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Scripture Reading: Luke 9:1-26
We have seen that in Luke 7:36-50; 8:1-21 the Christian life begins with the forgiveness of sins and then reaches a point where we become the relatives of Christ, the members of His Body. As His relatives, we are ready to journey on the way He has ordained and to travel and visit different places with Him.
By the time we come to 9:1, the Lord’s disciples had been perfected to a certain extent. Now we need to see that their being perfected was for the spreading of the jubilee.
After the Man-Savior was fully prepared, He was baptized, tested, and anointed. Being fully qualified and perfected, He began His ministry. According to chapter four, His ministry opened with the proclamation of the jubilee.
When the Lord proclaimed the jubilee, He alone was carrying out the God-given ministry. After He made the proclamation concerning the jubilee, He called certain ones to Himself. In 6:13 we see that He called His disciples, and “He chose from them twelve, whom He also named apostles.” We may say that in chapters six through eight the twelve apostles were “apprentices” following the Lord to learn how to carry out His ministry. As indicated by the record in 7:36—8:56, their sins were forgiven and they began to love the Lord and live a life of peace. They also began to grow in life, shine as lamps, and become the relatives of Christ. In chapter eight they journeyed with the Lord at His word. In one place they encountered demons and saw how the Lord cleared up the business of hog raising. Elsewhere, they encountered a woman with a life-leaking condition and a girl who was raised from the dead. Therefore, at the end of chapter eight these followers of the Lord had been perfected to a certain extent.
Chapter nine begins another section of the Gospel of Luke, a section concerned with the spreading of the jubilee. What is the jubilee? The jubilee is actually the gospel of the New Testament. As we have seen, this gospel is the proclamation of the release of the captives and of the recovery of the lost birthright. Now in chapter nine we have the start of the spreading of this jubilee. Prior to this time, the ministry was carried out only by the Lord Himself. But in 9:1 we have the spreading through twelve others. Therefore, beginning with 9:1 we see the spreading of the ministry, the spreading of the jubilee, through the twelve apostles.
The thought of the spreading of the jubilee underlies the record in 9:1-26. Certain of the cases in 9:1-26 are found also in Matthew and Mark. In Matthew these cases are used as evidence to prove the doctrine of the kingdom of the heavens, and in Mark they are used to present the Lord Jesus as the faithful Slave of God carrying out God’s ordained ministry. In Luke, however, these cases are used to point out the spreading of the jubilee. The jubilee had already been proclaimed by the Man-Savior, and this proclamation continued until the end of chapter eight. Now in Luke 9 the spreading of the jubilee begins. No longer is there just one person proclaiming the jubilee. Now twelve others are sent out to spread the jubilee. Of course, in 9:1-26 the words “jubilee” or “acceptable year of the Lord” are not mentioned. Nevertheless, the underlying thought is very much related to the matter of jubilee.
In 9:1-6 we have the spreading of the ministry through the twelve apostles. This spreading of the ministry is actually the spreading of the jubilee.
Luke 9:1 says, “And having called together the twelve, He gave them power and authority over all the demons, and to heal diseases.” The power and authority over demons and to heal diseases is for the release of the captives. As a result of the fall, man was captured by Satan, sin, and disease, which is the issue of sin. Every fallen human being is a captive both of demons and of diseases. Therefore, the Man-Savior gave the twelve power and authority over demons and diseases. This is the negative aspect of the jubilee, the aspect of the release of the captives.
The authority in 9:1 over demons and disease is a foretaste of the power of the coming age (Heb. 6:5), that is, of the millennium, in which all demons will be cast out and all diseases will be healed (Isa. 35:5-6).
Demons are the spirits of the living creatures who lived in the preadamic age and were judged by God when they joined Satan’s rebellion (see Life-study of Genesis Message 2). The fallen angels work with Satan in the air (Eph. 2:2; 6:11-12), and the demons move with him on the earth. Both act evilly upon man for the kingdom of Satan. The possession of people by demons signifies Satan’s usurpation of man, whom God created for His purpose. The demons need to be cast out from possessed people so that they may be delivered from Satan’s bondage (Luke 13:16), out of Satan’s authority of darkness (Acts 26:18; Col. 1:13), into God’s kingdom.
Luke 9:2 says, “And He sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to cure the sick.” Here we have the proclaiming of the kingdom of God as the positive aspect of the jubilee. The kingdom of God involves the recovery of the right to enjoy God in Christ.
Let us review what we have said in an earlier message concerning the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is the Savior (17:21) as the seed of life, sown into His believers, God’s chosen people (Mark 4:3, 26), and developing into a realm which God may rule as His kingdom in His divine life. Its entrance is regeneration (John 3:5), and its development is the believers’ growth in the divine life (2 Pet. 1:3-11). It is the church life today, in which the faithful believers live (Rom. 14:17), and it will develop into the coming kingdom as an inheritance reward (Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5) to the overcoming saints in the millennium (Rev. 20:4, 6). Eventually, it will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the eternal kingdom of God, an eternal realm of the eternal blessing of God’s eternal life for all God’s redeemed to enjoy in the new heaven and new earth for eternity (Rev. 21:1-4; 22:1-5). Such a kingdom, the kingdom of God, is what the Savior preached as the gospel, the good news (4:43).
According to 9:2, the Lord sent out the twelve to proclaim the kingdom of God. To proclaim the kingdom of God is to proclaim the jubilee. In particular, it is to proclaim the positive aspect of the jubilee — the recovery of our lost right to the enjoyment of God. Therefore, in sending out the twelve, the Man-Savior was spreading the jubilee through them to the surrounding country.
In 9:3 and 4 the Lord said to the twelve, “Take nothing for the journey, neither a staff, nor a bag, nor bread, nor money, nor have two tunics apiece. And into whatever house you enter, remain there, and from there go out.” Why did the Man-Savior tell the sent ones not to take anything for their journey? The reason He told them to take nothing was that in the jubilee things are common under God’s ordination. Therefore, there was no need for the twelve to take anything for themselves. The picture here indicates that when the jubilee comes there will not be any selfishness. Instead, everything will be both for us and for others.
Luke 9:6 says, “And going out, they passed through from village to village, bringing the good news and healing everywhere.” What was this good news? It was the kingdom of God. The good news ordained by the Man-Savior was the preaching of the kingdom of God.
Luke 9:6 tells us that the apostles went out “healing everywhere.” This indicates that they went out to apply the jubilee. The jubilee was declared in chapter four by the Man-Savior, but in chapter nine it was applied to those in Judea by the twelve.
Luke 9:7-9 says, “And Herod the tetrarch heard of all that was happening; and he was utterly perplexed, because it was said by some that John was raised from the dead, and by some that Elijah had appeared, and by others that one of the ancient prophets had risen. And Herod said, John I beheaded, but who is this concerning whom I hear such things? And he was seeking to see Him.” According to Mark 6:14-29, Herod had John the Baptist beheaded. That was an indication of Satan’s hatred for the faithful forerunner of the Man-Savior. This hatred was expressed in the darkness and injustice of the worldly people in power. In chapter nine of Luke we see that when Herod heard what was happening, he was utterly perplexed.
In 9:10 and 11 Luke goes on to say, “And when the apostles returned, they related to Him whatever they had done. And taking them along, He withdrew privately into a city called Bethsaida. But the crowds, knowing it, followed Him; and He welcomed them and spoke to them concerning the kingdom of God, and those who had need of healing He cured.” Here we see that, because of Herod’s opposition, the Man-Savior withdrew privately into the city of Bethsaida. In that place He spoke to the crowds who followed Him concerning the kingdom of God. He also cured the sick. Once again we have the application of the jubilee, which had been proclaimed in chapter four. The Lord’s speaking concerning the kingdom of God was the positive aspect of the jubilee — the recovery of the right to enjoy God — and His curing the sick was the negative aspect of the jubilee — the release of the captives. Even in His withdrawal due to Herod’s opposition, the Lord continued to apply the jubilee.
In 9:12-17 we have Luke’s account of the feeding of the five thousand. In the Gospel of John this case is used to prove that the Lord Jesus is the life-supplying bread, the living bread, the bread of God, that came down from heaven to give life to the world. But in the Gospel of Luke this case is used to prove something else. In other words, in recording the feeding of the five thousand, Luke has a view different from that in John 6. Once again we see that Luke’s view is related to the jubilee. Luke 9:12-17 indicates that in the jubilee no one will be in want; no one will lack, and there will not be any poverty.
According to verse 13, the multitude numbered about five thousand men. If we add in the women and the children, the number would probably be more than ten thousand. All these people were without food. There certainly was a great lack. Considering the matter from the point of view of their natural understanding, the twelve came to the Lord and said, “Send the crowd away, that they may go into the surrounding villages and farms to lodge and find provisions, because we are in a desolate place here” (v. 12). The disciples’ suggestion that the Lord dismiss the crowd was an expression of the natural man.
The Lord responded to the disciples by saying, “You give them something to eat” (v. 13). Here the Lord seems to be saying, “To those who are poor and have nothing to eat, you should give food without cost, without charge.” In the jubilee all are fed without cost.
The New Testament age should be a time of jubilee. However, sadly, because of the degraded situation among Christians, the jubilee has been lost. But I believe that the Lord is now recovering this jubilee. In the Lord’s recovery of the jubilee there should not be any shortage. On the contrary, there should always be something left over, just as there were twelve baskets full of broken pieces left over in 9:17. This means that there should always be an expression of the abundance of riches.
When the Lord told the disciples to give the crowd something to eat, they answered, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish among us, unless we go and buy food for all this people” (v. 13). Then the Lord told the disciples to have the people “recline in groups of about fifty each” (v. 14). “Taking the five loaves and the two fish, looking up to heaven, He blessed and broke them, and gave them to the disciples to set before the crowd. And they ate and were all satisfied; and they took up that which was left over to them of broken pieces, twelve baskets” (vv. 16-17). Here we see that everyone was satisfied and that the amount left over was more than what was at hand originally. As we read this we may say, “This is a miracle.” Yes, it is a miracle. Nevertheless, we need to see the crucial point that Luke recorded this miracle in his Gospel from the point of view of the jubilee. The record of the feeding of the five thousand indicates that in the jubilee there is no lack. In the jubilee everyone is satisfied.
