You Won’t Understand Until This Happens

Mark 9:9-13, NLT - As they went back down the mountain, he told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead.  So they kept it to themselves, but they often asked each other what he meant by “rising from the dead.”

Then they asked him, “Why do the teachers of religious law insist that Elijah must return before the Messiah comes?”

Jesus responded, “Elijah is indeed coming first to get everything ready. Yet why do the Scriptures say that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be treated with utter contempt?  But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they chose to abuse him, just as the Scriptures predicted.”

 

                The inner circle of disciples (Peter, James, and John) just had perhaps the most profound spiritual experience of their lives, witnessing the transfiguration of Jesus upon a mountain top. They have witnessed the return of Moses and Elijah to earth to confer with the transfigured Jesus. Now, Jesus has told them to keep quiet about what they have seen.  While this seems unusual, Jesus does allow for them to share about it after Jesus has been raised from the dead.  This condition for sharing holds the key to understanding why Jesus forbids them to share. 

                The disciples were fully convinced that Jesus was the Messiah for which Israel had waited for dozens of generations.  While they were convinced of that truth, they only thought they understood it.  Jesus knew that, in order for them to understand the nature of His messiahship, they would have to be on the other side of the resurrection.  Jesus’s messiahship can only be understood to any degree through his life, his death, and his resurrection.  Though Jesus has told them multiple times about his suffering, death, and resurrection to come, they still do not believe it will happen.  That’s why they are still baffled by his talk of “rising from the dead.”  They quickly change the subject to Elijah. 

                Jesus knows they won’t accept the coming events until after they have happened, but it will help them to understand when they remember what Jesus told them (multiple times) before all the terrible events began.  So Jesus allows them the grace to change the subject to Elijah.  The answer they ask for is simple.  The return of Elijah is for the preparation for the Messiah.  John the Baptist was that Elijah, though Jesus doesn’t say that plainly.  It is implied in His answer.  What Jesus does make plain is that way John was treated is a foreshadowing of how Jesus Himself will be treated.  John was rejected and killed; Jesus will be rejected and killed.  After that is all over, they will be more able to grasp the true nature of God’s plan for the Messiah.  Jesus’s suffering, death, and resurrection will somehow usher in God’s kingdom for the entire world – a plan that is still unfolding to this very day.  The same is true of life’s greatest truths.  They only become accessible through the lens of suffering.  The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus provide this ultimately clarifying lens.  We shall know the Truth (His name is Jesus) and the truth shall set us free.   

 

Question:  Take some time today to reflect on what you have learned and been able to perceive only because you first had to suffer. 

 

Prayer:  Jesus, we seek You as our messiah, but we too often misunderstand Your ways.  Help us embrace the suffering we inevitably encounter in life as the very key that can unlock deeper understanding, perception, and faith.  Amen.

 

Prayer Focus:  Think of people whose names trigger anger in you.  Pray for God to bless them today. 

 

Song:  In the Bleak Midwinter – Susan Boyle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_dO91hQhkU