“as they were coming down the mountain”

Matthew 17:9-13

And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” And the disciples asked him, “Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?” He answered, “Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.” Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist.

Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone (Vol. 2)

John the Baptist hadn’t come to blast everyone into shape with celestial thunderbolts. He was a voice, warning of what was to come, but himself dying under the weight of the evil he had denounced. Jesus hadn’t come to sweep all before him with a blaze of power. He had come to bring God’s kingdom of love and power, and the way to that kingdom lay down the road of suffering.

The timetable of what God is doing in the world is going ahead. If we want to play out part in it, we must follow where Jesus himself leads: along the way of the cross, of self-renunciation and service. After all, the most important event in the timetable has already occurred. Jesus himself was raised from the dead, the secret is out, and all of history is now bathed in that Easter light. Our task is to help find our own role and vocation in following him and helping that light to shine throughout the world (18-9).

A. Orendorff

The default setting of my heart is “justification by self.” At a very fundamental level, though I profess to believe the gospel way of justification by faith, I instead operate on the principle: I am what I am (no more, no less). Such a setting inevitably leads to feelings of insecurity, instability, incompetence and fear. If I am what I am then I’m the one responsible to make something of myself. In religious language: I better get out and make a dent for the kingdom.

In gospel terms, however, my life is now hidden with Christ in God. Christ is my life. Jesus is raised. Death has been (for all of its bark and bite) subverted. My aim, therefore, is not to lead, but to follow. To go, as Wright says, “along the way of the cross, of self-renunciation and service.” There is real freedom, in this, knowing that I am not responsible to make something of myself, but only to follow.

My goal is not to lead people up and down the mountain, but to see myself with the disciples following Christ, being led by Christ, walking in the wake of His cross and resurrection.