Luke Chapter 9.

Luke Chapter 9.

The mission of the twelve.  9:1-6. The number 'twelve' is conspicuous in this section.  In 8:42-43; 9:1,17.  Is there a veiled reference to Israel?  Does this section contain in symbolism a special message to Israel?  It may mean that Israel must have faith in Christ to be cured (8:42), and this faith brings new life. (8:43).  In 9:2, the nucleus of the Israel of  faith and  in 9:17 the supply of bread for Israel.

           

Herod's opinion of Christ.  9:7-9.   Perplexity and curiosity.

           

The Feeding of the Five Thousand.  9:10-17.

  *   The Pascal setting.  This miracle is described in all four Gospels and, in all four. it is presented as a climax, or has a central setting in the Lord's public ministry.  From this time on attention is more and more paid to our Lord's death (Geldenhuys).  In Luke's Gospel, it immediately precedes our Lord's first prediction of his death and resurrection.

           

John's Gospel distinctly tells us that the Passover was near.  (Jn. 6:4).  John also supplies the true symbolism of the Sign, that Jesus is the Bread of God, who came from heaven and gave himself for the life of the world. (Jn.6:51).  The Johannine description and interpretation is reminiscent of the Eucharist.

*   The Perplexity of the disciples.  The disciples were concerned with the physical needs of the people.  It seemed to them that the Lord was so occupied with ministering to their spiritual needs that he had forgotten the needs of their bodies.  The Lord's reply was that the need about which they were concerned, they themselves should supply.  "Give ye" (emphatic "ye") "them to eat."  But the Lord's demand that this was their care, the more discouraged them, when they considered the paucity of their resources.  They had yet to learn that they could place their tiny resources at the Lord's disposal and direction, then that which is little would become much.  "Little is much when God is in it."  The power of God in Jesus, meets every situation.

  *   The Preparation of the multitude.   The disciples were bidden to make the people sit down (recline), in groups of fifties (100 fifties).  This arrangement provided passages along which the disciples could walk, distributing the food.  It also eliminated panic, for people who are seated on the ground can be expected to remain quiet and orderly.  The precise and orderly arrangement would also signify to the multitude that this was no ordinary event, but one rich in meaning.  (Why fifties?).  They were about to share in a meal of tremendous significance.

 *     The Provision of the Lord.   Christ is the great resource in time of need.  There is no crisis too great for Jesus, but He seeks human co-operation and that men may place themselves and their resources in his hands.  Jesus takes the five loaves and the two smoked or pickled fish, (used as a relish for the bread), and begins to speak words strangely reminiscent of the Eucharist.  He gives thanks to God, seeking His blessing, then breaks them and gives them to the disciples to set before the people.  That great number were filled and satisfied and still there remained a basketful for each of the twelve.  So the disciples were taught to bring their puny resources and place them at the disposal of the Lord, then the humanly impossible takes place.  It is the littleness of our resources that He can best use for the display of His power and glory.

           

The basket ('kophinos') was a wallet in which the Jew carried sufficient food, so that he need not buy from the Gentiles. In days to come the miracle would instruct the apostles that the more freely they distribute the Word of Life, the more abundant would be their own fullness. Our sufficiency is not in ourselves but in the Lord and it increases in distribution.  This is only possible when the Lord commands the blessing.  It was in the breaking of the bread and fish (in broken pieces), that the power and liberalness of the Lord was manifested.  Jesus made himself known in the breaking of bread.  (See Lk.24:30,35.  Note also Acts 2:42,46;  20:7,11;  27:35).

           

Messiahship and Discipleship.  9:18-50.

  *   Peter's Confession.  9:18-20.   The multitude agreed that He was a most distinguished prophet, but Jesus could not concede to anything less than the real truth of His Person.  "The Christ of God."   Jesus is God's Messiah.  'Christos' is Greek for the Hebrew 'Messiah', which signifies 'the Anointed of God.'

           

The diverse and uncertain opinions of the people was general.  Popular opinion conceded that Jesus must be placed among the great prophets of Israel, but the real truth of His Person, was not known to the multitudes.  The faith of the disciples was shown by Peter their spokesman, but each man must have faith in his own heart.  The faith of the disciples must yet remain the private conviction of those who follow Jesus.

  *   Messiah's Sufferings.  9:22.   The kind of Christ that is God's Christ, is that the Messiah of God is one who must suffer.  Now that Peter has confessed the Christhood of Jesus, the Lord makes the first prediction of His Passion. Jesus is destined to fulfil His Messianic work through suffering death, then experience the resurrection.  The 'Son of Man' must suffer many things.  This destiny of suffering was integral to the role of God's Messiah.  The word 'must' expresses a Divine decree. It was God's role for him.  This is the important thing in regard to His Passion.  The disciples believed He was the Christ of God and they must learn that God's Messiah must suffer.  This is the very nature of His Christhood.

  *   Messiah's Disciples.  9:23-27.   The new understanding of Messiahship involves a new conception of discipleship.  The Messiah was on the way to Jerusalem to be put to death.  In every way, the significance of this journey is shown.  To become His disciples was to become the disciples of the Christ who was to be crucified.  Therefore discipleship involved bearing the Cross.  If the Messiah must face rejection and suffering, His disciples must follow the same path.  The Cross, then the Glory.

           

It still remains true that the Christian must remember that he is a disciple of the 'Son of Man', who has been rejected by the world, but the disciple must not be ashamed of the Christ, whom men reject.  The new revelation of the role and destiny of the Messiah was not to be an occasion for shame on the part of His disciples, for His sufferings and death must be followed by resurrection and glory.

 *   The Transfiguration.  9:28-36.   The transfiguration confirmed the announcement that Jesus made concerning the role and destiny of Messiah.  That the Messiah must suffer and die, was most difficult for the disciples to understand, but the Transfiguration, confirmed this in a twofold way:  Firstly, Moses and Elijah, representing the Old Testament spoke of His decease.  Secondly, His heavenly Father authenticates the things Jesus had spoken, by enjoining them to listen to the Son.

 *   The Demoniac Boy.  9:37-43.  The story displayed:

The impotence of the disciples.  Those to whom Jesus makes reference, may not have been of the twelve and the words, "faithless and perverse generation" may not be directed to the twelve disciples, even with their feeble faith. They may be directed generally against the multitude who taunted the disciples, on their inability to do anything for the boy.

           

The Majesty of God.  Their impotence made more conspicuous the Majesty of God displayed in Jesus.  The incident serves to show the littleness of man, and the Divine attributes manifested by Jesus.

 

*   The Second Prediction of His Sufferings,  9:44-45.   It is immediately after this exercise of the majestic power that Jesus makes the second prediction of His Passion.  The disciples are slow to grasp the nature of His Messianic vocation.  Jesus made three specific predictions of His Passion, 9:22;  9:44; 18:31-34.

 *    The True Greatness.  9:46-48.   A little child is the symbol of true discipleship.  The disciples, so little understood the nature of His Messiahship, that they continued to strive over who should have the greatest rank among themselves.  Humble service is the true greatness in the Kingdom.  The ancients generally despised service as belonging to slaves.  The Lord puts a new value upon service.  He gives it a new rank.  Not only so, but the highest service is that rendered to the least.  To give humble service to a child, to care for the little ones, and to welcome them, is to receive Him.  He identifies himself with the least, even with a toddler.  This passage is sufficient authority for Sunday school work.  The care of little children is the noblest and most Christ-like service.

           

The disciples were not to be ambitious for power.  This is one of the most vicious forms of worldliness in our Assemblies today.  The care of the least important people is the one true greatness.

  *   Humility and Tolerance.  9:45-50.  This exorcist was evidently a disciple, for he wrought in Jesus' name.  But he was a free-lance, and did not associate himself with the party.  This man was devout, but was defective in his understanding of God's purpose.  However, they were not to stop him, for the cause of Christ is wider than any group, and the goodwill of God to men cannot be restricted because of party interests.

           

A Note on the Transfiguration.   Its meaning.  The spiritual significance of the Transfiguration took more than one direction.

 

*   For Jesus.  The event had a special significance for himself.  This is suggested by Luke, who narrates that Jesus was engaged in prayer.  The Lord's vocation was becoming increasingly clear, but it was not such a course in which he had no choice.  His choice was to do the Father's will and in this decision he sought the Father's counsel and approval.

  *   For the three disciples.  It contained a threefold message to them:

Revelation.  It confirmed that Jesus was the Christ, and in Luke, it emphasized the kind of Christ that he is.  He is Messiah and Servant of Jehovah who must suffer.  This is the role that the Christ of God must fill.  God willed His decease.

           

Fulfilment.  The Transformation linked up the old revelation with the new revelation in Christ.  The old order is seen in Moses and Elijah, but they must give place to the complete revelation in the Son.  Therefore Peter's desire to retain all three by making three booths was a mistake.  Moses and Elijah must vanish, and Jesus alone remain.

           

The event displayed the continuity of the history of Salvation and the central place of Christ, His death and resurrection, in history.  Luke writes, that the two men spoke with Jesus of his decease which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.  "Decease" translates the Greek word 'exodus'.  What was this 'exodus'?  That it had special reference to the Lord's death can scarcely be questioned.  It probably included his resurrection and ascension.  Why is his death called an 'exodus'?  There is almost certainly an allusion to the Exodus from Egypt.  Jesus was about to accomplish a great act of redemption.  Through this act of redemption, he would bring about the Salvation of His people, and bring forth a new Israel to God.

Anticipation.  The Transfiguration was an anticipation or preview of the Parousia, as 2.Peter 1 indicates.  Caird says, that alone of the Synoptics, Luke used the word 'glory' in describing the Transfiguration and he associated it with the glory into which he was to enter by the Resurrection and Ascension, and in which he would appear at His Parousia.  To establish the connection between these four events, Luke employed two of his elaborate cross-references.

           

The Marcan account had two men, Moses and Elijah, at the Transfiguration, two men in white at the tomb (24:4), and two men in white again at the Ascension (Acts 1:10), and in each case, he introduces them with the phrase, "Behold, two men."  Caird also writes, "Luke puts cloud in the singular, so that the Parousia cloud may be identified with the cloud seen at the Transfiguration, and with that seen at the Ascension (Lk.21:27; Acts 1:9).  Caird agrees that this connecting of the Transfiguration with the Parousia is further emphasized in 2.Peter, though without any reference to the Resurrection, or to the Ascension.  Thus if the Transfiguration can be understood as a preview of the glory of the Parousia, then, it provides a satisfactory explanation to that difficult problem raised by Luke 9:27.

           

A Note on the Passion.

           

It is sometimes argued that Acts 8:32 (the quotation from Isaiah 53) and 20:28 are not sufficient proof that Luke held a doctrine of Atonement or Substitution.  Luke does not develop Christ's death and resurrection, as a soteriological event.

  *  The Divine Plan.  In Acts - Luke, it is seen as part of a Divine plan or purpose.  It is strongly emphasized that these things are the fulfilment of all Scriptures.

  *  The Journey.  The central place that is given to the journey to Jerusalem in this Gospel and that the journey follows the Transfiguration and the prediction of His sufferings, witness to the central importance of His Exodus at the city.

 *   The Literary Setting.  The material in chapters 15-19 provide a special setting for the account of his death and resurrection.  The parables and incidents form a preface or interpretative introduction to the necessity of the Passion at Jerusalem.  It is clear that it is God's will to receive the outcasts and sinful.  This is the true setting for the Passion.  That the love of God become fully effective, He has decreed that Christ die and rise again. The Lord would no longer be confined in His ministry.

           

Part Three.  Chapters 9:51 - 19:28.  The Central Section.

The Journey towards Jerusalem.

           

The Hostile Samaritans.  9:51-56.   The Samaritans were notorious for their hostility towards the temple at Jerusalem.  They were not friendly to a pilgrim to that city.  Luke records this act of hostility to emphasize the importance of this journey. Jerusalem had a special role in the history of Salvation.  Luke brings out, in various ways, the theological significance of Jerusalem.  He refers to Jerusalem more frequently than the other Synoptics do.  He mentions Jerusalem more than twice as often as Matthew.  In Luke - Acts, Jerusalem is not a geographical concept alone, but also a theological one.  She was given a privileged place in the unfolding of the Messianic Salvation.

           

One way in which Luke brings out this central role, is to emphasize and give significance to our Lord's journey to Jerusalem.  Luke now begins to describe, not one of the Lord's many tours, but a journey for a specific purpose to that city.  It forms the central section of the Gospel.  Note the following stages of the journey, and how they are marked, (13:22,33,34; 17:11; 18:31; 19:11,28).  At Jerusalem is to be accomplished:

  *   An Exodus or Decease.  9:31.

  *  An Assumption. 'Analempsis', "received up", R.V.; "taken up", N.E.B. Like his exodus,   it probably includes his death, resurrection and ascension.  9:51. See V-D.

  *   Fulfilment.  18:31. There shall be fulfilled all things written concerning Christ.

           

Conditions of Discipleship.  9:57-62.   Jesus confronts the hesitant disciples with the stern conditions that following him required.  Jesus journeys to Jerusalem fully aware that he must suffer and be put to death.  The period covered by the journey was unique.  Those who joined his company and would be his disciples must be fully aware of the character and urgency of the time.

           

The would-be disciple.  9:57-58.  In a moment of enthusiasm he volunteers to follow Jesus wherever he might go.  He little knew the way Jesus was going.  Jesus knew the shallowness and instability of his enthusiasm.  The man is too confident as to his own strength.  He has not sufficiently examined his own weakness, nor considered the hardship of the path that Jesus trod.  He must count the cost.  This man represents the emotional and impulsive type, who must be warned as to the poverty and hardships that Jesus endured.

           

The Hesitant disciple.  9:59-60.  This man was called to follow Jesus.  But he did not grasp the significance of the time.  He would delay until other duties were performed.  He must learn that spiritual duties come first.  He would delay until he buried his father, who had just died, or was near death.  He felt this was a most sacred obligation.  The demand that Jesus makes upon men is more imperative than the most sacred earthly duty.  The most sacred of all duties, is to follow Jesus.

           

The lingering disciple.  9:61-62.  This man, would become a disciple, but is not ready to wholly put his hand to the plough.  His feelings are mixed, but no man can look back and drive a straight furrow.  His heart still lingered with his old friends.  Jesus required urgency, decision and resolute devotion.  No man can become a disciple except on Jesus' terms.