Mark 9:2 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters | Metropolitan Tabernacle

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Mark 9:2

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Within a few days, he takes just three disciples up into a mountain, and he is amazingly transfigured, and appears before three of them in his divine glory. Why only three disciples? Why not all of them? Various answers are given. These were the three earliest disciples. Perhaps they were the three who had most understanding, and were nearest to the Lord, most capable of receiving this. All that may be so, but there are other reasons also. Just supposing all the disciples had seen the transfiguration. Christian people, throughout the subsequent ages, might be tempted to complain: ‘Faith is hard. Why don't we all see a transfiguration? They had an unfair advantage.’ No, we are related to Christ by faith. We have many substantial proofs and indications of his answers to prayer, and his transforming work in our own lives and hearts. Only three were selected because this is not going to be something for all people. Yet it must be three. Not yet, but after Calvary, after the resurrection, they are going to have to testify of this to the other disciples, and Peter does so in his second epistle (2 Peter 1:17-18). We read the very words that the Father spoke on the mountain. So at least three witness it. ‘At the mouth of three witnesses,’ says the law of Moses, ‘shall the matter be established’ (Deuteronomy 19:15). But we can go further and suggest why these three in particular were chosen. Peter was the first to utter the great confession: ‘Thou art the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ He was the first to testify to Christ's divinity and office, and he would be the first to preach a sermon in the new church. On the day of Pentecost Peter preached that first great sermon, and what a sermon it was! Surely, humanly speaking, he would have been highly apprehensive, afraid for his life. This was the great crowd that had screamed for the crucifixion of Christ. These people were intensely nationalistic Jews. They had rejected a Saviour; they wanted to cling to the law of Moses and they imagined they were special people, and they were already home and dry spiritually. Anything said to the contrary, or anything about Messiah immediately inflamed their anger, their rage. Peter knew the potential of this great crowd, but he got up notwithstanding by the power of the Spirit, and he preached Christ, which involved preaching the wickedness of the Jews and their historic rejection of these things. The Spirit of God blessed, and thousands owned Christ and were pierced to the heart. James would be, not the first martyr for Christ, but the first martyr among the apostles who would give his life for his testimony, when Herod had him executed by the sword. John had the distinction: of being the only disciple to be right up close to the cross of Calvary. When all the disciples are recorded as having forsaken Christ, John was right up close in the line of fire. Anyone could have pointed to him and said, ‘He is one of them.’ He was the one who was there when Christ passed over to a disciple the care of his mother after his death. It was John who took all the responsibility for her care from that very moment.

Application

We too want close communion. We can't have a transfiguration, or an appearance or a vision, nor should we want it, but in our devotions and in our walk with Christ we long for those treasured times when everything comes especially to life for us, and we really are carried away in wonder love and praise, and we not only see the things of God as we read his word, but we see them in such an amplified manner, and we feel the lovingkindness and the goodness of Christ. Such close times are not meted out to us all the time. It's not the constant experience of the Christian. Assurance may be much more constant and happiness and indebtedness and gladness, but there are special times. Do you want, the special times? Then we can think of three qualifications. Salvation is solely by grace; it’s unmerited and free, but in our striving in the Christian walk, it will it bring us closer to Christ if we ready to witness like Peter. James gave everything. There are Christians who love Christ. They believe in Calvary; they worship him. They perhaps take up some acts of Christian service, but their own lives are still really receiving much too much emotional energy: my career, my home, my car. No, I will give him all, and I will serve him as much as I can. I lay my life at his feet. John stayed close to Christ and to Calvary. There are some who very seldom stay for the Lord’s Supper. That is a great shame. Every day, practice self-examination, confession of sin, come close to Calvary, stay close to Christ.

There will be deep trials and difficulties in life for a true Christian walking with the Lord. Amidst all the happiness and the times of triumph there will be some deep sorrows and setbacks and cruel disappointments from the world and from around you. But just like the apostle Peter, God will have prepared you in some way. If only you call to mind his great blessings toward you. If only you kept in mind the greatest answers to prayer and kindnesses he has shown you. These things are intended to fortify you. And Peter had the transfiguration to help him, to strengthen him. It's a kind of pattern of our own experience too. Every treasured blessing is to be remembered, because you will need it and it will help you to stand.

Questions

Matthew and Mark say six days; the Gospel of Luke says about eight days. Luke includes the days on either end, Matthew and Mark speak only of the interval in between.

Which mountain was this, people ask. There is an old tradition that says it was Mount Tabor, but everybody thinks that is very unlikely, because that was quite a long way away. They are at Caesarea Philippi, which is in the foot-hills of Mount Hermon, the Mount Hermon range, an eighteen-mile range of mountains with many spurs and peaks, the highest one being over 9,000 feet.

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Mark 9:2 Commentary and Bible Study