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17:1-13
The Transfiguration
True to his promise to his disciples, it was not long after this
(16:24-28) that a remarkable thing happened to some of them, confirming what
Jesus had said.
Six days after Peter made his wonderful confession - (Luke says
"eight days", but he was including the days each end of the six. The
Jews reckoned parts of days as whole days. Luke 9:28, and Mark 9:2) - Jesus took
Peter, James and John for a walk with him. He went up a high mountain (possibly
Hermon. Tabor at that time was a fortress - so Josephus says). Interestingly, it
was Peter, James and John who were there when Jesus raised Jairus' daughter
(Mark 5:37) and also in Gethsemane (Matt. 26:37).
Suddenly the disguise which Jesus had been wearing, that is, his earthly
body, began to dissolve away, and his face and clothes started to shine like the
sun. The visible sign of Jesus' deity, the Shekinah glory, radiated from him,
blazing like a furnace . . . and two figures appeared close to him. The Holy
Spirit revealed their names to me - Moses and Elijah - and they spoke to Jesus,
and he spoke to them . . . about his coming death at Jerusalem (Luke 9:30,31).
One possible reason why Moses and Elijah appeared in this vision : Moses
represented the Law, and Elijah represented the prophets. Both pointed towards
Jesus in type and prediction.
Startled and confused, Peter offered to make three small shelters, or
booths, to either commemorate the event, or to house Jesus and the two prophets.
He wanted the moment to last!
But while he was offering to build the shelters, a bright cloud came down
and swallowed up the three men, and then a voice spoke from inside the cloud :
"This is my beloved Son. I am very pleased with him. Listen to what
he says to you!"
This was too much for the disciples. The vision, the glory, the voice and
the shining cloud . . . the poor men were overwhelmed! They fell to the ground
and shook with fear. And while they had their heads down and their faces
covered, the glory faded away and all the normal scenery returned. Jesus was
there again, in his usual clothes, and with the same old familiar face. He
walked down the slope to where the three men were cowering on the ground, and
patted them on the shoulder.
"You can get up now" he said, "There's no need to be
afraid."
Cautiously, and still expecting something strange to happen, the
disciples looked about. With great relief they realised the world was back to
normal.
Jesus began to walk back down the hill, with the disciples hurrying after
him.
"Don't tell anyone about this vision" said Jesus, "Not yet
anyway. Wait till after I have risen from the grave. Then you call tell
everyone!"
"We don't understand something" said the disciples, "If
you are the Messiah, how come the prophets say that Elijah is meant to come
before you? We haven't seen or heard of Elijah yet?"
(The disciples were thinking of Mal.4:5 and 6, where it is predicted that
before the Messiah comes, God will send Elijah. But the words are in prophetic
code, and not to be taken absolutely literally. What God meant by
"Elijah" was an "Elijah ministry", which was fulfilled in
John the baptiser. John himself said he was not Elijah (John 1:21), but the
angel told Zecharias, John's father, that John would "go before the Lord in
the spirit and power of Elijah".)
"What the scribes say about Elijah coming first is correct"
said Jesus, "But they have missed him. He has already come, and the
religious leaders have rejected him. In the same way, these same people will
treat me with similar contempt."
The disciples suddenly realised what Jesus was saying. John was Elijah!
17:14-21
A boy is healed of epilepsy
Jesus and his disciples came down from the mountain. Peter, James and
John were still agog with what they had just experienced, and the other
disciples were a mixture of excitement and dread. Why, they wondered, had Jesus
let them know he was indeed the long-awaited messiah, only to dash their hopes
by talking about being killed? Despite the simple language in which Jesus had
explained things, they were still confused. (Luke 24:11)
At the base of the hill they met a crowd of people, all waiting for some
miracle or other. The first to press forward from the crowd was a man, who fell
at Jesus' feet, begging for help.
"Have pity on my son, Lord!" the man cried, "He has
epilepsy! It is a terrible thing - sometimes he falls and burns himself in the
fire! He has nearly drowned several times! Please help him, before its too
late!"
The disciples remembered this man and his son, and they felt ashamed,
because they had tried to help but nothing had happened.
Jesus looked at his disciples, knowing all this, and frowned at them.
"Where was your faith in me?" he asked, "Are you the same
as the unbelieving Jews? I am tired of working with you - after all this time
you still haven't got enough confidence in me to deliver a boy of a demon!"
"Bring the boy to me!"
The boy's father went and got his son. It was obvious, from the scars and
bruises on the boy's body that Satan had made his life as miserable as possible.
"Go out of him!" said Jesus, with a command of authority.
Instantly the demon fled, and the boy smiled.
Later on, when a convenient moment came, the disciples asked Jesus about
the case of the epileptic. "Why couldn't we deliver the boy?" they
said.
"Because you didn't have enough confidence in me" said Jesus,
"You don't need much to do great things you know, but your faith - in
gardening terms - would be smaller than a mustard seed! You have to have more
faith, or you won't see anything happen.
"If your faith was only slightly larger, say, the size of a mustard
seed even, and if you were doing God's will, you could command a mountain to
leap into the ocean, and it would! You could do anything, provided you were in
agreement with God. Yes, great miracles would follow your life around.
"But as to that boy with the demon, well, those demons would be
quite tough for one of my followers to deal with. You would need to pray and
fast for a while before you got rid of that sort."
(The epileptic is sometimes called a "lunatic", which means
"moonstruck" because it was long thought that the moon caused
epilepsy. Greek = seleniazomai)
17:22,23
Predictions of his death
A while later Jesus explained to his disciples yet again that he was due
to be killed, but soon after that, he said, he would come back to life. The
disciples listened to the first part and became very sad, but none of them took
in the last part of what Jesus said. It just didn't sound right. They were
hoping to see Jesus ride to victory, not death; coronation not crucifixion.
17:24-27
The money in the fish
In yet another attempt to find fault with Jesus, the collectors of the
Temple Tax came to Peter and asked him if Jesus had paid his tax. This was an
underhand way of finding fault with Jesus, but, as usual, it completely
back-fired on the perpetrators, and also served to demonstrate to Peter (yet
again) just how powerful the Master was.
It happened in Capernaum. The collectors put the question to Peter and
he, not wanting to embarrass his Master, said "Yes, of course he pays the
Temple Tax!" (A half-shekel, taken from all Jews, to help with the upkeep
and maintenance of the Temple and its services). Peter should have said
"No" because Jesus never paid this tax.
When Peter got back to the house where Jesus was staying, Jesus asked him
a question.
"Peter, who do kings normally take customs or taxes from - their own
family members, or from the general population over which they rule?"
"The general population" said Peter.
"That's right" said Jesus, "They don't usually take tax
from their own family. That would be like paying their own money to
themselves!"
Peter realised now that Jesus must have known all about the conversation
he had had with the tax collectors. What was to do? Go back and tell them Jesus
didn't pay it? But Jesus had already anticipated this problem :
"We don't want to give them any room to find fault, so here's what
you are to do. Go to the Lake and sail out a short distance, then do some
fishing. The first fish you catch will have a whole shekel (called a
"stater") in its mouth. Use it to pay the Temple tax for you and for
me."
The point was, the Temple was God's house, and for Jesus to pay a Temple
Tax would be the same as paying tribute to himself. That would have been silly.
Even though the Jewish nation would not acknowledge Jesus as the great High
Priest, the fact still remained that he was, so there was no logical reason why
he should pay money for his own Temple.
(This astounding miracle involved knowing which fish would be where, when
a certain hook appeared in a large lake, with the exact amount needed for a
certain expense!)