One event, four witnesses
The Transfiguration
On a high mountain Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and John, and Moses and Elijah appear with Him. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record it; Luke alone tells what Moses and Elijah spoke of.
“And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart,”Matthew 17:1
“And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them.”Mark 9:2
“And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray.”Luke 9:28
The event
The event. About a week after Peter's confession, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up into a high mountain apart. There He is transfigured before them: His face shines as the sun and His clothing becomes dazzling white, whiter than any launderer could make it. Moses and Elijah appear in glory and talk with Him. Peter, overwhelmed, offers to build three tabernacles, one each for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah, not knowing what to say. While he is still speaking a bright cloud overshadows them, and a voice from the cloud declares, "This is my beloved Son: hear him." The disciples fall on their faces in fear, and when they look up they see Jesus only. Coming down the mountain He charges them to tell the vision to no one until the Son of man is risen from the dead. Luke adds that Jesus went up to pray, that the change came as He prayed, that the disciples were heavy with sleep, and, most notably, that Moses and Elijah spoke of His decease, His exodus, which He should accomplish at Jerusalem. The mountaintop gives the disciples a glimpse of the glory veiled in His flesh, set squarely on the road to the cross.
Read side by side: what is the same, what differs
Read side by side: what is the same, what differs. All three agree closely: the high mountain, the inner three, the transfiguration of Jesus, the appearance of Moses and Elijah, Peter's proposal of three tabernacles, the overshadowing cloud, the Father's voice, "This is my beloved Son," the disciples' fear, and Jesus found alone afterward with the charge to silence. The differences are of detail and fullness rather than fact. Matthew alone notes that Jesus' face shone as the sun and that He touched the frightened disciples and told them not to be afraid. Mark gives the homely detail that His garments became whiter than any launderer on earth could whiten them. Luke, most distinctively, tells us what Moses and Elijah were speaking about: His decease, literally His exodus, which He was to accomplish at Jerusalem, and Luke adds that Jesus went up to pray, that the change came as He prayed, and that the disciples were heavy with sleep. The Father's word carries an added command in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, "hear him," and Matthew phrases the whole with his characteristic fullness. These are complementary reports, each preserving its own remembered particulars, converging on one event. Luke's unique note of the subject of the heavenly conversation is not a variance from the others but a deeper window into the same scene.
What it shows of Christ
What it shows of Christ. The transfiguration unveils the hidden glory of Jesus, the eternal Son shining out through the veil of His flesh, and confirms by the Father's own voice the confession just made at Caesarea Philippi. Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, appear to attend Him and then withdraw, leaving Jesus alone, for He is the One to whom the Scriptures point and whose word now stands above all. Luke's unique detail that they spoke of His decease at Jerusalem binds the glory to the cross: the radiance of the mountain is on its way to Calvary, and His death is the exodus by which He leads His people out of bondage. Matthew stresses the shining face and the reassuring touch of the King; Mark the vivid whiteness of the servant's garments; Luke the praying Son and the coming departure. The Father's command, "hear him," sets Jesus above Moses and Elijah as the final Word. Here the disciples behold, for a moment, the glory that the resurrection will make permanent.
Questions people ask
What does Luke uniquely add to the transfiguration accounts?
Luke alone tells what Moses and Elijah were speaking of with Jesus: His decease, literally His exodus, which He would accomplish at Jerusalem. Luke also notes that Jesus went up to pray, that the transfiguration came as He prayed, and that the three disciples were heavy with sleep. These deepen, rather than differ from, the account in Matthew and Mark.
Why did Jesus tell the disciples to keep the vision secret?
He charged them to tell no one until the Son of man was risen from the dead. The glory of the mountain could only be rightly understood in light of the cross and resurrection; revealed too soon, it would feed a triumphalism that ignored His coming suffering. After the resurrection, the vision would testify to who He truly is.