Glow-stick Jesus

Mark 9:2-13

This is the story of Jesus becoming a beacon light and the second time that YHWH tells people that he is…well we aren’t quite sure, all three Gospels have slightly different wording.  Let’s just that YHWH tells Peter, James, and John that, yes, Jesus is his son and that he is well pleased.  YHWH ends his short speech with the desire that they listen to him.  Oddly, even though John was there, his Gospel does not recount this experience.  Don’t you think he would have said something about it?  The three Gospels do not agree on the timing (Mark 9:2 vs. Luke 9:28), one mentions that the disciples were sleepy (Luke 9:32), another says that they fell to the ground (Mat 17:6), and the rest of Luke is truncated leaving out Jesus’ order to not tell anyone, or the conversation about Elijah.  I am glad that the study notes indicate that the Traditions of Man are most likely wrong, this event occurred on Mt Hermon (9,000 ft elevation) not Mt Tabor (1,800 ft elevation). 

I do love it when the study notes give everyone a greater meaning to teachings.  In this case when YHWH says:

Mark 9:7 Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love.  Listen to him.”

The study notes refer to a verse that explains what YHWH means when he says “listen”:

James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  But do what it says.

The rest of the paragraph (James 1:22-27) explains how silly it is to just listen without actually doing what the word says.  This is the greatest grip I have with today’s christian…all they do is talk and listen, there is no action.  They pick and chose which verses to follow and do not obey the Word of God.  As a result, Christianity is just like James 1:23-24, foolish. 

Both Mark’s and Luke’s version of the story claim that the disciples were terrified before the voice:

Luke 9:6 (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened).

While Matthew’s version (Matt 17:6) claims that the voice was what terrified them.  The Gospel of Matthew seems more reasonable.  If you were on top of a mountain with your teacher and two other important people would you not offer to build shelters…since you have no idea how long you’re going to be there?  And the talking cloud would be much more frightening than meeting two other people…Peter already knew that Jesus was the “Christ” (Mark 8:29).

When they start talking about Elijah the story seem to be somewhat jumbled.  Only in Luke does Jesus ask the disciples a question in response to their question.  Don’t you just love it when someone does that to you!  Worse, Jesus does not answer the question.

Luke 9:12 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, to restores all things.  Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected?

Two things about this…first, John the Baptist is Elijah.  Second, the reference that Jesus is making about himself.  If John the Baptist restored all things…then Jesus’ question is a good one.  Obviously, John the Baptist is not Elijah, because Jesus was still required to restore all things.  Jesus is Elijah, not John the Baptist.  But about the references that Jesus makes to Elijah are quite questionable.  To someone like me, a gay Atheist who does not have the god bias, the story of Elijah and the suffering of Jesus are not similar.  In fact, Elijah was taken to heaven without dying (2^nd Kings 2:11).  Can anyone explain this to me?

This entry was posted on June 5, 2010, 7:20 am at 07:20 and is filed under Gospel of Mark, Readings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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