TGBC Saturday, 23 January 2021. Mark 9:1-13
Not a good image at all, as a matter of fact it's quite a bad picture. Could've been better, because I snapped until I had several with the flashing red lights, channel marker lights in the Bay and aircraft warning lights atop the tall tower I see between 7H and The Pass. But it's okay, there's still a lot of darkness before daybreak.
Mind is reeling this morning from yesterday's death of Jay McRae, whose voice I'd come to know as the sound of praise in our worship. "How painful it is to the Lord when one of his people dies" reads a translation of a verse from Psalm 116, and if the Lord is as present in our worship as we believe and hope, the Lord will grievously miss the sound of Jay's voice. A joy was standing in our pulpit and swinging around to my right to see Jay sitting there alone in the "choir loft" and knowing that no matter how lousy my sermon was, Jay would be singing the Offertory song, saving the day.
This counts five deaths close to my heart in the past month, so the image of darkness with no light is apt. Although some pious soul will call me on that.
Here's this morning's reading in The Good Book Club. KJV because I like the sound of it, and some comments scattered between Mark's paragraphs.
Mark 9:1-13
(mostly KJV, fooled with a little bit, not much, don't worry about it, I'm not going to)
9:1 And he said unto them, Verily I say unto you, That there be some that stand here, which shall not taste death, till ἴδωσιν they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.
Pausing here to comment before going on, because Mark 9:1 is one of my favorite NT verses. "Verily" is "amen" in Mark's NT Greek and also would've been in Jesus' Aramaic, sometimes rendered "truly". Mark's word ἴδωσιν (ee-doe-seen), see, is for its root word ὁράω (ho-raow), which, deeper than just vision, "I see", conveys the sense of seeing inwardly, perceive, grasp, experience, realize, become aware of, understand even as a spiritual epiphany. Some will not die before we realize that the kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth and we have not been realizing it and helping make it so. Look around you: this is the kingdom of God, or as Matthew would have it, the kingdom of heaven.
Thinking somewhat obliquely of Marcus Aurelius, "Soon, very soon, thou wilt be ashes, or a skeleton, and either a name or not even a name; but name is sound and echo. And the things which are much valued in life are empty and rotten and trifling, and like little dogs biting one another, and little children quarrelling, laughing, and then straightway weeping. But fidelity and modesty and justice and truth are fled Up to Olympus from the wide-spread earth. What then is there which still detains thee here? If the objects of sense are easily changed and never stand still, and the organs of perception are dull and easily receive false impressions; and the poor soul itself is an exhalation from blood. But to have good repute amidst such a world as this is an empty thing. Why then dost thou not wait in tranquility for thy end, whether it is extinction or removal to another state? And until that time comes, what is sufficient? Why, what else than to venerate the gods and bless them, and to do good to men".
The kingdom of the Father is not at all about Jesus dying for the forgiveness of my sins and ushering me into afterlife; it's about the kingdom of the Father here and now: seeking and serving Christ in all persons, loving my neighbor as myself, striving for justice and peace among all people, and respecting the dignity of every human being.
2 And after six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and he was μετεμορφώθη transfigured before them. 3 And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.
Again, we see who of his disciples he is closest to, Peter, James and John, the Galilean fisherman with whom he developed a close friendship when he moved from Nazareth to Capernaum. Simon's younger brother Andrew is not part of Jesus' closest relationship. And he's taking them away privately because (top secret, eyes only) he especially trusts them to see and hear what God is about to say to them and to keep quiet about it until later (after Easter?).
Note that Mark's NT Greek word transfigured is μετεμορφώθη, metamorphosis that we say happens to a caterpillar emerging from the cocoon as a butterfly, a tadpole emerging from the pond as a frog, here in 7H as we watch an ugly little insect (that looks like a small brown roach with a pitchfork tail) in its next life darting around off our balcony as nature's bi-plane, a dragonfly in the dusk of early evening catching mosquitos. Before these innocent fishermen's eyes, Jesus "metamorphs" into the Son of God - - into what does Jesus call you to "metamorph"? Not into an angel, but into someone who realizes that The Way of the Cross is the Way of Life, and is stepping into it.
4 And there appeared unto them Elijah with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus. 5 And Peter answered and said to Jesus, ῥαββεί Master (rabbi), it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah. 6 For he wist not what to say; for they were sore afraid. 7 And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him. 8 And suddenly, when they had looked round about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves.
Pausing again. Moses and Elijah represent the Law and the Prophets of Judaism. Greater than Moses is here, Greater than Elijah: this One is the Son, in a theophany, God's own self saying so. Note that (for Mark), at Jesus' baptism the voice of God spoke to Jesus only; now at the Transfiguration, God is speaking to those present.
Addendum: I appreciate the word "wist" for "know" Peter wist not. Same as (Luke 2:41-52) when Jesus' mother starts to scold him for giving his parents such a fright, Jesus says (KJV) "Wist ye not that I must be in my Father's house?" (some add, "and about my Father's business"). So "wist" for "know" and the same German word as "wissen" or wißen as in wißen sie, you know? Ich weiß nicht. And not even a shaken Mary could resist her little son's innocent brown eyes.
9 And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen, till bar-Enosh the Son of Man were risen from the dead. 10 And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean.
Pause and comment again. He pledges them to keep the messianic secret until after Easter, and this time they do as he commands them instead of, like the unclean spirits he casts out, and those whom he heals, running out and telling everybody even though he told them to be quiet.
Here it's starting to clarify that Jesus is indeed bar-Enosh, the Son of Man, and will rise from death, or God will raise him. The disciples now seem to be more accepting of the idea that the messiah must suffer and die, though they don't yet "get it" about why Jesus must die and rise from the dead. Why does that happen? It's a strange plan of salvation. I don't think it has to do with what happens to me after I die so much as with what I do when I realize that it's really true, "My friends, life is short, and we haven't much time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us". But why die and return? Maybe we'll see before Mark finishes with us?
11 And they asked him, saying, Why say the scribes that Elijah must first come? 12 And he answered and told them, Elijah verily cometh first, and restoreth all things; and how it is written of the Son of Man, that he must suffer many things, and be set at nought. 13 But I say unto you, That Elijah is indeed come, and they have done unto him whatsoever they listed, as it is written of him.
Okay my final albeit inadequate comment. The Elijah expectation is Jewish tradition that comes from Malachi 4:5, “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes.6 He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse.” I think Jesus here is less interested in discussing Elijah than in conveying the notion of himself as bar-Enosh, the Son of Man from Daniel chapter 7, whom the Ancient of Days will dispatch to earth with dominion to rule.
At verse 12 above, "set at nought" shows up again in Charles Wesley's hymn that we sing in Advent, "Lo, he comes with clouds descending",