Luke Nine LUK 9
In Luke 9 we have the following:
(1) The rejection of Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah;
(2) The thorough change in everything which characterizes the remaining part of this gospel;
(3) The Lord showing the thorny path of those who would follow Him;
(4) A view of the end of the way, the glory of the kingdom and the Father's house;
(5) Leaving that glory, He gives His company to cheer, rebuke and comfort His people as needed;
(6) Finally, He exposes us to ourselves, Himself being God's standard to aim at and to follow.
In Luke 8 Christ preaches the gospel of the kingdom. In chapter 9 He sends forth His twelve disciples with the same testimony. In chapter 10, having been rejected as "the Christ" and on the ground of this rejection, He sends after the declaration of His coming glory as Son of man (seen in the transfiguration), the seventy on a wider mission, which the judgment day would vindicate if their message were refused.
There is a remarkable break in chapter 9. The testimony of the twelve and Christ's own testimony had reached far and wide, even to king's courts. But what was the result of it? The power of healing the sick and casting out devils which the Lord gave to His disciples were samples of the powers of the world to come, the millennial kingdom, but it was all of no avail.
A Rejected Christ
In verse 18, the Lord asks His disciples what it had all come to—"Whom say the people that I am?" They answer, "John the Baptist; but some say, Elias; and others say, that one of the old prophets is risen again." It had all come to nothing. "But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God. And He straightly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing." Why? Because it was of no use. "The Messiah" had been rejected, and now He speaks of Himself, not as the Christ, or Messiah, but as the Son of man. This wider title characterizes the remaining chapters of this Gospel.
You will see a similar transition between the second Psalm and the eighth. In the second Psalm the Lord is spoken of as the Christ, or "Anointed," but in the eighth Psalm He is spoken of as "son of man." All things were once put in subjection to Adam and his wife but they lost this headship through sin. Now the Lord Jesus, the Son of man, will not take the inheritance of all things simply as Heir, but as Redeemer Heir. He has a personal right to it, true, but could He take it polluted with sin as it is, apart from redemption as well?
He never speaks of His sufferings as Son of man without speaking of His rising again. It is as the risen Son of man that He takes the headship of creation and all things as we see in Heb. 2.
In this passage, Luke 9, the Lord speaks of His sufferings as a martyr under man's hand, not as a victim under the hand of God for sin. His death had this double aspect-He suffered as a victim and as a martyr. As a martyr we can have the fellowship of His sufferings. He tells His disciples then of the path of those who would follow Him in His rejection, but He does not speak of the path without showing what the end of it will be.
Would you mind a rough, thorny path if you knew surely what the end would be? Here is the journey and the end of it. So Paul's desire was that he might apprehend that for which he was apprehended of Christ Jesus.
The Transfiguration
In the transfiguration which follows, we get the end of the pathway in a figure of the coming kingdom and glory of the Son of man in which those who are His have a share. Moses and Elias are types of the saints raised and changed. How? Moses died and was buried; Elias was taken up to heaven without passing through death. These are the heavenly saints. Paul tells us that the dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain when He comes shall be changed, and all be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. (1 Cor. 15:51; 1 Thess. 4:13-18.)
Peter, James, and John at this scene are typical of the earthly saints in the kingdom who are looking upon the heavenly saints, raised and changed, in the same glory with Christ Himself. There is one glory of the celestial, and another glory of the terrestrial.
“But Peter and they that were with Him were heavy with sleep." This is typical of the spirit of slumber which rests upon the Jewish remnant in the latter day and who "when they were awake" saw His glory. We, too, have the flesh. It is ever the same; nothing can mend it. The disciples were asleep here in the presence of the glory, as we afterward find they were asleep in the presence of the agony in Gethsemane.
After Peter had made his mistake, "There came a cloud, and overshadowed them: and they feared as they entered into the cloud." What did the cloud signify? It was the symbol of Jehovah's presence. Why did the earthly ones fear then? Because nobody had ever entered into the cloud before! It had led the Israelites out of Egypt, and through the Red Sea. It became cloud and darkness to the Egyptians and light to Israel. It spoke to Moses face to face and rebuked, led, and fought for them. But no one had ever entered into that which was the unveiled presence of God. Yet Moses and Elias were perfectly at ease there. The earthly ones could not understand this new thing of entering into the cloud. Here we get the end of the journey—the Father's house (John 14:1-3; 17:24), for the voice that came out of the cloud said, "This is My beloved Son: hear Him." Who could say this but the Father?
The Journey
Does it matter much that the pathway is thorny when we know it leads to the Father's house?
The Lord has shown them the journey and the end of it, but He does not have us tread that way alone. He leaves the glory on the mount and goes along the path with us, giving us His company to comfort us by the way. In verse 41 we see their unbelief while He was yet with them, at their very side. "How long shall I be with you, and suffer you?”
Christ's Devotedness
They have His company by the way but His perfect devotedness exposes their selfishness. In verse 51 we find His intense devotedness, "He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem," the place where He was to suffer. His was the entire surrender of self, the giving up of self altogether. The law only told us to love our neighbor as ourselves, but the gospel goes far beyond. It teaches us to do what Christ did; He gave up self altogether for His enemies. We find self exposed in the various traits of selfishness which actuate us in this portion of the chapter (vv. 46-56) and the perfect devotedness of Christ makes this all the more apparent.
Selfishness
The 46th verse shows us personal selfishness: "There arose a reasoning among them, which of them should be greatest." Jesus rebukes them and perceiving the thought of their heart, He took a child and set him by Him and said, "He that is least among you all, the same shall be great." This is true greatness because most like His own.
In the next verse we have another sort of selfishness, the selfishness of a clique. They saw one laboring for the Lord, but as he did not go with them in everything, they forbade him.
Then in verse 54 we see selfishness under the cloak of apparent zeal for the Lord's honor. They wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume those who would not receive Him. How His presence exposes us!
There is a perfect contrast to all this in that beautiful chapter, the 2nd of Philippians. Every one gives up self in that chapter. First we see the Lord emptying Himself of His glory. He "made Himself of no reputation." "Humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
Self was nothing to Paul; what he cared for was the state of the Philippians. "Yea, and if I be offered [poured forth] upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all.”
Timothy was like-minded and would care for their state. Epaphroditus, instead of being troubled by his sickness, was troubled that the Philippians had heard of his sickness and would be anxious about him. He counted on their love.
Occupation with Christ
What we want is occupation of heart with Christ. If we have a bad temper and go on praying about it and mourning over it we will never overcome it. But if we are occupied with Christ, do you think our temper will rise while He is before us? It is the only way to get the victory.
We get an exposure of man's nature in the 57th verse. One whom the Lord had not called offers to follow Him. "It is an easy thing to follow Jesus—anyone can do it," he thinks But the Lord tells him that he had not counted the cost. "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.”
Next we find one whom the Lord had called finding a difficulty in following, and making excuses for delay. It was the effectual call of grace here. But he was not up to the mark. He found, as we often do, difficulties and hindrances in the way when the call came. The Lord's reply is, "Let the dead [dead to God] bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.”
There is a reference to Elisha in the last verses. Do you remember that one day when he was plowing, Elijah cast his mantle over Elisha? Elisha said, "Let me, I pray thee, kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee." The real call had come but Elisha was not up to the height of the call just then. Elijah answered, "What have I done to thee?" And Elisha returned and after slaying the yoke of oxen, he arose and went after Elijah.
Let us consider well then these things in this 9th chapter of Luke: the rejection of Jesus as the Christ, the change in everything that characterizes the rest of the book, the Lord showing the path of those who would follow Him, the end of this path, the Lord giving His followers to cheer, rebuke, and comfort His people. It exposes us to ourselves by using Christ as our standard.
Words of Truth