Mark 9:2-13
“Notice what you notice.” Mark’s account of the Transfiguration…
Carol and I are on the road to Maryland (thank you, Mobile HotSpot!), then tomorrow on a plane to Prague and more. We’ll be 16 days in CZ, SK, and Ireland, then back to MD for an undetermined number of days. Suffice to say that it’ll probably be July before you see us again! We will have Internet and e-mail/text service most of our trip, but it’ll often be difficult for me to post in the morning as I prefer to do. Hopefully I can at least post every day. We’ll see…
And as they were coming down the mountain, He charged them to tell no one what they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead might mean. (vv. 9-10) I believe that if I were one of the disciples back then that I would have also kept my mouth shut and not wondered openly what this “rising from the dead” might mean! To the disciples this was an entirely new concept – something that had never been done before. Peter, James, and John saw Jesus raise Jairus’ daughter from the dead, but even then He had told the crowd that the girl was not dead, but only sleeping. Even after Jesus had risen from the dead there was doubt about what had actually happened (see the “Doubting Thomas” story — John 20:24-29).
More to the point for us, however, is the fact that too many of our dear friends and relatives are also dismissive of Jesus rising from the dead, in spite of the substantial amount of evidence available. I feel like it is often the case that those who doubt Jesus’ resurrection refuse to take the time to study the facts. I think that deep down they don’t want to face the reality of what the truth of His resurrection might mean in their lives. Years ago I spent a good deal of time looking at the evidence for His resurrection and was absolutely convinced of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. I cannot cite all that evidence “on command” these days, but the truth of the matter has stuck with me. For Dickie’s sake (my younger brother) I think I need to look at that evidence anew. How about you?
Slava Bohu!