Mount of Transfiguration 2 - Matt 17:1-13; Mark 9:2-13; Luke 9:28-36

Let’s get an overview of what happened during the transfiguration.

1. Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up into a mountain.
2. Jesus prays and P,J,J fall asleep.
3. When they wake up they see Moses, Elijah, and John the Baptist talking to a transfigured Jesus about His upcoming atonement, death, and resurrection.
4. P,J,J are also transfigured, meaning that their bodies experiences a temporary change in cellular structure of a higher level so that they could physically receive angels, and an increase in spiritual learning and capacity. Though many others have experienced spiritual events without being transfigured, I think it’s important to point out the exhausting effect that high level spiritual encounters have on one’s body. To wake up and see three transfigured beings might not warrant one being transfigured themselves, it is possible that because they were going to have the hands of translated beings placed on their head, it was necessary for P,J,J to physically be in a similar state. If the beings were translated, then they would have had bodies of flesh and bones, but to receive all that God had prepared for them to receive on that mountain, they had to be in a physical state that would have allowed for them to absorb all that knowledge and power without knocking out. If we remember, when Moroni visited Joseph Smith during the night three times, the next day Joseph Smith was so exhausted that he couldn’t even walk after a while. Imagine spending several hours on the mountain with Jesus as a glorified being, three other transfigured beings, with God Himself speaking from a cloud, and receving visions, ordinances, and priesthood keys to a dispensation. It is very likely that they had to have been transfigured in order for them to physically receive all that Heavenly Father had planned for them.
5. P,J,J are given priesthood keys to the kingdom of heaven, including the keys for the gathering of Israel and the keys of sealing.
6. P,J,J receive their endowments, and are instructed in the plan of salvation which includes a vision of the celestialized earth.
7. Peter tells Jesus that he wants to make three tabernacles, “one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.” It’s unclear if this happens before or after their transfiguration, but Mark says that Peter made this suggestion because “He wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid.” This statement makes me think that Peter made this suggestion when they first woke up, because after they had such an amazing spiritual experience I don’t think that they would have been experiencing fear, but that’s just my speculation. JTC also points out that while this request might seem strange to us now, “it becomes somewhat plainer when we remember that, at the annual feast of Tabernacles, it was customary to erect a little bower, or booth or wattled boughs, for each individual worshipper, into which he might retire for devotion. So far as there was a purpose in Peter’s proposition, it seems to have been that of delaying the departure of the visitants.”
8. Matthew tells us that in the middle of Peter speaking, a cloud comes over all these people, and a voice says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” This is Heavenly Father telling the three chosen disciples that Jesus’ word is the one that is important now, not Moses or Elijah.
9. P,J,J fall down “on their face, and were sore afraid.”
10. Jesus touches them and tells them, “Arise, and be not afraid,” and it is only them and Jesus in their mortal states on the mountain now.
11. While walking back down the mountain to the other disciples, Jesus tells P,J,J “tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead.”
12. P,J,J question Jesus about why the scribes say that “Elias must first come.” As we learned yesterday, there are many different definitions of “Elias,” so it is understandable that P,J,J were confused by the teacings from the scriptures by the scribes that “Elias must come first.” I want to find out what they meant by “first,” I want to know what Elias was going to coming before. I googled, “Elias must come before what?” And one of the results was to a website called Bible Hub. In it there are many different versions of biblical passages and I have found it to be helpful many times. There is also a cross reference section. Of course, Bible Hub pulled up Matthew 17:10 which cross referenced that verse to Malachi 4:5 which says, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.” Verse 6 continues giving Elijah’s specific mission upon his return saying, “And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart or the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”

If we remember that the Jews misunderstood the coming of the Messiah such that they were looking for the thunderous glory of the second coming when the Messiah came the first time. They were looking for chariots in the sky, fire, judgment, military overthrow, and the establishment of the kingdom of God on the earth. It makes sense that they didn’t recognize the Savior when he came, because they weren’t looking for him, they were looking for the second coming. It would be like if someone showed up and started saying that he was Christ and that the second coming had happened yet. I wouldn’t believe him because he didn’t come the way that I was expecting from the scriptures, it was the same with the Jews back then. P,J,J had expected Elijah to come before the “great and dreadful day of the Lord”, so seeing Elijah there on the mountain would have made them wonder if that prophecy had indeed come to pass already.

 
So the disciples ask, “why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?” Jesus answers, “Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.” The first Elias referred to here is Elijah the Tishbite who would indeed come to restore all things before the Savior’s triumphal second coming. JTC comments that this part of the Savior’s words “did not reach fulfillment in the mission of John the Baptist, nor in that of any other ‘Elias’; its complete realization was inaugurated on the third day of April, 1836, when Elijah appeared in the temple at Kirtland, Ohio, and committed to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery the keys of the authority theretofore vested in himself. ‘The great and dreadful day of the Lord’ was not the meridian of time.” P,J,J must have been wondering if their interaction with Elijah constituted the fulfillment of Malachi’s prophecy and if Jesus would now start his military crusade against Rome. It was an important distinction that had to be made in their ability to detach themselves from what they’ve learned and expected their whole lives so that they could attach themselves to the truths that Jesus was teaching them.

Jesus continued, “But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.” JTC comments, “That John the Baptist would officiate ‘in the spirit and power of Elias,’ as the forerunner of the Christ, had been announced by the angel Gabriel to Zacharias, before the Baptist’s birth; and that John was that particular Elias had been shown by Jesus in His memorable tribute to the Baptist’s fidelity and greatness. That His words would not be generally accepted with understanding is evidenced by the context.”