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Snow came to Atlanta last week and caused me to look at the word snow and related matters in the Bible. Three previous messages this week resulted from this brief look into the scriptures. Today's message will be the final one in this miniseries. Lest you think my mind is entirely disconnected, I beg your indulgence in reading until the connection becomes clear.

My father's given names were different. I didn't know exactly how different they were until recently. His first name, Evart, is my middle name; I am the only person of whom I am aware with this name. I did find a town in Michigan which was the same as well as a character in the classic Flash Gordon series. Dad's middle name was Fuller. Maybe this explains why many people referred to him as E.F. rather than by either of his given names. According to one public source which I consulted, there have been only 6 occasions in the last 125 years that a boy in America was named Fuller: my dad was one of those six!

Now to the connection I promised. In the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible the word snow appears with the word fuller. The occasion is commonly referred to as the transfiguration scene. Here is the KJV quote: “And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was transfigured before them. And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.” (Mark 9.2-3). Where fuller appears in the KJV, the word launderer is used in the New King James as well as in a handful of other versions. The old English word fuller referred to someone who had the job of cleaning and shrinking wool. In so doing, they made the wool fuller. Hence the word.

The raiment of Jesus when He was transfigured before the eyes of Peter, James, and John became white, as white as the snow. In cases where the atmosphere is clear, there is no whiteness that compares to the whiteness of snow. That's how bright Jesus' clothes became. To reinforce the degree of whiteness that the three disciples saw on that day, Mark added, “...so as no fuller [launderer] on earth can white them.” This was one of several miracles that occurred in the mount of transfiguration. Without a doubt, the men of Jesus' inner circle had seen white before, but they had never seen white like this! It was whiter and brighter that any white that they had ever seen.

One importance of the unmatched brightness of Jesus' raiment was to impress upon the inner three the awesome significance of the occasion. The miraculous whitening of our Lord's garments was accompanied by the appearance of Moses and Elijah, as well as by the fearsome voice of the Father as He said, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” By implication, Peter, James, and John could know that the One whom they were following was The Prophet. When they left the mountain on that day, Jesus told them that “...they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” (Mark 9.9). By Jesus' own statements, the evidences that they saw that day were connected with the evidences that they would see in the future. The miraculous linked to the miraculous! What further proof could any human want?

Jesus rose from the dead just as He had promised. None of the apostles renounced their belief that Jesus was Messiah following His resurrection from the dead; the evidence was simply too strong to deny. Just as no fuller on the earth could whiten His garments, no man on earth can disprove the claims that proved Him to be the son of God!

Questions:

1. What does transfigured mean?

2. Who was transfigured? Who witnessed the transfiguration?

3. What miraculous evidences were present on that day to convince the disciples they they were not following a mere man?

4. With what future miraculous event did Jesus link the transfiguration?

"Inspiration For You" from Randy Mitchell

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