MkITN IX, Verses 1 - 13

1. Then He took this concept of the revelation of the Kingdom to another level by saying, "This is the absolute truth...some of you who are standing right here are going to see it happen...you're going to see the Kingdom of God arrive in full force and power."

2. And, sure enough, six days after this, His prophecy came to pass for three of them. He took with Him Peter, James and John, and led them up to the top of a high mountain, apart by themselves, and was transfigured right in front of their eyes...His appearance morphed and changed from the inside out, becoming luminous with near-blinding brightness.

3. His clothes began to glisten with a white intensity...whiter than any launderer on earth could bleach them in a thousand washes.

4. As this was happening, the Prophet Elijah suddenly stepped out of linear time...out of the perceived past...out of their history, and into their now...and appeared alive to them. Amazingly, he was accompanied by Moses, and both of them entered talking...they broke through to where the disciples physically existed, already in mid-conversation with Jesus!

5. And somehow Peter instinctively and instantly connected with transcendence, and joined right in this cross-dimensional conference, saying, "Master, it is a beautiful thing for us to be here to witness this! Let us make three memorials...one for You...one for Moses...one for Elijah!

6. He spoke before thinking, but when he said these words, it dawned on his mind what he was seeing and saying, and "reality" set in. And this perception took him immediately to a place of violent fright and dread, connecting him with the fear that the rest of the disciples were already experiencing.

7. But before any of them could begin to process any of this, a cloud threw a shadow upon them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My Son, the blessed and beloved One! Listen to Him always...listen and obey!"

8. And in an instant the disciples were looking around, rubbing their eyes, trying to mentally accept this seemingly surreal experience, and seeing nothing but Jesus...no Moses...no Elijah...no blinding light...no cloud...only Jesus.

9. Then, as they were coming back down the mountain, He swore them to secrecy, saying, "Listen...right now I really don't want you to tell anyone about what you just saw here. But after the Son of Man rises from the dead, you're free to talk about it."

10. So they faithfully kept the matter to themselves, as He had instructed. In fact, keeping quiet about the strange experience was easy for them, because there really was no way to adequately explain it, anyway. The part of what he said, however, that they did have a problem with was the thing about "rising from the dead". They really had no idea what on earth He meant by it.

11. Meanwhile, they were asking Him, "Why do the religious leaders and scholars insist that Elijah has to come first?"

12. And He said to them, "Well, they're right about that...Elijah does have to come first to restore all things and set them right...to get everything ready for the revealing of the Son of Man, who will suffer many things, and will be despised and rejected by the people.

13. But in reality I tell you that Elijah has already come, and the people abused him in much the same way, just as the Scriptures predicted."