Division After Only One Verse
The first
verse of Mark 9 has caused an incredible amount of division among
Christians. Many people read this verse
and assume that Jesus is talking about the second coming. However, if that is true, then Jesus was
flat-out wrong. Every single one of the
people to whom He is speaking is now dead, and Jesus has not yet returned. I don’t know about you, but I don’t believe
Jesus was ever wrong. Thus, Jesus must
not be speaking about the second coming here.
Rather,
let’s look at about what He might be talking.
What is the power and the kingdom of God? Ultimately, it is a restored relationship
with God. When did that happen? At the cross.
Most of the people who were alive when Jesus said these words were alive
when Jesus was crucified. Furthermore,
what happens after Jesus dies, rises, and ascends? The Holy Spirit comes and the church explodes
over the next few decades. The church
grows from a small band of followers to a religion with genuine disciples in
every major city in the Roman Empire and quite a few minor cities, too. Most of the people alive when Jesus said
these words would have still been alive to see the church growing, too. Jesus is not speaking of the second coming in
this opening verse but rather He is speaking of the coming of a restored
relationship, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the explosion of Christianity.
Transfiguration
Then we
move onto the story of the transfiguration.
Here we see Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah. We hear God’s booming declaration of being
pleased with Jesus. We also hear Peter’s
bumbling suggestion to build huts because he didn’t know what else to say. Let’s go there today.
Peter
doesn’t know what to say, so he makes a silly suggestion. Learn this lesson from Peter. If you aren’t being led by God to say something
meaningful or you don’t have a meaningful question to ask … then stay quiet and
learn from God until you do have something meaningful that God wants you to
add! In this light, Peter’s suggestion
has two very meaningful faults:
- First, Peter is suggesting that they stay here forever. The problem with this suggestion is that while Peter gets the gold star for recognizing the spirituality of the moment, he gets a big minus for not wanting to move forward with God’s plan. The goal of life is not to settle in and become complacent. The goal of Christian life is to follow God! God was leading Jesus to the cross; Peter’s suggestion would have prevented that. As we learned yesterday, by opening his mouth in this manner Peter is again demonstrating that he is an adversary to God at this moment. Fortunately, God forgives.
- Second, Peter’s need to speak almost causes him to miss what God was really doing here. Peter wants to be contributing to the discussion and building small dwellings so that they can enjoy life with Elijah and Moses. God wants Jesus and His disciples to know just how pleased the Father is with the Son. By not being patient and waiting for God, Peter runs the risk of missing God’s point! Fortunately, when God wants to make Himself known He can interrupt our lives and get our attention.
The Hope of an Unknown Man
The next
story is an awesome story about the significance of faith. A father brings his demon-stricken child to
Jesus. Note the heart of the lesson. The father says, “If anything is powerful,
come to the aid of us and have compassion on us.” There is no faith there. Don’t get me wrong. There is absolutely hope present in the man. But there is not faith. Not yet.
However,
Jesus corrects him. Jesus repeats the
father’s words and then teaches. “If anything
is powerful enough … All power is to the one who believes.”* Jesus is
teaching the man to come out of the shell of his protective hesitation. For the believer, it is not a question of
“if.” This is not a matter of
possibility. This is a matter of faith
and belief. This is a matter of believing that God desires something
rather than hoping that God desires
something. And the man responds. “I believe, help my unbelief!”
This is
such a great lesson for modern Christians.
How many times do we go through life saying, “If God wants this, He’ll
make it possible.” It’s not a question
of possibility! God desires us to have a
backbone! God desires us to be confident
about His will. Yes, it is good to be
humble and seek out God’s will over our own.
But once we know God’s will, we need to get out and do it! We need to quit protecting our hesitation and
start genuinely following and believing!
Being a follower of God is a position of power. When we are following God’s will, who can
stop us?
Lack of Understanding
We then
have a trio of stories that serve to highlight the disciples’ lack of
understanding. Remember that these
stories are coming on the heels of a story where the disciples had failed to
use the power that God had bestowed upon them to properly drive out the mute
and deaf demon. Now Jesus tells them
plainly that He is going to be handed over into the hands of men. Then Jesus will die. Then He will be raised. The Bible tells us that His disciples didn’t
understand.
What’s
worse is that they don’t understand so much that immediately after hearing
Jesus talk about His humble sacrifice they begin to talk about their own
greatness. If ever there was a
“palm-smacking the forehead” moment in the Bible, this is it. They really don’t get what Jesus is
about. Jesus is about humble submission
and forfeiture of His own life for the sake of God’s plan. The disciples are about glory,
self-promotion, their goals, their agenda, and general all around
self-mongerism. As I said earlier with
Peter’s blunder of speech at the transfiguration, thankfully God is a God of
forgiveness!
The Lord’s Side
This trio
of stories ends with Jesus’ teaching to them that anyone not against God is for
God. It is not up to us to determine who
is on God’s side. That is up to
God. Again we see that we desire to set
up our own agenda rather than seeing the world through God’s eyes.
We
conclude this chapter with Jesus turning much darker in His teaching. Up until now he was all about peace and
compassion and life. Now Jesus knows
that the time is drawing near. There is
some seriously hard teaching that needs to happen. Jesus begins with sin.
His point
is blunt. If anything keeps you from
God, get rid of it. Period. There is no compromise. If something is leading you away from God and
into sin, get it out of your life.
Nothing in this world is so enjoyable that it is worth compromising
eternal salvation and life with God.
If we want
to follow Jesus, we begin there. If we
are to follow Him, we need to evaluate our life and toss aside what doesn’t
fit. If we are unwilling to do that,
then why bother lying to ourselves and tell ourselves that we can follow in any
other way? If we will clutch onto sin
and refuse to release it to God for His disposal, then are we really His
disciple?
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*Forgive the jarring
translation, but this is literally what the Greek says in verses 22 &
23. I don’t approve at all of the way
many Bibles translate the verb “dynamai” (δύναμαι). This is the word in Greek that is the root of
our English words dynamite, dynamic, or dynamo.
When you think of those words in English you probably think of something
powerful, explosive, or eye-catching.
Thus, you can see how most Bible’s rendering of the verb “dynamai” as
“possible” is really underwhelming. What
is really pathetic are the translations that use the word “can.” (Much to my dismay, the ESV is one of those
translations… L) The father is not questioning if Jesus can or
cannot do something. The man is questioning
whether or not Jesus has power! Thus, in
my translation above I have tried to capture the essence of “power” rather than
“possibility.”
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