Luke 9

Luke 9:37-62

Subdivision 4. (Luke 9:37-62.)Testing in an evil World. We have seen then what the world is, through which the disciple of Jesus is called to pass, and how the rejection of the Master characterizes it henceforth for the disciple. It is therefore an adverse stream that he is called to breast, and to meet the combined powers of evil in a warfare that never ends on this side heaven, -which, if it seem to do so, it is but the lure of the enemy replacing his open assault; while, as that which intensifies all the struggle, there is that within us constantly in league with the foe without, an enemy behind all our fortifications, a self against oneself. Yet are we assured that “all things work together for good to them that love God; to those that are the called according to His purpose.” It must be therefore that all this is working for good, this various strife, this enemy within also, all this that is the occasion of such and so keen distress, all this that seems so against us. Nay, there must be in all this a wisdom of God exhibited which when learned shall call forth our wonder and our praise, -a wisdom which has in view not time only but eternity. And it is not hard to understand this: for if God’s thoughts are fixed on bringing us into conformity with Himself, the discernment of good and evil must be a large part of this, we must have our senses exercised to this end. How much the manifestation of God Himself has been made in connection with His mastery over the evil! not in mere judgment of it, but much more in His grace. Must we not for the knowledge of Him, as He would have it, learn also what evil is, be tested by it, learn mastery over it? Thus the good of the trial is apparent, and why it should occupy the place it does here in connection with the fulness of salvation.

1. That failure in this conflict should be so much before us is sorrowful enough; yet even so are we most emphatically warned and guarded against it. The very first lesson is that of how to use the power with which we are entrusted; and the story is one which, for our need of it, is found in all three synoptic Gospels. Luke indeed does not dwell upon the details as the two others do, -Mark especially; nor have we even (what may seem stranger) the insistence upon the need of prayer and fasting which we find in the others. Rather do we find that the power is in Christ, and still available, whatever may be the failure of disciples. The actual display of it does not measure what is available, as long as Christ remains accessible, as He ever is, to the feeblest faith of the really needy. The simplicity and ease with which He acts seems most enforced here; and Christ as the resource, amid whatever failure on the part of His people is worthy of the first place in the lessons that are given here. But the fact of His rejection by men abides, however much He may display His power; and though there may be astonishment at it, too, at times. Christ the crucified is the Master we follow, and this truth He would have sink down into our ears and abide with us. Alas, we are not beyond the need either of being warned by the disciples, want of comprehension of this, or even by their fear of being made to comprehend!
2. Two lessons as to humility follow: the first in which the Lord checks the anxiety to be greatest by identifying Himself with the littleness of a little child, and then by the assurance that the least of all among His followers would be great enough. For indeed, that which we have in common, and as the fruit of Christ’s work, must be far greater, thank God, than our differences, which will be the result of our own. The second lesson is in view of their having forbidden one who was casting out demons in Christ’s name, but who was not in their company: as if the power that he displayed had been illegitimately acquired. The Lord here assures them that if he were not of their company, he must needs be on their side. For who could divorce the power of the Spirit from the Spirit of power? Self-appreciation here but slenderly covers itself with zeal for Christ; and how soon does it blind us as to plainest principles.
3. We next find the Lord on His way to Jerusalem, the days getting near for His being received up. For the Samaritans it is enough that His face is set toward Jerusalem: they do not receive the messengers sent before to prepare for Him. The spirit of the sons of Zebedee is aflame, and they would bring fire down from heaven after the manner of Elijah, to consume the churlish Samaritans. The pleading of Elijah’s example seems to imply that they were already by no means sure that the Lord would be disposed to such a visitation of an offence like this. They could hardly have been with Him so long, without having learned as much as this of His long-suffering.

But Elijah they had lately seen with Him, and his example they might quote with One who so completely maintained as He did the authority of Scripture. But He makes it no question of Scripture; it was they who knew not of what spirit they were. They were not of His: for the Son of man had not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them. The disciples here illustrate the danger in which we are in; seeking to reproduce the examples left us by the men of faith of old, even where most fully sanctioned by the word of God. Dispensations differ, and we must know well how to recognize the difference. Faith too is an individual thing which can only be exercised in one’s own path with God; and the imitation of another, as that, necessarily takes us out of such a path. The carrying out of principles, or obedience to precepts, is, of course, an entirely different thing; only they must be the principles of the dispensation to which we belong. From want of understanding this the Church of God has been judaized, secularized, and carnalized; an earthly priesthood, law, the rule of kings, and how much else, have been introduced into it; it has usurped Israel’s place and promises; and Scripture has been quoted for all this, and perverted to make it good. Here too, disciples, acting with honest enough meaning, have not known of what spirit they were.
4. Finally in this section we have what Matthew (Matthew 8:19-22) puts in another connection; and doubtless in the order of time. Luke gives the moral connection and adds a third example of such testing of followers by the Lord, which we can suppose to be of no infrequent occurrence. In the first case there is the enthusiasm which looks well, but needs a more sober estimate of what is involved in following Christ. The second, on the other hand, is unready, and needs the rousing call to prompt obedience. The third, which is in Luke only, though very similar to the second, requires the renunciation of the claims of the living, as much as of the dead. He who has put his hand to the plow -the one-handled eastern plow, frail and easily overturned, is in question -must keep his eyes on it also, and not look back, or he is unfit for the Kingdom of God.