Matthew 22

Transfiguration

Before we jump into chapter 17 we need to read the last verse of chapter 16.

Matthew 16:28 “Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.””

This verse has caused some confusion amongst believers for the majority of the modern church era. They came to believe that possibly He was refering to John as John was the only disciple that was not martyred but then John died of old age and Christ had still not returned. So, what did Jesus mean? The key to understanding verse twenty eight is the immediatley following story in chapter seventeen.

Matthew 17:1–3 “Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.”

Matthew 17:4–5 “Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, let us make here three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and suddenly a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!””

This event is known as the transfiguration. First we note that Matthew first records that this was six days after Jesus made the statement about the Son of Man coming in His kingdom. Each of the gospels that record this event record that it was within a week after this statement was made. Not often in the Gospels is such a specific time frame of events given and most commentators will agree that it is surely a sign that the statement is connected to the transfiguration. So then, how are the two connected. Some say that the connection is that this is a taste of the coming kingdom and that the “big three” got to witness this little taste of Christs coming kingdom. I disagree. I believe they are connected as this marks the begginning of the end really for Christ. Here Jesus begins focusing everything on the end of His ministry and looking towards the cross. The kingdom that Christ is talking about is the church as we have it today. The eleven disciples helped to form the churches and saw the institution of the incomplete kingdom that we live in today.

As for the transfiguration itself we have a lot of symbolism and fullfillment within the transfiguration. First look at who is present along with Christ. We have Moses and Elijah. These two both represent parts of the old testament. Moses represents the law as the first five books of the bible which contain the law are attributed to having been written by Moses. Elijah represents the prophets as he was regarded as the greatest and most famous of the prophets in the Old Testament. This is important because of who Christ is.

Look at what the Father said here. This part I want to focus on is the last two words hear Him. This echoes the words of moses

Deuteronomy 18:15 ““The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear,”

Here we have moses talking about a prophet that God will send and him we shall hear. The Father is telling us by the transfiguration that Christi is the one. He is the one who was prophecied and He is the one who is the fullfillment of all that has come before.

Now after the transfiguration and Christ comes back down with those three disciples we see that He immediately walks into a chaotic situation.

Matthew 17:14–16 “And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.””

Matthew 17:17–19 “Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?””

Matthew 17:20–21 “So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.””

So Jesus comes down the mountain into a multitude of people waiting for Him and a man immediatley comes up to Him and lets Him know that his son is having seziures and that Jesus’ disciples are failing to heal him of his affliction.

The first thing we can learn from this story is how to handle failure in our lives. Both our own failures and the failures of those we depend on and those who depend on us. Jesus first calls out the multitude by calling them a faithless and perverse generation. He tells them that part of the fault lays with the people as they did not have faith that Christ would be able to heal the boy especially now that the disciples could not. Then after He heals the boy the disciples ask Him why they couldn’t do it and Jesus responds by telling them that it is because of their unbelief. Jesus had previously specially granted them the ability to cast out demons in their name and yet they are doubting if they truly had this power still. This unbelief made them inable to cast out the demon in the boy.

In this situation of failure we actually see that both parties share the blame. This is often how the world works. We are quick to cast all blame over to the other party either our leaders have failed us or our people have but never is it our fault. Likely it is at least in part your fault why a failure has occured. We are not blameless people we all make mistakes so if in every situation we at least shoulder some of the blame even if it was obviously someone elses fault then we will be honouring God and helping to ease the burden of other people.

Now what does Jesus take this time to teach? He is teaching about the power of faith. He says that with faith the size of a mustard seed you can move mountains with your words. The problem for us is that as flawed human being we arent even able to have faith that little. We are messed up and broken and in this life are only able to see a minute fraction of the faith that Jesus is talking about. While at first this is disheartening we can actually view it as an encouragement. Yes our faith is small but if you only need a tiny amount to move mountains than for the things that we actually need to accomplish in our lives you can have more than enough faith to overcome all situations.

This faith though is not something that comes from within. It is not really your own faith that you can rely on, but it is God who instills this faith into you. How can we get more of this faith then? Through prayer and fasting we can acquire more faith and that is the only way that we can get more of this powerful faith. Of course we all spend some time in prayer when we need something, but this isnt just asking God one time for some more faith and then moving on. This is daily prayer not just asking for things but praising God and thanking Him not just for what He has done for you but who He is. Now there is a second part to this equation that we like to look over, fasting. We are ok with praying and talking to God most of the time, but fasting is not a thing that many people I know are acustomed to doing. What is fasting though? Really you can fast in many ways. Fasting at its base level is giving up something for a period of time in order show your sincerity for a cause. The most common of course is fasting food. I have done this several times before and I do believe it can help you in your prayer life and to grow your faith. You can fast more than food though. You can fast social media, games, coke, etc… Now I want to leave you guys tonight with a challenge. From six tomorrow morning until six tomorrow night I want us to fast. I get it if you don’t want to and I don’t want anyone to feel pressured to, but I want to challenge you to try it. Is there something in your life that you are sturggling with? Is there somewhere you could use some more faith in? I am sure that there is if you think about it long enough. Like I said you can fast anything that you want so if you want to participate tomorrow then tonight you should pick what you are going to fast and in prayer tonight commit it to God that you will be fasting from it. I encourage you to consider doing a typical food fast meaning only water for this time. It is only a twelve hour fast so it is short and easy for us to accomplish. I prefer the fasting from food because to me it is like an alarm to pray. Each time i think about being hungry I stop to pray. So, tomorrow I will be fasting from six to six and I encourage all of you to try it out and see how it improves your prayer life and your faith.