1 W. M. Clow, The Secret of the Lord, 167.
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For all we know, they may have had this work of Mnses and Elijah fully in their minds during that week. On the other hand, it may have been a week of absolute silence between our Lord and His disciples, when our Lord was, so to say, alienated from His very own, because they could not understand. We read of His marvelling, being astonished at their incapacity to sympathize with this idea of His death. In any case, it was certainly for relief, for sympathy, for reassurance, and for reconsecration of Himself to the atoning work which He was going out to do, it was for these ends that the Lord Jesus went up to this hill to hold fellowship with His Father.
2. Who were His companions in that mysterious hour ? At the foot of whatever peak of Hermon He ascended, He left nine of the Twelve in waiting. There, unattended by any save the chosen three, he took His twilight way up the steep. Peter, James, and John, "the three most receptive of Him and most representative of His Church," who had stood with Him in the solemn presence of death in the house of Jairus, who will be with Him in the sorrows of Gethsemane, would Jesus have with Him amid the glories of the Transfiguration. Peter must be there, for Peter will hereafter stand in many a place where only the recollection of the voice from the cloud will strengthen his waver- ing courage. When the demon of fear would possess his soul, or the spirit of impetuosity thwart the Master's purposes ; when he would stand up to press home upon the consciences of his fellow- countrymen the claims of his crucified Lord, or resist the persecu- tions of some of them, or rebuke avarice, shame, and hypocrisy ; when he must needs withstand fanaticism in the Church, comfort believers in trial, enforce their practical duties, warn them against temptation or remove their doubts, he will need the experience of that hallowed night when he was an " eye-witness " of his Lord's majesty. James must be there, for the recollection of those scenes will cool his intolerant spirit, temper his ambition, comfort him in Gethsemane, give perseverance in prayer, and nerve his faith as he lays his head upon Herod's block. John must be there, for Jesus, like all mankind, must needs have near Him in His most sacred moments the one nearest His heart. Love will be strengthened by conviction, and these together will stay John's
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hasty flight from the garden, enable him to brook the frowns of the Sanhedrin, strengthen his heart that it may not break under the shadow of the cross, and give clearness of vision to recognize his risen Lord as His voice descends from the opening heavens into the quarries of Patmos ; and when, an old man, he shall sit down pen in hand to tell the world that Jesus was Divine, then he will remember, " we beheld his glory."
3. "He bringeth them up into a high mountain apart." It is not to be supposed that a mountain was absolutely necessary for such an event as the Transfiguration, but it is to be con- ceded that no other place could have been equally appropriate. The voice from heaven had been heard by the Jordan, at the Baptism ; an angel had appeared to Zacharias in the Temple ; but neither in the Temple with all its sacred associations, nor by the Jordan, the historic river of the nation, would a spot have been found more appropriate for the occasion than that which was chosen, " a high mountain." Our Lord, apparently, was at home among the everlasting hills; they were to Him a mighty stair- case that reached to the throne of God. Never did the tempter make a greater mistake than when he supposed he could lay a snare for Jesus on the top of an exceeding high mountain. There the Saviour was more invulnerable than anywhere else on earth. Among the hills Jesus triumphed over the tempter ; among them He made known the laws of the Kingdom of Heaven to men ; there He sought communion with God ; and there He was transfigured.
TJ Several times the writer has climbed to the loftiest peak of one of the grandest of our Scottish mountains, on each occasion accompanied by a different companion, and always without exception his companion has exclaimed, after some minutes of silence on the summit, Let us sing a psalm of praise. The writer's own feeling was rather, Let us pray, or, Let us speak, the con- sciousness of the Divine presence being stronger than ever else- where experienced. Was this feeling shared by our Lord ? Probably it was. He is found so frequently up the mountain. And it is clear that His desire was not merely to get away from the world and its disturbing influence, but to get near to the Father. Amidst the grand majestic surroundings of nature, He found Himself near God, and all night, with the silent stars over- head, He held communion with the Father.1
1 E. T. Vernon, The Holy Mount, 37.
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j[ One cannot but ask what was the " high mountain " on which six days from the time of Peter's confession, whilst still in this region [of Caesarea Philippi], " he was transfigured " before His three disciples ? It is impossible to look up from the plain to the towering peaks of Hermon, almost the only mountain which deserves the name in Palestine, and one of whose ancient titles was derived from this circumstance, and not be struck with its appropriateness to the scene. The fact of its rising high above all the other hills of Palestine, and of its setting the last limit to the wanderings of Him who was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, falls in with the supposition which the words inevitably force upon us. The sacredness of Hermon in the eyes of the surrounding tribes may well have fitted it for the purpose, even if it did not give it the name, of " the Holy Mountain." High up on its southern slopes there must be many a point where the disciples could be taken " apart by themselves." Even the tran- sient comparison of the celestial splendour with the snow, where alone it could be seen in Palestine, should not, perhaps, be wholly overlooked. At any rate, the remote heights above the sources of the Jordan witnessed the moment when, His work in His own peculiar sphere being ended, He set His face for the last time " to go up to Jerusalem." i