Matthew 17:9-13: Day Has Come

“Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead,” Jesus in Matthew 17:9

“For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty….’This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,’ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.”  (2 Peter 1:16-18 ESV)

And as they were coming down from their mountain top experience, coming back into the earthly realm of disbelief, suffering and demonic activity, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, of his transfiguration, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead,” (v. 9).   At first glance, these words may seem confusing, even counter-productive.

However, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection and glorification are all part of God’s sovereign plan.  Even the timing of these events is precisely planned.   A premature proclamation of the transfiguration of Jesus may lead the mob to want to crown Jesus as a mere secular messiah, a mistake that nearly happened once before (see John 6:15).   But Jesus’ “kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).   He did not come to be crowned an earthly king but to die on a cross and “to give his life as a ransom for many,” (Mark 10:45). 

At the right time, in the right way, Jesus will by his own volition lay down his life for the sins of the world (see John 10:17-18), but not then as they were coming down the mountain (v. 9).    For his “hour has not yet come” (John 2:4, see also John 7:30 and 8:20).  Soon however the hour will “come for the Son to be glorified” (John 17:1; see also Matthew 26:18, 45).

Having just seen Elijah with Jesus, the disciples asked him, “Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?” (v. 10).  The scribes were familiar with the verses from Malachi, which state, “Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction,” (Malachi 4:5-6). 

Jesus affirmed these words of Malachi and answered using the future tense, “Elijah does come, and he will restore all things,” (v. 11).  The appearance of Elijah on the mountain was not the fulfillment of the prophecy from Malachi.  Then Jesus reverts to the past tense and adds a twist: “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 (vv. 12-13). 

But John the Baptist seemed to contradict Jesus and denied that he was Elijah (see John 1:21). Clarity, however, appears with two other New Testament verses.  The first is from 11:14, when Jesus said, speaking of John the Baptist, “if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come,” (emphasis added).

Second, in Luke 1:17, Gabriel the angel said that John will come “in the spirit and power of Elijah.”  John is not the fulfillment of the Malachian prophecy of the return of Elijah.    John could have been but Israel has rejected her Messiah.  Many scholars believe that the prophecy in Malachi is fulfilled in Revelation 11:3-13 with Elijah as one of the two witnesses who help usher in the day of the LORD. 

Israel has rejected her Messiah and they did to John whatever they pleased.   And when the Son of Man came, he did certainly suffer at their hands.   But the story does not end there.   The Son of Man is raised from the dead! Now is the time to proclaim his resurrection and his glory! “Night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4) but now it is day, “the day of salvation,” (2 Corinthians 6:2).