The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Grow Pray Study Guide in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Monday, 12 March 2018 "Divine affirmation: Jesus was right about a suffering Messiah"Daily Scripture
Mark 8:34 Then Yeshua called the crowd and his talmidim to him and told them, “If anyone wants to come after me, let him say ‘No’ to himself, take up his execution-stake, and keep following me. 35 For whoever wants to save his own life will destroy it, but whoever destroys his life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News will save it. 36 Indeed, what will it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? 37 What could a person give in exchange for his life? 38 For if someone is ashamed of me and of what I say in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels. 9:1 Yes!” he went on, “I tell you that there are some people standing here who will not experience death until they see the Kingdom of God come in a powerful way!”
2 Six days later, Yeshua took Kefa, Ya‘akov and Yochanan and led them up a high mountain privately. As they watched, he began to change form, 3 and his clothes became dazzlingly white, whiter than anyone in the world could possibly bleach them. 4 Then they saw Eliyahu and Moshe speaking with Yeshua. 5 Kefa said to Yeshua, “It’s good that we’re here, Rabbi! Let’s put up three shelters — one for you, one for Moshe and one for Eliyahu.” 6 (He didn’t know what to say, they were so frightened.) 7 Then a cloud enveloped them; and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” 8 Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Yeshua.
9 As they came down the mountain, he warned them not to tell anyone what they had seen until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10 So they kept the matter to themselves; but they continued asking each other, “What is this ‘rising from the dead’?” 11 They also asked him, “Why do the Torah-teachers say that Eliyahu has to come first?” 12 “Eliyahu will indeed come first,” he answered, “and he will restore everything. Nevertheless, why is it written in the Tanakh that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? 13 There’s more to it: I tell you that Eliyahu has come, and they did whatever they pleased to him, just as the Tanakh says about him.”
***Reflection Questions
A dazzling transformation, Moses, Elijah, God’s voice—seeing Jesus glorified left Peter, John, and James speechless. Jesus usually looked like just another person. On this day, “his clothes were amazingly bright, brighter than if they had been bleached white.” This was not a random light show. It was a preview of God’s kingdom arriving in power (Mark 9:1), a time to strengthen Jesus and his disciples to face the cross (the completely counter-intuitive path to the kingdom).
- The light, the vision of Moses and Elijah, the dazzling white clothes – all were impressive. But the deepest impression came from the voice that said, “This is my Son, whom I dearly love. Listen to him!” With ups and downs, the disciples obeyed that voice for the rest of their lives. What does it mean for you to listen to Jesus today? Are you willing to do it?
- Peter said they should stay on the mountain and build three shrines. Mark said Peter’s foolish suggestion came “because he didn’t know how to respond.” But Jesus led them off the mountain, to the hurting people waiting for him. Are there times, in worship or at a beautiful site, when you wish you could just stay there? What forces lead you back into the “real world”? How can you keep God’s presence with you, even off “the mountaintop”?
Lord Jesus, so often I just want you to listen to my plans, my wishes, my dreams. Grow in me a spirit willing to obey the divine command: “Listen to him!” Quiet my demands and wishes when I need to listen to you. Amen.
Read today's Insight by Donna KarlenDonna Karlen serves in Communications at Church of the Resurrection by creating and managing social media content.
Don’t you just love Peter? He is impetuous, boisterous, impulsive – we see that from the start when Jesus calls him to “Follow me,” and Peter literally drops what he’s doing and follows. Last week we learned how Peter is the first one to say that Jesus is the Messiah. Matthew’s Gospel describes Peter’s enthusiasm for taking a walk with Jesus – on the water, that is. And eventually Peter becomes “the rock” upon which Jesus builds his church.
And yet Jesus also calls Peter satan… We read today how Peter doesn’t know when to shut up during Jesus’ transfiguration… He gives in to fear and nearly drowns in the sea (of doubt as well as water)… And one of Peter’s first acts as the “church rock” is to crumble when faced with fingers pointing his way.
Apparently, Peter’s enthusiasm is matched by his bumbling.
In today’s passage, Peter blows the chance to sit and listen at the feet of Jesus, Elijah and Moses. Can you just imagine the conversation?! Jesus to Moses and Elijah: Nice work parting water. Elijah and Moses to Jesus: Nice work walking on it! Seriously though – what an opportunity to just sit silently and soak up every word! Except instead of doing that, Peter blurts out something about building shrines for the three. The next thing you know, Elijah and Moses are gone and Jesus is left (probably shaking his head in some measure of exasperation over his bumbling friend). How many of us amid fear or misunderstanding or our own ego, will blurt out something thoughtless, maybe even inappropriate? Hand raised here!
It’s no wonder God joined this mountain-top scene: Listen to him!
Of course we know that the shrine-building idea is pretty small potatoes on the list of Peter’s bumbles. And yet Jesus never gives up on Peter, never stops trying to build him up, to work in him and through him. Jesus never stops loving Peter – never stops loving us. Not even when we blurt in our own bumbleness.
Perhaps Peter’s impetuous, boisterous, impulsive bumbling is what Jesus sees in him in the first place. We aren’t called to be perfect. We are called to “listen to him!” We are called to love and be loved by Jesus, to love like Jesus... and to blurt the good news! And when we bumble (because we will bumble), to accept that God still loves us, to accept his forgiveness, and to model his forgiveness for our bumbles – and those who bumble against us.
***
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011.
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