Peter and the Two Sons of Zebedee

Monday, March 30

Among his twelve disciples, Jesus’s closest friends were Peter, James, and John. It was these three that had accompanied Jesus farther up the mountain at the moment of his glorious transfiguration earlier in Matthew 17:1-11. In a rare moment, these disciples had a chance to glimpse the divine, otherworldly radiance of Jesus like never before. Until then, that blazing radiance was veiled by His humanity, and it would be veiled again until after His bodily resurrection and promised second coming.  

Peter was so enamored by the holy experience surrounding the person of His beloved Master—including the visitation of Moses and Elijah (representing the Law and the Prophets)—that he wanted to set up camp and stay longer. However, Jesus’s crowning of glory required Him to come down off the mountain and first face off against, and ultimately surrender, to His opponents in death. What happened earlier to John the Baptist (a new Elijah) Jesus predicted would happen to Himself also: “So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands” (Matthew 17:12).  

From the mountain-top brilliance of the transfiguration to the darkness and agony in Gethsemane, Jesus’s future passed necessarily through a bitter death. Peter and the other disciples naturally desired glory for the Messiah they left everything to follow, and they desired their own share as His co-heirs. However, talk of Jesus bearing a cross, suffering, and death was met with scorn, but He had to pass through these in obedience to the Father and for their sakes. Their sharing in His eternal glory rested on His sharing in their death. To desire glory without suffering, immortal life without death, is natural to mankind. We scorn death and cling to life. Jesus’ followers still have to pass through the suffering of death (and for some disciples this means literal persecution like Jesus), but Jesus has transfigured death by the hope of joining His resurrection life in eternal glory.   

Lord Jesus, we desire glory and immortality without suffering and death. You humbled Yourself and endured what we naturally scorn so that we might receive from the Father what we do not naturally deserve—the abundance of eternal life. Thank you for saying “yes” to the Father and saying “yes” to sharing in our suffering and death, so that while we must pass through our own sufferings and death, You are with us, and we have the hope of sharing in the glory of Your divine life.  Amen.  

Written by Faculty Members of the Gary Cook School of Leadership at Dallas Baptist University.