Jesus was transfigured that we might know how he himself will appear when he comes in his kingdom.  And Moses and Elias “appeared with him in glory,” to show us how the people of Christ will appear when they enter with him into his kingdom.  And this was a good reason why these very persons, and not the angels, should have formed the company that came to visit our Saviour on the Mount of Transfiguration.  It was wonderful company indeed that waited on Jesus then.  But, it was a wonderful occasion.  None like it had ever occurred before; none like it has ever occurred since; and none like it will ever occur again till Jesus shall come in the glory of his heavenly kingdom.  The second wonder of the Transfiguration was the wonderful company.

The third wonder connected with this great event was—­THE WONDERFUL CONVERSATION—­that took place between Jesus and his visitors.

All the three evangelists, who tell of the Transfiguration, speak of this conversation.  St. Matthew and St. Mark merely state the fact that Moses and Elias “were talking with Jesus;” but they do not tell us the subject of the conversation, or what it was about which they talked.  But St. Luke supplies what they leave out.  He says, “they spake of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem” This means that they talked about the death upon the cross which he was to suffer.  And when we remember that these great and good men had just come down from heaven, where God, the loving Father of Jesus dwells, and where all the holy angels are; and that this was the only time when they were to be present with Jesus, and have an opportunity of talking with him, during all his life on earth, we may wonder why they did not choose some more pleasant subject of conversation.  And yet they did not make a mistake.  God the Father had sent them from heaven to meet his beloved Son on this occasion.  And, no doubt, he had told them what subject they were to talk about, and what they were to say to Jesus, on that subject.  And then they knew very well how Jesus felt about this matter.  And painful as the death upon the cross would be, they knew it was the nearest of all things to the heart of Jesus.  It was the will of his Father that he should die on the cross, and it was the delight of his heart—­the very joy of his soul to do his Father’s will.  And here we learn the unspeakable importance of the death of Christ.  The apostle Paul was showing his sense of its importance when he said, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus.”  Gal. vi:  14.  He puts the word “cross” of Christ, for the death of Christ, but it means the same thing.

Some one has compared the cross of Christ to a key of gold, that opens the gate of heaven to us, if we believe in Jesus; but if we refuse to hear and obey the words of Jesus, it becomes a key of iron, and opens the gate of destruction before us.