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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadBob Utley You Can Understand the Bible - Matthew 17:9 - 17:13
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NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat_17:9-13
9As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, "Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead." 10And His disciples asked Him, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" 11And He answered and said, "Elijah is coming and will restore all things; 12but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands." 13Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.
Mat_17:9 "Jesus commanded them, saying, 'Tell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead'" This is the Messianic secret (cf. Mat_8:4; Mat_9:30; Mat_12:16; Mat_16:20; Mar_1:44; Mar_3:12; Mat_5:47; Mar_7:36; Mar_8:30; Mar_9:9; Luk_4:41; Luk_5:14; Luk_8:56; Luk_9:21). "Tell" is an aorist active subjunctive used in an aorist active imperative sense. Luk_9:30 says that they told no one. The problem was, what were they going to tell? Jesus was already having problems being known as a miracle healer and the gospel was not yet finished. There would come a time, as Jesus mentioned in Mat_17:9, after He had been raised from the dead (He told them this several times in several ways, but they never seemed to hear it or get its implications), that the theological content of this encounter would be understandable.
Mat_17:9 also implies that this was a reference to the sufferings of Jesus (cf. Mat_16:21 ff), which shows that Peter's attempt to keep them on the mountain was another subterfuge of Satan.
Mat_17:10 "His disciples asked Him, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first'" This referred to the prophecy of Mal_3:1; Mal_4:5. There has been much discussion about the answer which Jesus gave. He stated specifically that Elijah had already come in the ministry of John the Baptist (cf. Mat_11:10; Mat_11:14; Mar_9:11-13; Luk_1:17). However, when the Pharisees asked John in the Gospel of John (Mat_1:20-25) if he was Elijah, he flatly denied it. This seeming contradiction can be handled by the fact that John denied that he was a resuscitated Elijah, but Jesus affirmed that John symbolically fulfilled the preparation ministry of Elijah. They both dressed and acted in similar ways, so the identification would be obvious in the minds of the Jews who knew about Elijah and who heard and saw John the Baptist (Luk_1:17).
▣ "So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands" This is a recurrent theme after Peter's confession (cf. Mat_16:21; Mat_17:9; Mat_17:12; Mat_17:22-23; Mat_20:18-19). He told them about His suffering, but if they could have heard, He also told them of His resurrection. A suffering Messiah was so alien to their Jewish traditions that they simply could not receive it!