TO RISE ? Scripture lessons: 1 Kings 19,9-18 & Mark 9,2-10 Mark 9,10 10 And they kept the saying, questioning among themselves what the rising again from the dead should mean. It is not without reason that in the 40 days before Easter we are confronted with the fact that following Jesus has nothing to to with "Onward Christian soldiers". On their way to Jerusalem the disciples did not march like crusaders. They don't have a complete series of doctrines which tell them exactly why everything happens like it does. Sure, they know why they follow Jesus. He speaks with authority. In His neighbourhood they feel accepted and the flame of hope in their hearts is kindled: the Kingdom of God shall soon break through! They go to Jerusalem, the city of which the prophets say that once it shall be the place from which the Law of the Lord shall proceed and to which the nations shall come and make peace. And when they hear Jesus' teachings and see the deliverance He brings, the Kingdom really seems to be at hand! But at the same time it brings questions into your life when you follow Jesus. Luther rightly said: "Faith is a unstable thing". Tthat's what the prophet Elijah experienced already. After a tremendous revelation of God on mount Carmel, where he stood without fear and mocked the false gods and killed the pagan priests, we find him in the desert without confidence or faith. His life has come to a dead end and he does not know how to go on. That's the same what happened to another ‘hero of the faith', Moses, mentioned in Mark 9. And at that time, when life has come to a dead end, God speaks! Not in the thunder or the powers of nature, but with a ‘silent voice'. In breakable silence God is speaking. Moses nor Elijah do see Him, for "believe cometh of hearing". The Voice of God is essential for Israel's religion. We cannot stay bystanders, for God is speaking to us as partners in His covenant. We are called. We receive a commission. The person who learns to know God, learns to know himself. Left to himself a person is nowhere and we do not find ‘sense' or ‘meaning' in everything that is absorbed by our senses. But there is the Voice in the breakable silence who calls Elijah and gives his live new meaning and future. It is for that Voice that we wait these forty days to Easter. We wait for resurrection, for the dead to rise, but we don't know what it is! The congregation in Rome, to which Marc wrote, did not know it either. In the culture of Rome ‘resurrection' was an unknown category. They wished to be delivered of their body. Resurrection was nonsense in Greek-Roman ears, for the soul was the only thing that mattered. But also in the church of Christ, founded on the Law and the Prophets, resurrection stays a lifelong question. The gospel of Marc is written in the shadow of impending persecutions. The Kingdom, come near in Jesus, did not manifest itself fully. People are still dying, the powers seem unhindered. "How shall we fulfill/what has to endure for ages/to be a human/ who has to die? We are eagerly waiting/ till everything shall be fulfilled. (Dutch Hymnal LvK 489:6) And now Marc tells to the church in Rome the old story he probably heard from Peter himself. After Peter had protested, when Jesus spoke about the way He had to go to Jerusalem, about suffering, death and resurrection. Peter was blind and deaf for the things Jesus spoke about. And therefore Peter began to rebuke Jesus, for suffering and death did not fit into His picture of the Messiah. For Peter "Resurrection" was the glorious renewal of Israel, like the prophet Ezechiel wrote about it. Freedom from oppression. And then we hear that Jesus goes up the mountain. A mountain is a place to meet God. We may think of Abraham, Moses and Elijah. He takes three close friends with Him: Peter, John and James. They were the first ones Jesus called. They were there when Talitha was resurrected from the sleep of death. And they are the ones who, at the critical moment, appear to be sleeping when Jesus needs them in the garden of Gethsemane. At the mountain the transformation takes place, so that they see Jesus in the Easter glory and Moses and Elijah too. They are talking together. When we speak about the way of Jesus, that's the way of the Law, shown by (Moses) and the Prophets (Elijah) What they spoke about is not told by Marc. Luke tells in his version of what happened that they were speaking about the ‘exodus' that Jesus would fulfill in Jerusalem. An exodus from the powers of slavery and death, that's what the Scriptures testify of and Jesus listens to the Scriptures. And up till the present day we should do the same, for only in a ‘trialogue' with Law and Prophets we can stay near Jesus. Peter, who was asked nothing, answers and supposed to erect three boots. He wants to fix this mountain peak experience, this break through of God's Kingdom. And again he is a stumbling block on Jesus' way. And we can understand him quite well. Who does want to go the way of suffering and death? Then, Marc tells, there is the cloud that overshadows them, like the cloud in the dessert, during Israel's 40-years travel. And there is the Voice, which also spoke when Jesus was baptized in the Jordan-river. "This is my Son, my Beloved. Hear Him!"Listen to Jesus, He is calling us to the discipline of Law and Prophets. "Hear Israel!" - the basic creed of Israel. Hear the Word of the Lord, so that your dream - religious or political - does not become a stumbling block on Jesus' way. While they descent, Jesus forbids them to speak about what they have seen, before the Son of Man has risen from the dead. The disciples have to keep silent until they know what they are talking about. You can not talk about Easter and resurrection without have gone the way of the cross. In fact it is very pastoral what Marc is telling about the disciples: And they kept the saying, questioning among themselves what the rising again from the dead should mean. They are doing what the Voice told them. "Hear Him" and they kept the saying, His Word. They don't understand it, but they are questioning among themselves. To believe is not an lonely experience, but sharing a community that follows Jesus. Sticking to His words. To live with the resurrection before you - without understanding what it is. But resurrection is not a rational concept in Scripture, but revelation of God's faithfulness. To believe is to wait for the Voice that calls us into life. Sermon in the time before Easter.