The Transfiguration
Six days later, Jesus took Peter, James, and James's brother John with him and led them up a high mountain where they could be alone. There on the mountain, Jesus was completely transformed before their eyes. His face blazed with light like the sun, and his clothes became brilliant white, as bright as pure light itself. All at once, Moses and Elijah appeared and began talking with Jesus. Peter spoke up and said to Jesus, "Lord, this is wonderful for us to be here. If you want, I can build three shelters—one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." While Peter was still talking, a brilliant cloud surrounded them, and a voice spoke from within the cloud: "This is my beloved Son, and I am completely pleased with him. Listen to him!" When the disciples heard this voice, they threw themselves face down on the ground, terrified. Jesus walked over and touched them. "Stand up," he said. "Don't be afraid." When they lifted their heads and looked around, they saw no one there except Jesus alone.
The Coming of Elijah
As they walked down the mountain together, Jesus gave them a strict warning: "Don't tell anyone what you saw up there until after the Son of Man has been brought back to life from death." This puzzled the disciples, so they asked him, "If that's true, then why do our religious teachers keep saying that Elijah has to come back first before anything else can happen?" Jesus answered them, "You're right that Elijah comes first, and when he does, he will set everything right again. But here's what I'm telling you—Elijah has already returned, and people didn't recognize who he was. Instead, they treated him however they wanted to and did terrible things to him. The Son of Man is going to suffer the same way at their hands." When Jesus said this, the disciples suddenly realized he was talking about John the Baptist.
The Healing of a Boy with a Demon
When Jesus and his disciples reached the crowd, a man approached and dropped to his knees before Jesus. "Lord, please have compassion on my son," the man pleaded. "He suffers from severe seizures that cause him terrible pain. He often falls into fires or tumbles into water during these episodes. I brought him to your disciples, but they weren't able to heal him." Jesus responded with deep frustration in his voice: "What a faithless and corrupt generation this is! How much longer must I stay here with you? How much longer must I endure this?" Then he said, "Bring the boy to me." Jesus spoke sternly to the evil spirit, commanding it to leave. The demon immediately came out of the boy, and from that very moment the child was completely healed. Later, when the disciples were alone with Jesus, they came to him privately with a troubling question: "Why weren't we able to cast out that demon?" Jesus answered them directly: "Because your faith is too small. I'm telling you the absolute truth—if you had faith even as tiny as a mustard seed, you could speak to this mountain and command it to move from here to there, and it would move. When you have real faith, nothing will be impossible for you."
Jesus Predicts His Death a Second Time
When the disciples had all come together in Galilee, Jesus spoke to them with serious words. "The Son of Man is going to be handed over to other men," he said. "They will kill him, but on the third day he will come back to life." When the disciples heard this, their hearts filled with deep sadness.
The Temple Tax
When Jesus and his disciples arrived in Capernaum, the men who collected the temple tax approached Peter. They asked him, "Does your teacher pay the temple tax?" Peter replied, "Yes, he does." When Peter went into the house where they were staying, Jesus spoke to him before Peter could say anything about what had happened. Jesus asked him, "What do you think about this, Simon? When the kings of the world collect taxes and customs fees, who do they collect them from—their own children, or from other people?" Peter answered, "From other people." Jesus said to him, "Then the children don't have to pay." Jesus continued, "But we don't want to upset these tax collectors, so here's what you should do. Go down to the lake, throw in a fishing line with a hook, and catch a fish. When you open the mouth of the first fish you catch, you'll find a coin worth enough to pay the tax for both of us. Take that coin and give it to them to pay my tax and yours."