Day 14: A Moment of Tranfigurement -- and then On to Jerusalem

So, just as soon as Jesus gets done predicting his own death and resurrection, and telling people that they will need to take up their own cross and follow him, there comes a scene of great glory.  Jesus takes three of his disciples and goes up a mountain (who knows where) where suddenly, it becomes (briefly) clear who is he.  Moses and Elijah are there as well, but just for a moment, before they come back down the mountain. 

At the bottom of the mountain, the real world slaps them in the face, in the form of a demon-possessed boy.

So, may I just say a couple of things? 

1.  The talk about taking up a cross would have sounded a lot different to Jesus' disciples and the people who first read Mark's gospel than it does to us.  They knew the reality of crosses, the humiliating and excruciating means of execution in a way that we don't.  Take up your cross.  We've sort of domesticated this image, but it couldn't have been a big selling point of the church.  I suspect that it started out as a description of what disciples of Jesus were actually experiencing, rather than a call.  Jesus' disciples were taking up crosses.  And somehow, something else that was happening in them and to them made that worth it (it seems.)

2.  I love the little detail, that Jesus' garments were whiter "than any fuller could bleach them."  The description of the brightness of the transfiguration is a little different in every gospel, but there's something homely and ordinary about this one.

At the end of chapter 11, after Jesus rides into Jerusalem (that's right, we're into Holy Week already), Jesus curses a fig tree for not bearing fruit, goes into the temple and throws out the ones who are selling things, and then goes back out, where the disciples see that the fig tree has withered.  (That's another of Mark's sandwiches, by the way.)   When the disciples voice their awe over what has happened, Jesus tells them they could do anything if they had faith.  This leads me to the speculation that if I could wither a fig tree, why wouldn't I rather do something like cure cancer or stop crucifixions?  Just wondering....

In the middle, a couple of things

-- the father of the demon-possessed boy is the man who says, "Lord, I believe!  Help my unbelief."  One of the more often-quoted passages of scripture.  And one of the most truthful.
--I have no idea what Jesus means when he tells his disciples privately (about the difficult-to-exorcise-spirit), "This kind requires prayer." 
-- In Mark's verse of the story of the rich young ruler, there's this little detail, where Jesus looks at the young man and loves him, when he tells him he needs to sell everything.  I love this detail.  What do you think it means?
-- James and John are vying for position in Jesus' kingdom.  they want to sit on his right and left hand.  Jesus tells them they don't know what they are asking.  Think of the image of being on the right and left side of Jesus.  Keep it in your mind.  It may come up later....