NOTES for Mat 17:1-13

As the Savior says at the end of the preceding chapter, some of His disciples will see the Kingdom come in power before their death. This word is fulfilled several days later, when three of them see His transfiguration on the mountain. In what, then, does the Kingdom of God revealed to them that day consist? They see, insofar as they are able to receive it, a Man clothed in divine glory, a Man of whom God Himself says, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”... That is, there stands before them a Man over whom God can rejoice rather than grieve, a Man who has fully accomplished God's purpose for Him—or, to use modern language, an ideal, true man, the God-man. In what else can the Kingdom of God consist for us, if not in becoming like God and becoming what He wants to see us be? On the mountain of the Transfiguration, God who became Man shows us the path and the goal of our earthly existence.