2 After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. 4 And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.
5 Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)
7 Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”
8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.
11 And they asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”
12 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? 13 But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”
I'm probably crazy, but the thoughts I had on reading this were not primarily about the majesty of the transfiguration, or the purpose, or about the meaning of the three "shelters". I stuck right onto this: "dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could make them". It's almost like this was such an ethereal experience - so otherworldly - that there literally were no words to describe it. Instead, Mark had to try and describe heavenly clothes in human words. It makes me think about heaven... there are some pretty amazing descriptions in Revelation, but naturally they're in human words. And human words, love them as I do, could never, ever do it justice. This one little phrase, "whiter than anyone in the world could make them", really shows the futility of trying.
The one other thing that stuck out to me was that when Jesus told them not to tell anyone, they did so, but instead talked about what rising from the dead meant. Jesus's best friends, with his death fast approaching, still did not get it. How lonely he must have felt - separated for the first time ever from his father, with a bunch of people who just didn't understand. Makes you wonder why he put up with them. For the same reason, I guess, that he puts up with us now. Against all odds, he loves us.
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