The Meaning of the Transfiguration

Mark 9:2 (NET) Six days later Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John and led them alone up a high mountain privately. And he was transfigured before them, 3 and his clothes became radiantly white, more so than any launderer in the world could bleach them. 4 Then Elijah appeared before them along with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.

Jesus had just explained in verse 1, “There are some standing here who will not experience death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.” It is within the context of that statement that we see the transfiguration.

Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets. He inaugurated a new way of living. Because of that fulfillment, the Kingdom of God, the New Covenant, is superior to the Law and the Prophets. The New Covenant has the ability to produce righteousness in those who believe. The Law and the Prophets had the ability to point to righteousness, but only produced condemnation.

Paul explained it like this: “But if the ministry that produced death – carved in letters on stone tablets – came with glory, so that the Israelites could not keep their eyes fixed on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face (a glory which was made ineffective), how much more glorious will the ministry of the Spirit be? For if there was glory in the ministry that produced condemnation, how much more does the ministry that produces righteousness excel in glory! For indeed, what had been glorious now has no glory because of the tremendously greater glory of what replaced it. For if what was made ineffective came with glory, how much more has what remains come in glory!” (2 Cor 3:7-11 NET)

Jesus transfiguration illustrated the difference in glory between the Old Covenant, represented by the Law and the Prophets – Moses and Elijah, and the New Covenant brought in by Jesus. Jesus clothes were radiant. Moses and Elijah appeared, but there is no indication they were radiant. Perhaps they were radiant, but, in comparison to Jesus, they were not.

The meaning of the transfiguration is to illustrate the difference in glory between the Old Covenant and the New.