The disciples did not understand their Master - a common experience. Why was this saying so difficult? It seems plain enough to us. But then we look at it after its accomplishment; they before that. And their rabbinic training taught them to look for something very different from what Christ seemed to be referring to. He spoke as if he alone was to rise again. They had been taught to think of the resurrection as universal, and altogether; not an experience of one here and another there. Moreover, their teachers had told them that Elias must first come. In fact, their habits of thought were all going in one direction, and this saying of Christ's in another. Yet, like fair and candid men, they did not dismiss the words as impossible of accomplishment or interpretation; but they "kept the saying."

I. HOW ARE WE TO EXPLAIN THE HOLD WHICH THE HARD SAYINGS OF CHRIST HAVE UPON THE DEVOUT MIND? Their "keeping" the saying was doubtless for the most part a voluntary thing, yet there was also a sense in which it was involuntary. The subject it concerned awed and interested them, and they could not, if they had wished to do it, throw off its fascination. And so it is with the other hard sayings; that which is to be said of this may be said of them.

1. Because of relation with similar experiences. Many a time had the actions of Christ, or their own spiritual history, presented enigmas that refused to be summarily explained. They were continually stumbling upon some new, strange thing. They had just come out of a scene of which the wisest and soberest of them might well wonder whether it was fairyland or fact. And they were conscious of deep yearnings and aspirations to which the Savior's words seemed to answer as the key to the lock. These had evidently something in common. The doctrines of Christianity may be difficult for the carnal mind to construe, but they appeal to a deep, universal, albeit depraved, human consciousness, which forbids their being at once dismissed from the thought.

2. And the sense of mystery is itself an element of fascination. The mind goes forth freely after the infinite and eternal in speculation and fancy, if not in serious moral interest. If there be but a substratum of apparent fact upon which thought can build, the sense of a mystery lying beyond is congenial to man; and he will continually return to it in efforts to penetrate it. This is why - at least, one reason why - the world around us never pails upon our senses. Its commonest things are steeped in wonder of the unknowable, if we but take one or two steps onward in the study of them.

3. In addition to this, the disciples knew that no mystery was uttered by their Master without some gracious meaning in it, which would sooner or later be made known. The hardest doctrine was, they felt, closely connected with their welfare, and would be seen to be so by-and-by. And Christians have experienced the same ever since. Our daily life is, if we be thoughtful, the best expositor of the deep things of grace, and keeps hovering within our horizon many an angel of revelation ready to deliver his message in due time.

II. HOW SHOULD THESE BE DEALT WITH? The disciples "kept," i.e. held fast, the saying; thus affording an example to all true Christians.

1. We should continually endeavor to understand or learn their meaning. Sometimes simple communion with one's own heart will be enough; or, again, it may be necessary to discuss them with others of a kindred spirit. Many of the happiest hours of life are so spent. Not that we shall always succeed; very often there will remain an element of the infinite or the unknown that will trouble us.

2. But when human wisdom fails, Divine wisdom may be invoked. "They asked him," and he cleared away the difficulty to the extent to which they made it known. To the praying soul the light will come in ever-increasing fullness. More light will break forth from the book of earthly experience, and from the written Word of comfort and revelation. And when the mystery still remains insoluble, the Spirit of Jesus will give us faith and patience until "the day dawn, and the day-star arise in our hearts," and we know even as we are known. - M.

Men heard them gladly, because they preached the resurrection; and because the truth was so purely human as well as purely Divine, it overran and mastered the world.

I. IT SEEMS TO EXPLAIN MAN'S PLACE IS THE CREATION. Man's position at the head of this creation places him on the threshold of a higher creation, in which the true sphere of his royalty lies. Such a world as this is too small, too poor, to be the home and the realm of his manhood; its true function is to train him for his royalty beyond. The risen man, by rising, enlarged quite infinitely the field of man's vision, activity, interest, and hope. The risen man explained every propulsive movement and yearning in man's nature — all his kinglike form and instinct: while the weakness, the poverty, the pain, the dread, belonged to his mortal and transitory sphere. Men heard the doctrine gladly, for they saw the true form and stature of the human in the man Christ Jesus; in the risen Christ God's idea of humanity was for evermore unveiled.

II. IT SEEMED TO UNFOLD THE MEANING OF THE MYSTERY OF MATTER — THE MORTAL BODY IN WHICH THE SOUL FINDS ITSELF ENSHRINED, OR, AS IT IS CEASELESSLY TEMPTED TO CRY, ENTOMBED. The mystery of embodiment is the essential mystery which perplexes and bewilders the world. Men found it hard to see how there could be fair room for the flesh in any scheme of the world which should include the rule of a wise, righteous, and beneficent Lord. The gospel of Jesus and the resurrection flashes at once a flood of light on man and on his constitution. There is One, a man, "bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh," who has borne the body through death, who took it again joyfully when death had slain its mortality, and bore it with Him to the spiritual and eternal world. The revelation of a glorified human body in the world behind the veil was the sanctification, not of the body only, but also of all material things on this side the veil; it was the sign from heaven that they were originally and essentially not of the devil, but of God. We cannot in these days measure the range of that emancipation — man freed from the tormenting thought that he bore a devilish part about with him, a body which could never be tamed to a true subjection, never trained to a Divine use.

III. IT SEEMED TO CAST LIGHT ON THE STILL DEEPER AND DARKER MYSTERY OF EVIL; IT EXPLAINED THE MEANING BY UNVEILING THE END OF MAN'S MORAL DISCIPLINE. It proclaimed, as nothing else that we can conceive of could proclaim, God's mastery over all that was dark and malign in nature and in life. Thenceforth man could fight the battle in hope, and was saved. It was the flashing out of a victorious force over sin and death, which lit up the world and made it radiant with hope, when the apostles preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

(J. B. Brown, B. A.)

I see the force of all this; I admit that the death and burial of a seed, while it suggests the bare possibility of man surviving that dissolution which we call death, by no means raises the presumption that it is so to the height of a proof. All we can say is that there are certain analogies for it from plant life, and other analogies against it from animal life; and who can tell which way it will ultimately turn? It is at this stage of the argument that the resurrection of Jesus Christ comes in to decide our wavering minds. Until Easter day we stand with the disciples, questioning what the resurrection of the dead should mean; but now we question no longer. In this respect we are as the contemporaries of Columbus were when he boldly set sail from Palos in August, 1492, and in less than three months set at rest the problem of ages. His return from the voyage to the Bahamas turned presumption into proof. It was no longer a question on which sides might be taken. In a sense it was now set at rest. It admitted no further argument. Those who continued obstinate, and held out for the old opinion, as some of Columbus' contemporaries did, in spite of evidence to the contrary, could only be left to their own obstinacy.

(J. B. Heard, M. A.)

Elias, Elijah, James, Jesus, John, PeterCaesarea Philippi, Capernaum, Galilee, High MountainAlthough, Asking, Dead, Discussing, Frequently, Kept, Matter, Mean, Meant, Questioning, Rising, Saying, Seized, Statement, Themselves1. Jesus is transfigured.
11. He instructs his disciples concerning the coming of Elijah;
14. casts forth a deaf and mute spirit;
30. foretells his death and resurrection;
33. exhorts his disciples to humility;
38. bidding them not to prohibit such as are not against them,
42. nor to give offense to any of the faithful.

Mark 9:2-13

     5092   Elijah

Mark 9:9-11

     2580   Christ, transfiguration

February 2 Evening
One star differeth from another star in glory.--I COR. 15:41. By the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest. And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all.--Be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who …
Anonymous—Daily Light on the Daily Path

Christ's Lament Over Our Faithlessness
'He answereth him and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?'--Mark ix. 19. There is a very evident, and, I think, intentional contrast between the two scenes, of the Transfiguration, and of this healing of the maniac boy. And in nothing is the contrast more marked than in the demeanour of these enfeebled and unbelieving Apostles, as contrasted with the rapture of devotion of the other three, and with the lowly submission and faith of Moses and Elias. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Omnipotence of Faith
Jesus said unto him, If them canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.'--Mark ix. 23. The necessity and power of faith is the prominent lesson of this narrative of the healing of a demoniac boy, especially as it is told by the Evangelist Mark, The lesson is enforced by the actions of all the persons in the group, except the central figure, Christ. The disciples could not cast out the demon, and incur Christ's plaintive rebuke, which is quite as much sorrow as blame: 'O faithless …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Unbelieving Belief
'And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.'--Mark ix. 24. We owe to Mark's Gospel the fullest account of the pathetic incident of the healing of the demoniac boy. He alone gives us this part of the conversation between our Lord and the afflicted child's father. The poor man had brought his child to the disciples, and found them unable to do anything with him. A torrent of appeal breaks from his lips as soon as the Lord gives …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

An Unanswered Question
'What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?'--Mark ix. 33. Was it not a strange time to squabble when they had just been told of His death? Note-- I. The variations of feeling common to the disciples and to us all: one moment 'exceeding sorrowful,' the next fighting for precedence. II. Christ's divine insight into His servants' faults. This question was put because He knew what the wrangle had been about. The disputants did not answer, but He knew without an answer, as His immediately …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Salted with Fire
Every one shall be salted with fire.'--Mark ix. 49. Our Lord has just been uttering some of the most solemn words that ever came from His gracious lips. He has been enjoining the severest self-suppression, extending even to mutilation and excision of the eye, the hand, or the foot, that might cause us to stumble. He has been giving that sharp lesson on the ground of plain common sense and enlightened self-regard. It is better, obviously, to live maimed than to die whole. The man who elects to …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'Salt in Yourselves'
'Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another.'--Mark ix. 50. In the context 'salt' is employed to express the preserving, purifying, divine energy which is otherwise spoken of as 'fire.' The two emblems produce the same result. They both salt--that is, they cleanse and keep. And if in the one we recognise the quick energy of the Divine Spirit as the central idea, no less are we to see the same typified under a slightly different aspect in the other. The fire transforms into its own substance …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

'This is My Beloved Son: Hear Him'
'And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son: hear Him.'--Mark ix. 7. With regard to the first part of these words spoken at the Transfiguration, they open far too large and wonderful a subject for me to do more than just touch with the tip of my finger, as it were, in passing, because the utterance of the divine words, 'This is My beloved Son,' in all the depth of their meaning and loftiness, is laid as the foundation of the two …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Jesus Only!
'They saw no man any more, save Jesus only with themselves.'--Mark ix. 8. The Transfiguration was the solemn inauguration of Jesus for His sufferings and death. Moses, the founder, and Elijah, the restorer, of the Jewish polity, the great Lawgiver and the great Prophet, were present. The former had died and been mysteriously buried, the latter had been translated without 'seeing death.' So both are visitors from the unseen world, appearing to own that Jesus is the Lord of that dim land, and that …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Transfiguration
'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. 3. And His raimemt became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them. 4. And there appeared unto them Elias with Moses: and they were talking with Jesus. 5. And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Receiving and Forbidding
'And He came to Capernaum: and being in the house He asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? 34. But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest. 35. And He sat down, and called the Twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. 36. And He took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when He had taken him in His arms, He said unto them, 37. …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

July the Ninth Scholars in Christ's School
"He taught His disciples." --MARK ix. 30-37. And my Lord will teach me. He will lead me into "the deep things" of God. There is only one school for this sort of learning, and an old saint called it the Academy of Love, and it meets in Gethsemane and Calvary, and the Lord Himself is the teacher, and there is room in the school for thee and me. But the disciples were not in the mood for learning. They were not ambitious for heavenly knowledge, but for carnal prizes, not for wisdom, but for place. …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

The Lenten Fast.
"This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer."--ST. MARK ix. 29. You remember the narrative from which I have taken this verse. Jesus, as we read, had just come down from the Mount of Transfiguration, and when He was come to the multitude, a certain man besought him saying, "Have mercy on my son, for he is lunatic and sore vexed, and I brought him to Thy disciples, but they could not cure him." Then Jesus rebuked the devil, and the child was cured from that hour. Thereupon His disciples …
John Percival—Sermons at Rugby

The Child in the Midst.
"And He took a child and set Him in the midst of them: and when He had taken him in His arms, He said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in My name, receiveth Me: and whosoever shall receive Me, receiveth not Me, but Him that sent Me."--ST. MARK ix. 36, 37. It is one of the characteristics of our time, one of its most hopeful and most encouraging signs, that men are awaking to higher and purer conceptions of the Christian life and what it is that constitutes such a life. We …
John Percival—Sermons at Rugby

Of Hell
"Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Mark 9:48. 1. Every truth which is revealed in the oracles of God is undoubtedly of great importance. Yet it may be allowed that some of those which are revealed therein are of greater importance than others, as being more immediately conducive to the grand end of all, the eternal salvation of men. And we may judge of their importance even from this circumstance, -- that they are not mentioned once only in the sacred writings, but are repeated …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

A Caution against Bigotry
"And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name: and he followeth not us: and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not." Mark 9:38, 39. 1. In the preceding verses we read, that after the Twelve had been disputing "which of them should be the greatest," Jesus took a little child, and set him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, said unto them, "Whosoever shall receive one of these little children in My name, receiveth …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

Faith's Dawn and Its Clouds
In the text there are three things very clearly. Here is true faith; here is grievous unbelief; here is a battle between the two. I. Very clearly in the text there is TRUE FAITH. "Lord, I believe," says the anxious father. When our Lord tells him that, if he can believe, all things are possible to him, he makes no demur, asks for no pause, wishes to hear no more evidence, but cries at once, "Lord, I believe." Now, observe we have called this faith true faith, and we will prove it to have been so. …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 18: 1872

The Child in the Midst.
And he came to Capernaum: and, being in the house, he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves who should be the greatest. And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all. And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them, Whosoever shall …
George MacDonald—Unspoken Sermons

Absolute Surrender
"And Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Ben-hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that …
Andrew Murray—Absolute Surrender

Thoughts Upon Striving to Enter at the Strait Gate.
AS certainly as we are here now, it is not long but we shall all be in another World, either in a World of Happiness, or else in a World of Misery, or if you will, either in Heaven or in Hell. For these are the two only places which all Mankind from the beginning of the World to the end of it, must live in for evermore, some in the one, some in the other, according to their carriage and behaviour here; and therefore it is worth the while to take a view and prospect now and then of both these places, …
William Beveridge—Private Thoughts Upon a Christian Life

The Three Tabernacles
And Peter answered and said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. MARK ix. 5. Caught up in glory and in rapture, the Apostle seems to have forgotten the world from which he had ascended, and to which he still belonged, and to have craved permanent shelter and extatic communion within the mystic splendors that brightened the Mount of Transfiguration. But it was true, not only as to the confusion of his …
E. H. Chapin—The Crown of Thorns

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