The Transfiguration, Trouble, Taxes, and Triumph
Matthew 17
Six days later Jesus took Peter and the two brothers, James and John,
and led them up a high mountain to be alone.
2 As the men watched,
Jesus’ appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun,
and his clothes became as white as light.
3 Suddenly, Moses and Elijah
appeared and began talking with Jesus.
4 Peter exclaimed, “Lord, it’s wonderful for us to be here! If you want,
I’ll make three shelters as memorials—one for you, one for Moses, and
one for Elijah.”
5 But even as he spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice
from the cloud said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great
joy. Listen to him.”
6 The disciples were terrified and fell face down
on the ground.
7 Then Jesus came over and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be
afraid.”
8 And when they looked up, Moses and Elijah were gone, and they
saw only Jesus.
9 As they went back down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Don’t tell
anyone what you have seen until the Son of Man has been raised from the
dead.”
10 Then his disciples asked him, “Why do the teachers of religious law
insist that Elijah must return before the Messiah comes?”
11 Jesus replied, “Elijah is indeed coming first to get everything
ready.
12 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, but he wasn’t
recognized, and they chose to abuse him. And in the same way they will
also make the Son of Man suffer.”
13 Then the disciples realized he was
talking about John the Baptist.
Jesus Heals a Demon-Possessed Boy
14 At the foot of the mountain, a large crowd was waiting for them. A
man came and knelt before Jesus and said,
15 “Lord, have mercy on my
son. He has seizures and suffers terribly. He often falls into the fire
or into the water.
16 So I brought him to your disciples, but they
couldn’t heal him.”
17 Jesus said, “You faithless and corrupt people! How long must I be
with you? How long must I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.”
18 Then Jesus rebuked the demon in the boy, and it left him. From that
moment the boy was well.
19 Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, “Why couldn’t we cast
out that demon?”
20 “You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the
truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say
to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing
would be impossible.”
Jesus Again Predicts His Death
22 After they gathered again in Galilee, Jesus told them, “The Son of
Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies.
23 He will be killed, but on the third day he will be raised from the dead.” And the
disciples were filled with grief.
Payment of the Temple Tax
24 On their arrival in Capernaum, the collectors of the Temple tax came
to Peter and asked him, “Doesn’t your teacher pay the Temple tax?”
25 “Yes, he does,” Peter replied. Then he went into the house.
But before he had a chance to speak, Jesus asked him, “What do you
think, Peter? Do kings tax their own people or the people they have
conquered?”
26 “They tax the people they have conquered,” Peter replied.
“Well, then,” Jesus said, “the citizens are free!
27 However, we don’t
want to offend them, so go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open
the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver
coin.[h] Take it and pay the tax for both of us.”
- Verse 23: as Jesus describes himself as the Son of Man, he also reminds us
that he is the Suffering Servant that Isaiah 53 narrates. - Then, Jesus has Peter clarify what a conquering King - that he conquers, that he
owns the conquered people and he can literally take food off their
table, money from their pockets. - Then Jesus declares the people are free.
- Yet, they’re not, are they?
They live under the rule of the Roman government.
They are for all intents and purposes a conquered people. - We must carefully remember though what Jesus has accomplished by his own
words.
Luke 4
16 When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as
usual to the synagogue on the Sabbath and stood up to read the
Scriptures.
17 The scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him. He
unrolled the scroll and found the place where this was written:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released,
that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free,
19 and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.”
20 He rolled up the scroll, handed it back to the attendant, and sat
down. All eyes in the synagogue looked at him intently.
21 Then he began
to speak to them. “The Scripture you’ve just heard has been fulfilled
this very day!”
2 Timothy 1
9 For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not
because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the
beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.
10 And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus,
our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life
and immortality through the Good News.
Hebrews 2
14 Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the
Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die,
and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had[g] the
power of death. 15 Only in this way could he set free all who have lived
their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.
1 Corinthians 15
21 So you see, just as death came into the world through a man, now the
resurrection from the dead has begun through another man. 22 Just as
everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to
Christ will be given new life. 23 But there is an order to this
resurrection: Christ was raised as the first of the harvest; then all
who belong to Christ will be raised when he comes back.
24 After that the end will come, when he will turn the Kingdom over to
God the Father, having destroyed every ruler and authority and power.
25 For Christ must reign until he humbles all his enemies beneath his feet.
26 And the last enemy to be destroyed is death.
2 Corinthians 2
14 But thank God! He has made us his captives and continues to lead us
along in Christ’s triumphal procession. Now he uses us to spread the
knowledge of Christ everywhere, like a sweet perfume. 15 Our lives are a
Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived
differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing.
16 To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and
doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume.
And who is adequate for such a task as this?
17 You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal
profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s
authority, knowing that God is watching us.
