Last week we heard of Peter rightly calling Jesus “the Christ,” the promised Savior, but misunderstanding what that meant for Jesus. Peter was thinking of earthly power and glory and “the things of man” and even of Satan. Instead, Jesus would follow His heavenly Father’s will and began even more clearly to speak of His suffering and death, as key to His saving work for the world. Glory and honor would come only later, in His resurrection and the events that followed.
In Mark 9:1, Jesus spo...
Last week we heard of Peter rightly calling Jesus “the Christ,” the promised Savior, but misunderstanding what that meant for Jesus. Peter was thinking of earthly power and glory and “the things of man” and even of Satan. Instead, Jesus would follow His heavenly Father’s will and began even more clearly to speak of His suffering and death, as key to His saving work for the world. Glory and honor would come only later, in His resurrection and the events that followed.
In Mark 9:1, Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God coming with power, but that not all the disciples would see that. This most likely refers to the resurrection of Jesus, which Judas would miss out on, by his suicide. See Romans 1:4, for example, for the “power” of the resurrection.
Jesus would also give three of His disciples a glimpse of His glory in the event described in Mark 9:2-10. He took Peter, James, and John up a high mountain. We don’t know just where that was, but likely it was north of Caesarea Philippi, where they had last been, in the far north of Israel. Jesus was “transfigured before them” (Mark9:2). His clothing became radiantly white, beyond what anyone on earth could bleach or clean them (Mark 9:3). (See references to the purifying prophesied when the Lord, the messenger of the new covenant, would come, in Malachi 3:1-2. See how the transfigured Jesus looked like the “Ancient of Days,” the heavenly Father described in Daniel 7:9, also. It is a glimpse of Jesus in His glory, as the true Son of God.)
Two great leaders of the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah, also appeared with Jesus, talking with Him. Somehow, Peter was enabled to know who these people were, and he began to talk of a plan he had. Tents could be built for these three - Jesus, Moses, and Elijah.
There was an Old Testament festival where people built temporary outdoor enclosures and stayed in them for 7 days, remembering their days in the wilderness with Moses. (See Leviticus 23:42-43.) Maybe Peter was thinking of this and how this amazing time could be prolonged. More likely, though, Peter was just saying whatever came into his head, because he and the others were “terrified” at what they saw, as Mark tells us (Mark 9:5-6.) (Remember that Mark learned much from Peter and likely is recording just what Peter told him, as God inspired him to do. Fear and terror are often reactions when sinful people see an angel or even a glimpse of the glory of God. See Luke 1:11-13, 26-30, Exodus 20:18-19, etc.)
Right after that, “a cloud overshadowed them” (Mark 9:7). Clouds were often a way of showing that God was coming among His people in the Old Testament, even as He dealt with Moses. See Exodus 24:15-16 and 40:34-35, for example. Then the voice of God the Father came from the cloud, clearly identifying Jesus as His Son: “This is My beloved Son.” It was the same message as at the baptism of Jesus. See Mark 1:11. The Father also added, here at the Transfiguration: “Listen to Him” - Listen to Jesus! (Mark 9:7) This was also in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy given long before by Moses, who was standing with Jesus at that moment. (See Deuteronomy 18:15.) Then we hear, “Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only” (Mark 9:8).
The message of the Transfiguration was to listen to Jesus - His Words and the Words of His Holy Scriptures, the Bible - and to believe them, because He was the true Son of God. Even if His Words did not make sense to them and their human way of thinking, the disciples were to believe Him, “Jesus only,” above everything else. This is the message for us, too - to keep listening to the Words of Jesus (as we are doing right now in this study), even if we do not fully grasp what Jesus is telling us.
In fact, as we read Mark 9:9-13, it is clear that Peter, James, and John were still not getting many things that Jesus was teaching them. They did not understand what “rising from the dead” meant (Mark 9:10).
They did not understand that John the Baptist was the “Elijah to come," even though Jesus had already told them that. (See Matthew 11: 10-14, for example.) Jesus repeated again that John was the one prophesied to “restore” God’s people and get them ready for the Savior. People “did to him whatever they pleased” - rejecting him and Herod even putting him to death - even as the original Elijah had been persecuted, “as it is written of him” (Mark 9:11-13). (See also 1 Kings 19:1-3,10.)
Sadly, the scribes and other Jewish authorities had added many things beyond what the Old Testament said about the Elijah prophesied to come. “The expectation was that Elijah would first teach the Jews, settle all their disputed questions, give them again the pot of manna and Aaron’s rod, (which had been in the Ark of the Covenant), etc.” (Lenski’s Commentary). No wonder the disciples were confused, having been taught these wrong ideas by others!
Jesus had to repeat again that He, as the “Son of Man,” would also “suffer many things and be treated with contempt,” just as Elijah and John the Baptist had been treated (Mark 9:12). (See also comments in an earlier study portion, on John 2:10, about Jesus as the “Son of Man.”)
Jesus knew that confusion was still there in the disciples’ minds, so He also told them not tell anyone about the Transfiguration until after His resurrection (Mark 9:9). Later on, they would better understand about all this. Peter wrote about the Transfiguration, for example, in 2 Peter 1:16-21, and explained accurately about Jesus, after the resurrection, in Acts 3:18, 22-26, by the power of the Holy Spirit and quoting Moses.
The weakness of the disciples and the strength of Jesus and the need to rely on Him are emphasized again in the story which follows in Mark 9:14-28. Jesus, Peter, James and John returned to the other disciples, after the Transfiguration, and found another big argument between the Jewish scribes and those disciples. Jesus asked what was going on, and a man explained that he had brought his son to the disciples for healing. The son was possessed by an evil spirit, so that he could not speak or hear and often was thrown into what we might today call an epileptic fit. The disciples could not cast out the evil spirit from the son, though, even though they had been given power from Jesus earlier to do so (Mark 9:14-18). (See also Mark 6:7-13.)
Jesus was frustrated with so much evil around in His “faithless generation” and with the lack of faith in His own disciples, too, and all that He had to bear with (Mark 9:19). He asked for the boy to be brought to Him, and the demon in the boy immediately recognized Jesus and convulsed the boy, seeking to harm him, as he had often done before, ever since the boy was a child. (The goal of Satan and all his evil angels is always to harm and not to help.) The Father pleaded for compassion and help from Jesus, if He could do anything for the boy (Mark 9:20-22).
Jesus wanted to increase the faith in the father, as well as heal the son. So, He said, “If you can! All things are possible for one who believes.” The man has some faith or he would not have brought his son to the disciples and Jesus; but he answered very honestly and quickly: “I believe; help my unbelief!” (This is a good prayer for all of us, as our faith is imperfect and not always so strong, either.)
Jesus quickly then commanded the “deaf and mute spirit” to come out of the boy and never return. The evil spirit cried out and convulsed the boy again terribly and finally came out of him, leaving the boy looking as if he were dead. Jesus lifted up the boy and he arose and was well (Mark 9:23-27).
The disciples then asked Jesus why they could not cast out the evil spirit. Jesus had already spoken of a “faith” problem and now he talked about the need for prayer, as well (Mark 9:28-29). It might be that the disciples were so proud of casting out other demons that they began to think that they were doing this themselves and forgetting that it was only by the power of Jesus, delegated to them, that any of this healing was happening. They were trying to do the healing by their own power, instead of leaning upon Jesus and asking for heavenly help for what they did, through prayer.
Don’t we sometimes do the same thing? We have a problem, and we try to solve it by ourselves, by our wisdom and using every other human means possible, and only later remembering to pray and ask God’s help. Jesus is teaching us to combine faith with prayer, asking God for His help early on, not at the end, when nothing else has worked. Jesus has taught us, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). God does not answer every prayer as we wish; but James tells us, “You do not have because you do not ask" (James 4:2). Prayer is simply talking with God, and is a sign of our faith in our Lord, as dear children ask their dear Father for what they think they need.
In Mark 9:30-32, Jesus continued to teach His disciples. He knew that they needed to hear and hear again what He was teaching, even as we do. He repeated again about His coming death and resurrection. This time, He added that He would be ”delivered into the hands of men” and be killed. Someone would help this to happen, and Judas was the person who most clearly did that, as he arranged for and then betrayed Jesus with a kiss. We will hear more of this in Mark 14:10-11 and 43-45. It was all clearly predicted, and yet Judas ignored these warnings of Jesus, for him.
In Mark 9:32, we hear again that the disciples were not understanding these direct words of Jesus and were afraid to ask Him, to pray to Him for His help in understanding. (Again, how often do we do the same? Lord, we believe. Help our unbelief and indecision and fear and weakness, as we are so much like those disciples. We can live only by Your grace and mercy and patient help for us.)
