Jaw-dropping Jewels about Jesus
Rarely does Jesus, God the Son, do exactly what we expect of Him. It seems odd that He so frequently surprises us, given that He never changes. Hebrews 13:8 makes this absolute statement: “Jesus the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Still, though He is blessedly consistent in His goodness, Jesus does unforeseen things. Even when He does what is expected, He does not always do it in the way that we anticipate. Let us join with Jesus on a jaw-dropping journey. (I will be using this opening paragraph for each of the brief messages in this series. The following material will change daily.)
Mark 9:2 begins the remarkable Mount of Transfiguration account: “And after six days Jesus taketh with Him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and He was transfigured before them.” The brief delay of “six days” reminds us that our Lord functions on His own time schedule. (As an aside, the parallel account in Luke 9:28 uses the time reference “about an eight days after.” There is no contradiction: Mark focuses on the six full days, whereas Luke uses a Greek idiom meaning “about a week later.”) The exact “high mountain” is not named, but the climb would have been strenuous, reminding us that following Jesus is rarely easy – it is always good but rarely easy. The physical challenge is part of the unexpected nature of this entire narrative, for Jesus could have chosen any time and place to fulfill His promise of verse 1. We see that the purposes of our Savior God cannot be limited in any way. When He chooses to be “transfigured” (transformed), His glory will inevitably be on display.