Luke 9:46-62
A man in the crowd called out, "Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not." "O unbelieving and perverse generation," Jesus replied, "how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here." – Luke 9:38-41
Jesus goes on to rebuke the spirit and heal the child, and everyone was amazed. But I want to park for a moment on what Jesus actually said. “O unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you and put up with you?” That is one harsh rebuke!
Imagine, if you are or have been married, back to the time when you were single and hoping to find that special someone to spend the rest of your life with. If you are single, imagine a future time when you will be ready to find that special someone. Perhaps for some of you, no imagining is required, because I am not talking about your past or your future, but your present. In any case, suppose you have been getting to know this person for a while now, and you know you really like this person, and you are becoming more and more convinced that this person likes you, when suddenly you do something that this person really doesn’t like. You’re not even sure what it was you did, but this person says, “How long shall I stay with you and put up with you?”
How would you feel? Ouch! “I’ve blown it!” “Oh, no; I’ve ruined everything!” Or perhaps you would think “What did I do? What?” Or perhaps you might think, “Who are you talking to? Not me!”
Actually, that last question is a good one for us to ask. Who was Jesus talking to, the father, the crowds, the disciples, or some combination of the above? I think there are good grounds for all three. In the parallel passage in Mark 9, we have additional details of the conversation between the boy’s father and Jesus.
Jesus asked the boy's father, "How long has he been like this?" "From childhood," he answered. "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us." "'If you can'?" said Jesus. "Everything is possible for him who believes." – Mark 9:21-23
So clearly the father is weak in faith, weak in believing what God can do. What about the crowds? We have seen the various attitudes of the crowds, from being entertainment seekers, to being skeptical, to being cynical, and on to being downright hostile. Again, Mark 9 gives us additional details of this situation. After Jesus commanded the spirit to leave the boy,
The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He's dead." But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up. – Mark 9:26-27
Notice how the crowd was quick to think the boy was dead. This shows their general lack of faith and belief. Finally, what about the disciples? Jesus couldn’t have been talking to them, could He? Well, yes. After all, they were unable to drive out the demon. This was probably bad enough, but again, Mark 9 says more.
When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and the teachers of the law arguing with them. As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him. "What are you arguing with them about?" He asked. A man in the crowd answered, "Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not." – Mark 9:14-18
Not only had they failed, they had gotten into some kind of big argument not only with the child’s father, but also with a large part of the crowd! You should picture lots of shouting and angry words, with the disciples shouting angrily with the best (or worst) of them. This was hardly the kind of thing that would bring a good name to the disciples’ Teacher! I have no doubt that the rebuke was meant as much for the disciples, if not more, than it was for anyone else.
Imagine you were one of Jesus’ disciples back then and you heard Him say, “O unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you and put up with you?” If you really loved Him, would you not feel grieved at hearing this? I think grieved is the right way to feel. Certainly you should not have felt offended. Anger is a natural reaction to hearing a rebuke, but it is not a proper or helpful reaction.
My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline and do not resent His rebuke, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, as a father the son he delights in. – Prov. 3:11-12
If you are a parent, you have rebuked your children, many times. If you are a child, you have been rebuked, many times. My first point of application today is that we really understand and grasp and take hold of this: The Lord desires to rebuke you. I know this is true because I know that He loves you, just as He loves me. He loves us too much to just stand by and watch us go wrong. Just as the verse in Proverbs says, it is because He loves and delights in you, in us, that He desires to rebuke you, to rebuke us. Proverbs also teaches this:
He who listens to a life-giving rebuke will be at home among the wise. He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding. – Prov. 15:31-32
My second point of application is that we need to heed the Lord’s rebuke. To do so is to be wise; to fail to do so, to ignore discipline, is not only to be foolish, but to show that you despise yourself. I realize that many people today have self-image problems and don’t like who they are, for many reasons, but I don’t think this is what this verse really means. I think this is more like our saying “to cut off your nose despite your face.” It is like when a child, when he can’t have his way, has a full-blown tantrum even though he knows that his situation after the tantrum will end up much worse than it was when he simply couldn’t have his own way.
These two messages, that the Lord desires to rebuke us, because He loves us, and that we need to pay attention to His rebukes, are repeated in the New Testament.
And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son." – Hebrews 12:5-6
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. – Rev. 3:19
Do you see how both messages are in each passage? This is so important!
Let’s go on with the passage in Luke.
An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little child and had him stand beside Him. Then He said to them, "Whoever welcomes this little child in My name welcomes Me; and whoever welcomes Me welcomes the One who sent Me. For he who is least among you all—he is the greatest." – Luke 9:46-48
We have a tendency, I think, to eagerly miss when Jesus delivers a stinging rebuke. Picture this depressing scene. The disciples are arguing about who would be the greatest. We can laugh, because it seems like such a foolish thing to do, but in reality the only foolish thing about it was that they did it out loud. If you are honest with yourself, you will find that you have done this too. There are millions of ways we do this, often quite subtly. “Well, at least my kids are better behaved than their kids!” What’s the implication? You are a better Christian parent than they are. “At least we live within our budget!” What’s the implication? You are a better Christian steward than they are. “They watched that movie? I would never watch that movie!” What’s the implication? You are a more moral Christian than they are. “That person never prays out loud. At least I do that.” What’s the implication? You are more spiritual than they are. Why are reality shows so popular on TV? I believe it is because it gives you a chance to see some really dysfunctional people and compare yourself to them.
Do we think that because we don’t say these things out loud that that means it is OK? This is Jesus, this is God we are talking about! I have some news for you: He can hear you just as well when you keep your mouth shut!
I want you to picture the scene here. They are arguing over who would be the greatest. Picture it. “I healed 14 people. How many did you heal?” “I cast out a demon. You never did that.” Actually, there is a movie scene that comes to mind as I think about this from the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, where Gimli the dwarf and Legolas the elf argue about who has killed the most bad guys. At one point, Legolas brings down this tremendous creature single-handedly, and when he finishes, triumphantly and with grace and poise, sliding down the collapsed creature in perfect balance, Gimli says, “That only counts as one!”
The tense used here is interesting. They are not arguing about who is the greatest, but about who will be the greatest! They are not arguing about the quantifiable, but about the hypothetical. I would guess that they started by talking about present accomplishments, but in the heat of argument moved on to future possibilities, because they cannot really be argued against. Picture two children arguing about who has the greatest parents! “My father is a doctor, but yours is only a farmer.” “So, what of it?” “I’ll tell you what of it: my father is a lot smarter than your father.” “Oh, yeah? Well, my father can beat your father up!” “No, he can’t! My father is smarter and could beat your father up. Not only that, he could fix your father back up after he beat him up!”
I’ve moved on into the absurd here, but I want to remind you that we all start the same way they probably started out – by thinking about comparisons. And this is a separate issue, but I believe that comparing ourselves to others with the conclusion that we are nothing in comparison is equally deserving of rebuke. In both cases our eyes are focused on the comparison of ourselves with others, instead of simply trying to please our Lord.
I believe Jesus has as much an answer in His actions as He does in His words. Let’s look first at His actions. The disciples are arguing about who will be the greatest, and by extension who will sit at His left and right hand in the Kingdom to come. (This is spelled out in other situations between Jesus and the disciples, especially the case where the “Sons of Thunder,” James and John, the sons of Zebedee, use their own mother to try to secure the future right to sit at Jesus’ side.)
So what is Jesus’ action, to take a small child, someone with no accomplishments except perhaps to be potty trained and to mostly know how to talk, and put him at Jesus’ side! The implicit message in this action is that this little kid is currently behaving more like a disciple than they are. What a rebuke!
Then Jesus takes the message further with His words. “You puffed-up disciples, how are you going to respond if I say that this little boy is my top disciple? Will you humble yourselves to serve under Him? Whoever receives Him in this way receives Me. Are you willing to take a little kid seriously for My sake? It is this kind of humility that is needed if you are going to really receive Me, My teachings, and through Me, My Father.”
And then Jesus ties the action and the message together with the words, “For he who is least among you all – he is the greatest.” What Jesus is saying here will be brought out more deeply later in Luke’s gospel – but the message is that the true mark of greatness in God’s kingdom is not accomplishment but humility. It’s not what have you done but who have you served. How low are you willing to go?
My family and I just got back from a nearly two-week vacation in Florida. It’s a bit of a long story to explain the circumstances for what I am about to share, so I won’t, but one of my highlights was working among other pastors and missionaries to set up a humongous yard sale (with well over a hundred large pieces of furniture plus tons of the usual yard sale stuff), as well as to help people complete their transactions and carry their items to their cars. It was hot, dusty, sweaty, backbreaking work, but it was tremendously satisfying to simply serve. I truly believe that when we humble ourselves like this, it strengthens God’s Spirit within us in a way that simply cannot be duplicated any other way. Many, many years ago, as a new believer, I was part of a human chain manually unloaded an entire semi-truck full of books for a Missions conference. At that time I also helped direct traffic for the conference in the middle of a snowstorm. The joy and closeness I felt to God at these times was similar to what I felt at the yard sale this past Friday. Our mission trips to Clemson provide a similar opportunity to become part of the “least” in the kingdom of God. Our own missionaries to Ukraine will undoubtedly experience this opportunity as well.
"Master," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in Your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us." "Do not stop him," Jesus said, "for whoever is not against you is for you." – Luke 9:49-50
Another rebuke! I can imagine John feeling pretty good about what he had tried to do, expecting to hear an attaboy in response. But John was dead wrong, and Jesus told him so.
In this case the rebuke is over presuming that only those just like you are right and are doing God’s work. This is not to say that doctrine is not important – it is critically important, as so many of Paul’s letters of correction to the various churches attest. But even people with doctrinal errors (even serious ones) may be used by God to further the spread of the gospel and of His kingdom.
I experienced a practical example of this while on vacation. I hunted for a Christian radio station to listen to and finally found one that played contemporary Christian music, including worship music, but the talking between songs seemed a bit “off.” I eventually realized that this was a Roman Catholic contemporary Christian music station. My first response was like the disciples – I thought this was wrong. What are they doing, taking our Christian songs on their station? But then I realized that despite the fact that the Roman Catholic Church has numerous doctrines that are seriously, even critically, in error, if their listeners were listening to words of some of these songs, that could only be a good thing. With one small exception, they steered clear of bashing Protestants. Whoever is not against you is for you.
What drives some people to criticize other ministries excessively? It can be pride, a belief that they are the only ones really doing God’s work. Or it can be insecurity over the thought that your group is really not that special. I think these things are often interrelated. Were they present in the disciples? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I think we all get caught up in these things in various degrees from time to time. We should remember God’s command given through Paul:
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. – Eph. 4:3-5
More generally, we do things that we think should be pleasing to the Lord, but later we find out, through reading more of His Word, or through the words of another believer, that although our intentions may have been good, our actions were just not right. Children, I’m afraid, may experience this quite a bit, even daily, from their parents. But we all do this from time to time. Again, how do we accept the rebuke? Are we defiant, angry? Do we overreact, saying, “I can’t do anything right!” Or do we simply accept the correction and adjust our actions appropriately?
As believers, we are called to be people who accept rebuke and people who rebuke. (Rebuke in love, of course.) Both being rebuked by people and being called to be people who rebuke may make you uncomfortable, but Scripture is clear on this. Jesus Himself said this:
So watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. – Luke 17:3
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul says this to all of us who desire to grow to maturity in Christ:
He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute (rebuke) those who oppose it. – Titus 1:9
Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. – 2 Timothy 4:2
Notice that in both passages rebuking goes hand in hand with encouraging. We need to remember this. And we need to remain open to correction from our fellow believers. If our heart motivation is the same as that of God’s, done because of our love for one another, a love that is supernaturally strong because of our loving God, then correction can become a powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit. If we try to do give correction or receive it in our own strength, we are setting ourselves up to hurt others and be hurt. And so let us lovingly give correction to and receive correction from one another.
As the time approached for Him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And He sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for Him; but the people there did not welcome Him, because He was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?" But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they went to another village. – Luke 9:51-55
Often, Jews going from Galilee to Jerusalem used a long, indirect route to avoid Samaria. Why? Because of the smoldering hostility between Jews and Samaritans. Samaritans accepted the first five books of the Old Testament but rejected the rest. They had built their own temple in Mt. Gerazim, the central focus point of their worship, but it was destroyed around 100 BC by John Hyrcanus, the son of Simon Maccabeus, the Jewish zealot celebrated in the Jewish holiday of Hannukah. The Samaritans hated the Jews because of this, especially Jews who wanted to pass through their land to go to their (still standing) temple in Jerusalem. The Jews hated the Samaritans because they were viewed as idolatrous and living under God’s judgment because they had taken foreign wives.
Into this environment Jesus came, with His messengers ahead of Him to get things ready. “But the people there did not welcome Him, because He was heading for Jerusalem.” How did His disciples feel about this? No doubt they were mad. “How can they treat our Master this way?” Or was there a little “How can they treat us this way?” mixed in? Using modern terminology, you could say they wanted to call in an “air strike” to “soften their defenses.”
What was Jesus’ response? Yes, another rebuke. To use a phrase I learned from Fred, this is not the royal way. The royal way is not to argue back when you are asked to leave, but simply to move on. Internationally, we Americans have a bad reputation of getting really nasty when things aren’t exactly they are supposed to be for us. When we don’t receive good service, we say, “Give me your name. I’m talking to your supervisor.” Now there is nothing wrong with talking to a supervisor, but there is right way and a wrong way to do it. The wrong way is to “bring down fire from heaven” as you do it. The right way is polite, respectful, kind, and loving.
At the yard sale I told you about, we were given about 3 minutes of instructions before we opened. The man in charge, a no nonsense, big, older, potentially intimidating man, ran off a list of ways people try to cheat and steal from the sale, which takes place once a week. One of the ways he mentioned is that people will switch stickers around. In a lowered voice, he said to accept the sticker price even if it was obviously changed and ridiculously low. (He lowered his voice so that nobody waiting to enter the sale would pick up on the idea.) He told us to treat such people with extra kindness, helping them bring things to their cars even if it was a small load, thanking them for helping out our ministry. It was not our job to bring down fire from heaven.
As they were walking along the road, a man said to Him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." – Luke 9:57-58
Yes, this looks like another rebuke. Why did Jesus say this? After all, the man has just made a wonderful profession of devotion to Jesus. What is the problem? I think it is that it is either a naïve or a superficial promise.
Now I love the modern worship songs we sing, but sometimes I wonder what God thinks when we sing them superficially. One song, Step by Step, even has the line “I will follow You all of my days.” Do we mean it? Will we follow Him through hardship, through pain, even through death? Sometimes that is where He takes us.
He said to another man, "Follow Me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." – Luke 9:59-60
Do you think this man’s father is dead yet? I don’t, because then he would be making funeral arrangements, in mourning, etc. I think the man is saying that he has an elderly father, and once he dies, then he will follow Jesus. What is Jesus’ response? Another rebuke! This one seems harsh. Aren’t we supposed to take care of our own families? What is Jesus really saying?
He is saying that putting family responsibilities, as important as they are, in front of serving God and following Him is wrong. Now following Jesus for most of us does not require us to leave our families behind. But it may mean leaving them behind spiritually speaking, especially if they are unbelievers. Jesus’ rebuke is a response to those who would say, “When my husband gets saved then I’ll be 100% running for God. I just need to wait until then.” I believe Jesus’ answer to someone like this is to say, “You should pray for Him. But you also, now, run 100% for Me.”
Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." – Luke 9:61-62
Another rebuke! What happens, by the way, when you put your hand to the plow and look back? You get crooked rows! Crooked rows are much more difficult to work than straight rows. Weeding, harvesting, everything is more difficult. By the way, we are not talking about a glance back or a quick good-by. The “looking back” here is in a tense in Greek that implies continuous action. “No one who puts his hand to the plow and keeps on looking back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”
I think marriage offers a good analogy. In Genesis we are told to “leave” and then “cleave”, or “cling.” We leave our old families, and we cleave to our spouse. In the same way, as followers of Jesus, we leave everything and cling to Christ. There should be no looking back to our old way of life before we found Christ and were saved by Him.
By the way, did you notice that in each of these last three rebukes, it appears that the people were not entirely up front with their statements? Jesus, who could see the heart, saw that they were, in each case misrepresenting their situations. The man who said he would follow Jesus anywhere didn’t really mean it. The man who said he wanted to bury his father really wanted to stay with a living father until he died. The man who wanted to say good-by to his family really wanted to stay closely attached to them. Do you do this? Are you truly honest in your prayers to God?
At the yard sale I mentioned, I served a shy, awkward lady for whom English was clearly not her primary language bring a number of smaller furniture items to her car. Her car was small, and it was pretty clear there would be no way to put the items in the trunk. I gently suggested she try lowering her front passenger seat and put them in her rear seat, but she insisted it would fit, and spent several minutes trying a variety of ways to get these items to fit in the trunk. Then she finally gave up, and tried to put them in her back seat. I didn’t say anything this time, but began to open the front seat of her car, but again, she insisted this would work, and I spent several more minutes watching her try various things to get them into her back seat. Finally she allowed me to open the front door, move a few items to her trunk, lower the seat, slide it forward, and put the items in the rear seat. She was very thankful, saying things like, “Oh, you are so smart!”
I would close today with this thought: What makes a rebuke big or small is not the volume of the voice making the rebuke, but the amount of pride in the one being rebuked.
If you go back and look at every account we have looked at today, the core problem with the disciples again and again was pride. Pride leads to wanting to be looked at as better than others. Pride leads to wanting to impede those who are not just like us. Pride leads to wanting to punish those who oppose us. Pride leads us to being dishonest with God. If we really want to be “great” in God’s eyes, there is a cost. Pride has no place in the kingdom of God. The cost of greatness is to forsake all of our own attempts at greatness. Let us listen for God’s loving rebukes, forsake our pride, and truly serve Him.
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