Gospel According to Luke

Chapter 9

What follows in the next two chapters is a sequence of what may appear to be independent pieces which are actually linked closely one to the other.

Call of the Twelve

Jesus calls his twelve and sends them out on a mission having given them power and authority over demons and sickness. Jesus gives them a job description:

They are given power to cure the sick and cast out demons. They are through this ministry to “proclaim the kingdom of God.
They are to go out totally unarmed. They are to take nothing, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money, not even an extra tunic.\
Stay at the houses that welcome you.
Shake the dust off their feet as testimony against them from those places where people do not welcome them.

We are told that the twelve went out into the world at the Lord’s command and found that they were equipped to do the work that Jesus asked them to do.

Who is this?

Luke takes us into the questions from Herod the ruler who had heard about Jesus. The question weighing on Herod as with many around the area was about the identity. The leading theories were that John who was murdered by Herod had risen from the dead. Some thought that Elijah had appeared, and others thought that one of the ancient prophets had arise.

The Crowd on the Plain

Jesus and the disciples encountered a large crowd, 5000 men to be exact, not counting the women and children. They were in a deserted place and the disciples wanted Jesus to send them away because they were hungry. The story become rich as Jesus commands his disciples to “give them something to eat.” Note the disciples’ reaction. We don’t have enough. How are we going to feed all these people? These were the same disciples who just returned and learned that they had been given power and authority over demons and illness. They were not faced with another seemingly impossible task of caring for the needs of the world. Jesus asked, “How much do you have.” They had 5 loaves and two fish. With those provision placed in Jesus’ hands he turned them into enough to feed them all with leftovers.

This is a story of a crisis of faith. This is also a story that recalls the time of Israel in the wilderness. Once again, the people are faced with the deficit of food. Once again they are sent into a tail spin. The wilderness was a time in which the people had to learn to depend upon God for everything. When they were hungry they had to turn to God to provide food. When they were thirsty, they had to turn to God to provide drink. Their approach was always faithless. They turned to Moses with anger and despair bemoaning that God had brought them out into the wilderness to die of hunger and thirst. This was to be a journey of freedom and release from captivity and they only saw despair and want. In the wilderness, God provided manna and quail each day. The people only had to gather it. They could have as much as they wanted in the day, but they could not reserve it from day to day. Anything that they tried to hoard rotted. Their lesson was that God would give them their needs every day, but they had to depend upon God from day to day. On this plain, Jesus took the small amount, gave thanks, broke it and gave it to the disciples with the command, feed them now. You may recognize the words from the Eucharistic liturgy. That is no mistake. In the churches understanding of God feeding the people, the Eucharist is the food that sends down from heaven to feed his people.

In this text we are presented with the understanding of taking the resources in our hands, sparse as they may seem, giving them to God and God blessing them for the purpose of feeding the people of God. Once again, the disciples are placed in the position of having to turn to God to provide for their needs and the needs of the world. Faith is challenged.

Who is this?

Once again the question of identity is raised, but this time Jesus is raising the question toward his disciples. The approach comes into two questions: Who do the people say that I am? The answer is the same, some of the people say John the Baptist, some say Elijah, and some say one of the prophets. Then Jesus asks the existential question, who do you say that I am? There is no more room for theory and meandering. It’s time for them to declare themselves. Peter spoke for the rest, “You are the Messiah of God.” The answer was right.

The disciples present an amazing combination of both faith and doubt. They had taken up their crosses and followed Jesus wherever he went. They observed the healing and experienced that authority being placed in their hands, yet they could not comprehend that God could take five loaves and two fish and feed 5000 people. They could find the wherewithal to confess the Jesus as the Messiah, but couldn’t grasp the potency of what that meant.

The Messianic Secret

Jesus then commanded them to tell no one that he is the Messiah. In the same instant, Jesus began to teach them what the Messiah is about. His messiahship would be brought to light by the fact that he (The Son of Man) must undergo suffering, rejection, and death then to be raised on the third day. The Messiah is be recognized in God’s saving action for the world, the death and resurrection of Jesus, not through doing of miracles or healings. The wondrous events are to be understood in retrospect. That is to say, they will not be fully understood until the world sees Jesus executed and then raised by God to life again. Then the world be able to say, that Jesus was the Messiah.

The element of secrecy also has a great deal to do with the hidden nature of God’s presence in human form. This was the stumbling block for those who feverishly clung to the old covenant; stubbornly clinging to what they thought was God’s self expression. Those with eyes to see and ears to hear where those who saw glimpses of God’s presence in the weakness of Jesus’ humanity. God had come to earth. Seeing it and believing it in Jesus was the key to understanding God’s ultimate plan for the world, salvation through the cross, not obedience to the law that could never be satisfied. God in human form was the secret. Salvation at the cross was God’s secret for the world.

Following the Messiah

That secret had implication for the disciples. Theirs was not to be a place of privilege and power in the sense that the world understood power. Following Jesus was about taking the lowest position. Disciples did not shun suffering or weakness. They did not reject imperfection in people but gravitated to the poor, the sick, the weak, and the disenfranchised. Discipleship was presented as participation in the cross of Christ, not its rejection.

Transfiguration

The physical elevation of the text rises. Jesus, Peter, James, and John ascend the mountain where Jesus is transformed before their eyes. Recall that the lower ground is the place for teaching. Jesus teaches on the plain in Luke, not on the Mountain. Mountains are reserved for revelation of God. Jesus is transformed. Moses and Elijah appear to him. A cloud overshadows them and the voice speaks out of heaven saying that Jesus is the God’s son, the Chosen. Listen to him. For one brief instant the disciples have the chance to see the divine nature of Jesus. For one moment the “secret” is revealed. This is God in the flesh of a human. They are given the opportunity to see the outcome of Jesus’ ordeal to which they are headed in Jerusalem. Once again the disciples are asked to keep silent about the transformation until after Jesus has been raised from the dead. The death and resurrection are to be the revelatory events of the life of Christ, and nothing less.

Healing

Another challenge to faith and further revelation of the Messiah is presented in the appearance of the man with the possessed son. Our modern consciousness reads this text and sees and epileptic (a spirit that thrashes this boy around on the ground). It presents a challenge to faith because the disciples are asked to heal the boy and are unable to do it. This presents one of those moments when Jesus becomes angry with the world in which he is living. “You faithless and perverse generation, how much longer must I be with you and bear with you?” Jesus stands in contrast to the world around him, the world that is about to reject him and bring him to death on the cross. Jesus states again, and urges them, “Let these words sink into your ears; The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into human hands.” They didn’t understand what he was talking about. Even his disciples still walked the fine between faith and doubt.

Greatness

To further the argument about their inability to grasp what Jesus was teaching, and what Jesus was talking about they argued about who was the greatest. Jesus points to the child. – the weak, vulnerable, and dependent – this one is the greatest, and in fact, if you do not become like this child you will always be on the outside. Jesus identifies with the weak, vulnerable and dependent. “Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.” Here is the “punch line” of Jesus’ teaching, “for the least among all of you is the greatest.”

Their sense of self of self worth spills out into the open once again. They had seen a man casting out demons “in Jesus’ name,” and stopped him because he was not one of the inner circle. The disciples were guilty of separating “them” from “us.” Jesus would have none of that. He said to them that those who are not against us are with us.

The disciples are caught up further into the division of people. The later understanding of the Torah, that which was flourishing in Jesus’ day was based on the divisions between the clean and the unclean, the kosher and non-kosher, the Jew and the gentile. The argument entered into regarding the Samaritans is one such example. This is an ancient argument that dates back to the days after Solomon died and his sons split the kingdom of Israel into two. Samaritans and Jews did not mix. Samaritans were outcast because they did not worship in Jerusalem but set up their own temple on Mount Gerazim. The disciples where ready rain down fire from heaven upon these infidels. Jesus would not bring judgment even upon these ancient quarrels but drew his disciples back and the headed to his Jerusalem where he would soon be revealed as the Messiah.

The Cost of Discipleship

Jesus’ invitation to all people is to follow him. Luke reports the encounter with several responses to Jesus’ invitation. One person says, I’ll follow you anywhere. Jesus warns that following Jesus not the easy road. The “Son of Man” has nothing. “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has no where to lay his head.” A second says that he has to bury a father. Jesus’ words seem harsh, “let the dead bury their own dead.” His implication sounds severe. Those who do not follow are dead. The next wants to say farewell. Jesus presents the life of following him is one of “no looking back.”

These are words that relate the teaching of the Pharisee who wanted to know about what it takes inherit eternal life. “Love the Lord your God with all you heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.” There is no second thought. God is first and foremost. This is also related to that teaching that Jesus gives his disciples about taking up their cross. God must take president over wife, father, brother, sister, husband. God must never take second place to anything or anyone.

Friday, September 21, 2007