I don’t know how they used to do it. I don’t know how husbands knew what they needed to bring home when their wives sent them to the store to just “pick up a few things.” I suppose in the past, grocery stores didn’t have quite so many options as they do today, but still, the number of choices provided for just about any product in any aisle is paralyzing. Thank goodness for phones that can snap a quick picture and send it to the wife to confirm the correct item! Otherwise, it might be virtually impossible to be able to determine exactly which brand/size/style of any given product is needed.
God has not left us with so many options when it comes to determining the Savior we need. There is just one, and we are not left guessing who he is. For on that day, on that mountain, the three disciples with Jesus knew he was the Savior they need. “There he was transfigured before them” (v.2b). This was not natural. This was not normal. This was an other-worldly glory, a supernatural experience, a divine glory, if even only a taste! Then the Father verified Jesus with his own verbal stamp of approval. That means there are no guessing games to play. There is no possibility of a mix-up or a switcharoo. “Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” (v.7). The Father spoke! He expressed his love and confirmed Jesus as his Son and Savior we need!
If these words of the Father sound familiar, it’s because we focused on them not too long ago in our Bounce Back series at Jesus’ baptism. Almost identical words were spoken by the Father to Jesus at that time, at the beginning of his ministry. Here they are again, like bookends, demonstrating the Father’s satisfaction with every detail of Jesus’ life and ministry. So these words validate Jesus. They speak of the Father’s approval. He is the Savior we need.
We talked last Sunday about the challenge we face in distinguishing wants from needs, and how that can spill over into the perception we have of Jesus – is he the Savior we want or the Savior we need? He surely did not come to limit himself on such a small scale as merely meeting our wants. His primary goal is not our short-lived worldly happiness, but our eternal heavenly joy. So finding the perfect mate, landing the ideal job, and hitting full stride in your health are not real high on his to-do list for us if he is not yet very high on our to-do list. Recall what was stated last Sunday about the danger of placing our wants ahead of our needs: when we pursue happiness first and Jesus second, we get neither; when we pursue Jesus first and happiness second, we get both. When you don’t seem to have the things you want to bring you happiness, perhaps it isn’t the lack of those things that is the cause of your unhappiness, but rather that you’re looking for happiness in the wrong place.
We can find true happiness in the Savior we need. There are two elements to consider when wrestling with Jesus being the Savior we need. The first is Jesus – is he, as opposed to someone or something else, what we need? Does he meet the criteria of what is needed? We need a Savior who could meet both divine and human requirements, Son of Man and Son of God, one bound by the law who could also keep the law in our place, one who could die and yet whose divine death could be counted sufficient for all. We needed a Savior would not stay dead and let death have the last word. We needed a Savior who could flawlessly fit every single prophetic foretelling that God provided centuries ahead of time. Only one fits all of this criteria, meaning Jesus alone can serve as the Savior we need.
But the other element to consider is our own personal perspective: do we realize that we really need him? “Yes, of course!” you say. Let me ask you why. Why do you need Jesus? I don’t mean “you” collectively, as in a whole group, but rather “you” individually. And no, I’m not going to let you off the hook with the general sentiment, “Well, I’m a sinner, and sinners need forgiveness, so I need Jesus.” That’s nice. “Yes, we’re all sinners who need Jesus, so let’s gather every week to hear about general sin and general forgiveness for sinners that Jesus came to offer and then we’ll be on our merry way for another week.”
But what is it that makes you a sinner? What sin? “Oh no, pastor, we don’t bother going there. We don’t get into the details, because that’s nobody’s business. We don’t get specific, because doing so might cause me to feel… guilty.” And that’s the cardinal sin of our day, isn’t it – making someone else feel guilty for something? Society – and not just society, mind you, but more and more even voices within the church itself – refuse to let anyone get away with making someone else feel guilty.
Have we considered, though, that others can’t make us feel guilty – at least not a godly guilt that leads to repentance? We have become accustomed to terms like shaming and bullying. Real and reprehensible as these can be in certain contexts, we have slipped into casually using them interchangeably with guilt and the idea that we can make someone else feel guilty. We’ve put the burden of guilt on the other person instead of ourselves in cases where we’ve actually done or said something wrong. In so doing, we’ve essentially freed ourselves from ever having to feel guilt!
But guilt is an internal feeling that comes from our awareness of either not doing something we know we should do, or doing something we know we shouldn’t be doing. If someone else points out something I have done or have not done on the basis of God’s Word and I feel guilty about it, good! Thank God! The law has done its work and accused me, convicted me, condemned me, and the result is an overwhelming sense of guilt. That only means you realize that your sin is real and that it really troubles you. Good – it should! Sin isn’t some mere slip-up or whoopsie that is relatively harmless; it is damning!
If we avoid guilt or treat it like some untouchable disease or some unspeakable trauma which no one should ever have to experience, then here’s the bigger question: where does that leave grace? What need of grace do we have if there is no real guilt from real sin that I’ve really committed that really condemns me before a real God who is righteous and holy and has at his disposal the ability to cast me to a real hell forever? If none of that is real, then grace might as well be a mythical unicorn or Bigfoot that is fun and fascinating, but which has no basis in reality! But if all of it is real – which it is! – then we absolutely need grace to be real, too, for there is no acceptable alternative that can ever bail us out of hell.
So the Father showed the disciples that grace is real by showing that Jesus is really his Son, and therefore, really our Savior. See how real guilt and real grace collided in Peter’s reaction to this mountain top experience. “Peter 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.” (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)” (v.5-6). He was terrified, yet wanted to stay! In the presence of perfect holiness, guilt is exposed. To know Jesus as our Judge is terrifying! We want to get as far away as possible from his presence! But to know that grace is the standard by which he judges removes that terror. So we find ourselves never wanting to be far removed from the One whose calling card is grace, but to be closer and closer to him, for grace alone is the only sure and certain hope of forgiveness and salvation.
Mark even provides us with some bonus material to cement that grace! How else did Jesus prove himself to be the Savior we need? He reminded the disciples he was going to rise from the dead! He predicted it. He didn’t raise the possibility of it. He didn’t offer some conditional clause – if this, then that, then maybe I rise from the dead. He clearly claimed it! When giving the disciples direction on when it would be appropriate to share what they had seen, he told them to hold off “until the Son of Man had risen from the dead” (v.9).
And then he did it. He actually did it! Jesus rose from the dead! No, today may not be Easter Sunday – in fact, as we enter the season of Lent this Ash Wednesday, it is still six weeks away! Yet every Sunday, the day of the week on which Jesus rose, is Easter, because the resurrection is reality. Jesus rose from the dead and far surpassed the status of providing for our wants; he rather won what we need: the Father’s declaration that we are not guilty. The promise that forgiveness of sins is really his to offer, no strings attached. The promise that we, too, will rise again. The promise that there is a place for us in heaven.
So Jesus reinforced the reality of his resurrection to remind us why we need him. But why couldn’t the disciples tell anyone what they had seen? It may help us to reflect what happened after this incident. The disciples made a pretty convincing case that Jesus knew what he was doing when he told them to keep mum – they weren’t ready to explain it. How do we know? Jesus would again tell them he would be betrayed, suffer, die, and rise – and not only did they have no clue what he meant, but they were afraid to ask him (cf. Mk. 9:31ff). After that, they demonstrated their immaturity by bickering back and forth about who among the disciples was the greatest (cf. Mk. 9:33ff & 10:35ff). And then of course in Jesus’ moment of need he was double-crossed, denied, and deserted by his disciples. No, their own behavior would demonstrate quite well that they weren’t ready to explain to others the significance of what they had seen on that mountain that day.
But you are. You are able to tell others what you have seen because you know that the Jesus you need is the same Jesus they need. When you know about something that others need, it’s different than when it comes to your own wants. You may or may not tell others about finding the source of something you want, because you don’t know if they want it, too. But you know that Jesus is what they need, so you tell them where to find him. You tell them about how the Jesus they need is served in heaping helpings right here every Sunday. You tell them about how our kids have the Jesus they need woven into everything they learn at our school. You tell them what is so, so special about this place that you just don’t find elsewhere in the world – it’s Jesus, the Savior they need; the Savior we all need. From here, as we journey through the season of Lent, we see that Savior serve us as our Substitute, through his suffering and his sacrifice.