents. That scene, proving Christ's Lordship over death, was witnessed by Peter, James and John.
hen follows the account of the transfiguration, and the fact that these same three men listened to the converse with Moses and Elijah concerning His own death.
nd finally the experience in Gethsemane, concerning which Mark says, "And He taketh with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly amazed, and sore troubled. And He saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death: abide ye here, and watch."
hus it is at once seen that each time He took these men aside, He conducted them into the presence of death, and He revealed His threefold attitude towards death. In the house of Jairus He was Master of death. On the mount of transfiguration He stood superior to death, transfigured, and yet conversing of death to be accomplished. In Gethsemane He bowed and yielded Himself to death— a strange progression. These men, of whom one was afraid, and the other two imagined there was nothing to fear, were led through this private and special ministry of infinite patience, that they might see the Master's connection with death. In the house of Jairus He addressed the dead child, using the familiar speech of a living love, " Little lamb, I say unto thee, arise." There was no thunder about His voice, no magnificence of majesty, suggesting the assertion of authority, but the sweet whisper of an infinite Love, in response to which the spirit of the little one came back from the spirit land to its clay tabernacle. He stood in the home evidently Master of death, with a strength and dignity that needed no outward pageantry.
hen upon the mount He was seen to be in His own Person absolutely superior to death, passing without its touch into the breadth and beauty of life in the places where death never comes, and yet there talking of it as an experience through which He would soon pass.
hen, strange and marvellous thing, in Gethsemane He came towards the hour of His dying, and as He approached that hour, said to those same men, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death." To Peter and James and John were these visions granted.
hus the presence of these men on the mount was part of a perfect scheme. These were experiences which the Master was storing for them, which should have their explanation in days that were yet to come. Presently, when the work of the Cross was accomplished, and the Paraclete had been poured upon them, these men would begin to understand what happened in the house of Jairus, upon the holy mount, and most wonderful of all, how that when His soul was sorrowful unto death, they had beheld the Master of death bowing to death, in order that He might slay death. After that, Peter writing a letter, and speaking of his own death, did not so name it, but borrowing the word he heard upon the mount, wrote, "after my exodus." Thus death was transfigured for these men through the patient process of a special training which the Master gave them.
II. n turning from this consideration of the men, to give attention to Peter's words uttered in the glory of the mount, it is important to notice their condition at the time. Of Peter, Mark says, "He knew not what to answer; for they became sore afraid," and Luke affirms "not knowing what he said." These statements confirm the opinion that the whole speech was a blunder.
uke's account alone makes reference to the fact that the disciples had slept. It is probable that here, as in the garden, they fell asleep while the Master was at prayer. Awakening, and while yet in a half-dazed condition, they looked upon the marvellous scene before them; remembering, as people waking suddenly so often first remember matters but recently impressed upon the mind, the six days of estrangement which had followed upon their shunning of the Cross. How changed the scene and the Master. Jesus, Whose face had borne the marks of an infinite sorrow during those days of silence, now stood in the midst of splendour such as they had never beheld. His face shone with the brightness of the sun, and the seamless robe, which, perchance, love had woven for Him, was white and glistering, beyond the glories of the snows of Hermon. How everything would rush back upon the minds of the men. Peter would remember the rebuke that had fallen from his Master's lips, "Get thee behind me, Satan," and then the cause of that rebuke, the fact that he had desired for his Master not a Cross, but a kingdom. And now behold that loved One, just as Peter would fain see Him, and desired to keep Him. In the mind of the waking man there would be the contrast between this and that; between the splendour of the glory, and the fact of converse with heaven's own inhabitants; and that strange announcement of a week ago, concerning Jerusalem, and the chief priests' hatred, and the culminating death. The outcome of this contrast was the speech of the man: "Lord, it is good for us to be here "—not there, but here. Talk no more of the Cross, but stay here upon the mount in glory. "If Thou wilt, I will make here three tabernacles, one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
ow strangely confused the mind of the man was, is evident by this suggestion. Imagine making tabernacles for Moses and Elijah, to say nothing of the Master. Had he said, Let us stay here and make three tabernacles, one for Thee, and one for me, and one for James and John, it would have had more of reason in it. What did Moses and Elijah want with tabernacles? The word tabernacle simply means a booth, or boughs made into a shelter for present use. Peter's suggestion was that he should go to the trees and bear back boughs with which to construct three temporary resting-places. Think of Moses sojourning in a tabernacle, or Elijah settling down to rest in a booth. The whole suggestion is grotesque. "He knew not what to answer," and for him, as for all men in like circumstances, it were infinitely better to say nothing. He had lost the sense of the spiritual, and his mind, moving wholly within the realm of material things, imagined that the spirits of the just made perfect could find shelter in tabernacles constructed of boughs.
here was, however, a darker side to the mistake of Peter. When he suggested building three tabernacles, one for the Master, one for Moses and one for Elijah, he seems to have been forgetful of his own confession made but eight days before. Jesus had asked, "Whom do men say that the Son of Man is?" and had received the reply, "Some say John the Baptist, some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets." Then, in answer to His second question, "Who say ye that I am?" Peter had placed his Lord in a position far higher than that of Elijah, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Yet now he suggests making a tabernacle for Jesus, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah, thus putting his Master upon the same level with these men of the past.
he mistake is by no means an obsolete one. Men are still attempting to make tabernacles, one for Christ, one for Confucius, one for Buddha. Beware of such blasphemy.
ore harm was done in 1893 in the world's parliament of religions at Chicago than has yet been undone. Men from the East, who then heard arguments to show the comparison between the religion of Jesus and that of others, while perhaps to-day thinking no less of Christ than before, yet cling more tenaciously than ever to the system in which they have been brought up. It is ever dangerous to allow that it is possible for a moment to put the best of religious teachers in comparison with the Christ. One for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah is utterly and hopelessly wrong. The man who suggests it has lost the sense of the absolute and sovereign supremacy of Jesus Christ over all teachers.
III. atthew describes the cloud which overshadowed the mount as a bright cloud. Darkness glorified, shadow illuminated! Wherever there is a bright cloud, the brightness is proof of the light behind. Who has not seen the clouds piled mountain high on the horizon, lit with gorgeous splendour? Only the clouds are seen, but the lights upon them speak of the sun shining in power behind them. A bright cloud overshadowed them, a symbolic cloud. The transfiguration is passing, the outshining of the splendour of His presence is to cease, and the clouds are gathering over the green hill far away, but they are smitten through and through with light. It is impossible to hide the glory again from these men. They will never again wholly forget the radiant vision. James will pass to his martyr baptism with that glory still upon his mind, and that holy mount will abide with Peter until, his work ended, he, too, shall enter the cloud, and beyond it, find the never-fading light.
t was indeed a bright cloud, but it overshadowed them while yet Peter was speaking. It interrupted and silenced the speech of earth, that the speech of heaven might be heard. What Peter would have said had lie been allowed to proceed, none can tell. While he was yet speaking the cloud came. This blundering speech of men must be interrupted, this gross misunderstanding of the Divine must be corrected, this incoherent prayer of a disciple but half awake, must be hushed.
ut of the bright cloud came the heavenly voice, and there are three matters of importance to notice in the words spoken. First, the identification of this Man Who has been seen in resplendent glory—"This is My beloved Son" ; secondly, the announcement of the Divine satisfaction—"In Whom I am well pleased"; and thirdly, the injunction laid upon these men, and upon the Church and all the ages through them—" Hear ye Him."
irst, identification— "This is My beloved Son." Moses and Elijah were servants, this is the Son. The messages of the economies of the past were for the unfolding of the law, He and His message constitute the epiphany of grace.
hen the statement of Divine satisfaction— "In Whom I am well pleased." God had said this before at the baptism in Jordan, when the private life of Christ drew to a close, and His public life was beginning. And now that the second stage had come to an end, when the public life was closing, and the sacrificial and atoning work beginning, as He was about to pass from the culminating glory to take His way into the shadows and into death, again God said "I am well pleased." Satisfied with the private life in Nazareth, with the honest toil of the carpenter's shop, with the years of public ministry, with the deeds of love that had been scattered over all the pathway, the whole life of Jesus from beginning to end had given satisfaction to the heart of God.
hen the injunction— "Hear ye Him." Moses and Elijah have passed. Let there be no tabernacle built for Moses; his mission is ended. "This is My Son." Let there be no attempt to retain the fiery reformer; Elijah's work is over. "This is My Son." "God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son," "Hear Him." No other voice is needed. Let them be hushed in silence. Let Moses and Elijah pass back to the upper spaces. The dwellers upon earth have the speech of the Son, and nothing else is needed— "Hear Him."
t was a word of rebuke silencing the blunder of Peter. It was a word of comfort by which God attested the value and virtue of Christ. It was a word of encouragement, for if the speech of Moses and Elijah were over, and their presence had passed within the veil, the Son is to abide, and through all the exigencies and intricacies of the coming days His voice, sweet as the music of heaven, clear as the voice of a brother man, shall lead through the mists to the dawn of the eternal light.
hat wonderful effect was produced upon these men by this scene. James died sealing his testimony with his blood, a martyr. Nothing more is recorded of him. John takes his way to long life, and in his writing, says, "The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us ... full of grace and truth." The parenthesis follows as a flash of glory from his pen, as he remembered the mount, he wrote, "We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father." John can never forget. Peter in his last epistle wrote, "We did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eye-witnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honour and glory, when there was borne such a voice to Him by the Majestic Glory, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased: and this voice we ourselves heard borne out of heaven, when we were with Him in the holy mount."
hus Peter and John to the end of their ministry were influenced by the vision of that wonderful night, and influenced supremely by the speech of heaven and the bright cloud that overshadowed them.
o many there comes no mount of transfiguration, but there is for all the speech of the Son. If the majority are not called to some mount of vision where they may behold the glory as these three men beheld it, yet to every soul amid the multitudes of the redeemed He speaks in every passing day. God forbid that the babel of earth's voices should drown the accents of His still small voice. To His children He speaks softly and sweetly in the innermost recesses of the heart day by day, saying ever, "This is the way, walk ye in it," and out of God's heaven God's message ever speaks, "This is My Son, hear ye Him."