Jesus - Beginning His Journey to the Cross - Mark 9:2-13

Sermon Series: Spare Me the Details - Just Give Me Jesus

Sometimes teaching really young kids to be mischievous can take some persuading.  As they get older it’s not something you have to teach – they tend to get it on their own.  But I think really young kids need some persuading because what you’re asking them to do is out of the ordinary.  Our parents are the ones on the receiving end of a lot of our mischievous pranks.  We might try to persuade our children to put a rubber snake in their bed while they are here visiting, give wet willies, or try to hide and scare them.  But when you tell a really young child to go put a rubber snake in their grandmother’s bed and not to tell anyone they aren’t always quick to do that.  They don’t normally put a rubber snake in mommy and daddy’s bed, nor do they put them in their brother or sister’s bed.  So why put one in grandma’s bed?  And why should they keep it a secret?  If it’s something you and I know is there, shouldn’t we let grandma know about it too?  Things which they don’t consider normal sometimes confuse them.  If they’re confused they may hesitate to go along.  And if they are going to go along, they need a good explanation.

This example isn’t all that different from what Jesus’ disciples experienced when they heard Jesus say that he was going to suffer, be rejected, and die.  What Jesus came to do while He was here on earth is far outside of what they (and all of us) would consider normal.  And so, when they heard and when others today hear that God’s Son would suffer and die, they had a hard time believing that and going along with it.  Jesus’ proclamation demanded a good explanation which was necessary for rightly understanding the mission of Jesus.

As we studied last week’s text we said that we had reached the middle of Mark’s gospel.  And there is a decisive transition that took place at that mid-point.  No longer would Jesus be touring the region of Galilee and some of the surrounding Gentile territories.  From here on out in Mark’s gospel Jesus would be making His way to the cross.  So our text this week signifies the beginning of this journey.  One of the questions that therefore becomes important for the readers of Mark’s gospel is, “Is there anything that happens at the beginning of Jesus’ journey to the cross that can help us understand His mission?”  And I believe the answer is ‘yes.’  Mark wanted his readers to know that the suffering that Jesus endured did not happen by chance but was part of a bigger plan.  So in this section of Mark’s gospel we are going to see two pieces of evidence that help shed light on Jesus’ mission and His journey to the cross.

Mark tells his readers in verse 2 that Jesus began this journey to the cross by taking His three closest disciples, Peter, James, and John up on a high mountain by themselves.  Throughout the next few verses we’ll find that Jesus was beginning His journey to the cross with divine re-assurance for His disciples.  The transfiguration narrative is loaded with symbolism that draws our mind and our attention to God the Father.  Mark first anticipates a meeting with God the Father when He says that Jesus led these three disciples up a high mountain.  Mountains in the Bible are often the places where Jesus and other individuals go to meet with God.  So when Mark says that Jesus leads these men up a high mountain the reader begins to anticipate that a divine meeting is going to take place.  Verses 2 and 3 also tell us that Jesus was transfigured (meaning radically changed) before them and that His clothes became radiantly and intensely white.  The reader notices here that what takes place on this mountain is becoming incredibly similar to what took place on Mount Sinai when Moses ascended the mountain to meet with God.  For after Moses had been in the presence of God, speaking to Him, Exodus 34:29 says that he descended with the stone tablets and that the skin of his face shone.  Jesus, having gone up a high mountain to be in the presence of God also begins to shine radiantly.  In verse 7 we see some other evidence of God’s presence.  Just like what took place on Sinai, a cloud overshadowed those present on the mountain.  A cloud in the OT is also symbolic of the presence of God.  It was a cloud like pillar that led the Israelites through the wilderness.  At Mount Sinai God’s presence was recognized by the cloud that overshadowed the top of the mountain.  And after the tabernacle and the temple were erected it was a cloud that filled them with the glory of God.  Mark tells us in his gospel that from this particular cloud comes the voice of God, Himself, making an initial proclamation that is similar to the initial proclamation that was made at Jesus’ baptism, “You are my beloved Son” (Mark 1:11).  The presence of God here on the mountain was something Mark was emphasizing for His readers and something it appears that these three disciples recognized well.

What was still unclear to the disciples was the mission of Jesus though.  So let’s look at what takes place on this high mountain that would help make the mission more understandable for them.  Let’s begin by trying to unpack the presence of both Moses and Elijah.  Verse 4 says that both these men appeared and that they began talking to Jesus.  The question though is ‘why?’  This is a really difficult question to answer as there is no obvious OT text or Jewish tradition that points to a future meeting of Moses, Elijah, and Jesus on a mountain.  The explanation that seems to make the most sense is to see these two men as OT forerunners in their prospective sections of Scripture to the coming Messiah.  The OT was divided into three main portions by the Jewish people – the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings.  Moses is of course the main individual we associate with the Law.  Moses received the Law from God and tradition tells us that Moses is the author of the portion of the OT that the Jews referred to as the Law (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy).  It is in the Law that we are also promised another one like Moses who would come and who would lead His people (Deut. 18:15-18).  Elijah plays an important role in the section of the OT the Jews referred to as the Prophets.  Elijah was believed to precede the coming Messiah.  So it is likely that Moses and Elijah show up to demonstrate that Jesus is the coming One that they were forerunners of.  There is also one particular text in the OT book of Malachi in which we find these two OT individuals paired together before the day of the Lord (Malachi 4:4-6).  It is quite possible that putting both of these OT forerunners of the Messiah together with Jesus was a way in which God the Father was re-assuring the disciples that Jesus was the Christ (something they may have begun to doubt after Jesus said that He would have to suffer, be rejected, and die).  When the disciples see Jesus with Moses and Elijah verse 7 tells us that they were terrified.  But verse 6 also notes something interesting that Peter says.  Peter says to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here.  Let us make three tabernacles, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”  What on earth would possess Peter to say something like this?  Isn’t this a strange question to ask?  It is if we don’t understand Peter’s perspective.  There are a few extra-biblical works that seem to suggest that “Judaism held onto the hope that God would once again tabernacle with His people as in the Exodus” (James Edwards).  For instance, there is an apocryphal book called the book of Tobit that has manuscript evidence in two separate and very important Greek traditions that says, “Make a right confession to the Lord and bless the King of the ages, so that once again His tabernacle may be erected with you in joy” (Tobit 13:11).  For a devout Jew who had been taught this and who held to this belief, this would have been a fitting question to ask.  It shows some good understanding.  Peter rightly recognized the presence of God in this setting, and so He asks about erecting a tabernacle because that is where God once dwelt among His people.  It also shows that Peter was still continuing to grow in his understanding of Jesus.  For Peter to ask this indicates that he was associating Jesus with God – that’s good too.  But Peter continues to struggle with misunderstanding was well, for God had already created a new tabernacle with man, but it wasn’t in the form of a tent like it was in the OT.  God was making His tabernacle with man in the person of Jesus.  Consider John 1:14.  Most of the time we translate the verse, “and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”  But perhaps a more literal translation should read, “and the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.”

The account of the transfiguration is drenched with the presence of God.  They are on a high mountain, overshadowed by a cloud, and Jesus’ clothes have transformed and become radiantly white.  They are receiving testimony from God,  in the presence of Moses and Elijah who we know from the OT are to precede the coming Messiah, and in the audible voice of God who speaks to the disciples saying, “This is my beloved son.”  And finally we see the presence of God in the language and understanding of the tabernacle.  Peter recognized the presence of God and believed that a tabernacle was appropriate – He just misunderstood that God was already tabernacling with them in the person of Jesus.  There was no doubt with these three disciples that God was present - His presence was certain.  But the question we have to ask is ‘why?’  Why was it so important for the disciples to understand that God was present?  I would suggest that we find that in the last part of what God speaks in verse 7 when He says to these disciples, “listen to Him.”  God has showed up in this place in extraordinary fashion to tell these men to listen to Jesus.  What were they to be listening to Him about, though?  The context of this passage answers that question well.  What was it last week in our text that the disciples struggled to believe?  And what will we see them struggling to believe in the next few verses?  The answer is that the Christ must suffer and die.  God shows up in extraordinary fashion to provide His divine reassurance that what Jesus has said about His mission – that He has come to suffer and die, is exactly what must happen.  As Jesus begins this trip to the cross He is doing so with re-assurance for His disciples from God the Father, Himself.

Divine re-assurance for Jesus’ disciples came through location, objects, and spoken words.  But God rarely, if ever, brings re-assurance to us through certain locations, objects, or spoken words anymore because we have something more certain than these things.  We have God’s true and trustworthy re-assuring word in the form of the Bible.  So now when we feel the pressure of difficult situations and trying circumstances we go to His Word for His re-assuring promises and for the confidence that He will be with us through our trials and persecutions.  But that means we have to be spending time in His Word and familiarizing ourselves with both the trials we are going to face as believers and the promises that He makes when we find ourselves in the midst of them.  God has offered to each of us His divine re-assurance.  But we have to spend time with Him by reading His Word if we are going to be encouraged by it.

Verse 9 says that while they were coming down the mountain Jesus gave the three men a charge not to tell anyone what had taken place up on the mountain until He had risen from the dead.  This command not to tell anyone is the first temporal command to silence that we have seen in Mark’s gospel.  It seems to imply that Jesus understood that His disciples would struggle with the concept of His mission and His suffering until after it had taken place.  After the resurrection they would understand more clearly who Jesus is and what His mission was all about.  But Jesus understood that until that time they would continue to wrestle with the idea of the Christ coming for the purpose of suffering and dying.  So rather than permitting them to tell about what had taken place and attempting to explain it from a wrong perspective Jesus wanted those disciples to wait until their understanding was more complete before they shared what they had experienced with others.  Verse 10 tells us that those disciples complied with Jesus request and instead chose to discuss what Jesus meant when He talked about this rising from the dead.  Still wrestling with the idea of the Christ having to suffer the disciples then ask Jesus another question in verse 11, “Why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?”  The reason these three disciples asked this question was because they believed that if Elijah came first that meant there was no need for the Christ to have to suffer.  This probably comes from teaching that they had heard from the scribes on Malachi 4:5-6.  Those verses say, “Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.  And 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.”  The scribes had taught that Elijah would be sent by God before the day of the Lord “to restore righteousness and harmony in human relationships” (James Edwards).  And Jesus actually affirms this in His response in verse 12 when He says, “Elijah does come first to restore all things.”  But then Jesus asks those disciples 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?”  Jesus was pointing out to these disciples that they weren’t giving consideration to all of the OT scriptures.  They were choosing to focus their attention on one passage that did not convey all of God’s plan.  Jesus asks them about other OT texts that point to the suffering and rejection that the Christ would experience, passages like Isaiah 53:3, “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”  Jesus was teaching those disciples a lesson that is so important for all of us.  We can’t pick and choose passages of scripture that appeal to our pre-conceived ideas and ignore other texts of scripture.  We have to teach individual passages of scripture within the context of scripture as a whole.  Jesus wanted His disciples to understand that “something equally essential must happen before the final restoration on the Day of Yahweh.  There is another testimony in Scipture, less welcome but no less important” (James Edwards).  Jesus began His journey to the cross in the gospel of Mark knowing and convinced of the suffering He must endure - it was in fact what God had revealed as part of His plan in the OT.  Jesus follows His question with a statement that surely caught His disciples by surprise but which continued to emphasize that suffering lay ahead of Him.  Jesus told them, “But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they pleased, as it is written of Him.”  The last part of Jesus’ statement is a difficult one.  Outside of 1 Kings 19:10 it’s hard to find any written reference of Elijah suffering.  1 Kings 19:10 Elijah is speaking and says, “I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts.  For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword, and I, even I only am left, and they seek my life, to take it away.”  We know that Elijah never died and that scripture tells us that God took Him up to Heaven in a chariot of fire.  So it could be that Elijah was speaking a prophetic word here.  This becomes an even more likely scenario when we look at the transfiguration account in Matthew’s gospel.  In Matthew 17:11-12 it says, “He [Jesus] answered, ‘Elijah does come, and he will restore all things.  But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased.  So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.”  Then verse 13 says, “Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.”  John the Baptist was beheaded, killed by the sword, the same thing Elijah said had happened to the other prophets and what they were seeking to do to him.  Jesus knew that Elijah, the one who preceded Him, had suffered.  He also knew that the OT scriptures said the Messiah would suffer.  So as He began His journey to the cross He was convinced of the suffering He would have to endure.

A couple of brief points of application.  Perhaps you understand the 'explanation' in part.  You realize that God was re-assuring the disciples that Jesus was the Christ and that they should listen to Him as He teaches them that He must suffer.  You realize that Jesus was convinced that both the OT scriptures and those who came before Him indicated that He would have to suffer as the Christ.  But perhaps the explanation is still incomplete.  Perhaps you still have a question about why it was necessary for Jesus to suffer.  The answer for that question lies in the nature of God.  The Bible teaches that God hates sin and that because He is just He demands that a penalty be paid for sin.  Ultimately, the penalty for sin is our death and eternal separation from God.  That troubles God because He deeply and passionately loves every person.  But He can't just overlook our offenses.  He can't just let them slide.  That would be untrue to who He is.  So the only way God can pardon and forgive is if someone who was without sin and fault pays the penalty that each of us who is guilty and deserving of God's wrath.  And that's what God sent Jesus to do.  Sending Jesus to re-establish Jewish prominence and power would not have done anything for anyone's sin.  Sending Jesus to rule in power in might as an earthly ruler would have done nothing to rescue people from the sin that seperates them from God.  The only plan for delivering people from sin and seperation from God that would work requried that one suffer the penalty for all of the sins that had been and will be committed.  And Jesus accomplished that when He was on the cross.  Jesus became the righteous substitute for each and every one of us and all of God's wrath towards sin was poured out on Him.  The only means of rescue was through suffering the wrath of God for the sins of the the world.  And praise God that that's exaclty what Jesus did and accomplished for us!

We find a second point of application when James Edwards commented on these last two verses and said, “Jesus here designates [Elijah’s] primary role as one of suffering, as represented in John the Baptist.  The Elijah who goes before the Son of Man, and the disciples who come after Him, must do so on the road to the cross.”  Contrary to some popular ‘Christian’ beliefs, being a disciple of and following Jesus means that we will encounter times of suffering.  I’m not talking about minor inconveniences – that would make light of what Jesus endured for us.  Carrying out the mission which God the Father had called Him to meant that Jesus had to endure ridicule, beatings, scourging, shame, and even death on a Roman cross.  And the reality is followers of Christ will also encounter times of suffering.  I don’t know that we can ever fully understand how God uses suffering in our lives.  We know that God can work in and through suffering to make us more like Christ, but we’ll never know exactly how He is doing that.  What we can be assured of is that we will face it.  So while we may never fully understand suffering, we must resolve in our hearts to suffer well when those times come.  It doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love us.  And it doesn’t mean that we don’t have enough faith.  It is part of the call to follow Christ. 

Small Group Questions for Discussion

1. Read verses 2-8.  In these verses we emphasized the truth that Jesus was beginning His journey to the cross with divine re-assurance for His disciples.  God's presence realized through the location on the mountain, the cloud, the transfiguration of Jesus, and the audible voice was re-assuring the disciples that Jesus was the Christ (something they may have begun to doubt after Jesus' explanation that the Christ must suffer and die).  We also noted how God had re-assurred Ananias to go and see the Saul in Acts 9 to lay hands on him and to re-store His sight.  We also noted that God doesn't often provide re-assurance for us through locations, objects or audible voices any more.  We have something more sure and unchanging in God's word.  What are some of the texts/verses that you help provide you with re-assurance and hope when you find yourself in the midst of suffering and trials?  How have those verses encouraged you in the past?  How do those verses provide you with hope for future sufferings we may face?

2. Read verses 9-13.  In these verses we emphasized the truth that Jesus was beginning His journey to the cross convinced of the suffering He must endure.  Jesus knew that the OT scriptures said the Christ would suffer and He knew that Elijah, who preceded Him had suffered.  Jesus was absolutely convinced that this was God's plan for Him and the means by which He would bring salvation.  And if we, as believers in and follower of Christ, are going to follow Him that means there will be times of suffering for us as well.  Should we try to avoid potential suffering at all cost?  Why or why not?  If suffering is inevitable, should we seek it out?  Why or why not?

3. As believers in Christ we want to adorn the gospel well and bring glory to God in all that we do.  If we are going to do that in the midst of suffering then we need to be resolved to suffer well.  What does suffering well as a believer in Christ look like?

4. What step of faith does this passage of Scripture require us to take as individuals and as a small group?  How do we work this out on mission?