Coming down from the Mountain
| Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what "rising from the dead" meant. And they asked him, "Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?" Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him." (Mark9:8-13) |
1. Coming down the mountain
2. Rising from the dead and waiting
3. Elijah
Transfiguration moments are "mountaintop" moments. You'll remember from yesterday's devotion that Peter was so enamoured with the moment that he wanted to build shelters for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah and just stay there. He doesn't even think about where he and the other two disciples will stay! But while we may want to stay on the mountaintop, we have to come down to the valley.
The purpose of renewal on the mountaintop is to strengthen us for life in the valley. So too, our times of worship on a Sunday and our devotions during the week are not mountaintops to linger on, but times to gain perspective and strength so that we can serve and work in the valley. But we do need the mountaintops!
Jesus tells them to keep the matter to themselves until the Son of Man has risen from the dead. This is a continuation of the "Messianic Secret" that we've seen in Mark's gospel. Discretion about Jesus' true identity was necessary so that He could complete His mission without being mobbed or misunderstood. He had come to seek and save. Being seen as a "Military Messiah" would have hindered that.
It's significant that after being transfigured (which confirmed that He was the Son of God), Jesus again refers to Himself as the Son of Man --- a title that emphasizes His mission to suffer and die for our sins. The disciples still hadn't grasped the full plan: that Jesus would die and rise again. So, when He referred to "rising from the dead," they were confused. But waiting to speak of what they had seen until the right time meant it would all make much more sense later.
Sometimes, on the mountaintop, God reveals things to us that are not for immediate sharing. There is a time to wait before speaking.
Their question about Elijah is very pertinent.
The last two verses of the Old Testament are:
"See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse." Malachi 4:5--6
The expectation was that the end-times and the coming of the Messiah would be inaugurated by the reappearance of someone like Elijah, who would bring a spiritual awakening.
In Jesus' understanding, John the Baptist is the Elijah figure. The problem with the traditional view was that people expected the coming of the Messiah to be a glorious and victorious event. But Jesus points them instead to the prophecies of a rejected Messiah. As evidence, He reminds them that John was arrested and beheaded - and that a similar fate awaited the Messiah Himself.
This is a sobering piece.
The key takeaways are:
- We need to come down from the mountain, but we need the mountaintops too.
- Some things we learn on the mountain aren't for immediate use; we must wait for the right time.
- Jesus, the Son of God, knew that He would have to die as the Son of Man because He had come to seek and save humankind.
- The triumphalistic expectations around Elijah (John the Baptist) and the Messiah (Jesus) had to be tempered with the understanding that He would pay a price to save us.
