Sermon notes

INTRODUCTION

As Jesus and His three disciples descend from the mountain, they find the other disciples struggling to help a demon-possessed boy. The disciples fail. Jesus is the greater Elisha, and His disciples are like Elisha’s bumbling sidekick, Gehazi. They still lack even a mustard seed of faith (v. 20).

THE TEXT

“Now as they came down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, ‘Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man is risen from the dead.’ And His disciples asked Him, saying, ‘Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Indeed, Elijah is coming first and will restore all things . . . .” (Matthew 17:9-27).

ELIJAH

As they descend from the mountain, Jesus warns them to keep quiet about the transfiguration (cf. 8:4; 9:30; 12:16). Only after His death and resurrection will the meaning of the transfiguration become clear, and then the three disciples will become unique witnesses to the transfiguration. When He mentions the resurrection, the disciples are puzzled. Elijah is associated with resurrection because he raised the dead (1 Kings 17:17-24) and because of prophecies that his “return” would begin the restoration of Israel (Malachi 4:4-6). Jesus says that Elijah has come in John and the restoration has already begun. But the Jews oppose Elijah and the Son of Man will face the same opposition (v. 12).

POWER OF FAITH

On the mount of transfiguration, the three disciples spend a moment overshadowed by the cloud of God’s glory, but at the foot of the mountain people are still suffering under Satan’s power. Jesus doesn’t stay on the mountain, and doesn’t allow His disciples to stay. They have work to do. But the nine disciples are unsuccessful. When Jesus later tells the disciples their faith can move mountains to the sea, He’s looking at Jerusalem and its mountains (21:18-22). Here the point is more general. Even the smallest faith, if it is true faith in Jesus and the Father of Jesus, is virtually omnipotent: “Nothing shall be impossible to you” (v. 20). Jesus rebukes the disciples for their “little faith,” which apparently is smaller even than a mustard seed.

TEMPLE TAX

Jesus prediction of His death closes out the section (vv. 22-23), matching the previous prediction in 16:21. Verse 24 begins a new section that continues into chapter 18 and introduces some of the themes of that chapter. The temple tax is rooted in the “atonement money” collected by Moses from Israelite men going to war (Exodus 30:11-16). Later, this Mosaic tax was the basis for a regular temple assessment (2 Kings 12:4). Peter tells the tax collectors that Jesus pays the tax, but Jesus’ relation to the temple is more complex. Princes are exempted from a king’s taxes, and Jesus as the Son is exempt from a tax from His Father’s house. Jesus implies that the disciples, as His brothers, are also “sons” of the Father who don’t owe the tax. Yet, Jesus agrees to pay the tax to avoid offense (v. 27). The sea is a symbol of the gentile world, and fish are symbols of Gentiles. Jesus gives Peter a strange object lesson: God will provide for His disciples through fish from the sea of nations.