Matthew 17; Mark 9; Luke 9

Like God did for Moses, God shows Peter, James and John some of Jesus' glory, with Moses and Elijah. The disciples' weak faith is unable to heal all things. Jesus keeps telling them He is going to die and rise after 3 days, but the more convinced they become that Jesus is Messiah, the more they argue about their comparative rank in His kingdom. This bickering will drive people from the kingdom. They have to become as children: humbly unaware of position. They need to deal ruthlessly with sin in their lives. The more convinced they become that Jesus is king of the kingdom, the more zealous their hatred of those conventionally outside the kingdom: they want to call down fire on Samaritans. The authority theme continues, as Jesus tells Peter sons are exempt from temple tax, but He will pay it anyway, so as not to stumble them.