Mark 9: Who Is Yeshua?

Yeshua is the Most Important Man Who Ever Lived. The Most Important Man brought the world the Most Important Message, a message that must be believed for human beings, who are alienated from God and headed to Hell, to be reconciled to their Creator and live forever. Everything Messiah did, everything He said, every interaction with others that has been recorded for us in the divinely inspired book of Mark, is extremely important. We want to understand as much as we can about the Most Important Man and His Most Important Message.

Yeshua had asked His disciples who people were saying He was. Then He asked them this very important question: Who do you say that I am? Peter responded that He was the Messiah. Yeshua agreed, but started teaching them that He would be a different kind of Messiah than virtually everyone in Israel was expecting. He would be the Isaiah 53 Messiah, the Messiah of the first coming who would be rejected, suffer and die; but He would also the Messiah who would rise from death.

Although unclear to virtually everyone else, it was clear to Yeshua that He would come to Earth twice, the first time to suffer, die and rise, and the second time as the glorious King, taking control of the planet and ruling it with justice and covering it with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. Here Yeshua reinforces that teaching so that His disciples would understand His two radically different arrivals on Earth. And He said to them, “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power.” What He meant by this was that some of them would see Him, as He will be in the future, the glorious King Messiah of the second coming.

After six days Yeshua took Peter, James and John with Him (His inner circle, showing us that even great groups of leaders like the 12 apostles can benefit by a smaller group of especially blessed leaders) and led them up a high mountain (mountains communicate closeness to Heaven. Think of God coming down on Mount Sinai. Think of Moses on Mount Sinai. Think of the face of Moses radiating the glory of God after he came down Sinai) where they were all alone. There He was transfigured (transformed) before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. White is the color of purity, and this white was dazzling white – indicating absolute purity.

And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses (two of Israel’s greatest spiritual heros), who were talking with Yeshua. Peter said to Yeshua, “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.) After Peter said something irrelevant, then Someone Greater said something extremely relevant. Then a cloud appeared and covered them (clouds are associated with the mysterious presence of the God who is too great to be seen by the eyes of fallen man), and a voice came from the cloud: “This is My Son, whom I love. Listen to Him!” Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Yeshua.

Who is Yeshua? The future glorious King Messiah.

Someone who is kadosh, kadosh, kadosh: absolutely pure, holy, beyond the purity of anyone on Earth. Someone who wants us to be kadosh.

Someone who is greater than Moses, as the sun is greater than the moon. The face of Moses shone with reflected light while the entire body of Messiah emanated a light that came from within.

Someone who is familiar with Moses, the author of the Torah, and with Elijah, the great and courageous miracle-working prophet who never died.

Someone who wants us to be so familiar with Moses and Elijah and all the divinely inspired prophets, it’s as if we are able to converse with them.

Who is Yeshua? The Son of God. Fully divine. Sharing the nature of divinity. Eternal. Uncreated. Equal to God the Father in nature; distinct from the Father as a Person; subject to the authority of the Father.

Someone whom God the Father declares to be the Son He loves – which means if we truly love the Father, we will love the Son He loves. If we don’t love the Son whom God loves, we really do not love God.

Who is Yeshua? Someone whom the Father commands us to listen to – which means we must know Yeshua’s teachings.

Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Yeshua. Yeshua is Someone whom God the Father wants us to focus our attention on – even more than on Moses and Elijah. We don’t reject Moses, Elijah and the prophets. We don’t ignore them; we are to be so familiar with them that we are able to talk to them, but they fade in comparison to the glorious Son of God, who must become the focus of our attention, our love, our devotion.

As they were coming down the mountain, Yeshua gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. As we have seen, the spiritual eyes of Israel were closed regarding the two comings of the Messiah – so for Peter, James and John to reveal Yeshua’s transformation into the glorious King Messiah would have only added to the confusion about His first coming to be the suffering, dying and rising Messiah.

Again, in spite of Yeshua’s repeated teaching on this subject, the disciples still didn’t understand that He had to die and be resurrected. They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.

And they also weren’t clear about the identity of the forerunner of the Messiah. And they asked Him, “Why do the Torah-teachers say that Elijah must come first?” Yeshua replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. The Torah-teachers were right. From revelation like the one given to Malachi, they understood that Elijah, the prophet who never died, would return as Messiah’s forerunner and he would prepare Israel for the arrival of the glorious King Messiah.

But if Elijah will come to prepare the way for the glorious King Messiah, that raises another question, which Yeshua asked: Why then is it written that the Son of Man must suffer much and be rejected? Yeshua wanted His disciples to consider the prophecies about the suffering Messiah like Isaiah 53. How were they to be explained? Yeshua answered His own question: But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.”

Here’s what He is saying: I will arrive twice. For each arrival, there is a forerunner to prepare the Chosen People for My arrival, and the nature of the forerunner fits the nature of the arrival. Elijah is the forerunner of the second coming, and Elijah will come with power as I will arrive with power and glory.

John was the Elijah, the forerunner of the first coming, and was mistreated and killed – just as I, the Messiah of the first coming, will be mistreated and killed.

When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as all the people saw Yeshua, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet Him. “What are you arguing with them about?” He asked. A man in the crowd answered, “Rabbi, I brought You my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. Demons have an agenda. They want to harm us, diminish our abilities, make us less human, and eventually kill us. I asked Your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.” “You unbelieving generation,” Yeshua replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to Me.” Yeshua is Someone who expects faith from His followers and is annoyed and frustrated when we don’t have the confidence and loyalty that we should – which means that we need to constantly build ourselves up in faith – by getting close to God and staying close to God; by practicing the spiritual disciples like reading the Bible, talking to God on a continual basis, being an active member of a local community of Messiah’s followers, and by telling others the Good News about Messiah.

Yeshua is Someone who is greater than His disciples, even His best leaders. So, if the leaders of Messiah’s Community fail you, don’t give up your faith. Know that Messiah is greater than His disciples and is able to help you if they can’t. So they brought him. When the spirit saw Yeshua, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. Yeshua asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?” “From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” “‘If you can’?” said Yeshua. “Everything is possible for one who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

Yeshua is Someone who responds to our faith, our knowledge of who He is and what He is capable of doing; and He is capable of doing a lot! Everything is possible for one who believes.

I love the response of this father to Messiah. “Yeshua, I acknowledge the truth of what You are telling me. I believe. I have some knowledge about You and have some faith in You and in God. But I am aware that I am lacking all the confidence and knowledge I should have. Help me overcome my unbelief.” That’s a great response, a humble response, a response of someone who knows he is poor in spirit. It is a response that applies to all of us. And it was a response that enabled the power of God to be unleashed.

When Yeshua saw that a crowd was running to the scene (and again, Yeshua is Someone who did not do miracles to impress the crowds, to cater to their desire to be entertained by miracles; He did miracles to serve God and to benefit the individual who needed help), He rebuked the impure spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” He said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, “He’s dead.” But Yeshua took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up. When we are freed from the demonic, people can initially seem to be worse than they were before. Knowing this, don’t promise anyone that if they commit themselves to follow Yeshua, their lives will immediately get better. In some ways their lives might get worse. Being restored to what might be considered a normal life might take some time. But no matter how much time, it’s always worth it to leave the kingdom of darkness and follow Messiah.

Humanity is a lot like this child – possessed by impure spirits in our childhood, controlled by demons who are trying to harm us, diminish the image of God in us and kill us. But Yeshua is greater than the demons and can take us by the hand, when we have faith in Him, and lift us up and restore us to spiritual health so we can become everything God intended us to be.

After Yeshua had gone indoors, His disciples asked Him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer” –which tells us that there are demons who are more powerful than other demons, but even those more powerful demons can be overcome by Messiah’s followers, but only by more intensely focused prayer.

Yeshua was now concentrating His ministry on the future leaders of His Community, teaching them about His two arrivals on Earth, and about the rejection, suffering and death that He would shortly experience – along with His resurrection. They left that place and passed through Galilee. Yeshua did not want anyone to know where they were, because He was teaching His disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill Him, and after three days He will rise.” Again Mark informs us about the inability of the disciples to grasp Messiah’s teaching about the nature of His first coming: But they did not understand what He meant and were afraid to ask Him about it.

To make matters worse, as Yeshua is focusing them on His rejection, suffering and death, they are focused on themselves and their honor, their position, their power. They came to Capernaum. When He was in the house, He asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Like chickens, humans have a pecking order. We are constantly trying to advance ourselves in the human pecking order by comparing ourselves to others: who is smarter, stronger, richer, more accomplished.

Yeshua is Someone who does not want that kind of pride to have a place among His followers.

Sitting down, Yeshua called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” Who is Yeshua? The Son of God and the glorious King Messiah who will rule over humanity; the Supreme Leader; and yet He is a great servant. He is committed to always serving His Father; and He also serves us, sacrificing His personal interests for us. And He wants us to be like Him – humble servant-leaders who are not thinking of advancing ourselves, but advancing others.

Yeshua is Someone who wants us to treat each of His followers with honor and respect – not try to diminish their worth so that we can be seen as greater than they are.

He is Someone who wants us to treat, not just those greater than we are, with honor and respect; He wants us to treat all of His followers, even the youngest and least gifted, with honor and with respect. He took a little child whom He placed among them. Taking the child in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me does not welcome Me but the one who sent Me.”

Messiah loves every one of His disciples. Yeshua is connected to each of His disciples. Each Yeshua-follower is made in the image of God and has tremendous inherent worth. Each child of God will be a future king or queen and will live forever. So, to welcome any of Yeshua’s followers, even the least gifted, because Messiah is connected them, is to welcome Yeshua; and to welcome Yeshua, because He is connected to God the Father, is to welcome God. And God blesses all those who welcome Him.

Yeshua wants us to honor all of His followers – the youngest, the least gifted, even those who may not be a recognized member of His Community – as this next incident tells us. “Rabbi,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in Your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” This man had faith in Yeshua; and God was allowing him to do miracles, yet John and the other leaders were not familiar with him; the man was not part of Messiah’s authority-structure. The disciples were concerned and incorrectly told him to stop. “Do not stop him,” Yeshua said. “For no one who does a miracle in My name can in the next moment say anything bad about Me, for whoever is not against us is for us.”

Just as the disciples were to welcome and value the least gifted follower of Messiah, they were to welcome and value the one who may not be recognized by the faith community – but moving in the direction of faith and serving the Lord. He should be treated like a friend and ally.

He might be a new believer whose understanding is imperfect. He might not know that Messiah has an authority structure for His Community, with God-ordained leaders who have real spiritual authority. He might not yet understand the need to submit to apostles, prophets, pastors, teachers and evangelists. Don’t quench his zeal for God. Don’t discourage his faith.

Every child of God, who has genuine faith and is trying to serve the Lord, no matter how young or inexperienced he may be; and even though he may be ignorant about some things, is to be nurtured and encouraged. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in My name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward. And the opposite is true: If anyone causes one of these little ones – those who believe in Me – to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea.

Yeshua is Someone who wants to us to appreciate, nurture and encourage everyone who is moving in His direction, moving from unbelief toward belief; Yeshua is Someone who wants to us to appreciate, nurture and encourage all of His followers, especially the youngest, the newest, the least gifted, and not discourage them or harm their spiritual life.

Yeshua is Someone who knows that faith and spiritual life can be fragile. It can be easily damaged. He wants us to be very careful not to trample on a little plant; not knock over a bruised reed; not blow out the flame of a dimly burning wick. Causing someone to stumble, to fall away from God, to lose faith is a very serious sin, with the most serious consequences.

The world is not aware of the sin of damaging a person’s faith in Yeshua. The world is hardly aware of the reality of sin, or the awfulness of sin, or the deadly consequence of leaving this world with your sins unatoned for. Yeshua is Someone who wants us to know the reality of sin, and the fatal, eternal consequences of sin; and He wants us to take the most radical actions to stop sinning. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life (eternal life) maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if the fire never goes out, you can be sure that it will burn up everything in it.

And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where ‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched’ – a quote from Isaiah, indicating that whatever remains of the lives of those who are sent to hell will be completely consumed.

Everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other. Everyone will experience the fiery, salty, purifying judgment of an infinitely holy God. All thoughts, attitudes, words, actions and inactions will be weighed by a God who is a consuming fire and then will be rewarded or punished with eternal life or destruction in Hell. Don’t wait for that day to eliminate the sin from your life!

Yeshua is Someone who wants His followers to be salty – something that gives good taste; something that preserves, something that cleanses. Be salty. Be righteous. Be holy. Be pure. Be full of faith. Get the sin out of your life. It is so much far better to do that now, willingly, rather than experience the salty, fiery judgment of God.

Yeshua doesn’t want us to be proud, self-seeking, self-advancing, dishonoring others, discouraging their faith, but instead to be humble, gracious, serving the ones around us – especially the young, the weak, the less gifted. That will enable us to be at peace with one another.

Who is Yeshua according to this divinely inspired chapter of Mark?

The future glorious King Messiah.

Yeshua is Someone who is beyond the purity of anyone on Earth. Someone who wants us to be pure.

Yeshua is Someone who is greater than Moses, as the sun is greater than the moon.

Yeshua is Someone who is familiar with Moses and Elijah, and who wants us to be so familiar with Moses and the prophets that it’s as if we are able to converse with them.

Yeshua is The Son of God. Fully divine. Equal to God the Father in nature; distinct from the Father as a Person; subject to the authority of the Father.

Yeshua is Someone whom God the Father declares to be the Son He loves – which means if we truly love the Father, we will love the Son He loves.

Yeshua is Someone whom the Father commands us to listen to – which means we must know Yeshua’s teachings.

Yeshua is Someone whom God the Father wants us to focus our attention on – even more than on Moses and Elijah.

Who is Yeshua? The Messiah who will come to Earth twice – the first time as the Isaiah 53 Messiah, and the second time as the glorious King Messiah.

Yeshua is Someone who responds to our faith, our knowledge of who He is and what He is capable of doing.

Yeshua is Someone who expects faith from His followers and is annoyed when we don’t have the confidence in Him that we should – which means that we need to constantly build ourselves up in faith.

Yeshua is Someone who is greater than His disciples, even His best leaders.

Yeshua is Someone who did not do miracles to impress the crowds, to cater to their desire to be entertained by miracles; He did miracles to serve God and to benefit the individual who needed help.

Yeshua is greater than the demons and can take humanity by the hand, when we have faith in Him, and lift us up and restore us to spiritual health so we can become everything God intended us to be.

Yeshua is Someone who does not want that kind of pride that is all about self-advancement to have a place among His followers.

Yeshua is Someone who wants us to treat each of His followers with honor and respect – not try to diminish their worth so that we can be seen as greater than they are.

Yeshua is Someone who wants us to treat all of His followers, even the youngest and least gifted, with honor and with respect; even those who may not be a recognized member of His Community.

Yeshua is Someone who knows that faith and spiritual life can be fragile, and therefore wants to us to appreciate, nurture and encourage all of His followers, especially the youngest, the newest, the least gifted, and not discourage them or harm their spiritual life.

Yeshua is Someone who wants us to know the reality of sin and hell, and the fatal, eternal consequences of sin; and He wants us to take the most radical actions to stop sinning.

Yeshua is Someone who wants us to be salty – something that gives good taste; something that preserves, something that cleanses.

Yeshua is Someone who wants us to humble, gracious, and serves the ones around us. That will enable us to be at peace with one another.

May God enable Yeshua be all these things to us and may we respond faithfully to all that He is and become all that we should be. Amayn? Amayn!