Jesus · c. AD 29
Chapter 33
Changed Before Them
A cloud came, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
For parents
This chapter tells of a boy with a spirit that throws him to the ground and shakes him until he foams at the mouth; it has often thrown him into fire and water (Mark 9:17–27; Matthew 17:15; Luke 9:39–42). It is told plainly and softly. Jesus says that the Son of Man will be handed over and killed (Matthew 17:22–23; Mark 9:31), and he speaks of a millstone, of cutting off a hand or a foot or throwing out an eye, and of the fire of Gehenna (Mark 9:42–48).
Six days later, took , , and James’s brother , and brought them up onto a high mountain by themselves. Luke says it was about eight days after Jesus had said these things, and that he went up the mountain to pray.
There, in front of them, he was changed. Matthew says his face shone like the sun, and his clothes turned as white as the light. Mark says he was changed into another form, and his clothes gleamed, very white, like snow; no one on earth who washes clothes could make them that white. Luke says it happened as he was praying: the look of his face was changed, and his clothes turned white and dazzling.
Then and appeared to them, and they were talking with Jesus. Luke tells what they talked about. The two men appeared in glory, and they spoke of his departure, which he was about to carry out at .
Luke also says that Peter and the others with him were very sleepy. But when they were fully awake, they saw Jesus in his glory, and the two men who stood there with him.
Peter spoke up. “Lord, it is good for us to be here,” he said to Jesus. “If you want, let’s make three tents here: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” In Mark, Peter called him “,” and in Luke, “Master.” Luke says that Peter said this as the two men were leaving Jesus.
Mark says Peter didn’t know what to say, because they were so afraid. Luke says he didn’t know what he was saying.
Peter was still speaking when a cloud came and spread its shadow over them. Matthew says it was a bright cloud, and Luke says they were afraid as they went into it. Then a voice came out of the cloud. In Matthew it said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” In Mark and Luke it said, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”
Matthew says that when the heard the voice, they bowed with their faces to the ground, very much afraid. Jesus came and touched them and said, “Get up, and don’t be afraid.”
When they looked up and looked all around, suddenly they saw no one there with them any more, only Jesus. Luke says that when the voice came, Jesus was there alone.
As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus gave them an order. “Don’t tell anyone what you saw,” he said, “until the has risen from the dead.” Luke says they kept silent, and in those days they said nothing to anyone about what they had seen.
Mark says they kept what he had said to themselves, asking one another what this “rising from the dead” meant.
Then the disciples asked him, “So why do the say that Elijah has to come first?”
“Elijah does come first,” Jesus answered, “and he will set all things right again. But I tell you that Elijah has come already, and they didn’t recognize him. They did to him whatever they wanted. In the same way, they will make the Son of Man suffer too.”
In Mark, Jesus also asked, “How is it written that the Son of Man would suffer many things and be despised?” And he said that they had done to Elijah whatever they wanted, “as it is written about him.”
Matthew says the disciples then understood that he had been telling them about .
When they came back to the other disciples, Jesus saw a big crowd around them, with scribes questioning them. Luke says this was the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, and that a big crowd met Jesus.
As soon as the people in the crowd saw Jesus, they were all greatly amazed, and they ran to him and greeted him. “What are you questioning them about?” he asked the scribes.
One man in the crowd answered. “Teacher, I have brought you my son. There is a spirit in him that makes him mute. Wherever it seizes him, it throws him down. He foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth, and goes stiff. I asked your disciples to drive it out, and they weren’t able to.”
In Matthew, the man came up to Jesus, knelt down, and said, “Lord, have mercy on my son! He is , and he suffers badly. Many times he falls into the fire, and many times into the water. So I brought him to your disciples, and they couldn’t cure him.”
In Luke, the man called out from the crowd and begged Jesus to look at his son, because the boy was his only child. He said that a spirit would take hold of the boy, and the boy would suddenly cry out. The spirit would shake him until he foamed at the mouth. It would hardly let go of him, and it bruised him badly.
“Faithless, crooked generation!” Jesus answered. “How long will I be with you? How long will I have to put up with you? Bring him here to me.”
They brought the boy to him. When he saw him, the spirit at once shook the boy hard, and he dropped to the ground and rolled over and over, foaming at the mouth. Luke says that while the boy was still coming, the threw him down and shook him violently.
“How long has this been going on with him?” Jesus asked the boy’s father.
“Since he was a small child,” he said. “It has often thrown him into fire and into water, trying to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”
“If you can believe,” Jesus said to him, “all things are possible to anyone who believes.”
At once the boy’s father cried out with tears, “I believe. Help my unbelief!”
When Jesus saw people come running together, he spoke sharply to the spirit: “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never go into him again!”
The spirit cried out, shook the boy terribly, and came out of him. The boy lay as if he were dead, and most of the people there said, “He is dead.” But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him up, and he got up.
In Matthew, when Jesus spoke sharply to the demon, it went out of the boy, and from that hour he was well. In Luke, Jesus healed the boy and gave him back to his father. Everyone there was astonished at the majesty of God.
When Jesus had gone into the house, his disciples came to him privately. “Why weren’t we able to drive it out?” they asked.
“Because of your unbelief,” he told them. “I tell you for certain, if your faith is like a grain of mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. But this kind goes out only by prayer and .”
In Mark, he answered, “Nothing but prayer and fasting can make this kind come out.”
They went out from there and passed through . Jesus didn’t want anyone to know it, because he was teaching his disciples. He told them, “The Son of Man is being handed over to the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, on the third day he will rise again.” Matthew says Jesus said this while they were staying in Galilee.
Luke says Jesus spoke while everyone was still amazed at all the things he was doing. “Let these words sink into your ears,” he said to his disciples, “for the Son of Man will be handed over into the hands of men.”
Matthew says the disciples were terribly sad. Mark and Luke say they didn’t understand his words, and were afraid to ask him. Luke says the saying was hidden from them, so that they would not take it in.
When they came to , the men who collected the came to Peter. The didrachma was a silver coin worth about two days’ wages, and people commonly paid the temple tax with it. “Doesn’t your teacher pay the didrachma?” they asked.
“Yes, he does,” said Peter.
When Peter came into the house, before he could say anything, Jesus asked him, “What do you think, Simon? Who do the kings of the earth take tolls and taxes from? From their children, or from outsiders?”
“From outsiders,” said Peter.
“Then the children don’t have to pay,” Jesus told him. “But so that we don’t cause them to stumble, go to the sea, throw out a hook, and take up the first fish that comes up. When you have opened its mouth, you will find a coin. Take that, and give it to them for me and you.” A stater was worth just enough to pay the temple tax for two people.
In Mark, when Jesus came to Capernaum and was in the house, he asked the disciples, “What were you arguing about among yourselves on the way?”
But they were silent. On the way, they had been quarreling with one another over who was the greatest. Luke also tells of an argument that came up among them about which of them was the greatest. He says that Jesus saw what they were thinking in their hearts.
Jesus sat down and called to him. “If anyone wants to be first,” he said to them, “he will be last of all, and servant of all.”
He took a little child and stood him in the middle of them. Then he took him in his arms and spoke to them. “Whoever receives one little child like this in my name receives me. And whoever receives me isn’t receiving me, but the one who sent me.”
In Luke, Jesus stood the child beside him, and he ended with this: “Whoever is the least of you all will be great.”
John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone who was driving out demons in your name, and he doesn’t follow us. We ordered him to stop, because he doesn’t follow us.”
“Don’t stop him,” Jesus said. “Nobody can do a mighty work in my name and then soon after speak badly of me. Whoever is not against us is on our side. I tell you for certain, if anyone hands you a cup of water to drink in my name because you are ’s, he will in no way lose his reward.
“If anyone makes one of these little ones who believe in me stumble, it would be better for him if he were thrown into the sea with a hung around his neck.
“If your hand makes you stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life missing a hand, rather than go into with both your hands, into the fire that can’t be put out, ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is never put out.’
“If your foot makes you stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame, rather than be thrown into Gehenna with both your feet, into the fire that will never be put out, ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is never put out.’
“If your eye makes you stumble, throw it out. It is better for you to enter into God’s Kingdom with one eye, rather than be thrown into the fire of Gehenna with both your eyes, ‘where their worm doesn’t die, and the fire is never put out.’
“For everyone will be salted with fire, and every will be seasoned with salt. Salt is good, but if the salt loses its saltiness, what will you season it with? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”