GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 9-9
The Seal of Approval
One college where I was a faculty member had a daily chapel service. Every Friday was senior chapel, and a senior ministerial student presented the sermon. In his sermon, one student quoted a faculty member on a subject. I knew the faculty member well, and the student misquoted his teacher. Either the student had not paid careful attention to his teacher or he had not thoroughly understood his teacher’s lesson.
In one college experiment, actors ran across the stage. One actor shot the other actor, who crumpled to the stage as the assailant ran away. After the scene, the students were asked to describe the weapon used by the assailant. The descriptions ranged from a shiny revolver to a huge pistol. When the instructor played a recording of the scene and paused it at the instant the victim fell to the stage, the assailant held a banana. All the witnesses focused on the victim as he fell to the stage, not on the weapon used. Writers claim that the weakest part of a trial is eyewitness testimony, as illustrated by the banana experiment.
In Mark’s Gospel, the disciples climbed a mountain with Jesus to pray. They fell asleep and awoke to see Jesus communing with Elijah and Moses, were then enveloped by a dense cloud, and heard a voice telling them that Jesus is the Son of God and they must hear him. Then Mark wrote, “And as they were coming down from the mountain, he commanded them that they should tell no one what they saw, except when the Son of Man has risen from the dead.” (Mark 9:9) Jesus often told witnesses not to broadcast what they saw. One obvious reason for Jesus’ command at this point was that the witnesses did not understand what they had seen, and there was no fact yet to back up their claim, i.e., the resurrection.
The disciples had been taught the rabbinic tradition throughout their lives that the Messiah would come in majesty, overthrow political rulers, and establish Jewish rule over the whole world—what Martin Luther called “the theology of glory.” They needed a major event to change their presuppositions, and that event would be the resurrection. Following the resurrection, as the confirmation of his mission, they were to reveal everything they had seen; more than that, they were to take the message to the entire world.
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