Day 10 — The Gospel of Mark: The Son of God in Action

Today’s Passage: Mark 9

Six days after Peter confessed Him as the Christ, Jesus takes three of His disciples up a high mountain, and there they see the same familiar Son unveiled in front of them. The glory is His own, shining out from inside a real body, through clothes gone whiter than anything on earth could bleach them. He wears no costume up there, and His flesh stays flesh. Moses and Elijah stand and speak with Him, and out of a cloud the Father’s own voice says, This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him. Then they come back down the mountain into a father’s desperate cry for his son, a second word about the suffering that is coming, and twelve men still arguing on the road about which of them is the greatest. The mountain and the valley, the glory and the cross, turn out to be one single command.

As you read, hold this: This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him.

Mark 9:1–8 (BSB)

¹ Then Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God arrive with power.” ² After six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them. ³ His clothes became radiantly white, brighter than any launderer on earth could bleach them. ⁴ And Elijah and Moses appeared before them, talking with Jesus. ⁵ Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” ⁶ For they were all so terrified that Peter did not know what else to say. ⁷ Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him!” ⁸ Suddenly, when they looked around, they saw no one with them except Jesus.

The promise of verse 1 reads best alongside what follows it six days later. Some standing there, Jesus says, will see the kingdom of God come with power, and within the week three of them do. He is transfigured (μεταμορφόω) metamorphoō, pronounced meh-tah-mor-FO-oh. Strong's G3339, to be transformed, change form. The glory is His own. Nothing has been laid over Him from outside; the veil of His everyday appearance is drawn back for a moment, and the three men see what has belonged to the Son the whole time, the same Jesus who will walk back down into the valley and on toward a cross. Here one of our settled convictions holds firm, that He is fully God and fully man, the two natures joined in one Person. His flesh on the hilltop is as real as His flesh at the foot of it, and what the light shows Peter, James, and John is whose flesh they have been walking beside for two years. , changed in form before their eyes, His clothes shining past anything earth could whiten. Moses and Elijah stand and talk with Him, drawn into the conversation of the ages. Peter’s offer of three shelters sounds devout and misses the point entirely, since it houses Jesus alongside the great ones, three peers side by side under canvas. Then the cloud comes and the voice speaks: This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him! When the vision lifts, the Law and the Prophets have finished their pointing and gone, the Son is still standing on the hilltop, and the one thing left for a disciple to do is to listen to Him.

Mark 9:9–13 (BSB)

⁹ As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus admonished them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. ¹⁰ So they kept this matter to themselves, discussing what it meant to rise from the dead. ¹¹ And they asked Jesus, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” ¹² He replied, “Elijah does indeed come first, and he restores all things. Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected? ¹³ But I tell you that Elijah has indeed come, and they have done to him whatever they wished, just as it is written about him.”

Jesus tells them to keep silent until the resurrection, since glory reported apart from the cross would be heard as the wrong kind of news. They keep it to themselves and puzzle privately over what rising from the dead could mean. Their question about Elijah is a fair one, and Jesus answers it by tying their hope of restoration to the hard word about the Son of Man’s suffering. John has already come in the spirit and role of Elijah, and he has already been mistreated; the rejected forerunner goes ahead of the rejected Son. The light of the mountain leaves every line of the scroll standing, and shows whose feet will walk the path those lines describe. Listen to Him, even when the word He speaks is about His own death.

Mark 9:14–29 (BSB)

¹⁴ When they returned to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. ¹⁵ As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were filled with awe and ran to greet Him. ¹⁶ “What are you disputing with them?” He asked. ¹⁷ Someone in the crowd replied, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a spirit that makes him mute. ¹⁸ Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. I asked Your disciples to drive it out, but they were unable.” ¹⁹ “O unbelieving generation!” Jesus replied. “How long must I remain with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy to Me.” ²⁰ So they brought him, and seeing Jesus, the spirit immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. ²¹ Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been with him?” “From childhood,” he said. ²² “It often throws him into the fire or into the water, trying to kill him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” ²³ “If You can?” echoed Jesus. “All things are possible to him who believes!” ²⁴ Immediately the boy’s father cried out, “I do believe; help my unbelief!” ²⁵ When Jesus saw that a crowd had come running, He rebuked the unclean spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” He said, “I command you to come out and never enter him again.” ²⁶ After shrieking and convulsing him violently, the spirit came out. The boy became like a corpse, so that many said, “He is dead.” ²⁷ But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet, and he stood up. ²⁸ After Jesus had gone into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” ²⁹ Jesus answered, “This kind cannot come out, except by prayer.”

From the light of the mountain they come down into argument, failure, and a father’s long ordeal. The disciples tried on this boy and failed, the whole crowd watched it happen, and the scribes are ready to make something of it. Jesus grieves aloud over an unbelieving generation, and then, gently, He says, Bring the boy to Me. The father has said, “if You can,” and Jesus hands the two words back to him, because the question was never whether Jesus has the power. What the father says next holds belief and unbelief in one breath: I do believe; help my unbelief! Jesus does not crush a man who admits the mixture in his own heart; He turns and commands the spirit to go. The exit is violent, the boy is left looking like a corpse, and Jesus lifts him by the hand and sets him on his feet. Afterward, in private, the lesson He gives is prayer, the posture of dependence that no technique will ever stand in for. Down in the valley, listening to the Son sounds like a father shouting for help with his own faith.

Mark 9:30–37 (BSB)

³⁰ Going on from there, they passed through Galilee. But Jesus did not want anyone to know, ³¹ because He was teaching His disciples. He told them, “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and after three days He will rise.” ³² But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him about it. ³³ Then they came to Capernaum. While Jesus was in the house, He asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” ³⁴ But they were silent, for on the way they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest. ³⁵ Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all.” ³⁶ Then He had a little child stand among them. Taking the child in His arms, He said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes not only Me, but the One who sent Me.”

For the second time Jesus tells them outright what is coming: the Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men, and killed, and after three days He will rise. They do not understand it, and they are too afraid to ask. In the house at Capernaum He asks what they had been discussing on the road, and the answer is a silence of pure embarrassment, because while He was speaking of being killed they had been ranking themselves. Jesus sits down, taking the posture of a teacher, and turns their whole reckoning over. To be first is to be last of all; to be great is to be the servant of all. Then He takes a little child into His arms and tells them that whoever welcomes one such child in His name welcomes Him, and welcomes the Father who sent Him. They had wanted a place of honor, and He put a child in the middle of the room and held it, which is what listening to Him came to on that particular afternoon.

Mark 9:38–50 (BSB)

³⁸ John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone else driving out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not accompany us.” ³⁹ “Do not stop him,” Jesus replied. “For no one who performs a miracle in My name can turn around and speak evil of Me. ⁴⁰ For whoever is not against us is for us. ⁴¹ Indeed, if anyone gives you even a cup of water because you bear the name of Christ, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward. ⁴² But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be thrown into the sea. ⁴³ If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two hands and go into hell, into the unquenchable fire. ⁴⁵ If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. ⁴⁷ And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸ where ‘their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.’ ⁴⁹ For everyone will be salted with fire. ⁵⁰ Salt is good, but if the salt loses its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

John’s report sounds loyal, and what lies under it is possessiveness, a complaint that the man was “not with us.” Jesus refuses to treat His own name as property the Twelve may license out to a chosen few. Works done in His name are welcome, and a cup of water handed to someone because he belongs to Christ will be remembered. Then His tone turns severe. For tripping one of these little ones who believe, the worst picture He can find is a millstone around a neck and deep water underneath it. Hand, foot, or eye: whatever keeps leading a person into sin is worth losing, weighed against the fire He names three times over and the worm that never dies. He asks no one to maim his own body. He does demand that His disciples treat the ruin of a faith as the deadly thing it is, and He finishes where the day’s arguing began, telling men whose salt has gone flat to have salt among themselves and be at peace with one another.