529
K i n g ' s
November 1929
B u s i n e s s
T h e
Seed Though ts From St. Mark . B y R ev . W ilfred M. H opkins CHAPTER IX.
104:2; Hab. 3:3, 4). The evidences of His divinity are almost numberless and altogether overwhelming for those who have eyes to see them. 4— MOSES AND ELIAS—The Representatives of the Law and of the Prophets, the embodiments, as it were, of the obli gations and of the teaching of the old dispensation. Note that in their glorified bodies they were as recognizable as Christ was, after His resurrection, in H is; this seems to settle the question of recognition in heaven. CONVERSING WITH JESUS—We are told in Saint Luke the subject of their talk (literally His exodus, a very unusual word for death; we must remember that they were talking, not only with the Man, but with the divine, who did not die} ; hence we are assured that it was no mere vision or dream on the part of the Three. We have here the Great Religious Trinity; the Law, which to a large extent typified Christ; Prophecy, which foretold Him; and the Christ, who is the fulfillment of them both; perhaps the most august and significant assembly the world has ever seen. 5— PETER ANSWERED AND SAID—The word here translated “answered” often means to take occasion to. speak, but always in relation to something that has gone before; it implies an answering thought in the speaker’s mind to softie sight, sound, or impression. Of course Peter would be the one to speak; the uniformity in the delineation of the different char acters of the Book is one of the strong evidences of the truth of the Bible narratives. IT IS BEAUTIFUL TO BE HERE! —“This is grand ! It is so much" better than crucifixion, or even that endless waiting upon the eternal multitude.” It was good to be there for a time, but not for such reasons as that. LET US MAKE THREE BOOTHS—Of boughs such as they used at the Feast of Tabernacles; Peter would have liked to remain on the Mount; he had yet to learn that such expe riences are given, not for their own sake, nor merely for ours, but as preparations for other scenes and other experiences. ONE FOR THEE, etc.—He would fain keep the heavenly visitants and, in his rapture, he thinks nothing of his own necessities; self is always swallowed up in the true vision of God. • 6— HE KNEW NOT WHAT TO SAY, FOR THEY BE CAME SORE. AFRAID—A growing sense of terror was the result of the lesion, as is always the consequence in the case of any revelation of the divine to the unsanctified. The sense of the happiness of the position faded into extreme fear that became practically dumb in the presence of the unaccustomed glory; men talk airily about God and their relation to Him only when they do not know Him and have never seen Him (cf. Job- 42 :5, 6; Dan. 10:15). ' 7— THERE CAME A CLOUD OVERSHADOWING- THEM—Not a cloud of darkness, but of light (cf. Matt. 17:5). This was undoubtedly the same ■ cloud in which God was wont: to manifest Himself in the days of Moses (cf. Ex. 33:9, 10; Num. 12:5—this cloud was, we know, sometimes dark and some times light). [In the days of Moses it was probably the Son. who descended; here it is the Father. JEHOVAH in the Old Testament is usually the Second Person in the Trinity.] This- was a distinct visitation of Deity; the cloud was not there orig inally—it “became.” THERE CAME A VOICE—There was no appearance, but only a sound, for “no man hath seen God [i.e., the Father] at any time” (cf. John 6:46; Deut. 4:12). THIS IS MY SON . . . . BELOVED ONE—Again the article is definite;
HOSE STANDING HERE—This verse should have been put at the end of chàpter 8; the words were addressed to the same multitude as that mentioned in 8 :34. Some of them, like Saint John, would live to see THE KINGDOM OF GOD HAVING COME WITH POWER—for before Saint John died Chris
tianity was conquering the world. 2— AFTER SIX DAYS—Saint Luke says “about eight days” ; he probably reckoned the day of the discourse and that of the Transfiguration; Saint Mark reckons the six intervening days. Note the “and” at the beginning of the verse (Bible con junctions should always be carefully considered); it denotes the essential connection between the. discourse and the event, JESUS TOOK TO HIMSELF—i.e., took them apart from the Twelve. PETER, AND JAMES, AND JOHN—These were the chosen Three, the special personal friends of Jesus of Nazareth (the Divinity has no favorites), and they are distinctive and typical : (1) Peter, the man of action, the leader, the impulsive, the excitable, the almost thoughtless by temperament ; (2) John, the calm, the thinker, the theologian, the apostle of love; (3) James, ???—what of James? Of him we know nothing, save that he died for his Master’s cause ; •he is the obscure, thè almost unknown; he wrote no Gospel, he founded no church, he left no visible mark. Do we not learn that any one, of any talent or (as it seems) of none, of any temperament, may. be the chosen and friend of Christ so that he loves, and is faithful to, Him? (Cf. John 15:14;- 14:21.) A very comforting truth for those of us who are obscure and ordinary people. BRING- ETH THEM UP-—The word again suggests a certain amount of gentle force. INTO A HIGH MOUNTAIN—Probably Mount Herman, not Tabor, for that was inhabited and unsuitable. PRIVATELY ALONE—The other apostles were not invited, and there was no one else there. These are the usual conditions of a vision of God; we must in thought ascend nearér to heaven, but shall only do so as we are more or less willingly carried up by Him; we must be separated alike from the mul titude "and from our companions; and we must be alone with Him. WÀS TRANSFORMED—(Not only was His usual ap pearance illuminated, but His whole personality was apparently altered; He became apparently some one else. This was, of course, the divinity shining through the humanity. The chief purpose of this manifestation was to counteract the effect of His declara tion "as to His crucifixion in the minds of the chosen Three and, after the Resurrection, to counteract the effect of that cruci fixion itself in the minds of these to whom the vision should be told; Typically it denotes the change which is wrought in us by the indwelling of God and His outshining, in that case, before men. (In this connection it is well to remember that it was- as He was prayihg that the change occurred [cf. Luke 9:29]. The placé of prayer is the place of transfiguration' and transformation. ) 3— HIS CLOTHES BECAME GLITTERING—Clothes in the Bible are emblematic of thè outward life; when we are per sonally metamorphosed by the indwelling of Deity our life will be transformed and illumined as well. EXCEEDING WHITE AS SNOW—The Bible emblem of purity (cf. Isa. 1:18; Psa. 51:7). AS A FULLER . . . IS NOT ABLE TO WHITEN— True of all spiritual purity and beauty ; no human hand cafi produce it. Truly in this case Christ covered Himself "with light as with'a garment,” and so manifested His deity (cf. Psa.
Made with FlippingBook HTML5