This coming Sunday is the 2nd Sunday in Lent.  4 Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. 5 Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6 He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. 7 Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.”

What are they to listen to? While “all the words from Jesus” is a general answer, a more specific answer from our context is Jesus’ teaching just before our text (8:31-38). In these verses, Jesus speaks words that the disciples (especially Peter) were unable to hear – the prediction of his Passion and death. Peter rebukes Jesus for talking about his Passion. Peter doesn’t want to listen to such words. Peter’s problem, as Jesus indicates it, “You are thinking not as God does, but as human beings do” (8:33). The same problem might be evident in his desire to build three booths.

What is ironic, is that just before this rebuking of Peter by Jesus, Peter had made his good confession: “You are the Messiah” (8:29), but this knowledge about who Jesus is doesn’t help Peter understand what Jesus will do – suffer, die, and be raised. Peter rebukes him. Jesus wants him “behind him” and to set his mind on divine things.

What are they to do? 5 Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, “Rabbi, it is good that we are here! Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6 He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. In a similar way, in the transfiguration, they see who Jesus is: the glorified, beloved Son of God, but this revelation doesn’t help Peter understand what they should do. He wants to build booths. “His proposal to build three tabernacles evidently rests upon a misunderstanding of the significance of the situation. The desire to erect new tents of meeting where God can again communicate with men implies that Peter regards the time of the second exodus as fulfilled and the goal of the sabbath rest achieved. He is anxious to find the fulfillment of the promised glory now, prior to the sufferings Jesus had announced as necessary. His comment reflects a failure to appreciate that the transfiguration was only a momentary anticipation of the glory of the consummated kingdom. The blessings of the new age, which will be shared by all the people of God (Ch. 13:26f.), cannot be secured until Jesus has accomplished the sufferings which are integral to his appointed task, culminating in his death. Mark’s explanatory comment indicates that the three disciples were quite unable to grasp the messianic significance of what they had witnessed.” [Lane, 319]

Peter wants to build tents/booths. God wants him to listen. In the verses before our text, not only did the disciples turn a deaf ear to the words about Jesus’ suffering, they also failed to hear his words about the subsequent resurrection.

Seeing, Hearing, Remembering.  Brian Stoffregen has an interesting insight: “In Exodus 33:17-23, Moses asks to be shown God’s glory. God replies, ‘You cannot see my face; for no one shall see me and live.’ Instead, God tells Moses to hide in the cleft of a rock and that he would be covered with God’s hand until God has passed by. With the removal of the hand, Moses would see God’s backside, but not God’s face.

“In the human Jesus, we are able to see God’s face. The transfigured Jesus produced terror (ekphobos — stronger than mere phobos 9:6) and the disciples were unable to relate properly to the glorified Jesus. With verse 8, we have the “ordinary” Jesus again — one who relates to and carries on conversations with human disciples. After weeks of miraculous healings, we return to a truth that …in Mark the true impediments to discipleship have nothing to do with physical impairment, but with spiritual and ideological disorders: ‘Having eyes can you not see? Having ears can you not hear?’ (8:18).

“Our faith is about proper seeing and hearing and remembering. Generally, seeing, hearing, and remembering don’t produce faith, but one’s belief in God can produce changes in seeing, hearing, and remembering.”

Image credit: Detail of “The Transfiguration of Jesus” by Raphael (1516-1520) | Vatican Museum | PD-US