GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 9:13
But I Say to You
There is an often-used illustration about a man who was using a hammer to straighten an iron rod, but he held the rod in the wrong position, and when he struck it with the hammer, he injured his hand. When his foreman came to check on him, he asked how he had injured his hand. According to the story, the man held the rod in exactly the same position, struck the rod again, and injured his hand.
Between two cities, there was a sharp 90-degree curve in the highway. It was known as “Dead Man’s Curve” among teenagers, and there was bragging among them about who had driven through the curve at the highest speed. Okay, so it was a dumb practice, but remember, these were teenage boys—the age at which boys are not known for their smarts. All that bravado ended when one of the teenagers, apparently trying to demonstrate his driving prowess, ran off the road at the curve. His car rolled over several times, ejecting both him and his girlfriend, and killing them both. This was before seatbelts were standard equipment in cars and before their use was required.
Those incidents came to mind as I studied Mark 9:13: “But I say to you both that Elijah has come, and they did to him whatever they wished as it has been written about him.” Jesus and three of his disciples were coming from a mountain where Jesus had been conversing with Moses and Elijah in a majestic cloud. Jesus was describing to his disciples some of the events that were to come. The disciples had been taught by the scribes that Elijah must come before the Messiah; this was impressed on their minds. The scribes assured their students that Yahweh would act exactly as they had taught. Jesus, however, said to his disciples, “But I say to you…” It was hard for the disciples to grasp another view of Yahweh’s work—somewhat like the worker who continued to practice a hurtful process, or the teenage boys who continued their dangerous behavior.
The disciples still did not understand, and their failure was due to the same cause that always makes all men fail to understand—they clung to their own way and refused to see God’s way. There is a proverb that says the hardest thing for a man to do is change the way he combs his hair. Changing presuppositions is difficult. That difficulty is evident in the word “convert,” meaning “to turn around.” One has to listen carefully: “But I say to you…”
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