A school teacher injured his back and had to wear a plaster cast around the upper part of his body. It fit under his shirt and was not noticeable at
all.
On the first day of the term, still with the cast under his shirt, he found himself assigned to the toughest students in school. Walking confidently
into the rowdy classroom, he opened the window as wide as possible and then busied himself with desk work.
When a strong breeze made his tie flap, he took the desk stapler and stapled the tie to his chest.
Discipline was not a problem from that day forth!
(Courtesy Clean Laugh)
The point was that the students misunderstood what was really going on with the teacher – and the teacher has something fundamentally different about himself underneath the surface.
In a funny sort of way – that’s where we find the disciples today – misunderstanding Jesus, again – but seeing a revelation of Him in a way they have never seen before – and just like those students – it will blow them away.
1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
4 Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters-one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. "Get up," he said. "Don’t be afraid." 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.
Peter got a taste of heaven and didn’t want it to end. He forgot that Jesus had just told them that He was to suffer and die. We sometimes get a small glimpse of what God is doing in us – maybe its peace or answered prayer or healing – something that gives us that feeling that God is really here and working. Of course we don’t want it to end – but like Jesus we must realize that suffering will come but that eventually it’ll be like that day on the mountain everyday.
Hebrews 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, "Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead."
10 The disciples asked him, "Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?"
This question came from Malachi 4:5-6 (the end of the Old Testament)
5 "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. 6 He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse."
The scribes believed that Elijah would come to usher in the Messianic age. It was a fair question.
11 Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." 13 Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.
John the Baptist wasn’t the literal Elijah but was a prophet like Elijah that fulfilled all of Malachi’s prophecies of preparing the way for Messiah. Elijah himself, however, will return before the Lord’s second coming. The disciples didn’t yet understand Jesus’ first coming – and He’s certainly not ready to talk about the fact that He’s going to return.
Next comes a remarkable story that teaches us a lot about faith – but has also been largely misappropriated.
14 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 "Lord, have mercy on my son," he said. "He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him."
17 "O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me." 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, "Why couldn’t we drive it out?"
20 He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ’Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."
So as Jesus and Peter James and John are up on the mountain, the other nine disciples are doing some ministry on their own. Now earlier on in Matthew chapter 10 Jesus had given his disciples the authority to cast out demons – so what happened here?
Jesus says it was because of their lack of faith. Faith is the currency of God’s kingdom – it’s what makes things happen. You see – power without faith is witchcraft and authority without faith is rebellion.
For some reason, the disciples apparently had been trying to cast out the demon in their own strength – by authority they thought Jesus gave them – like a magical power you get when you put on a special ring or say certain words. That wasn’t the case at all. What they lacked was faith in God – the real source of the power and authority.
This has been misapplied in two ways:
1. Faith in faith, not faith in God.
2. Faith in the power, not faith in God
When Jesus rebuked the disciples and the entire generation – it has led to the conclusion that if something goes wrong, or if your prayer isn’t answered – the person isn’t healed or delivered or whatever – then you just didn’t have enough faith. It reminds me of one of those big squirt gun cannons. You put water in, but then you’ve got to pump and pump the air to make it really shoot out. If you don’t pump in enough air then the water just kind of blurps out and falls to the ground.
So the suggestion is that we haven’t pumped up our spirits with enough faith so that the power shoots out and accomplishes the thing we prayed for. Now don’t dismiss this because it is rampant in the church today.
Jesus wasn’t saying they lacked an amount of faith – it was the focus of the faith that was off. They misunderstood that it’s God doing the work – they are merely directing God’s work by praying then trusting in God. If God doesn’t move then that’s His problem – not ours. Now if we’re in sin that’s another story. But Proverbs says:
Proverbs 3:6 in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.
It’s the acknowledging of God that counts – not how much faith you have. That word “acknowledge” in the Hebrew has a lot of meaning – but one that I want to use today is this: be a familiar friend. That’s what yada can mean. We need to draw close to God, make Him our close buddy – walk with Him, learn from Him, pray constantly to Him – and then He will direct us – He will make what we do work. It means that the closer we are to God the more we will think and pray according to His will – and the more we will trust in Him.
The second misunderstanding is that faith is power. Jesus talks about the mustard seed of faith – and I’ll get to that in a moment. People skip over that and go to the “mountain be removed” part and say “cool – I want to try that.” As if doing God’s work means that we can just say something and “boom” it’s done. That’s not the idea. We can’t just say “in Jesus name make a million dollars appear so I can be rich” and expect God to do it. That’s superstition – which is defined as a “false sense of causation.”
Jesus point is this: it doesn’t matter how small your faith is – if it is faith and trust in God then no matter how big the task it will be done according to His will. It doesn’t take BIG faith, and it isn’t just an automatic incantation that we say.
You see Jesus is forcing us to rely on Him for everything. This comes right back to the point from last week and really the theme of this book – Who is Jesus and do you trust Him with everything no matter what.
Now I also want to make this point – the mustard seed. It was the smallest seed of the day. I think I mentioned in an earlier study that a mustard seed is about 1/20th of an inch in diameter – yet grows to the height of a horse and rider – a tree really.
Jesus didn’t say “if you have faith the size of a mustard tree …” He said a mustard seed. Maybe in your life you want to grow in God, you want Him to do mighty things through you, you want your prayers answered in miraculous ways – and yet all you get are small things – small growth, small answers, small things.
I think the Lord doesn’t want us to get discouraged – just because something is small doesn’t mean its not worth anything. God will take the smallest thing you’ve got – and He can make it as big as He wants – if He wanted you to you could say to a mountain “be removed” and it would.
You see it’s not really the deed that counts or the size – it’s just a matter of trusting all of you, even if that’s just a little seed – into His hands for His purposes in His timing.
You see we can misunderstand who Jesus is – He is not a genie. To make sure the disciples misunderstood no longer Jesus speaks very plainly to them in verse 22.
22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." And the disciples were filled with grief.
Jesus now tells His disciples this for the second time – only now he adds the fact that He is going to be betrayed. Notice that Jesus tells them He will rise from the dead – but all they can hear is that He is going to suffer and die. We as humans have a tendency to latch on the bad news and not even hear the good. Yes there is suffering in this world – Jesus told us that – but He also said “be of good cheer for I have overcome the world.” Let’s not forget that Jesus brings life out of death – even to the darkest of situations.
Now why this next story is here I’m really not sure – it’s almost humorous.
24 After Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax came to Peter and asked, "Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax?"
25 "Yes, he does," he replied.
When Peter came into the house, Jesus was the first to speak. "What do you think, Simon?" he asked. "From whom do the kings of the earth collect duty and taxes-from their own sons or from others?"
26 "From others," Peter answered.
"Then the sons are exempt," Jesus said to him. 27 "But so that we may not offend them, go to the lake and throw out your line. Take the first fish you catch; open its mouth and you will find a four-drachma coin. Take it and give it to them for my tax and yours."
The temple tax was collected from each adult male and was used for public sacrifices, for upkeep of the Temple and for the upkeep of Jerusalem. Huge sums of money came in each year from this tax – which amounted to about two days wages.
Peter answered the question posed him without consulting Jesus – but the Lord uses the opportunity to once again make the point that He is king of a different kingdom. In that day, the children of the ruler were exempt from taxes – and since Jesus, and by extension His followers, are children of the King of Kings – then they too should be exempt from a tax on the Temple of God.
But notice what Jesus does – He pays the tax anyway – so as not to “offend” – which in Greek means to “cause to stumble.”
Some people use these verses as an excuse not to pay income taxes. But Jesus here actually models the opposite – even though He doesn’t have to, he pays. There are times when we should go along with an imperfect law so that others might not stumble over a minor issue. We are foreigners here on earth, but we should submit to the laws of the land for the sake of those who need salvation. Would you be willing to stand before God and justify your actions? “I didn’t obey those heathen laws – and because of that someone couldn’t see passed my disobedience to see his need for obedience to Christ.”
Jesus, however, never compromised when it came to proclaiming God’s truth. For a fuller explanation of this see Romans 13:1-7, 1 Timothy 2:1-3, and 1 Peter 2:13-17.
Conclusion
1. Understand fully who Jesus is – and what He has in store for you
2. Rely on Him to work through you, not you building up enough faith in faith or calling out some magical incantation to get Him to move – but simple and yet thorough reliance on Him in your life
3. Don’t sweat the small stuff – know when to draw your battles and claim your citizenship in Christ’s kingdom and know when to just get along and not be an odd ball.
