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Scripture Reading: Luke 9:1-26
We have seen that the Lord Jesus began His ministry in chapter four by proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord, by proclaiming the jubilee. After making that proclamation, He called certain ones to be His disciples, and of these He chose twelve to be His apostles. Then in 9:1-6 the Lord sent out the twelve to spread the jubilee. In this portion of the Gospel of Luke we have the spreading of the Man-Savior’s ministry through the twelve apostles.
The apostles went out to proclaim the kingdom of God. To proclaim the kingdom of God is to announce the jubilee. The feeding of the five thousand in 9:10-17 is also related to the jubilee. Luke’s account here indicates that in the jubilee there is no lack, no shortage. In the jubilee everyone is satisfied.
We need to be impressed with the fact that Luke wrote his Gospel from the viewpoint of the jubilee. The ministry of the Man-Savior began in chapter four with the proclamation of the jubilee. We need to keep this in mind as we read the following chapters of Luke. However, when many readers of this Gospel come to chapter nine, they may forget about the jubilee that was announced in chapter four. We should not make this mistake, but should keep the jubilee in mind as we read through chapters five through twenty-four. The concept of the jubilee announced in chapter four governs all the following chapters. Therefore, we should regard what is recorded in these chapters as part of the jubilee declared in Luke 4.
If we have this view as we read 9:10-17, we shall want to see how the Man-Savior handles the situation with the hungry multitude. In verse 13 we see that “there were about five thousand men.” If the women and children are counted, the number must have exceeded ten thousand. Suppose the Lord had dismissed the crowd without feeding them, allowing them to remain hungry. In that case there would not have been the jubilee. Some might have complained and said, “I have been here all day long, and now I am hungry. Why have we been dismissed? Where shall we go, and how shall we find food?” If this had taken place, there would have been famine instead of jubilee. But as a result of the Lord’s feeding the crowd, there was a real application of the jubilee. Everyone was satisfied, and there was an abundance of food left over.
In 9:12 the apostles said to the Lord, “Send the crowd away, that they may go into the surrounding villages and farms to lodge and find provisions.” But the Lord said to them, “You give them something to eat” (v. 13). The disciples asked the Lord to send the crowds away so that they could obtain food for themselves, but the Lord told the disciples to give the crowd something to eat. Their concept was to ask people to do something; this is the principle of the law. But the Lord’s concept is to give people something to enjoy; this is the principle of grace.
When the Lord told the twelve that they should give the crowd something to eat, they replied, “We have no more than five loaves and two fish among us” (v. 13). John 6:9 tells us that these five loaves are barley loaves. In figure, barley typifies the resurrected Christ (Lev. 23:10). Thus, the barley loaves signify Christ in resurrection as food to us. While the loaves are of the vegetable life, signifying the generating aspect of Christ’s life, the fish are of the animal life, signifying the redeeming aspect of Christ’s life. To satisfy our spiritual hunger, we need Christ’s generating life as well as His redeeming life. Both aspects of His life are symbolized by small items — loaves and fishes. This indicates that the Man-Savior has come to be small pieces of food to feed His followers.
Luke 9:16 says, “And 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.” The loaves were from the disciples, and they brought them to the Lord. After being blessed and broken by the Lord, they were given back to the disciples for distribution to the crowd, to whom the loaves became a great satisfaction. This indicates that the disciples were not the source of blessing; they were only the channels used by the Lord, who is the source of people’s satisfaction.
Luke 9:17 says, “And they ate and were all satisfied; and they took up that which was left over to them of broken pieces, twelve baskets.” This not only displayed the Man-Savior’s power of deity as the Creator, as the One who calls the things not being as being (Rom. 4:17), but also signified the bountiful and inexhaustible supply of His divine life (Eph. 3:8; Phil. 1:19). Furthermore, the twelve baskets of broken pieces indicate that the resurrected Christ is unlimited and inexhaustible, and also that the Lord’s provision for us is abundant, more than sufficient to meet all our need.
The ministry of the Man-Savior was a ministry of jubilee. Through the twelve He had begun to spread this ministry of jubilee. In the jubilee no one is poor; instead, everyone is filled and satisfied. In the jubilee there are no captives; on the contrary, all captives are released and brought back to the enjoyment of God. In the application of the jubilee in 9:12-17, the people might have been beside themselves with joy. Some of the disciples might have said, “This is the jubilee proclaimed by the Lord. Now no one is poor, but everyone is satisfied. Look, there are even twelve baskets left over!” What a picture of jubilee!
Immediately after the account of the feeding of the five thousand, we are told that the Lord was praying and then asked the disciples a question: “And it came about that as He was praying alone the disciples were with Him; and He questioned them, saying, Who do the crowds say that I am?” (v. 18). The disciples answered, “John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and others that one of the ancient prophets has risen” (v. 19). Here we see that most people can realize only that Christ is a prophet. Apart from heavenly revelation, no one can know that He is the Christ.
In verse 20 the Lord went on to say, “But you, who do you say that I am?” At this point Peter answered and said, “The Christ of God.”
The realization that Jesus is the Christ is also related to the jubilee. There could not be a jubilee without Christ, without the One appointed and anointed by God. In order for the jubilee to be carried out, there is the need of the Christ.
In the Old Testament we have the matter of the jubilee. In the Old Testament we also have words concerning the coming Messiah, the coming anointed One of God. The real jubilee cannot come apart from God’s anointed One. When this One came, He brought the jubilee with Him. Actually, His coming is itself the jubilee.
Have you ever thought that the events recorded in 9:1-26 are related to the jubilee? Although I have been studying the Gospels for many years, I never heard of anyone pointing out that the feeding of the five thousand in Luke 9 is related to the jubilee that was proclaimed by the Lord Jesus in Luke 4. Now I see that the feeding of the five thousand is an application of the jubilee. The declaration of the jubilee in chapter four should cover all that takes place in the following chapters. This means that whatever takes place in chapters five through twenty-four should be considered part of the jubilee.
Luke 9:1 and 2 say, “And having called together the twelve, He gave them power and authority over all the demons, and to heal diseases. And He sent them to proclaim the kingdom of God and to cure the sick.” Here we see that when the Man-Savior sent out the twelve to spread His ministry, He gave them power and authority over demons and disease. He also sent them to preach, to announce, the kingdom of God. Can there be poverty or hunger in the kingdom of God? To be sure there is neither poverty nor hunger in God’s kingdom. What, then, do we have in the kingdom of God? In God’s kingdom we have the jubilee, and in the jubilee there is satisfaction but no hunger, fullness but no lack. In the jubilee everyone is satisfied, and there is an abundance of food left over. This is portrayed by the account of the feeding of the five thousand.
After the Lord fed the five thousand, the disciples might have been excited. The Lord, however, was calm. Verse 18 tells us that He was praying alone. Often when people are excited, the Lord Jesus will calmly remove Himself and pray. In His praying the Lord questioned the disciples, asking them who the crowds said that He was. They told Him of the various nonsensical answers. Then Peter took the lead to say, “You are the Christ.”
The record here is somewhat different from that in Matthew 16. The record concerning the recognizing of Christ in Matthew 16 involves the establishment of the kingdom and the building up of the church. Here in 9:18-26 Luke has a different point of view. Luke’s view is not that of the establishment of the kingdom and the building up of the church. Rather, Luke’s view is that of the jubilee. Therefore, Luke’s intention is to show us that for the jubilee there is the need of the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed One. This is the reason Luke emphasizes that Jesus is the Christ and does not include the details. We need to be impressed with the fact that Luke’s purpose is to point out that for the application of the jubilee, we need Christ, the anointed One of God.
Immediately after the Lord was recognized as the Christ, He spoke to His disciples concerning His death and resurrection. In verse 22 He said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”
For years I did not understand the meaning of the sequence in chapter nine. Why after the feeding of the five thousand did the Lord question the disciples concerning Himself? Then why, immediately after they recognized Him as the Christ, did He tell them that He was about to be crucified and resurrected? The answer to these questions is that there cannot be a jubilee without Christ and without His death and resurrection. We have already pointed out that we cannot have the jubilee without Christ. Now we need to see that we cannot have the jubilee without Christ’s death and resurrection. Apart from the death of Christ, there would be no way for sinners to be released. Apart from the resurrection of Christ, there could not be the recovery of the lost right to enjoy God.
Christ’s death has released us from sin and from Satan. According to Hebrews 2:14, Christ destroyed Satan through His death. If He had not destroyed Satan, how could He release us from Satan’s usurping hand? If the Lord had not destroyed Satan through death, He could not have released us from him. Our release from bondage is absolutely due to the all-inclusive death of Christ, a death that has released us from sin and Satan.
It is only through the resurrection of Christ that our right to the enjoyment of God is recovered. When we believe in the all-inclusive, victorious death of Christ, we are released from sin, Satan, and ourselves. When we remain and live in the resurrection of Christ, we have the recovery of the right to enjoy God. This is the jubilee. Christ with His death and resurrection has brought in the jubilee.
Based upon His word concerning His death, the Lord went on in 9:23-26 to teach the disciples to take up their cross and follow Him by denying their soul life. It is necessary for us to do this in order to participate in the jubilee. The jubilee has been carried out by the death of Christ. Now for us to participate in this jubilee we must be identified with His death. He died to accomplish the jubilee, and now we die with Him to participate in the enjoyment of the jubilee. On the one hand, there was the need of Christ’s death to carry out the jubilee. On the other hand, there is the need for us to identify ourselves with His death so that we may enjoy the jubilee.
To identify ourselves with Christ’s death is to bear the cross, and to bear the cross is to deny our soul life. As we shall see in a later message, the disciples were still quite natural. In order to participate in the jubilee accomplished by Christ’s death, it was necessary for them to bear the cross and deny the soul life.
In 9:23 the Lord says, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” The cross here is not merely a suffering; it is also a killing. It kills and terminates the criminal. Christ first bore the cross and then was crucified. We, His believers, have first been crucified with Him and then bear the cross today. To us, bearing the cross is to remain under the killing of the death of Christ for the terminating of our self, our natural life, and our old man. In so doing we deny our self that we may follow the Lord.
Before the Lord’s crucifixion, the disciples followed Him in an outward way. But after His resurrection, we follow Him in an inward way. Because in resurrection He has become the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) dwelling in our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), we follow Him in our spirit (Gal. 5:16-25).
In Luke 9:24 the Lord goes on to say, “For whoever wants to save his soul life will lose it, but whoever loses his soul life for My sake, this one shall save it.” To save the soul life is to allow the soul to have its enjoyment and not to suffer. To lose the soul life is to cause the soul to suffer the loss of its enjoyment. If the followers of the Man-Savior allow their soul to have its enjoyment in this age, they will cause their soul to suffer the loss of its enjoyment in the coming kingdom age. If they allow their soul to suffer the loss of its enjoyment in this age for the sake of the Man-Savior, they will cause their soul to have its enjoyment in the coming kingdom age. They will share the Lord’s joy in ruling over the earth (Matt. 25:21, 23).
In Luke 9:25 the Lord continues, “For what is a man profited, having gained the whole world, but having lost or forfeited himself?” Matthew 16:26 speaks of forfeiting the soul life, but Luke 9:25, of forfeiting “himself.” This indicates that our soul life is our self.
In Luke 9:1-26 we see that in order to spread the jubilee, the Man-Savior sent out the twelve to proclaim the kingdom of God, to cast out demons, and to heal diseases. Then the Man-Savior performed a miracle to indicate that to all the needy ones He applies the jubilee. He may have applied the jubilee to more than ten thousand people. We have also seen that for the jubilee there is the need of the Christ. Christ is the One who carries out the jubilee. Furthermore, it was necessary for Christ to die and be resurrected. Then in order to participate in the jubilee and enjoy it, we, the followers of the Man-Savior, need to identify ourselves with His all-inclusive death and live in His resurrection.
The actual experience and enjoyment of the jubilee by the believers is found not in the Gospels but in the Acts and the Epistles. In the book of Acts and in the Epistles we see that the real jubilee was enjoyed by the early disciples. In particular, Paul was in the enjoyment of the jubilee. Paul was once a captive, but he was released from sin, Satan, the world, and the Jewish religion and was brought into the enjoyment of the all-inclusive Christ as the embodiment of God. Through Christ with His death and resurrection Paul was released from his captivity into the enjoyment of the jubilee. His fourteen Epistles, therefore, are a complete description, definition, and explanation of his enjoyment of the jubilee through death and in resurrection.
