Mark 1:29-39
And immediately he left the synagogue and entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John. Now Simon's mother-in-law lay ill with a fever, and immediately they told him about her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her, and she began to serve them.
That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. And the whole city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.
And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Gospel reading for Sunday, February 11, comes from Mark chapter nine, verses two through nine. After six days, Jesus took with him, Peter, and James, and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them. and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. And there appeared to them, Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. And Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good that we are here, let us make three tents, one for you, and one for Moses and one for Elijah. For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified, and a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud. This is my beloved Son, listen to him. And suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them, but Jesus only. And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. Here ends the reading. Now, this is a short story of the end, a famous story of Jesus's transfiguration. So what I want to do is, I really want to slow down and take a look at it. Because sometimes when we read stories that we hear every single year, we don't always pick up on the new ones nuances. So let's do it. So, and after six days, Jesus took with him, Peter, and James, and John. So six days after what had been going on before this, Jesus takes his three inner core apostles, Peter, James, and John, and he takes them up to a high mountain by themselves. And it goes. And so going up this high mountain, this sort of retreat thing is something that Jesus frequently did. We just had in our gospel reading, this past Sunday, a time where Jesus God does His healing thing, and all the people come to his house. And then early in the morning, he rises and goes out to a desolate place to pray. So Jesus does this a lot, he goes off by himself, or he takes a few with him. And this time, he takes Peter, James and John, go up the high mountain. And then it says, And he was transfigured before them. So Jesus was changed, and he was right in front of the apostles. It continues, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them. Now, we live in a world where there's white, all over the place, where the prevalence of really nice cloth of washing machines of dyes and generally a clean world compared to the world of Jesus's day, and so we get things, things can be pretty white. In fact, right now I'm surrounded by white paper, it's almost glowing. But that was not the world of Jesus's day. White did not stay white, for very long, when you were walking on dirt paths out in the wilderness where you had all of these these difficult challenges, like dusty animals everywhere. Traveling was tough. You didn't do it in a car with air conditioning. You walked. And so nobody wore white. It was not white. And if you did, it did not stay white for very long. So Jesus is closed change says they become radiant, intensely white, so white, that no one could make them that white in a natural way. It continues, and they appear to them Elijah with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Of course, the perfect question. The one everybody asks is, how in the world did the apostles know that it was Elijah with Moses? Like did they have picked have pictures in their wallets? Was there a traditional like, name tag? A, like a lanyard? You know, hanging around their neck? Hello, my name is Elijah. Or it was Moses carrying stone tablets just to be like, Yeah, you know what, these are nuts. That's how we have no idea how they were recognized him. It seems to me likely that the the way they? Well, I don't know, nobody really knows, we'll just leave it at that. And so they were talking with Jesus. Mark doesn't tell us what they're talking about. And so it's just a conversation. And Peter said to Jesus, Rabbi, it is good that we are here. Now this this address rabbi, is for a teacher, right? Teacher, it is good that we are here. So he's excited. Let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Okay, so Peter proposes an action, he's going to set up three tents, these are probably not the pup tents you think of from Boy Scouts, or Girl Scouts, these would have been the kind of tents that you lived in, like in ancient Israel, you know, when they were wandering through the wilderness with Moses, and they make tents. Or as they do in the Feast of Tabernacles. Every year, they would build this big tent that you could live in. And so Peter says, well, let's put up some houses here. They're movable houses, but houses nonetheless, one for each of you, Moses, Elijah, and for you. What did Peter want to do with those? We have no idea. And maybe he didn't either, because the Bible says, For he did not know what to say, for they were terrified. And our man Peter, he never lets not knowing what to say, stop him from saying something. He just put it out there. Hey, you know what, sometimes you just got to speak and let let your brain catch up afterward. Well, this is of course, weird. They were terrified. They had no idea what was going on. Then it says, in the cloud, overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud.
So the cloud overshadows them. And then there's a voice. Now, this cloud on the top of a mountain, it doesn't describe it. But it is reminiscent of the cloud that would have gone on the top of Mount Sinai. That was a vision of the presence of God. And so we see this cloud on the top of Mount Sinai as the way that God spoke to Moses. And maybe it's something like that. And don't we know that a voice comes, and it says, This is My beloved Son, listen to him. And then suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone with them, but Jesus only. Now, this is the moment, that should be the center of the story. The cloud comes and you get a voice. This is my beloved son. Listen to him. When we think about stories, especially stories, because we have them visually, right, we see TV shows, we see movies, and even when we read books, what we really care about is the plot, what are the characters doing, and you can understand the characters best by their actions. And that's what we might expect from ancient literature. And if we come at it with that lens, then we're looking at all the stuff that's going on, the really important things are the Moses and Elijah appearing in the clothes, intensely white, and all this amazing stuff that's happening. And then the words don't mean so much. But in ancient literature, the words meant more and the actions meant less. And so all of the stuff that happened up until now, the close becoming intensely white, Elijah and Moses appearing Peter, not knowing what to say, but speaking anyway, leads to the moment where the voice from the cloud says, listen to him. That's the core of the story. Moses and Elijah, come down to tell Peter, and all of us, just listen, don't speak. Don't make stuff up. Don't try to tell Jesus who he should be and what he should do. Just listen. And that's what God calls us to do. Right? To hear the Word of God. Listen, and believe and obey. The reading ends with the follow up, it says, And as they were coming down the mountain, he charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from Dead. So there we go down the mountain. He says, don't tell anyone until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. And you got to wonder, do you do you think they understood what that meant? I don't, because they didn't it. That's what the Bible says, right after the reading it says, so they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean. And so it seems to me likely that they really needed to listen to Jesus and be ready to just wait. Because they didn't understand what he might be saying that he would rise from the dead. We to need to just listen. Oh, Jesus tells us all about who he is. But so often, we want to say no, no, no, no, we really would like you to be like what we want. And all that does is it covers up the truth. And we need to understand the reality of who Christ is because only a real and true Christ is going to save us. And so when we can turn to Him and hear his word, we know the truth. And he teaches us and guides us and gives us life. That's all I have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai