daily java

Daily Java:

Six days later Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain to be alone. As the men watched, Jesus’ appearance was transformed, and his clothes became dazzling white, far whiter than any earthly bleach could ever make them. Then Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus. Peter exclaimed, “Rabbi, it’s wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” He said this because he didn’t really know what else to say, for they were all terrified. Then a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.” Suddenly, when they looked around, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus with them. As they went back down the mountain, he told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept it to themselves, but they often asked each other what he meant by “rising from the dead.”  (Mark 9:2-10)

There were things that happened to the apostles that scared them half to death. And when they happened, they really didn’t know what to do. So sometimes they did something dumb.

Jesus took his inner circle – Peter, James and John – up on a mountain to be with him while he prayed. They were probably praying, too. But one of them looks up and sees something that just scares him to death. Jesus changed before their eyes and became transformed. His clothes were absolutely pure white.

And not only did he change, Elijah and Moses came to stand with him. The apostles just plain old did not know what to do. So, unfortunately, Peter did the wrong thing.

How they knew it was Moses and Elijah, I don’t know. Evidently it was revealed to them or they made a good guess or something. However they knew, they knew. And here they were, Moses, the embodiment of the law and Elijah, the embodiment of the prophets. Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets, standing in front of them talking to Jesus.

To any Jew, Moses and Elijah were the most important characters from the Bible. The apostles were beginning to grapple with the fact that Jesus himself may have been just as important. They were beginning to see that. And it was becoming a fact that he may have been greater. If he was really the Messiah, and they were beginning to believe it, then he was maybe even greater than Moses and Elijah.

Peter said what would have been the most logical thing any Jew could have said. let’s put up three memorials to this occasion, one for each of the most important people in the Scriptures.

As it says in the passage, they really didn’t know what to say. But they said the wrong thing.

God wasn’t mad at them, nor was Jesus or, for that matter, Moses and Elijah, if they even noticed the apostles or were aware of where they were. It was just that you don’t put up a memorial equating Jesus, the Son of God and the Messiah with the Law and Prophets. That system is gone, Jesus has come.

The voice served to scare them even further. “This is my dearly loved Son. Listen to him.” They probably hit the ground. When they looked again, Moses and Elijah were gone and Jesus was standing there looking at them.

I have always wondered what happened when they got back to the rest of the apostles. Did they tell them? Jesus said not to, but that would be a hard secret to keep. Not only that, but Jesus adds until the Son of Man has risen from the dead. Great. Not only have they seen something that has knocked their socks off, but he also adds something about raising from the dead. When they were by themselves, they probably talked about this.

But they were privy to a secret that none of the other apostles knew. They had seen Jesus glorified. None of them except John ever saw Jesus like that again, and it was not until John was an old man a long ways away that he did.

What a blessing and a burden to lay on these men, to know something so phenomenal and yet not be able to talk about it.