Part 6 (2/2)

As John and Peter saw the returning life of the little maid, and heard their Master's command ”that something should be given her to eat,” they thought not of the time when they should stand together again near the same spot with the same Master, Himself risen from the dead, and hear Him utter another command, ”Feed My lambs.”

As they with James followed their Lord out from the death-chamber--such no longer--and heard His charge ”that no man should know” what had happened, the very secrecy drew more distinctly the line of the inner circle about the three. It was not to be erased during the Lord's earthly sojourn with the twelve.

_CHAPTER XVI_

_John a Beholder of Christ's Glory_

”We beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father.”--_St. John_ i. 14.

”We were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from G.o.d the Father honor and glory ... when we were with Him in the holy mount.”--2 _Peter_ i. 16-18.

”As brightest sun, His face is bright; His raiment, as the light, is white, Yea, whiter than the whitest snow.

Moses, Elias, spake with Him.

Of deepest things, of terrors grim, Of boundless bliss, and boundless woe, Of pangs that none but Christ may know.

”A voice sublime I panting hear, A voice that conquers grief and fear, Revealing all eternity; Revealing G.o.d's beloved Son, Born to redeem a world undone; Filled with G.o.d's fulness from on high, To gain G.o.d's n.o.blest victory.”

--_Trans. Kingo of Denmark._

We may think of the twelve as Christ's family with whom He often prayed apart from the mult.i.tude. One such occasion was in Caesarea Philippi. The prayer was followed by two earnest and solemn questions. ”He asked the disciples, saying, Who do men say that the Son of Man is? And they said, Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

How strange these sayings must have sounded to St. John and his Jordan companions, who had been directed by the Baptist to their Messiah. Three of them were soon to witness Elijah's tribute to Him, as being more than the ”Son of Man.” Such already had He become to them. He was more interested in the opinions of the disciples than in those of the mult.i.tude. So He asked with emphasis, ”But who say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living G.o.d. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven.”

But in the mind of Jesus even this blessed revelation was not enough for His believing yet frail disciples. Even the three, the most enlightened of the twelve, needed a clearer vision of Him and His kingdom, and strength for trials they were to endure. So they needed His prayers.

”From that time began Jesus to show unto His disciples how that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things, ... and be killed.” He needed prayer also for Himself. So ”Jesus taketh with Him Peter, and James and John, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart by themselves.”

The favored three, who had witnessed His power in the raising of Jairus'

daughter, were to be witnesses of his glory. Luke says He ”went up into the mountain to pray.” Not Tabor,--for which mistaken tradition has claimed the honor--but Hermon was doubtless the ”high mountain.” This kingly height of the Lebanon range was a fitting place for Jesus the King. The glittering splendor of its snows is a fitting emblem of His character. It was the highest earthly spot on which He stood. From it He had His most extensive views. Here He had His most exalted earthly experience. Peter rightly named it ”the Holy Mount” because of its ”glory that excelleth” all other mountains.

We do not know the thoughts or feelings or words of the nine when Jesus ”taketh with Him the three.” We wonder whether their wonder was at all mixed with jealousy. As they saw the three ”apart by themselves,” their lessening forms ascending Hermon, and at last hidden from their view by the evening shades, can it be that the dispute began which cast a gloom over their Lord when He descended from that mountain of glory?

And the three themselves--what were their emotions as they looked down upon their companions in the plain below, and upward to the height whither their Master was bringing them. Did they whisper together concerning the word He had just spoken--that He must die. They must have had such mingling of feelings as they never had before.

It was the evening after a Sabbath. At the close of the weary summer day, after the long and steep ascent of the mountain, and in the strong mountain air, it is no wonder that the three disciples were ”weighted with sleep.”

Luke not only tells us that Jesus went up ”to pray” but also that ”He prayed.” Would that John had recorded that prayer, as he did those supplications in the Upper Room and in Gethsemane. ”As we understand it,” says Edersheim, ”the prayer with them had ceased, or merged into silent prayer of each, or Jesus now prayed alone and apart.”

On the banks of the Jordan, where Jesus and the three had met, while He ”was praying, the heavens were opened,” and the dove-like form descended upon Him, and His Father's voice was heard. And now ”as He prayed,”

there came an answer, immediate and glorious: ”He was transfigured before them.”

The disciples though ”weighted with sleep,” ”having remained awake, they saw His glory, and the two men that stood with Him.” It was many years after this vision that John, speaking for the three, testified, ”We saw His glory.”

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