Luke 9:43b–50 We can read about this account as well in Matthew
17:22-23; Matthew 18:1-5; Mark 9:30–40
What we will study today in Death to the Greatest…01. The Second Prediction (Luke 9:43b-45);
02. The Apostles Pride (Luke 9:46-48);
and 03. No Middle Ground (Luke 9:49-50).
Previously, we have studied the confession of Peter: τὸν Χριστὸν του̂ θεου̂,
“the Christ
of God” (Luke 9:18-21),
the first prediction by Jesus of His upcoming death (Luke 9:22), the call to carry the
cross of Jesus (Luke
9:23-27), the transfiguration of Jesus (Luke 9:28-36) and the healing of
the demon-possessed boy (Luke 9:37-43a).
01. The Second Prediction (Luke 9:43b-45)
This is a good example that reminds us that the placing of
chapters (added early 13th century) and verses (added mid 16th
century) throughout the Bible are not inspired by God, but placed by man to try
to make it easier to locate different Scripture. This section closes the
ministry of Jesus in the Galilee, for in Luke
9:51-19:27, Dr. Luke records for us the final journey of Jesus towards
Jerusalem.
Luke 9:43b “But while everyone
marveled at all the things which Jesus did,” Everyone there who
witnessed the healing of the demon-possessed boy was struck with wonder[1] at
the continuing mighty works done by Jesus.
Luke 9:43c-44 “He said to His
disciples, Let these words sink down into your
ears,”” or literally You-put
these words into your ears.[2]
Jesus wanted to temper their false expectations of a political conquering
Messiah.
Luke 9:44 “for the Son of Man” The title “Son of Man” was used by Jesus over 80 times to
describe Himself, and it is taken from the prophecy in Daniel 7:13. It speaks of His
humanity and suffering and His work as “the ideal Man.” [3]
Luke 9:44 “is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.” Jesus
of course here is referring to Judas, who was to betray Him (Matthew 26:14-16;
Mark
14:10-11; Luke 22:1-6) to the religious leaders (Luke 9:22;
Luke 22:1–23:56).
Both Matthew (Matthew
17:23) and Mark (Mark 9:31) add that Jesus will be killed and will
rise from the dead on the third day. Despite the actions of different men, ultimately it was God
Himself who delivered His Son to be crucified. For we read in Isaiah that “it pleased YHWH to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief.”
(Isaiah 53:10), and Paul
wrote that God “did not spare His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all” (Romans
8:32). Peter said that Jesus was “delivered
by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God…taken by lawless
hands…crucified, and put to death” (Acts
2:23). This is why Jesus had to “go
to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and
scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.” (Matthew 16:21) Before
the kingdom comes the cross, before the glory comes the suffering.
Luke 9:45 The phrase “it was
hidden” in the Greek is ἠ̂ν παρακεκαλυμμένον, and it is
written in the passive voice, which means it is implying that God is the
subject. What that means is that the apostles were kept by God from completely
understanding that Jesus, the Messiah was going to die.[4] Some
speculate that God did hid this from them because if they fully knew and
understood what would happen to Jesus, they would have fled like they did when
He was first arrested (Zechariah 13:7; Matthew 26:31; Matthew 26:56; Mark 14:27; Mark 14:50-52). Another plausible
reason is that because they had believed what the Rabbi’s falsely taught that
the Messiah was to be a conquering deliverer. This is not the first time that
we are told that people are kept from understanding completely what is being
said by Jesus (The Parable of the Sower in Luke
8:4-15).
Depending on whether one is open to hearing what Jesus
teaches will reveal whether His words are revealed or concealed by His hearers
(cf. Luke 8:10).
The unregenerate in heart cannot discern what Jesus is teaching, because the “the natural man does not receive the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned.” (1
Corinthians 2:14) “Because the carnal
mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed
can be.” (Romans 8:7) In
support of this, Jesus quoting from Isaiah 6:9 in Luke
8:10 says, “Seeing they may not see,
And hearing they may not understand.”
When Jesus spoke in parables, He was actually being very
gracious to His hearers. For if they rejected His claim as the Messiah, the Son
of God, then their judgment won’t be as bad if they had understood more (Matthew
11:20–22; Luke 10:13–15; 1 Timothy
4:2).
Paul explains that the preaching of Jesus crucified is a
stumbling block to the Jews in 1 Corinthians
1:23. Why was death on a Roman cross “a
stumbling block” to the Jew? It’s because in the Law of Moses, in Deuteronomy 21:23, it was declared that anyone “hung on a tree” was
cursed by God. But Paul declares “Christ has
redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is
written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”),” (Galatians 3:13) For the Jew, even the very
idea that the Messiah had to die a death that the Law of Moses declared as a
curse from God (Deuteronomy 21:23)
was antithetical to the Rabbinic Judaism interpretation of the Law of Moses,
which was a religion of works.
What many don’t realize is that according to the New
Testament writers, the faith of Abraham (as well as that of Isaac, Jacob, Job,
Enoch and Noah) is the same as our faith today (Romans 3:28-30; Galatians 5:6;
cf. Genesis
6:8-9; Genesis 15:6)! All of the early patriarchs of our faith
did not have the Law of Moses, yet they were justified by faith because they
placed their faith in God and not in the polytheistic religious systems that
were so prevalent at their time (Romans 4:9-15; Hebrews 11:6; Hebrews 11:13-16).
Paul writes in his epistles to the Galatians and Romans “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the
law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that
we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for
by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.” (Galatians 2:16) “Therefore
by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin.” (Romans
3:20) Paul tells us that the Law was given “because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to
whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a
mediator.” (Galatians 3:19)
In order for the Law to be fulfilled, in God’s perfect
timing, He sent His Son to be a man to redeem mankind from sin so that we might
be sons of God (Galatians
4:4-7). But nowhere do we see that the Law of Moses was given for
salvation, which Paul explains so clearly in Galatians
2:21. Still to this day, the teaching that the Messiah was the
“suffering servant” (Psalm 22:1-31; Isaiah 53:1-12, Zechariah 12:10),
being “cursed of God” (Deuteronomy 21:23) to redeem us from “the curse of
the Law” (Galatians 3:13)
is offensive in Rabbinic Judaism!
02. The Apostles Pride (Luke 9:46-48)
In February 1964, before the biggest fight of his career to
that point, a 22 year old, brash boxer by the name of Cassius Clay made his
famous “I Am the Greatest” speech ahead of his world title fight with the
reigning champ, Sonny Liston. He won that fight, and a year later changed his
name to Muhammed Ali. To this day, he is regarded as simply “The Greatest” and
much revered by the world, as they constantly note how great he was, and the
world lauds him with praise still to this day about how great was pride.
Pride. Pride is something that does not need to be taught,
for it comes naturally to sinful, degenerate humans. It is demonstrated in
self-promotion, self-centeredness, and self-love. Because of it, Adam and Eve
introduced sin to mankind, for they wanted to “be
like God” (Genesis 3:5). As time goes on, mankind tries to make pride a
good thing, which Isaiah records YHWH as saying, “Woe
to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and
light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)
Here we see the pride of the apostles coming to the top.The
apostles had “a dispute”, or an argument[5]
where they debated with one another “as to which of
them would be greatest” (Luke 9:46)
in God’s kingdom. Mark records for us that they were arguing as they were
walking, but were ashamed to tell Jesus when He asked them what they were
arguing about Mark 9:33–34. Soon
after this, James and John, with the help of their mother were bold enough to
ask Jesus for the two most prominent places in the kingdom of God (Matthew 20:20-28; Mark 10:35-40)! And then, after Jesus institutes the LORD’s Supper
(Luke 22:14-23), Dr. Luke writes
that “Now there was also a dispute among them,
as to which of them should be considered the greatest.” (Luke 22:24)
It is striking when you compare this account with the
command uttered by Jesus that His followers take up the cross and follow Him (Luke 9:23-27)
and the confession of Peter: τὸν
Χριστὸν του̂ θεου̂, “the Christ of God” (Luke 9:20). Sadly, once again,
we see that the apostles will not fully grasp what Jesus has been teaching and
showing them until after the resurrection of Jesus (Matthew 28:1-8; Mark 16:1-11;
Luke 24:1-12;
John 20:1-18;).
Again, we see the juxtaposition of the apostles with what Jesus has been
teaching and telling them, and how quickly they have forgotten that Jesus came
to die for our sins (Matthew 1:21; John 1:29). When the apostles think that they
need to vie for position in the Kingdom of God, Jesus decides to give them an
example of what it means to be great!
Luke 9:47 “And Jesus, perceiving
the thought of their heart,” Here again we see that Jesus knows the
thoughts (G1261
διαλογισμοί)
of others (Luke 5:22; Luke 6:8; Luke 9:46–47; Luke 24:38),
which is in fulfillment of the prophecy that Simeon prophesied about Him when
He was just a baby in Luke 2:35. Simeon
prophesied that Jesus will cause the “thoughts
of many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:35). This text once again
proves that Jesus is God, for we see the omniscience of Jesus again on display.
Notice as well that Dr. Luke, writing under the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16-17) mentions that Jesus knows
the “thought of their heart,” (Luke 9:47). That’s because the argument that
arose amongst the apostles flowed from their sinful hearts. In fact the Greek
noun that is used for “heart” here in Luke 9:47 is written in the singular form, which
indicates that they were all thinking the same evil thought of who was going to
be the greatest! The degenerate heart is the source of all the vileness that we
spew out of our mouth (Jeremiah 17:9–10;
Romans 2:5). Our heart is the source
of what we say, for Jesus said that “A good man out
of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the
evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the
heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45)
Still to this day, no other figure in the past or present
has been so polarizing. Bring up the name of Jesus, and most people will reveal
their thoughts regarding Him!
Luke 9:47 “took a little child
and set him by Him,” or “taken him in His arms” (Mark 9:36) and “in the midst
of them” (Matthew 18:2). Jesus took a child, quite
possibly Peter’s child[6] to
illustrate humility because children were the lowest in society. Very few people, even in today’s world, would say that a
child is the personification of greatness
Luke 9:48 Receiving a child in Jesus’ name is the same as
receiving Jesus and the Father who sent him.[7]
What is the characteristic of little children that Jesus
wants us to have? What does it mean when people say that we are to have a
“Child-like faith? Some have said that we must have the characteristic of
simplicity, for children are generally simplistic, and not prone to duplicity like
adults are prone to be. Some have said that it’s being candid, for no one is
more candid than little kids! Others have said that the characteristic that
Jesus is talking about here is sincerity. Still others have said that it’s how
open and respective they can be to new ideas. There is some element of truth in
each of these thoughts, but when we see that the Greek word that Dr. Luke uses
here for child is (G3813
παιδίον paidiŏn)[8] and
it is used to describe (BDAG)
a very young child (or an infant[9]) ‘up to seven years’[10] of age. This
seems to fit what Mark tells us that Jesus took the little child “in His arms” (Mark
9:36), which would fit the description of an infant or toddler.
So what is the chief characteristic of infants, or even
toddlers? I would have to say it is that they have a helpless need. For when a
baby is born they are naked before all helpless, and in need. An infant, even a
young child cannot survive on their own. They are utterly helpless, needing
someone to come along and take care of them. So what is our LORD and Saviour
saying here? He is saying that if we want to inherit the kingdom of God, if we
are going to enter into Heaven, we must come to Him as one in absolute need,
helpless, naked, utterly dependent on Him.
As Paul says in Ephesians 2:12, “that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope and without God in the world.” We are helpless and
hopeless without God, for there is no way that we can enter into Heaven on our
own merit (cf. Romans
3:21-25; Galatians 2:16; Ephesians 2:8-10). Jesus is the
greatest in the coming kingdom, not the apostles!
You juxtapose pride with the humility that is to be a mark
of those who follow after Jesus (Romans 7:18; Philippians 3:7-8; 1 Timothy 1:15).
When convicted by the Holy Spirit of your pride, you will say along with Paul, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the
excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered
the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish (G4657
σκύβαλον skubalŏn, specifically of human feces
or excrement[11]), that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Pride is not a virtue but a
sin, not to be excused but confessed, for “Everyone
proud in heart is an abomination to YHWH; Though they join forces, none will go
unpunished” (Proverbs 16:5)
because “a proud heart is sin”
(Proverbs 21:4).
David says “Though YHWH is on high, Yet He regards the
lowly; But the proud He knows from afar.” (Psalm 138:6)
James tells us “God resists
the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6)
03. No Middle
Ground (Luke 9:49-50)
Luke 9:49 As if John wanted to change the subject after
the embarrassment of the rebuke for their dispute concerning greatness (Luke 9:46–48).[12] He
tells Jesus that they “forbade him” or literally, “We tried to hinder
him”[13]
from casting out demons. The reason was “because he
does not follow with us.” Here again we see the pride of the
apostles coming to light. This man was doing the Master’s work in the Master’s
name and with the Master’s power, but because He was not one of the apostles,
the Twelve decided to forbid him! With this pride, the apostles were
treading on dangerous ground, for if they were noyt careful, they would be a
lot like the Pharisees, who condemned Jesus for healing the man with the withered
hand on the Sabbath (Luke 6:6–11).
Luke 9:50 What Jesus is basically saying here is “stop hindering him”. Mark records that
Jesus said here, “Do not forbid him, for no one who
works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak .evil of Me. For he who is
not against us is on our side.” (Mark
9:39–40)
There is no middle ground when it comes to Jesus. There is
no middle ground between truth and error, between sound doctrine (1 Timothy 1:10;
Titus 1:9;
Titus 2:1)
and heresy (2
Timothy 4:3), between orthodoxy and heterodoxy.
Only those who teach the true, unadulterated Word of God can
we embrace as fellow servants of the LORD Jesus the Christ.
[1] Strong, J. (2009). A
Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible
(Vol. 1, p. 36). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
[2] Just, A. A., Jr. (1996). Luke 1:1–9:50 (p. 410). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Pub. House.
[3] Blum, E. A. (1985). John. In J. F. Walvoord & R.
B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge
Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 2, p. 276). Wheaton, IL:
Victor Books.
[4] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Lk 9:45). Nashville, TN:
Broadman Press.
[5] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament
and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., pp. 232–233). Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
[6] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Lk 9:47). Nashville, TN:
Broadman Press.
[7] Just, A. A., Jr. (1996). Luke 1:1–9:50 (pp. 415–416). St. Louis, MO: Concordia Pub. House.
[8] Strong, J. (2009). A
Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible
(Vol. 1, p. 54). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
[9] Strong, J. (2009). A
Concise Dictionary of the Words in the Greek Testament and The Hebrew Bible
(Vol. 1, p. 54). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.
[10] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament
and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 749). Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
[11] Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament
and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 932). Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
[12] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Lk 9:49). Nashville, TN:
Broadman Press.
[13] Robertson, A. T. (1933). Word Pictures in the New Testament (Lk 9:49). Nashville, TN:
Broadman Press.
