Matt 17:1-27

This is the transfiguration passage.
In vs 5 the text describes a 'bright cloud' that enveloped the men. I wonder what it was, and what it was like. I can imagine a bright fog, light striking a mist is something I have experienced, obviously this is different. Some remarkable things happen, and then something so ordinary. As they are going down the mountain, one of the men asks "Why .. do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?" Where so many other occurrences even in this passage are objects of discussion because the men are 'such fools' or so blind, or they 'just don't get it.' Here 'the guys' do what must be done in order to make the progress of learning, they ask a question. As I was reading Jesus familiar answer I thought of a time when I did something utterly foolish. In Jr. High or High School I made friends with a young man named Joe. Joe's last name is a familiar one, Edwards. As it turns out He's Joe Edwards the 8th. Joe is a descendent of a certain puritan preacher. Well the circumstances don't bare much that I care to repeat, but we were riding our bicycles to my house one day. As we rode down a hill, familiar to me, in front of a certain School building I choose a standard course, one that I had used a hundred times. I broke to the left. Well our speeds were high, and I was not looking for Joe's position on the hill. So my back tire clipped (struck) Joe's front tire, dumping his bicycle. I remember hearing the catastrophe behind me as I began to brake and control my speed. Yes Joe lived. But He was badly injured, and terribly unhappy. There is nothing (or very little) direct about the analogy but I treated him not unlike Jesus anticipated being treated, badly. Knowing what I do now, a previously overlooked choice becomes clear.
In the remainder of the reading two similarly overlooked choices become apparent. In vs 20 & 21 Jesus answers the disciples as to why they are unable to remedy such and such a problem. For them to understand the failure will require an enormous change in perspective. There is an unseen thing that causes great results. As it turns out the thing that keeps husbands and wives returning to each other, and causes parents to continue to care for ungrateful children, is the thing that keeps atoms and planets in their configuration, and keeps Desiel locomotives on the rails. Its not the "law" as stated. Statement of things is not execution, nor explanation. So first Jesus says "because of your unbelief." A nearly incomprehensible answer unless you have the tools to understand it. He goes on to explain the consequences of belief/faith. But the Lord doesn't just flop down some theory and walk off. No, our friend from heaven gives a second remark, and a comforting one a that. He says 'btw this kind requires prayer etc...' What I'm saying here won't necessarily encourage somebody new to the account, but be encouraged, Jesus was gentle, helpful, profound, everything one could want, in the context.
Secondly, after this, somebody ask's Peter, doesn't your teacher pay thus and such tax? My hero Peter!! Does exactly what I do, he assumes... Not the thing to do, consequently I'm not alone when I screw up. So now Jesus explains to Peter how things really work vs 25,26. And the answer is one my friend Joe's Dad Jay could tell us something about... Jay Edwards builds fishing rods and ties flies. Now if we could rely on the fish to eat more coins... ;-)