The Gospel of Luke
Chapter 9
In the wake of Jesus’ amazing words and deeds, people have asked, “Who is this?” While it seems clear to us that He is certainly more than ordinary, even the disciples were wrestling with His actual identity. In this chapter, Jesus will make it unmistakable that He is the One they’ve been waiting and hoping and praying for—the Messiah.
Extending Jesus’ Ministry—Luke 9:1-17
Until this time, the disciples had been in Jesus’ presence as learners, hearing His words and observing His interaction with people. Suddenly, it’s time for them to put their understanding into practice. Jesus commissioned them to go out with power and authority to preach and to heal. He gave them orders to go just as they were, without any elaborate preparations—not even so much as the normal backpack for a change of clothing and the next day’s food. They were to dwell in a single house (necessarily for a short stay!) or else shake the dust off their sandals as they exited. And the 12 fanned out into the countryside, preaching and healing.
The reaction to that was yet another query about who this could possibly be—this time from Herod Antipas! He associated Jesus with John, but knew that he’d killed John. We might also ask how Luke could know about Herod’s guilty conscience here, but we remember that one of the women who supported Jesus and His closest followers was Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward, Cuza.
When the twelve returned, Jesus took them to an area near the tiny village of Bethsaida, only to discover that the crowds had come there, too. Jesus continued His preaching about the kingdom and His healing of those in need. At the end of the day, the disciples urged Jesus to dismiss the crowd so they could find something to eat. In response, Jesus urged them to feed the hungry, but the inventory of food was meager; two fish and five loaves—unless the disciples were being urged to go get food for the immense crowd. But Jesus just told them to have the people sit in groups of about 50 each, and He blessed the bread and fish and distributed it to the disciples—who distributed it to the crowd, and everyone had enough to eat and there were twelve baskets of leftovers! Besides the resurrection, this is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels.
Identifying Jesus—Luke 9:18-36
Luke is vague about the time of the next event, but it happened while Jesus was in private prayer and His disciples were nearby. Finally He asked them who people said He was. They answered that the general idea was that Jesus must be some great man of God returned to life: John, maybe, or Elijah or one of the prophets. But Jesus very pointedly asked their opinion: Who do you say that I am? Peter answered for them all and declared that Jesus undoubtedly was the Christ, the hoped-for Redeemer. When Jesus heard this, He demanded that none of them tell that news abroad. Clearly, He agreed with that identification! However, the mission of the Christ was not the mission that the disciples expected, and Jesus hastened to explain that.
Being the Christ meant suffering in many ways, rejection by those who should have welcomed Him, death—and then, impossibly, resurrection. And if anybody wanted to follow Him, they should be prepared to accept a similar end. However, losing life to Jesus results in full salvation, not only now, but into eternity. By contrast, the people who scrabble to keep control of their lives will
certainly lose everything when this life is concluded. And in addition to everything else Jesus said, He pointed out that some of them standing there would see the kingdom of God in their own lifetimes. And in fact, within a year or so of this conversation, the church would be established at Jerusalem on Pentecost.
Just after this declaration was made by Peter, he along with James and John accompanied Jesus up a mountain for prayer. There, Jesus was transformed with a radiant brilliance and Moses and Elijah appeared there with Him. They talked to Him about His “exodus,” His departure (death) which would take place at Jerusalem. The disciples woke up completely and as Moses and Elijah were departing, Peter blurted out a plan to build three shrines on the spot. Luke noted that Peter didn’t know what he was saying!
A cloud came and swallowed them up on the mountaintop and from within the mist a voice identified Jesus as “Son” and commanded the disciples to “listen to Him.” At that point, Jesus was alone and the disciples decided to keep that little episode to themselves—at least for the time being. Both these incidents make the identity of Jesus very clear. He is the Christ, the Son of God and the Lord of heaven and earth. We might think the disciples, from this moment, would be solidly faithful and spiritually mature. If so, we’d be wrong.
Growing Up In Faith—Luke 9:37-62
Immediately after the transfiguration, we are confronted by three stories of spiritual immaturity and faithlessness in the apostles. First, the descending party was met by a man whose only child was being destroyed by a demon—and the remaining nine apostles were unable to help at all. Jesus’ words about an “unbelieving and perverse generation” seem more directed to the apostles than the confused and helpless crowd. In a dramatic moment, Jesus rid the boy of the evil spirit and returned him to his father. The people were amazed, overjoyed and stunned by His power. And in this moment, Jesus pointed out again to His disciples that He would be betrayed into the hands of His enemies. Perplexed, the disciples decided not to follow up.
They did, however, want to secure their interests in the kingdom that was coming! So they began bickering about who would be more powerful in the administration of the kingdom and Jesus put an end to it in a novel way. He used a child as a visual aid to tell the disciples that the most humble among them would be “greatest.” Confused by this, John declared that they’d intervened to stop a man who was using the name of Jesus to cast out demons. Jesus told him not to do that; the man was clearly on the side of righteousness.
Then Jesus and the group headed south, through Samaria. This marks what is called “the travel section” of this Gospel, which includes 9:51-19:27. In all this, Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem, and a cross. First, they must traverse Samaria and Jesus sent messengers ahead so that the band of pilgrims would not be a burden on the small towns—they would have enough time to prepare food for them, etc. They learned that the Samaritans were contemptuous of those traveling to Jerusalem, so James and John indignantly asked if Jesus would have them call down fire on the people. Jesus rebuked them and they all went on. [The KJV inserts much longer verses at 54-56, but the text does not include those extra words.]
Lastly, Jesus encountered three who wanted to be His disciples under the proper conditions. One was willing to follow Jesus until he learned that material prosperity had no relationship to discipleship. Another was willing as soon as his family obligations were concluded, but Jesus demanded priority over family. Yet another wanted to follow Jesus as soon as he had formally said good-bye to his family. But Jesus is not interested in “followers” whose primary allegiance is to others, whether family, friends, work, comforts, or any other call upon our time and interest. He is the Christ of God. There is no higher calling than to serve Him