Mark 8–9:13
I. Power, Revelation, and Dullness of Heart- Chapter 8
A. (8:1–10) – Jesus fed 4000 with seven loaves of bread and “a few small fish.
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- The people had been under Jesus’ instruction for three days and some lived a great distance away. Apparently, they had exhausted any personal food supplies they had. Seeing their physical need under such stress, Jesus had compassion. This is an example of the “good works” that Paul spoke of in Titus when he wrote, “And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful” (Titus 3:14). Jesus saw an urgent need, manifested the human compassion that motivates a “good work,” and implemented his divine power to meet the need.
- As he had before, Jesus located food (bread and fish). Four thousand people had been gathered, and he fed to satisfaction all of them. Jesus’ human nature needed regular sustenance just like others and he knew the stress of hunger and the relief of physical satisfaction. After his resistance to satanic manipulation concerning hunger, “Angels came and ministered to him (Matthew 4:11). He was the angel of mercy in this time of hunger.
- Seven baskets of remnants of the food were left over and gathered. There must be no waste of divinely given resources. He left Decapolis and went to Dalmanutha by boat.
B. (Verse 11–13) Pharisees demand some sign that will satisfy them that all the talk about him and the impressions people have should be approved.
Jesus refused to satisfy them for a special display; they should be able to draw a right conclusion from what Jesus already had done and taught. Again, he left by boat and went to Bethsaida.
C. (Verses 14–21) He warned his disciples against the “leaven” of the Pharisees and of Herod.
The one was a warning against religious tyranny and hypocrisy and the other against political deceitfulness. They completely misunderstood the reference to “leaven.” With striking candor Jesus asked them, “Do you have a hardened heart?” (17) Jesus was not concerned about physical provision; he had demonstrated that they need never fear about that. He reminded them specifically of the miraculous feeding of 5000 and that they had just been involved in the feeding of 4000 (19, 20). What they should be keenly aware of was spiritual blindness, hypocrisy, treachery, and manipulation. Though their failure to understand was not driven by hatred, nevertheless, they should be alarmed at their own dullness. This spiritual fogginess would show itself immediately. The answer to his question, “Do you not yet understand?” would prove to be, “Apparently, we do not.”
D. Jesus healed a blind man (22–26), this time using two touches, one to restore sight and the second to make his sight clear.
He sent the man home with instruction not to enter the village. Like the disciples, his first sight was only impressionistic; clarity would come with a further manifestation of divine power. The necessity of this double touch immediately finds illustration in the next event Mark records.
E. Jesus asked two questions about his own identity (27–30).
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- “Who do people say I am?” People tied him into a powerful prophetic tradition, including John the Baptist. Elijah soon would appear with Jesus (9:4) at the display of heavenly glory emblematic of the power and glory of the kingdom. Jesus’ kingdom would not be the dull, gaudy, corruptibility of any earthly kingdom. The popularity of Jesus caused great concern for the Pharisees and the scribes as well as the Sadducees, for his teaching had great impact and he was not a devotee of any of these religious or political groups. Among their fears was that he might be stirring up a messianic fervor that would result in a political uprising and consequent brutal repression (Mark 3:5; John 11:47–50).
- Who do you say I am? Peter confessed, “You are the Christ.” From Matthew 16, we know that Jesus attributed this correct insight to the Father’s revelatory operation in Peter. Confessing Jesus as a mere prophet would not do. He was in a different category entirely; he was “Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets wrote.” Peter’s confession mirrored that given by Andrew (“We have found the Messiah”) and Philip. (John 1:41, 45). The so-called messianic secret that lay behind Jesus’ stated prohibition that people not disclose their healing (5:43) or demons reveal his identity (Mark 1:25, 34), was not in any sense a personal denial or ignorance of his being the Messiah. This had been concluded and claimed from the earliest days of his ministry. It was implicit in his baptism by John the Baptist, his calling of Andrew and Philip, and his conversation with the woman of Samaria (John 4:26). Also, his consistent pattern of commending the faith of those who were healed in the gospel of Mark shows his personal consciousness of his messiahship (Mark 2:5; 5:19, 34, 36). While he controlled all things, he did not want to prompt a situation from present human expectations that would provoke any attempts at revolution and enthronement.
- Because of the rampant misperceptions of the office of Messiah (even the disciples’ view), he “warned them to tell no one.” The time would come for an open display of messianic honor before the people (Mark 11:1–11), but that would not result in political enthronement but serve as the basis for charges against Jesus (Mark 14:61–65).
F. (Verses 31–33) – Jesus began to speak to them about his eventual death and resurrection.
He spoke “plainly” (32). His kingdom would be established through his death. As of yet, they could not break loose from the earthly, patriotic, and ethnic expectations that had been developed in the synagogue instruction and rabbinic literature.
- The word is “to teach them” (31). He instructed in didactic form as to what they could expect in the near future. These were not educated hunches or pessimistic scenarios; they were revelations from the lips of the Son of God as elemental to the eternal covenant of redemption, the redemptive task he had taken on himself in concert with the Father and the Spirit.
- He did this so they would discern more accurately the nature of his mission. Also, they should not be overwhelmed with a sense of disappointment in an apparent failure when he was arrested, tried, convicted, and executed. It seems that they did not even hear the note of ultimate eternal triumph when he said, “and after three days rise again” (31).
- The purpose of his coming transcended the immediate national interests of Israel and were, rather, in pursuit of redemption from sin and the defeat of death. Though they should have known that the Messiah’s rule would be established through substitutionary suffering and resurrection (Isaiah 53; Psalm 103:1–5; Psalm 110), that aspect of his death and triumph would be expanded in their understanding by revelation in days and years subsequent to his ascension and Pentecost (e.g Acts 2:22–36); Romans 3:21–26; 8:31–34; 1 Corinthians 15:3, 20–27; 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15, 19–21; 1 Peter 2:21–25; Revelation 1:5–7).
- Peter, having verbalized a correct confession and perhaps confident now of his understanding, began to contradict the narrative of Jesus. In this, Jesus saw the serpentine lie again being set forth, “You shall not surely die” (Genesis 3:4). He saw the compromise suggested by Satan in the wilderness temptations Matthew 4:8–11). The original sin was prompted by the deceit that God was so full of mercy that he would not exact justice. Precisely this Jesus had come to counteract; precisely this lie, Jesus’ own death would put to flight. Those who are not united with him in his death, burial, and resurrection will surely experience their own death under the power of sin and the curse that still reigns in their hearts.
- Peter sought to instruct Jesus in a private conversation, perhaps assuming that his attempt at correction would embarrass Jesus. Peter probably spoke what all the disciples in their perplexity were thinking. Jesus’ rebuke of Peter (“He rebuked Peter” 33) was plainly done before the entire group of disciples. The enforcement of the truth of his teaching and the necessity of their believing it was graphic and startling. Jesus sensed Satan in the mix and, in his words of rebuke to Peter, addressed the evil and lying presence among them. Peter learned firsthand through this response of Jesus of the subtlety of satanic suggestion: “Be sober be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5:8, 9).
- “You are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s” (33b). How does satanic suggestion reflect man’s interests? “He who sins is of the devil,” and Jesus came “that He might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Man’s interests in his fallen condition consists of what John described as the “world” that excludes a love of the Father. The world is defined as “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:15, 16). Satan was appealing to the triumphalistic spirit of the disciples in sharing in the authority and glory of the messianic exaltation to worldly power. That would not happen within the framework of present worldly kingdoms. Rather, followers must suffer with him in order to be glorified with him and reign with him (Romans 8:17; Philippians 1:29; 2 Timothy 2:12).
G. (Verse 34–38) Jesus issued a call, summoning not only his disciples, but the crowd to hear.
- Jesus immediately put following him in the most difficult terms possible. The cross was well known for its humiliation, exposure, and pain. Now Jesus presents following him as embracing such a lowly status in the scheme of worldly perceptions.
- If your elevated spirit is dependent on the prospect of fame and importance and comfort in this world, then drop your expectations. Turn around and go away. The one who “wishes to save his life,” live safely, comfortably, and in prosperity according to the evaluation of this present order, and in so doing deny the message of the cross, will lose his life eternally.
- Jesus’ work as Messiah was not for political freedom and victory over oppression, but for pleasing his Father by offering himself as a sacrifice for many, to give his life as a ransom (Mark 10:42–45). This requires a willingness to die in the cause of the gospel, the very cause that Jesus the Messiah had taken on himself. To value that cause, that eternal truth in service of God’s righteousness, means eternal life, the true saving of one’s life (35).
- Jesus concentrated on the ultimate seriousness and severity of finding offense in his purpose of rejection and suffering (36–38). What in the temporal order, no matter how exalted, prosperous, and powerful it might be, is worth an eternity of wrath from God in the company of consummately evil men and the devil and his angels? Jesus asked two questions (36, 37) to prompt sobriety of thought on what constituted true life. Is there any glory in the world from its beginning to its end that is worth forfeiture of the soul’s eternal prosperity? What would one give in exchange for the hope of eternal life (Titus 1:2; 3:7) in the presence of God’s unfiltered glory?
- He ended this call with the assurance that a time would come when he would indeed come in glory and power (“in the glory of his Father with the holy angels”), but this coming was not that time. He did, however, say that even now some would be allowed to see a portion of that glory and power of the Kingdom of God (9:1).
- These promises and warnings of Jesus serve as the background of a New Testament church confession in 2 Timothy 2:11–13.
For if we die with Him, we shall also live with him.
If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.
If we deny Him, He also will deny us.
If we are faithless, He remains faithful.
He cannot deny himself.
II. (9:2–13) Transfiguration: Uncreated brightness and spiritual darkness –
Mark’s arrangement of events indicates that Jesus was referring to this manifestation of glory in the company of Moses and Elijah.
A. These represent the Law and the Prophets which speak of Christ (Luke 24:25–27).
Their appearance with Jesus showed that Jesus was the fulfillment of all the glory of the kingdom of God as prophesied; he is the fulfillment of all that Scripture had said.
B. Also, Moses was buried by God himself and Elijah was taken to heaven in a whirlwind surrounded by chariots of fire and horses sent from heaven.
This shows that death, burial, and eventual ascension are in the hands of God and that Christ’s burial, resurrection, and ascension would be done in the power and purpose of God.
C. The light of radiance and exceeding whiteness showed that the God who revealed himself to Moses in visible glory (Exodus 33, 34) was present in the person of Christ himself.
D. Again the dullness of the disciples to the meaning of the events that surrounded Jesus came from the words of Peter who recommended building three tabernacles to celebrate the presence of Moses and Elijah along with Jesus.
Immediately his undiscerning forwardness was reprimanded from heaven by a cloud and a voice giving the true glory of the situation: “This is my Beloved Son. Listen to him.” Infinitely more worthy than either Moses or Elijah or both combined, Jesus alone is worthy of worship. Jesus alone brings in the kingdom of God with power.
E. (Verse 9–13) – As they descended from the mountain, Jesus again refers to his death and resurrection giving another occasion for a perplexing discussion among the disciples concerning its meaning.
Probably prompted by their just having seen Elijah, they asked Jesus about the prophecy that Elijah must come before the appearance of the Messiah (Malachi 4:5, 6). He sought to open their understanding about the necessity of rejection, leading to death both for the Messiah and for the forerunner Elijah. It already had been accomplished for Elijah, John the Baptist, and would without fail happen also to him. James Brooks points out the striking parallel between the wife of Ahab, Jezebel’s, threats against Elijah and her promise to kill him and the death of John the Baptist at the hands of the wife of Herod (Mark 6:21–29).
Infinite greatness, ineffable glory,
he prophets fulfilled, the Law satisfied.
Standing before them, Messiah incarnate,
now hated by men to be crucified.
Who could conceive it? The God-man rejected!
“Not so,” said Peter, “The Christ will prevail.”
Satan intoned it, “You shall not surely die.”
But to remove sin, Christ’s death would not fail.
For righteousness’ sake, to meet the Law’s demand,
To save his elect, Jesus chose the cross.
We must do the same and not deny his words;
If we are ashamed, we trade life for loss.
The kingdom’s power descended to meet them.
Christ in his beauty, brighter than sunrise,
Son of the Father, the glory of heaven,
Intrinsic pureness appeared to their eyes.
Who would choose this world, when heaven has been seen?
Throw away the dross; treasure only gold.
We can choose to scorn the hatred of the world,
And despise its lure in trade for our soul.
