Matthew 17

Transfigured

MATTHEW 17:1-27

17:1 Six days later Jesus *took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and *led them up on a high mountain by themselves. 2 And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. 3 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. 4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. 7 And Jesus came to them and touched them and said, “Get up, and do not be afraid.” 8 And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.

9 As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, “Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.” 10 And His disciples asked Him, “Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” 11 And He answered and said, “Elijah is coming and will restore all things; 12 but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.

14 When they came to the crowd, a man came up to Jesus, falling on his knees before Him and saying, 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is a lunatic and is very ill; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. 16 “I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.” 17 And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked him, and the demon came out of him, and the boy was cured at once.

19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not drive it out?” 20 And He *said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. 21 ***But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”]

22 And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; 23 and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.” And they were deeply grieved.

24 When they came to Capernaum, those who collected the *two-drachma tax came to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the two-drachma tax? ” 25 He *said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do the kings of the earth collect customs or poll-tax, from their sons or from strangers?” 26 When Peter said, “From strangers,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are exempt. 27 “However, so that we do not offend them, go to the sea and throw in a hook, and take the first fish that comes up; and when you open its mouth, you will find *a shekel. Take that and give it to them for you and Me.”

MATTHEW 17:1-8

Six Days later…

The term “six days later” is important to Matthew, let’s ascertain why. It was six days after the hassling by the religious leaders. Six days after Peter said Jesus was the Son of God and six days after Jesus determined to go to Jerusalem, which everyone knew would be the final trip there during his lifetime.

It is like Matthew is telling us, “Six days later everything looked hopeless.”

Have you ever had a “six days after” experience? This is a good reminder of God’s timing. In God’s time hope comes in a way totally unexpected.

It is also critical to note who climbed the mountain with Jesus. It wasn’t all the disciples. It was Peter, James and John. James and John were known as the “Sons of Thunder.” All three of them were a volatile lot. Many times those who go through high highs, also go through low lows. It’s quite possible that of the disciples, these three were the ones who needed to witness the transfiguration the most, while the rest remained confident in their faith and less distressed by immediate circumstances.

Would I be one of the ones Jesus had to take up the mountain? How confident is my faith “six days later?”

Moses and Elijah appeared to them

Jesus also receives the support necessary to “complete the journey.” Moses is the lawgiver and Elijah, the fiery prophet. Together they are the balance of Judaic history, the rigor of the law and the passion of prophetic leadership. Great leaders always know they have to keep the two in balance.

The religious leaders of Jesus’ time had lost that balance and focused on the rigors of the law without the passion of the prophets. Because of that, they missed Jesus’ arrival entirely. The messiah their whole faith was built upon was in their midst and instead of welcoming him, they would kill him for expedience.

Prayer was critical to Jesus and in prayer he was transfigured. Surrounded by the presence of God, affirmed by the leaders of faith, he is affirmed in his sacrificial course.

Do we go to the Creator to be affirmed in our sacrificial course? Are we in tune with the balance of rigor and passion in our lives? Does our prayer life remind us of these truths?

· We are on a sacrificial mission while here on earth

· Our Creator is available to sustain us when we go to seek sustenance

That sustenance will come in both the form of mission-focused zeal and the balance of biblical directives. The most important of which is Christ’s New Commandment.

John 13:34-35

34 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

If we attempt to live by that one command, it will serve as balance to our lives. It will undergird all of our decisions. Not “What Would Jesus Do?” but “How Would Jesus Love?”

“I will make three tabernacles here”

Poor Peter… He always led with his hands rather than his prayer. He was ready to construct another altar for God without even listening to the mandate of his Lord.

Just as Peter tried to hold Jesus in Galilee, he now tries to start a new religion. The Jews had their tabernacle in Jerusalem, the Samaritans had their temple on Mount Gerizim, now Peter wanted a new tabernacle, this time on Mount Tabor.

How often do I act without prayer? How often do I act without considering what might be the Lord’s priorities as opposed to my own? How often do I try to set up my own “temple” around my ideologies and misguided theology?

Clearly Jesus wasn’t about starting a new religion for humans to systematize. The last thing the world needed was a new temple in the region of Israel.

“This is My beloved…”

The bright cloud of God’s presence is otherwise known as Shekhina or the “Cloud of Unknowing.” This term is grammatically feminine and represents the dwelling or the settling of God. In mysticism, it means we are allowing ourselves the courage “not to know.”

Peter was so sure of his beliefs that he didn’t seek to balance his words or actions with God. Herein is the essence of prayer, not telling God what we want and enlisting God’s support, but aligning our actions and thoughts with God’s direction. In essence, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”

Do our actions begin with listening or do we only listen after we’re knee-deep in consequences from misaligned actions?

This is a great cautionary example of going to the mountain and listening before we set our course.

MATTHEW 17:9-13

“Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.”

Jesus takes these three asides but as with all-things-Jesus, it is not for a private privilege but a public responsibility. When Jesus has been crucified, it will be their responsibility to band together and give hope to others.

We don’t have the privilege of faith, we have the responsibility. Every right comes with a responsibility and faith is especially no different. The right to bear arms also implies the right to protect those who might have arms borne against them. The right to free speech also means protecting those who don’t want to hear what I might have to say. All rights bear responsibilities. The right to worship also bears the responsibility to protect those who don’t want to worship or believe the same things I believe.

Too often people exhort their rights while not attending to their responsibilities. I need to make sure that doesn’t describe my life.

What is the responsibility of Christ-centered faith?

· Protect the least accepted and most rejected

· Bravely go where others do not want to go or do not feel comfortable going

· Ensure the rights of those who are especially left out of powerful financial, political, religious or economic systems

· Be hope to those whose hope has failed

If we are allowed the privilege of the mountaintop, we must also accept the responsibility of the valley.

“Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished.”

Here is a sad commentary on just how belligerent the Religious Leaders had become. It wasn’t that they were ignorant they were very well educated. However, they dangerously allowed their intelligence to overrule their availability to the presence of God. They would not bend their egos to the presence of God’s prophets and even the Messiah. Their roles had become more important than their responsiveness to God or his people.

It is quite possible for all of us to run this risk and put our earthly knowledge ahead of our receptiveness to God’s prompting. Uncorrected, over time, I too can begin to treat the prophetic whimsically. Do to them “whatever I wish…”

More than anything the leaders of Christ’s day ignored and trivialized the prophets. They made John the Baptist out to be an oddity, they stood silently aside while Herod had him arrested and later killed.

In what ways do we trivialize and ignore the prophets? When we turn a blind eye to injustice and poverty like the rich man who ceased seeing Lazarus. The rich man is not condemned for harming Lazarus, he condemned for ignoring the beggar.

“So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.”

The high of the transfiguration is contrasted with the reality of being God’s sacrificial servant. Sometimes, we think as Christians that our bond with God will free us from experiencing the realities of suffering in the world. In truth, what Christ’s bond provides us is to experience meaning in the suffering. We still deal with the violence of the world, the cancer, the pain and the disappointments.

We are promised meaning in the sorrow not exclusion from the sorrows of the world by both Jesus and then again by Paul.

John 14:16-21

16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 “After a little while the world will no longer see Me, but you will see Me; because I live, you will live also. 20 “In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. 21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.”

Colossians 1:16-18

16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

Whenever I feel I should be privileged or set apart as a follower of Christ, I need to read what happened after the Transfiguration — when Jesus came down the mountain and back to his own followers.

MATTHEW 17:14-18

“I brought him to Your disciples, and they could not cure him.”

Continuing the lesson about what happens after the transfiguration. Jesus stumbles upon his disciples and their ineptitude with the healing of a demon-possessed child. The apostles had previously healed people of demons and done other miracles why do they fall short in this instance [Matthew 10]?

Is it possible, that like Moses taking credit for the water that flowed from the rock at Merinah [Exodus 17], the apostles had tried to heal the boy without prayer, by their own assumed power and failed miserably?

Who do we rely on for the miraculous in our lives and communities? Change cannot be supported without the habit of prayer nor can the attitude of the miraculous. We must check in with God habitually — even for the mundane — not just when we seek do the amazing.

“You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you?”

Jesus calls his followers some choice expressions; let’s look at the words in detail.

· Unbelieving [G571 Ápistos], this word means without faith, the opposite of faithful. It is also used for one who does not believe or is even against believing.

· Perverse [G1294 Diastréphō], this word builds on the word stréphō, meaning separate, turn or twist. It was used for persons who had turned away, were seduced, mislead or corrupted others.

How could the Apostles have become Ápistos? Going from Christ’s closest followers to the most unbelieving and even perverse of a generation? Sadly, the potential exists in each of us. When we focus on our own resources and strengths or turn our gods into those that resemble us. The danger lays dormant and ever-present.

Though Jesus speaks harshly to his followers he also stays with them. He never leaves their side until the very end and continues teaching right up to the last moment only commissioning them with the assurance of the Holy Spirit’s future mentoring and presence.

Rather than providing them an easier path than others or leaving them unchallenged by daily trials, following Jesus was no doubt the most threatening and difficult task these disciples had faced. Our primary assurance is we will not be orphaned [John 14:18].

MATTHEW 17:19-22

“Nothing will be impossible to you”

Satan tempted Jesus with spectacularism and opportunism, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself off this cliff… [Matthew 4:6, Luke 4:9].”

Certainly telling a mountain to move would be a spectacular opportunity to prove one’s powers to those around us. Jesus rejected this temptation as putting God to the test and because it would lead to the wrong type of followers.

Having the ability doesn’t make something right. The right ability with the wrong intent can lead to very bad results. Before we take actions that might seem amazing, we must always reflect upon our intent. Are we choosing a course of action to impress others or to empower them? Would the result of the action make someone more dependent on me or lead to a deeper relationship with the Creator?

“The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men”

The disciples were now about a two-day walk from Jerusalem. Jesus was on a forced march towards his sacrifice and the disciples knew the outcome. Repeatedly they tried to dissuade him from his mission. It must have been confusing for them. “Our Lord has the ability to move mountains, why doesn’t he turn around?”

Again we are a back examining intent and ability. Jesus has the ability to save himself, but his intent is to bridge the distance between Creator and humanity. He is not interested in just drawing people to himself; he wants to point people towards God.

MATTHEW 17:24-27

“However, so that we do not offend them”

There are a number of critical aspects to this story. The tax itself was worth almost two days pay for the common working person. A hardship for any person whose income was so meager, they simply had no expendable income and there were many taxes they already had to pay.

Jesus’ point about should we pay or not relates to the truth that family members of a king do not pay taxes to their family. Jesus was God’s son; he didn’t have to pay taxes to his own parent.

However so as not to offend people (the word [G4624 Skandalizō] means to scandalize them or trip them up) Jesus insists on paying the tax. It is doubtful that Jesus actually had Peter pick up a miraculous fish to get them out of paying their taxes. That would contradict Jesus’ statements about using miracles to further personal ends. It is more likely he is telling Peter to put in a couple days work so as to pay the tax.

God does not provide us with the easy way out. Some say, “God helps those who help themselves.” But this chapter indicates that, “God also helps those unable to help themselves.”