WWUTT 2191 The Transfiguration of Jesus (Mark 8:1-13)

In Mark chapter 8, we read just as we read in Matthew chapter 17 about the transfiguration of Jesus. Jesus being transfigured before them that they would see the glory of God in the sun when we understand the text.

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe. Thank you Becky. In our study of the Gospel of Mark, we're on to chapter 9 today where we will read once again about the transfiguration of Jesus. Now I say once again because if you've been with me through our study in Matthew, we've already read about this in Matthew 16 and 17.

This is Mark's account and I will read here verses 1 through 13 out of the Legacy Standard Bible. And Jesus was saying to them,. And six days later Jesus took with him Peter and James and John and brought them up on a high mountain alone by themselves.

And he was transfigured before them. And his garments were shining intensely white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them, along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus.

And Peter answered and said to Jesus,. For he did not know what to answer, for they became terrified. Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud,. And all at once, when they looked around, they saw no one with them anymore, except Jesus alone.

And as they were coming down from the mountain, he gave them orders, not to recount to anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man rose from the dead. And they seized upon that statement, arguing with one another what rising from the dead meant.

And they began asking him, saying,. And he said to them,. And yet how is it written of the Son of Man that he will suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But I say to you that Elijah has indeed come, and they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written of him.

The Transfiguration in Mark and Matthew

Now this particular account of Mark's is divided up into three parts. Verse 1 almost kind of stands by itself, or at least you would think of it as going with what we read at the end of chapter 8. So it kind of serves as a header of this particular passage.

But then you have the transfiguration itself that goes from verses 2 through 8. Then in verse 9, Jesus strictly tells them not to talk about what it is that they have seen until he rises from the dead.

And the disciples are baffled by that. And then you have this address concerning Elijah. They're questioning him about Elijah coming first in verses 11 to 13. So let's come back to verse 1. I'll show you how this looks like it would fit better with what we read at the end of chapter 8.

So Mark 9, 1, Jesus was saying to them,. Now why would that go better with what we read at the end of chapter 8? Well, it seems like Jesus is still addressing the crowds along with his disciples. So he's not just talking about the disciples here.

Remember that in Mark 8, 34, we read that he summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,. This is the same order that we saw it in Matthew 16. Jesus gives the address of living the cross-centered life.

And he says even there,. And the last thing that Jesus says in that address, according to Matthew 16, the last thing he says is, Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.

And then what is next? Matthew 17, the transfiguration. And six days later, Jesus brought with him Peter and James and John his brother and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. Exactly what we're reading here in Mark.

But whoever has come up with the chapter divisions in Mark, remember I've said this many times, but the chapter and verse divisions are not divinely inspired. Somebody inserted those things later. It's only about a thousand years old.

But whoever came up with the chapter divisions decided that in Matthew, the chapter division would be after Jesus says, There are some of you standing here who will not taste death until you see the kingdom of God coming in power.

And then chapter 17, six days later, Jesus brought with him Peter, James and John up on a mountain. But in Mark, the statement that you see at the end of Matthew 16 is actually at the beginning of Mark 9.

So it's kind of an inconsistent chapter division. I'm not really sure why they did that. I don't understand that at all. But one of the things I think that it demonstrates, and this is what I appreciate about it in the way that it's divided up in Mark, is that it really resolves the statement that Jesus makes, that some of you standing here will not taste death until you see the kingdom of God come in power.

Now, I've made this comment before to critics, to skeptics, who will use that verse, Jesus making that statement, because the skeptics want to say, See, Jesus thought that his return was going to be in his disciples lifetime.

And yet he hasn't returned. So obviously Jesus was wrong. This is according to the skeptics. And I'll try to point out to them what Jesus meant by that was the transfiguration. That's exactly the next event that happens.

And those who were standing among them who wouldn't taste death until they see the kingdom of God coming in power included Peter, James, and John. But, of course, the kingdom of God coming in power was going to be beyond just Jesus being transfigured before them.

It was also going to be his resurrection from the dead. It was going to be the coming of the Holy Spirit. And then the way that the kingdom of God would come through the preaching of the gospel, which would be by the power of the Spirit.

The Apostle Paul makes that plain in his letters. So it's more than just the transfiguration. But the context is plainly there of Jesus saying that, and then Peter, James, and John getting to see him transfigured in power right before them.

And hearing the voice of God saying, This is my beloved son. Listen to them. They have seen the power of God before their very eyes. But yet those same skeptics, they won't buy that explanation. No, he was clearly talking about his second coming.

And his second coming didn't happen, so Jesus was wrong. So I appreciate the Mark division, the way that the chapters are divided in Mark, because it sets the statement that Jesus makes about those standing here that will not taste death.

Sets it right with the transfiguration. So you see how one event goes right into the next. Pretend the chapter divisions aren't even there. Because they weren't there the way that Mark wrote this gospel.

Jesus makes this statement and then says,. And six days later. And it's a continuation. Like it continues right on with the word and, the conjunction there. Jesus says,. And six days later. It's like Mark is just continuing the thought.

Six days later it happened. Peter, James, and John up on the mountain. They got to see this take place. So yeah, once again, that verse one kind of stands by itself, it seems like. Because it looks like it would rather fit with what we had read at the end of chapter eight.

But nevertheless, here we have it at the start of chapter nine. And so Peter, James, and John, they go up with Jesus on the mountain. And as I said when we were teaching, when we were reading from Matthew 16, or Matthew 17 rather, we don't know what mountain this was.

We don't know for sure. There are people who speculate. You can go to the Holy Land and there's those that will say, Well, this was the mountain where Jesus was transfigured. We don't know that. And I think for good reason we don't know that.

So that people would not worship that landmark. Because that's something that goes on a lot too in Israel. If you go do the tour of the Holy Land and see some of the relics and the places and stuff like that.

I've had friends of mine that have gone over there. I've never been there. But friends of mine have said, you know, you'll walk into a place and inside there's shrines, there's candles, there's flowers.

People have put all kinds of stuff around. And here we're just trying to look at this landmark or relic or whatever else. And here people are coming in weeping and falling on the ground and kissing the floor.

And, you know, if there's a statue of something there, they kiss the statue and they weep and they pray to it. And my friend will recall it just was some tragic idolatry. They don't understand what it represents.

They would rather find comfort with whatever tangible thing was inside there. It's one thing to go to the Holy Land to see these things, the places where Jesus and the disciples actually walked. It's something else to think that there's something mystical or powerful in and of themselves in these very places, which is not the case.

So, you know, that's the way people would treat the Mount of Transfiguration if we actually knew where it was. So Jesus brings them up on a high mountain and he was transfigured before them. Now, I've said this many times about this account, whether you're reading it in Matthew or in Mark or in Luke, it's recalled in all three synoptic gospels.

This is an utterly baffling retelling to me. I don't get this. I don't understand the transfiguration. I understand that Jesus' veil, like the physical veil, I guess, that you could say covered his glory was taken away.

And they were able to see Christ for a moment in his glory. It couldn't have been the full glory of God because it would have fried them right where they stood. Just like the Lord said to Moses, no one can see my face and live.

So how is it that Jesus is transfigured before them and the disciples live through it? Peter, James, and John. So it's some sort of reduced demonstration of God's glory right there before them. I don't understand this picture.

I don't know what it is that's going on. It surely would have been incredibly magnificent to behold. I can't even imagine. That's one of the things that I find so baffling about it. I can't even imagine what this would have looked like.

And you can see here in the reaction that Peter, James, and John have, they're terrified. Peter just becomes a bumbling fool. He doesn't even know what to do because of what he sees before them. It's not just Jesus here, but even Moses and Elijah show up.

And how do they know that's Moses and Elijah? Jesus introduces them. Oh, hey, guys, I want you to meet my friends. You've heard these names before. Here's Moses. And this one right here is Elijah. Say hi, guys.

What would this have been like? I can't even fathom it. And yet Jesus is transfigured before them. And what would this have been like, you know, just that in and of itself? Does he tell them to have a seat?

Hang on, let me show you guys a trick. And then he's transformed right before them. And they see Christ in a way that no one had ever seen nor would see again after that. I guess until John sees him again in his glory at the beginning of Revelation 1, that might be somewhat comparable, even though it would have been a more glorified Christ, because it would have been Christ in heaven, even after his resurrection that John saw in that particular vision.

Now, the word here for transfigure, this is the Greek word metamorpho. And that probably sounds familiar to you. It sounds like metamorphosis. And, indeed, the word means to transform or to transfigure.

It is the root of the English word metamorphosis. Now, this is not the only place this word appears. It's not just Matthew 17 or Mark 9 where you have an account of the transfiguration. But even in Romans 12, too, this word is used there.

Do not be conformed by the pattern of this world, but be transformed, metamorpho, by the renewing of your mind, that you may see God's will for you, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. So having a transformed mind, not thinking like the world, but thinking with godly thoughts, with heavenly thoughts, this transformation of the mind that takes place, same sort of word that's used here for the transfiguration, when Jesus is transfigured before them.

The Glory of Christ and the Meaning of Metamorpho

His garments were shining intensely white, as no launderer on earth can whiten them. Would this have looked anything like the vision that Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6, where he looks up into heaven and he sees God on his throne and the train of his robe filling the temple?

And would it have been something like that, the angels around Jesus? Of course, we don't see angels here saying anything. Moses and Elijah show up, but it's not that angels are surrounding him saying, holy, holy, holy.

It's not that kind of picture, which was what Isaiah saw. But even Isaiah's vision was not God exactly as he is, because Isaiah's vision included God dressed in a robe, and God doesn't wear a robe. There's no physical form of God, for Jesus says in John 4 that God is spirit.

So this is just the way that God has chosen to reveal himself to Isaiah, and that's the vision that Isaiah has. So it may have been the same sort of a thing with Jesus appearing here before Peter, James, and John.

It is what Jesus has chosen to show them, and it's not God in all of his glory and power, because they wouldn't even be able to stand there and survive it. So in whatever way Jesus has shown his glory to these disciples, it's still enough that it terrifies them.

And, of course, increasingly mysterious when you consider that Elijah appears there and also Moses. Now, Elijah represents the prophets. Elijah and Moses both represent the prophets. Moses represents the law.

Elijah represents the prophets, to be more specific with that. So were these just supposed to be Old Testament figures that stood before Jesus or stood there with Jesus? And Jesus is having a conversation with them.

Now, Luke actually tells us what they talked about. Jesus was telling Moses and Elijah how he was going to go and sacrifice himself. That's the conversation that they were having. We don't know any words exactly, because none of the gospel writers record for us any of the dialogue that would have happened between these three.

But nonetheless, that's what they talk about. So is Jesus revealing to Moses and Elijah these things that you had seen beforehand or had prophesied about? Well, now it's coming to fulfillment. It's what I'm going to go to Jerusalem and do.

Was that kind of the way that the conversation went? The other thing that Moses and Elijah have in common is that they both got to see God pass before them. So remember, when God puts Moses in the cleft of the rock and puts his hand over the rock and passes by Moses proclaiming his glory and Moses sees him from behind.

Elijah is standing on a mountain and God passes before him. That's something else that the two of them have in common. And maybe you have Peter, James and John being able to witness that same thing. Jesus being transfigured and therefore in a certain sense passing before them.

We had seen before that when he came walking to them on the water, Mark recalled that he meant to pass by them. So Jesus was not even just walking to the boat. He was going to walk past them. But this picture is the same as God passing before Moses and Elijah in the Old Testament.

So Jesus was going to do before his disciples. So is that what's happening here with Jesus revealing himself in this way to Peter, James and John? But Peter, of course, like I said, bumbling fool. He says, Rabbi, it is good for us to be here.

Let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. I don't know what he expected to accomplish with that. But then a cloud formed. Now, whether this was an actual cloud or it's the glory of God in kind of a cloud, it overshadowed them.

And a voice came out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son. Listen to him. And Peter recalls this in 2 Peter 1, that we were with him on the holy mountain and heard the voice say, this is my beloved son.

And Peter was saying that, you know, we didn't invent cleverly devised myths. We were with him on that mountain when we heard the voice that proclaimed this. So that the word that you heard from these disciples is the word of those who were there, who actually saw these things and bore witness to them.

And then verse eight, all at once, they looked around and there was no one with them anymore except Jesus alone. It's just them. And as they were coming down from the mountain, he gave them orders not to recount to anyone what they had seen until the son of man rose from the dead.

Now, what a privileged thing for them to be able to see. Only Peter, James and John saw it, not the rest of the disciples. But even among their disciples, they couldn't talk about what it was that they saw.

And it wasn't until after Jesus rose from the dead that they recounted these things to him. And like I said, Jesus rising from the dead was it was another way in which the disciples beheld the coming of the kingdom of God in power.

So what great power is that to raise someone from the dead? And so then after Jesus talked about this, verse 10, they seized upon that statement, arguing with one another what rising from the dead meant.

Now, you would think that would be curious to us, like when we read about Jesus telling his disciples, we read about this previously in chapter seven, him telling his disciples that he was going to go into Jerusalem.

He was going to be persecuted and put to death. But fear not, because I'm going to rise again in three days. And the disciples don't know what he's talking about. In fact, Peter even takes him aside and rebukes him for saying such a thing.

Right. That was what he read last week in Mark seven. So they don't even understand this. Like we hear these statements about Jesus rising from the dead and we think it makes sense to us. Of course we do, because we know the rest of the narrative.

We know what's coming. Jesus being crucified. Jesus rising again from the dead. We've heard this. We're Christians. This is what we have come to believe in and knowing that by faith in Jesus, our sins are forgiven and we likewise will receive the resurrection of the dead.

So why don't the disciples get this? Well, the resurrection hasn't happened yet, so they don't understand what it means that he's going to rise from the dead. Is he talking about becoming a zombie? The Corinthians question this very thing.

In first Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul confronts their unbelief in the resurrection of the dead. And there are many Greeks that just believe somebody rising from the dead meant that a corpse came out of the tomb.

Why would we want that? Why would I want to be a decaying corpse for all eternity? And so maybe the disciples have that same kind of a notion. With Jesus talking about rising from the dead, they can barely wrap their minds around the fact that he's going to be put to death.

Because they think that he's their political messiah. He's going to ascend to the throne and he's going to set Israel free from the tyranny of Rome and everything else. So, you know, with that in mind, they can't get this thing about our messiah being put to death.

Well, then he wouldn't be our messiah if he's going to die. So, first of all, they don't get that. But then the rising from the dead. How does somebody come back from the dead? A corpse is rotting in a tomb.

How does it rise again from the dead? So they're baffled by this. They just don't get it. And think of this in terms of what we had just read at the end of Mark 8. Remember once again that Jesus said that if anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

So they're not getting that concept. You know they're not getting that concept. They don't understand Jesus dying. They don't get the concept of dying to themselves and following Jesus. But you have the father who has just said, this is my beloved son.

Listen to him. So to know Jesus as Savior and Lord means to give up ourselves and allow ourselves to be ruled by him. We must put ourselves to death that we may be made alive together with Christ. And so these things going together as Jesus makes this address of taking up a cross and following him, then being transfigured before them.

They see the power of God displayed before them plainly. And yet he still continues to talk to them about going and dying. They've just seen the glory of God displayed in their teacher. And yet he's still saying to them that he has to go and die and rise again from the dead.

But they've seen this so that they will not lose heart. That even though he goes and dies and he rises again. And even then they don't quite understand it. Their understanding comes later with the giving of the Holy Spirit.

But all these things in mind they take to heart. They recall it all and they recognize this is God. And we understand why these things had to happen the way that they did. So that we could have our sins forgiven and we would have fellowship with God through the God man.

Who gave himself up for us as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Now I didn't quite get to the next part. I didn't have enough time to talk about the revelation of the prophecy of Elijah. So we'll pick that up again tomorrow.

But as we finish this up today. We recognize what the disciples did not understand. That Jesus is God. And God humbled himself. He condescended himself and came to us in the likeness of sinful man. Though he himself was never sinful a second of his life.

He was perfect in all that he did. Kept God's law perfectly that he would become that perfect sacrifice for us. And by his death and his resurrection from the dead. We have the forgiveness of sins. And the promise of everlasting life.

May we in submission to Christ our King live in service to him today. Heavenly Father we thank you for what we've read here. And may this still be a reminder of what we read last week about dying to ourselves.

We must deny ourselves and take up a cross. And follow Jesus. And so today we put to death the passions of our flesh. Our own personal desires. And may our greatest desire simply be to follow Christ in all that we say and do.

The way that we love our family. The way that we do our job. The way that we go throughout our day. We live in service to the Lord. And may others see the demonstration of God's love in our lives. And we have the boldness and the courage to share the gospel with others.

For it's only by faith in the gospel of Christ that we come to salvation. Thank you for your love and your grace toward us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website www .wutt .com. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our Bible study, When We Understand the Text.