Transfiguration
Mark 9:1-13 describes what was surely one of the strongest proofs that Jesus was who He said He was, for those few who were permitted to view it and had missed His baptism. Peter, James, John, and Jesus went up to a high mountain. The mountain isn't named. Some say it is Mount Hermon, but there is no proof of this. At the appointed time, He was transfigured in appearance before them. His garments became the whitest white anyone could imagine, and Elias and Moses came and talked with Jesus. Tradition holds that this was about 40 days before His Passion / Crucifixion. The transfiguration scared the three disciples, as I'm sure it would any of us if we experienced it ourselves. Not knowing what to say, they offered to build three tabernacles, one to each of them.
Clearly, Moses had been dead and buried for a long time. Elijah (Elias) along with Enoch, had been taken directly to heaven without dying, awaiting their time in Jerusalem to prophesy against the anti-Christ and His kingdom at some point in our future (Revelation 11:3-13). Clearly, only Jesus would have known them on sight, so the disciples would have had to come to understand who Jesus was talking with by introduction or eavesdropping. Imagine being one of the three disciples who got to hear either of these VIPs from Jewish history speak. No wonder they wanted to build tabernacles.
If that wasn't amazing enough, a cloud came down, shadowing them, and God spoke identifying Jesus as the beloved Son of God, and telling the disciples to pay attention to what He would say. When the cloud left, Moses and Elijah were gone as well. Jesus tells them to not speak of what they saw until after He had risen from the dead. This should have been, for them, yet another clearly spoken reference that His death was approaching and that He would rise again. Yet when He was crucified, there was doubt.
We like to think that if God would just come down and speak to us, everything would be clear. Here is proof that even when God comes down and says to listen, remembering and believing don't necessarily follow. A Sunday School student I know related that her husband was on the wrong path, and as he was standing in his room, an audible voice pointed out the error of his ways and told him to straighten up. That's horribly paraphrased. Others in the house felt the house shake like an earthquake and came and found him, but they didn't hear the voice itself. He straightened up. Sadly, not everyone gets that opportunity and direct divine intervention in their lives. But here, even three of the early strong disciples had problems remembering and believing just a short while after the transfiguration.
Just because the three disciples couldn't tell anyone else what had happened, it didn't stop their own questioning and debate about what it all meant. Jesus summarizes that Elijah will indeed come as one of the two witnesses before Jesus' second advent. He follows by saying that John the Baptist, in the spirit of Elijah, had already come in preparation for His first advent.
Faithless Generation
In Mark 9:14-29, Jesus and the three return from the mountain to find a multitude of people including scribes debating about what to do about a young son who had what is called a dumb spirit. Jesus wanted to know why the scribes were questioning the group. The father was present and tells Jesus that he brought his son to the disciples to be delivered of the dumb spirit, but the disciples weren't able to do so. The father goes on to say all the tings that the spirit was doing regularly to his son.
Jesus response in Mark 9:19 "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?" is poignant. He knew His time was coming to an end. I feel like today, He'd be saying the same things to His church. "You don't have much time left to do the things you need to do! Get busy!" And I'm sure when we are faithless or sinful and the power of God can't work through us as God would want it to, I'm sure that His comments of faithlessness apply equally well to our lives today.
Jesus asks the father how long the spirit has been afflicting the child after the spirit tormented the child once again, and the father said it had been going on since the child was young. The father continues to tell of the horror of his life dealing with the spirit trying to burn or drown or otherwise kill the child. The father pleads for compassion and deliverance.
Christ's simple reply "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." is one we need to remember. Note that Jesus doesn't say everything would be easy. He doesn't say everything would be hard. He doesn't even say that everything we want will happen with faith. He just says that all things are possible with faith. Specifically, nothing is impossible. It just needs to be in the will of God. Now I would say that delivering a person from the bondage of the enemy would definitely fall under the category of something that God's will would approve of as long as God wasn't permitting it for some greater purpose of His. Since this dealt with a young child, it was almost certainly not the case.
The father cries and says that essentially he believes Jesus can deliver, but he still wants help with his doubts about Jesus and God's willingness to do it. That is so much like us today (and for Christians throughout time for that matter). We believe the promises of God. But sometimes, or oftentimes, we doubt that the promises of God apply to us. There can be many reasons for this. Perhaps because we know our own lives better than anyone else save God and know the attitudes of our hearts and our thoughts, we feel unworthy. Perhaps we feel what we are asking for may fall under the satisfying our own lusts category. Perhaps we don't have faith that the person we've gone to has the baptism of the Spirit to be able to be used of God. And finally, just like the father here, either living with a problem for a long time or hearing the doctor or on-line medical information give you the odds of surviving a new problem, can sap what faith you do have because we forget God is the creator of everything.
It is up to the reader to judge for themselves whether any of these things are true or not in their lives or situation. If some of the first few are true, it is up to us to fix it. Judging the satisfying our own desires may be a tougher call. For example, I have to wear glasses to see properly. They work okay, but are expensive. Is it a satisfying my own desire to ask for healing for eyes? Sometimes the calls are tough like that. Having faith in the individual or deacons (who I think were assumed to be filled with the Spirit, but I could be wrong) you are asking help from is a different level. But faith is required, regardless.
If we are suffering from a lack of faith, do like this father did. Ask for help believing. Ask for help with everything. Ask for help with the little problems of life to build your faith for when you must deal with big problems. Remember God's help in the past when you ask for help in the present. Trust in His promises, like the father of this account.
Jesus commanded the spirit to leave the boy and to stay out. When it left, the boy was limp and many thought he was dead, but Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up, and he was fine.
The disciples wanted to know why they were unable to do what Jesus did. Jesus replied that it took prayer and fasting to be able to stand up against the type of foul spirit that inhabited the young child. Clearly, Jesus prayed often. I'm sure He lived a pretty fasted lifestyle as well as He was on the road frequently and ministering to everyone pretty much without a break. If you're struggling with a problem in life, and aren't sure why nothing is working out, try some prayer and fasting. That isn't to say that a foul spirit is involved. But don't doubt the power of prayer and fasting in touching God's heart.
Who is Greatest?
Mark 9:30-49 concludes with a prophecy and an dispute about who is the greater disciple. After telling the three earlier in the chapter (Mark 9:9-10) that the Son of man was to be killed and would raise from the dead, Jesus again tells everyone that the Son of man was going to be delivered, killed, and resurrected the third day. They didn't understand, but were afraid to ask Him about it. I'm not sure what they didn't understand - "Son of man" or "rise the third day". Looking back is really easy with 20-20 hindsight. I'm sure some of the scriptures in Daniel and Revelation will seem easy as well when looking back on them at some point in the future. But they seem equally difficult to interpret now as this must have for the disciples. Although with the technology we have, the mark of the beast is probably a bit clearer than it wash in John's day.
The important thing to take from this passage of prophecy is that if you don't understand something, ask. You can ask a fellow Christian, a Sunday School teacher, a pastor or priest, or God Himself. But if you don't understand something, take the time to ask. If it's something you really need to know, don't blunder on ahead until you have gotten the answer you seek. Don't neglect looking in the Bible for answers either. Find a good concordance to use or a Bible Dictionary or a Topical Bible and dig in. Watch out for just doing blind internet searches as it is better to know the source rather than just trusting whatever you read to be truth just because it is on the internet. The above sources, along with Torrey's Topical Textbook have been around a long time, and at least here are linked directly to the scriptures on which the information is based for your reference.
Jesus then asks what the disciples were arguing about as they went about their way. They were embarrassed to tell Him because they were arguing about which one of them would be greater. Jesus response was to sit all twelve down and tell them that their job is to be servants of all. If any man really wanted to be considered first, or greatest, he would need to be a servant of everyone. Jesus certainly fit that description, so there would be no doubt about which of all assembled would be the greatest - although the disciples were clearly confused when the person they may have thought would overthrow Roman rule had just said He would die and rise again. That probably made them think that He wouldn't end up being greatest, not understanding the rising in power over the grave to sit with His Father in heaven would trump all of their efforts. I often wonder if this is the spot where Judas decided he was through with all of it.
After this, he took a child and had a rather long discourse on what was important. He told that there were, even then, factions of Christianity. John told of others casting out devils in Jesus name. John's inclination was to forbid them from doing anything in the name of Jesus unless they were congregated with the disciples. Christ told John and the disciples to not forbid them in such manner because if they were using Jesus name, they at least wouldn't be trying to destroy Jesus ministry with the disciples.
I think of the many splits that Christianity has taken over the last 2,000 years, and I'm sure I sigh, just like God does. Most happened because of real or perceived problems that were occurring in the church. I'm sure that God would have preferred we all listen to Him, keep the problems of sin and politics out of the church in the first place, and prevent the rise of people who claimed to be Christian to positions of sometimes high authority in the church who weren't really Christian. But we didn't, and the church has fractured.
It is worth praying at all times for unity. But we cannot be truly united until all parts of the church come once again under God's control. I don't think He's willing to put up with saying black is white just to give unity. So with prayers for unity, it is also necessary to pray that God will change the hearts in the higher echelons of some denominations and offshoots of Christianity to move them back in doctrine and a view of black and white that lines up with the Bible. That's all we can really do. As Jesus pointed out here, arguing isn't going to solve anything. The changes are going to have to come from the Spirit's leading the hearts of those who have fallen astray. Maybe it will take an audible voice from God at an annual meeting to get things done. I don't know. But prayer, and perhaps fasting, never goes to waste.
After that, Jesus talks first about blessings that are unexpected, and then about curses that should be expected. In the blessing case, He says that God watches everything. There is a reward for every cup or water given in Jesus name. On the other hand, offending a child that believes in Christ to the point that the child hesitates to follow or actively turns away, is a great offense to God. Jesus says it would be better for a person to have a millstone tied to the person's neck and to be cast into the sea than to offend a child and turn them from God. Scary thought for everyone, but especially for pastors and teachers.
On a personal level, Jesus knew that we all mostly like our bodies, or at least like to have all our bodily parts there and functioning. But Jesus says that it would be better to lose a hand, eye, or foot if it was leading you to sin, than to be whole in body, but cast into hell for eternity. We really don't get a full picture of that today. We truly need to comprehend that an eternity in hell separated from God is worse than anything we could imagine happening to us.
Satan has tried, particularly in the last few generations, to paint hell as something like a hot resort. People joke about going there without understanding the eternal anguish of the punishment that awaits. The rich man and Lazarus tells the story of one such individual who prayed that Lazarus would just dip his finger in water to give him relief from his torment. This story was related before the resurrection, before the paradise compartment of sheol was emptied and the souls of the righteous dead were taken to heaven. The deaths of the rich man and Lazarus weren't that far apart, but the rich man was already tired of the eternal torments. He wanted someone to tell his relatives so they wouldn't end up in the same place. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way (Luke 16:20-31). You can't use your influence, status, or money to buy your way out of hell or buy your way into heaven.
He ends with a warning that salt is good for flavoring, but once it has lost its saltiness, it is worthless. We need to ensure as Christians that we don't lose our Christianity, or our desire to salt the world through witnessing. It is a day by day challenge to take the time to put God first and not fritter away the time and opportunities we have.