Chapter 9
Six days later, Jesus picks out Peter, James, and John to come with him up a mountain, and leaves the other disciples in the town. When the four of them get to the top of the mountain, Jesus becomes transfigured and becomes dazzling white. Elijah and Moses appear, and begin speaking with Jesus. Peter and the other two disciples watch in amazement, and Peter, unsure of what to say, blurts out that they could build three tabernacles on the spot, one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. A cloud appears and God speaks from heaven, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” Moses and Elijah disappear, and Jesus is standing there alone. (cf Matthew 17)
On their way back down the mountain, Jesus instructs them not to tell anyone what they saw until he has “risen from the dead.” The disciples don’t know what that means, but decide to keep quiet anyway. Eventually, they ask Jesus why the prophecies say that Elijah has to appear before the Messiah does. Jesus says that it’s true, he does have to appear – he already has. (cf Matthew 17)
When they finish descending the mountain and get back to the town, the first thing they see is a large group of angry townspeople arguing with the disciples who had been left behind. Jesus asks what’s going on, and a man says that his son is possessed by an evil spirit, and has frequent seizures that cause him to foam at the mouth, go rigid, and fall over. The man says he had asked the disciples to heal the boy, but they had tried and failed. Jesus is frustrated and asks the disciples, “How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
The boy is brought, and Jesus asks the boy’s father how long he’s been like this. The father says he’s been in this condition since childhood, and the seizures often throw him into fires, or water, and he’s afraid that will eventually kill him. “But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” “‘If you can’?” says Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.” The boy’s father exclaims, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” Jesus commands the evil spirit to leave the boy, and the spirit shrieks and blasts out of the boy violently. The onlookers are worried that the boy is dead, but Jesus takes his hand and he stands up. Later, the disciples ask Jesus why they couldn’t drive the demon out. Jesus says that that type of demon can come out only by prayer. (cf Matthew 17)
As they’re leaving, Jesus warns them that soon he will be betrayed and killed, but after three days will rise. As they get on the road to Capernaum, the disciples have a quiet but heated debate amongst themselves about which of them is the greatest and most important. Jesus asks them what they’re arguing about, and they get embarrassed and say that it’s nothing. When they stop for the night, Jesus sits them all down and tells them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” Jesus snags a nearby child, and tells the disciples that anyone who welcomes a child welcomes Jesus, and whoever welcomes Jesus welcomes the Father in heaven. (cf Matthew 18)
Later, John tells Jesus that they had seen a man driving out demons in Jesus’ name, and had told him to stop because he wasn’t one of the twelve apostles. Jesus says next time don’t stop him: “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is with us.”
Jesus goes on to say that if anyone cause a child who believes in him to sin, it would be better for that person to tie a millstone around their neck and drown in the sea. He says that if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to get to heaven with one hand, than go to hell with two hands. In hell, the fire never goes out, and in hell, “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” Jesus says, “Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”
Commentary
I don’t really get the whole transfiguration thing. Jesus had like a five-minute talk with Moses and Elijah, got a verbal thumbs-up from God (who also put the kabosh on Peter’s babbling, which I thought was kind of funny), and that was basically it. I’m curious what Moses and Elijah said to Jesus. Re Jesus saying that Elijah had already appeared: It seems here like he was referring to Elijah’s appearance just now on the mountain, but according to Matthew, it actually referred to John the Baptist, who generally functions as the new Elijah.
Re: the demon-possessed boy. When the father says that the boy’s seizures throw him into fires and stuff, the implication in the text is that the demon is throwing him into harm’s way intentionally. I can almost see Jesus raising one eyebrow on the “If you can” line. Mark gives a lot more verbose rendition of this story than Matthew, but mostly he just draws out the drama; despite his version being longer, he doesn’t really add anything new. The main difference is that according to Mark, the disciples were unable to vanquish the spirit because that type can be driven out only with prayer (which doesn’t really make sense, because surely they had prayed? If they really did try to do it without praying, then yeah that was dumb of them. Also, there are different types of evil spirits?); whereas according to Matthew, they were unable to do it because they didn’t have enough faith.
I thought it was funny how Jesus snagged a nearby child to use as a visual aid for his sit-down talk with the disciples. Also, whenever I hear the phrase “servant of all”, I automatically think of Aes Sedai. I can’t help it.
It’s unclear when John or the other disciples would have seen someone banishing demons, without Jesus being present. They’ve been separated from Jesus a few times – the mission trip, the time when Jesus left them to go pray by himself for a day, and when Jesus had only three disciples with him when he was transfigured. It can’t be the third one, because John was with Jesus for that one, and it’s unlikely that it was the second one because the disciples were on their boat the whole time. So the event of the disciples stopping the demon banisher probably occurred on their mission trip. Although, even that doesn’t entirely make sense, because they were only in pairs at the time and John makes it sound here like they all saw it together. So who knows.
Re “their worm does not die”. According to the notes, this is a quote from a prophecy from Isaiah. I have no idea what it means. The notes say that the worm thing refers to worms living in a dump heap. Mmmk. I have no idea what the stuff about the salt means.
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