Possessions in the Kingdom

This morning, we come to the end of this section of Mark in which Jesus has been teaching on the morality of the kingdom. We come to an important teaching of Christ on the cost of discipleship, and this teaching raises some important questions. In the kingdom of God, what is to be the relationship between the wealthy and the poor? Is it wrong to even have wealth in the kingdom? Is there hope of salvation for those with great possessions? To answer those questions, lets read Mark 10:17-31. From this passage, see two points: Inheritance of the Kingdom, and the Impossible Salvation.

First, from verses 17-22, see the Inheritance of the Kingdom. Jesus continues on his final journey to Jerusalem, and as he goes, he is approached by a man who shows him great respect. He kneels in front of him and addresses him as “Good Teacher”. He has an important question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” It’s interesting that this man asks this question for two reasons. For one, we know that he is wealthy, and in Jesus’s day (as in ours, with the influence of the Health and Wealth heresy today), there was the assumption that wealth was gained through the blessing of God. If you inherited a fortune or invented an important product, or landed a great catch, you were considered blessed for that. So, this question would likely have been surprising to the others in the crowd, because, they would assume, if anyone would inherit eternal life, it would be this man. We also know that this man, according to his own assessment, is righteous. Jesus, in effect, asks him if he has obeyed all the commandments, and the man answers, “Yes, from my youth.” He seems confident that he is righteous according to the law. And yet, here he is, asking what he must do to be saved. Maybe he’d been present at Jesus’s sermon on the mount, when Jesus announced: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Perhaps he’d noticed Jesus’s love for the infirmed, the poor, and the oppressed and put two-and-two together. If this Jesus is the Messiah, then it is obvious that he has come to bless those who are the outcasts of society. So, he wondered, what about me?

Yet, even though he has this question, he seems to doubt himself very little. He does not seem to believe that he has ever sinned. However, there are some hints in what Jesus says that reveal his barrier to the kingdom. First, when Jesus states the commandments, there are a couple of interesting nuances. For one, Jesus states what is known as the “Second Table” of the law – those commandments that deal with our relationships with other humans. He did not ask him, “Have you faithfully worshipped God and kept the Sabbath?” He asked, “How have you treated other people?” I think Jesus asks this to key in on this young man’s sin.

There is another nuance in Jesus’s list of commandments. There is one commandment that isn’t in the Ten Commandments. We know, “Honor your father and mother, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness”, but where is he getting “do not defraud.” Some commentators suggest that fraud is covetousness in action. In other words, when you defraud someone, you are coveting what they have and taking action to take it. But, that’s just stealing, not covetousness. So, why does Jesus throw this law in with the others? There are a couple of reasons. First, fraud is particularly a temptation for the rich. The OT law repeatedly condemns defrauding the poor. Prov. 22:22 says, “Do not rob the poor, because he is poor.”  Exodus 22:25 forbids charging interest on loans to the poor (the opposite of the practice we have today). Deut. 24:14-15 forbids holding pay to hourly workers – you are to pay him before the sun goes down.

I also think Jesus includes this command because it was the specific sin of this man. This is why, when the man says that he has obeyed the law from his youth, Jesus answers: “Then sell all you have and give it to the poor and come follow me.” This verse has led to no lack of confusion. Some have read this as a condemnation of all wealth. They would argue that Christianity is in effect a communist religion that requires everyone to have equal wealth, and, that if anyone is wealthy, they have obviously gained it through greed and fraud. Others read it to say that every Christian should make himself poor. In order to follow Christ, one must give up worldly possessions of any kind and be totally dependent on God’s provision and the benevolence of the church. But, I don’t think Jesus means this as a general statement about discipleship or salvation, at all. I think this statement is a rifle shot at the heart of this rich young man. Understand, the Bible never condemns wealth or money. Sure, it does say that “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil”, but it does not say “money is the root.” Additionally, having wealth is not in and of itself evil, but what we do with it can be. James 5:1-5 condemns the wealthy who use it for luxury and self-indulgence. But, Gal. 2:10 and 1 Tim. 6:17-19 direct the wealthy to be generous and use their wealth for the kingdom. There are two moral questions regarding wealth and the kingdom. 1) How do you gain your wealth? If you earn your wealth through fair and honorable work or inherit wealth because of the same, there is no guilt in that. However, if you gained your wealth by schemes that charge exorbitant fees and interest to the poor, or you monopolize and scam, then you have sinned. 2) What do you do with your wealth? If you give liberally to benefit those outside of your family, if you are faithful to tithe and support missions, to help the poor and defend the oppressed, then there is no guilt. But, if you hoard your money for yourself and your family, clinching your fist around it lest anyone should take it, then you are in sin.

Here is this man’s problem. I think Jesus places these demands on him because he, like Zaccheus, has gained his wealth by defrauding the poor and has withheld his abundance from those who could be helped by it. So, it says, in verse 22, that he was “disheartened by the saying and went away sorrowful.” The cost of discipleship was too great for him. This does raise an important point for all of us, whether rich or poor. Jesus may not demand the same thing of you. You may not have any wealth to give away. But he does demand that you give your all to follow him. Whatever it is that you hold on to – your free time, your vacations, your retirement, your pleasure – that is the thing he calls you to give up. There should be nothing in your life that, if called to, you could not give up for the sake of following Christ.

That leads to my second point: The Impossible Salvation, from verses 23-31. After this man leaves dejected, Jesus turns to his disciples and wonders, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” His disciples are bothered by this, and then Jesus says something even more bothersome: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom.” This was just too much. The disciples are overwhelmed by this statement, so they ask, “Who can be saved?!” Remember, they believed that the wealthy were so because of the blessing of God. So, if those who are blessed will not be saved, how can anyone be saved. To that question, Jesus makes this beautiful statement, which we find throughout Scripture: “With man it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.”  In Genesis 18, when Sarah laughed at God’s promise that she, in her postmenopausal barrenness, would conceive and have a son, God asked, “Why does she laugh? Is anything impossible for God?” In Jeremiah 32, God promises that he will restore Israel, and he says, “behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?” In Luke 1:37, when Mary asks how she could conceive when she is a virgin, Gabriel responds, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” It is true that wealth and possessions can cause a man or woman to be so proud, so self-reliant, that they have no room for faith in God’s provision. It is true that a love of money and a heart of greed can enslave the rich. But, nothing is impossible with God. God can change the heart. God can humble the proud. God can bring the man with everything to despair over his loneliness. We see it in the Gospels. Zaccheus was a rich tax collector who came near to Christ, was saved, and became a generous believer. We see it also in the early church. Lydia was a wealthy businesswoman living in Phillippi who opened her home to the church Paul and Silas planted. Nothing is impossible with God because God is the source of our salvation. No one can be saved unless God changes their hearts. No one can come to repentance unless God grants it.

Friend, if you would follow Christ, it means giving up that which you are holding on to. It means turning from your sin, whether it be greed or lust or gossip, and turning to Christ in faith.

Brothers and sisters, we are called to hold our wealth with a loose hand. I’ve been to many places in this world and seen poverty like you could not imagine. Most of us in the US are blessed with wealth the rest of the world cannot comprehend. This wealth comes with responsibility. We are called, first, to be responsible with how we gain our wealth. We should not gain it through fraud – whether it be defrauding the government by lying about our taxes or our income status or defrauding others with products and services that do not meet a real need. We should not gain it by scheming, whether it be in gambling, fleecing others with oppressive interest, or a pyramid scheme. We should gain our wealth by doing good work in a fair and ethical way. One of my favorite stories about Martin Luther is when he was asked by a shoemaker how he might glorify God. Martin Luther responded, “Make a good shoe and sell it for a fair price.” I have tried to live by that as a business owner, and whatever our work, I think it is solid advice.

We are also called to be generous with our wealth. We should give to meet the needs of the church and our brothers and sisters in Christ. I have tried to live in this way. I have never given away money with the intention of serving the Lord that I have missed or needed back later. God will be faithful to meet our needs as we are faithful to give, so may we trust him with everything and give generously.

Children in the Kingdom

This morning, we continue in a section of Mark in which Jesus lays out the morality of the kingdom. We have seen the priorities of the kingdom – to be first you must be last. We’ve seen the citizens of the kingdom. Those who are dedicated to Christ are citizens, while those who are deceptive or disobedient are rejected. Then, last week, we saw the authentic meaning of marriage in the kingdom. Marriage is a picture of God’s covenant with his people and Christ’s love for his church. This morning, we move on to the kingdom’s view of children, and by extension, all who are lowly. To see that, let’s read Mark 10:13-16 together. From this text, see two points: The Blessing of Children and Believing like a Child.

First, from verses 13 and 14, see the blessing of children. Mark tells us that, at some point in Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, the crowds began to bring him their children. The intention is obvious and reasonable: they want a holy man to bless their children. Some of this may have been superstition – if Jesus touched their children, they would be rich and famous someday. But, certainly, it was also motivated by faith that Jesus could and would bless their lives. The disciples, however, were having none of it, so we are told, “the disciples rebuked them.” The Greek word used for “rebuke” there is the same word used to speak of Jesus rebuking demons and the storm. It is intended to be corrective and communicate disapproval. So, they might have said to the parents, “How dare you bring these rug-rats to Jesus and interrupt his important ministry. Can’t you at least clean them up a bit before getting them near the master? Can’t you keep those hooligans quiet – the master is teaching!” As I explained a few weeks ago, this attitude towards children was typical of that day. The Jews saw children as incomplete humans who needed to be sternly disciplined so they would not humiliate their parents as adults. We could also understand it because of the importance of Jesus’s ministry. Even at a basic level, to the disciples, Jesus’s ministry was more important than ministering to little snot-nosed kids. He regularly exorcized demons, brought sight to the blind, and raised the dead. Why waste time playing with children? Beyond that, Jesus is the Messiah. He is not just any king. He is the king of kings. And, he is on his way to Jerusalem to, in their minds, take the throne of David, bring the various Jewish factions into line, and drive away the Romans. Why would he stop to pray over children who wouldn’t even remember this day?

Jesus, however, did not take kindly to their efforts. In verse 14 it says that he was “indignant” at what he saw of them. This word means that Jesus was moved with anger towards his disciples. There are three reasons for Jesus’ indignation. First, Jesus is angry because his disciples fail to recognize the blessing that children are in God’s kingdom. The Bible is shot through with the idea that children are a blessing from God and evidence of his favor. In fact, in the OT, children are the measure of whether God is blessing you or not. Genesis 1:28 says of the first man and woman, “God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.” This is the first command ever given in the Bible, and it is a command of blessing – a command to have babies. This command is preceded by God’s blessing, meaning that God, as the author of life, enables humans to be fruitful and multiply. We see this in the blessing of Abraham in Genesis 12. Abraham was old and his wife was barren, and God promises a blessing. That blessing is always understood (and later literally realized) to be an abundance of descendants. Conversely, the inability to conceive was seen as a curse. Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah all viewed their barrenness as a curse, and God ultimately blessed all of them so that they could be fruitful. As the Psalmist says in Psalm 127:3-5, “Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” Recognize that the Bible has no concern for family planning or population control. Children are not a burden in Scripture. Not once does it ever say that about any child – not even Ishmael or Esau. Children are a blessing, and our church and our culture should see them as such. It does not matter the circumstances in which they were conceived or the home that they were born into – children are a blessing from God.

Children are also viewed as the greatest, most important vocation for a father and mother. Deut. 6:7 charges parents, “You shall teach [the commandments] diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”  Prov. 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Besides the relationship between husband and wife, the relationship of parent to child is the most important earthly relationship we have.

Jesus is also indignant because the disciples continued to be dull about the kingdom of God. Just a few verses back, in chapter 9, verse 37, Jesus had already used the example of a child to set the priorities of the kingdom. He told his disciples there, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.” He’d also told them, in verse 42, “whoever causes one of these little ones to sin, it would be better for him to have a millstone tied around his neck and thrown into the sea.” Now, here they are, angrily driving children away from Jesus. Throughout the NT we find this consistent measure of whether someone is living for Christ. One sure way to judge that is by how you treat the lowly. How do you treat children? Are they a burden? Do they get in the way of your life-goals? Do they hinder your pursuit of pleasure and wealth and career? What about us as a church? Do we think it is better to segregate kids out of the sanctuary so the adults can listen to the sermon in peace? Do we fuss over the cost of children’s ministry and VBS? Do we complain about the dings and scratches left by rambunctious kids? Jesus warns us in his rebuke of his disciples – the kingdom of God is for such as these.

The third reason for Jesus’ indignation leads me to my second point: Believing like a Child. In verse 15, Jesus uses children as an analogy for saving faith. He says, “You will not enter the kingdom of God unless you receive it like a child.” There is a good deal of debate and much misunderstanding about what exactly Jesus means here. What is it about a child that he is extolling here? Is it their innocence, their trustfulness, their dependence? Remember, the Bible does not have the romantic view of children that we do. It does not view them as innocent (Psalm 51 says that we are conceived in sin). I also don’t think that Jesus has in mind a “child-like faith.” Remember, it is not children who are coming to Jesus of their own volition. Parents are bringing them. Besides that, these are very likely toddlers and infants, as we read in verse 16 that Jesus took them in his arms. No, I think the point of analogy is in a child’s vulnerability and helplessness. A child has nothing to offer – no talent, no money, no knowledge or wisdom. A child is all burden, all need. In this way, a child is the exact opposite of the man we will see next week: the rich young ruler. He had all the riches of the world, and yet he could not earn heaven. A child, on the other hand, has nothing to bring. He simply receives the blessing of Jesus. So, if you would enter the kingdom, you must come as a child. As the hymn, “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me”, says, “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling.”

So, friend, if you would enter the kingdom of God, you must come with nothing and believe in God for everything. The promise of the Gospel is that, if you will come with your need, Jesus will give you abundant, everlasting life.

Brothers and sisters, may we have the same values as Christ – loving the lowly and despised, receiving those who have nothing to bring but burden. This is the way of the kingdom.

Marriage in the Kingdom

This morning, we continue in a section of the Gospel of Mark dealing with the morality of the kingdom. We come to the question of relationships in the kingdom, or, if you want to think of it more broadly, how the kingdom views commitment and covenant. We understand this by looking at the most important commitment outside of our faith in Christ, and that is the covenant of marriage. To see that, let’s read Mark 10:1-12. From this text, see the Accommodation of the Law, the Authentic Meaning of Marriage, and the Adultery of Divorce.

First, from verses 1-5, see the Accommodation of the Law. Mark tells us that Jesus begins his final journey to Jerusalem. As he is traveling, he takes every opportunity to teach, and the Pharisees take every opportunity to challenge him. On one occasion, they decide to challenge him with a roiling theological and political controversy of the day by asking him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” This is intended to be a trap, and it is controversial for two reasons. First, there is the issue of Herod Antipas and his affair with his brother’s wife, Herodias. While Antipas had legally annulled his brother’s marriage, there was great debate over whether it was legitimate. So, if Jesus answers this question, it puts him in political peril. He could end up like John the Baptist: beheaded at the request of Herodias. It is also controversial because of the hot debate among Jewish scholars over the interpretation of one verse in the book of Deuteronomy. So, when Jesus asks them, “What did Moses command you”, they answer with a paraphrase of Deut. 24:1, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce.” But, the issue isn’t as simple as that. Deut. 24:1 actually says, “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, [he may write a certificate of divorce.]” The hot debate stirred around the phrase “some indecency in her.” In Jesus’s day, two schools had developed around how to interpret this phrase. The school of Hillel took a liberal view of the statement. They taught that an indecency could be anything. They gave examples – she burns a meal, speaks too loudly, or the man even finds another woman more attractive. The other view was known as the school of Shammai, and it took a more conservative approach. They understood “indecency” to mean adultery. So, a man could only obtain this certificate of divorce if he could show some serious sexual immorality on the part of his wife.

Jesus immediately rejects their answer on two grounds. First, in verse 5, he says “Moses gave you this law because of your hardness of heart.” This brings up an important side note about how we should understand much of the OT law. After the declaration of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, much of the OT law is what we might call case law. It was given to address specific cases and to govern the nation of Israel. In other words, much of the OT Law, and particularly Deut. 24:1, were not given to reveal the heart of God but to restrain the heart of men. God knew that men were sinful and unable to obey the moral law he established in the Ten Commandments. So, he gave laws to restrict the bounds of their sinfulness. For example, there are many laws in the OT about slavery, but all of them are intended to restrict its practice, not broaden it. The same is true of this law on divorce. Jesus says that God established this law through Moses because he knew the wicked hearts of men could not meet the righteous design of marriage.

The second ground for Jesus’s stance leads me to my second point: the authentic meaning of marriage. It’s interesting that Jesus corrects Moses with Moses. When he asked, “What did Moses say”, he had a different statement in mind than the Pharisees did. They went immediately to case law, but Jesus went to the original design of marriage by quoting Genesis 1 and 2. In verse 6, he quotes Genesis 1:27,  “So God created man in his image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them.” Recognize that man does not bear the image of God alone, and neither does woman. God created humanity in his image, and we bear that image together, as man and woman. We are made for each other. Men are not made to be rugged individuals who live off the land with their dogs. Women are not made to be independent, self-reliant queens who don’t need a man. Without woman, man is a brute. Without man, woman is a rudderless ship.

He also quotes Genesis 2:24, where, after the creation of woman, God establishes the covenant of marriage by declaring, “A man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Recognize in this statement that the marriage relationship is the most basic and important relationship on earth. Your relationship to your parents is not as important as your relationship to your spouse. Your relationship with your children is not even as important as your relationship to your spouse. There is no other relationship we have of which the Bible speaks so highly. When we marry, the Bible says that we become one flesh. Our decisions are no longer our own, but we decide based on the good of another. Our money is no longer our own, but we work for the good of another. Our desires are no longer our own, but we yearn for the good of another. And even our bodies are no longer our own, but (as Paul says in 1 Cor 7), we belong to another.

Jesus ends his argument for marriage with a famous statement, in verse 9: “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” In answer to the question of the legality of divorce, here is Jesus’s answer: divorce is not a part of God’s good creation nor his intention for humanity. Marriage is a mystical covenant between two people who are made in the image of God that takes priority over every other earthly relationship. Because it was established by God and not by man, it cannot be broken by man. A judge cannot decree, “Your marriage is dissolved.” Now, certainly, they do that, all the time. But God doesn’t care what they say. The bond of marriage goes far deeper than that piece of paper that a judge signs, and it is not so easily broken. You might obtain a quick, easy, no-fault divorce, split everything 50/50, and work out the perfect “co-parenting” arrangement, but to God, none of that matters because he created that bond to start with, and he’s the one who gets to say when it is over.

There is another element to the fact that together, man and woman bear the image of God. In the OT, God frequently refers to his covenant with Israel as a marriage. The whole book of Hosea is a living allegory of this, as God directs Hosea to go marry a prostitute to show what Israel has done with their relationship to the Lord. In Eph. 5:22-32, Paul uses marriage as an analogy for the relationship between Christ and the church. Wives are to honor their husbands like the church honors Christ, and husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church. He ends, in verse 31 by quoting this same verse from Genesis 2, “A man shall leave his family and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Then, he goes on to say, “This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.” So, divorce is not just counter to God’s good design for marriage, but it is also a distortion of God’s covenant with his people. Israel, like a prostitute, was repeatedly unfaithful to the God who delivered them and gave them a promised land. While the Lord chastised them, he never broke his covenant. And Christ is faithful to us, even when we are faithless. Marriage is a picture of that, and when a marriage is broken, it mars the image of God.

Finally, consider the third point: the adultery of divorce. As in our day, divorce was easy and prevalent, especially among the Jews. Because of the Hillel school, many men dismissed their wives over small things. And, worse yet, the man was never at fault. In fact, the law given in Deut. 24:1 was intended to restrict men from arbitrarily abandoning their wives by requiring them to go before an elder and receive a certificate of divorce that he could then give to the woman. The hope was that this would at least cause the man to think through his reasons and maybe even change his mind. It also gave the woman a legal document that showed that she was eligible to marry again. But even after all of that, the man still had no guilt in going on to marry again. Even with the certificate, the woman was ostracized. So, when he is with his disciples, Jesus gets down to brass tacks. In verse 11, he establishes his own law for divorce – if a man divorces his wife and remarries, he is committing adultery against his wife, and the same is true for the woman. Recognize that this is revolutionary because it puts guilt on both the man and woman equally. If a man gets tired of his wife because she can’t cook and goes to the elder for a certificate of divorce, then turns around and marries another woman, he is guilty of adultery, just as much as if the woman had committed adultery.

These statements raise some important questions that I want to address in closing. First, are there ever biblical grounds for divorce? There are two biblical reasons for divorce. In Matthew’s version of this same teaching, from Matthew 19:9, Jesus adds an exception for sexual immorality. The Greek word he uses there is porneia (from which we get the root for our word, “pornography”). Porneia covers a wide range of misbehaviors. It basically covers any type of sexual behavior outside of marriage – from pornography to going to an erotic club to adultery. Sexual immorality is a biblical ground for divorce because it breaks the covenant. The marriage covenant is a “one flesh” union in which man and woman commit their bodies and minds exclusively to each other. This one-flesh union is broken when you bring other flesh into it. In this case, because the covenant has been broken, then the victim of that sin is free to remarry.

Second, 1 Cor. 7:13-15 give us another ground for divorce. There, Paul says that a believing wife should stay with her unbelieving husband as long as he is willing, in hopes that she might lead him to Christ and to keep the children in church. But, he says in verse 15, “If the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved.” Here, Paul means that if a wife or husband has an unbelieving spouse who rejects them because they are a Christian, then they are free to remarry. The cause of the divorce, in this case, is essentially persecution – the unbelieving husband hates Christ, and as a result, hates his wife.

There are many other reasons that people divorce, some understandable, some not. Many will raise an objection, asking, “But what about an abusive spouse?” In that case, I would say a few things. 1) Shame on the church for not standing up for the abused and disciplining the abuser. I think there would be far fewer deadbeats and abusers if the church would deal with it as they are called. 2) As in the case of self-defense, a woman (or man) who is being abused has a first responsibility to protect her own life and physical health. If that means separating and even running to get away from abuse, then that is the right thing to do. 3) Most abusers will always be abusive, even though they apologize repeatedly. If that is the case, then it is understandable to pursue divorce. I will say, though, that the person who does this should remain single. I think this because it is not a biblical justification, even though it is understandable.

Finally, what if I’m in a loveless marriage? Understand that there is a difference between affection and love, and there is a difference between emotional attraction and commitment. Affection will come and go. Emotions wax and wane. Love is an action. Love is something you choose. You choose to be with the person you married. You choose to seek his or her good. You choose to support them for better or worse, richer and poorer, sickness and health. You choose these things because you are committed, not firstly to them, but to Christ. Because you love Christ, you love them. Because you are committed to Christ, you are committed to your marriage. And, you will find, that as you serve your spouse and love them in this way, the affections will grow. There will be days when you can tolerate each other, days when you make memories, days when you are excited to see them. There will also be days when you can’t be in the same room, but you stay committed because you love Christ, and through Christ, you love them.

In closing, I want to tell you the story of my two sets of grandparents – Jackie and Lavaughn Skipper, and Reenee and Ben Kilpatrick. Jackie’s parents didn’t like Lavaughn much, so while her parents chaperoned Jackie’s Junior Prom, the two snuck out the back of the school, got in a car, drove to Mississippi and eloped. They had my dad a year later. My Papa drove a log truck, then a long-haul truck for Poole truck line. He was a small engine mechanic and bounced from job to job until he finally started his own construction business when my dad was 15. They never had much until then. In that time, they had four kids. Life went up and down, but they were married for close around 70 years when my Papa passed away.

Ben and Reenee were also 17 when they married. They eloped in Excel, AL after a few months of courtship, and my Granddaddy dropped out of high school and lied about his age so he could enlist to fight in WWII. He was not there for the birth of his first son, Mike, and when he got back some two years later, he went to work running a chain gang for the DOT. He studied at night and got his GED, then taught himself surveying and passed the state surveying exam. They had three children, and they paid for all three to go to college. Ben and Reenee were married for about 70 years as well, when Grandmamma succumbed to Alzheimer’s.

These two couples were very different in their personalities, careers, and interests, and yet the one unblemished truth that they passed on to me is this – Marriage is not a feeling, it is a beautiful commitment that echoes for generations. If I could convince you of anything besides your need for Jesus it would be this: don’t live for yourself, it will only wreck you. Live for others. If you have the opportunity to marry a good Christian that you find endearing, do it. It doesn’t matter your age, your education, your financial standing, marriage is always good if it is under the Lordship of Christ. This world needs more marriages, not less. It needs more children, not fewer. It needs more solid, Christ-loving husbands and wives who are committed to the Lord and to each other. 

Citizenship in the Kingdom

We come again to a set of teachings from Jesus which answer questions about the morality of the kingdom. We saw last week that Jesus does not have the same priorities and preferences as we do. The kingdom of God is a place where, if one would be first, he must be the last of all and the servant of all. Today, we see what true kingdom citizenship looks like. Who are those that are getting into the kingdom, and who will be punished by the kingdom? Let’s read Mark 9:38-50 together. From this text, see three points: the Dedicated, the Deceptive, and the Disobedient.

First, from verses 38-41, see the dedicated. While this passage combines various statements of Jesus that may seem to be disconnected, I think they all deal with an essential question: who is accepted and who is excluded from the kingdom? Jesus gives us three types of people in these verses. The first type of person is one who is accepted by God – the one who is dedicated to the name of Jesus. Mark records, in verse 38, that John comes to Jesus and complains that there is someone casting out demons in his name. He tells Jesus that the disciples did their best to stop him because he was not a part of their group. Unexpectedly, though, Jesus rebukes him and directs his disciples not to stop anyone who is doing such work. To explain his reason, Jesus gives two contrasts and an example. First, he says, “no one can do a mighty work in my name and then turn around and speak evil of me.” This highlights the strong relationship between faith and works. As James says in chapter 2 of his book, “You show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” It is not that works create faith or earn faith or merit salvation but works prove that faith exists. As Martin Luther said, “We are saved by faith alone, but we are not saved by faith that is alone.”  This also highlights the importance of fruitful faith. The New Testament repeatedly warns us to watch out for false teachers who say the right things, but who do not bear the fruit of righteousness. As Jesus warned in Matt. 12:33, “you will know a tree by its fruit.”  It is easy enough to talk a good game about the Gospel. You can talk about the good Lord, invoke the name of Jesus, and speak well of the church, but if your actions do not align with what you say, then you do not have true faith. So, in this contrast, Jesus shows that, when a person’s works testify to his faith in Jesus, we should be willing to welcome and support him, even if he is not part of our fellowship. This highlights the importance of a willingness to work with other believers, even when they are not of our denomination. While we might have disagreements with Presbyterians and Methodists and even Catholics, we can still find common ground in the name of Jesus and do work together that benefits the kingdom of God.

Second, Jesus says, “if he is not against us, he is for us.” At face value, this seems like a really low standard. So, all I have to do is just not say anything bad about Jesus?  Of course, what Jesus means here is a question of allegiance. Are you for Jesus, or are you for the enemy? Is your life ordered in a way that seeks the glory of God, or are you pursuing your own glory and serving the will of Satan. If you deny yourself and the ways of this world, then you are for Christ.

Lastly, he gives an example: “Whoever gives you a cup of water because you belong to Christ will not lose his reward.” There are several things that need to be said about this example. First, this statement is often used as a justification for unrestricted welfare. People will argue, “the church is called to give a cup of cold water, so why don’t we have a food pantry and a homeless shelter?” Of course, if you feel called to care for the poor and needy, then do as you are called, but don’t use this passage as your justification. And, besides that, the church should feel no guilt in being judicious in how we give out funds or implement ministries. Notice, this passage does not say, “give a cup of cold water to anyone who asks.” It says, “whoever gives a cup of cold water to you because you belong to Christ.” This type of giving is what I would call “confessional giving”. Jesus is speaking of Christians who help other Christians because they are part of the body of Christ. The overwhelming direction of the NT is that Christians should be diligent to care for other believers. This is the reason that the office of deacon was established in the first place – to care for Christian widows. Paul would say, in Gal. 6:10, “Do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

This example also gives us a practical way that our actions serve as a testimony of our faith.  If we provide for the needs of other believers because they are part of the body of Christ, that act of love testifies to the work of the Spirit in our lives. Why else would we care for people we would otherwise not know? It is not natural to care for others, outside of our family and close friends. And yet, Christians do it all the time. Why? We do it because the love of Jesus motivates us.

Now to my second point: the deceptive. We’ve seen the kind of people who are citizens of the kingdom, so now we turn to two types of people who are rejected by the kingdom. First, in verse 42, we have those who are deceptive. Jesus warns that there will be those who are not for him, who speak evil of him, and who do not give a cup of cold water to believers but instead deceive and persecute them. There are those who especially look for the weak and vulnerable believers, the poor and doubtful, and they manipulate and deceive them to pull them away into sin and unbelief. For these false teachers, Jesus says that it would be better to have a millstone tied around your neck and be thrown into the sea. The millstone Jesus refers to here was a giant round stone used to grind wheat into flour. It would have weighed hundreds of pounds and was turned by a donkey. Jesus despises deception and heresy with a violent rage, but so often, we toy with it. There are many so-called prophets in the world – on TBN and Christian radio – that we tolerate. Maybe we even leave them own in the background while we get ready for church. Even worse, there are local charlatans we know who teach a false Gospel, and yet we invite them to speak at our clubs or pray at our sporting events, we befriend them and even recommend them. Understand, the judgment waiting for these liars is worse than being brutally drowned in the sea.

Finally consider the last type of person who is not accepted in the kingdom: the disobedient. In verses 43-48, Jesus uses harsh language to warn against having a careless attitude towards sin. To get what he means, we need to understand an important literary device: the hyperbole. Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement that is intended to drive home the severity of a subject or the stark contrast between two sides of an issue. For example, this past week we’ve had our fair share of rain. At several points, I’ve looked out the window and said, “It’s a monsoon out there.” Did we ever have a monsoon? Well, no. But, saying that communicated the severity of the rain. No one I said that to ran to find shelter from an impending flood. They knew exactly what I meant.

So, when Jesus says that it is better to cut off your hand or foot or pluck out your eye than to risk judgment in hell, he is not saying that we should literally do that. Rather, he is giving us a hyperbole to show how serious sin is. The older I get, the more I understand why he was so extreme. Just the other night, I told someone that the older I get, the more disgusting sin gets to me. I don’t mean that just in my own life. I mean that, as a pastor, I see so many lives that are destroyed by sin. I see so many people who are so self-absorbed that they will walk straight through the gates of hell without ever looking up. I see so many marriages that are destroyed, so many children that are harmed, so many communities that are corrupted because men and women do not realize how terrible sin is. So, understand what Jesus means. Sin is not a toy to be played with. It is not an entertainment to pursue. It is not a high to ride. Sin is a one-way ticket to Hell. It is so serious, that it would be better to physically maim yourself than to risk the consequences of sin.

It is that serious because of where sin leads. Sin leads to eternal judgment. Now, you might think that Hell isn’t all that serious. You might have even been deceived by some Instagram scholar into believing that the Bible doesn’t really teach in an eternal fiery torment in Hell. So, let me set the record straight. Three times, Jesus uses the Greek word, “Gehenna” (which we translate as “hell”) to describe a place of punishment for sin. Gehenna is both a real place and an analogy of what the eternal judgment will be. Gehenna was a deep ravine just outside the city of Jerusalem. In ancient Israel, it was a place devoted to child sacrifices to Moloch. The pagan priests built a giant statue of an alligator with its mouth open. At the bottom of the statue, they would light a fire, and the fire would roar up through the body and throat of that idol. The priest would take a child up the cliff to the mouth of this statue and throw him into the fire alive to feed Moloch. Thankfully, in the days of Josiah, this site was destroyed and defiled by turning it into the sewage deposit for Jerusalem. In Jesus’s day, Gehena was a massive heap of composting waste that smoked and flamed all the time.

But, that is not all that Gehenna was. The Jews of Jesus’s day saw it as an analogy for what the eternal judgment of the wicked must look like. So, 1 Enoch 103:8 says, “Woe to you, you sinners, when you die in your sin… into darkness and chains and a burning flame.”  It was widely accepted among the Jews that there would be a final judgment, after which the righteous would go to an eternal reward and the wicked to eternal punishment. Jesus confirms this belief throughout his ministry. He taught more about Hell than he did about Heaven, and he often connected it with fire and destruction. In Matt. 10:28, he says “fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” In Matt. 25:46, he says, “[the wicked] will go away into eternal punishment.” The early church fathers also believed that Hell was a place of eternal punishment for the wicked. The second century church father, Tertullian, said, “The guilty will be raised for the purpose of being punished; and such punishment will be without end, because the guilt will be without end.”

Sin should be despised because Hell is terrible. It will be a pain like an unquenchable fire. It will be a terrible darkness and void. And that punishment will be never-ending. This place is reserved for those who are willfully and continually disobedient to God. It is reserved for those who are unrepentant and faithless and fruitless and deceptive. So, friend, repent! Turn from your sin. Wake up from your self-absorbed blindness. Turn to Christ in repentance and faith and find salvation in him.

Greatness in the Kingdom

This morning we come to a section of the Gospel of Mark in which Jesus will lay out various teachings on Kingdom morality. If the kingdom of God is coming into the world through the Messiah, Jesus, what sort of kingdom is it? What are its priorities and its laws? Who are its rulers? Who does it preference and who does it reject? Jesus begins to answer all of those questions with our passage from Mark 9:30-37. From this passage, see two points: Kingdom Priority, and Kingdom Preference.

First, from verses 30-35, see the kingdom priority. For the third time, Jesus reminds his disciples of the plan of God – that he must face the cross and on the third day, rise again. And, for the third time, the disciples just don’t get it. Mark notes, in verse 32, that they are even afraid to ask him what he means. Honestly, I think they should be afraid. After all, this is something he continues to remind them of, and they just aren’t picking it up. As a teacher, I’d start to get irritated, too! But, they cannot hide their dullness. Mark goes on, in verse 33, to tell us of a conversation they had on the way to Capernaum. I can imagine Jesus leading the way down the path to Capernaum, and his disciples linger behind, thinking they are just out of earshot, so that they might bicker over who Jesus likes the most. Whether Jesus could actually hear them or divinely knew of their conversation, I can’t say. But, at some point, he takes a break from the journey for a teaching moment. He sits them down and begins to teach, saying, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and a servant of all.” This statement is obviously aimed at their argument. Mark tells us that they were ashamed to answer him when he asked what they’d been arguing about because they had been fighting over who was the greatest. Now, Jesus goes directly at that issue by giving them the priority of the kingdom. To understand the teaching, we need to get a grasp on what is meant by “greatest” and “first.” These terms aren’t measures of quantity or position, as in the one who is the most powerful or the largest or the first in line. Rather, both words suggest the priority of authority. The disciples are debating who will be the first ruler or the greatest ruler in the Messiah’s kingdom. I’m sure they had their guesses as to who it would be. Perhaps it would be Judas. After all, he was trusted with the money. Maybe it will be Peter. Jesus certainly praised him for his confession. Could it be John? You could always find John close to Jesus’s side. These would not be unreasonable assumptions, at least by worldly standards. We measure greatness and priority based on these very things. We admire the shrewd businessman, the entrepreneur, the outspoken politician who is quick to offer his opinion, and the sympathetic leader. We give men and women authority based on these measures.

But, Jesus turns all of that on its head by saying, “if you would be first, you must be the last and a servant.” There are three aspects of this statement that we should not miss. First, the statement implies a willful decision on the part of the one who would be first in the kingdom. Jesus does not say (at least in this teaching) that the last are inherently first or that servants are rulers in the kingdom. He says, “IF anyone would be first…” In other words, if you want to be first in the kingdom, the way to that end is through lowly servanthood. The service God requires is a choice, not a circumstance. Certainly, there have been many who were born servants or slaves, but even they are not automatically the first in the kingdom because of it. You may be the despised child in the family, and because of that, you might think, “well, at least I will be the first in heaven because of it.” This is not what Jesus means. Rather, we are to choose service out of love for our brothers and sisters in Christ, and out of a desire to honor God. As Rom. 12:10-11 says, “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor… serve the Lord.” 

Second, being “last” and a “servant” are not positions but attitudes of the heart that are reflected in our actions. An employee can be a domineering, narcissistic ruler to his co-workers. He can despise his employer while still being obedient. On the other hand, a millionaire business owner can be a humble man or woman who cares for his employees and customers in a way that serves their best interests.

Third, we should take on this attitude, because this was the attitude of Christ. It is striking (and probably a great deal of a disappointment to Jesus), that the disciples were arguing about who would be the first in the kingdom immediately after he told them for a third time that he would go to the cross. He’d already told them that, if they were to follow him, they should take up their cross and deny themselves. Yet, here they are, looking for greatness. Jesus is not calling them to something he would not do himself. As he would tell them, after washing their feet in John 13, “I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” Paul would also give the example of Christ for us to follow in our service to others. In Phil. 2:5 he says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to hold on to, but made himself nothing, taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of man, he became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Even in his glorified state at the right hand of God, he is still known by his role as our servant. Rev. 2:8 says that he is “the first and the last, who died and came to life.” I’ve always read that statement to point to his eternal nature, but the Greek words for “first” and “last” there are the same words used in Mark 9. And, the statement connects “first” and “last” to his death and life. In other words, in Heaven, Jesus is first because he was last. He is the firstborn of all creation because he endured the cross and despised its shame.

Now, consider my second point: Kingdom preference. After making this striking statement, Jesus decides to give an object lesson by taking one of the children in their group and sitting him in his lap. Jesus cradles the child, and then he says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me.” Now, we tend to read our modern view of children into this. Americans have been heavily influenced by the Romantic movement, which idealized childhood. According to the 19^th century Romantics, children are innocent and treasured. This was not so in first century Israel. To the Jews, children were neither innocent nor valuable. The Jewish philosopher, Philo, described children as irrational and incomplete. Rabbis taught that children were only useful insofar as they could be trained for adulthood. A 2^nd century BC rabbinical writing known as the Ben Sira describes a parent’s responsibility over his children in this way, “Do not laugh with him, lest you have sorrow with him, and in the end you will gnash your teeth. Give him no authority in his youth, and do not ignore his errors. Bow down his neck in his youth, and beat his sides while he is young, lest he become stubborn and disobey you, and you have sorrow of soul from him. Discipline your son and take pains with him, that you may not be offended by his shamelessness.” Now, certainly, I believe in disciplining children, but not for the reasons the Ben Sira gives. Not once does it say that you should discipline a child for his good, or so that he might learn to trust the Lord. Every reason given is so that the parents might be benefited by it. Parents were not to show affection or friendship, only discipline and expectation.

This is why what Jesus did would have been a shock or scandal to his disciples. In the midst of this discussion over greatness – a very serious subject – Jesus draws in a little child and sits him in his lap. This child is a stand-in for anyone who is lowly and despised, for the oppressed and outcast. He does this to answer the question, “How exactly do I live as one who is last and a servant?” Here is how: you receive the one society despises. You serve little children cookies at VBS with a heart that seeks their good. You help build a ramp for a neighbor. You prepare a dish for a friend who has lost a loved one. You listen to an employee’s family struggles and pray with him. You treat every man, not based on his skin color, and not even based on the content of his character, but based on the fact that he are made in the image of God. When you do so, Jesus says that you are not only receiving that person, but you are also receiving him. And, if you receive him, then you also receive the Father.

True Power

This morning, we pick back up in the Gospel of Mark following an extraordinary experience that a few of the disciples had with Jesus, as they witnessed his transfiguration. Jesus, in his grace, allowed Peter, James, and John to see him in his divine nature so that the truth of his teaching (especially the truth of his crucifixion and resurrection) would be confirmed. Our text today picks up immediately following that event, so let’s read Mark 9:14-29. From this text, see two points: the Faithless Generation and the Formula for True Power.

First, from verses 14-24, see the Faithless Generation. Mark tells us, in verse 14, no sooner had Jesus come down off the mountain, than he is met with conflict. He comes back to find that the disciples are in a dispute with the scribes over a failed healing. It’s unclear what exactly they were arguing about. Were the scribes disagreeing with the disciples over their method of healing? Were they ribbing them for being unable to do what their master had done? Jesus approaches and asks what the fuss is all about, and a man answers from the crowd and explains that he brought his demon-possessed son to his disciples to be healed, and they were unable to do so. Jesus rebukes the whole lot by saying, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you?” There is great debate among scholars as to who exactly Jesus is rebuking: the scribes, the disciples, or the man? I want to suggest that this rebuke is aimed at all of them because all three represent different kinds of faithlessness.

First, you have stubborn faithlessness. The scribes were members of the religious elites, trained in the great scholarly works of their times. They’d resisted Jesus at every turn because they wanted to preserve their traditions and power. As Jesus would regularly say of them, “you are like your fathers who persecuted the prophets.” This whole conflict has echoes of Israel’s rebellion at Mount Sinai. Remember, in Exodus 32, Moses goes up on the mountain to receive the law, and while he is there, the people make an idol in the form of a golden calf and worship it. Now, Jesus has been up on a mountain (with Moses), his face shown (like Moses’), and he comes down the mountain again to find the crowds squabbling in disbelief. This generation was faithless because they refused to believe that Jesus was the Messiah and the source of God’s blessings.

Second, you have stupid faithlessness. The disciples had seen and done so much with Jesus. Just in the book of Mark, they’d witnessed four exorcisms. Jesus had sent them out as missionaries, and they were empowered to do these things on their own. But, the moment he removes himself to a high mountain, they lose all faith and fail to carry on the ministry without him. This generation was faithless because they forgot the source of the power of God.

Third, you have the sorrowful faithlessness. In verse 20, when the man brings the boy to Jesus, the boy immediately falls on the ground, convulses, and foams at the mouth. Jesus asks how long he’s been like this, and the father answers “from childhood.” Before we consider the faithlessness of the father, there are a couple of things to point out about this possession. First, there is no shortage of confusion over whether this boy suffered from a demon or from epilepsy. Some argue that the symptoms the man describes match too perfectly with epilepsy, so this must be a natural disease that these primitive people did not recognize. Others argue, no, the Gospel says that it was a demon, so it must mean that any time someone has epilepsy, they really have a demon. This confusion highlights two errant views of demons and disease. Some have been influenced by secularism to the degree that they deny any (or almost any) spiritual dimension to this world. So, when they read of a demon possession in the Gospels, they immediately look for a natural explanation, saying that demons don’t really exist. Others go in the opposite direction, saying instead that every disease has its roots in the Spiritual realm, and therefore, if we are sick with anything, it is because Satan and his demons are at work in our lives. Both are wrong. To the person who would deny the reality of the demonic, recognize that this is a failure to accept the Bible on its own terms. Jesus very clearly taught that demons were a reality, and he regularly did battle with them. He even faced Satan in the wilderness. Now, you might try to argue that Jesus was merely accommodating the people in their ignorance, but this would make Jesus a liar who intentionally deceived people. This does not meet with the Jesus we find in the Gospels who was more than happy to challenge the false beliefs of his day. On the other hand, for the person who would say that everything is caused by the active work of demons, I think you give them too much credit while failing to recognize our own contributions to the sinful state of this world. Disease and death did not come into this world because of demons. They came as a result of man’s sin. As Paul says, in Romans 5, death entered the world through one man, and through him death spread to all men. Disease, sickness, pain, and suffering are all a result of the fall. To be sure, demons can and will use those things against us at times, but it doesn’t mean that “Satan is after you” just because you have a cold.

So, what of this boy and his epilepsy? We are told twice (in verse 17 and 25) that this spirit is a “mute and deaf spirit”. The primary malady that it is causing is his muteness. But, it appears that the boy also had epilepsy, which this demon exploited for even more torture. Why does this matter? I think it matters because the miracle that Jesus performed was two-fold. Not only did he free the boy of a demon that took his voice and hearing, but he also freed him of his epilepsy.

With that understood, let’s turn again to the father’s faithlessness. He told Jesus that the boy had had this affliction since childhood, and then he asks, “If you can do anything, have compassion on us.” We can certainly sympathize with this father. For years, he’d struggled with his son’s deafness, unable to communicate even the basic facts of life. He had to constantly be on guard for another episode. Perhaps he’d done as so many parents have – changing everything about his life so that he could care for this child. He couldn’t leave him alone because he might harm himself. He couldn’t sleep because of the late-night terrors this boy would have. And, to add insult to injury, when he reached out for help, hoping Jesus’s disciples could do something, it only started an argument. So, you could understand if he was a bit skeptical at this point. You might understand why he would say, “if you can do anything.” But, Jesus corrects his doubt, reminding him that all things are possible through faith. At that reminder, the father makes one of the most beautiful statements in all of scripture: “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.”

That statement leads us to my second point: the formula for true power. This story revolves around an important theme – Jesus, as the all-powerful Messiah who comes to bring the blessings of God, grants that power to those who believe and pray. It’s popular now to say something like, “there is power in prayer”, or “you just have to have faith.” I understand that most of the time we are well meaning with these clichés, but they shorthand the true source of power. Faith and prayer have no power in themselves. You can believe in something all you want, but unless that thing has true power in itself, your faith will not do you any good. And, you can say all the incantations you want, you can plead to the heavens, but unless you are directing your prayers to the true God of heaven, they mean nothing. Faith is not the source of power, but the conduit through which we receive the power of God. It is the empty hand that receives a gift. This father’s statement of faith is beautiful because it shows the amount of faith that is needed to receive the power of God. All this man has is faith the size of a mustard seed… and that is all he needs. O Christian, see the beauty of God’s grace in this. It is not the power of your belief that saves you, but the power of the Christ you believe in. So, on these words from the father, Jesus commands the demon to come out, and immediately he is gone.

This story ends with an important note. Later on, that evening, the disciples ask Jesus, “why couldn’t we cast the demon out?” Jesus answers, “this kind can only be driven out through prayer.” You might notice, Jesus didn’t pray when he exorcised this demon. He just spoke, and the demon was gone. So, why does he tell the disciples this? He does so to establish a pattern for the church in fighting spiritual warfare. If we are to have victory over Satan, it will not be by saying the right things, quoting the right scripture, sprinkling holy water, waving a cross, or even invoking the name of Jesus. It won’t be because we have special gifts, memorized enough scripture, or had a mountain-top experience. It will only be through prayer that we have victory in Christ. In Ephesians 6, Paul calls us to stand against the attacks of Satan by putting on the armor of God. He goes through all the different pieces of armor and their benefits, but he ends with one last direction, which explains how all of those pieces fit together. In verse 18 he says, “praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.” Isn’t that a funny image: a soldier, dressed to the hilt in armor, standing on the battlefield, but not in battle array, not in fighting position, but with hands clasped, praying to heaven. We often use this very image to portray cowardice or desperation. But to Paul, this is how we fight. We fight this way, because in the end, we aren’t the ones doing the fighting. The God of Heaven fights for us. The radiant Messiah fights for us. So, we pray that his kingdom will come and his will is done, and we hold fast in faith, trusting that his power is with us.

The Transfiguration

This morning, we continue with the disciples on this journey of revelation that began with Peter’s declaration – “You are the Christ.” Since then, Jesus has revealed more of his purpose, explaining that the Christ must die and rise again. We saw how this disturbed the disciples, especially Peter, who was willing even to rebuke Jesus for saying such things. We’ve also faced, with the disciples, the real costs of discipleship, as Jesus gave the invitation to follow him by dying to self and taking up our crosses. All of this has, no doubt, been rough on the disciples. For one, they just don’t really understand what Jesus could mean – that he must die and rise again. Beyond that, it’s obvious that crucifixion is somehow involved, but why would the Messiah face such torture. And, Jesus does not promise health and wealth  for their allegiance, but rather persecution, suffering, and death. Where is the hope and assurance in this way of the cross? Jesus, knowing his disciples’ weaknesses (and our own), offers comfort by providing a preview of the final kingdom to the three disciples who made up his inner circle. This preview of the kingdom should give us all comfort and assurance today, so let’s begin by reading Mark 9:1-13. Let’s consider this passage in two points: the Nature of Jesus and the Necessity of the Cross.

First, from verses 1-3, Mark gives us an extraordinary experience that a few of the disciples had with Jesus. He tells us, in verse 2, that six days later, Jesus took Peter, James, and John (his trusted inner circle) up on a high mountain, away from the crowds, and even his other apostles. Then, it says that he was “transfigured” before them. This statement is underwhelming and sudden. The Greek word used for “transfigured” is metemorphothe, which means to transform. We use the English transliteration of this word (metamorphosis) to describe what happens to a caterpillar when it becomes a butterfly. It changes appearances completely. Jesus, in an instant, transforms in his appearance. Mark goes on to describe this transformation by saying that his clothes radiated (shone or gleamed) and were intensely white in a way that no human could create. In Matthew’s account from Matthew 17, he says that his face shone like the sun. This transfiguration is Jesus’s direct revelation to his closest disciples of who he truly is. He does not just tell them (because obviously, they weren’t going to get it). He shows them.

This direct revelation teaches us an important truth about the nature of the Son of God: Jesus of Nazareth is one person with two natures. This truth is what theologians call the Hypostatic union – that the person of Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man, united without confusion or separation. This means two things that we must faithfully profess. First, the son of God eternally existed before Jesus of Nazareth was conceived of the virgin Mary. We often make the mistake of short handing our understanding of the Son of God by saying, “Jesus is the eternal son of God.” Well, no, not exactly. It would be better said – “The eternal son of God is Jesus.” From all eternity past, the Son of God has ruled and reigned with the Father. We find him in the OT, almost anywhere man comes face to face with God. Remember, God tells Moses, in Exodus 33, that no one can see God and live. And yet, we have numerous examples of men coming face to face with God and not dying. In Exodus 3:2, it says that the angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a burning bush. But, this angel of the Lord speaks as God and commands Moses to take off his shoes because he is on holy ground. In Daniel 7:13-14, Daniel has a vision of a Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with the dominion and power of God. In Daniel 10:5-6, Daniel is terrified by a man “clothed in linen… his body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.” In Ezekial 1:26, Ezekial has a vision of the throne of heaven and hear what he saw: “above [the throne] was a likeness with a human appearance” with a waist of gleaming metal and the appearance of fire enclosed all around. Ezekial goes on to say, “Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.” All of these appearances and many more reveal to us the Preincarnate Son of God. The one whom John says was “in the beginning with God and was God.”

The second thing we need to understand about this hypostatic union is that the fullness of God (as Col. 1:19 says) was pleased to dwell in Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus is the ultimate theophany. A theophany is a physical manifestation of God to humanity (the burning bush, the cloud of fire and smoke, the smoke-filled tabernacle and temple). God the Son, through his supernatural power, took the egg of the virgin Mary and formed out of it a real, fully human baby that in every way, from pregnancy to birth to years of growth and maturity, experienced fully human life. No one can see God and live, so what does God do? He makes a body and comes to live with us. As John says, in John 1:14 and 18, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.”

Now that we understand the nature of Jesus, let’s move on to my second point: the necessity of the cross. The glory of the Son of God was not the only thing that the disciples witnessed on that mountain. Mark says, in verse 4, that Elijah and Moses appeared with him, and then, even the Father appeared in a cloud in verse 7 and declared, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” These three visitors appear for two reasons. First, Elijah, Moses, and the Father make up three witnesses. In OT law, every case was confirmed by two or three witnesses that agree. Elijah’s appearance represents two points of authority. On the one hand, Elijah is the greatest of the prophets. Elijah and Elisha (who received a double portion of Elijah’s power) were the only two prophets to raise the dead. Elijah did extraordinary miracles, even calling down fire from heaven. To the first century Jews, Elijah was a stand-in for all of the prophets of the OT. On the other hand, as we see in verse 11, the Jews believed, based on the prophecies of Isaiah, that Elijah would prepare the way for the Messiah. The greatest of prophets was needed to confirm the Messiah. So here, Elijah stands with Jesus as a representative of all of the prophets to confirm the teachings of Jesus. Like Elijah, Moses was a stand-in for the Law of the OT. Moses was the great lawgiver, the deliverer of Israel, the founder of their national religion. The Jews often spoke of the whole OT Law as “The books of Moses.” These two men connect all of the OT with the ministry and teachings of Jesus. But, above all of that, the Father descends in the form of a cloud and announces, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” So, Peter, James, and John, if you aren’t convinced by the greatest of prophets and the lawgiver, then won’t you heed the words of the Father?

The second reason these three visitors appear is to confirm the necessity of the cross. Remember, the disciples refuse to accept that Jesus must suffer and die. Peter rebuked Jesus for saying it earlier. Now, when Jesus is transfigured and Elijah and Moses appear, what is his reaction? He says, “Hey, let’s just set up camp and stay here. No need to leave and face the cross. No need to suffer. You stay right here, and we will serve you.” And, even as they come down off the mountain, verse 10 tells us that they were questioning what he must mean by this rising from the dead. They refuse to believe that this could be a part of God’s plan. So, Jesus reveals his divine nature to show them, beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is the Messiah. Then, Elijah and Moses confirm that the cross is part of the plan. In Luke’s account of this, he says that Moses, Elijah, and Jesus discussed his “departure” to be accomplished in Jerusalem. All of Scripture confirms that the Messiah must die for the sins of the people. Genesis 3:15 says that the seed of the woman must be bruised by the serpent. The Passover lamb foreshadows a blameless sacrifice that would hide us from the death angel. The suffering servant of Isaiah 53 promised that the punishment we deserved would fall on the Messiah. Whether the disciples would accept it or not, this was the eternal will of God.

Yes, the cross was necessary. Yes, it was brutal and despairing. Yes, the way of self-denial and cross-bearing is a way of suffering for all who would follow Christ. But, in this transfiguration, Jesus offers comfort and assurance. This is what the power of the kingdom of God looks like – radiant, piercing glory. In Rev. 1:13-16, John has a vision of the resurrected and ascendent Christ, and this is how he describes him: “The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace… in his right hand he held seven stars… and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.” Jesus faced the humiliation and pain of the cross, but he rose again victorious and radiant, in the way that Peter, James, and John saw him on this mountain. This is the way he will return, in glory and power, and on his return, every knee will bow.

There is beautiful assurance in this. 1 Cor. 15:49 says, “Just as we have born the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” Through faith in Jesus Christ, we have a promise that one day, when Christ returns, he will make us new, and we will be like him, glorified, imperishable, eternal. There is also a wonderful comfort found in 2 Cor. 3:18: “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” Our comfort is not just that one day, after all this suffering and trial is done, we will be made new (though that is comfort enough). But, we can have the blessings of the kingdom right now because of the Spirit’s work through the Word of God. Paul says that when we behold Christ, when we worship him, when we study his word, and yes, even when we suffer for him, we are like Moses up on the mountain, with an unveiled face, beholding the glory of God. And like Moses, we are being transformed (that is the same Greek word, metemorphoo), into the image of Christ. As we deny ourselves and take up our cross, we are gradually transformed to be like Jesus. I know that I can say that in my own life (hopefully my wife will say that about me too!). I know I’ve seen it in others as they’ve grown in the word and faced the trials of life. Today, take comfort knowing that, as you take up your cross, you are becoming more like Jesus. And, rest assured that one day, we will behold him in all his glory and be changed.