Jammin with Jamin

So in case you’re wondering why I have been putting up old posts lately, it’s because I’ve been writing this honker of a paper. If I could have been a little more less professional about it I would have made a reference to Star Wars. There’s a part where Jesus meets Moses and Elijah on a mountain top and I picture them all holographic like Yoda and Obi-Wan. There’s my tid bit. Feel free to read on and learn something.

The Bible has been portrayed by many people to be the “Book with all the answers.” While I would have to agree that the Bible is in fact truth and that with truth come answers, I also believe that many times people finish a passage and are left with more questions than they can chew on. Unfortunately, many people do not put in the effort to research their questions and therefore continue their lives with confusion in their faith. Granted, we will not always come away from research with a direct answer, it is still important to look into our questions.

The question I would like to raise about the Transfiguration of Jesus is one that I think we should ask with every passage we read: “What is the significance of this?” As people of faith, we really do need to ask this question on a regular basis. I believe that we will find truth in this difficult question, and walk away from our readings with something new to apply to our faith, actions and daily walk.

A great way to start answering this question is for one to educate oneself in the context of which this story takes place. Knowing the historical basis in which a passage takes place can really be key to getting a good understanding of one’s questions. The Transfiguration was an event documented in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but I am going to be looking more specifically at Mark 9:2-13 in this case. It is also interesting to note that each book offers a few different ideas on this story; however, none of the stories contradict each other. They simply offer a couple more ideas and details as what happened within this chapter.

The author of this book, John Mark, is widely accepted to have written the first gospel because all of the other gospels quote all but 31 verses of what he had written. Mark wrote his gospel somewhere between 55 and 65 A.D. and even though he was not one of the twelve disciples, he still worked with quite a knowledgeable and powerful figure: he accompanied Paul on his first journey to bring the news of Jesus Christ to the world.

The reasoning behind writing this book was to reach the Christians in Rome whom at that time fell under the reign of Tiberius Caesar. It ends up that Rome was pretty much the perfect place to get the word of Jesus out because it had such an awesome transportation and communication system. And just in case that was not enough, Rome also spoke a pretty common language, so there wasn’t too much of a language barrier between people.

The Book of Mark is a Biblical narrative of the life of Jesus Christ. Mark wrote quite a bit about the miracles that Jesus did. In fact he wrote so much about them that he recorded more miracles than any other Gospel did. There are healings, demonic deliverances, teachings, and much more. Mark seemed intent on making the mystical glory of God through His son Jesus obvious to His audience.

To be a little more specific, however, the Transfiguration of Jesus is situated between a couple more themes. Some of them are the popular themes you see throughout the entire book such as miracles, healings, demonic deliverances, and teachings, but the co-text of this particular pericope hold a couple more themes that are not quite so dominant throughout the book. For instance, we see that Jesus predicts his death for the first time in the section right before the Transfiguration. And then, within the same chapter that the Transfiguration takes place; Jesus predicts it for a second time. And then again in chapter 10, Jesus predicts his death for a third time.

There is also quite a bit of talk of children or at least references to them. At the end of chapter seven, Jesus sends a demon out of a girl, and then in chapter nine He sends one out of a boy as well. In chapter ten, Jesus even goes to the point of making children an example of what it takes to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Jesus does quite a bit of teaching throughout the co-text as well. This makes sense since Jesus claims in Mark 2:38, “We must go on to other towns as well, and I will preach to them, too. That is why I came.” And He definitely does so. Jesus gives many lessons throughout chapters eight, nine, and ten. In fact, just about every single pericope carries with it a lesson from Jesus, even if it was only meant to be a story. For example, when Jesus feeds the four thousand and the five thousand, he uses it later to question the disciple’s faith in pericope 107. Even if Jesus does not make a direct teaching out of a pericope, there is still a lesson to be learned.

There are also a couple times in the co-text where Jesus has to scold or question his disciples. Sometimes the disciples would get a little out of hand with their ideas or lack understanding of Jesus’ teachings. They would also seem to occasionally go on a bit of a power trip like in chapter nine when they argue with each other about who was the greatest, or later when they when they try to stop a man from casting demons out of people in the name of Jesus just because he is not in their gang. Again and again Jesus has to correct them.

So we are beginning to get a feeling from the co-text of the Transfiguration that Jesus is quite a powerful, authoritative, wise and mystical person. He can perform miracles, heal the sick, cast out demons, see the future, and teach even the wisest of religious leaders. But how can a mere human have such qualities? Where do such qualities come from? These questions lead us to a very important passage of the Bible: the Transfiguration. And this is where the question comes in, “What is the significance of this?” And we come to find that there might be much more significance in this passage than we could have ever expected to realize.

Jesus took three of his disciples up a high mountain to be alone. The disciples He chose to come with him were Peter, James and John. These three were perhaps the closest friends to Jesus out of all the disciples. Mark spares us the small details of what happened during their hike, because the next thing we know the disciples are watching Jesus be transfigured. Now the first question that would enter one’s mind is probably, “What on earth does that mean? How was Jesus transfigured?”

According to Strong’s NIV Exhaustive Concordance, in Greek this word means to be transformed or changed in form. It might make more sense in English to mention that the transliteration of this word means to metamorphose. No matter which way you look at it, the point remains. Jesus was changed in some way, shape, or form upon that mountaintop. It can also be concluded that this is a huge deal, because this is the only story in the entire Bible that this word is used in. It is used once in Matthew and once in Mark, both within in the same pericope.

Mark goes on to describe how it was that Jesus’ appearance was transformed: “His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them (Mark 9:3 NIV).” This description can be taken one step further with a brief look into Matthew 17:2, where Matthew states that Jesus’ “face shone like the sun (NLT).” This description sounds very breathtaking and mystical, all the while pushing us to question the significance of it. Why is the transfiguration described as white, bright, and shining?

Well, we of the Christian faith recognize Jesus Christ as God’s Son who came down from Heaven to show us how to live. Therefore Jesus is of Heavenly descent which many commentators have made a connection to the reason why his clothes are shining white. “Shining white clothing is a feature of accounts of the appearance of heavenly beings, not only in the resurrection narratives but also in Deuteronomy 7:9 and in other apocalyptic texts where God wears light like a garment (France, 351).” There is a good example of this in Matthew 28:3 where an angel is sitting on top of Jesus’ rolled away tombstone. He is described almost exactly the same as the transfigured Jesus. “His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow (NLT).”

In case the transfiguration itself was not bizarre enough, next “Elijah and Moses appeared and began talking with Jesus (Mark 9:4 NLT).” Glenna S. Jackson offers reasons as to why these two were the people that showed up on the mountain. “Not only did Moses and Elijah suffer as great prophets and lawgivers, but each had a vision of the glory of God on a mountain and both seem to have escaped natural deaths (Freedman, 1327).” Jackson makes a great point in finding these similarities. Perhaps these are the reasons that bring the three together for a chat on this mountain.

Commentator Robert H. Gundry picked up on something else quite interesting in this short verse. This is the fact that “Mark does not describe Elijah and Moses as transfigured human beings (Gundry, 478).” This gives Jesus superiority above these two in his transformation. It doesn’t compare him to these two famous and powerful leaders of old—it puts Jesus on a whole different level.

Peter, on the other hand, kind of screwed up that idea. “Rabbi, it’s wonderful for us to be here! Let’s make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah (Mark 9:5, NLT).” This put Jesus on the same level as Moss and Elijah. An ancient commentator Jerome made a great quote on this moment. “O Peter, even though you have ascended the mountain, even though you see Jesus transfigured, even though his garments are white; nevertheless, because Christ has not yet suffered for you, you are still unable to know the truth (Oden, 119-120).” But apparently Peter was terrified about everything that was happening and spoke of out his fear and that somewhat excused him.

In verse seven a cloud appears and overshadows or envelops “them.” “Them” is the keyword up for debate here because scholars tend to fight about if the cloud overshadowed Jesus, Moses, and Elijah or if it overshadowed everyone on the mountain. This is difficult to decide because we hear God’s voice coming out of the cloud and therefore we wonder if the cloud is too holy to allow the disciples inside. However, after assessing this story in Luke, I agree with the idea that the disciples were inside the cloud. Although the word “they” is used this time, it is not used quite as broadly and seems much more direct. “A cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud (Luke 9:34, NIV).”

God speaks these words out of the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” These words are very familiar to what God said about Jesus after He was baptized by John in Mark 1:11. Craig A. Evans made a great connection between this and Daniel’s prophecy in Daniel 7:13. This verse stated part of Daniel’s vision: “I saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient One and was led into his presence. He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him (NLT).” Evans also made a note of Daniel 7:9 which described “the Ancient One” as having “clothing white as snow (Evans, 36).”

“Suddenly, when they looked around, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they saw only Jesus with them (Mark 9:8).” This is the next stage in this pericope signifying that the cloud has lifted and Moses and Elijah have disappeared with it. Skipping the details once again, Mark skips to the journey down the mountain and Jesus telling the three disciples “not to tell anyone what had happened until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept it to themselves, but they often asked each other what he meant by ‘rising from the dead (Mark 9:9-10, NLT).’” The verses push the three disciples into secrecy, as Jesus had asked a couple people to do before with the things they had seen. 

One of the big reasons Jesus probably does this is to protect Himself from being mobbed by people. Keeping this secret will also make all the other prophecies capable of happening. The release of this information too early could screw everything up. But if it is supposed to be a secret, then why did the disciples have to go up the mountain in the first place? Well, if they would not have gone, then no one would have been there to witness it, and therefore no one would have known that Daniel’s vision ever came true, or that Jesus had had that kind of authority vested in Him. This also shows how much Jesus trusted these three.

The disciples asked Jesus why the law insisted that Elijah had to come back before the Messiah came. Jesus responded by telling them that Elijah was going to come first to get everything ready. Then He to makes a question that seems off topic at first, but is in fact an idea related to His answer. Jesus added a question to his answer, which He tends to do quite often. “Yet why do the Scriptures say that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be treated with utter contempt? (Mark 9:12, NLT)” This is Jesus referencing the confusion of the cross even though Elijah has supposedly already paved the way for Him.

Jesus ends the pericope stating that “Elijah has already come, and they chose to abuse him, just as the Scriptures predicted.” It’s interesting that Mark doesn’t mention the fact that John the Baptist was Elijah in this moment. Especially since the whole book starts off with a prophecy of a messenger—the returning Elijah—and John the Baptist is the messenger stated directly after the prophecy (Mark 1:1-4). The same story in Matthew 17 states at the end of it that “the disciples realized he was talking about John the Baptist.” This is a rather curious absence of information, but at least John’s role is described in other parts of the Bible to get the point across.

So the question still remains, what is the significance of this pericope? Well, I would say that Daniel’s prophecy hits the nail right on the head. “He was given authority, honor, and sovereignty over all the nations of the world, so that people of every race and nation and language would obey him.” Jesus was led into God’s presence on this mountain to receive this authority, honor, and sovereignty. It was audible, visual, and it was direct proof from God to a few people of the “Kingdom of God arriving in great power (see Mark 1).”

This is a great passage for any Christian that ever doubts the truth or authority of God and it really should be talked about more in churches. There is something very divine and true that happens in this pericope and I do not think I would be so far off to say that many people don’t truly understand what happened in this area. I don’t think I would be wrong to say that some Christians don’t even know this story at all! This is an awesome story and it should be talked about in detail.

Mark 9:2-13 is essential to what we believe in Christianity. It is the audible and visual proof from God of His son. It was so important that it was kept a secret for a good amount of time. If we are not teaching Christians this story, we are holding them back from something they need to hear.