CHAPTER TWENTY: BEYONDS ALL BOUNDS, BEYOND ALL EXPECTATIONS

Dawn came early, and Jesus was already up, eating a crust of bread and drinking some water from the well in the middle of the courtyard at Simon’s own house. The disciples had spread themselves out amongst the houses of James and John and Simon and Andrew and Philip, all of whom called Bet-saida home. You could see that Jesus was eager to get moving, and so Simon got up, washed his face, and started waking the disciples up, going down the little lane to James and John’s house and telling them they would be moving on soon. Within an hour all had been arranged, and Jesus headed out going north by north west, and taking some of the major roads. It was clear he was leaving Israel and heading somewhere else. The journey took all that day and well into the next one, and by then the disciples were tired of trudging along mile after mile.

They had already entered the district of Tyre and Sidon and a Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to Jesus, crying out, “Master, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.” Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” But Jesus gave a peculiar response– “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” He seemed to be mirroring the thoughts and attitudes of his disciples back to them who assumed that they should not have to be bothered with this foreign woman and her needs. They after all had a mission to the lost sheep of Israel.

The woman however was undeterred by Jesus’ apparently cold words and she came and knelt before him. “Sir, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” “Yes, sir,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus paused and pointing out the woman to his disciples he said, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour. The disciples got the uneasy feeling that they had been being tested on this occasion, and had failed the test of responding appropriately to the woman’s need.

Jesus and his disciples had come to a crossroads, and Jesus suddenly decided to take a right turn, heading towards the territory of Herod Philip, on a road that led to Banyas, or Caesarea Philippi. He was not going on to Tyre, nor was he heading back to Galilee. He seemed to be moving with purpose, and with some haste. After a night out in the open, and another day of walking, they finally arrived at Banyas. It was an old Greek city, full of idols on public display which Herod had turned into his showplace, naming it after both himself and Caesar. There was an enormous cave at Banyas, which, when the city had been a Greek city, had been called the cave of Pan. But some had said that this was one of the gateways into the Underworld, and clearly enough there was an underground spring here which emerged at Banyas. Having reached the very center of Banyas/Caesarea Philippi, Jesus sat down on the edge of the square across from both the cave and the honorific wall where there were niches with statues of gods and men and he asked his disciples directly. “What are you hearing? Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

They replied, “Some say John the Baptist back from the dead; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Simon said without hesitating “You are the messiah, the Son of the living G-d.”

Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by a human being, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Cephas (Rock) and on this ‘cepha’ I will build my community, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will bebound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

He had been pointing to the mouth of the cave when he spoke about the Gates of Hades, and somehow the confession of Jesus as Son of G-d seemed more pointed while sitting across from statues of other human beings who had been called similar things. Then Jesus warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the messiah. Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Simon took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, master!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” A look of anger came across Jesus’ face and he turned and said to Simon, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of G-d, but the things of human beings.”

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a person if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a person give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done. Amen I say to you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Now arise, and let us go again.”

Once more Jesus was not heading back to Galilee, but rather was traveling north, and already on the horizon was looming Mt. Hermon, the highest mountain in the region. The disciples were frankly in shock about what Jesus had said, and it had shaken them all badly that he seemed to be talking about martyrdom, and what was that about resurrection soon thereafter? It did not make sense. They all believed in resurrection of the righteous, but on the last day and as a group. What was Jesus talking about?

After several days of traveling and discussing what had just been revealed to the disciples about Jesus’ identity and future mission in Israel, the disciples could understand in part why Jesus had left the land for a period of time, away from prying eyes, and the scrutiny of Jewish authorities. But where in the world was he going now? When the disciples got to the base of Mt. Hermon, Jesus ordered all of them to set up camp at the foot of the mountain and he said he was taking Simon, James, and John up the high mountain with him for a period of time.

The climb took hours, and the three disciples who had begun the climb talking among themselves following Jesus, had gone silent after over two hours of climbing, just to save breath. Where in the world was Jesus going? When they looked up they could see blue sky and the sun blazing overhead, but there were also some low hanging clouds on one side of the mountain.

Finally, sweating and tired, they emerged onto something like a plateau. They were so high on this side of the mountain that they began to be enveloped in a sort of mist. Looking up to get their bearings and to make sure they would not lose Jesus in the mist, they saw an incredible light pierce the cloud and suddenly Jesus was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And just as suddenly there appeared before them two old men who were talking with Jesus. Being just able to hear the conversation, which was about Jesus’ leaving, his ‘exodus’, they deduced that this must be Moses and Elijah, who it was believed had likewise disappeared into the clouds on a mountain and gone to Paradise.

Cephas interrupted the conversation, thinking this might be a religious occasion like during the Feast of Tabernacles and he said to Jesus, “Teacher, 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 really wasn’t sure what to say, not least because he was so frightened by this experience.

While he was saying this, an even denser cloud appeared and enveloped them all, and a voice came from the cloud saying to the three: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!” James remembered that this was exactly what Jesus had told them the heavenly voice had said to him at his own baptism. This provided further confirmation for them of the rightness of what Simon had said at Caesarea Philippi. But just as quickly as the cloud came, it disappeared and when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, Simon suggested that they tell all the disciples about this mountain top experience but Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So, they kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant. What confused them again was the idea that the Son of Man might rise in isolation, all by himself, but then they remembered the widow of Nain’s son, and what had happened on that day.

Changing the subject to a more familiar discussion they asked him, “Why do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”

Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah does come first, and restores all things. But I tell you, Elijah has come, and they have done to him everything they wished, just as it is written about him.” Thinking that Jesus must be referring to John the baptizer, Simon asked, “But if that is true, then why is it necessary also that the Son of Man must suffer and be killed?” But at this point Jesus went silent again, and the rest of the trek down the hill left the three to their thoughts. Somehow they knew this must be a significant turning point in the ministry of Jesus, but what lay ahead did not seem like good news to them. They welcomed the return to Kefer-Nahum once more, but they realized it would not mean peace and quiet.

As they left Mt. Hermon, having collected the other disciples at their base camp, and headed south passing into Galilee. Jesus told the disciples that he did not want anyone to know where they were, because he wanted to have uninterrupted time with them, for was teaching his disciples. He repeated to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it. But they kept talking with one another as Jesus went ahead of them, and they begin to debate why Jesus had picked those three to go up the mountain with him.

In due course they came to Kefer-Nahum. When Jesus arrived in the house of Simon’s mother-in’law, 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.

Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” He took a little child, one of Simon’s children, and had him stand among them. Taking him 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.” And so the day ended on a familial note, which set everyone at peace, and allowed them all to get some rest that night.