The reappearance of Moses and Elias.
St. Luke materially adds to our knowledge of this scene when he tells us the subject of the conversation of this mysterious company. They "spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." It may be seeing deeper into the mystery of the scene if we can apprehend that, for the time, Jesus was out of the bodily and within the spiritual sphere to which Moses and Elias belonged. Instead of thinking that they came down to him, it is better to think he was with them. That Transfiguration was the temporary freedom of the Son of God from his body limitations; a temporary resumption of heavenly conditions in a heavenly sphere; a freedom from the human for the sake of a time of Divine and spiritual communion. The scene lay in that region of the supernatural which was the proper, the eternal, sphere of the Son of God. The Transfiguration cannot be understood apart from a careful estimate of Christ's circumstances and moods of mind at this time. He had been virtually rejected in Galilee. His work there was finished. He retired northward, depressed in spirit. The failure in Galilee seemed a foreshadowing of the great failure. He was beginning to tread the pathway at whose end was a cross of shame. But why did Christ anticipate? Why did he not do the duty of the hour, and leave the morrow to take care of the things of itself? Explain that the virtue of Christ's death lay in its being a voluntary surrender; no mere accident—a real sacrifice. Then it must be known, distinctly thought about, and accepted beforehand. The glory came when he, in prayer, was wrestling to gain a full acceptance of this will of God that he should suffer. A part of his comforting came from the communion of representative men.
I. THE LIGHTER VIEW OF THE REAPPEARANCE OF MOSES AND ELIAS. There is a view with which we are so familiar that, maybe, we have never even thought of criticizing it. All the commentaries say, "The representatives of the Law and the prophets," though the reason for choosing Elijah to represent the prophets is never suggested. These two men are assumed to have given the witness of the Jewish Church to our Lord's death.
II. THE DEEPER VIEW OF THE REAPPEARANCE OF MOSES AND ELIAS. "The presence of Moses and Elias suggests far off unknown relations to, and vibrations of joy to, the pre-Messianic children of light." "He conversed with his great predecessors, Moses and Elias, who could thoroughly sympathize with him, and whose work his death was to fulfil." These were the two men most profoundly interested in the recovery and redemption of men. And therefore they were so supremely interested in the work of Christ. Even these three disciples could not give Jesus full sympathy. St. Peter's foolish talk showed that they could not. Jesus found sympathy in glorified saints.—R.T.