Luke 9

Lu 9:1-6.

MISSION OF THE

TWELVE

APOSTLES.

(See on

Mt 10:1-15).

1. power and authority--He both qualified and

authorized them.

Lu 9:7-9.

HEROD

TROUBLED AT

WHAT

HE

HEARS OF

CHRIST

DESIRES TO

SEE

HIM.

(See on

Mr 6:14-30).

7. perplexed--at a loss, embarrassed.

said of some, that John was risen--Among many opinions, this was the

one which Herod himself adopted, for the reason, no doubt, mentioned on

Mr 6:14.

9. desired to see him--but did not, till as a prisoner He was sent

to him by Pilate just before His death, as we learn from

Lu 23:8.

Lu 9:10-17.

ON THE

RETURN OF THE

TWELVE

JESUS

RETIRES WITH

THEM TO

BETHSAIDA, AND

THERE

MIRACULOUSLY

FEEDS

FIVE

THOUSAND.

(See on

Mr 6:31-44).

Lu 9:18-27.

PETER'S

CONFESSION OF

CHRIST--OUR

LORD'S

FIRST

EXPLICIT

ANNOUNCEMENT OF

HIS

APPROACHING

DEATH, AND

WARNINGS

ARISING

OUT OF

IT.

(See on

Mt 16:13-28;

and

Mr 8:34).

24. will save--"Is minded to save," bent on saving. The pith of

this maxim depends--as often in such weighty sayings (for example, "Let

the dead bury the dead,"

Mt 8:22)

--on the double sense attached to the word "life," a lower and a

higher, the natural and the spiritual, temporal and eternal. An entire

sacrifice of the lower, or a willingness to make it, is indispensable

to the preservation of the higher life; and he who cannot bring himself

to surrender the one for the sake of the other shall eventually lose

both.

26. ashamed of me, and of my words--The sense of shame is one of

the strongest in our nature, one of the social affections founded on our

love of reputation, which causes instinctive aversion to what is

fitted to lower it, and was given us as a preservative from all that is

properly shameful. When one is, in this sense of it, lost to shame,

he is nearly past hope

(Zec 3:5;

Jer 6:15; 3:3).

But when Christ and "His words"--Christianity, especially in its more

spiritual and uncompromising features--are unpopular, the same

instinctive desire to stand well with others begets the

temptation to be ashamed of Him, which only the 'expulsive power' of a

higher affection can effectually counteract.

Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh, &c.--He will render to that

man his own treatment; He will disown him before the most august of all

assemblies, and put him to "shame and everlasting contempt"

(Da 12:2).

"Oh shame, to be put to shame before God, Christ, and angels!" [BENGEL].

27. not taste of death fill they see the kingdom of God--"see it come

with power"

(Mr 9:1);

or see "the Son of man coming in His kingdom"

(Mt 16:28).

The reference, beyond doubt, is to the firm establishment and

victorious progress, in the lifetime of some then present, of that new

Kingdom of Christ, which was destined to work the greatest of all

changes on this earth, and be the grand pledge of His final coming in

glory.

Lu 9:28-36.

JESUS

TRANSFIGURED.

28. an eight days after these sayings--including the day on which this

was spoken and that of the Transfiguration. Matthew and Mark say

(Mt 17:1;

Mr 9:2)

"after six days," excluding these two days. As the "sayings" so

definitely connected with the transfiguration scene are those

announcing His death--at which Peter and all the Twelve were so

startled and scandalized--so this scene was designed to show to the

eyes as well as the heart how glorious that death was in the

view of Heaven.

Peter, James, and John--partners before in secular business; now sole

witnesses of the resurrection of Jairus' daughter

(Mr 5:37),

the transfiguration, and the agony in the garden

(Mr 14:33).

a mountain--not Tabor, according to long tradition, with which

the facts ill comport, but some one near the lake.

to pray--for the period He had now reached was a critical and

anxious one. (See on

Mt 16:13).

But who can adequately translate those "strong cryings and tears?"

Methinks, as I steal by His side, I hear from Him these plaintive

sounds, "Lord, who hath believed Our report? I am come unto Mine own

and Mine own receive Me not; I am become a stranger unto My brethren,

an alien to My mother's children: Consider Mine enemies, for they are

many, and they hate Me with cruel hatred. Arise, O Lord, let not man

prevail. Thou that dwellest between the cherubim, shine forth: Show Me

a token for good: Father, glorify Thy name."

29. as he prayed, the fashion, &c.--Before He cried He was answered,

and while He was yet speaking He was heard. Blessed interruption to

prayer this! Thanks to God, transfiguring manifestations are not quite

strangers here. Ofttimes in the deepest depths, out of groanings which

cannot be uttered, God's dear children are suddenly transported to a

kind of heaven upon earth, and their soul is made as the chariots of

Amminadab. Their prayers fetch down such light, strength, holy

gladness, as make their face to shine, putting a kind of celestial

radiance upon it

(2Co 3:18,

with Ex 34:29-35).

raiment white, &c.--Matthew says, "His face did shine as the sun"

(Mt 17:2),

and Mark says

(Mr 9:3),

"His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow, so as no fuller

on earth can white them"

(Mr 9:3).

The light, then, it would seem, shone not upon Him from

without, but out of Him from within; He was all

irradiated, was in one blaze of celestial glory. What a contrast to

that "visage more marred than men, and His form than the sons of men!"

(Isa 52:14).

30, 31. there talked with him two men . . . Moses and Elias . . .

appeared in glory--"Who would have believed these were not angels had not their human names been subjoined?"

[BENGEL].

(Compare

Ac 1:10;

Mr 16:5).

Moses represented "the law," Elijah "the prophets," and both together

the whole testimony of the Old Testament Scriptures, and the Old

Testament saints, to Christ; now not borne in a book, but by

living men, not to a coming, but a come Messiah,

visibly, for they "appeared," and audibly, for they

"spake."

31. spake--"were speaking."

of his decease--"departure"; beautiful euphemism (softened term) for

death, which Peter, who witnessed the scene, uses to express his own

expected death, and the use of which single term seems to have recalled

the whole by a sudden rush of recollection, and occasioned that

delightful allusion to this scene which we find in

2Pe 1:15-18.

which he should accomplish--"was to fulfil."

at Jerusalem--Mark the historical character and local

features which Christ's death assumed to these glorified men--as

important as it is charming--and see on

Lu 2:11.

What now may be gathered from this statement? (1) That a dying

Messiah is the great article of the true Jewish theology. For a

long time the Church had fallen clean away from the faith of this

article, and even from a preparedness to receive it. But here we have

that jewel raked out of the dunghill of Jewish traditions, and by the

true representatives of the Church of old made the one subject of talk

with Christ Himself. (2) The adoring gratitude of glorified men for

His undertaking to accomplish such a decease; their felt dependence

upon it for the glory in which they appeared; their profound interest

in the progress of it, their humble solaces and encouragements to go

through with it; and their sense of its peerless and overwhelming

glory. "Go, matchless, adored One, a Lamb to the slaughter!

rejected of men, but chosen of God and precious; dishonored, abhorred,

and soon to be slain by men, but worshipped by cherubim, ready to be

greeted by all heaven. In virtue of that decease we are here; our all

is suspended on it and wrapped up in it. Thine every step is watched by

us with ineffable interest; and though it were too high an honor to us

to be permitted to drop a word of cheer into that precious but now

clouded spirit, yet, as the first-fruits of harvest; the very joy set

before Him, we cannot choose but tell Him that what is the depth of

shame to Him is covered with glory in the eyes of Heaven, that the

Cross to Him is the Crown to us, that that 'decease' is all our

salvation and all our desire." And who can doubt that such a scene

did minister deep cheer to that spirit? It is said they

"talked" not to Him, but "with Him"; and if they told

Him how glorious His decease was, might He not fitly reply, "I

know it, but your voice, as messengers from heaven come down to tell it

Me, is music in Mine ears."

32. and when they were awake--so, certainly, the most

commentators: but if we translate literally, it should be "but

having kept awake" [MEYER, ALFORD]. Perhaps "having roused themselves up"

[OLSHAUSEN] may come near enough to the literal

sense; but from the word used we can gather no more than that they

shook off their drowsiness. It was night, and the Lord seems to

have spent the whole night on the mountain

(Lu 9:37).

saw his glory, &c.--The emphasis lies on "saw," qualifying them to

become "eye-witnesses of His majesty"

(2Pe 1:16).

33. they departed--Ah! bright manifestations in this vale of tears are

always "departing" manifestations.

34, 35. a cloud--not one of our watery clouds, but the

Shekinah-cloud (see on

Mt 23:39),

the pavilion of the manifested presence of God with His people, what

Peter calls "the excellent" of "magnificent glory"

(2Pe 1:17).

a voice--"such a voice," says Peter emphatically; "and this voice

[he adds] we heard, when we were with Him in the holy mount"

(2Pe 1:17, 18).

35. my beloved Son . . . hear him--reverentially,

implicitly, alone.

36. Jesus was found alone--Moses and Elias are gone. Their work is

done, and they have disappeared from the scene, feeling no doubt with

their fellow servant the Baptist, "He must increase, but I must

decrease." The cloud too is gone, and the naked majestic Christ, braced

in spirit, and enshrined in the reverent affection of His disciples, is

left--to suffer!

kept it close--feeling, for once at least, that such things were

unmeet as yet for the general gaze.

Lu 9:37-45.

DEMONIAC AND

LUNATIC

BOY

HEALED--CHRIST'S

SECOND

EXPLICIT

ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS

DEATH AND

RESURRECTION.

(See on

Mr 9:14-32.)

43-45. the mighty power of God--"the majesty" or "mightiness" of God

in this last miracle, the transfiguration, &c.: the divine grandeur

of Christ rising upon them daily. By comparing

Mt 17:22,

and Mr 9:30,

we gather that this had been the subject of conversation between the

Twelve and their Master as they journeyed along.

44. these sayings--not what was passing between them about His grandeur

[MEYER, &c.], but what He was now to repeat for the second time about

His sufferings [DE

WETTE,

STIER,

ALFORD, &c.]; that is, "Be not carried

off your feet by all this grandeur of Mine, but bear in mind what I have

already told you, and now distinctly repeat, that that Sun in whose

beams ye now rejoice is soon to set in midnight gloom." "The Son of

man," says Christ, "into the hands of men"--a remarkable

antithesis (also in

Mt 17:22,

and Mr 9:31).

45. and they feared--"insomuch that they feared." Their most cherished

ideas were so completely dashed by such announcements, that they were

afraid of laying themselves open to rebuke by asking Him any questions.

Lu 9:46-48.

STRIFE AMONG THE

TWELVE

WHO

SHOULD

BE

GREATEST--JOHN

REBUKED FOR

EXCLUSIVENESS.

46-48. (See on

Mt 18:1-5).

49, 50. John answered, &c.--The link of connection here with the

foregoing context lies in the words "in My name"

(Lu 9:48).

"Oh, as to that," said John, young, warm, but not sufficiently

apprehending Christ's teaching in these things, "we saw one casting out

devils in Thy name, and we forbade him: Were we wrong?" "Ye were

wrong." "But we did because he followeth not us,'" "No matter. For (1)

There is no man which shall do a miracle in My name that can lightly

[soon] speak evil of Me'

[Mr 9:39].

And (2) If such a person cannot be supposed to be 'against us,'

you are to consider him 'for us.'" Two principles of immense

importance. Christ does not say this man should not have

followed "with them," but simply teaches how he was to be regarded

though he did not--as a reverer of His name and a promoter of

His cause. Surely this condemns not only those horrible attempts by

force to shut up all within one visible pale of discipleship, which

have deluged Christendom with blood in Christ's name, but the same

spirit in its milder form of proud ecclesiastic scowl upon all who

"after the form which they call a sect (as the word signifies,

Ac 24:14),

do so worship the God of their fathers." Visible unity in Christ's

Church is devoutly to be sought, but this is not the way to it.

See the noble spirit of Moses

(Nu 11:24-29).

Lu 9:51-56.

THE

PERIOD OF

HIS

ASSUMPTION

APPROACHING

CHRIST

TAKES

HIS

LAST

LEAVE OF

GALILEE--THE

SAMARITANS

REFUSE TO

RECEIVE

HIM.

51. the time was come--rather, "the days were being fulfilled," or

approaching their fulfilment.

that he should be received up--"of His assumption," meaning His

exaltation to the Father; a sublime expression, taking the sweep of His

whole career, as if at one bound He was about to vault into glory. The

work of Christ in the flesh is here divided into two great stages;

all that preceded this belonging to the one, and all that follows it to

the other. During the one, He formally "came to His own," and

"would have gathered them"; during the other, the awful consequences

of "His own receiving Him not" rapidly revealed themselves.

he steadfastly set his face--the "He" here is emphatic--"He Himself

then." See His own prophetic language, "I have set my face like a flint"

(Isa 50:7).

go to Jerusalem--as His goal, but including His preparatory visits

to it at the feasts of tabernacles and of dedication

(Joh 7:2, 10; 10:22, 23),

and all the intermediate movements and events.

52. messengers before his face . . . to make ready for him--He had not

done this before; but now, instead of avoiding, He seems to court

publicity--all now hastening to maturity.

53. did not receive him, because, &c.--The Galileans, in going

to the festivals at Jerusalem, usually took the Samaritan route [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 20.6.1], and yet seem to

have met with no such inhospitality. But if they were asked to prepare

quarters for the Messiah, in the person of one whose "face was

as though He would go to Jerusalem," their national prejudices

would be raised at so marked a slight upon their claims. (See on

Joh 4:20).

54. James and John--not Peter, as we should have expected, but

those "sons of thunder"

(Mr 3:17),

who afterwards wanted to have all the highest honors of the Kingdom to

themselves, and the younger of whom had been rebuked already for his

exclusiveness

(Lu 9:49, 50).

Yet this was "the disciple whom Jesus loved," while the other willingly

drank of His Lord's bitter cup. (See on

Mr 10:38-40;

and

Ac 12:2).

That same fiery zeal, in a mellowed and hallowed form, in the beloved

disciple, we find in

2Jo 5:10;

3Jo 10.

fire . . . as Elias--a plausible case, occurring also in

Samaria

(2Ki 1:10-12).

55, 56. know not what . . . spirit--The thing ye

demand, though in keeping with the legal, is unsuited to the

genius of the evangelical dispensation. The sparks of

unholy indignation would seize readily enough on this example of

Elias, though our Lord's rebuke (as is plain from

Lu 9:56)

is directed to the principle involved rather than the animal

heat which doubtless prompted the reference. "It is a golden sentence

of Tillotson, Let us never do anything for religion which is contrary

to religion" [WEBSTER and WILKINSON].

56. For the Son of man, &c.--a saying truly divine, of which all

His miracles--for salvation, never destruction--were one continued

illustration.

went to another--illustrating His own precept

(Mt 10:23).

Lu 9:57-62.

INCIDENTS

ILLUSTRATIVE OF

DISCIPLESHIP.

The Precipitate Disciple

(Lu 9:57, 58).

(See on

Mt 8:19, 20.)

The Procrastinating Disciple

(Lu 9:59, 60).

(See on

Mt 8:21).

The Irresolute Disciple

(Lu 9:61, 62).

61. I will follow . . . but--The second disciple had a "but" too--a

difficulty in the way just then. Yet the different treatment of the

two cases shows how different was the spirit of the two, and to that

our Lord addressed Himself. The case of Elisha

(1Ki 19:19-21),

though apparently similar to this, will be found quite different

from the "looking back" of this case, the best illustration of which is

that of those Hindu converts of our day who, when once persuaded to

leave their spiritual fathers in order to "bid them farewell which are

at home at their house," very rarely return to them. (Also see on

Mt 8:21.)

62. No man, &c.--As ploughing requires an eye intent on the furrow

to be made, and is marred the instant one turns about, so will they come

short of salvation who prosecute the work of God with a distracted

attention, a divided heart. Though the reference seems chiefly to

ministers, the application is general. The expression "looking back" has

a manifest reference to "Lot's wife"

(Ge 19:26;

and see on

Lu 17:32).

It is not actual return to the world, but a reluctance to

break with it. (Also see on

Mt 8:21.)