Chapter # 9 Paragraph # 5 Study # 10
April 18, 2010
Lincolnton, NC
(609)
AV Translation:
36 And when the voice was past, Jesus was found alone. And they kept
it close, and told no man in those days any of those things which they had seen.
1901 ASV Translation:
36 And when the voice came, Jesus was found alone. And they held their peace, and told no man in those days any of the things which they had seen.
Luke's Record:
- I. The Final Declarations.
- A. This paragraph opened as a record of the fulfillment of Jesus' prophetic utterance that there were some of His disciples who would "see" the Kingdom of God before they "tasted of death". Now it closes with the statement that they told no one of what they had "seen".
- B. Luke is unique in his "omission" of what Matthew and Mark both record: Jesus said to tell the vision to no man until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead (Matthew 17:9 and Mark 9:9). John, unlike the other three "recorders of perspectives of Jesus", does not even mention this entire event.
- C. The "point" of "Jesus was found alone".
- 1. Luke clearly omitted telling Theophilus some of that which Matthew and Mark both told their readers (that the "silence" of the disciples was rooted in Jesus' command, and that this "silence" was enjoined until the resurrection of the Son of Man).
- 2. Thus we must conclude that Luke wanted his reader (Theophilus) to be undistracted from the one fact that he revealed -- that when the voice of the Father came out of the cloud, Jesus no longer had any "glorified associates" (Moses and Elijah) with Him.
- a. That the Father insisted that The Three "hear" His "chosen Son" is immensely important.
- b. There are two truths here that people blithely blow off...
- 1) That Jesus is the "chosen Son".
- a) It was Peter's "let's build three tabernacles" outburst that highlighted the need for the Father's "isolation/exaltation" of His "chosen Son".
- i. The outburst revealed how deeply Peter had amalgamated Jesus into a kind of "blended" reality in which Jesus was simply one of several who exist in the "upper world". There is no "problem" with treating Jesus as "one of many" if, in fact, that is what He is. However, if He actually exists as far above creation as the Creator invariably does, to put Him into the "one of many" mindset is an extremely problematic, governing, liability.
- ii. The fact is this: the "Life" of the Creator can only come from the Creator and any denigration of His uniqueness results in the degrading of the Life-quality and the fact is that men seldom see "Jesus alone".
- b) As such, He is the "revelation" of the Father in His true character.
- c) As such, there can be no deliberate, or even accidental, shelving of what He "reveals".
- i. Jesus never uttered a single syllable that was not ladened with Truth.
- ii. Acting as if the revelation of God by the Son is a "take-it-or-leave-it" kind of reality is simply to live in the regions of Death.
- 2) That what Jesus says is beyond crucial for any who would "Live".
- a) It is a fact that none of us can actually embrace everything Jesus said with equal fervency. We have neither the time, nor the frame, required of such "equality".
- b) However, there is a large distinction between the decisions people make in view of that reality.
- i. Some take the reality as an excuse for "despairing freedom" (since I cannot understand Him completely, I will make no effort to understand Him at all and go about "my" life as I see it).
- ii. Others take the reality as an invitation to "hopeful freedom" (since all that He says has life in it, what I do see as an expression of His Truth I will put into practice today, as I "hear His voice").
- c. There is one principle here that few, if any, embrace: Jesus, alone, is our Life.
- 1) We live, or die, by one reality: our connection to, and fellowship with, Jesus.
- 2) We either gradually ascend into Life by the constant affirmation of His "sole" identity as the Author of Life, or we continue to descend into the regions of Death by the insistent rejection of His uniqueness.
- 3) The reasons for the blindness.
- a) There does exist a significant confusion. Everyone knows, for instance, that if we are deprived of food and water, our bodies will die and Jesus is not food, nor water, for our bodies. Thus, we reason from the physical reality to the spiritual and die because we make no distinction between Reality and reality. As Creator, Jesus is food and water for our bodies because He is the Originator of all food and water. That His creation is an interdependency is not a "flaw"; that He requires physical bodies to eat and drink is not a "problem". There must, however, be a clear-eyed understanding that just because He is a Creator of intermediate agencies does not mean that His "Life" is rooted in those agencies. One can eat and drink and die. The only "life" that exists in the agents is that which He imparts through those agents. It is still His "Life" and the agents are merely "communicating instruments" through which the "Life" moves from Him to His creatures.
- b) There also exists a significant rebellion. Fear has been a constant companion for all men since the original break between God and Adam. It is this fear that creates all rebellion; the lack of trust demands that we retain control over what we see as the means of "life".