by Beth Moore
We find scene one in Mark 5:35-43. The synagogue ruler named Jairus had requested that Jesus heal his daughter, and they were on the way to his home. Men met them and told Jairus not to bother the Rabbi because the girl had already died. Jesus told Jairus, "Don't be afraid; just believe" (v. 36).
I am fascinated by what Jesus did next. First, "He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John" (v. 37). This reduced number proceeded to the home. The mourners had already gathered. In fact, they laughed when Jesus said the girl was not dead. He drove the crowd out of the house. He took the three disciples and the girl's parents into the room with Him. Jesus then raised the girl from the dead with a mere verbal command.
I can't help wondering what went through the minds of the three men when they were allowed to follow Jesus to a place the others weren't invited. I know what would have gone through my feminine mind. Women tend to be so relational.... I hardly would have been able to enjoy the privilege without fretting over the others being left out. Then, of course, I would have worried about whether they would be mad at me when we got back. I would imagine for days that they were acting a little weird. In fact, knowing I would have fretted myself half to death, Jesus wouldn't have bothered letting me come. No telling how many things I've missed because I make a knot out of the simplest string.
I would have hated to miss the eyeful the three got that particular day. Raising the stone-cold dead is nothing less than divine. This scene was not business as usual no matter how many miracles the three had seen and even performed.
I have been with several people right around their times of death, and I was utterly amazed each time how quickly the body grew cold. In spiritual terms, the soul is what keeps a body warm. Physical death occurs when the soul (meaning the immaterial part of a person, soul and spirit) departs the body. At its exodus, the warmth of life departs as well. We can be comforted by the fresh realization that the spiritual life is in the soul, and the soul continues living. We talk about the finality of death, but it has relatively little finality to the believer.
I'm so glad Jesus didn't listen to those who discouraged Jairus from "bothering" the teacher any more. Their reason was because the girl was dead. The death of a loved one is no time to quit "bothering" Jesus. No, He's not very likely to raise our loved one from the dead, but He can do countless other things to get us through our losses. Comfort is the most obvious need, but we have others.
I often talk to people who are hamstrung by a death that left issues or answers unresolved. If I may be so bold, sometimes the missing person is not a loved one but an unforgiven or unforgiving one with whom we needed to make peace. Hopelessness often ensues. Depression can result. Sometimes we are convinced that all parties must be alive and kicking for us to gain peace in a situation.
Needless to say, the ideal time to make peace with others is while everyone's still breathing. But if it's too late, bother the Teacher! He doesn't have our limitations or rationalizations. Has a death left you with unfinished business? Finish it with Jesus.
Now travel with me to scene 2 in Mark 9:2-10. Jesus took the same three disciples with Him to the Mount of Transfiguration. There they saw Jesus' clothes become glowing white before them. They heard a voice from heaven, and they saw Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus.
Much time elapsed between the two scenes we're studying. Significant events occurred between these two dates, such as the feeding of the five thousand and Jesus walking on the water. What makes these two scenes priorities for our study is the inclusion of only three disciples. Christ does nothing haphazardly. He undoubtedly had reasons for appointing their observation.
In Mark 5:37, the three were listed as "Peter, James and John the brother of James." In this scene, John is no longer named like a tagalong brother. At this point, we see his identity in Scripture undoubtedly emerging. Also note that Jesus didn't just let Peter, James, and John come along. He took them.
God's will (Greek thelema) always expresses divine intention. Just as Jesus was intentional toward the experiences and exposures of the three, Christ is intentional toward us. He never bosses us or appoints us to something for the sheer sake of presuming authority. His will always has purpose. Sometimes we go our own ways, and God still has mercy on us and shows us something there. Other times we beg Him to allow us to go a certain place and He consents. Still other times God takes us places we never intended to go. Those are places He will reveal Himself to us in ways we didn't even know He existed.
All three synoptic Gospels record the transfiguration. Matthew's Gospel supplies the detail that the three disciples fell facedown to the ground. I am convinced that the people of God miss many appropriate opportunities to fall facedown to the ground, not in an emotional frenzy, but in complete awe of God. We don't have a clue who we're dealing with. I believe one of Jesus' chief reasons for transfiguring Himself before the three disciples was to say, "I am not like you. This is just a glimpse of who I am.
Remember, Jesus had equipped them with supernatural power to perform some of the same miracles He performed. What would keep them from thinking that just maybe in time they might be His peers? God forbid the thought! Jesus is not a superhuman. He is God. The beloved, divine Son of Him who occupies the throne of all creation. In Psalm 50:21 God says, "You thought I was altogether like you." One primary reason He takes us places we've never been is to show us He's not like anyone else. Where has God taken you personally to transfigure your perception of Him?
Glory came down on the mountain that night. When the cloudy pillar enveloped them and the voice of the Almighty became audible, they clung to the dirt of earth in terror. Rightly so.
Mark's Gospel shares at least two additional facts. First of all, he tells us Christ's clothes dazzled with a whiteness whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. You and I can't fathom whiter than white. Our finite minds can only embrace nature's rendition of white ... like fresh falling snow. The divine white goes much further than the whiteness of snow.
In Psalm 51:7 David appealed to God to wash him whiter than snow. Anything we are and anything we have that is whiter than snow comes from Christ alone. I have lived long enough to sin against many people. I have sought forgiveness from those God has brought to my mind. I've been forgiven many times, but no one could make me clean. No one except Jesus, whose dazzling glories are whiter than anything in the world.
Mark also tells us that Peter made the daft suggestion of building three tabernacles because he did not know what to say. He was too frightened. Have you ever noticed how often we say something completely ridiculous when we don't know what to say? Oh, that God would have put our brains in our tongues! In His wisdom He did, however, give us twice as many ears as we have mouths, but we seem to have missed the point. God responded from the heavens, "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!" My translation: "Shut thee up!"
One of Luke's primary inclusions is the fact that Moses and Elijah were there discussing Christ's departure. A more literal translation would be "exodus." That puts chills all over me. If any two former mortals knew anything about distinctive departures, Moses and Elijah did. One died alone with God and was buried by Him, and the other was taken up in a whirlwind with chariots of fire. Jesus' assignment was far more radical, and the effects would be completely revolutionary. They had much to discuss.
We've studied two scenes in which John observed. Both involved profound miracles. Both involved Christ's power over the dead. Christ raised Jairus' daughter from the dead. Neither Moses nor Elijah returned to their mortal bodies on Earth yet, they were very much alive.
Mark 9:9-10 tells us Jesus commanded the three disciples to say nothing until after He was also raised from the dead. The three descended, debating what Jesus meant.
Beloved, Jesus is Lord over the living ... and the dead.
Chapter 8
RIGHT-HANDED DISCIPLES
They replied `Let one of us sit at your right hand and the other at your left in your glory
." (Mark 10:37)
We last saw John, his brother, and his buddy Peter as they viewed sights the others could hardly have imagined. Christ made them His inner circle. They beheld revelations of His glory both in raising the dead and conferring with those long supposed dead. One might say you'd have to be dead to be unaffected by such sights, but obviously in both cases the dead were highly affected! No one remained unchanged. But how were the disciples changing? That's the question.
Before we take a look at how the three dealt with their private invitations, let's make sure we're prepared to apply some of these truths to ourselves. Paul didn't write the Book of Ephesians to the twelve disciples. It was intended for all of us who would place our faith in Jesus. Ephesians 1:3 tells us that Christ has "blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing." Later on Paul described how he prayed that the Father "may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better" (Eph. 1:17).
Scripture clearly teaches that those of us who have trusted Christ are also chosen (Eph. 1:4) and called (Eph. 1:18). He leaves us on this earth so that our lives will have an effect for the kingdom of God. The primary way He equips us for our tasks is to reveal Himself to us. If you want to serve Christ, don't just get busy. Get to know Him intimately and you'll have a head-on collision with your calling! God wants to give us a Spirit of wisdom and revelation so we'll know what to do with what He reveals.
We know that we've been chosen and called to various kinds of ministries. God wrapped these concepts up in the difficult package we call election. At the risk of more simplicity than my biblically intellectual friends can stand, my personal belief is that God will call anyone who will come. He looks upon the heart. God has been so merciful to me that I cannot imagine how He would withhold His grace from anyone who sought Him. I believe He chooses those who He knows have the heart to choose Him.
Can I answer all the questions such a stand invariably raises? Not on your life! Neither could Paul. Check out Romans 11:33-34. I will defer to someone who was far brighter than I will ever be. In the classic book The Pursuit of Gods A. W. Tozer wrote:
God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, "O Lord, Thou knowest." Those things belong to the deep and mysterious profound of God's omniscience. Prying into them may make us theologians, but it will never make us saints.
God chooses us to reveal Himself to us. He intends His revelation to bring about such a Spirit-empowered representation of what He's about that it will transfigure the world He so loves. Our reactions to God's revelation (through His Word, nature, and circumstances) are tell-tale signs of our maturity. Even the most mature believers could be enticed by the enemy and their own egos to be puffed up by the election of revelation. Paul said it best in 2 Corinthians 12:7: "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me."
Somebody might have needed to stick a thorn in Peter, James, and John as well and burst their balloon egos. We're going to see that they obviously struggled with election and revelation as well. Did you notice in our previous chapter that the three didn't fall facedown on the ground until God spoke from the cloud (Matt. 17:5-6)? Can you imagine still being able to stand on your feet and talk while Christ dazzled with glory and Elijah and Moses popped onto the scene? Nope, the three weren't thinking very clearly. Sometimes we don't when our heads are too heady.
As you read Matthew 17, the voice of God seems to come almost as a divine interruption saying, "You three just don't get it, do you? You can't `see' what you're seeing, so shut up and listen!" That they didn't exactly assimilate the revelation with maturity is crystal clear in our next passage. In the same chapter recording the transfiguration, Luke reports three scenes. The disciples misread election and revelation in each one.
In Luke 9:46 48 the disciples were arguing about which of them would be greatest. Jesus took a child and said, "Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For he who is least among you all-he is the greatest" (v. 48).
In Luke 9:49-50 John told the Master, "We saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us." Jesus forbade them to stop such men, "For whoever is not against you is for you."
In Luke 9:51-55 James and John asked permission to call down fire on a Samaritan village that failed to welcome the group. Luke simply noted that Jesus turned and rebuked them.
I'm sitting here shaking my head. Oh, not just at them. At myself. At the whole lot of us. Sometimes I wonder why God doesn't give up on us when we cop attitudes like these. Only His mercy keeps us from being consumed (Lam. 3:22-23). I constantly thank Him for hanging in there with me. I would have given up on myself a long time ago. I am so grateful that God is both nearsighted and farsighted. He sees us as we really are, and He sees how we'll really be. I'm pretty convinced that only the latter keeps the former alive.
Perhaps John's age didn't help. Life simply hadn't had time to beat him over the head with humility. Forty years on the far side of the desert followed by a flock of aggravating people was enough to humble the exclusivity right out of Moses. In a wonderfully peculiar account in Numbers 11:24-30, Moses faced a similar situation. He took the elders of Israel into the tent of meeting. There the Spirit of God came upon them, and they prophesied. Two of the elders, however, did not come with the group. Those two also began to prophesy in the camp.
When Joshua heard what was happening, he asked almost the exact question as John in our incident above. He asked if he should stop the two. Moses responded, "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his Spirit on them!" (Num. 11:29).
I'll never forget standing in the resource room of my office with a friend who asked, "What does it feel like to look at all these books with your name on them?" My face screwed up into a knot, and I said, "All they represent to me is one holy beatin' after another!" I am sad to say that much of what I've learned has come with the rod of God, but things are beginning to change, aren't they, Father?
After the three strikes recorded in Luke 9, Christ's enduring love and patience is obvious in His unwillingness to throw His thumb back and yell "Out!" Particularly since He knew what was coming next. Mark tells us how James and John came to Jesus and said, "We want you to do for us whatever we ask" (Mark 10:35). They painted a pretty good picture of spiritual toddlerhood, didn't they? But here's the painful part. We can relate too much to want to judge James and John harshly in their approach, can't we? Let's face it. All of us have to go through spiritual toddlerhood and adolescence to get to a place of maturity. We don't ordinarily leap up. We grow up. The danger is when we refuse to grow. To get stuck in this stage is about as appealing as an adult that still acts like a two-year-old.
For a few moments, James and John did nothing but descend deeper and deeper in the quicksand of their own self-absorption. (Never doubt, it is quicksand.) In this scene, James and John made only three statements.
"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask" (v. 35). "Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory" (v. 37). The last statement we'll consider in a moment. First meditate on these statements and try to capture the emotions and attitudes behind them. Do you see a growing audacity with each statement?
Don't think for a minute they wouldn't have dug themselves deeper given the opportunity. Had Christ told them He might consider one on His right and one on His left, how long do you think it would have taken them to rumble over who would sit where? Oh, brother! Their famous last two words almost slay me. After Christ asked, "Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?" they answered without hesitation: "We
can." They didn't have any idea what they were talking about because they didn't have any idea what Christ was talking about. Soon they would. And one day in the distant future they would sip from the cup and know the baptism of His suffering, but in their present state, they needed a baby bottle, not a cup.
Our problem is often the same as theirs. We let the human image of Christ mislead us into downsizing Him. "If He'd just stoop a little and we stood on our tiptoes, we'd be just about side by side. One at His left. One at His right." Negatory, good buddy. When the Word became flesh to dwell among us, human flesh wrapped its way around "the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9 KJV).
I am convinced if we, present company included, really "got" the concept of being chosen and called by Jesus Christ the divine Son of God, like the prophet Ezekiel, the Spirit of God would have to set us on our feet for us to get off our faces (Ezek. 2:1). Yes, we've been chosen and, yes, we've been called, and we'll know we're grasping the concept when our humanity is cloaked in humility.
"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask."
or
"Teach us to do for You whatever You ask."
Chapter 9
RECLINING NEXT TO HIM
One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. (John 13:23)
The final week of Christ's life as the God-man started exactly like the disciples preferred: with the fanfare of a triumphal entry. No little excitement had surrounded them since the booming voice of Jesus awakened a four-day-old dead man. The longer the chief priests "let" Christ get away, the more complicated their schemes became. John 12:10-11 tells us they planned to kill Lazarus, too, for on account of his being raised from the dead, many of the Jews were going to Jesus and putting their faith in him.
The week of the great feast arrived, and so many Jews were in Jerusalem that a donkey couldn't even hear himself neigh. Surely the disciples had joined their families in many pilgrimages to the Holy City to observe the Passover, but this year they attended with One who appeared to be the Master of Ceremonies. Their impatient, ambitious feet seemed finally about to enter the big world on pay dirt. They were about to be important. Or at least that's what they thought.