Message preached Sunday, January 10, 2016 from Mark 9:9-13
Theme: The questions that we have about Jesus find their ultimate answer in His cross.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)
Have you noticed that, whenever you’ve gone to a deep, thought-provoking movie with a group of friends, or have gone together with them to see a play, you just have to talk about it afterward? Sometimes, you don’t even have to suggest the idea. It just automatically happens.
Personally, I think that it’s one of the most enjoyable things friends can do together—to go out for coffee afterward and sit and talk about what it was that they all just saw. “What did you think the main idea of the movie was?” “What was the playwrite trying to tell us?” “What did you think about what happened in that one scene—where this or that happened? What do you think that it meant? Did it symbolize something?” For me, the evening really isn’t complete without the chance to all sit and talk together about the meaning of what we saw. In some ways, it’s just as important to me—and just as enjoyable—as seeing the movie or the play itself.
Well; I think that this whole compulsion we have to talk together about something significant that we’d just seen helps describe our passage this morning. It wasn’t a movie or a play; however. It was something far more significant. The remarkable thing that had just occurred was the Transfiguration—that marvelous event in the life of our Lord that we studied last week. According to Mark 9:1-8, Jesus spoke to His twelve disciples,
And He said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power.”
Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah”— because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid. And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves (Mark 9:1-8).
What a unspeakably holy event! There would have been nothing else like it that ever happened on earth! And naturally, the three men who witnesses it—Peter, James and John—would have wanted very much to talk about it. They would have had lots of questions about what it was that they had just seen. And so, Mark tells us about the discussion that went on between them as they descended back down the mountain. They were even able to address their questions directly to Jesus—the very one who had been transfigured before their eyes, and whose glorious majesty as the Son of God had been put on display before them. It was a fascinating conversation; and we get to—as it were—listen in on it.
Mark tells us;
Now as they came down from the mountain, He commanded them that they should tell no one the things they had seen, till the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept this word to themselves, questioning what the rising from the dead meant. And they asked Him, saying, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” Then He answered and told them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things. And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt? But I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him” (vv. 9-13).
They had lots of questions running through their minds. Perhaps you and I do too, after just listening in on their conversation—and thinking back to what it was that they saw.
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; as I have personally considered this passage, and have tried to tie the pieces of it all together for myself, the conclusion that I have come to is that the questions that they were asking—and the answers the Lord Jesus was giving them—seemed to have their focal-point on His coming death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead afterward. There was a lot of confusion in their minds, and there were lots of questions that they had. But as I believe this morning’s passage shows us, His sacrifice on the cross—which, at that time, had not yet occurred—is what brings all those things into clear perspective.
Now; I feel I can say that because I compare this passage with the only other record of the same story of their post-Transfiguration discussion in the New Testament. It’s found in Matthew 17:9-13. Let’s look at it together. I believe it helps to shine a little more light on this morning’s passage. Matthew wrote;
Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.” And His disciples asked Him, saying, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things. But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist (Matthew 17:9-13).
And so, a couple of new pieces of information are added to the story. These new pieces of information may not answer all our questions. But they do help clarify a few points. For one thing, we discover that when Jesus is talking about the promised coming of Elijah, He isn’t speaking only of the Elijah that they just seen in the Transfiguration. He was also speaking—in some mysterious and symbolic way—about the ministry of John the Baptist. John was the one who was sent by God to point Jesus out to the world as the Savior. “Behold!” John would say, with respect to Jesus; “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” And how would it be that Jesus was God’s sacrificial Lamb? Jesus also makes it clear that, just as the Jewish leaders did to John the Baptist whatever they wished—even imprisoning that great man of God and eventually putting him to death—He Himself was “likewise” about to suffer at their hands.
So; the questions that we might have about the Lord Jesus have their ultimate answer in His cross. Jesus, you see, can’t be rightly understood apart from the cross. And when we view the Lord Jesus in the context of His cross—and of the resurrection that followed after the cross—then we’re viewing Him as He really is; and the questions we might have about His life, and His ministry, His teaching, His identity, and even His majestic glory as revealed in His transfiguration, all become clearer to us.
Let’s look closer at this after-Transfiguraion discussion that they had, and see how this is so.
* * * * * * * * * *
The passage begins by telling us that they were coming down the mountain together. Imagine what that must have been like for these three apostles to walk down the mountain with Jesus after having seen what they just saw. They had seen His face become bright and shining like the sun. They had seen His garments sparkle and become bright—whiter than any launderer on earth could make them. They saw Elijah the prophet talking to Him—along with Moses—about His impending death on the cross. They trembled in fear as an unearthly cloud came and covered them; and they heard the voice of God the Father speak from the cloud and say, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” And when the cloud lifted away, and they looked up, they saw no one there but Jesus. And then, they began to walk down the mountain together.
What does someone say after all that? How do you just carry on a casual conversation? How could you even talk to Jesus? Initially, I might be tempted to keep my hand to my mouth and say nothing! I might not dare to walk beside Jesus after seeing such a thing; but be tempted instead to walk several yards behind Him in humble and reverent silence—keeping my head bowed as I traveled.
But it’s amazing to me that these three men—who had seen such a remarkable display—didn’t behave like that. They weren’t silent. They didn’t keep their distance. They talked with Him and asked Him questions about what had just happened—as if nothing between them had changed. And I believe that this teaches us something wonderful about our Lord. He is the Son of God whose divine majesty is unspeakably glorious. He never ceased to be the divine King of glory that He eternally was. And yet, that majestic glory was concealed, as it were, behind the veil of His human flesh. He was awesome—but approachable. His followers could walk with Him, and talk to Him, and fellowship with Him, and even ask questions of Him. What a lesson! The glorious Son of God loves us and welcomes us gladly to His side. We hold Him in awe; but we don’t ever need to be afraid to draw near Him as a friend.
So; as they walked down the mountain with the Son of God, Jesus turned to them and told them that they should tell no one the things that they had just seen, “till the Son of Man had risen from the dead” (v. 9).
Why do you suppose He would tell them that? I suspect that one very great reason was because if they had gone out and told everyone what they had just seen, it might be that people would press in on Him so much that He could not do what it was that He came to do. He didn’t come to this earth, after all, to gather great crowds around Himself. In fact, after the miracle He had performed of the feeding of the multitudes with just a few loaves of bread and a few loaves of fish, He urged His disciples to prepare the boat quickly for His and their departure; because the people were talking about forcing Him—then and there—to become their earthly king. He didn’t want anything like that to stand in the way of His great mission from the Father—which was to go to the cross for us.
But I suspect that another reason Jesus wouldn’t let Peter, James and John talk about what they had seen was because they wouldn’t really be capable of speaking the full truth about Him—and of presenting Him as He truly was—until after He had died on the cross and had been risen from the dead. It would only be in the light of the crucifixion—and of the resurrection that followed—that Jesus’ full glorious Person could be understood. He didn’t come to this world to merely be a miracle-worker, or a heavenly visitor, or someone who was to be exalted for His holiness and grace. As He Himself said in Mark 9:45, He came “to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
And so; as they walked down the mountain, He told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until after He was raised from the dead. And Mark tells us, “So they kept this word to themselves . . .” (v. 10). That means that they didn’t even tell the other disciples! That must have been hard! Perhaps when one of the other disciples asked what happened during their trip up the mountain, one of them would have been just about to bubble over with excitement and say something about it—only to be stopped short by one of the others elbowing him in the side and saying, “Shhhh–!!” Imagine having to keep such a thing to themselves as the months rolled on, “till the Son of Man had risen from the dead”!
And even then, they still had questions. Mark tells us that as Peter, James and John were descending down the mountain with Jesus, they were “questioning what the rising from the dead meant” (v. 10). They understood, of course, what the whole idea of a resurrection from death meant. That was something that the Bible declared back in the Book of Daniel—that God would deliver His people at the end times;
And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake,
Some to everlasting life,
Some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Those who are wise shall shine
Like the brightness of the firmament,
And those who turn many to righteousness
Like the stars forever and ever (Daniel 12:2-3).
But they didn’t understand how this could apply to Jesus—the glorious Son of Man. How would He be raised? Wouldn’t He have to die first? And then, what would happen to His glorious reign on earth as the Messiah? The whole idea seemed perplexing to them.
I suggest, then, that the first great question that they were struggling with was . . .
1. WHY DID THE SON OF GOD COME TO EARTH?
And the answer to that question was found, of course, in the cross! Even His closest disciples didn’t understand the purpose of His mission on earth until they understood it in the light of the cross. And they eventually did understand. Do you remember how Jesus was once having a debate with the religious leaders of His day as He stood in the temple? He told them;
“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking of the temple of His body. Therefore, when He had risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them; and they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had said (John 2:19-22).
It was only after the cross—and after the resurrection that followed—that the pieces of God’s purpose for sending His Son into this world had come together for them. And the same is true for you and me—even living, as we do, in the days after His death and resurrection. We cannot rightly understand the purpose the Son of God had in coming to this earth unless we understand it in the light of the cross.
When you see the majesty of the Son of God was put on display—and then, you see that He humbled Himself for us to the point of dying on the cross for our sins—then you understand how great His sacrificial love is for us! But you can never understand Him apart from the cross!
* * * * * * * * * * *
Now; not only does the cross make sense out of why it was that He came in the first place, but it also answers another question:
2. HOW DO THE PROPHECIES ABOUT HIM FIT TOGETHER?
What a great struggle these disciples had in trying to piece together what they had just seen with that they had always been taught! They saw Jesus talking with Elijah! But it had been told to them from early in their lives that, before the Messiah would come, the prophet Elijah would come first! But here they were walking along with the Messiah—having walked with Him, in fact, for a long time; and only much later, up on the mountain, does Elijah show up!—seeming to be, as it were, ‘late to the game’! We read: “And they asked Him, saying, ‘Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’” (v. 11).
So; the first thing that Jesus tells them is that the scribes—those scholars and teachers of the Old Testament Scriptures—were correct in what they said. They were drawing their teaching from the Scriptures; and what the Scriptures declared was true. “Then He answered and told them, ‘Indeed, Elijah is coming first and restores all things . . .’” (v. 12a). Jesus was here affirming what the scribes taught in Malachi 4:4-6. They are the last three verses of the Old Testament Scriptures—the words that close-off God’s prophetic message to His people before the Messiah would be born into the world about four-hundred years later. God tells them;
“Remember the Law of Moses, My servant,
Which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel,
Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:4-6).
With the statutes and judgments.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet
Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.
And he will turn
The hearts of the fathers to the children,
And the hearts of the children to their fathers,
But not only was what the Scriptures prophesied about Elijah true; but so also was everything else that the Scriptures prophesied about the Messiah. And so, Jesus asked them, “And how is it written concerning the Son of Man, that He must suffer many things and be treated with contempt?” (v. 12 b). They weren’t seeing these prophetic realities together as a whole.
The great problem for the disciples—and I can’t really blame them much for it—was that they didn’t understand that the Scriptures not only promised that the Messiah would come to earth and reign as King, but also that He must suffer many things, and be rejected, and be put to death. They thought that Elijah would come and restore all things, then the Messiah would come and begin His glorious reign immediately. They didn’t understand that the Scriptures not only spoke of a reigning Messiah, but also of a suffering and dying Savior in such passages as Psalm 22, or Psalm 69, or Psalm 118, or especially Isaiah 53. And that this promised reigning King and suffering Savior were the same Person! And that before He reigns as our King, the Messiah must suffer and die as our Savior.
And so; what was it that brought all these prophetic promises together? What was it that made sense of the idea of a suffering and dying Savior who would then be proceeded by Elijah and would then begin His reign as King of kings and Lord of lords? What connected the two prophetic themes and tied them together? It was the cross.
The cross of Jesus is what answers our questions about Jesus—even the question of how the prophecies about Him all fit together as a whole.
* * * * * * * * * *
So; I believe that the disciples would have understood Jesus as saying that the coming of Elijah as something that was yet future—that the fact that they saw Elijah at Jesus’ transfiguration was not a fulfillment of that promise, but was simply something of an assurance that it would yet be fulfilled after His suffering on the cross.
And I understand it that way too. I believe that the literal coming of the literal prophet Elijah—as an event that precedes the second coming and earthly reign of Jesus—is something to happen yet in the future. I believe it may be fulfilled in what we read in Revelation 11 about the two witnesses, who will perform great works that will be very much like the works that Elijah performed in his Old Testament ministry.
But Jesus then goes on to say, “But I say to you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, as it is written of him” (v. 13). I think it’s very important to go back and remember what Matthew told us in his Gospel when he reported this conversation. He reports Jesus as saying,
“But I say to you that Elijah has come already, and they did not know him but did to him whatever they wished. Likewise the Son of Man is also about to suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist (Matthew 17:12-13).
How was John the Baptist ‘Elijah’? Jesus even said that this was so in Matthew 11:14, “And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come.” But was John literally ‘Elijah’? Was he somehow ‘Elijah reincarnated’? No; definitely not. The Bible teaches no such concept as ‘reincarnation’. And John himself—while he was out baptizing people—was even once asked, “Are you Elijah?”; and he clearly said, “I am not” (John 1:21).
I believe the best way to understand this is that John came to this world to fulfill an ‘Elijah-like’ prophetic ministry—and to fulfill it as someone who was made by God to be the most ‘Elijah-like’ man to have come around since Elijah’s day. When an angel announced to John’s father that he would be born, he said that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb; and that he would go before the Lord “in the spirit and power of Elijah” (Luke 1:17). When John ministered, he dressed like Elijah, and ate like Elijah, and was a man of the wilderness like Elijah. He was the one who went before the Lord Jesus—in an ‘Elijah-like’ ministry—and declared Him to the world. He was the one who baptized people in anticipation of Jesus’ coming, and prepared them for His ministry. He called the people back to a faith in the promises of God that had been given to their fathers, and urged them to repent, and called them to a right condition before God in anticipation of the coming of the Messiah.
And just as Elijah had been oppressed by the unbelieving people of his day, so John was also oppressed for His message to the people. The unbelieving people who rejected Christ did to John just as they wished—as was told in the Scripture concerning Elijah in his day. Elijah had been harassed by King Ahab. The king’s evil wife Jezebel even sought to kill Elijah. And likewise Herod imprisoned John the Baptist, and Herod’s wife eventually arranged for John to be put to death. Unbelieving people sought to slay Elijah and also John; and Jesus said that He Himself was also about to suffer the same at their hands.
Why then did this happen? What was the point of it? The answer—once again—is found in the cross. It answers the question . . .
3. WAS THERE A DIVINE PURPOSE TO JESUS’ SUFFERING?
Jesus’ death was no accident. He didn’t just happen to come on the scene at the wrong time. John himself—the ‘Elijah-like’ man who was the herald of Jesus—put it plainly when he said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). His sacrifice for us as the Lamb of God was accomplished on the cross. Jesus cannot be what John declared Him to be—what John testified that God the Father sent Him to earth to be—apart from the cross.
* * * * * * * * * *
So; just like after a great movie or a great play, we’ve gotten to listen in on the discussion of what it all meant. And this remarkable down-the-mountain discussion—in which the disciples talked and asked questions about what they saw revealed of Jesus in the Transfiguration—ends up pointing us, ultimately, to His cross and the resurrection that followed.
Let’s learn the lesson; dear brothers and sisters in Christ: Everything about Jesus becomes clear when—and only when—He is seen in the light of the cross. Let’s make sure we see Him that way. And let’s make sure we declare Him that way to the world!