And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer much, to be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and to be killed, and on the third day to rise again. And he spoke about it openly. But Peter, having called Him back, began to rebuke Him. And he, turning and looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter, saying, "Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou thinkest not of the things of God, but of the things of men."

Having accepted from His disciples the confession that He is the true Christ, the Lord revealed to them the mystery of the Cross. But He did not yet fully reveal it, for the Apostles did not understand what He was saying, and did not understand what it meant to be resurrected, but thought that it was better for Him not to suffer at all. That is why Peter begins to object, saying that it is in vain to give Himself up to death, when He may not suffer. But the Lord, showing that His suffering will be for the salvation of them and of many, and that Satan alone does not want Him to suffer and save people, calls Peter "Satan" because of his thoughts peculiar to Satan, because he did not want Christ to suffer, but rebuked Him; Satan means adversary. "Depart from Me," he says, that is, follow My will, do not contradict Me and do not be My adversary, but follow Me. Peter, in the words of the Lord, thought about "human" things, because he thought carnal things, wanted the Lord to remain in peace, not to give Himself over to the Crucifixion and not to be subjected to misfortune for the salvation of the world.

And having called the people with his disciples, he said to them, "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospel's sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what ransom will a man give in exchange for his soul?

Since Peter rebuked Christ, who wanted to give Himself up to be crucified, Christ calls the people and says aloud, directing His speech mainly against Peter: "You do not approve that I take up the Cross, but I tell you that neither you nor anyone else will be saved unless you die for virtue and truth." Notice that the Lord did not say: die also the one who would not want to die, but "who will." "I," he said, "do not force anyone. I call not for evil, but for good, and therefore whoever does not want it is not worthy of it. What does it mean to deny oneself? We will understand this when we learn what it means to reject another someone. Whoever rejects another person, whether father, brother, or any one of the household, even if he has watched how he is beaten or killed, does not pay attention and does not sympathize, having become a stranger to him. In the same way the Lord commands us, that for His sake we also despise our body and do not spare it, even if we beat or reproach us. "Take up thy cross," it is said, that is, a shameful death, for the cross was then revered as an instrument of shameful execution. And since many have been crucified and robbers, he adds that with the crucifixion one must have other virtues, for this is the meaning of the words: "Follow me." Since the command to give oneself over to death would seem heavy and cruel, the Lord says that, on the contrary, it is very philanthropic; For whoever destroys his soul, but for My sake, and not as a thief who is executed or a suicide (in which case death will not be for My sake), he, he says, will gain his soul, while he who thinks to gain a soul will destroy it, if he does not stand during the time of torment. Do not tell Me that this last one will save his life, for even if he were to gain the whole world, it would be useless. Salvation cannot be bought by any wealth. Otherwise, he who has gained the whole world, but has lost his soul, would have given everything when he burns in the flames, and thus would have been redeemed. But such a ransom is impossible there. Here the mouths of those are also blocked who, following Origen, say that the state of their souls will change for the better after they are punished in proportion to their sins. Let them hear that there is no way to give a ransom for the soul, and to suffer only to the extent that is supposedly necessary for the satisfaction of sins.

For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him shall the Son of Man also be ashamed, when He shall come in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.

For since man is dual, there must also be a twofold sanctification, that is, the sanctification of the soul through faith and the sanctification of the body through confession. Thus, whoever is "ashamed" to confess the Crucified One as his God, he too will be "ashamed," will recognize him as His unworthy servant, when He "comes" no longer humble, not in the humiliation in which He appeared here before and for which some are ashamed of Him, but "in glory" and with the host of angels.

Chapter Nine

And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, there are some of those standing here who shall not taste death, till they see the kingdom of God come in power.

Having spoken of His glory and wishing to teach that He does not mention it in vain, the Lord then says that "there are some of those standing here," that is, Peter, James, and John, who will not die until I show them in My Transfiguration the glory with which I will appear at the time of Coming. For the Transfiguration is nothing but an omen of the Second Coming. Thus will He Himself shine forth at that time; so will the righteous shine.

And it came to pass, after six days, that Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and brought them up into a high mountain alone, and was transfigured before them. His garments became shining, very white, like snow, as a bleacher cannot bleach on the ground.

The Evangelist Luke says that it was eight days later. However, he does not contradict Mark, but he completely agrees with him. His speech embraces both the day on which the Lord announced (His impending Transfiguration) and the day on which He led (the disciples to the mountain), while Mark speaks of only intermediate days. The Lord devours and leads up to the high mountain only three chief apostles – Peter, as one who confessed and loved. John, as beloved, and James, as a great preacher and theologian, who was so difficult for the Jews that Herod, wishing to please the Jews, killed him. He raises them up to a high mountain, so that the miracle may be all the more glorious. And he builds "especially" (in private) because he wanted to reveal the secret. The Transfiguration itself is understood not as a significant change in the appearance of Christ, but as the illumination of Him by an ineffable light, and its natural form remained the same as before.

And Elijah appeared to them with Moses; and they conversed with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi! it is good for us to be here; let us make three tabernacles: one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. For he did not know what to say; because they were afraid. And a cloud appeared overshadowing them, and out of the cloud came a voice, saying, This is my beloved Son; Listen to him. And suddenly looking around, they saw no one else with them, except Jesus alone.

For many reasons, Elijah and Moses are conversing with Christ. But it is enough to mention two. Thus, since the disciples rejoiced that some of the people took Him for Elijah, and others for one of the prophets, He reveals to them the greatest prophets, so that the disciples, at least, in this way would know the difference between slaves and the Lord. Here is the first reason. Second: since many considered Christ to be an adversary of God, who allegedly destroys the Sabbath and transgresses the law, He shows on the mountain such prophets, one of whom was a lawgiver, and the other a zealot; and such prophets would not have conversed with Him if He had destroyed the Law and did not do what they preached. And Peter was afraid to come down from the mountain (for he feared the Lord's crucifixion), and therefore he said, "It is good for us to be here," and not to go down among the Jews; for if thy enemies come hither, we have Moses, who smote the Egyptians, and Elijah, who brought down fire from heaven, and destroyed the fifty chiefs. What did the prophets talk to Him about? They spoke of the Crucifixion and His death. And what Peter said, he himself did not know what he was saying, because all of them (the disciples) were in fear of the ineffable light and glory of Christ. He did not want Jesus to come down from the mountain to the Crucifixion for the sake of our salvation, but wanted to remain always on the mountain. But let us also turn our minds to (mysterious) contemplation. At the end of this world, created in six days, Jesus will lead us, if we are His (true) disciples, "to the high mountain," that is, to heaven, and He will reveal Himself to us in the brightest form. Now He appears to us in an inglorious form, as the Crucified One and the Son of the woodworker, and then we will see His glory as the Only-begotten; if we also see the Law and the prophets conversing with Him, that is, what was spoken of Him by Moses and the prophets, then we will understand and find the perfect fulfillment of their prophecies. Then we will also hear the voice of the Father, for the Father will reveal to us the Son and declare: "This is My Son." How will He tell us this? When the cloud is overshadowed, that is, the Holy Spirit, for He is the source of life.

And when they came down from the mountain, he commanded no one to tell what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. And they kept the word, asking one another what it meant to rise from the dead.