seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Luke 9:1 When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3 He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt. 4 Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. 5 If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” 6 So they set out and went from village to village, proclaiming the good news and healing people everywhere.
7 Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, 8 others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. 9 But Herod said, “I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?” And he tried to see him.
10 When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, 11 but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.
12 Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.”
13 He replied, “You give them something to eat.”
They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” 14 (About five thousand men were there.)
But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” 15 The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. 16 Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. 17 They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
18 Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”
19 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
20 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”
21 Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 22 And he said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”
23 Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. 25 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 26 Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.
27 “Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”
28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray. 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning. 30 Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 31 They spoke about his departure,[a] which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem. 32 Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him. 33 As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)
34 While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. 35 A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.” 36 When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.
37 The next day, when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him. 38 A man in the crowd called out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. 39 A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. 40 I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not.”
41 “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”
42 Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the impure spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father. 43 And they were all amazed at the greatness of God.
While everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did, he said to his disciples, 44 “Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.” 45 But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
46 An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. 47 Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside him. 48 Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.”
49 “Master,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.”
50 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”
51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; 53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. 54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them[b]?” 55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them. 56 Then he and his disciples went to another village.
57 As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”
58 Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
59 He said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
61 Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.”
62 Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
a. Luke 9:31 Greek exodos
b. Luke 9:54 Some manuscripts them, just as Elijah did
This is from enduringword.com.
Who do you say that I am? It was fine for the disciples to know what the crowds thought about Jesus. But Jesus had to ask them, as individuals, what they believed about Jesus.
Jesus assumed that the disciples would have a different opinion of Him than the crowds. They didn’t just receive the conventional wisdom or the popular opinion. They should know who Jesus was.
This is the question placed before all who hear of Jesus; and it is we, not He, who are judged by our answer. In fact, we answer this question every day by what we believe and do. If we really believe Jesus is who He says He is, it will affect the way that we live.
The Christ of God: Peter knew Jesus better than the crowds did. He knew that Jesus is the Christ of God, God’s Messiah, the promised redeemer from the Old Testament, the Messiah from the heart of God, not the Messiah from the desire of man.
For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when He comes in His own glory: It isn’t easy to walk death row with Jesus. It means that we have to associate ourselves with someone who was despised and executed – but if we are ashamed of Him, He will be ashamed of us.
But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the kingdom of God: After this extreme call to follow Jesus unto death, He added a promise of significant glory (till they see the kingdom of God). Jesus wanted them to know that it wasn’t all suffering and death, the end of it all wasn’t death.
The appearance of His face was altered: This was important at this point in Jesus’ ministry because He had just told His disciples that He would go the way of the cross, and that they should follow Him spiritually. It would have been easy for them to lose confidence in Jesus after such a seemingly defeatist statement. Yet in His transfigured radiance, Jesus showed His glory as King over all God’s Kingdom.
Spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem: Of all the things they might have discussed, they chose this topic. It seems that Moses and Elijah were interested in the outworking of God’s plan through Jesus; they spoke about what Jesus was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.
Master, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: Like many since, Peter made trouble for himself when he spoke, not knowing what he said.
As they were parting from Him makes it clear that Peter said what he said when Moses and Elijah began to leave. Peter didn’t want the scene of glory to stop.
Perhaps his thinking went something like this: This is how it should be! Forget this idea of suffering, being rejected, and crucified; let’s build some tabernacles so we can live this way with the glorified Jesus all the time. Peter’s suggestion meant that not only would Jesus avoid the future cross, but so also would Peter.
Also, in suggesting three tabernacles, Peter made the mistake of putting Jesus on an equal level with Moses and Elijah, with one tabernacle for each of them.
O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and bear with you? There is a sense that Jesus was frustrated with His disciples. His season of ministry before the cross was coming to an end, and perhaps He felt frustration that the disciples did not have more faith.
And they were all amazed at the majesty of God: Jesus had just revealed His glory in two spectacular ways – the transfiguration and the casting out of a difficult demon. Yet, He reminded His disciples that His mission had not changed; He still had come to die on the cross for our sins, and the Son of Man is about to be betrayed into the hands of men.
They entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him. But they did not receive Him: Because Jesus was going to Jerusalem these particular Samaritans did not welcome Jesus. They didn’t have good relations with the Jews, and were prejudiced against them. We may also see this as the opposition (knowing or not) that comes the way of all who set their face steadfastly to do God’s will.
This is from gotquestions.org.Luke 9:27 says, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God." See also Matthew 16:28 and Mark 9:1 for the parallel quotes. In each of the synoptic Gospels, the next event immediately after this promise from Jesus is the transfiguration. Rather than interpreting Jesus’ promise as referring to His coming to establish His kingdom on earth, the context indicates that Jesus was referring to the transfiguration. The Greek word translated "kingdom" can also be translated "royal splendor," meaning that the three disciples standing there would see Christ as He really is—the King of heaven—which occurred in the transfiguration.
I had a thought while I was reading the chapter and the commentary. Jesus wasn't there to bring anyone back from the dead until after He had been to the cross and after He had been laid in the tomb and after He had raised from death.... and everyone was offered the same eternal life. He had plenty of disciples to do the regular work.... arranging people in groups of 50 for the meal.... making sure the grounds were picked up afterward... that kind of thing. The He now had His Apostles.... these were the twelve men would lead all the other disciples. The Apostles were supposed to be training to heal people and feed them. The Apostles, IMHO, were there to take that crowd pressure off of Jesus so He could do what He was there to do.... get rid of that death issue.According to what I'm seeing.... humans were just too ignorant to get it. There were a lot of people who wanted to be disciples..... but the Apostles wanted to be exclusive. They were running other people away... when the other people were just trying to help. Helping the Apostles was a little more than scraping off the plates after a pot luck...... it would mean healing and caring. Those ignorant Apostles thought they could do what Jesus didn't do.... they thought they could heal and care for everyone..... without delegation.
On top of that.... when Jesus did let Peter, James, and John in on the inner workings of His mission.... Peter wanted to keep Moses and Elijah on earth to glow for him. I shouldn't say that.... Peter was just trying to understand.... but the human mind was just too mucked up with human junk to take in the real reason for the meeting.
Jesus said that some people would see the Kingdom of God before they die. One of the commentaries explained that the "Kingdom of God" can be translated "Glory of God" and that makes things a whole lot clearer for me.
In this chapter... it seems those ignorant humans Jesus chose to be His Apostles were just blithering idiots..... and I have a feeling that Jesus was saying "they are never going to learn". He could have made them understand.... but then.... that would take away a lot of the choice that God gave man when He created Him. God wanted man to trust Him. Even today.... people want Jesus to show up in a cloud and rescue us all..... but they don't even read the Bible because of what ever reason is appropriate to that particular day. Humans are never gonna learn!
