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Sermon preached on Luke 9:18-35 by Rev. W. Reid Hankins during the Morning Worship Service at Trinity Presbyterian Church (OPC) on 02/06/2022 in Novato, CA.
Sermon Manuscript
We need Jesus. That should be an obvious statement to make from the pulpit from a Christian church. Yet it is a theme brought out in today’s passage and a worthy reminder for us. It is brought up here especially because they were soon going to be without Jesus when he is arrested and put to death on the cross. This is something Jesus again points out to them here. Given what we see in today’s passage, we might wonder how they would get by without Jesus. Because, again, today’s passage shows that both them and us need Jesus. Let us keep this theme in mind as we work through our passage for today.
Let us begin in our first point then by considering this boy afflicted by a demon. We see the boy’s condition described in verse 39. This demon caused seizures in the boy so that the boy lost bodily control. This would result in him uncontrollably shouting out and convulsions and foaming at the mouth. When it says that it shatters him, this probably means that the demon’s control of the boy would leave him battered and bruised. And to top it all off, we see that this demon would rarely leave. In other words, these demon-induced seizures were happening a lot. How sad of a state for this boy. And the father is greatly concerned for his boy, who happens to also be his only begotten son.
So then we see here how the father had come looking for help. The father recounts in verse 40 how he had begged Jesus’ disciples to cast out the demon. We see that the disciples had tried to cast out the demon. But Jesus’ disciples were not able to cast out the demon. It is at this point, we should remember the context given to us in verse 37. This is the day after the glorious transfiguration of Jesus that we read about in the previous passage. Recall that Jesus had been up with three of his disciples up there on the mountain. Now they come back down the mountain and this is the scene that they are greeted with. The remaining nine disciples are there with this father trying to no avail to cast out the demon. After Jesus with Peter, James, and John had just come from some heights of glory, they show up and see the rest of the disciples floundering. I can only imagine the scene with these other disciples and the father and the boy. One says, “I command you demon to leave this boy!” And nothing happens. Another disciple pushes him away and says, “Let me try!” but with the same results. I can imagine it starting to get pretty awkward. Don’t forget that the disciples at the start of the chapter had just been sent by Jesus on a special mission where Jesus had endowed them with the ability to cast out demons and to heal. But here, they were unable to cast out the demon.
This context reminds us that Jesus wasn’t with them when these disciples were trying in vain the cast out this demon. As I said at the start, this passage shows us that we need Jesus; we need him to be with us. Jesus leaves his disciples and a problem comes to them that they are powerless to address. Yet, Jesus was not powerless. No sooner does he return, but here he is casting out this demon they could not cast out. In verse 42, we see that when the demon saw Jesus coming he threw the child to the ground one last time to convulse him. Maybe the demon saw Jesus coming and thought he could kill the boy before Jesus cast him out. But no, Jesus rebukes the demon and the unclean spirit leaves him. Jesus heals the boy when his disciples could not. Jesus again shows that as the Son of Man he has authority even over the most powerful of demons.
This leads us now to our second point to see how Jesus described this situation where his disciples couldn’t heal the boy. I’m referring to verse 41 where Jesus exclaims, “O faithless and twisted generation.” This is a rebuke that Jesus gives as he assesses this inability to heal the boy. Let’s talk about those two words, faithless and twisted. The word for faithless here is arguably better translated as unbelieving. The primary definition of this Greek word is the sense of not having faith. In fact, in the parallel account of this in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus specifically mentions the lack of faith being the issue. As for twisted, this is a word that means deformed, corrupted, perverted. It is the opposite of being straight. So, Jesus speaks of how gone astray people were here.
Who does he direct this comment to when he speaks of them being faithless and twisted? In context, we can’t help but immediately think of the disciples here who failed to cast out the demon. In Mark’s parallel account, this father is also exhorted to have more faith, causing him to cry out, “I believe, help my unbelief”. So, we can think of his need for more faith too. But Jesus made this rebuke even broader than just them when he said it was a faithless and twisted generation. While in English the word for “generation” might make you think of a group of people all born around a certain time, the Greek word is not first and foremost as concerned with time as genealogy. In Greek, this word for generation first and foremost refers to a class of people with common heritage or some connection. In many cases, it might be better translated even as “race”. So, what Jesus is basically saying is something like, “What an unbelieving and deformed race of people you all are!” In other words, while his exclamation was prompted by the lacking faith of his disciples and the limited faith of the father, he seems to be speaking more broadly of a problem that existed generally among all the people. He was ministering to a people who were an unbelieving and twisted people.
A key to understanding this rebuke of Jesus is to see that these sorts of words were said long before by Moses in the Song of Moses. There, in Deuteronomy 32:5, it speaks of how one day God’s people would turn away from God, and would become no longer his children because they would be a crooked and twisted generation. In other words, Jesus is ministering in a day in which the Song of Moses’s prediction of widespread waywardness and even apostasy has been realized. So, on the one hand, Jesus laments this state of the people. Yet by speaking in words reminiscent of the Song of Moses he speaks prophetically to the people to help them recognize this prophesied state in order to promote faith and “straight” living in them.
But before we move away from Jesus’ point about the people in general being unbelieving and twisted, I do want to hone in on the fact that this would apply to his disciples too. In fact, as I mentioned, a parallel passage records Jesus saying it was their lack of faith that kept them from being able to heal the boy. That is amazing given that just before they had gone on that mission where Jesus had endowed them as his apostles to not only give his message but to work miracles including casting out demons. Yet, here they could not cast out that demon. Jesus says it’s there lack of faith. Here’s how we know they had a lack of faith. Because in the parallel passages in Matthew and Mark Jesus points out that they hadn’t prayed for the demon to come out. So, connect the dots. If they didn’t even pray then surely they weren’t putting their faith in God to try to cast out that demon. That means that they had to have been trying to cast out their demon by their own ability. They likely didn’t even realize that. But they had gone from being sent out by Jesus whereas apostles they represented Jesus and Jesus’ power, and then they come back and Jesus is gone and apparently they had become too sure of themselves and maybe without even realizing thought it was someone in themselves that would allow them to cast out the demon. But no, it would only be by Jesus at work in and through them would they be able to cast out a demon. There is an application here for our ministry. We have to never lose sight of this fact, that it must be in Christ that we will expect fruit to come from church ministry. We must be on guard against self-reliance. Rather the faith Jesus commends here is to look outside of yourself for the power and authority of our ministry. At most and at its best, our ministry is apostolic, meaning that we are representing Christ and exercising his authority which has been delegated to us. We are never representing ourselves or possessing some power or authority that is in us. We are just mere men. Jesus is the Son of God in the flesh with all the divine power and right.
Let us turn now to our third point and see why Jesus especially confronts them here by what he asks in the last part of 41. He says, “How long am I to be with you and bear with you?” This might sound like a rhetorical question, and in some sense it is. And yet remember the context. He had just gone away from the that last night. That’s when he left them and went up to that mount of transfiguration. It was almost like a temporary reverse of the incarnation, where he for a moment returns to a glory beyond that of any ordinary human. Peter had wanted to stay there on that mountain and moment of glory. But Jesus knew it was not the time for that. Jesus knew he needed to return down from that mountain and back to the rest of his disciples and ministry. They yet needed him there. And yet while Jesus just got away for one night, we see his disciples so incapable without him.
But when he asks the question, “How long am I to be with you,” the concern is not just about his previous night of being away from them. It’s what he draws them to consider in the final section of today’s passage. Look at verse 44. He says to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” Soon there is coming a time when he will again be away from them. He is going to be arrested and ultimately put to death. What will they do then, if they can’t even go one night without him?
Yet, what does Jesus do in light of his impending departure from them? He teaches them. He says, “Let these words sink into your ears.” That’s a little colorful translation, but basically he is telling them that they need to stop and really listen carefully and closely consider what he is trying to tell them. These are important words for them to reflect on and understand. They need to know that there will come a time where he will be taken away from them. Of course, they also will need to come to understand why that has to happen. But for here it is simply a prediction about that future. They may struggle with being faithless and twisted, but as Jesus continues to teach them and disciple them and train them, he is working to form their faith and untwist them.
And yet, they didn’t understand what he was saying according to verse 45. And they were afraid to ask him about it, so he didn’t give them any further explanation. But we can appreciate why they might have been confused. Think about the setting. Jesus had just shown them again his great power and authority when he cast out that demon from the boy. There Jesus showed that he mastered the demons and put them under his control. Surely demons were normally more powerful than humans. That’s why they are able to put people into seizures and get them to do things the people don’t want to do like hurt themselves. Demons usually controlled men, not the other way around. But this man, Jesus the Christ, controlled demons. So then, how is it that someone with such power and authority would find himself delivered into the hands of men? If demons can’t subjugate him, how could mere men? You could imagine why that would seem hard to understand.
We could also imagine why this would be hard for them to understand when we see how Jesus puts this in terms of the Son of Man. In verse 44, he says it’s the “Son of Man” that “is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” Remember, that is the title throughout Luke so far that we see Jesus used to refer to himself. And time and again Jesus had used that reference to speak about some great power and authority that the Son of Man possessed, like in Luke 5:24 when Jesus said the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins. Or how Jesus said in Luke 6:5 that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. We’ve said that when Jesus speaks of such a Son of Man in such power and authority it calls to mind the way Daniel 7 speaks of the Son of Man. There it describes the Son of Man in glorious terms as an absolute and eternal king over all. But here, Jesus now uses that same title of Son of Man to describe one who is subdued and seemingly conquered by people. How does that fit with the revelation Jesus has been giving about himself being the Son of Man? Well, interestingly, I think it fits along the lines of how God calls the prophet Ezekiel “Son of Man” in places like Ezekiel chapters 2 and 3. There God speaks of how he is sending Ezekiel as a prophet to a people that are rebellious and won’t hear him. In other words, Ezekiel’s ministry is a type and picture of the kind of ministry that Jesus would have. Jesus would bring God’s Word to a rebellious generation who ultimately would reject him and apprehend him and put him to death. So then, Jesus shows us that his use of the title of Son of Man draws from multiple Old Testament references. It embodies not only the glory found in the Daniel usages but also of the rejected prophetic ministry as found in the Ezekiel usage.
This was hard for them to understand, but they didn’t ask for more information or for clarification. They were afraid to do so. We aren’t told why they were afraid. He had just admonished them and were afraid he might admonish them again. Or maybe they thought they should have known what he meant and think they’ll look foolish if they ask for an explanation. Too often today, people don’t understand a Bible passage and for whatever reason are too afraid to ask for help. But I would encourage you to ask! Probably others are having the same question you are having. The reality is pastors love genuine questions like that.
Interestingly, we are told here in verse 45 that ultimately the reason they didn’t understand was that it was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it. Who was concealing this from them? It seems that the only option that would make sense is God. That this is a reference to the purposes of God for the time being was not granting them the grace they would need to have eyes to see and minds to understand this teaching. That is interesting, because earlier we saw how Jesus said that to his disciples they were being granted from God to know the secrets of the kingdom even when for so many Jesus’ preaching fell on deaf ears. But in this case, God had not yet ordained for them to come into full understanding. Now we might speculate why he would keep them from understanding this. Maybe if they fully understood how Jesus was going to be betrayed and go to the cross, that it would somehow keep it from happening. So, God ordained them not to understand yet. But one day they would have understanding and when they did, they would remember back to these predictions Jesus repeatedly made and it would serve to strengthen their growing faith then.
As we now have such clear understanding that Jesus had to go to the cross in order to save us from our sins, I can again say that the Old Testament had already revealed these things. Yes, they were not revealed with the same level of clarity as we have now. But they were certainly there and it is easy enough to see them in retrospect. Even that Song of Moses that Jesus alluded to here looked to God eventually having compassion on his wayward people and ultimately redeeming them. And that is why Jesus, the Son of Man, who is more powerful than demons allowed sinful men to deliver him over to other sinful men who would put him to death on the cross. Jesus permitted this so he could be the sacrifice and atonement for ours sins that we his elect needed.
In conclusion, Jesus asked how long he would be us. In asking that, he revealed how essential his presence with us is if we are going to live and bear fruit the way he would want us to. So then, even though he went away for a short time in his death on the cross, he rose again the third day unto new life. And even though he has now ascended up into heaven, he was abundantly clear that he wasn’t leaving earth so as to abandon us. Rather, he was ascending on high so that he could then send his Spirit out to all his people. This he did so that he would be with all of us all the time. Because we each really do need Jesus. It’s like Jesus said in John 15, that if we abide with him and he with us, we will bear much fruit, but apart from him we can do nothing.
So how long will Jesus be with us and bear with us? He has answered his own question. He has promised to always be with us, even until the end of the age. Let us then believe that he is with us and even at work to grow our faith and straighten our ways. And in all things, may we always look for power and authority not in ourselves but in Jesus Christ. Amen.
Copyright © 2022 Rev. W. Reid Hankins, M.Div.
All Rights Reserved.
