The Promised King: The King Unveiled in Glory

Matthew 17 is the chapter of unveiling.

Six days after Peter's confession, Jesus takes three disciples up a high mountain. There His face shines like the sun. His clothes become white as light. Moses and Elijah appear with Him. A cloud overshadows them. The Father speaks: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.

When they come down, the King immediately faces a father whose epileptic son the disciples could not heal. He casts out the demon. He predicts His death again. He pays the temple tax with a coin found in a fish's mouth.

The Promised King shows His glory to a few — and then walks back down into the brokenness of a world that desperately needs Him.

Up the mountain

After six days, Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

He was transfigured before them:

"His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light."

This is not a borrowed glory. This is His own glory shining through the veil of His flesh. For a moment, the disciples see who has always been standing in front of them.

Behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with Him.

Moses — the giver of the Law.

Elijah — the greatest of the prophets.

Both were prophets who experienced unusual departures from this earth (Moses buried by God, Elijah taken up by chariot). Both now appear and talk with Jesus about the great Exodus He is about to accomplish at Jerusalem.

The Law and the Prophets are not in competition with Jesus. They point to Him. They are His servants. He is their fulfillment.

"Three tents"

Peter said to Jesus:

"Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah."

Peter wants to freeze the moment. He also wants to put Jesus on the same plane as Moses and Elijah. Three tents.

While he is still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. A voice from the cloud said:

"This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him."

The cloud is the Shekinah — the presence of God. The voice is the Father's. The message rebukes Peter's instinct: Jesus is not on the same plane. He is the Son. Listen to him.

When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. Jesus came and touched them:

"Rise, and have no fear."

When they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

Only Jesus. Moses is gone. Elijah is gone. The Promised King stands alone — and that is exactly as it should be.

Coming down

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them:

"Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead."

The Transfiguration is fuel for the dark days ahead. They will need to remember the glory when they see the cross.

The disciples asked: Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?

He answered:

"Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands."

Then the disciples understood that He was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

The pattern is grim and clear. John, the new Elijah, was rejected and killed. The Son of Man will be the same.

A demon the disciples could not cast out

When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Him and, kneeling before Him, said:

"Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him."

Jesus answered:

"O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me."

Jesus rebuked the demon. It came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.

The disciples came to Jesus privately:

"Why could we not cast it out?"

He said:

"Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you."

Faith is not measured by size but by genuineness. A mustard seed of real faith moves mountains. The disciples' problem was not too little faith of the right kind but the wrong kind of faith — faith that had drifted from full dependence on the Lord.

The second prediction of the cross

As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them:

"The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day."

They were greatly distressed.

He has told them before. He is telling them again. Each time, they understand a little less than the time before. The cross is too contrary to their expectations.

The temple tax

When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter:

"Does your teacher not pay the tax?"

He said: Yes.

When he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first:

"What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?"

Peter answered: From others.

Jesus said:

"Then the sons are free. However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself."

This is one of the strangest little miracles in the Gospels — and one of the most loaded.

The Son of the King does not owe tax to His Father's house. The temple is His Father's house, and He is the Son. He is free.

But to avoid causing unnecessary offense, He pays. He provides the money through a miracle — telling Peter to fish for a coin in the mouth of the first fish he catches.

The Promised King has authority over the sea, over its fish, even over the coins fish swallow. And He uses that authority to teach a lesson in humility: even though He is free, He pays — for the sake of not putting a stumbling block in front of others.

He pays for Himself and for Peter. The free King provides for His disciple.

Closing prayer

Father, thank You that the Promised King unveiled His glory on the mountain — and that the voice from the cloud commanded us to listen to Him. Make us those who, when the visible Moses and Elijah of our lives have faded, see only Jesus. Grow our mustard-seed faith. And teach us to live like the free sons of the King who nevertheless lay down our rights for the sake of those who would stumble. In Jesus' name, amen.