Moral Support (Mark 9:2-13)

Today's Gospel is about the Transfiguration. Jesus confers with Moses and Elijah and James, Peter, and John are there to witness it. 


We could interpret this as a manifestation of Jesus' divinity. 


But in the context of the last few days where Jesus rebukes Peter for tempting him to forego suffering and death and Jesus giving himself a pep talk about giving up one's life, maybe Jesus was up there on the mountain with Moses and Elijah because they were giving him morale support. 


We know Moses and Elijah to be great prophets but these two actually had very difficult lives. 


Moses had to deal with the Pharaoh and then he had to deal with his whiny people as they spent forty years in the desert. In the end, because of some seemingly small mistake, he never got to the promised land (for those who are not Filipino, promised land in Filipino is pinagakong lupa, thus the name of this site). 


Elijah was another great prophet but he didn't have a nice life either. In an earlier post, I wrote that Elijah had to flee twice (and at one point, prayed for death at which point, he is fed by an angel). At one point, he was being fed by ravens. And it's no joke to confront a King and his Queen. At one point he was so full of despair that he thought of himself as a failure. 


So maybe Jesus was up there with Moses and Elijah asking what it will be like and if it will be all worth it in the end.