mark 9:9-13 :: the transfiguration (pt 3)

what a difficult assignment…keeping this event quiet. i’m sure that their eyes were wide and they were coming down the hillside with strange looks on their faces that they could not hide. but again, Jesus isn’t wanting to stir up false believers or to encite a riotous revolt based on this event. if He had walked down the hill with Moses at one hand, and Elijah at the other and radiating His glory lik eHe did on the hilltop, He could have taken over the world uncontested. but that isn’t His way. that isn’t why He went to the mountaintop that day. and so He tells peter, james and john to stay quiet until a better time.

i don’t know if i could do it. all these times where Jesus tells His disciples, and those He has healed, to remain quiet about life changing events; it’s not the sort of thing you just lock up and have an easy time not blurting out. if peter, james and john had talked about this at the last supper, what would have happened in the garden that night? what would judas have done? the religious leaders would have surely stoned them to death for talking about such an event happening…and it may have sounded so fantastic as to make people think they were absolutely nuts.

if i walked around in public talking about my lunch meeting with alexander hamilton and winston churchill, i would be put away at central state for a nice visit with the men in white coats. no on ewould take me seriously and any credibility i had built up with them would be shot down. there are some things that, no matter how sincere you are in telling about the events, people will not believe what you say if it is so beyond their normal experience.

so it’s not too hard to grasp why He told them to stay quiet. there are many other reasons besides these even. but just the fact that they were able to stay quiet about this is amazing to me…but it also explains why peter and john were the first to bolt out of the door on Ressurection Sunday when Mary showed up.

but now it’s time to head down the slope, and meet up with the people that need Him more than He needs to stay on that hilltop.