DAY 167
CHALLENGE
“Jesus said, ‘There are some standing here who will not taste death before they see that the kingdom of God has come with power’ (Mark 9:1; cf. Matt. 16:28, Luke 9:27). But that generation died long ago and the world hasn’t ended. So Jesus’ prediction was false.”
DEFENSE
Jesus was not referring to the end of the world.
There is a sense in which the kingdom of God comes at the end of the world (1 Cor. 15:24), but the kingdom is a complex reality that includes God’s activity before that time (1 Cor. 15:25). Jesus recognized this. Asked when the kingdom would come, he replied: “Behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you” (Luke 17:21).
Thus we must ask if the passages above refer to something in his day. Luke’s version merely speaks of some not dying before seeing the kingdom, but Mark refers to them seeing it “come with power” and Mat- thew refers to them seeing “the Son of man coming in his kingdom.”
This suggests we should look for an event where Jesus was manifest in a powerful, miraculous way. And there was one: the Transfiguration. In each of the synoptic Gospels, the Transfiguration immediately follows Jesus’ announcement (Matt. 17:1–9; Mark 9:2–10; Luke 9:28–36). Jesus takes three of the disciples—Peter, James, and John—up a mountain. His clothing becomes dazzlingly bright, Moses and Elijah appear beside him, everyone is enveloped in a cloud, and God the Father speaks from heaven, identifying Jesus as his Son/his Chosen, and de-
claring, “Hear him!”
This manifestation is likely the coming of the kingdom “with
power” Jesus referred to, and the text of each Gospel suggests this is the way the evangelists understood it. Not only does the Transfiguration happen right after the announcement, but each Gospel says it was about a week later (Matt. 17:1, Mark 9:1, Luke 9:28; the slight difference in the number of days may reflect reckoning parts of days as wholes and counting days as beginning at sunset, midnight, or dawn).
Peter, James, and John thus were the three who did not taste death before they saw the kingdom coming with power.
TIP
Benedict XVI discusses this in chapter 9 of Jesus of Nazareth, vol. 1.