Friday of 4 Lent – March 27, 2020

Read Mark 9:2-13

It is interesting to remember that it is Peter who is helping young Mark with the tales of our Lord’s earthly ministry.  Mark recounted Peter’s rebuke yesterday.  And today, we have Peter, once again revealing his shortcomings in not understanding the full extent of our Lord’s demonstration of His glory.  To put the exclamation point on Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, our Lord took the inner council of Peter, James, and John up the Mount of Transfiguration and allowed them to see His glory and to hear His Father’s declaration, “This is My Son, whom I love.  Listen to Him.”  Would it not have been fun to hear from his own lips how flabbergasted Peter felt at that moment?  

Regardless of the confusion Peter felt at that moment, it was essential that Jesus reveal the full extent of His relationship with the Father; that He reveal that His life and ministry is a fulfillment of the Law and the prophets made apparent in the presence of Moses and Elijah.  The disciples might not understand that revelation at that moment, and Peter, through Mark, seems to indicate that they didn’t, but they would.  And now Peter is revealing the truth to his young protege.  And Mark dutifully proclaims it in his Gospel.

It is not hard to imagine that Peter and the other disciples had difficulty absorbing the fulness of Jesus’ life and ministry—the reality of Who He truly was.  Everything that had been prophesied in the Old Covenant, everything that had been promised to the Jews, and every hope for the reconciliation of mankind to God, was present in this one man, Jesus.  That is a tremendous message.  It is the message of the Transfiguration.  Of course Peter was flabbergasted.  He had walked with this man for three years, and now the fulness of His glory is revealed in a moment of time.  “He did not know what to say, for they were exceedingly afraid.”