DEATH TRANSFIGURED

DEATH TRANSFIGURED FOR THE THREE AND US

The names of Peter, James and John are associated on more than one occasion, and the fact certainly must have significance. Very many reasons have been suggested for the fact that the Master took these men to certain places to which the other disciples were not taken. Without dis­cussing those theories, one reason may be considered. To discover this it will be helpful to call to mind the occasions upon which it happened. They are three in number. These men were taken to the house of Jairus, to the mount of transfiguration, to the garden of Gethsemane.

In each case they were brought into the presence of death, and in that fact lies a partial solution of the problem. Peter's attitude towards death was revealed in the memor­able conversation with his Lord recorded in Matthew (Matt. 16:14-19). While Jesus had spoken of a kingdom and keys, Peter had listened with calm complacency, but when He pro­ceeded to speak of death upon a cross, Peter had been strangely moved, and had exclaimed, "Be it far from Thee, Lord." (Matt. 16:21-23) Thus it will be seen that he had followed Jesus to the point of death, and then had halted. This distinctly proves that Peter had no true conception of his Master's attitude towards death.

Mark gives the account of the coming of James and John to Jesus, and their asking that when He should come into His kingdom they might sit one on His right hand and one on His left. In great pity and love the Master had looked at them and said: “Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink the cup that I drink? or to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" (Matt. 16:21-23). They answered, "We are able," (Mark 10:35-40) feeling that there was no cup that He should drink that they were not able to share with Him, and no baptism through which He should pass in which they were unable to have fellowship with Him. They were "sons of thunder" (Mark 3:17) and what could make them afraid? If He could pass through baptism, so also could they. If He were able to drink some strange cup, so also were they. James and John had followed Jesus to the point of death, and dared all results. Peter was afraid. James and John were blindly courageous. Both attitudes were wrong. None of these men understood the death towards which the Master moved, nor the triumph that awaited Him through death. They must be taught, and the teaching began before their speech revealed their attitude, and was continued after the experience of the holy mount. The sequence of the teaching is most clearly revealed in the Gospel of Mark.

First there is recorded the story of the visit to the house of Jairus. "He suffered no man to follow with Him, save Peter, and James, and John. . . . He, having put them all forth, taketh the father of the child and her mother and them that were with Him, and goeth in where the child was. And taking the child by the hand, He saith unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, Arise." (Mark 5:37-41) She obeyed, and He handed her to her parents. That scene, proving Christ's Lordship over death was witnessed by Peter, James and John.

Then follows the account of the transfiguration, and the fact that these same three men listened to the conversation with Moses and Elijah concerning His own death. (Mark 9:2)

And finally the experience in Gethsemane, concerning which Mark says, "And He taketh with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly amazed, and sore troubled. And He saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death: abide ye here, and watch."

(Mark 14:33, 34) Thus it is immediately seen that each time He took these men aside, He directed them into the presence of death, and He revealed HIS THREEFOLD ATTITUDE TOWARDS DEATH. In the house of Jairus He was MASTER OF DEATH. On the mount of transfiguration He stood SUPERIOR TO DEATH, transfigured, and yet conversing of death to be accomplished.

In Gethsemane He bowed and YIELDED HIMSELF TO DEATH---a strange proposition. These men, of whom one was afraid, and the other two imagined there was nothing to fear, were led through this private and special ministry of infinite patience, that they might see the Master's connection with death. In the house of Jairus He addressed the dead child, using the familiar speech of a living love, "Little lamb, I say unto thee, arise." (Mark 5:41) There was no thunder about His voice, no magnificence of majesty, sug­gesting the assertion of authority, but the sweet whisper of an infinite Love, in response to which the spirit of the little one came back from the spirit land to its clay taber­nacle. He stood in the home evidently MASTER OF DEATH, with a strength and dignity that needed no outward pageantry.

Then upon the mount He was seen to be in His own Person absolutely SUPERIOR TO DEATH, passing without its touch into the breadth and beauty of life in the places where death never comes, and yet there talking of it as an experience through which He would soon pass.

Then, strange and marvelous thing, in Gethsemane He came towards the hour of His dying, and as He approached that hour, said to those same men, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death." (Mark 14:34). To Peter and James and John were these visions granted.

Thus the presence of these men on the mount was part of a perfect scheme. These were experiences which the Master was storing for them, which should have their ex­planation in days that were yet to come. Soon, when the work of the Cross was accomplished, and the Paraclete had been poured upon them these men would begin to un­derstand what happened in the house of Jairus, upon the holy mount and most wonderful of all, how that when His soul was sorrowful unto death they had beheld the Master of death bowing to death in order that He might slay death. After that, Peter writing a letter, and speaking of his own death, did not so name it, but borrowing the word he heard upon the mount, wrote, "after my exodus." (2 Peter 1:15) Thus death was transfigured for these men through the patient process of a special training which the Master gave them.