“But I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.” – Luke 9:27

I’ve been stuck on Luke 9 for a while. I understand the events but I was first, having a hard time deriving the discipleship issues from it and second, profoundly inconsistent in reading and praying over the past few weeks. Last night Ben and I purposely set aside about half an hour to read EM Bounds “Essentials of Prayer” together and spend a few minutes in prayer. This morning when I did some quite time, the Lord graciously met me in his word and the Spirit helped me to see. I don’t think it was a mechanical linkage, a tit for tat kind of thing, but I did ask the Lord in prayer to make me seek him more. Those are the kinds of prayers he seems to delight in answering quickly. Thank you Jesus.

The events in Luke 9 that have had me stumped for a while have been:

1. The sending out of the Twelve (1-6)
2. Herod’s interest in Jesus (7-9)
3. The return of the Twelve and the feeding of the 5,000 (10-17)
4. Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ (18-20)

This morning I sat and observed the text. Jesus calls the Twelve and sends them out. Herod is curious about Jesus because of what the Twelve are doing and what the people say about Jesus. The Twelve return and Jesus calls them. The crowds follow uncalled and Jesus welcomes them. The Twelve tell him to send the crowd and he won’t. Instead he tells the Twelve to provide for them and they say they can’t. So Jesus does. Jesus asks who the people say he is and the report is the same as what Herod has been hearing. Jesus asks who the Twelve think he is and Peter announces that he is the Christ.

Fine observation of the literary structure of the text but I got the feeling that it was way up on the top shelf. It didn’t really matter. I wanted to bring the text down to me. What am I supposed to learn from this? What discipleship principles are present in this text? ¹Side note: I’ve been dabbling in Emergent Church and post-modern thought lately. It is amazing how the Emergent Church wants to focus on ‘narrative’ but what they do with it is very different than what I’ve just done. The Emergent folks want to “enter the world of the text” and “experience it.” There isn’t really any propositional truth they’re after, just the experience. I’ve tried to “experience” the text but I’m also assuming the author is telling this story for a reason. Why does Luke tell this story and what is it we’re supposed to learn from it? Well first off, this story is about the “insiders,” the Twelve. They’re the ones in the know about Jesus in a way Herod and the crowds aren’t. ²Again, an idea post-moderns are not happy about. The Twelve know more than others and that means we’re not all the same. They may have more truth or “better” truth than others. The Twelve have been given something others have not. Jesus has commissioned them and sent them out with knowledge the people don’t have and need. “He sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.” (9:2). The people didn’t know about the kingdom of God and they couldn’t heal themselves so Jesus sent his Twelve to do that for them.

Skip ahead to the feeding of the 5,000. The Twelve have just come back from doing wonderful things in Jesus’ name. Now when faced with something as mundane (literally) as food, they seem to have forgotten what they’ve been given. No, not food but the power of the kingdom, the excess of God’s abundance. They’ve been given all that God has and he has everything! So Jesus reminds them, “You give them something to eat” (9:13). After all, they’ve just healed and cast out demons and blessed in Jesus’ name why should they think that God’s provision ends there? You know the rest, Jesus feeds the crowds and there is a bunch left over. ³I once heard this miracle explained as not really a miracle. The crowd would never have go out into the wilderness empty handed (they’re way smarter than the Twelve!) They all had food tucked into their cloaks, Jesus just needed to prompt them to share. Ha. Well, it is a miracle then that the entire crowd of over 5,000 brought the same kinds of bread and fish! Also, it is pretty miraculous that the crowd had somehow tucked enough food in their robes to not only feed themselves, but those who didn’t plan ahead (like the Twelve) and still wind up with 12 baskets left over!

Doesn’t almost sting, then, when you hear Jesus ask “who do the crowds say that I am?” and “who do you say that I am?” As in, “don’t you get it?” Well, there is surely much more going on in that question; just consider what Jesus says after Peter’s confession! But one of the discipleship principles we’re supposed to get is that the Kingdom is not a kingdom of deficit but abundance. We can give away our loaves and fish to a greater need than they can possibly meet because we’re not on our own. We’re not doing this in our own name and so Jesus will bless it and multiply it. There is much more going on with our few loaves and fish than we can imagine! The discipleship principle I saw here is to give it away. Our supply can never meet the need but Jesus’ can.

This is the exact opposite of the health, wealth and prosperity gospel. That is all about accumulation for yourself. What Jesus is getting at here is giving away. In the midst of all of this, Jesus explains his coming death (21-22). Also, in this context is Jesus bidding his followers to take up their cross and follow him (23-27). It isn’t about what we can gather but what we can give away.