Life Project Blog

Jesus strictly warned them not to tell this to anyone. 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.”

Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self? 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.

“Truly I tell you, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.”

Luke 9:21-27

Jesus begins these rather apocalyptic remarks by telling the disciples that these things are not to be discussed with others; these things are being said in confidence. Then He proceeds to tell them that He must be killed.

Yes, He said a lot more than that, but it seems that they didn’t catch the rest, although Luke doesn’t make that as clear as Matthew did in his account.

Jesus also tells them that He will rise from the grave on the third day.

The rest of this (9:23-27) is Jesus telling them that in order for them to truly follow Him, they must give up everything else. For the most part, they had already done this, at least in an earthly sense. They had left their homes, their families and their livelihoods already…

…but Jesus needed more than that: They must give up “self”.

To follow Him means that the follower must set aside his or her old way of doing things; everyone gets that part, even though we all struggle with it from time-to-time. Yet to give up self goes way beyond that, it is to give up our own personal identity and take up His, and not all that many of us even can comprehend that.

Of course, to be remade into His likeness means that my likeness must go!

At the end of this is a sort of “sweetener” when He tells them that some of them will live to see the Kingdom of God come to fruition.

What I’ve just given you here is a mere thumbnail, so if you find any of this confusing or troubling, don’t feel bad, you are experiencing the very same reaction that the disciples had. As they continued along the journey with Jesus, He begins to show them the contrast between a true follower and the life of this world, and we’ll be right there with all of them as we continue in Luke’s story.

Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”

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.”

“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”

Luke 9:18-20

It’s hard to say how much time has passed since the last scene, the feeding of the 5,000, although my guess would be that it wasn’t too long, since they are praying in seclusion. There is no crowd, all is quiet, and then Jesus asks them a question: Who do the people say that I am? The disciples run through the rumors and theories… and then Jesus asks them “The Question”.

Peter says that Jesus is the Messiah. Sadly, that’s all that Luke mentions; it would be interesting to see what the others had to say about this, but if I were to venture another guess, it would be that they agreed, since nothing else is recorded here.

We will never know for certain in this life.

Up to this point in Luke’s narrative, the disciples have seen a great deal, learned a great deal and have experienced a great deal. It should be no surprise that they would have gone a long way to see just who He was…

As we have probably all experienced in our own journeys, it is one thing to believe, and quite another to follow: Jesus will very shortly begin to teach this lesson to His disciples.

From this point on, things are about to get very real…

Luke 9:10-17

After the disciples returned, they went off to seclusion with Jesus. The only problem was that everywhere they went, they attracted huge crowds. Like rock stars, they had little chance of remaining secluded for long. What follows in this passage is one of the most familiar stories of all, the feeding of the 5,000.

I’ve written on this many times before, and I would imagine that anyone reading this can tell the story with no help from me. Consequently, I will only focus on one point here…

In the last passage, Jesus sent the Twelve out entirely on their own; they had no provisions of any kind with them, and they had to depend entirely on God for their sustenance and God provided. Now, with the hour growing late and their location being very remote, they come to Jesus and recommend that He send the crowds away so that they could find food and lodging. This seems more than reasonable; it seems advisable. Yet Jesus was having none of it.

“You give them something to eat.” (9:14)

If you were one of the Twelve, what would you say to that?

They gave Jesus an inventory of what was on hand; Jesus didn’t see a problem feeding 5,000 with barely enough for their own small group of 13.

And that is exactly what they did.

What is God saying to us in this passage?

What are you going to do about it?

See you next time!

Luke 9:1-9

As Chapter 9 begins, the scene changes and Jesus sends out the twelve disciples to proclaim the Kingdom. In doing so, he gave them some unusual instructions:

“Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt.  Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. If people do not welcome you, leave their town and shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” (9:3-5)

Nobody sets off on a road trip like that, at least not by design. Jesus sent these guys out there with nothing; no provision, no supplies, not even a change of clothes. We might be tempted to criticize His lack of planning and organization…

If we did so, we would be acting in haste, for actually there was a plan, a very counter-intuitive one. The disciples were to head out and let God worry about the provisions, so they could worry about the mission. Apparently there were some places that needed to hear their message, while others wouldn’t be willing to listen. How would they know the difference between the two?

If no one would welcome them, then that village didn’t have ears to hear the message, and they would simply move on… This plan was elegant in its simplicity.

Of course there would be benefits for those who would receive their message, for the disciples had authority to heal and drive out demons, something that those who would not welcome them would never know about.

What an amazing picture of the Kingdom of Heaven!

Think about the times we live in: There are many who will eagerly receive the message about Jesus, and when they accept His message and receive His grace, they become rich in blessings. Yet there are also many who will refuse to hear anything about Jesus, and thus they will remain in their pride and self-assurance, but gain no real blessing at all, for their reward is purely an earthly one.

News of all of this reaches King Herod, and he is troubled. He wonders if this is the reincarnation of John the Baptist, whom he has murdered; his conscience seems to be troubled. Some think Elijah has returned; there are various theories about the stir throughout the land.

Herod wants to investigate…

Luke 8:40-56

Jesus returned from the region inhabited by Gentiles; a crowd awaited His arrival. He was approached by, of all people, a synagogue leader whose daughter was near death. The man begged Jesus to come quickly. Jesus headed for the man’s house but the crowd was very large; His progress was slowed considerably. Suddenly, Jesus felt power drain from Him and stopped.

He wanted to know who had touched Him, but as Peter pointed out, the crowd was large and pressing… it could have been anyone, and everyone denied touching Him. Then, a woman came forward and told Him that she had been the one. It seems that she had a chronic bleeding problem, and none of the doctors could cure it; this had gone on for some 12 years, but the moment she had touched His robes, she had been healed.

Did Jesus heal the woman?

“Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” (8:48)

Just after that, the word came that the man’s daughter had died, but Jesus pressed on. When He arrived at the man’s house, mourners had already gathered; Jesus told them that the girl was only sleeping, but they all knew that she was dead. Along with Peter, John, James and the girl’s parents, Jesus entered the house, took the girl’s hand and told her to get up; “her spirit returned to her” and she got up from her deathbed (8:55).

In the previous story, Jesus drove many demons from a Gentile man, and He told the man to tell everyone what God had done for Him, now, after raising a Jewish girl from death, He advised everyone to keep quiet about what had really happened.

Our working theory from last time is looking pretty good right about now.