Luke 9:28-36 Disciples on the mountain

Luke 9:28-36 The transfiguration on the mount. Parallel passages in Matthew 17:1-9 and Mark 9:1-9. [Matthew and Mark record a subsequent conversation with the disciples about Elijah and John the Baptist that Luke does not record, which we will not address here.] Moses and Elijah appeared and were talking with Jesus, who was white and gleaming. They talked about Jesus' departure that He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. Peter, James, and John were observing but had been overcome with sleep, but they woke up and saw Jesus in His glory. Their reaction? Let''s build tabernacles for Jesus, Moses, and Elijah. Then a cloud overshadowed them and the voice of God saying, "This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!"

         There are inevitably inexplicable aspects when the eternal comes in contact with the temporal. The gleaming appearance of Jesus may account for the tradition of the idea that angels appear with halos, that there is an aura surrounding their appearance, often characterized as a halo. Perhaps it is the eyes of the soul being opened to the power & purity of God, as for example can be found in visions in the Old Testament of the throne of God. There are various visualizations (Isaiah 6:1-5,  Ezekiel 1:4-28, 43:1-5, Daniel 7:9-10) but in all cases the frailty of human flesh is overcome, and the metaphors strain human comprehension.

         The appearance of Moses and Elijah to talk to Jesus possibly represents the epitome of the Law and the Prophets. Both spoke of the coming of Christ, and of His death for the redemption of mankind. In the Law, this is found in the symbolism of the Passover and in the prophets, Isaiah 53. Perhaps their appearance can be found partly in the Old Testament record that Moses was buried by God and no one knows the location (Deut 3:5-6) (possibly in heaven?) and that Elijah was carried bodily into heaven by a chariot of fire and therefore never died (2 Kings 2:11). Each of them had left the earth in an unique way ordained by God. Perhaps they were encouraging Jesus for the trials to come of the eternal plan of God and His role in it. In a sense it seems odd that the Son of God would need encouragement from mere mortals who have died and been glorified. Perhaps we don't fully understand this because we lack the eternal perspective.

         The reaction of Peter, James, and John is a typical human response. This is so wonderful, let's set up a permanent camp here.  Although, to be fair, they suggested a tabernacle, reaching back to the symbolism of the tabernacle in the wilderness that the Ark of the Covenant resided in during the Israelites' sojourn in the desert, and in the Promised Land until the temple was built in Jerusalem. In this view, perhaps they were wanting to enshrine Moses, Jesus, and Elijah in an Old Testament paradigm. But Jesus made it clear that that was not His reason for coming to the earth. Or perhaps they thought that it was time for fulfillment of the feast of tabernacles, and that this was the beginning of God establishing His kingdom in power on the earth. But that was not yet.

         Finally we have the cloud and the voice coming from heaven, repeating essentially the same statement that was heard at Jesus' baptism.(Luke 3:22)  Perhaps Jesus needed this encouragement to hear His Father's voice, to give Him strength in the flesh, to face the coming trials.

         Why did Peter, James, and John have trouble staying awake? Perhaps it is because the flesh has great difficulty dealing with the presence of the eternal and spiritual. How often do we struggle with sleep when we are at prayer. And we see that Peter, James, and John also had the same problem in the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:45-46). This is not an excuse, but we are bordering on the spiritual realities that underlie the concept of the dark night of the soul. Our human bodies, and souls, corrupted as they are by sin, have great difficulty coping with the presence of the reality of God. God wraps Himself in darkness at times as an act of mercy so that our mortal selves will not be destroyed by exposure to His glory. (Ex 33:18-23) And coming this close, perhaps the disciple were induced to sleep lest their souls be overwhelmed by God's revelation of His presence.

Luke 9:18-27 Jesus & Peter and the cost of discipleship

Luke 9:18-27 Jesus asks the disciples who He is and Peter says He is the Christ. Parallel passages in Matthew 16:13-20 and Mark 8:27-33.  The reporting on the first part is very consistent. Jesus first asks the disciples who the multitude thinks He is, and then He asks them who they think He is, evoking Peter's response 'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.' (Matt 16:16). But the discussion after this apparently went in a number of directions, with two different reports in different gospels.

         Matthew records the part of the conversation where Jesus blessed Peter because he had just received a revelation from the Father in heaven, and that He is going to build His church on the rock and thee gates of hell will not overpower it; and furthermore He will give Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and authority to bind and to loose both on earth and in heaven. There might be some question about what Jesus was referring back to when He said He would build His church upon this rock. Some believe He was referring to Peter, to whom He had given the name petros, the Greek word for stone. Some believe He was referring to the act of confessing Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, the foundational belief for conversion and salvation. Another possibility is that He was referring to the act of hearing the Father's voice and declaring it, which is the basis for doing His will.

         Mark and Luke record that Jesus then began to talk about His upcoming suffering and death. Peter then rebuked Him, and Jesus then rebuked Peter and Satan, for setting his mind on man's interests rather than God's. He followed this up with a warning to the disciples that whoever wants to follow Jesus must take up his own cross, and that whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it, what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Jesus now, He will be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of the Father.

         Why would these two different aspects of the consequences of Peter's declaration be reported independently? Eschewing discussion of the intended audience for each of the gospels, we have a fundamentally different take on what it means to confess Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. Matthew records the authority that comes through Christ, while Mark & Luke record the cost of following Him. Most likely both were part of the conversation that ensued after Peter's declaration. We don't know the order, but that is unimportant. What we must not miss is that Jesus was showing them the very nature of God in His own life - that He was God and that He was going to die to pay the price for the sin of the world. And that in a similar vein, the church was going to have authority in His name to bind and loose, the very keys to the kingdom of heaven, but that the cost of this authority will be that each believer must carry his own cross. By implication that cross is to give up the world and if necessary our physical lives but at the very least our soul-life (ownership of the priorities of our lives, finding our satisfaction in the things of this life rather than His kingdom), or else Jesus will be ashamed of us at the second coming.

Luke 9:1-17 Spurning the important to care for the more important

Luke 9:1-11 Jesus sends out the twelve to proclaim the kingdom of God. First He gave them power, then He gave them instructions. It seems odd that before the day of Pentecost He gave them power, but they went and apparently did great miracles because Herod heard about it. Jesus sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. The instructions must have been somewhat daunting - they were to take nothing with them - no food, no money, no change of clothes. Instead they were to look for hospitality and if they found none, leave the city and take care not to let its dust contaminate you. The disciples nonetheless went, preached the gospel, and performed miracles.

         Herod's reaction was that He had gotten rid of John the Baptist so who is Jesus? Perhaps John the Baptist had come back from the dead, or maybe it was Elijah, whose miracles were legendary in scripture. Eventually Herod would meet Jesus (Luke 23:7-11), but Jesus was not interested in meeting Herod at this time. In our day, it is counted an honor to be invited to meet the president. Obviously, Herod was a tyrant and ultimately participated in Jesus' death, but should we ask ourselves the question, how much does it impact the ministry of God if we get cozy with the powers of the world, even if they are benevolent?

         After the disciples reported in, Jesus tried to take them on a retreat, but the crowds followed. Jesus welcomed the crowds, continuing to preach and heal. It seems paradoxical that we often feel powerless because we do not spend enough time with The Lord privately, but Jesus never passed up an opportunity to minister to the needy, even when He was tired or needed time alone with the Father. We saw this earlier in Luke 4:38-44. Somehow the effort to minister when we feel drained is blessed. Often, if we have other commitments and a ministry opportunity presents itself, it is amazing to see God's had at work in the circumstances when we take the time to minister, so that the latter appointment or commitment is amply taken care of if we are late.

Luke 9:12-17 Jesus feeds five thousand with five loaves of bread and two fish.  The disciples are naturally concerned that everyone is getting hungry, and did not yet understand that God can provide for His ministry. When Jesus told the disciples to give them something to eat, it is hard to tell if He was joking with them or testing them. But the outcome was straightforward. He blessed the food looking to heaven, and then just kept giving to the disciples to distribute. It must have taken quite a while to distribute enough to feed five thousand men, plus women and children in the crowd.

         What should we take away from this story? In our day food is plentiful and comparatively inexpensive. Any large meetings that are held in stadiums or convention centers have ample restaurants, so this need would not arise, at least in the West. But the underlying theme of this seems to be that God will supernaturally supply needs that arise in the pursuit of the ministry of the gospel, if it is impossible by natural means to supply them. So in this sense, affluence limits God's ability to show Himself, because in so many different ways, we don't really need. What we do need is Him, and the question is whether our hunger for Him is strong enough that we would allow our circumstances to get to the point where we would need supernatural provision?

Luke 8:40-56 Life & health from death & disease

Luke 8:40-42, 49-56 Jesus raises Jairus' daughter from the dead. Parallel passages in Matt 9 and Mark 5. In this story, which is told in two parts. At the beginning, the daughter is reported as being ill and dying. While Jesus is on the way, He is distracted by another need, discussed below. By the time this matter had been completed, word comes to Jairus that it is too late, his daughter had died.

         Is there a lesson in this? Sometimes, when the work of the ministry thrusts itself into our life with such obvious priority that it cannot be ignored, something else is postponed or put on the back burner, even though it is possibly just as important. The tyranny of the urgent over the important. (Possibly we might think preventing death would be a higher priority than healing a hemorrhage.) But God is sovereign and Jesus was able to deal with this as well. In fact, it is possible that this gave Him an opportunity to display greater glory by raising Jairus' daughter from the dead. And a very similar thing happened in the case of Lazarus, when word reached Jesus that he was sick. He waited two days longer before going to see him. (John 11:6) When he got there he finds that Lazarus has been in the tomb four days. So even if He had set off immediately for Judea, Lazarus would have been in the tomb two days already by the time Jesus got there. Minor point. It seems in that case like Jesus deliberately procrastinated. In this case, ministry to the woman took front stage. But Jesus was able to overcome even death.

Luke 8:43-48 A woman with a hemorrhage for 12 years is healed by touching the fringe of Jesus' garment. Parallel passages in Matt 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34. Perhaps John the Baptist's references to Malachi (Matt 3:10-12, Luke 3:17) inspired this woman to believe that Malachi 4:2 was also being fulfilled. Certainly there had been enough healings by Jesus to raise that possibility. Her belief that she only needed to touch His garment, not even actually have Him say anything or touch her Himself, in order to be healed, was not previously recorded. Later on we will see that people had so much faith in the apostles' ministry of healing that they would lay down so that Peter's shadow would fall on them when he walked by (Acts 5:15), or people would take handkerchiefs from Paul to sick people and they would be healed or demons would be cast out (Acts 19:11-12). There seems to be a complex spiritual interaction between the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon a ministry and the faith of those who come to that person for healing or deliverance. Both are required, not necessarily words or actions, but the condition of the heart and soul that seems to be the key ingredient. And God is sovereign, so no simple formula can be given. Another key ingredient is clearly that glory and honor belong to Jesus as a result of the miracle. But Jesus said in this case, woman, your faith has saved you. The other elements were implicit.

Luke 8:26-39 Demonic schizophrenia and the discernment of spirits

Luke 8:26-39 The Gerasene demoniac. This story is paralleled in Matt 8:28-34 and Mark 5:1-20. There are many puzzling aspects to this story. To me Luke 8:29 tops the list. Jesus had been commanding the unclean spirit to come out, and it was not immediately cast out, but pleaded to not be tormented. Why did the demon not obey immediately? Instead we see a conversation in which they, that is the legion of demons, appear to be negotiating terms of exile. Why did Jesus entertain this conversation? Why did He permit them to go into the herd of pigs? (Luke 8:32-33)

         There was at least one element of fact in the demons' argument. They knew that in the end they would lose the war, but evidently not yet. Actually we don't have explicit revelation in the Scripture of what will happen to the demons in the end, only what will happen to Satan, their king. It appears that the demons, represented by locusts, come up out of the abyss during the great tribulation (Rev 9:1-4). But we don't know when they were sent there. Rev 9:11 tells us that their king, whose name is destroyer, also comes up out of the abyss. Rev 11:7 & 17:8 also mention the beast that comes up out of the abyss - presumably, but not necessarily the same as the king of the demons. And in Rev 20:3 we see that Satan is bound in the abyss for a thousand years. This is before he is released to deceive the nations at the end of the millennial reign of Christ, after which time he is thrown into the lake of fire.

         So the demons evidently know about what will happen at the end, even if we don't. But is it possible that they are sent into the abyss before the end times, and then released as described in Rev 9? If that is the case, it suggests that the church, through its authority in the name of Jesus, sends billions and billions of demons into the abyss during the church age, which are then released during the great tribulation after the church has been raptured. That would mean it would have been perfectly legitimate for Jesus to send this legion of demons into the abyss at that time, but for some reason He did not.

         In any event, it is clear that Jesus ultimately had authority over the demons, and that He did send them out of the man and into the pigs. The demons then sent the pigs down a cliff into the sea where the pigs drowned. No idea what happened to the demons after that. But the man was restored to his right mind, and Jesus sent him home to testify about his deliverance. The important feature of this story is not the demons, but the greatness of Jesus, who has authority over the demons and uses it to deliver people from their power.

         A modern psychiatric perspective would suggest that the symptoms exhibited by the man could be diagnosed as schizophrenia. This is a mental condition that has both physiological and behavioral causes. Yet Jesus did not address any of these. Of course, He could have said, 'Be healed!', but He instead chose to cast out demons. And when the demons had left, the man was in his right mind. This suggests that we need to practice discernment in any situation like this - where people are acting abnormally. There are multiple possible causes. I was once told that we cannot cast out the flesh, it must dealt with through mortification. (Romans 8:13) So we must seek wisdom from the Holy Spirit in each circumstance, to be able to distinguish spirit from flesh. There are typical characteristics of the operation of the enemy, as documented (for example) by Ignatius of Loyola in the 14 principles for the discernment of spirits. There are also typical characteristics of the flesh. (Gal 5:19-21) Ultimately, we need God to show us what it is we are facing and tell us what we should do. Even Jesus said that He only did what He saw the Father doing. (John 5:19)

Luke 8:16-25 Light, family, and faith

Luke 8:16-18 Parable of the Lamp. Luke 8:16 parallels Matt 5:15-16. Jesus first makes the point that nothing stays secret forever. Eventually everything will come to light, either in this life or at the final judgment. Watergate should be an adequate modern parable for this truth. But even if someone manages to bury things for their entire life, it will come to light at the final judgment. But Jesus is the Light of the world! (John 8:12) We should put Jesus on a lampstand - in this case, our lives.

         Luke 8:18 is a peculiar verse. How are we to understand this seeming inversion of fairness? In the context of light and revelation, it seems that Jesus is telling us that the one who has received true revelation from God (light) in the sense of the earlier passages about doing what He says - that person is going to receive more, because he has a good heart. But the one who thinks he has a spiritual revelation, but has not received God's truth (John 14:6, 18:37-38) and has rejected Christ, not only will not receive light, but will ultimately discover that the spiritual revelation he thought he had was wrong.

Luke 8:19-21 Jesus' mother & brothers come to Him. In view of the high regard with which Mary, the mother of Jesus, is held, His treatment of her in this passage seems paradoxical. We know that she knew He was the Son of God, because the angel had told her so (Luke 1:35). There is no implication that she now doubted this, yet He said that true kinship is established based on hearing and doing the will of God. Mary had called herself the love-slave of The Lord before Jesus' birth. What more did He expect? Perhaps this was only a symbolic statement to re-emphasize to all present the relational nature of God, that would naturally result in doing what He says.

Luke 8:22-25 Jesus calms the storm at sea. The disciples were naturally afraid when waves began to swamp the boat. Jesus was asleep! Do we ever see things happening in our lives that terrify us, and Jesus seems to not answer prayers? When Jesus says, 'Where is your faith?' He is metaphorically asking us the same question. When that problem arises, and we pray but He seems to be far away or asleep or unresponsive, do we become terrified? And is that natural reaction what God wants in the circumstances? Perhaps we need to adopt the mindset that Paul had during the Euraquilo, when everyone else on the boat thought they were lost but he encouraged them in faith. (Acts 27:14-44). At least he offers us a different model for response to the storms of life.

Luke 8:1-15 The spiritual transaction that produces fruit

Luke 8:1-3 Jesus' traveling companions described. It must have been quite a crowd. There were the twelve that Jesus had called as apostles (Luke 6:12-16), plus several women of whom three are named. Considering the treatment of John the Baptist by Herod (Luke 9:9), it seems striking that the wife of Herod's steward would travel with Jesus. There must have been some degree of strain in her life, because of her husband's job and her decision to follow Jesus and evidently contribute to the support of His ministry. Mary Magdalene is mentioned in other passages, but here we have the revelation that seven demons had gone out of her. We have no other information on Susanna. Perhaps she was named for the heroine of the 13th chapter of Daniel in the Septuagint, the godly woman who was blackmailed by some Jewish elders but refused to go along and was ultimately vindicated by Daniel's intervention. An odd collection of people, but perhaps this is what church is like. A bunch of disparate people who have nothing in common except for their devotion to Christ.

Luke 8:4-15 The parable of the sower and the seed. Here we have the first of Jesus' teaching parables. (Considering the parable told to Simon the Pharisee as simply making a point.) In this parable Jesus cites Isaiah 6:9 in Luke 8:10 as an explanation for teaching in parables. In context, Isaiah has just received his commission, after having a vision of the throne of God with the cherubim crying, "Holy, Holy, Holy", Isaiah's own recognition of his uncleanness of speech and purification by one of God's seraphim. The essence of Isaiah's commission is that most people will ignore his words and ultimately reap the consequences of their choices. But there will remain a remnant, compared to the stump of a tree that has fallen, that will remain. And so Jesus will tell parables to the great multitude (Luke 8:4) but only explain it to His disciples (Luke 8:9-10).

         The point of the parable is straightforward. The word of God goes forth, proclaimed as good news. Most will not receive it (hearkening back to Isaiah's commission), for a variety of reasons. The devil steals it from their heart (not their mind!); some fall into temptation because the word of God does not take root in their heart; some are so pre-occupied with worldly concerns that the word is choked out of their life; but a few receive the word into their heart and hold it fast, and it grows up to bear fruit.

         The emphasis of this parable seems to be that it is not circumstances, nor is it the mental condition of understanding God's word, that is the critical factor in the outcome. It is the condition and response of the heart to God's word. Jesus describes these conditions as having an honest (kalos) and good (agathos) heart, and a heart that holds the word fast (katechousin). Without getting into the difference between heart and spirit, it appears that there is a spiritual dimension to each human life, to which God speaks His word. This spiritual dimension is affected by choices and decisions that are made by the person, that result in his or her heart being responsive and receptive to God's word, or it is not. We can explain the theology of salvation and the love of God, but mere mental understanding of these things does not produce fruit. There is a spiritual transaction that Jesus is describing, in which a person's spirit comes into relationship with God's word, and ultimately with God's Spirit, that produces the fruit of salvation.