A Glimpse of Glory (Mark 9:2-13)

Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth.

Those words of wisdom were spoken by the heavyweight boxing

champion Mike Tyson before his famous fight with Evander

Holyfield back in the early 90s. They have since been quoted by

journalists, entrepreneurs, politicians, even a president of

the United States. Tyson later reflected on what he

meant by the famous quip. People were asking me before the

fight, what's going to happen. They were talking about his

style. He's going to give you a lot of

lateral movement. He's going to move, he's going

to dance, he's going to do this, do that.

I said everybody has a plan until they get hit.

Then, like a rat, they stop in fear and freeze.

Sometimes when we encounter suffering, it feels like getting

punched in the mouth. It feels like you had your plan,

you knew what you wanted to be doing.

And then the suffering came and you just freeze.

It scrambled every plan you had. You thought you knew how to

handle it. It turns out you don't.

Suffering often comes as a shock, as a surprise.

So a crucial question really in just living as a human being and

a crucial question for those who follow Jesus.

So what can you do now to prepare to suffer well?

What do you need now in order to suffer well when it comes?

This morning we return to our series in Mark's Gospel.

We're picking up just past the halfway point at Chapter 9,

verses 2 to 13. If you don't have a Bible, you

can put up your hand and someone will bring you one.

If that's because you just forgot a Bible this morning,

that's fine. If you don't have a Bible at

home, we're happy for you to take this one.

Keep it, read it, it's our gift to you.

In the last passage we studied a couple of months ago, the end of

chapter 8 through Chapter 9, verse one, Peter rightly

confessed Jesus to be the Messiah.

He also wrongly rejected Jesus own teaching that his

Messiahship means he is going to the cross to die for sins.

And so Jesus instructed Peter and the other disciples that it

wasn't just Jesus's road that led to the cross, it will be

their Rd. too. As Jesus says in chapter 8 verse

34, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and

take up his cross and follow me. That really becomes a theme

sentence for the whole rest of Mark's gospel, that definition

of what it means to follow Jesus.

Take up your cross and follow me.

That's what Jesus is especially going to be unpacking and his

teaching in the next 3 chapters. That's what he's going to be

exemplifying as he goes to the cross.

In order to find life in Jesus, you have to die first.

In order to receive glory with and from Jesus, you have to

suffer with Him first. The only way into the Kingdom is

through the cross. And that's true both for Jesus

and for everyone who follows him.

At the end of that section, Jesus makes a promise that's a

little hard to understand at first.

Chapter 9, verse one. And He said to them, truly, I

say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste

death until they see the Kingdom of God after it has come with

power. Somehow some of His disciples

will see God's Kingdom come in power and glory within their

lifetimes. That raises a lot of questions.

Who, when, how, why? Please follow along as I read

our passage for this morning. Mark Chapter 9, verses 2 to 13.

Mark 9:2–13

And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and

John and LED them up a high mountain by themselves.

And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became

radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.

And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were

talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi,

it is good that we are here. Let us make 3 tents, one for you

and one for Moses, and 1:00 for Elijah.

For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified, and a

cloud overshadowed them. And a voice came out of the

cloud. This is my beloved son, listen

to him. And suddenly, looking around,

they no longer saw anyone with them, but Jesus only.

And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to

tell no one what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen

from the dead. So they kept the matter to

themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might

mean. And they asked him, Why do the

scribes say that first Elijah must come?

And he said to them, Elijah does come first to restore all

things. And how is it written of the Son

of Man that he should suffer many things and be treated with

contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has

come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is

written of him. Here's the main question our

passage answers. What do we need to see in order

to suffer well? The answer is simple.

We need to see Jesus's glory. What do we need to see in order

to suffer well? We need to see Jesus's glory.

More specifically, here's the point of the sermon.

In one sentence, seeing Jesus's glory prepares us to share in

both Jesus's suffering and his glory.

Seeing Jesus's glory prepares us to share in both Jesus's

suffering and his glory. We'll walk through the passage

in three parts .1 Glory unveiled, glory unveiled.

We see this unveiled glory in verses 2 to 6.

Look again with me at verses 2:00 to 3:00.

And after six days, Jesus took with him Peter and James and

John and LED them up a high mountain by themselves, and he

was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant,

intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.

Six days after what? Well, it's six days after He

gave that promise in verse one that some of the disciples would

see the Kingdom of God coming in glory and power in their

lifetimes. Now, until we arrive at the

final week of Jesus's life, this is the most precise time stamp

in all of Mark's gospel. He's never been so specific

about the timing when something happened.

Why does he highlight that this took place only six days later?

It's to underline that this experience fulfills that

promise. What these three disciples would

see on the mountaintop is the Kingdom of God coming in power

and glory, at least a preview of it.

Now what exactly do they see? Verse 2 tells us that Jesus was

transfigured before them. That word transfigured means his

appearance changed, but changed How?

This one verb transfigured doesn't tell us explicitly, but

it becomes a little clearer from the next detail.

His clothes became radiant. They were shining with light.

They were so bright it was beyond the capacity of anyone

who works with clothes on Earth to get them that white and

bright. His clothes were shining with

light. Light always comes from a

source. What is the source of the light

that is lighting up his clothes? It didn't come from outside, but

from inside. The light was not from the sun

or any external source of brightness.

Jesus himself was the light. Jesus himself was the cause of

his clothes shining like the sun.

The light was coming from him and passing through his own

garments as it radiated outward. So what caused Jesus appearance

to change? We could say that his human

nature began to shine with the glory of his divine nature.

He began to radiate divine brightness and beauty and glory.

One way to think about the incarnation that I think is

biblically fruitful is to understand that when the Son of

God became Incarnate, his human nature became like a cloud that

both concealed and revealed his divine glory.

Think about what a cloud does to the sun.

On the one hand, it blocks it. You can't see the sun directly

when there's a cloud in front of it.

It acts as a veil between the cloud and your eyes.

But on the other hand, a cloud blocking the sun still let some

light through. It could be completely overcast,

but the sun is still getting some light to earth.

And when there is a cloud, just the right kind of cloud, just

the right thickness, sometimes you can even look and see the

outline of the sun, the shape of the sun.

You can see it, you can look at it without your eyes getting

burned out by it. If you looked at the sun without

a cloud in front of it, it would destroy your eyes.

You can't gaze on it without something in between.

So in his Incarnate state, Jesus's humanity normally acts

as a veil for his divinity, like a cloud covering the sun.

But now, for a brief time, to these three disciples up there

on the mountain, Jesus himself lifts the veil.

Jesus himself reveals his divinity more fully and directly

to these three disciples. The rays lighting up his

clothing come from Jesus himself.

When Moses would speak with God face to face on Mount Sinai or

at the Tent of meeting, we learn in Exodus chapter 34 that his

Exodus 34 · chapter mention

face would shine afterward. He had to put a veil over his

face so he didn't scare the people of Israel.

But Moses glory was borrowed. It was given, it was a

reflection, it was derivative. Jesus glory is his own, it comes

from himself. So the Transfiguration is not

exactly a change in Jesus. More specifically, it's a change

in what Jesus let's his disciples see of the glory he

always has. Now, why did Jesus choose to

reveal his glory to these three disciples?

I think the clearest clue comes from later in Mark's Gospel in

chapter 14, when Jesus chooses these same 3 disciples to

accompany him into the Garden of Gethsemane.

They'll see him fall to his knees in prayer.

They'll see him sweat drops of blood and agony.

They will hear him ask the Father if the cup of wrath can

pass from Him. Jesus handpicked these three

disciples to see an advanced vision of His glory because they

would have the most intimate sight of His agony.

He let them behold His glory now to prepare them for when they

would behold His suffering. But Jesus's glory is not all

they saw. Look at verse 4.

And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, and they were

talking with Jesus. Why are Moses and Elijah here?

A lot of people take them to represent the law and the

prophets as the kind of two major divisions of Old Testament

Scripture. I think that's on to something,

but I don't think it's exactly right.

For one thing, while Elijah was a prophet, he did not write any

prophetic book. There is no book of the Old

Testament bearing the name of Elijah.

For another thing, Moses is also frequently called a prophet in

Scripture. I think there are two main

reasons why Elijah and Moses show up here.

We're going to camp out on this for just a little while.

One is that both Moses and Elijah are somehow associated

with the promised fulfillment of God saving purposes.

In Deuteronomy 18, verses 15 to 18, God promises to someday

Deuteronomy 18:15–18

raise up another prophet like Moses.

And in verse 15, the Lord says it is to him you shall listen.

And then at the very end of Malachi in chapter 4, verse 5,

the Lord promises to send Elijah before the day of the Lord

comes. And then in verse 6, the very

last verse in the Old Testament, he will turn the hearts of

fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their

fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter

destruction. So by their presence here, Moses

and Elijah are showing. Now's the time, the things God

promised to his people to do to save them, that's what he's

getting busy fulfilling now. In that sense, even though I

don't think Elijah and Moses represent the law and the

prophets, I think they are witnesses from God's past

revelation. There are witnesses that what

God said he is now doing in Jesus.

They attest that Jesus is the fulfillment of all God's

promises. But I think there's an even

deeper reason why Moses and Elijah are here.

Why those two? When Moses was on Mount Sinai

receiving the Law, the people sinned with the golden calf.

That's Exodus 32. Then in Exodus 33, Moses pleads

with God not only that the Lord would continue to personally

accompany His people to the Promised Land, but even more

specifically Exodus 3318. He asks, Please show me your

glory. And God answered that request.

He hid Moses in a cave in the side of the mountain.

He caused his glory to pass by him, and he proclaimed His

goodness. He proclaimed His name before

Moses. Moses asked for and received a

revelation of God's glory on a mountaintop, specifically Mount

Sinai. Elijah the prophet also received

a revelation of God's glory, also on a mountaintop.

In fact, it was the same mountain.

First Kings 19 tells us that after Elijah confronted Ahab and

was threatened by Jezebel, he fled to Mount Horeb.

Mount Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai.

There God gave Elijah food and rest, and he also gave him a

glimpse of his glory. He gave him a revelation like

Moses first Kings 1911, and he, that is the Lord, said to

Elijah, go out and stand on the mount before the Lord, and

behold, the Lord passed by. Why are Moses and Elijah here

now? Because they both in their

earthly lifetimes received a mountaintop revelation of God's

glory. And now they get another what

they could only previously catch a glimpse of as God passed by.

Now they can look at face to face.

They can see the glory of God in the face of Jesus.

This is yet another mountaintop revelation of God's own glory,

here in the person of His Incarnate Son.

Now how did the disciples respond to both of the glory

itself and the prophets being there?

Peter, as he often does, rushes in and tries to take decisive

action. Verses 5 and 6 and Peter said to

Jesus, Rabbi, it is good that we are here, let us make 3 tents,

one for you and one for Moses, and 1:00 for Elijah.

For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified.

It's a little bit difficult to know exactly what Peter was

hoping to accomplish. We shouldn't go looking for some

grand thought out strategy because the verse tells us he

didn't know what to say. He and the other disciples were

terrified. But whatever Peter's exact plans

or hopes, it does seem clear that he was trying to prolong

the magic. He was trying to take this

moment and keep it going. On the one hand, that's a good

thing. He's there with the Lord and his

glory. It's where he wants to be.

It reflects his love for Jesus. And it does seem that the

Transfiguration is a preview of the end that God has in store

for all believers. Peter knows it's good to be in

the presence of God's glory face to face.

What more could you want? But Peter also should have

known. But he didn't know that this is

only a preview. It can only be a preview.

Why? Because Jesus has already told

him he's going to the cross. Jesus has already told him he's

going to die and rise again. Jesus has given Peter enough

information to know whatever this is, this isn't going to

last. So even if Peter isn't fully

aware of the implications of what he's saying, in effect,

he's asking for a Kingdom without a cross.

He wants the Kingdom to set up shop right here on this mountain

right now. Who knows, maybe extend

operations outward from its base on the Mount of Transfiguration.

Didn't Elijah call down fire from heaven?

Didn't Moses defeat Pharaoh's army?

They can take care of whatever issues need ironing out as the

Kingdom gets established, but that's not how God's Kingdom

would come. Also, Peter's offer to make 3

booths kind of misses the whole point of the Transfiguration.

This is Jesus revealing his own divine glory that is completely

incomparable to anything any human being could possibly

possess. And Peter goes, well, let's make

3 tents, one for you, one for you, one for you.

No, no, no, Peter. These three are not on the same

level. These three are not in the same

class. You might be intending to honor

Jesus by that offer to build a Tabernacle to shelter him.

We're actually demoting him to the level of a mere prophet like

Moses and Elijah. The whole point is He is utterly

unique. Verse 6 tells us they were

terrified that all three disciples were overcome with

fear. That is a proper and fitting

response to seeing the glory of God.

One test of whether you really know God is that you fear Him.

One test of whether you have genuinely encountered the glory

of God is that it scares you. Our God is a consuming fire.

Our God is so holy that when He brought His glory down to touch

Mount Sinai, the mountain trembled and quaked as if it

would come apart under the weight of God's glory.

If you meet the true and living God, if you have a true

revelation of His glory, your soul will tremble and quake

under the weight of it. Your soul will threaten to come

apart because it cannot bear the encounter with His utter purity.

Why? Because of your sin.

To see God's glory is to see yourself in a new and sobering

light. One more question about this

part of the passage. Why did Jesus give these three

disciples this revelation Now? Why does it happen here at this

point in his ministry? It's because He has just begun

His journey to the cross. It's because He's just begun to

teach them that the Kingdom will come through His death and

resurrection. He's just begun to teach them

that His Messiahship will mean his being crucified and their

discipleship will mean they're taking up the cross.

Jesus showed these three disciples His glory to prepare

them for His suffering and their own.

He revealed His infinite divine majesty to remind them that His

death is part of His own divine plan for their salvation.

This will not be a mistake. This will not be an accident.

This will not be Plan B. This is divine Plan A from all

eternity. Jesus is letting them see His

divine glory now so that they won't forget it when they see

Him in the depths of suffering and shame and agony.

There's a 12th century Greek speaking Christian teacher in

Italy named Phil Agathos who put this point beautifully.

A little bit of a long quote, but I think it's worth it.

Indulge me. Why then did the amazing

transfiguration occur? If they should see His face

slapped and spit upon, let them no longer be scandalized, since

they had stored in their memories his brilliance that

outshone the sun. If they were to see him clothed

in purple as mockery, let them affirm him to be the one who on

the mountain was wrapped in light as in a robe.

If they should see him fixed on a scaffold between two

criminals, let them recognize him here as Lord, standing in

majesty between Moses and Elijah.

If they should know him as a corpse hidden away in the earth,

let them remember him overshadowed by a brilliant

cloud. What do we need to see in order

to suffer well, We need to see Jesus's present divine glory.

We need to see by faith that he's seated at the right hand of

the Father. We need to see by faith that he

eternally exists from the Father.

We need to see by faith that He is the Father's beloved, eternal

Son. We need to regard Jesus as more

important, more compelling, and more beautiful than anything in

this world. In 2nd Corinthians 318, Paul

writes, and we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the

Lord, are being transformed into the same image from 1° of glory

to another. This is how Christian growth

happens. This is how spiritual

transformation happens. This is how the Lord prepares us

to suffer well for His glory. Seeing Christ's glory conforms

you to His glory. That is one of the essential

dynamics of the Christian life. Seeing Christ's glory conforms

you to His glory. Seeing Christ's glory fills you

with that same glory. What can you do this week to see

Christ's glory? You might prefer to be on the

Mount of Transfiguration then Jesus would just show you.

But alas, we're not. Where has God put Christ's

glory? Where has He made it available

and put it on display? How can you access it and behold

it and be changed by it? Point #2 Glory proclaimed.

Glory proclaimed. In verses 7 and eight, another

witness to Christ's divine glory comes onto the scene, verse 7.

And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the

cloud. This is my beloved Son.

Listen to him. Throughout Scripture, God

frequently manifests His presence to His people in a

cloud of glory. We see this especially in

Israel's wilderness journey after the Exodus, where the

pillar of cloud and fire dwells in the midst of the camp and

leads them on their way. Isaiah 6311 identifies that

cloud as a manifestation of God's Holy Spirit.

So here a sign of the Spirit shows up, and the voice of the

Father speaks. This is my beloved Son.

Listen to him. This is God the Father Himself

bearing witness to his Son, and every word of this divine seal

of approval has a biblical background.

The fact that Jesus is the Father's beloved son echoes

Genesis 22 two, where God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son,

his only son, his beloved son. What God commanded Abraham to do

is what he Himself, in the fullness of time would do by

giving up his eternal Son, His only Son, to death on the cross.

For us. The declaration, this is my Son

echoes Psalm 27, which Michael read earlier.

In Psalm 2, verse 7, the Messiah is enthroned in power and

Psalms 2:7

victory over the nations. And when we see how that promise

is fulfilled in Jesus career, we understand that this King

Messiah will reign not only over Israel, but over all nations.

Not only over all nations, but over the universe.

This Messianic Son is also the divine Son.

He reigns and rules over all things.

That Jesus is the divine Son is also implied by the word

Beloved. Why does the Father love the

Son? Because the Son eternally

radiates God's glory back to Him.

Because the Son possesses all the fullness of the Father's

eternal beauty and glory. Because this Son is of the same

essence as the Father. Finally, there's a biblical

background to the phrase Listen to him.

We've already heard it from Deuteronomy 1815.

When the Lord promises to raise up a prophet like Moses, he says

listen to him. So by the Father saying listen

to him, he's saying, this is the prophet like Moses, who I

promised to you. Now what specifically do Peter

and the apostles need to hear from Jesus?

Why does the Father give them this declaration here and now?

Listen to him. What are they supposed to listen

to? I think the answer is plain from

the broader context. Again, as we've reviewed, right

at the end of chapter 8, Jesus made his first explicit

reference to the fact that he is going to suffer and die for

their salvation. He is going to the cross to

deliver them. But Peter hasn't gotten it yet.

And so this divine endorsement is also a little bit of a rebuke

to Peter. Hey, Peter, Jesus has already

told you this once. He's going to have to tell you

it again. Listen.

Listen to Jesus proclaim the cross.

Jesus has told you the Kingdom will come through the cross.

Jesus has told you that following him is going to mean

going to and through the cross with him.

So keep listening. Jesus is going to make two more

predictions about his death and resurrection, One in Chapter 9,

one in chapter 10. Listen to Jesus pre proclaim the

cross. Even the Transfiguration itself

pre proclaims the cross. This glory on a mountain

prefigures the darkness of Mount Golgotha.

Consider the parallels and the contrasts between this mountain

and the mountain on which Jesus would be crucified.

Here he takes others with him. There he's taken by others.

Here he ascends a mountain. There he's lifted up on a cross.

Here supernatural light shines out of Jesus body.

There supernatural darkness covers the earth.

Here Jesus clothes show his power and glory.

There his clothes will be stripped from him in an act of

shameful degradation. Here he stands between two

prophets. There he hangs between two

criminals. Here Peter wants to stay.

There Peter denies and flees. Here God declares his delight in

Jesus. They are humans shout their

hatred of him. Here God's voice booms out his

commitment to his beloved Son. There he falls silence.

There Jesus cries out. My God, my God, why have you

forsaken me? If I might be permitted to

introduce an archaic technology? By way of illustration, I am old

enough that in my elementary school days, maybe even into

middle school, teachers would use things called

transparencies. They were clear plastic sheets.

They would write or draw or whatever on them and put them on

a little flat projector that had a light and then it would show

the image. See a clear thing you would

write or draw a picture on. Right?

Two transparencies. The Transfiguration and the

crucifixion are like 2 transparencies that have the

same shape but different details.

When you lay one over the other, the lines disappear.

It's like you're looking at an opposite version of the same

image. Even the glory being revealed

here foreshadows the suffering to come.

And there we have to ask why? Why is all of Mark's gospel this

relentless conveyor belt to the cross?

Why is even the glory portrayed in terms that lead us to the

darkness of crucifixion? The reason is that our sin

deserves and demands that darkness.

Our sin is that big. Our sin is that bad.

Our sin requires that drastic of a remedy.

It's hard when you're not a believer in Jesus, or maybe you

have a sort of vague cultural attachment to Christianity.

It's hard to reckon with how big a deal your sin is.

One of the best ways to start to come to grips with how big a

deal your sin is, is to come to a better understanding of the

glory of God, the holiness of God, the majesty of God, a

glimpse of glory like this. God's our Creator, He's our

ruler. He's our judge.

He gives us everything and we've given him nothing.

We've taken whatever we can from God, turned our backs on him,

said no thanks, see you later. I'd like to live my own way.

I'd like to be my own Lord and master.

That's the essence of what the Bible calls sin.

It's not about a tiny little infraction of an arbitrary rule,

like parking within 15 feet of a mailbox or something.

Sin is against God. It's rebellion against God, it's

rejection of God. And God has every right to

condemn us forever for our sin. That's what he promises to do

for all those who persist in unrepentance.

And yet God is also infinitely rich in mercy.

And he sent Jesus into the world to save us from sin by dying on

the cross and rising again to pay the full penalty for sin, to

extend the offer of forgiveness. Grace eternal life to all who

will turn from sin and trust in Him.

If you're not a believer in Jesus, repent and trust in Him

today. This glory He holds out can be

yours. This Kingdom, this bliss, this

paradise he holds out can be yours if you simply repent and

believe. If you're not a believer in

Jesus, I wonder what you make of the Father's words.

This is my beloved son. Listen to him.

I've talked to a number of people who've become Christians

over the years, and one of the kind of turning points or first

steps for them was there may be a self-conscious atheist or

agnostic, Not a Christian, not a religious person.

But I started to wonder, you know, I guess if I'm going to

reject the whole Christianity thing, maybe I should, like,

figure out what it's about in the 1st place.

Maybe I should give it a fair hearing.

Have I ever read the Bible? Nope.

Have I ever, like, read through one of the Gospels?

Nope. Do I know what Jesus actually

says? Nope.

I've met a number of people for whom that was kind of a first

step. Wait a minute.

Why don't I just at least listen?

Why don't I just at least check it out?

Now you might be thinking, Oh dear, if I do start to check it

out, does that mean I'm going to become a Christian?

Well, I sure hope so. I think it's better than

anything you could expect from him and the downsides are all

more than worth it. But I would just appeal to you

if you're self consciously not a believer.

Have you listened to Jesus? Do you know what he says about

you? Do you know what he says about

himself? If that sparks any interest, if

that sparks any willingness to sit down and listen to Jesus,

you should talk to whoever, whatever church member here you

know best, whatever Christian friend brought you, or if you're

kind of here on your own, don't know anybody, I'd be delighted

to talk with you. Sit down, read through the

Gospels, and listen to Jesus together.

Sometimes people think that listening to Jesus basically

means hearing the moral content of what Jesus teaches and trying

to sort of do that as well as you can.

Jesus says be a good person. So I'll try to live up to

whatever Jesus standard of good person this is, but here in this

context, listen to him means listen to him proclaim what he's

going to do to save you. Listen to him tell you how he is

going to reconcile you to God. It's not listen to him tell you

how to work your way back to God.

You can't do that. And that is not what he's

teaching. It's listen to him say that he's

going to do for you, but you could never do for yourself.

Verse 8 rounds off the narrative by telling us how the vision

ended. And suddenly looking around,

they no longer saw anyone with them but Jesus only.

So this is, it's over. It's over.

It's almost as fast as it began. No more Moses, no more Elijah,

no more Cloud, no more divine voice.

They have Jesus only. The disciples now descend the

mountain with the Father's words ringing in their ears.

What do you need to see now in order to suffer?

Well, you need to see the truth of the Father's testimony to His

beloved, only begotten Son. And when you see the truth of

that testimony, once you embrace it, you're going to have to keep

on trusting it. You're going to have to keep on

seeing it, keep on believing it. Why?

Because the time has not yet come for its full unveiling

point #3 Glory concealed. Glory concealed.

That's what we see in a number of senses in verses 9 to 13.

First verse 9. And as they were coming down the

mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen

until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.

Throughout Mark's gospel, we've often seen that Jesus tells

someone to keep quiet about something he's done or something

they've learned about him. He often told people not to tell

others who he was. This is the last time he does

that, and it's the only time he does that.

That gives us a release date until the Son of Man had risen

from the dead. Why does this command to silence

have an end date? It's because the resurrection

will make sense of the Transfiguration.

Just as the transfiguration points ahead to the

resurrection, the resurrection begins to reveal more openly and

permanently what the Transfiguration gave just a few

a glimpse of. What this means for us today as

Christians is that we should tell others the good news that

Jesus rose from the dead. The whole age we live in is the

time of open proclamation. We should boldly declare what

God has done in raising Jesus from the dead.

Nothing like it has happened in all of history.

No other religion holds out any kind of hope or promise at all

comparable to the resurrection of Jesus.

The resurrection of Christ is the best news, so share it

boldly. The disciples weren't ready to

do that just yet. In fact, they did not understand

what Jesus was talking about verse 10.

So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what

this rising from the dead might mean.

That's important to be clear about exactly what the disciples

didn't understand in Jesus day, very many Jews, likely including

the disciples themselves, believed in a general

resurrection. They believed that at the end of

time, God would raise all of his chosen people from the dead,

maybe even all people all at once.

They believed in resurrection as an all together one time event.

What they did not have a category 4 was that happening to

one person ahead of all the rest.

And that's exactly what Jesus was saying.

What happened to him? The explicit sense of the Greek

phrase is hard to bring over into English.

Jesus isn't talking about the rising of the dead in a general

sense. It's literally more like until

the Son of Man is raised out from among the dead ones.

In other words, everyone else stays dead for now, but Jesus

raised. Nobody else has resurrected,

just him. That doesn't fit with any of

their end times timelines. They have no chart on the wall

that shows them that it doesn't compute.

And I think their confusion over end times timelines helps

explain the question they ask next verse 11.

And they asked him, why do the scribe say that first Elijah

must come based on the promise of Malachi 4-5.

At least some religious authorities at the time taught

that Elijah would come back before the day of the Lord.

And remember, they just saw Elijah.

I assume he's fresh on their minds.

They're thinking something like, OK, well, we don't really know

what this whole resurrection thing means, but are the scribes

right? Is Elijah coming back first?

I mean, we just saw him. Is he like waiting in the wings

to come out and and do what he's going to do?

They're confused. So they bring their confusion to

Jesus, which is always a good move.

Better open confusion than hidden ignorance.

Better a question that drives you to Jesus, then a question

that keeps you from Jesus. And then Jesus replies in verses

12 and 13 with probably a bit more than they were expecting.

And he said to them, Elijah does come first to restore all

things. And how is it written of the Son

of Man that he should suffer many things and be treated with

contempt? But I tell you that Elijah has

come and they did to him whatever they pleased as it is

written of him. So first Jesus says the scribes

are right. Elijah does come.

He's going to say more about that in a minute.

But first he takes a sharp left turn.

He poses a question of his own. And how is it written of the Son

of Man that he should suffer many things and be treated with

contempt? Why does Jesus raise this

question before more fully addressing theirs?

I think it's because he's saying there's something both the

disciples and the scribes have missed in asking this question.

I think Jesus brings together at least three different themes

from scripture. 1 is where he says the Son of Man.

That comes from the vision in Daniel Chapter 7, especially

Daniel 7 · chapter mention

verses 13 and 14. There one, like a Son of man

that is a human being, is given divine authority and universal

worship. Jesus clearly identifies the Son

of Man as Messiah. He's clearly saying he is this

Son of Man who is the Messiah and Jesus teaching based on

Daniel seven, that the Messiah is not only human but also

divine. But his focus here isn't so much

on the Son of Man himself, but on what he suffers.

And yet nothing in Daniel 7 says anything about the Son of Man

suffering. We have to go to two other

places of Scripture to get that. One is a couple of key psalms of

David, like Psalm 22 and Psalm 69.

And those Psalms, David's talking about himself, but he

says things about himself that go beyond anything he himself

experienced or suffered in his life.

He's talking about himself, but somehow more than himself, he's

teaching about his descendants, the Messiah, what the Messiah is

going to endure. The basic message is this

suffering, then glory, rejection, then vindication,

death, then resurrection, all to redeem God's people.

And a third scriptural source Here I think Jesus is pointing

to the language of Isaiah 53. He says the Son of man will be

treated with contempt, and Isaiah 53 three says that God's

suffering servant will be despised.

So Jesus brings together Daniel's Son of man, David's

suffering Messiah and Isaiah's suffering servant.

Why does he do that same message we've been seeing all along?

To teach his disciples that the cross comes before the Kingdom,

and the Kingdom comes through the cross.

The only way into the Kingdom is through Jesus's crucifixion.

When you're trying to get your end times timetable straight,

here's what you have to put at the center.

The crucifixion of the Messiah. And so not only does Jesus

command his disciples to conceal the glory they've seen on the

mountain, he also tells them that in his first coming, his

glory will be a concealed glory. It will be a hidden glory.

The revelation of God the Son will be a Riddle.

The Kingdom will come through a cross.

Glory will come through suffering.

In Jesus first coming, glory is hidden under shame.

Power is hidden under weakness. Life is held out through death.

If you embrace this from the heart, you are a true disciple

of Jesus. You know the secret of the

Kingdom and you know the shape of the Christian life.

But if this is foreign to you, then I mean, it's very literally

you do not know the first thing about Christianity.

This is the essence, this is the secret, this is the whole thing.

So that's the first main part of Jesus answer.

Yes, Elijah does come, but first you have to understand that this

time around the Son of man's glory is going to be hidden

under suffering. But then Jesus does come back to

Elijah, verse 13. But I tell you that Elijah has

come and they did to him whatever they pleased as it is

written of him. So despite appearances, we're

actually much farther along the End Times timeline than the

disciples thought. They're wondering if it was

right to expect Elijah still to come.

Jesus says, hey guys, he already has.

Who's Jesus talking about? John the Baptist.

Remember from Mark chapter 1, John's clothing strikingly

Mark 1 · chapter mention

resembled Elijah. And he came to restore the

people. He came to turn their hearts

back to God and back to each other.

He came to prepare the way of the Lord himself.

And what happened to John? John was imprisoned.

John was beheaded. John too, walked the way of the

cross ahead of Jesus. John, the precursor, previewed

in his own fate, the one he came to proclaim.

John's fate previewed Jesus's, and both John's and Jesus's

fates draw the shape of true discipleship.

To be a Christian is to be willing to die for Jesus and the

Gospel. To be a Christian is to count

Jesus as more valuable than life itself.

That is simple to understand and hard to do.

Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.

When suffering punches you in the face, what will help you is

not any kind of plan you made for your life, for yourself, for

whatever. The thing that will help you

most is loving Jesus more than you love life itself.

That's not something you can turn on and flip with a switch.

That's not something you can just do in like, you know, 3

minutes while your coffee's brewing.

That's part of the secret of how to suffer well.

It's part of the deepest secret of what it means to be a

Christian. How can you come to love Jesus

more than you love life itself? What do you need to see now in

order to suffer? Well, you need to see God's

glory unveiled in the person of Christ.

You need to see, you need to see the truth of the testimony that

God the Father proclaims about God the Son.

And you need to see that in this life both Jesus glory and ours

are hidden. As Martin Luther put it, this

life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth and

righteousness, not health but healing, not being but becoming,

not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be,

but we are growing toward it. The process is not yet finished,

but it is going on. This is not the end, but it is

the road. All does not yet gleam in glory,

but all is being purified. There's one more reason Jesus

gave these disciples this vision of His glory.

It's to show them that what He is, they will become.

They won't just see this glory face to face, they'll be

transformed by it. They'll be made like He is.

Consider Paul's promise in Philippians 320 to 21.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await A

Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly

body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables

him even to subject all things to himself.

Jesus is human. Bodily glory is a guarantee of

ours and a preview of ours. In the age to come.

We will perfectly behold His glory and become perfectly

glorious. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we pray that we would behold Christ's glory by

faith. We pray that you'd grow us in

love for Him. Pray you'd grow us in devotion

to Him. We pray you'd strengthen our

confidence in the promise that what he is now, we will be.

We pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.