“For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased!” We ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.”
Peter now moves on to the body of his letter. He first wants to remind them that Jesus is coming back. He does this by telling them that it is not just a story and by reminding them of the Transfiguration. I want to spend some time on that today but first let’s look at the beginning part of the verse.
Peter starts, “For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ…” Peter will continue with this theme later in his letter. Jesus is coming back. Apparently, there were false teachers (just as there are today) who were introducing wrong ideas to the believers. Perhaps they were teaching that Jesus was not going to come back. Peter will spend the entire second chapter warning his readers about false teachers. Paul warned readers in his letters using similar language. In his letter to Timothy, he writes, “As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine or to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. These promote empty speculations rather than God’s plan, which operates by faith” (1 Timothy 1:3-4). And in his letter to Titus, “This testimony is true. For this reason, rebuke them sharply, so that they may be sound in the faith and may not pay attention to Jewish myths and the commands of people who reject the truth” (Titus 1:13-14).
Peter is reassuring his readers that what he is telling them is not based on a myth, but on eyewitness account. Notice here that in these verses he moves from the singular “I” to the plural “we.” It is not just his eyewitness account, but also his fellow disciples who saw the Transfiguration of Jesus with him. And all the apostles saw Jesus after his resurrection.
Now we will move into the second part. Peter reminds his readers that he, along with James and John, were “eyewitnesses to his majesty.” This happened at the Transfiguration of Jesus. Peter goes on to write, “For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased!’”
I want to spend some time looking at this event. It is found in three of the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These three books are called the Synoptic Gospels because they recount the events of Jesus’s life. They are told from Matthew (one of the disciples), Mark (an associate of Peter’s), and Luke (a physician, and the traveling companion of Paul). They cover many of the same events in Jesus’s life, but there are differences as one would expect, since each was written for a different audience. Here is the account of the Transfiguration as recorded by Matthew:
“After six days Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. He was transfigured in front of them, and his face shone like the sun; his clothes became as white as the light. Suddenly, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it’s good for us to be here. If you want, I will set up three shelters here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased. Listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown and were terrified.
Jesus came up, touched them, and said, “Get up; don’t be afraid.” When they looked up they saw no one except Jesus alone.” (17:1-8)
Jesus was transfigured in front of them. His face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as the light. Peter, James, and John got a glimpse of Jesus in his glory. If we look at verse 28 in the previous chapter of Matthew, we read, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” This verse has caused many people to question Jesus’s second coming. But it is because they misunderstand what Jesus is saying. Six days after Jesus said this, three of his apostles saw him transfigured. They saw Jesus as the glorious King he is.
Jesus was not alone on this mountain. It says that Elijah and Moses appeared to them, talking with Jesus. Why these two men? Moses represents the Law and Elijah, the Prophets. Jesus often used the phrase “the Law and the Prophets.” An example is when the Pharisees tested him on which law was the greatest. “He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important command. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands” (Matthew 22:37-40). Gotquestions.org explains, “The phrase the Law and Prophets refers to the entire Hebrew Bible, what we call the Old Testament.”
So when Jesus said, “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17), he was showing that he perfected it. David Guzik writes in his commentary, “Jesus fulfilled the doctrinal teachings of the Law and Prophets in that He brought full revelation. Jesus fulfilled the predictive prophecy of the Law and Prophets in that He is the Promised One, showing the reality behind the shadows. Jesus fulfilled the moral and legal demands of the Law and Prophets in that He fully obeyed them and He reinterpreted them in their truth. Jesus fulfilled the penalty of the Law and Prophets for us by His death on the cross, taking the penalty that we deserve.”
Peter, James, and John saw Jesus in his glory. It gave them a foretaste of his Kingdom. They did not just see Jesus in his glory. It says “a bright cloud covered them and they heard a voice which said ‘this is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him!’” They fell face down and were terrified.
Peter could still remember this vividly enough that when he is writing this letter, he records the words again. He is also confident in Christ’s return because he has seen him already in his glory. Douglas Moo writes, “It is this glorious and majestic nature, hidden, as it were, during his earthly life, that will be revealed to all the world at the time of his return. Put simply, the Transfiguration reveals Jesus as the glorious king, and Peter was there to see it. He therefore has utter confidence that Jesus will return as the glorious king and establish his Kingdom in its final and ultimate form.”
I, like Peter, am confident that Jesus will be coming back. I will continue to study my Bible so that I do not fall for “cleverly contrived myths.” I want to be sound in the faith as Paul says in Titus.
Grace be with you!
Abundant Joy 