Mark 9:1-8
Clothes No One Could Have Bleached That White
1Then Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God arrive with power.”
2After six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James, and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There He was transfigured before them.
3His clothes became radiantly white, brighter than any launderer on earth could bleach them.
4And Elijah and Moses appeared before them, talking with Jesus.
5Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.”
6For they were all so terrified that Peter did not know what else to say.
7Then a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is My beloved Son. Listen to Him!”
8Suddenly, when they looked around, they saw no one with them except Jesus.
Berean Standard Bible
The first sentence of chapter nine finishes the conversation in chapter eight. Chapter breaks were put in long after Mark wrote, and the line about some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God arrive with power belongs with the talk of crosses and shame just before it. Readers have understood that sentence in more than one way for a very long time and the passage does not settle which is right, so we are leaving it open. What Mark puts next is easier to follow.
After six days.
Mark hardly ever dates anything. He says immediately over and over and six days later almost never, so the number is doing a job, and anybody raised on Moses would feel it. The cloud covered Sinai for six days, and on the seventh God called to Moses out of it.
Then a high mountain, three men taken up it, and Jesus changed in front of them. Mark reaches for the plainest terms he can find.
His clothes became radiantly white, brighter than any launderer on earth could bleach them.
He settles on laundry. It is the whitest thing he has to measure anything against, and he uses it rather than trying for something grander.
Elijah and Moses are there, talking with him. Those two, and not two others. Moses received the law on a mountain and came back down with his face shining. Elijah met God on a mountain and was taken up from the earth. The law and the prophets, on a mountain, in conversation with him.
Peter offers to put up three shelters, one for Jesus, one for Moses, one for Elijah. Mark tells us plainly why he said it.
For they were all so terrified that Peter did not know what else to say.
He is not being foolish. He is a frightened man filling a silence, which most of us have done in smaller rooms. But three shelters is an arithmetic, and the sum it makes is three equals.
The cloud comes down the way it came down on Sinai, and a voice out of it calls Jesus his beloved Son and tells the three of them to listen to him. The first half of that we heard at the baptism. The second half is a quotation, from the day Moses told Israel that God would raise up a prophet like him and that they were to listen to him. So the voice answers the suggestion about shelters. There are not three here to be listened to. There is one.
Suddenly, when they looked around, they saw no one with them except Jesus.
How We Know
Mark opens with a date, which is unusual for him. After six days. Exodus 24:16 has the glory of the LORD settle on Sinai, the cloud cover it for six days, and God call to Moses out of the cloud on the seventh.
The rest of the scene keeps pace with that. A mountain, a cloud, a voice from inside the cloud, and Moses himself standing there.
The correspondence supports Mark building this as a deliberate answer to Sinai, and it explains a detail that otherwise does nothing: he counts the days because the older account counts them.
Questions
1 Mark hardly ever tells us how long anything took. What older account is he putting us in mind of with six days?
AnswerMoses going up Sinai. The cloud covered the mountain for six days, and God called to him out of it on the seventh. Mark counts the days because the older account counted them.
2 How does Mark get across how white the clothes were?
AnswerWhiter than any launderer on earth could bleach them. He reaches for laundry, because it is the whitest thing he has to compare anything with.
3 Peter says the first thing that comes into his head because he is frightened. When has that happened to somebody at this table, and how did it turn out?
AnswerMark is kind about it. He gives us the reason before we get a chance to think less of Peter for it, which is a habit worth copying at home.
4 What does Peter suggest, and how does the voice from the cloud answer him?
AnswerThree shelters, one each, as though the three of them stood level with each other. The voice names Jesus as his beloved Son and tells them to listen to him. Then Moses and Elijah are gone and only Jesus is left.
What This Means for Us
Peter talked because he was frightened, and Mark says so without embarrassment.
Being scared and saying the wrong thing is not treated here as a failure of character. It is treated as what happens to people. Mark gives the reason so that we will not be too hard on Peter, and so that we will not be too hard on ourselves either. The correction, when it comes, is not aimed at his fear at all. It is aimed at his arithmetic.
There is probably something in your life you are holding level with Jesus. Not against him. Level with him, as an equal, with a shelter of its own. Name it, and then listen to him.
Prayer
Father, thank you that you did not scold Peter for being frightened, and thank you that you told him the truth anyway. We keep building extra shelters. Show us what we have set beside your Son, and teach us to listen to him. Amen.