Daily Lent Devotional: Mark 9

Reading: Mark 9
Thoughts by Dwain Evans

What a remarkable story Mark relates in this text. Paul said to the church at Philippi “though he was in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave.” And the Jesus that Peter, James and John knew was a man of poverty with no permanent home, who relied on the women who followed him for the food he ate.

This made the miracles he performed even more remarkable. When he calmed the tempest, they said, “Who then is this, that even the wind and sea obey him.” They were about to catch a glimpse as they climbed this high mountain by themselves. Suddenly, his clothes became “dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them.’ And Moses, the great lawgiver and Elijah, the greatest of the prophets appeared, talking with Jesus.

It was a time to keep quiet, but Peter had a proposal. He was interrupted by a cloud and a voice from the cloud, “This is my Son, the Beloved: listen to him.” Moses and Elijah were gone, and they stood there with Jesus alone. Everything was changed. No longer the son of a poor peasant family, but the very Son of God!

And when we read this story, we too are changed!