Luke 9

Luke 9:37-45 . DEMONIAC AND LUNATIC BOY HEALED--CHRIST'S SECOND EXPLICIT ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS DEATH AND RESURRECTION.

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 Matthew 17:22 , and Mark 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 Matthew 17:22 , and Mark 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.

Luke 9:46-48 . STRIFE AMONG THE TWELVE WHO SHOULD BE GREATEST--JOHN REBUKED FOR EXCLUSIVENESS.

49, 50. John answered, &c.--The link of connection here with the foregoing context lies in the words "in My name" ( Luke 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' [ Mark 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, Acts 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 ( Numbers 11:24-29 ).

Luke 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" ( Isaiah 50:7 ).
go to Jerusalem--as His goal, but including His preparatory visits to it at the feasts of tabernacles and of dedication ( John 7:2 John 7:10 , John 10:22 John 10:23 ), 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.

54. James and John--not Peter, as we should have expected, but those "sons of thunder" ( Mark 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 ( Luke 9:49 Luke 9:50 ). Yet this was "the disciple whom Jesus loved," while the other willingly drank of His Lord's bitter cup. form, in the beloved disciple, we find in 2 John 1:5:10 , 3 John 1:10 .
fire . . . as Elias--a plausible case, occurring also in Samaria ( 2 Kings 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 Luke 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 ( Matthew 10:23 ).

Luke 9:57-62 . INCIDENTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF DISCIPLESHIP.

The Precipitate Disciple ( Luke 9:57 Luke 9:58 ).

The Procrastinating Disciple ( Luke 9:59 Luke 9:60 ).

The Irresolute Disciple ( Luke 9:61 Luke 9:62 ).

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 ( 1 Kings 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.

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" ( Genesis 19:26 ; and It is not actual return to the world, but a reluctance to break with it.