Luke 9:18-36

18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say I am?"
19 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life."
20 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Peter answered, "God's Messiah."
21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life."
23 Then he said to them all: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for you to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit your very self? 26 If any of you are ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
27 "Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God."
28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, 31 appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, "Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah." (He did not know what he was saying.)
34 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, "This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him." 36 When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.

Points of Interest:

• ‘Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him’—Jesus used to go off alone to pray. Now, though he still takes some time away from the crowds, he brings his followers with him.

• ‘Who do the crowds say I am?’—the disciples list off the same possibilities Herod had heard about in yesterday’s passage. This seems to be the question that’s on everyone’s mind: who exactly is Jesus?

• one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life’—this is like saying that George Washington or Abraham Lincoln (or whoever you think of as the greatest long-dead president) has returned again and is running in the 2008 election; or—for Rick Pitino—it’s like Larry Bird does walk through the door, and he’s not old and gray, and he’s in great shape, and he’s good as ever, and he turns the Celtics 2007 season around. People recognize that Jesus is someone very special, such as they haven’t seen since the time of legends.

• ‘But what about you?’—the ‘But’ hints that Jesus thinks their answer might be different.

• ‘God's Messiah’—Peter recognizes that Jesus is even better than one of the great prophets of the past: Jesus is the one the prophets were hoping for.

• ‘warned them not to tell this to anyone’—it turns out that Jesus’ prohibition on telling people he is the Messiah doesn’t apply only to demons. He extends it to his followers as well. Wouldn’t Jesus want people to know that he is the one whom God promised to send? In explaining the story of the soils, Jesus said, ‘there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed’ (Luke 8:17). So, though he hides his identity, it’s not meant to be a secret forever; he actually wants it to be known, but he doesn’t want people to be told. Maybe Jesus wants people to discover he is the Savior because they’ve followed him, rather than following him because they’ve heard he is the Savior.

• ‘The Son of Man must suffer many things’—here’s another reason Jesus might want the disciples to remain quiet for the time being on the topic of the Messiah. He wants them to understand the Messiah better first. When Peter says, ‘You are the Messiah,’ he probably has in mind a glorious conqueror that will restore Israel to the golden age of David’s reign. There are plenty of prophecies in the Jewish scriptures that speak of the Messiah in these terms; we looked at some of them in our first few days of this study. But there are other prophecies, like Isaiah 53, that say things like, ‘He was despised and rejected by others,’ or, ‘he was led like a lamb to the slaughter.’ Jesus wants them to understand how these predictions of suffering and rejection fit into his mission before they start telling others that he is indeed the Messiah.

• ‘and on the third day be raised to life’—though his mission involves suffering and rejection, it ends in life: ‘After he has suffered/He will see the light of life and be satisfied’ (Isaiah 53:11). Mysteriously, the Messiah’s apparent defeat and death is his path to even greater glory, and the means by which he accomplishes his rescue of others.

‘On the third day,’ may be a reference to a prophecy of Hosea (Hosea 6:2). It could also be a prophecy Jesus himself is delivering for the sake of the disciples.

• ‘take up their cross daily’—this teaching is hard enough to understand now, after Jesus’ crucifixion, but Jesus is saying it before he is killed. In fact, it’s the first mention of a cross in the story. At this point, the cross is not at all a religious symbol, but just a means of execution. Jesus is saying here, ‘If you want to follow me, I think you ought to know that we’re going to end up on death row.’

• ‘What good is it for you to gain the whole world?’—in calling his disciples to head toward the electric chair, Jesus isn’t talking about grim defeat, nor even grand altruism or the noble death of a hero. Just like when he recommended loving our enemies, Jesus is giving them his advice on maximizing profit. He is advocating death on a cross because he thinks it’s the way to make the most out of life.

Our life is the most valuable thing we have; without it, everything else we have is absolutely worthless. Unfortunately, we all have life in a limited quantity; eventually, each of us will see our life expire. Jesus, however, is offering us an unbelievable deal: he will trade us our limited lives for his glorious, death-defying life.

• ‘he took Peter, John and James with him’—again, Jesus takes some of his followers along with him when he goes off alone to pray. This time, it’s an even smaller number. These are the same three men who see Jairus’ daughter revived.

• ‘Moses and Elijah appeared in glorious splendor’—Moses and Elijah are two of the greatest figures of ancient Jewish history. Each of them also saw a glorious vision of God when they went up on a mountain to pray alone. Oh, and did I mention that they had both died hundreds of years ago? Interestingly, both of them ended their lives in mysterious circumstances: Elijah didn’t actually die, but instead was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11); and Moses died alone in the desert without any witnesses, and was buried by God himself (Deuteronomy 34:5-6). I think that Peter, James, and John are introduced to Moses and Elijah as a demonstration that God does indeed have power over death. They have also already seen two people—the widow’s son and Jairus’ daughter—resuscitated, but that’s more of a delay of death; with Moses and Elijah, we see life beyond death.

• ‘Let us put up three shelters’—it appears that Peter is hoping or expecting that they will stay here for a while with Moses and Elijah, but it’s only a quick visit.

• ‘This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him’—the Father last spoke from heaven at Jesus’ baptism, when he said to Jesus, ‘You are my son’ (Luke 3:22). Now, he directs similar words to the disciples, saying, ‘This is my son.’ At this crucial moment, when Jesus is revealed as the Messiah, he starts to make his way toward the cross, and he invites his disciples to follow him to death, God the Father speaks from heaven to confirm Jesus’ identity and corroborate his words.

• ‘they found that Jesus was alone’—lest there be any confusion as to whom God is talking about, Moses and Elijah disappear. Jesus’ words are even more trustworthy than the words of Moses and Elijah, who represent the two major sections of the Jewish scriptures: the Law, written by Moses; and the Prophets, of which Elijah is one.

Taking it home:

• For you and your family: This passage makes it look like Jesus’ prayer times were pretty exciting: flashes of lightning, transformed appearance, conversations with long-dead heroes of faith, a voice out of the clouds. Could your prayer time use a little livening up? Ask God to give you visions, words from him, amazing experiences, or whatever else he’d like to give you so that the rest of life seems a little dull in comparison to your times of prayer, rather than the other way around.

• For your friends: Pray that your friends would grow in their curiosity about Jesus, and that he would reveal himself to them.

• For our city: Today, pray particularly for the successful people in our city. In this passage, Jesus reminds us that it’s possible to conquer the whole world, but still fail in the things that are most important. Pray that the people of our city would not lose themselves in the pursuit of worldly success.