II. Jesus’ transfiguration is a preview of God’s children having glorified bodies--Phil 3:21, Matt 13:43, Rom 8:17, Col 3:4

Martin Luther: "Here God teaches by the reappearance of these men that those whom we call dead are not dead and that the death of believers is really an ascent and removal to a brighter and happier existence in the light of God’s presence."

Adam Clarke: "Elijah came from heaven in the same body which he had upon earth, for he was translated and did not see death, 2 Kings 2:11. And the body of Moses was probably raised again, as a pledge of the resurrection; and as Christ is to come to judge the quick and the dead, for we shall not all die, but all shall be changed (1 Corinthians 15:5). He gave the full representation of this in the person of Moses, who died, and was thus raised to life, and in the person of Elijah, who never tasted death. Both their bodies exhibit the same appearance, to show that the bodies of glorified saints are the same, whether the person had been translated, or whether he had died. It was a constant and prevalent tradition among the Jews that both Moses and Elijah should appear in the times of the Messiah, and to this very tradition the disciples refer, Matthew 17:10. We may conceive that the law in the person of Moses, the great Jewish legislator, and the prophets in the person of Elijah, the chief of the prophets, came now to do homage to Jesus Christ, and to render up their authority into his hands; as he was the END of the law, and the grand subject of the predictions of the prophets. This appears more particularly from what St. Luke says, Luke 9:31, that Moses and Elijah conversed with our Lord on his death, which he was about to accomplish, because in it, all the rites, ceremonies, and sacrifices of the law, as well as the predictions of the prophets, were fulfilled."

III. Like Peter, we would like to remain on the mountain, but there is work to do below--see Gal 6:2 & 10, Heb 10:24, James 2:17-18, 1 Pet 2:12, Eph 2:10

C.S. Lewis: "If you read history, you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next world. The apostles themselves who set on foot the conversion of the Roman Empire, the English evangelicals who abolished the slave trade, and others like them all left their marks on earth, precisely because their minds were occupied on heaven. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think about that other world that they have become so ineffective in this world. Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in; aim at earth and you will get neither."

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