Matthew 17

Let us reflect on the beautiful mystery of Jesus being both human and divine! Take time today to lean in.

@klarckorver
@bobbiekorver

@erclosangeles
www.erc.la
info@erc.la

Transcript

Welcome to the Wake Before the Day Podcast with my parents, Klarc and Bobbie. We'll talk about the Bible and the Holy Spirit adventures.

Thanks for listening! Matthew 17, you guys, that's where we're at. What stuck out to you, Klarc? What do you want to, what's kind of your main, it's a big chapter. Yeah, I'm going to say the first nine verses really stuck out to me. And it's the transfiguration of Jesus. And what Jesus does is he grabs Peter, James, and John. He goes up into a mountain and it's before them. The glory of God is on really full display. They see Jesus transfigure and they see like his full divinity there. And so I can read just a couple of the verses real quick.

It says, after six days, Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, the brother of James, and led them to the high mountain. There he is transfigured before them. His face shown like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus. And if you stop right there, I just ask myself, why would the authors go out of their way to put this story in here?

Like, what do I learn about God? What do I learn about us, Peter, James, and John, the situation? And here they're showing the disciples that Jesus is fully human.

Because they've been with him. They've seen him sleep and eat and walk and breathe. And they're seeing his divinity in another way that had yet to been experienced. Exposed, revealed. And part of the reason why this is fresh in my mind right now, and if you're doing the church reading plan, is we just read 1 Peter. A couple weeks ago. Two weeks ago, maybe. And in it, when the heretics and people are coming after Peter going, he's not real, this whole Jesus stuff, he hasn't come back yet.

Like, I'm not buying what you're selling, Pete. Peter goes to this event and says, no, I was there on that holy mountain. A sacred place when Jesus transfigured before us, and I saw him fully man and fully God.

Yeah, 2 Peter chapter 1. And so Peter, James, and John, I believe, needed this moment to see, wow. Later on, they would get to death and resurrection of Jesus, which is also epic. But his glory in a different way, in a new light. Because Peter then, when he wrote 1 Peter, he's about to die on a cross upside down. They were all given chances to recant Jesus. They were given chances to say, I'm not sure if this is real. Like, you just say it's not, we'll let you go. And Peter's like, sorry, you got to kill me. But by the way, kill me on a cross upside down, because I can't die the same way Jesus died. And the transfiguration is what's coming to his mind.

It's this right here. And so for us, knowing that the divinity of Jesus is a huge deal. Because when I think about the Christmas story, which is right around the corner, can't wait. This baby born into a manger, the mystery of the virgin birth. Like every year we circle back to this.

You're like, this is wild. This is crazy.

And to think about the humanity and divinity of Jesus, not being separate, but being perfectly integrated. And him being fully man and fully God is just wild. Because then from here on, like throughout church history, people fight about this. So maybe you've heard about the Athanasian creed or the Nicaean creed. Just for you want to learn something today, creeds are about the who and confessions are about the what. So the Nicaean creed and the Athanasian creed are creeds responding to heretics like Arian and Arianism and people that are attacking Jesus divinity or his humanity. And it's from the transfiguration. This is one of the most epic verses where they go back and say, he is both perfectly at the same time without ever separating the two. And also then, if you look at the next verse, it says he pulls up with Moses and Elijah.

Why is that? Well, it's because the whole Bible is about Jesus.

Moses is representing the law. Elijah is representing the prophets. And there's Jesus fulfilling both. And so some people might say like, what's up with the first half of the Bible? There's old weird stuff in here.

I don't know. Should read that today? I don't know. I don't get it because it's pointing us to Jesus. It shows us about who God is and it really reveals the heart of humanity in some ways that the New Testament doesn't even.

And it's all about Christ. Yeah. I think that that's one of those. This is one of those stories that, like you said, people might be just like scratching their head. Like, why is this in here or why? You know, like this is kind of a weird thing.

Like Jesus is here. He's doing this stuff. And so now to like have a little more understanding about like kind of the, the hugeness of this moment and why like, it's so special because now like you were saying, so after Peter, James and John see this, then they're going to see Jesus go to the cross. They're going to see Jesus die on the cross and raise again, knowing that he could have done something else. Yeah. Like, oh wait, I saw him in his glory. Angels. Moses. But he didn't. Yeah. His heart for us was so pure and so strong that he chose surrender. Yeah. And so even just them, those three and their testimony, knowing that and then writing and telling us about it, like that's a big, that's a big moment. What? No, I'm just, I'm just happy right now. I know.

I actually really love this picture too. And what, what came to my mind is, um, this is one of those moments where these men, um, are looking. So these three disciples are looking at Jesus thinking like, who is this guy? Yeah. Because literally it says that like when they, um, this is verse six, chapter 17. When the disciples heard this, um, this is after they heard a voice in a cloud, which again, just all these elements, these heavenly booming elements. Uh, when the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground, terrified, but Jesus came and touched them. Get up.

He said, don't be afraid. When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus. And so I'm actually, um, was brought back to Matthew chapter eight, verse 27. And it's right after Jesus calmed the storm. And so sermon on the Mount, then there's the storm and Jesus calms the storm and the disciples say, who is this guy that even the wind and the waves obey him. And so there's this curiosity that I appreciate. There's another verse in this chapter that I see curiosity that I appreciate also versus nine and 10, but there's this curiosity and I'm almost like humility in this. It's like, no, we can't do that.

Like we're we're right now yet. Like we're we there's, there's this other side of Jesus.

And so I'm not tracking with you. We can't do what? Like, we're not calming the wind and the waves. Oh, like we're not transfigured into glory. Like father. God's voice isn't booming down on us. And so I, you know, we don't get the, a lot of those pictures I feel like with the disciples. And so I'm just holding on to those two and just kind of the like, ah, I guess of the moment. And then, um, yeah, just continuing. So sit in the mystery of the divinity and the humanity of Christ. Both right.

And the next kind of verse that stood out to me is verse 20. Do you have anything before then? Oh, sorry. Yeah. I said nine and 10, but I meant 19 and 20.

So we can go there. Yeah. Perfect. So you go first.

I don't know. I want to hear you. Yeah. Verse 19 and 20 verse 19 says, then the disciples came to Jesus in private and said, why couldn't we drive it out? Because there is a demon possessed person. They couldn't cast the demon out. Right. Look like fools. They came back to Jesus going, what do we do with this? Now? Why couldn't we cast the demon out? Right. And then verse 20, Jesus replies and says, because you have so little faith. Truly. I tell you, 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. Why this sticks out for me is because in our tradition and the reformed tradition, oftentimes when it comes to conversations of faith in these passages, we talk about not so much the quantity of one's faith, but the object of one's faith. Who are you putting your faith in? Are you putting in your own abilities or are you putting in God? Sure. And so obviously when it comes to saving faith, that's a gift of God. But when it comes to these kinds of situations, you got to unpack it a little bit differently because here there is talking about the quantity of your faith. So let's say that we are believing in Jesus. Let's say they believe in Jesus authentically. And they were in a good spot in their own heart and their own ability. It's like, we need to do this because this is what God's called us to. Sure. And then here he says, I tell you, you have faith as small as a mustard seed.

You have little faith. He could have easily just said something else, but the word little is in there. So which leads me to think one, where, where am I putting my faith? Is it in Jesus or somebody else? The second question then is how big is my faith? And that is where it, it becomes a slippery slope because sometimes people will pray and there's no healing and people have caused a great deal of harm saying, yeah, because you didn't believe enough. It was you. It was your fault that you're not healed your face, not great enough. And then yet here, Jesus is saying the demon didn't leave because you had little faith. Yep. And so pastorally it's a slippery slope when you're walking this going, okay, one, where am I putting my faith?

And two, how great is my faith? And I don't have like a crystal clear answer to say like, Hey, well, this is what we do with this today. Other than the object of your faith is important and the quantity of your faith is important. And so with that, you think about faith. We've talked about as a muscle exercise, your muscle exercise, your muscle, you tear the muscle, it rebuilds, you tear the muscle, it rebuilds. And so you living out your life and you praying and maybe, maybe you're trying to cast out a demon and it didn't go so well the first time you come back a second time and a third time, or you're praying for healing and you pray for healing again and a third time and a fourth time. And there's this welling up in you of the spirit and it's faith, which is a gift, but you're leaning into it. And so for me, I'm being challenged out of this verse is to say, okay, I got to put my faith in Christ as first and foremost importance. But then two, do I have a little faith, no faith, medium faith, large faith. I'm not sure how, how God stacks up the size of one's faith here, what the levels are, but clearly he's inviting us to have more. And so that's where I'm just saying, I think if I'm focused on God and I'm reading about who he is and what he's done, I have full confidence that he is capable of doing that today.

And kind of like the old Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, we believe God can do this. And even if he doesn't, then it's his, it's his prerogative.

It's his job. It's his, it goes back to him. And so I leave that with him and he can answer for that someday or not at all because he's God. But I try my best and I'm being obedient to what he's called me to. And so I would say pastorally, there's a fine line. I would say don't blame someone's lack of healing or lack of answered prayer because of, of their faith. I would more encourage them positively to lean in and say, what is God doing here? How is he inviting you to participate in what he's doing here? And how might that faith muscle continue to grow as you look at people in situations, maybe sicknesses or illnesses differently, knowing that God does truly care about these things. So, yeah. The curiosities for me that came from those verses is settling more on verse 19.

That is then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, why couldn't we drive it out? And so what you guys, what just really makes me consider verse 19 is how the disciples, so something has happened. They actually, something didn't happen. They couldn't do it.

Jesus did it. And so instead of, you know, just walking in that and like, I'm going to let go and you know what, whatever Jesus did, it worked.

So there you go. No, the disciples come to Jesus in private and they ask, they ask why couldn't we? And so there's this curiosity, like tell us what we can do.

Give us more. There's a lingering there that the disciples don't want to let the moment go. They want to know, Hey, what happened here?

Teach us, Rabbi, tell us. And I feel like that in today is like, you know, something will happen and we get hurt. We get hurt or it didn't happen. And we get hurt and we don't want to revisit the pain. And so we just walk away. And that's an invitation here. I think in verse 19 is to lean in and revisit these things and ask, Hey, what happened here? Or maybe you're asking yourself, maybe you're sitting with the Lord. Maybe you're with another person and be curious about the situation because a question that Holy Spirit reminded me of in this time, a question came up. And the question was, when have I ever lately positioned myself to even have big faith? Have I positioned myself to have big faith?

Am I going to prayer services? Am I laying hands on people? Am I sitting around my dinner table with my kids praying for a new van? You know, Clark was in an accident a few months back. And that's just a reality of where we're at, where we're saying, Hey God, you know, here's a need. We're going to lay it before you and we're going to have faith because there's times when Clark and I walked in before prayer on a Wednesday night and we've said, Hey, Holy Spirit come. Um, let us be aware of your presence. Um, if you don't show up, God, we know you're here, but show up in our prayers as we pray. And as we ask, because we can't do anything in our own power. John tells us that that apart, if we're not abiding, we can't do anything. And so verse 19, I feel like was critical for me in this chapter.

Just looking at that curiosity of the disciples saying, I want more. And Jesus tells him, Oh, you know, you guys in your generation, you guys have little faith. And there's that pushback saying like, okay, that's where I'm at. And so thank you for the exposure of that. I want more. I want bigger faith.

I don't want just belief. I, you know, I've, I've come from a place of unbelief. I don't want that anymore. I want belief and I want more. And as you know, this is, this is the infant. Like if you're looking at a progress of the disciples and their life, they are infants in faith right now, they're going to be giants in faith. And so there's time and there's grace and thank God Jesus is still on the scene. And that's, I feel like kind of the, that's the voice here kind of, because they keep leaning in because they keep lingering and they mess up. We know that Peter messes up. We know that John, we know that they keep messing up, but they keep lingering and looking for the presence of God and looking for bigger faith and looking for more belief.

And that's a question. I feel like I was sitting in today is just how am I even, you know, am I using my credit card as my faith? Like you're saying, what, that's the, what, what am I putting my faith into? And then also the size of my faith, because, you know, God can work with those things when we ask and when we surrender, you know, if we're holding on too tight and if we, you know, we don't allow that, then that's one thing. But just the curiosity of verse 19, I think really struck me today.

So that was powerful. Was it? Yeah. I'm moved right now. That was, that was really good. I did not read it like that, but that's why I love reading this in community and learning from you. I didn't read it at all like you did. And so I'm grateful for what you shared. That's good. Awesome. All right.

Well, I guess I had one last thing, and then we can just wrap up for the sake of time. The last section in this chapter also is always kind of perplexing, like the whole temple tax thing. And then he goes out and he catches a fish and opens it up.

Like, how wild is that? I got to start doing that. For sure. We got to go fishing more often. Get that van. The thing that strikes me as interesting is Jesus' response to the disciples. And he basically is saying Kings and Royal family are exempt from paying taxes at this point in time. Yeah. Jesus is royalty. Right. Eventually calling us children of God.

We are also royalty. He said you you're exempt from paying this tax. Jesus is saying, I'm exempt from paying this tax, but I'm not going to use my freedom to cause problems with these people right now. Yeah. So let's go fishing and catch that, that coin, go pay the tax for us and we'll be good for a while.

I just think of Galatians five. I think it's verse 13. Actually it talks about don't use the freedom that God's given you to indulge your flesh, but use it to love and serve one another. And so I'm just thinking through what ways am I able to use my freedom, whether it's with food and drink or money or status or just the way in which we talk and live our life. Yeah. How can I use my freedoms to inconvenience myself for the benefit and well-being of other people?

How do I put them ahead of myself? And so anyways, that was my last thought. Hold me off. I'm done. No, never.

Thanks for listening. Matthew chapter 17.