GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 9-7
The Majestic Cloud
Many classes ago, a student brought her exam paper back to me. The exam had a score of B. She asked that her exam be rescored because she had never received a score less than an A. So, sitting beside her, we went through the exam line by line. She had missed some important details. She was not satisfied because she insisted that she had never, ever made a score less than an A. She was indeed a good student, never missing a class and sitting towards the front of the room. As I now recall, she received a final class score of A. She had trouble believing the grade of B she saw on her exam paper.
I’ve found myself in the same position as this young student, having difficulty adjusting my thinking to that existential reality. In 1968, standing at the nursery window in St. Elizabeth Hospital in Granite City, Illinois, looking at the small baby wrapped in a blanket, the realization washed over me—I was a father. There had been time to prepare for the moment, but I had trouble getting my mind around the reality of it.
St. Mark described a similar experience involving three of the disciples—Peter, James, and John. “And a cloud came, overshadowing them, and a voice came from the cloud. ‘This is my beloved Son, hear him.’” (Mark 9:7) It’s possible to imagine the disciples rubbing their eyes and scratching their heads, wondering about the reality of what they were experiencing. Mark’s words here express immediacy: the events took place rapidly, perhaps before the disciples had time to fully digest what had happened.
For centuries, readers have pondered the significance of the cloud, so I might as well offer my own view. This cloud was not an atmospheric cloud consisting of tiny moisture particles—the kind a meteorologist might analyze. This cloud was a foretaste of the Father’s majesty. The three were enveloped in what Peter described as “the majestic glory.” (2 Peter 1:17) The cloud appeared briefly and disappeared, unlike an atmospheric cloud that is gradually blown in and dissipated by the wind. They were in the presence of the Father and received the Father’s command: “Hear him”— command that still applies.
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