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Commentary on Luke 9 verses 18–27
In these verses, we have Christ discoursing with his disciples about the great things that pertained to the kingdom of God; and one circumstance of this discourse is taken notice of here which we had not in the other evangelists - that Christ was alone praying, and his disciples with him, when he entered into this discourse, Luk 9:18. Observe, 1. Though Christ had much public work to do, yet he found some time to be alone in private, for converse with himself, with his Father, and with his disciples. 2. When Christ was alone he was praying. It is good for us to improve our solitude for devotion, that, when we are alone, we may not be alone, but may have the Father with us. 3. When Christ was alone, praying, his disciples were with him, to join with him in his prayer; so that this was a family-prayer. Housekeepers ought to pray with their households, parents with their children, masters with their servants, teachers and tutors with their scholars and pupils. 4. Christ prayed with them before he examined them, that they might be directed and encouraged to answer him, by his prayers for them. Those we give instructions to we should put up prayers for and with. He discourses with them,
I. Concerning himself; and enquires,
1.What the people said of him: Who say the people that I am? Christ knew better than they did, but would have his disciples made sensible, by the mistakes of others concerning him, how happy they were that were led into the knowledge of him and of the truth concerning him. We should take notice of the ignorance and errors of others, that we may be the more thankful to him who has manifested himself to us, and not unto the world, and may pity them, and do what we can to help them and to teach them better. They tell him what conjectures concerning him they had heard in their converse with the common people. Ministers would know better how to suit their instructions, reproofs, and counsels, to the case of ordinary people, if they did but converse more frequently and familiarly with them; they would then be the better able to say what is proper to rectify their notions, correct their irregularities, and remove their prejudices. The more conversant the physician is with his patient, the better he knows what to do for him. Some said that he was John Baptist, who was beheaded but the other day; others Elias, or one of the old prophets; any thing but what he was.
2.What they said of him. "Now see what an advantage you have by your discipleship; you know better." "So we do," saith Peter, "thanks be to our Master for it; we know that thou art the Christ of God, the Anointed of God, the Messiah promised." It is matter of unspeakable comfort to us that our Lord Jesus is God's anointed, for then he has unquestionable authority and ability for his undertaking; for his being anointed signifies his being both appointed to it and qualified for it. Now one would have expected that Christ should have charged his disciples, who were so fully apprized and assured of this truth, to publish it to every one they met with; but no, he strictly charged them to tell no man that thing as yet, because there is a time for all things. After his resurrection, which completed the proof of it, Peter made the temple ring of it, that God had made this same Jesus both Lord and Christ (Act 2:36); but as yet the evidence was not ready to be summed up, and therefore it must be concealed; while it was so, we may conclude that the belief of it was not necessary to salvation.
II. Concerning his own sufferings and death, of which he had yet said little. Now that his disciples were well established in the belief of his being the Christ, and able to bear it, he speaks of them expressly, and with great assurance, Luk 9:22. It comes in as a reason why they must not yet preach that he was the Christ, because the wonders that would attend his death and resurrection would be the most convincing proof of his being the Christ of God. It was by his exaltation to the right hand of the Father that he was fully declared to be the Christ, and by the sending of the Spirit thereupon (Act 2:33); and therefore wait till that is done.
III. Concerning their sufferings for him. So far must they be from thinking how to prevent his sufferings that they must rather prepare for their own.
1.We must accustom ourselves to all instances of self-denial and patience, Luk 9:23. This is the best preparative for martyrdom. We must live a life of self-denial, mortification, and contempt of the world; we must not indulge our ease and appetite, for then it will be hard to bear toil, and weariness, and want, for Christ. We are daily subject to affliction, and we must accommodate ourselves to it, and acquiesce in the will of God in it, and must learn to endure hardship. We frequently meet with crosses in the way of duty; and, though we must not pull them upon our own heads, yet, when they are laid for us, we must take them up, carry them after Christ, and make the best of them.
2.We must prefer the salvation and happiness of our souls before any secular concern whatsoever. Reckon upon it, (1.) That he who to preserve his liberty or estate, his power or preferment, nay, or to save his life, denies Christ and his truths, wilfully wrongs his conscience, and sins against God, will be, not only not a saver, but an unspeakable loser, in the issue, when profit and loss come to be balanced: He that will save his life upon these terms will lose it, will lose that which is of infinitely more value, his precious soul. (2.) We must firmly believe also that, if we lose our life for cleaving to Christ and our religion, we shall save it to our unspeakable advantage; for we shall be abundantly recompensed in the resurrection of the just, when we shall have it again a new and an eternal life. (3.) That the gain of all the world, if we should forsake Christ, and fall in with the interests of the world, would be so far from countervailing the eternal loss and ruin of the soul that it would bear no manner of proportion to it, Luk 9:25. If we could be supposed to gain all the wealth, honour, and pleasure, in the world, by denying Christ, yet when, by so doing, we lose ourselves to all eternity, and are cast away at last, what good will our worldly gain do us? Observe, In Matthew and Mark the dreadful issue is a man's losing his own soul, here it is losing himself, which plainly intimates that our souls are ourselves. Animus cujusque is est quisque - The soul is the man; and it is well or ill with us according as it is well or ill with our souls. If they perish for ever, under the weight of their own guilt and corruption, it is certain that we are undone. The body cannot be happy if the soul be miserable in the other world; but the soul may be happy though the body be greatly afflicted and oppressed in this world. If a man be himself cast away, ē zēmiōtheis - if he be damaged, - or if he be punished, si mulctetur - if he have a mulct put upon his soul by the righteous sentence of Christ, whose cause and interest he has treacherously deserted, - if it be adjudged a forfeiture of all his blessedness, and the forfeiture be taken, where is his gain? What is his hope?
3.We must therefore never be ashamed of Christ and his gospel, nor of any disgrace or reproach that we may undergo for our faithful adherence to him and it, Luk 9:26. For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, and justly. When the service and honour of Christ called for his testimony and agency, he denied them, because the interest of Christ was a despised interest, and every where spoken against; and therefore he can expect no other than that in the great day, when his case calls for Christ's appearance on his behalf, Christ will be ashamed to own such a cowardly, worldly, sneaking spirit, and will say, "He is none of mine; he belongs not to me." As Christ had a state of humiliation and of exaltation, so likewise has his cause. They, and they only, that are willing to suffer with it when it suffers, shall reign with it when it reigns; but those that cannot find in their hearts to share with it in its disgrace, and to say, If this be to be vile, I will be yet more vile, shall certainly have no share with it in its triumphs. Observe here, How Christ, to support himself and his followers under present disgraces, speaks magnificently of the lustre of his second coming, in prospect of which he endured the cross, despising the shame. (1.) He shall come in his own glory. This was not mentioned in Matthew and Mark. He shall come in the glory of the Mediator, all the glory which the Father restored to him, which he had with God before the worlds were, which he had deposited and put in pledge, as it were, for the accomplishing of his undertaking, and demanded again when he had gone through it. Now, O Father, glorify thou me, Joh 17:4, Joh 17:5. He shall come in all that glory which the Father conferred upon him when he set him at his own right hand, and gave him to be head over all things to the church; in all the glory that is due to him as the assertor of the glory of God, and the author of the glory of all the saints. This is his own glory. (2.) He shall come in his Father's glory. The Father will judge the world by him, having committed all judgment to him; and therefore will publicly own him in the judgment as the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person. (3.) He shall come in the glory of the holy angels. They shall all attend him, and minister to him, and add every thing they can to the lustre of his appearance. What a figure will the blessed Jesus make in that day! Did we believe it, we should never be ashamed of him or his words now.
Lastly, To encourage them in suffering for him, he assures them that the kingdom of God would now shortly be set up, notwithstanding the great opposition that was made to it, Luk 9:27. "Though the second coming of the Son of man is at a great distance, the kingdom of God shall come in its power in the present age, while some here present are alive." They saw the kingdom of God when the Spirit was poured out, when the gospel was preached to all the world and nations were brought to Christ by it; they saw the kingdom of God triumph over the Gentile nations in their conversion, and over the Jewish nation in its destruction.
But it is no trifling opinion of the multitude which the disciples mention, when it is added, But they answering said, John the Baptist, (whom they knew to be beheaded;) but some say, Elias, (whom they thought would come,) but others say that one of the old Prophets is risen again. But to make this enquiry belongs to a different kind of wisdom from ours, for if it were enough for the Apostle Paul to know nothing but Christ Jesus, and Him crucified, what more can I desire to know than Christ? (1 Cor. 2:2.)
In this one name there is the expression both of His divinity and incarnation, and the belief of His passion. He has therefore comprehended every thing, having expressed both the nature and the name wherein is all virtue. (summa virtutum)
But our Lord Jesus Christ was at first unwilling to be preached, lest an uproar should arise; as it follows, And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man any thing. For many reasons He commands His disciples to be silent; to deceive the prince of this world, to reject boasting, to teach humility. Christ then would not boast and dost thou boast who art of ignoble birth? Likewise He did it to prevent rude and as yet imperfect disciples from being oppressed with the wonder of this awful announcement. They are then forbid to preach Him as the Son of God, that they might afterwards preach Him crucified.
Perhaps because the Lord knew that the disciples would believe even the difficult mystery of the Passion and Resurrection, He wished to be Himself the proclaimer of His own Passion and Resurrection.
Although the other apostles know, yet Peter answers for them all, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Thus he who manifested both the nature and the name, in whom is the sum of the virtues, encompassed all things. Do we also ask questions about the generation of God, when Paul has judged that he knows nothing, save Christ Jesus and him crucified, and Peter thought nothing else should be confessed, save that he is the Son of God? We also scrutinize when and how he was born and how great he is in the contemplation of human weakness. Paul knew that therein was a stumbling block of a question, rather than the increase of edification, and therefore he judged that he knew nothing but Christ Jesus. Peter knew that all things are in the Son of God, for the Father has given all things to the Son.
(Hom. 54. in Matt.) Timely also was our Lord's command that no one should tell that He was Christ, in order that when offences should be taken away and the sufferings of the cross completed, a proper opinion of Him might be firmly rooted in the minds of the hearers. For that which has once taken root and afterwards been torn up. when fresh planted will scarcely ever be preserved. But that which when once planted continues undisturbed, grows up securely. For if Peter was offended merely by what he heard, what would be the feelings of those many who, after they had heard that He was the Son of God, saw Him crucified, and spit upon?
You see the skillfulness of the question. He did not at once say, "Who do you say that I am?" He refers to the rumor of those that were outside their company. Then, having rejected it and shown it unsound, he might bring them back to the true opinion. It happened that way. When the disciples had said, "Some, John the Baptist, and others, Elijah, and others, that some prophet of those in old time has risen up," he said to them, "But you, who do you say that I am?" Oh! how full of meaning is that word you! He separates them from all others, that they may also avoid the opinions of others. In this way, they will not conceive an unworthy idea about him or entertain confused and wavering thoughts. Then they will not also imagine that John had risen again, or one of the prophets. "You," he says, "who have been chosen," who by my decree have been called to the apostleship, who are the witnesses of my miracles. Who do you say that I am?"
Now the disciples were with the Lord, but He alone prayed to the Father, since the saints may be joined to the Lord in the bond of faith and love, but the Son alone is able to penetrate the incomprehensible secrets of the Father's will. Every where then He prays alone, for human wishes comprehend not the counsel of God, nor can any one be a partaker with Christ of the deep things of God.
Rightly does our Lord, when about to enquire into the faith of the disciples, first inquire into the opinion of the multitudes, lest their confession should appear not to be determined by their knowledge, but to be formed by the opinion of the generality, and they should be considered not to believe from experience, but like Herod to be perplexed by different reports which they heard.
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SUMMARY
Luke 9:19 captures the disciples' report to Jesus regarding the varied public opinions about His identity, a pivotal moment that immediately precedes Peter's confession of Christ's true nature. This verse reveals the prevailing misconceptions and spiritual yearning within Jewish society, where people recognized Jesus's extraordinary power and prophetic authority but struggled to grasp His unique divine Sonship, instead equating Him with revered figures like John the Baptist, Elijah, or other ancient prophets returned to life.
CONTEXT
Literary Context: This verse is deeply embedded within a crucial narrative pivot in Luke's Gospel. It follows Jesus's private prayer time with His disciples in Luke 9:18, where He directly poses the question, "Who do the crowds say that I am?" The disciples' answers in Luke 9:19 set the stage for the climactic confession of Peter in Luke 9:20, where he declares Jesus to be "the Christ of God." This sequence highlights the contrast between popular, often confused, perceptions and the divinely revealed truth. Immediately after this, Jesus begins to speak explicitly about His impending suffering, death, and resurrection (Luke 9:22), underscoring that a correct understanding of His identity is foundational to comprehending His mission.
Historical & Cultural Context: The diverse opinions about Jesus's identity reflected the rich tapestry of Jewish messianic and prophetic expectations during the Second Temple period. The mention of John the Baptist was particularly relevant given his recent execution by Herod Antipas (Luke 9:7-9). John's ministry had been widely impactful, and his ascetic lifestyle and bold preaching resonated with the prophetic tradition. The expectation of Elijah's return was deeply rooted in Jewish eschatology, particularly from Malachi 4:5, which foretold his coming before the "great and dreadful day of the Lord." This belief was so strong that many believed Elijah would return to anoint the Messiah. The general idea of "one of the old prophets risen again" speaks to a widespread yearning for a renewal of prophetic activity after centuries of perceived silence, a hope that God would once again raise up a powerful voice to guide His people and prepare for the Messianic age.
Key Themes: This verse contributes significantly to several overarching themes in Luke's Gospel and the broader biblical narrative. Firstly, it highlights the Misconceptions of Jesus' Identity, demonstrating how even those who witnessed His miracles and heard His teaching struggled to grasp His unique divine nature, reducing Him to a mere prophet or a resurrected figure. Secondly, it underscores the theme of Prophetic Expectation and Fulfillment, revealing the Jewish people's fervent anticipation of key prophetic figures, particularly Elijah, whose return was seen as a precursor to the Messiah. While John the Baptist operated "in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17), Jesus Himself was far greater than any prophet. Finally, the dialogue serves as a crucial Preparation for Revelation, setting a backdrop of popular, yet incomplete, understanding against which Jesus would unveil deeper truths about His identity, His suffering, and His ultimate redemptive mission, moving from public speculation to private, divine revelation for His closest disciples, as seen in Luke 9:20-22.
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Luke 9:19 employs several literary devices to enhance its meaning and impact. The primary device is Dialogue, as the verse is a direct response from the disciples to Jesus's question, propelling the narrative forward and setting up the subsequent, more profound revelation. This dialogue also serves as a form of Foreshadowing, as the popular, yet ultimately incorrect, theories about Jesus's identity create a dramatic tension that is resolved by Peter's accurate confession in the very next verse and Jesus's subsequent teachings about His suffering and resurrection. There is also an element of Irony present; the crowd recognizes Jesus's power and prophetic authority, even associating Him with revered figures like Elijah and John the Baptist, yet they fail to grasp the deeper, divine truth of His identity as the Christ. This highlights the spiritual blindness that can accompany even sincere religious speculation, underscoring the need for divine revelation.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Luke 9:19 powerfully illustrates the pervasive human tendency to categorize and understand the divine within familiar frameworks, even when those frameworks fall short of the full truth. The public's varied opinions — identifying Jesus as John the Baptist, Elijah, or another resurrected prophet — reveal a genuine recognition of His extraordinary power and prophetic anointing, yet a fundamental misunderstanding of His unique identity as the Son of God. This passage serves as a theological bridge, moving from the limited, human-centric views of Jesus to the divinely revealed truth that Peter articulates, emphasizing that true understanding of Christ comes not from human speculation but from God's revelation. It underscores the theme that Jesus transcends all previous prophetic figures, embodying the ultimate fulfillment of all prophetic hopes and expectations.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
This passage invites us to deeply reflect on our own understanding of Jesus. Are we content with popular opinions, cultural narratives, or even our own preconceived notions about who Jesus is? The crowd in Luke 9:19 saw Jesus as a great man, a powerful prophet, or a significant figure from the past, but they missed His unique divine Sonship. This serves as a potent reminder that a superficial understanding of Christ, while perhaps acknowledging His greatness, falls short of the transformative truth. For us today, the challenge is to move beyond secondhand accounts and popular perceptions to seek a personal, divinely revealed understanding of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. This requires a willingness to engage with Scripture, to pray for spiritual discernment, and to allow the Holy Spirit to illuminate His true identity to our hearts. Our lives are profoundly shaped by who we believe Jesus to be; a shallow understanding will lead to a shallow faith, but a deep, Spirit-led revelation will lead to profound devotion and obedience.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why did people think Jesus was John the Baptist, Elijah, or another prophet?
Answer: People held these beliefs primarily because of Jesus's extraordinary power, profound teaching, and prophetic authority, which resonated with the characteristics of these revered figures. John the Baptist had recently been executed, and his ministry of repentance and bold pronouncements had prepared the way for Jesus, leading some to believe Jesus was John resurrected. Elijah was a prominent prophet known for miracles and his fiery ascension, and Jewish tradition, particularly from Malachi 4:5, strongly anticipated his return before the Messiah. The idea of "one of the old prophets risen again" reflected a deep yearning for a renewal of prophetic activity after centuries of silence, recognizing Jesus's powerful impact as akin to the great prophets of Israel's past. These were sincere, yet ultimately incomplete, attempts to understand a figure who transcended all human categories.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Luke 9:19, with its array of human speculations about Jesus's identity, profoundly sets the stage for His Christ-centered fulfillment. The public's attempts to categorize Jesus as John the Baptist, Elijah, or a resurrected prophet, while acknowledging His divine power, ultimately fall short of His true nature. Jesus is not merely a return of an old prophet; He is the ultimate Prophet, the very Word of God incarnate (John 1:14). He is the one whom Moses foretold, a Prophet "like me" whom God would raise up (Deuteronomy 18:15). While John the Baptist prepared His way in the "spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1:17), Jesus is greater than Elijah, for He is the Messiah whom Elijah's return was meant to herald. The very concept of "risen again" finds its ultimate and unique fulfillment not in a past prophet, but in Jesus's own glorious resurrection from the dead, which definitively proved His divine Sonship and victory over sin and death (Romans 1:4). Thus, the various human guesses in Luke 9:19 serve to highlight the incomparable and transcendent reality of Jesus Christ, who is the culmination of all prophetic hope and the very revelation of God Himself (Hebrews 1:1-3). He is the one in whom "all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell" (Colossians 1:19).