Day 294 (Matthew 17, Mark 9) - Year 6
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Mark 9 opens with an interesting quote from Jesus. He says, Truly I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power.

This is a continuation from what we read at the end of Mark 8 yesterday, but the conversation is just broken up in a weird spot. You may already know this, but these verse and chapter divisions aren't part of the original scripture. Each book was written out like a normal letter. Chapters were marked out in the 13th century, and verse divisions were only added about 500 years ago. They serve their purpose in helping us find things easily, but just be aware that they don't always fall at the best breaking point. After all, they aren't divinely inspired.

But back to this statement Jesus makes. What does it mean that they will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power? There are five or six prominent theories on what Jesus might be referring to here. We'll link to an article that gives more of an overview, but just to skim the surface, the most popular theories are that this points to A, the transfiguration, which happens about a week later,

B, the resurrection, which is about six months away. Or C, the Holy Spirit showing up on the scene at the Feast of Pentecost, which is still about eight months away. All three of those events are times where God's power and his kingdom are displayed in unique ways.

At the resurrection, God demonstrates his power over death and the grave. At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit comes to indwell believers for the first time ever, Jews and Gentiles both. And the transfiguration is what we encounter next in today's reading. About a week after he tells them he's going to have to suffer and die, he takes Peter, James, and John up on a mountaintop and lets them see behind the curtains of the spiritual dimensions briefly.

They see things human eyes can't see. Jesus physically transforms or at least reveals some aspect of his deity that is normally hidden. His face shines like the sun and his clothes turn white. Then, all of a sudden, two of our favorite guys from the Old Testament, Moses and Elijah, show up and start talking with him. How'd they get there? This is definitely a one-off.

Moses represents the law since he was the lawgiver, and Elijah represents the prophets since he was one of the most prominent prophets to ever live. When Jesus summarizes the Old Testament, he refers to it collectively as the law and the prophets. So these two men represent the whole thing, all the words that testified to Jesus and pointed to him the whole time.

Peter is pumped about this and he doesn't want the good times to end. So he's like, hey, how's about we just stay up here forever? I'll set up camp. I just got three new tents at Target. You guys can have them and we'll sleep on the ground. And while he's still throwing out ideas, he gets interrupted by God the Father. How embarrassing. It's like when they start playing the exit music over your acceptance speech at the Oscars, but one million times more humbling because it's Yahweh.

And just like he did at Jesus' baptism, God the Father affirms the person and work of God the Son. Then he tells the disciples to listen up because it's time for Jesus to talk.

The disciples are face down at this point, and Jesus comes over and touches them, tells them not to fear and to get up. Then all of a sudden, Moses and Elijah are gone. Jesus tells them to keep all this a secret until after he has died. So again, he's telling them he's going to suffer and die, but they're still confused about it all. Later, he tells them that he'll be killed, then he'll be raised from the dead on the third day, but they don't even have a category for that.

Luke's account of this story in chapter 9 seems to indicate that God kept them from understanding it, quite likely because they couldn't handle it. Finally, Matthew, the former tax collector, includes a story we don't get in any other Gospels. It's about Jesus paying his taxes.

Thanks, Matthew. The tax collectors approach Peter and ask if Jesus plans to pay his taxes. This is a temple tax required by God's law. It's from Exodus 30, and Jesus hasn't paid it yet. They don't ask Peter about his taxes because he's not of age yet. It was only required of men aged 20 and up.

So Peter and Jesus have a chat about this, and Jesus says he personally shouldn't have to pay a tax to fund his father's house. But his language also indicates that all sons of God should be exempt from this tax, all the people who are adopted into his family. But he lays down his rights and privileges and says, I'll pay it anyway. I don't want to offend anyone by opting out. It would set a bad example. Wait a second. He disregards the laws of the Pharisees all the time. So is he being hypocritical?

No, this is entirely different than the way he responds to the Pharisees because those aren't laws. Those are human traditions. He honors God by breaking their traditions and by keeping God's laws, of which this is one. Then he arranges to pay his debt in a miraculous way. He sends Peter to catch a fish and says the first fish he catches will have a coin in its mouth for the exact amount to cover both of their taxes. He's paying Peter's tax too, even though Peter doesn't owe tax legally. He's paying more than what's required.

My God shot was in the story of the demonized boy. The demons are giving him seizures and making him appear suicidal. The disciples tried to heal the boy first, but failed. But Jesus says he can do anything, and he challenges the dad who seems to only halfway think he might be able to heal him. The dad actually confesses his doubt to Jesus, his 50-50 faith. He says, I believe, help my unbelief. Both components are there, belief and unbelief.

I love that he asked Jesus to help him believe. God can grant faith. And God clearly isn't offended by that prayer because Jesus responds positively to the man here. So I ask God all the time to change my heart and mind on things, especially when I realize how completely incapable I am of doing that for myself. I ask for help, just like this man did. The disciples seem to have a faith problem too, but it's hard to tell what it is because the two accounts seem to contradict each other at first.

One says the demon can only be driven out by prayer, and the other says the demon wasn't driven out because the disciples didn't have faith. Here's one way those two statements fit together. It's possible the disciples had faith in themselves, but not in God. And their self-reliance meant they didn't even pray and ask God for help. They tried to access the power of God without connecting to the person of God. That's self-idolatry. God wants us to ask him for help.

He wants us to acknowledge our reliance on Him and to rightly view Him as the source of all things. We're not bugging Him when we ask for faith or ask for help. We're honoring Him. I love that He wants to help us because I need Him all the time. He's where the joy is. Hey, Bible readers, it's time for our weekly check-in. How are you feeling about the New Testament so far? Has it been easy? Are you excited every day to open up the Bible and learn about God's character?

Or maybe you found it difficult. Maybe you want to love it, but you're having a hard time. If that's you, good news. You can ask God to change your heart. You can ask God for help, just like the man did in today's story. So keep leaning in. He is at work in you and he's meeting you where you are. The king of the universe is cheering you on.