Handling Scripture Rightly -- Mark 9:11-13

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Why are fire engines red? Well, fire engines have four wheels and carry eight men. Four plus eight is twelve. Twelve inches make a ruler. A ruler is Queen Elizabeth. Queen Elizabeth was the name of a ship that sailed the seven seas. The seven seas are full of fish. Fish have fins. Finns are what we call people from Finland. The Finns hate the Russians and the Russians are red. And fire engines are always rushin’. And that’s why they are red.

Now some of you will no doubt disagree with that explanation. You recognize that this is either an absurd abuse of logic, or else a complete disregard for it. When we hear it in a ludicrous example such as I have given about fire engines or in a politician’s rhetoric, we often recognize that the person making the case is off base. Yet, many times we do not catch this faulty reasoning in our own thinking or that of others. One area where this is common is in our interpretations of Scripture. Now, if my explanation of the redness of fire engines is incorrect, very little is at stake. No matter why they are red, if my house is on fire and I call 911, they will come and try to put it out. In that moment it will not matter why they are red and whether or not it has anything to do with Queen Elizabeth. Yet, when it comes to handling God’s Word, the consequences are much greater. The God of the universe has spoken – He has communicated His Word to us through divinely inspired human writers. When we open the Bible, we are presented with truth from God Himself. If we mishandle this, the consequences are severe and eternal. You do not like it when people take your words and twist them and take them out of context and supply meaning to your words that you never intended. How must God feel when we do it so often with His words?

In the passage before us today, Jesus is accompanied by Peter, James, and John. They are coming down from the mountain where Christ has been transfigured before their eyes and they have seen His divine glory. They have seen Him with Moses and Elijah and heard the voice of God the Father testify to the unique nature and supreme authority of Jesus. If anyone ought to have insight into the things of God, it must surely be these men whom Jesus chose to witness this revelation.

In verse 9, Jesus has spoken to them once more about the fact that He will rise from the dead. Not stated directly, but certainly implied is that He is going to die, just as He said earlier in 8:31. Now this stumps the disciples, and in verse 10 they begin to reason among themselves about what this saying “rise from the dead” must mean. This makes no sense to them that Jesus must die. They have understood that God has promised to send Elijah before the establishment of the Kingdom of God, and since they have seen Elijah on the mountain, then the Kingdom must be present in their midst. And if that is the case, then all things are set right, and there must be no need for Jesus to die. So the conversation in verses 11-13 revolves around their understanding of the coming of Elijah, and reveals that they have not rightly understood God’s word. And if we will pay attention to their errors in interpretation, we will be helped to avoid them ourselves.

I. To handle scripture rightly, we must avoid the error of wrong authority (v11)

The disciples ask, “Why is it that the scribes say that Elijah must come first?” Now, here their question is not wrong to ask. The scribes did say that Elijah must come first. And the scribes said many other things about Elijah’s coming as well. So prevalent was scribal teaching about the return of Elijah that to this day, the faithful Jews leave an open seat at the Passover meal, just in case Elijah drops by to observe the Seder with them. They know that he is coming. There are many who have given up hope of a coming Messiah, but they know that if there is going to be a Messiah, Elijah will come before He does.

The problem here is that the disciples are basing their understanding of Elijah’s coming upon scribal teaching rather than Scriptural teaching. The scribes taught that Elijah was coming, and when he came, all wrongs would be made right and the Kingdom of Perfect Shalom would be established. Since the disciples had just seen Elijah, then that day must have come, they thought.

But somewhere in the mounds of scribal traditions, the plain teaching of God’s word had been covered over. In Malachi 3:1, the prophet proclaims the Word of the Lord saying, “‘Behold, I am going to send My messenger, and he will clear the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,’ says the LORD of hosts.” In Malachi 4:5-6, “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.”

The scribes were right about one thing. Elijah was coming, and his coming would precede the coming of the Lord to His Temple, the coming of the Covenant Messenger. But there is no promise here about instant bliss upon his coming. There is a promise about repentance and restoration, and a warning about judgment. But Malachi leaves open the option that when Elijah comes, and the Lord who follows him, there is a possibility that they will not be received well by the people. There is a warning about smiting and cursing. The scribes saw no such possibility. Their ethnic pride and traditions could not foresee that Israel may not recognize a true messenger from God. And where that tradition was elevated to a place of higher authority than Scripture, the Scriptures themselves were overlooked.

The error of wrong authority is not isolated to first-century Judaism. We are subject to this same error today. We fail to delve into our Bibles for spiritual truth, and turn instead to traditions, human opinions, nationalistic presuppositions, and television’s guru of the month. And our beliefs and practices become shaped by what our mothers, and our politicians, our human minds, and in some cases preachers who neglected the word have told us. No doubt, sometimes there is an overlap. The scribes said Elijah is coming, the Scriptures said Elijah is coming. But the scribes said much that is not in Scripture, where their teaching exceeds that of scripture, we must turn a deaf ear. Their words shall not have more authority than God’s.

Much of what your mother told you about God may be true. Much of what some politician speaks about morality may be accurate. But when we rely on human opinions as our ultimate authority, we go astray. God has spoken! How can we ignore what He has said, or relegate it to a place of secondary or tertiary authority in our lives? How can we fill in blanks God intended to be left open with speculative suggestions. If we would handle Scripture rightly we must assign it the position of ultimate authority in all matters of life and bring our lives in line with what God’s Word declares. When the Bible speaks contrary to my opinion, to what mama said, to what Pastor So-and-So said, then the Bible must prevail and all other opinions must be put aside. Otherwise we commit the error of wrong authority, thereby mishandling the treasure of Scripture.

II. To handle scripture rightly, we must avoid the error of selective appeal (v12)

Here, for once, Jesus affirms that the scribes have spoken correctly about one thing. Elijah does come first and restores all things. This is what the Bible says. But the Bible also says something else that must take place. Jesus asks the inquiring disciples, “And yet how is it written of the Son of Man that He will suffer many things and be treated with contempt?” In other words, “If the things spoken about Elijah must come to pass, then it must also be that the things written about the Messiah must come to pass also.” We can’t pick and choose which parts of Scripture we want to believe and which parts to reject. That is called “selective appeal,” and it is an error we must avoid.

Jesus does not say specifically, or at least Mark does not record it, to which portion of Scripture He is referring. We know that Isaiah 53 must have been in mind when He spoke this. In Chapter 52, God had spoken through Isaiah concerning His Servant who would come. But in Chapter 53, He speaks of the suffering this Servant will endure. He would be despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He would bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. He would be stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. He would be pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, chastened for our well-being. All of our iniquity would fall on Him. He would be oppressed and slaughtered, cut off from the land of the living, assigned a grave among the wicked in spite of doing no violence nor deceit.

These are words that Jewish scholars continue to wrestle with. If they interpret them literally at face value, then they would see how plainly the words speak of the sufferings Christ endured for the sins of humanity, and that is a reality that they cannot fathom. So they spin it, they tweak it, or they avoid it altogether. The scribes focused on the shalom – the perfect peace and bliss – that would come with the kingdom, but they did not speak about the price that Scripture foretold must be paid to bring it about. The Messiah must come and He must suffer and die for the sins of mankind. This was a truth that was expedient to ignore.

We often find ourselves wanting to do just as these have done. We want to hold fast to the happy things of the Bible, and forget the hard words. We want the Ten Commandments, because they forbid all those nasty things like murder and adultery. We want those in our courtrooms and our classrooms, but we do not speak much about the Sermon on the Mount wherein Christ says that our hatred is an equal sin to murder and our lust equivalent to adultery. We want the promises of love and peace and prosperity, but prefer to ignore the promises of suffering, sacrifice and hardship. We like John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” We don’t like John 3:18, which says, “he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” We love Psalm 37:4, “ Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.” We are not very fond of 2 Timothy 3:12, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”
Here is a simple fact with which we must reckon: The Bible must be accepted as God’s truth completely or rejected completely as a fantastic book of mythology. It is a subtle sleight of hand when someone says, “I believe this part of the Bible is true, but not that part.” The trickery is this: that person has made his or her own opinion superior to God’s word, and committed the first error we mentioned en route to committing this second one. God has not given us this perfect revelation to haggle with. He has given it to us to read, to hear, to understand, and to OBEY. We cannot be selective with it. When it comes to the Word of God, we must accept all or nothing.
This is why we must use caution with proof-texting, where we go searching the concordance to find a verse that says what we want it to say about the topic at hand. You have probably heard someone say, “A person can justify anything they want to do with the Bible.” They can, but in so doing, they mishandle the Bible and commit the error of selective appeal. And frankly, this is why churches must insist that their pastors put away topical preaching – that kind of preaching where the pastor says, “What do I want to preach on? And what do I want to say about it?” And then he goes searching the Bible to find a verse to back up his opinion. That is death to the life of the Spirit in a church. You have a responsibility to hold me and any other person who steps behind this pulpit accountable to the task of preaching the whole counsel of God – we call this expository preaching. The text of Scripture becomes the basis for all we say in the sermon. There are passages in the Gospel of Mark which I would prefer, in my human weakness, to avoid and skip over. And when we get to some of them very soon, you will wish I had skipped it too. But exposition and the right handling of Scripture demands that we not be selective in our appeal to Scripture, but subject all of life to all of Scripture, even when it is uncomfortable and contrary to our opinions. You don’t need my opinion and my speculation. It is worthless! It is utter rubbish. What you need, and what I need is for the Word of God to be proclaimed in its fullness and allowed to shape our lives according to God’s will. And in order to do that, we cannot commit the error of selective appeal.

And now finally,

II. To handle scripture rightly, we must avoid the error of biblical laziness (v13)

Here Jesus says, “I say to you.” The prophets often declared the words of God, saying, “Thus saith the Lord.” Jesus says, “I say to you,” and assumes for Himself divine authority, and equates what He is proclaiming with the Word of God previously revealed. And what He says with this divine authority is, “Elijah has indeed come, and they did to him whatever they wished, just as it is written of him.” Those words presented three problems for His hearers.

The first problem can be stated in the question, “What is He talking about?” Here they were, on the Mount of Transfiguration, and Elijah came, and Moses was with him, and a cloud enveloped them, and God spoke, and they disappeared. Who did anything to Elijah? On the face of it, it is hard to figure out what Jesus is talking about. And if all we had was this passage, we’d be utterly confused. But we have more than this passage – we have sixty-six books of Scripture to compare this passage with to determine what He is talking about. Follow me here.

Scripture says Elijah is coming again. Everyone assumed that this was to be a literal return of the prophet, at a specific point in time, which all people would see and recognize. But Scripture also promises that a new David will come. Speaking of the future, God says in Jeremiah 30:9, “they shall serve the LORD their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.” Other passages speak similarly of David. But everyone, including the scribes of Israel, understands that David’s name in these passages is being used to refer to the promised descendant of David, the Messiah, who will come in the office, line, and promise of David. In other words, when the prophets speak of the return of David, they are speaking of the coming of one who is in some ways like David. About that, there is no debate whatsoever; it is universally agreed. So, it is also that the Elijah who is to come is one who will be endowed with this same spirit and power as that ancient prophet without being the actual prophet Elijah. The Elijah to whom Jesus refers here in v13 is not the prophet who appeared on the Mount of Transfiguration, but the prophet who appeared in the Jordan Valley some years earlier calling Israel back to God through repentance and preparing the way for Messiah. He was speaking of John the Baptist. In Matthew 11:14, Jesus said, “John himself is Elijah who was to come.”

Now this leads to the second problem: John the Baptist said he was not Elijah. Some of Jesus’ disciples had followed John the Baptist. Surely they knew of John’s denial recorded for us in John 1:21. The people asked if he was Elijah, and he said, “I am not.” John’s denial concerns the popular misconceptions held by the people of his day. He was not Elijah, the ancient prophet. He was not the Elijah of the scribes whose arrival would indicate the arrival of perfectly happy days. He was right to deny these things. But, John is rightly identified by Jesus as Elijah because the same Spirit and power that had energized Elijah had now fallen on him, as had the task of preparing the way for the Lord.

There’s a third problem. Where is it written that the people would do to Elijah whatever they wished. Go get a Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, and you will search in vain to find this stated in the Old Testament. So, is Jesus wrong here? No. Just as John came in the spirit and power of Elijah, just as John came to carry out the ministry of Elijah, so John would meet the same opposition met by Elijah. Those familiar with the Elijah narratives in First Kings will recall the story of his encounters with Ahab and Jezebel there. God had sent His prophet to confront a nation under the governance of an unscrupulous king with no personal convictions who was under the manipulative sway of his pagan wife. And Jezebel marshaled all the resources of Ahab’s kingdom toward the objective of silencing Elijah with threats of putting him to death. It is a striking parallel to what happened to John. Like Ahab, Herod Antipas was a man without conviction, driven by his personal lusts to wrongfully marry his brother’s wife, who was equally lacking in piety. When they were confronted by John the Baptist, Herodias used her daughter to persuade Herod to cutting off John’s head and putting him to death. As it was for Elijah, so too for John.

Now, none of that is apparent at first reading of Mark 9:13. But it is all there. Biblical laziness will not discover it. One must delve deep into Scripture, not finding things which aren’t there, but discovering all that is there when one carefully studies the Word of God in its entirety, letting it interpret itself and supply its own meaning. That takes time, and it takes effort, and our fast-food society thrives upon instant gratification. But it is not to be had. The study of the Bible is a lifetime process. It is not a book you read one time and put back on the shelf like a dimestore novel. It is a treasure of instruction that must be handled with care, studied thoroughly and frequently. Paul admonished the Thessalonians saying, “If anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either.” Though he is speaking literally of those who are physically lazy, the same can be said spiritually. If anyone is unwilling to do the work of Bible study, then that one will not be fed from Scripture’s bounty. There is plenty on the surface for the average person to handle, but there is much more beneath the surface for the one who is willing to put the time and effort into discovering it.

We are all prone to interpret God’s word badly. I do it, you do it. These errors are easy to commit. But we must guard against them, and when we discover that we are guilty of them, we must repent and return to simple faith and obedience to the Word and allow it to speak directly into our lives. Like these disciples, we must take our questions and our malformed understanding directly to Jesus, the One who by His Holy Spirit, authored the text we hold in our hands. He is able to open our eyes to see and our ears to hear God’s truth. He can do it through sermons, books, small group discussions, private reading, friendly conversation, but ultimately all of these things must be continually surrendered to the authority of the Word itself, and God must be given the final say on all matters. The Bible is our sole authority. We cannot handle it selectively, nor can we be lazy with it.

The question on your mind when you leave a worship service should not be, “Did you see what so-and-so was wearing?” or “Did you like that music?” It should be, “Did I hear the Word of God proclaimed today, and do I understand it better as a result?” Some of you need to be in Sunday School classes hearing the Bible taught. I know, the reason some people don’t attend Sunday School is because they have been before and didn’t hear the Bible taught. Teachers, you have a tremendous responsibility to keep the conversation focused on the Word, and keep the discussion centered on what the Word says. There are excellent books in our library that will help you in your understanding of the Word. But ultimately, each one of us must make the commitment to be a lifelong student of the Word, making time daily for the intake of it and meditation on it. It must be the ultimate authority in our lives, in its fullness, as we ever pursue a better understanding of it.