Reading: Mark 9.2-9
Have you ever planned a project that didn’t work out as you intended? I am sure all of us have. Sometimes we have had to abandon it altogether. Other times, after spending long and frustrating hours, we have discovered an embarrassingly simple solution. Then again, we can have so much trouble that we end up making something entirely different. And what can we say then? Can we honestly say, “It turned out just as I intended!”?
When I phoned a kit shed company in Townsville half-way through last year, I proposed an oblong shed. I was assured they could quote for those dimensions, but it would be cheaper to get a standard sized square shed. Guess what. The shed, now almost completed, is square! I can’t find my roughed-out original plans. I have no hesitation is saying the actual shed is “just as I intended”.
A few years ago I read the story of a man involved in the development of the sewing machine. His project had come to a standstill because he could think of no mechanical way to get the thread through the material, link it to a thread on the other side and bring it back out again. After weeks of wasted effort, he was ready to give up. Then one night he had a nightmare. He had been captured by an African tribe and was being escorted to their chief. As they came into the village, he could see the chief. In front of him a fire was burning under a large cauldron of boiling water. He shivered as he thought of his fate. There was no escape. He was held firmly by both arms, and dark-skinned warriors lined both sides of the path. Each warrior was armed with a sharp-pointed spear. Unusual spears, he thought – a hole not far back from the point. That was when he woke up, raced down to his workshop and made the first sewing machine needle.
It was the breakthrough he needed. Had things turned out “just as he intended”? Yes and no. His logical plans were stuck. He had come to an impasse – yet the result was what he intended it to be!
The Curtain Drawn Back
Peter, James and John had some experiences of the Lord
additional to the other nine disciples. They were taken on a little further
with Jesus in the
They have come back from Caesarea Philippi – far up north, away from the thronging crowds. Here Peter affirmed Jesus as the Messiah. Here Jesus began to teach his disciples that “the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and… be killed and after three days rise again” (8.31). Mark records, “He spoke plainly about this” (v. 32a). Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. Then Jesus rebuked Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men” (v. 33).
Why did Jesus address Peter as “Satan”? Recall the temptations in the wilderness. If you are the Son of God – turn these stones into bread, jump down and God will protect you, bow down to me! Pull back from suffering, avoid the cross, find another way!
But there is a plan. God knows what he is doing. Jesus is committed to all he has come to do. And each one who would follow Jesus “must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it” (8.34-35).
Now the three of them are alone with Jesus on the mountain. A change comes over him. Jesus is, for the moment, transformed into his heavenly glory. His clothes become dazzling white.
Then they see Elijah and Moses talking to Jesus. Luke tells
us that they were talking with Jesus “about his departure, which he was about
to bring to fulfilment at
So Moses and Elijah were there, representatives of the Law and the prophets – the Old Testament revelation that was looking forward to Christ who was the fulfilment and centrepiece of God’s plan.
What an exciting experience! Let’s stay here! Let’s capture this moment, hold on to it, keep on living it! “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters – one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” Mark tells us that they were so scared that Peter didn’t know what to say. Strange, don’t you think? Peter didn’t know what to say – but he still said something! Have you known anyone like that? Have you ever been like that yourself?
Suddenly a cloud appears and they can see nothing, but they hear a voice, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”
Peter, you didn’t hear before and you aren’t listening yet.
“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief
priests and teachers of the law, and… he must be killed and after three days
rise again.” Listen, Peter! The great plan isn’t to stay here on this mountain.
Fulfilling the great plan is going to include dying in
“Listen” means more than hearing with our ears. We have to listen with our lives – we have to obey him, we have to act on what we hear.
The cloud lifted, and when they took a quick look around, they didn’t see anyone else – only Jesus. “Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead” (v. 9).
No, they couldn’t tell what they had seen. How is it possible to describe that dazzling transfiguration of Jesus before their eyes? But it was all tied up with the puzzling question of Jesus’ death and now – “what does this ‘rising from death’ mean?” Until they could grasp what his death was about, there was no way they could make any sense of this talk about resurrection!
The Plan will Work out
But God had a plan that would work out. He has known all along what he is doing.
His plan for the rescue of the human race began long ago. It
was revealed through the prophets. It was foreshadowed in the
But God had a plan that would work out. He has known all along what he is doing. That act of human hatred and cruelty to get rid of Jesus the Son of God became an act of divine self-offering and love. The blackest human sin became the very means by which God’s forgiveness and salvation could flow freely for all who would willingly receive it.
It was an amazing word – “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing!” And the final triumph – “It is finished!”
If it was your project or mine, we’d have given up on it altogether. We hadn’t been at all successful that time! Scrunch it up and try again!
But God had a plan that would work out, and “it is finished” – the plan is complete, it succeeded!
So he offers us forgiveness and salvation as a gift. All we have to do is repent of our sins, put our trust in Jesus as our Saviour and acknowledge him as our Lord. He offers unconditional pardon for all who will get out of the rebel side and return home – to him!
Have you responded to his invitation? It is for you!
© Peter J. Blackburn, Halifax &
Ingham Uniting Churches, 26 February 2006
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture
quotations are from the New International Version, © International Bible
Society, 1984.
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