Mark 9:1: to not taste death...

  As we reach the middle of Mark, Jesus drops something of the bombshell on His disciples.  He tells them, "there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God after it has come with power."  (Mark 9:1)  In Mark's gospel "power" is used to describe Jesus' miracles (Mark 6:2, 5, 14; 9:39); to refer to God (Mark 12:24; 14:62); and also when the heavenly "powers" and the coming Son of Man are referred to (Mark 13:25-26).  Since we all know that Jesus disciples all died, some very soon after Jesus' death, others decades later, Jesus referring to the coming of the kingdom of God must somehow be anchored in the time during or shortly after Jesus ministry.  After Jesus' resurrection, when the subject of the timing of the kingdom and it's restoration comes up again, he tells them plainly "it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.  But you will received power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." (Acts 1:7-8)  Just one chapter later, in Acts 2, we see the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus' disciples as they are gathered together.  Armed with the power of this Spirit, Jesus' disciples not only witness the inauguration of God's kingdom on earth, they become agents that actively spread it's message.  The phrase "not taste death" is a Semitism, or Jewish way of referring to martyrdom.  Several of Jesus' disciples tasted death, in fact, a few of their deaths are vividly recounted in Acts.  The amazing thing is not that true to Jesus' promise, they saw the advent of the kingdom of God, but rather that their deaths came as a result of their efforts to spread that kingdom's message.  Who would have ever imagined that these disciples, timid and lacking in understanding throughout most of Jesus' ministry, would be transformed into martyrs for the kingdom they so longed to see.  The transformation is nothing short of amazing, and points to something at work greater than the disciples themselves.  As I mentioned before, they had done far more than witness the coming of the kingdom of God, they had been imbued with it's power, the power of the Holy Spirit.  Oh that we would be not just witnesses of the kingdom, but agents as well!