Matthew 17

Matthew 17:1-27

CHRIST S AND WHAT Matthew 17:1-27. (Compare Mark 9; Luke 9:28-43.)THE opening sentence of the seventeenth chapter of Matthew involves one of those New Testament inharmonies, over which critics and weak disciples so often and so seriously stumble, and with which they, in turn, pester the poor student’s immature mind. This, in fact, is a flagrant one! “And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, “And was transfigured before them: and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light”. With this, Mark also agrees (Mark 9:2-3); but Luke, the third Gospel says,“And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, He took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. “And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistering” (Luke 9:28-29). There is the manifest inharmony! “Six days” and “eight days” are not the same; and yet, the Fundamentalist insists upon a literal acceptance of the Word of God and defends its plenary, yea, even its verbal inspiration. How will he account for this conflict?As in other instances, so here, the whole difficulty vanishes under intelligent treatment. Matthew and Mark count the days intervening between the two events—six full Jewish days. Luke, on the other hand, reckons in the days of the events themselves and thereby adds two to the number; but, since they were not full days, Luke takes pains to hint that fact by saying “about eight days after these sayings”, and lo, the serious stumbling stone is removed and each of the three writers is found to be equally true to facts. What absurdity to even suggest that the four Gospels be four identical reports. That would be a waste of words, a thing of which the Spirit is not guilty; a needless duplication of accounts; a valueless procedure. Besides, it would immediately give to the critic the occasion of saying, “Three of these writers are mere plagiarists and were never inspired.” Some time ago, when the examination papers in one of my classes came to hand, I found an instance of duplicate answers—the same language was used in both. One of these students was bright and capable and the other far less so. My suspicions were instantly aroused that they had sat too close together in the testing-time and one had merely copied the other. The consequence was a discrediting of what would otherwise have been a valuable paper. It falls out, therefore, that the difference in the four records, instead of detracting from them, scientifically demonstrates both their occasion and competence. But, the stumbling stone out of the way, we proceed to the consideration of the chapter itself under three subjects: CHRIST’S . “And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, “And was transfigured before them; and His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light. “And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with Him. “Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if Thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. “While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye Him. “And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid. “And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid. “And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only. “And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead. “And His disciples asked Him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come? “And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things. “But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of Man suffer of them. “Then the disciples understood that He spake unto them of John the Baptist” (Matthew 17:1-13). The mountain-top was the scene of the transfiguration. Somewhere into the Hermon range, the Master and His three intimates wended their way. Luke tells us “to pray”. The mountain had a peculiar attraction for Christ! That fact is easily accounted for. It is impossible for some of us to conceive of Christ as lacking in any of the nobler sentiments and emotions.

We doubt not that His appreciation of scenery and His artistic sentiment were of the highest, and we say without hesitation that a mountain, at night, particularly when it is bathed in the silver rays of a full moon, stirs those emotions that answer to beauty and glory, as no earthly scene, save, possibly, a storm at sea.Again, the mountain presents the most ready and complete retreat to that absolute quietude and sense of God, which is essential to successful prayer.And yet again, the greater heights, the rarer and purer air of the mountain, are such symbols of Heaven itself, that Christ seemed always to feel that such brought Him nearer His Father’s house.A. J.

Gordon, commenting on Mark 6:46, “And when He had sent them away, He departed into a mountain to pray”, said, “They went to their respective homes—Christ into the mountain—the nearest earthly approach to His Heavenly home—the Father’s house.”Job, in his agony, cried, “Oh, that I knew where I might find Him! that I might come even to His seat! I would order my cause before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments” (Job 23:3-4). Christ knew where to find Him. Christ knew how to order His cause before Him. That’s why Christ went into the mount to pray.In that scene, Moses and Elias were His associates. They are the translated ones.

It would seem possible from the Old Testament records that Moses died; but we believe that Moses’ body did not see corruption, and that’s why “no man knoweth His sepulchre until this day”, and that, also, is the explanation of Jud 1:9, Michael’s contention with the devil about the body of Moses. These translated ones—Elijah changed, in the twinkling of an eye, from mortal to immortal, and caught up to the heavens, and Moses in the same short moment, from the dead to the living, are representatives of the Law and of the Prophets, as well as types of the two classes of saved who shall become the citizens of the kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:51-54).

It was, indeed, meet that these two should be interested in the decease which Christ was to accomplish at Jerusalem—a death to be followed by resurrection and translation—the prophecy of that experience for all sleeping saints, as suggested in 1 Corinthians 15:23, “Christ, the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His Coming”.If we, who are the followers of Christ, went more often into that rare atmosphere suggested by the mountain heights of holiness, and waited more often before God in prayer through the long night hours, then the more often for us earth and Heaven would meet and visitors from the latter would fellowship us and lend us sympathy and counsel and suggest to us that final fraternity unto which Heaven itself is appointed. We forget that we are “compassed about with a cloud of witnesses”, “the spirits of just men made perfect”. We forget that we can ascend “into Mt. Zion” and meet a part of the family of God, fresh from Heaven; and we forget that in such experiences and such hours God shall own us as His very own, as He did Jesus on some promontory of Hermon when He broke the silence of the starlit night to say, “This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”.Beloved, can we afford to abide forever in the streets? Can we afford to spend both our days and our nights on the plain? Can we afford to be concerned only with things that are of the earth and earthy?

Shall we go on living without high moments, holy communions, mountain-top experiences?Shall we be content to hear only the voice of men and the rumble of machinery, and never know a word from God? Would it not be better a thousand-fold to refuse some earthly call, to cease from some earthly ambition, to stop our ears to some voice of profit and appeal of finance and go in search of God, converting the very hours that others use for indolent slumber into a blessed tryst with Him?A prophetic truth of this translation is important.

This mountain-top experience had objectives and results beyond the elation of Christ and the amazement of waking disciples. Lately, with increasing frequency, He had referred to the decease which He must accomplish at Jerusalem; to the fact that He must meet a cruel death. The sorrow incited by that statement, the depression of spirit for disciples consequent upon it, can be readily comprehended. It is needful, therefore, for them to know the aftermath of that approaching tragedy. It is essential that they should see beyond death and the grave and know something of the resurrection; that they should look beyond the tragedy of the Cross and comprehend the coming glory.And yet, how difficult! In all His words hitherto, it seemed only to be a disastrous end—a mission destined to defeat—the only truly noble life the world had ever seen moving to a sudden and ignoble end.

But, there is always a beyond, and here God for a moment parts the veil to give them a passing glimpse of the same, and comforts their breaking hearts with a hint of the coming glory.They poorly comprehended the truth that night, but its greater fullness grew upon them in the days that followed. John will tell you of it.

It made upon him so profound an impression that no sooner does he begin to write a Gospel than he straightway refers to it and makes it the very foundation of his faith in, and the adequate defence of, the Deity of Christ. “We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14)Peter refers to it and eloquently says,“We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. “For He received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to Him from the excellent glory, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. “And this voice which came from Heaven we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount” (2 Peter 1:16-18). The blasphemy of modernism has recently voiced itself in an attempt to explain this incident on the ground that it was a moonlight night and that these men suddenly awakened out of sleep, looked on Jesus and saw the reflection of the moon on His garments and believed Him to be glorified.Such an explanation is an end of the Gospels. Such an explanation makes the words “This is My beloved Son” to be without occasion, and, doubtless, such would deny that they were ever spoken. Such an explanation seeks to strip Christ of the very glory these disciples beheld, and its motive is not far to seek. They will not have His Deity. It was John who wrote,“Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:“And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world” (1 John 4:2-3).It is the same skepticism that seeks to explain verses 8-13, “And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only” etc. This revelation of His Deity reminded those disciples that Elias must precede the Christ, and now with this full revelation of His Deity before them, they wondered if prophecy had failed, or if it had found its fulfillment in the fact that Elias had appeared for a moment on the mount.

The answer of Jesus makes it clear that neither was true. The prophecy that Elias must first come (Mai. 4:5) was not sufficiently fulfilled in this brief visit; but prophecy on that account had not failed, for in John the Baptist that prophecy was perfectly fulfilled.

The Word of God standeth fast! Skepticism seeks to discredit all prophecy. A recent contribution to critical literature tells us that “prophecy, the crown and glory of Hebrew religion, was at home also in Syria, Assyria, and Egypt. It is gradually appearing that messianic prophecy had very close parallels in Assyria and Egypt, and it is by no means unlikely that the Messianism of Israel received some of its coloring and content from one or the other of these sources.” Alas, for the lengths to which skepticism carries its subjects! A revelation divested of prophetic evidence, and also of the supernatural—what is it worth? Modernism knows no God!But we turn from Christ’s transfiguration to the ’S .“And when they were come to the multitude, there came to Him a certain man, kneeling down to Him, and saying, “Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the wetter. “And I brought him to Thy disciples, and they could not cure him. “Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to Me. “And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour. “Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; arid it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. “Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. “And while they abode in Galilee, Jesus said unto them, The Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of men: “And they shall kill Him, and the third day He shall be raised again. And they were exceeding sorry” (Matthew 17:14-23). There might seem to be an incongruity between the record of the mountain scene and that recorded for the valley, a Divine transfiguration in the first and a demonic domination in the second. But such is the difference, yea, even the contrast, as we move upward or downward, Heavenward or earthward. It was this fact, also, that accounts for Christ’s quitting Heaven to come to earth. The former meant glory and honor; the latter meant degradation and sorrow. But, blessed be God, the former holds panacea for the latter. “Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal.” One reason, therefore, why we should touch Heaven oftener is that we might bring down to earth its medicaments. One reason why we should go into the mount is that we might get strength with which to deal with valley problems.But, I cannot pass this instance of demonic domination without a few reflections upon its outstanding features.This lad was his father’s burden, “There came to him a certain man”.

A few nights ago, we were treating of “a certain woman” whose daughter was vexed, and who came out of Syro-Phoenicia to cry after Him, “Lord, help me”. In that incident, we saw how a mother so far identified herself with her child that the suffering of the first was the absolute agony of the second.

In this instance, we see a father’s heart. This son may have had no mother. She may have been sleeping in her grave, or, as is possible, she may have been alive, but without those maternal instincts that characterize most women. There are many instances in which the man of the house is both father and mother. His strong hand provides all family necessities, and his tender heart responds to every child-cry and beats in sympathy with every weak one. Perhaps the greatest character is that man who has all the rugged strength of masculinity, and all the tender sensibilities of femininity, and such men live. I know them. I have walked with them; I have talked with them; I have watched them at their work; I have seen them when they wept.

It’s a great combination. Whoever read this story without falling in love with this man—a man who pathetically reported the lunacy of his child, the epileptic fits that flung him into fire and water and that made him a care by day and by night; the subject of incessant prayers and the object of unutterable longing!But I note in the ongoing ScriptureThe impotence of the church. “I brought him to Thy disciples, and they could not cure him”. How modern that sounds! How like what took place yesterday! How true to the facts of today! How few churches there are in all the world that even attempt any more to do the very thing for which the church was commissioned! “As you go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils, freely ye have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:7-8).I know our excuses! “This commission was only given for apostolic times!” Then, is it all over? Is there no obligation upon us “to preach”, to declare, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”?

The answer is “No, that portion obtains, but the rest of the sentence is out of date!” How strange an exegesis, to cleave a sentence at its middle, keep the portion that suits us and fling away that for which, by our unfaith, we have no fitness.True disciples, yea, even Apostles of the true faith, are not proof against unbelief. The very Apostles who received that commission originally, succeeded at certain times but signally failed at others. We cannot expect perfection of faith from men; but neither are we to seek to justify our unbelief by false interpretations of God’s Word, or by calling into question the genuineness of God’s promises.I have prayed for many a man who was not healed, and a while ago one asked me, “Do you consider it, then, a reflection on your faith when such failures come?” to which I answered, “Yes, very likely; infinitely better reflect on my faith than on the verity of God’s Word.” Ten thousand times, unbelief has balked the Divine purposes and paralyzed human powers, but never yet has it occurred, nor in all the time to come will it be so, that “one jot or tittle of all that God hath spoken, has failed”.Watch the man with the perfect faith. “Bring him hither to Me”. What a sentence! What absolute self-confidence! What unthinkable self-assertion!

Who talks after this manner? He who knew “all power in Heaven and on earth is given unto Me”.

Hear His word as He rebukes the devil, and watch the results as that demon departs out of him, and witness the joy of that father and of sympathetic friends when the child was cured. It is a marvel that God does so much for us in view of the fact that our faith is less than a mustard seed. It is a marvel that God answers so often when we remember how spasmodic is our prayer; how seldom we fast and how superficially we care. There is but one thing in the universe that paralyzes the power of God Himself, and that is unbelief. Of Christ, it was said concerning one place visited, “And He did there no mighty works because of their unbelief”. There are churches by the hundreds in which no people ever assemble to pray for the sick; churches by the hundreds in which no single member believes in Divine healing, or even imagines that God is able and willing, in this day and hour, to dispossess of demons, to recover from lunacy, to rebuke fevers, cause the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, or raise the dead.A careful study will reveal the fact, also, that in proportion as churches dispute this phase of Divine power, they also call into question God’s ability to save, and seldom see a man or a woman turn from iniquity to righteousness, and from the power of Satan to the service of God. It is the candid conviction of this writer, at least, that “Christ is the same yesterday, and to day and for ever”, and that “God’s promises are yea and amen in Him”, and that between the Divine demands laid upon the Church of the first century, and the Church of the twentieth century, there is no difference.But, we conclude with the exasperating portion of the seventeenth chapter:THE MASTER’S . “And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your Master pay tribute? “He saith, Yes I And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? “Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free. “Notwithstanding lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for Me and thee” (Matthew 17:24-27). In passing from the first to the second section in this study, we noted the descent from a Divine transfiguration to a demoniac domination. In coming to the consideration of this third section we can imagine the exasperation. To be owned of God as His Son in one moment, and to find oneself in conflict with demons the next, though it be a natural sequence, is none the less a trying one, but scarcely more so than to be owned as God’s Son and clothed with glory from Heaven in one hour and face greedy and exasperating tax-gatherers in the next. For, of the trials incident to life, there are few that have so annoyed humanity as the existence of tax-gatherers, and such has been their industry that even the Son of God Himself, who owned nothing and “had not where to lay His head”, could not escape them.In the tax-gathering business, there are naturally warring elements. The average man is indisposed to taxation, even when it is just. He never sees the machinery of State government; and, as a rule, he knows little or nothing of the workings of city administration, and he cannot fully comprehend the enormous necessary expenses of good government.

But when the machinery is out of order, as is so often the case, and unnecessary expenditures, greedy and even godless graft are found to be important items in government expenses, he observes upon that, and resents it, and reckons his taxation largely in consequence of dissembling and dishonesty.Beyond dispute, taxation in itself is just. States cannot be governed, cities cannot be controlled without expense to the protected and prospered.

But it is equally well established in the minds of thinking men that every dollar paid in taxation is compelled to make its contribution to political graft and official incompetence. It is on this account that tax-gatherers from the days of Matthew till now have been unpopular.In this instance the tax was unjustly claimed. It was the well-known custom of kings to exempt the members of the royal house; but those of other than royal blood uniformly paid the same.Jesus here defends His royalty. He claims to be the Son of God, the King over all, and hence exempt on the ground of that Sonship. But in this instance, as in all others, He who “thought it not robbery to be equal with God, took upon Himself the form of a servant” and yielded without argument to the demand. This He did without discussing the merits of the demand or the uses to which the money might be put.Mrs.

Jameson tells us that once when a large sum of money had been collected by Edward, King and Saint, for the tribute called Danegelt, it was conveyed to the palace, and the King was called to see it. At the sight thereof, He started back, exclaiming that he beheld a demon dancing upon the money and rejoicing.

Thereupon, he commanded that the gold should be restored to its owners and released his subjects from further grievous tribute.Doubtless, there is many a tax treasury that holds more than one little devil. In fact, it is questionable if there be any that do not hold a few—the devils of dishonesty, devils of excess, devils of political graft. Some of us who had considerable property in an adjoining state discovered that the men in that particular county, who made up the tax commission, assessed the improved portion in which they lived lightly, the unimproved portions owned by outsiders heavily, and used practically the entire income for building roads, school-houses and making other improvements for their own community, leaving those who bore the heavy end of the burden to give, but get nothing in turn.There are supposed to be tricks in all trades, but from time immemorial, the trickiest trade that earth has known has been the trade of the tax-gatherer.And yet Christ favored its payment. He waived His own right as the King’s son, brought Himself to the level of His companion and disciple, Peter, and sent him to secure the money with which to pay the shekel due for both. Christ was not a man who engaged in controversy when it could be easily escaped. Many are foolish wasters-of-words, and Christ was wise enough to know that to argue with tax-gatherers is, in nine cases out of ten, a waste of breath, and the one thing about Christ, as wonderful as were His miraculous works, or even the wisdom of His words, was the refusal to ever waste a one.In useless conversation or valueless argument, He never engaged.

When no great moral principle was involved, He silently surrendered, made the sacrifice essential to peace and passed His way. It is a fact full of suggestion, and the world would be saved a thousand wrangles, and men preserved against nerve exhaustion, and society would, in thousands of instances, cease from its seething if, in this matter, men more often copied their Christ.The money He miraculously provided.“Go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for Me and thee” (Matthew 17:27). I say, miraculously provided. Of course, I admit that that is not the only explanation. It is wholly possible that men in Christ’s day trolled as they do now, and it is absolutely certain, despite all the false claims of evolutionists, that fish in Christ’s day were exactly as fish are now. They would strike at the bright thing passing through water, and it is not beyond the possibilities, and even the probabilities that a hook baited with a half shekel might have been broken from a line and carried away; but such a supposition has far less in its favor than the simple fact of miracle-working upon the part of the man whose lightest wish wrought miraculous results.We leave men to reach their own conclusions in this matter, while accepting for ourselves “Christ as God, whose Word was with authority”. How can I question then? I have seen a woman lamed through a swiveled limb, and who, after lying upon a couch for many, many years, was touched by the finger of Divine love and in one moment made whole.

I know a girl who, from her tenth to her sixteenth year, suffered an absolute paralysis from the waist to the toes as a result of that frightful infantile affliction now so universally feared, raised instantly in answer to prayer, and from her sixteenth to her thirty-fifth year—this very year—has walked the earth in the miraculous strength received. I had a friend whose vision was blurred to practical blindness, but who in one moment was made to see with absolute clearness.But bigger miracles yet have I beheld. I have seen the lamed spirit made to leap. I have seen the blind soul made to see. I have seen the spiritually deaf ear made to hear. I have seen men, “dead in trespasses and in sins”, made to live.

I hold, therefore, Christ the miracle worker of twenty centuries ago as the Christ of this moment. His power declines in nothing!