He is transfigured
9
📚And he said to them, “Truly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste of death, until they see the kingdom of God come with power”. 2 📚And after six days Jesus took Peter, James and John and led them up into a high mountain alone by themselves. And he was transfigured in front of them. 3 📚And his clothing became shining, as exceedingly white as snow, as no one on earth bleaching them could whiten them. 4 📚And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus.
5 📚And Peter responded and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. And let us make three tabernacles, one for you, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah”. 6 📚For he did not know what to say, for they were very frightened.
9:6 Luke 9:33. When we don’t know what to say, it is usually better to say nothing. Yet from Peter’s unwise remark we learn that the disciples recognized Moses and Elijah (neither had lived on earth for centuries).⚜
7 📚And a cloud came and covered them with shadow. And a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him”.
8 📚And suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone, but only Jesus with themselves.
He speaks of Elijah and John the Baptist
9 📚And as they came down from the mountain, he ordered them not to tell anyone what they had seen, until the Son of man had risen from the dead. 10 📚And they kept this word to themselves, questioning one another what rising from the dead meant.
11 📚And they asked him, saying, “Why do the scribes say that Elijah must first come?”
12 📚And he answered and told them, “Elijah indeed comes first and restores all things. And yet how is it written of the Son of man, that he must suffer many things, and be treated with contempt?
13 📚But I tell you that Elijah has also come, and they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written about him”.
He drives a demon out of a boy
14 📚And when he came to his disciples, he saw a great crowd around them, and the scribes questioning them. 15 📚And immediately, when they saw him, all the people were greatly amazed 📖, and running to him, greeted him.
16 📚And he asked the scribes, “What are you asking them?”
9:16 Jesus was not ignorant of the cause of the argument (Matt 9:4; John 1:47-49; 12:24-25; 21:17), but was encouraging the father of the boy to speak up.⚜
17 📚And one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought my son to you. He has a mute spirit. 18 📚And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down. And he foams at the mouth and gnashes with his teeth. And he is wasting away. And I spoke to your disciples, so that they would drive it out, but they could not”.
9:17-18 Observe here some of the symptoms of some cases of demon possession. See also vs 20,22,26.⚜
19 📚He answered him and said, “O unbelieving generation, how long will I be with you? How long must I endure you? Bring him to me”.
20 📚And they brought him to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it threw him into convulsions. And he fell on the ground, and rolled around foaming at the mouth.
21 📚And he asked his father, “How long has it been since this came to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22 📚And often it has tried to destroy him by throwing him into the fire, and into the waters. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us”.
9:22 The man doubted the power of Jesus. Perhaps he thought that if Jesus’ representatives (the disciples) could not do anything neither could Jesus do anything. Men may falsely judge the power and authority of Christ by seeing the weakness of Christians.⚜
23 📚Jesus said to him, “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes”.
9:23 Again we see the teaching of the Bible that faith opens the way for God to work, and unbelief hinders Him from working (Mark 6:5). Faith makes a channel for God’s power. It is a hand that grasps omnipotence.⚜
24 📚And immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief”.
9:24 The man was conscious of the weakness of his faith, of a mixture of belief and unbelief in his heart. And he cries to the Lord Jesus for help in this too (v 21). Jesus answered both his prayers. Do not all believers have the same struggle with unbelief this man had? Help will come from the same one who helped him (Heb 12:2).⚜
25 📚When Jesus saw that the people were running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, “Mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and do not go into him again”.
9:25 This evil spirit was a demon which robbed the boy of his ability to hear and speak. This is the only time it is recorded that Jesus forbade an evil spirit to re-enter a person, though, for all we know, He may have done so at other times. That evil spirits sometime may do so seems clear from Matt 12:43-45.⚜
26 📚And the spirit cried out, threw him into severe convulsions, and came out of him. And he was like someone dead, so that many said, “He is dead”. 27 📚But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him to his feet. And so he got up.
28 📚And when Jesus came into the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive him out?”
29 📚And he said to them, “This kind can go out by nothing except prayer and fasting”.
9:29 It seems that some demons are more determined than others and that more earnest and persistent effort is required to drive them out.⚜
He teaches what true greatness is
30 📚And they left there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know it. 31 📚For he was teaching his disciples, and said to them, “The Son of man is going to be delivered up into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And after he has been killed, he will rise the third day”.
9:30-31 This teaching was not yet for the whole world, but only for His disciples. Now it is at the heart of the message His disciples declare to all the world (Luke 24:45; 1 Cor 15:3-4).⚜
32 📚But they did not understand this statement, and were afraid to ask him.
9:14-32 This is a fuller account of Matt 17:14-23. Matthew does not mention this argument. Since these disciples were unable to heal the demon-possessed boy, the argument probably had to do with that, and possibly had to do with the power of Jesus to perform miracles (compare Mark 3:22).⚜
9:32 Verse 10; Mark 8:31-33. Though they were disciples they were still dull in spiritual matters – as many of Jesus’ disciples today are. Compare Paul’s wonderful prayer in Eph 1:17-19.⚜
33 📚And he came to Capernaum. And in the house he asked them, “What was it you were disputing about among yourselves on the way?”
34 📚But they kept silent, for on the way they had been disputing among themselves about who was the greatest.
35 📚And he sat down and called the Twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the last of all, and servant of all”.
36 📚And he took a child and placed him among them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37 📚“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives not me but him who sent me”.
38 📚And John answered him, saying, “Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us driving out demons in your name, and we told him to stop, because he does not follow us”.
9:38 Among the disciples of Jesus there is always the danger of the spirit of narrowness and exclusiveness, the danger of some thinking their group is the only true one and that only they have the right to do the work of God. This attitude that excludes others and counts them as unworthy is itself completely unworthy to be in any believer’s heart. Compare Num 11:25-29; 1 Cor 1:10-13.⚜
39 📚But Jesus said, “Do not tell him to stop, for no one who does a miracle in my name, can soon say something bad about me. 40 📚For he who is not against us is for us.
9:40 This is the other side of Matt 12:30.⚜
41 📚For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.
He warns about hell
42 📚And whoever is a cause of stumbling to one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.
43 📚“And if your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that will never be quenched, 44 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. 45 📚And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame, than having two feet to be thrown into hell, into the fire that will never be quenched, 46 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. 47 📚And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out. It is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be thrown into hell fire, 48 📚where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.
9:48 This is a quotation from Isa 66:24. Hell can be compared to a vast and terrible rubbish heap where fires continually burn and where worms living in the rubbish gnaw on the dead. There was such a rubbish heap outside the walls of Jerusalem in the valley of Gehenna. Gehenna is the very word translated “hell” in 12 places of the New Testament, all in Matthew and Mark, except once in Luke and once in James. Jesus gave an awful picture of the doom which awaits sinful human beings, and ignoring it is extremely foolish. See also Matt 5:22; Luke 16:23-24; Rev 20:14-15. All those who choose the rubbish and garbage of this world (Phil 3:8) and reject salvation through Christ, all those who make themselves vile and worthless will go to the rubbish heap of the universe. This will be perfect divine justice at work.
How earnestly, then, should every human being “cut off” his sins and those influences which lead him to sin!⚜
49 📚For everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be salted with salt.
9:49 It is difficult to discern the meaning of this verse and its connection with the verses before and after it. Salt and fire are joined together to describe something of what men will undergo. Salt preserves, fire consumes. Some scholars think the meaning is that the eternal fires of hell will always be consuming those who will always be preserved from being completely consumed. If “everyone” means literally all men the verse could mean that the lost will be salted with fire in hell, the saved will be purified with fire now (Ps 66:12; Mal 3:2; 1 Pet 1:7).⚜
50 📚“Salt is good. But if the salt loses its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another”.
9:50 Matt 5:13. Salt is here used as a symbol of discipleship to the Lord Jesus. Compare Luke 14:34 with its context. Peace is to be a mark of true disciples. Compare Matt 5:9.⚜