Tuesday, July 07, 2020

Luke 9:44-45


44 “Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.” 45 But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.” ~ Luke 9:44-45

Our text for today begins with, "Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you: The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men." The Lord Jesus knew that listening is one of the easiest things we will ever do, and yet, one of the hardest. It seemed most hard for the disciples, so the Lord Jesus made it a point for them to listen.

In a sense, listening is easy or hearing is easy. It doesn’t demand the initiative and energy required in speaking. That’s why “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). The point is that hearing is easy, and faith is not an expression of our activity, but our receiving the activity of another. It is “hearing with faith” (Galatians 3:2, 5) that accents the achievements of Christ and thus is the channel of His grace that starts and sustains the Christian life.

But despite this ease, or perhaps precisely because of it, we often fight against it. In our sin, we’d rather trust in ourselves than another, amass our own righteousness than receive another’s, speak our thoughts than listen to someone else. True, sustained, active listening is a great act of faith, and a great means of God's grace, both for ourselves and for those whom we influence.

After the transfiguration on the mountain, just when the disciples thought the Lord Jesus was about to set up His kingdom, He says, "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men." 

 “Delivered” means handed over as a criminal to those who would punish Him. He was saying, I'm going to suffer and you too are going to have to deny yourself and take up a cross as well. There's going to be suffering for you. They didn't hear it.  It didn't register.  They didn't hear the part about the cross. They just looked at the crown.  They saw the glory and not the suffering. 

Even though the Lord Jesus had already told them back in the Luke 9:22, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes and be murdered, be raised up the third day," it still had not sunk in. It just didn't compute in the minds of the disciples.  And so, it was necessary for Him to say to them, "Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you." In another translation of this verse reads, "Let these words sink into your ears."

In addition to what had happened on the mount of transfiguration, the disciples were excited by the rising popularity of the Lord Jesus. The Populace exacerbated their expectations that He would establish His kingdom then and there.

The theme of Luke's Gospel is: the Lord Jesus is "the Son of Man." Taken from Daniel 7, the designation is that of a very exalted figure. A study of the term "Son of Man" in the Gospels reveals the Lord Jesus referred to Himself most often as the "Son of Man." He said in Mark 10:45, "The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

The Lord Jesus was subtle while enabling others to recognize His identity, but He didn't reveal Himself so blatantly that everybody would come to accept Him as the king. He made claims that were explicit in certain settings and implicit in others. And only when the time was right, when He was on trial for His life that He was asked, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the living God?" In response He said, "I am, and you will see the Son of Man coming with great power and glory." So the Lord Jesus confessed His deity openly, right at the point when He knew He would be crucified for it.

The Lord Jesus is referred to as the “Son of Man” 88 times in the New Testament. The phrase “Son of Man” is a reference to the prophecy of Daniel 7:13-14 which reads, “13 In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” 

Daniel's description of the “Son of Man” is Messianic. The disciples, on the heels of His transfiguration, expected the Lord Jesus to set up His eternal kingdom on earth as the "Son of Man." This expectation was created by the fact that He used this phrase of Himself most often. 

God called the prophet Ezekiel “son of man” 93 times. God was simply calling Ezekiel a human being. A son of a man is a man. The Lord Jesus was fully God and He was also a fully human. 

But, according to Luke 9:45, the disciples "did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it." The disciples did not understand how this could take place in the context of God’s plan for the Messiah. If the Lord Jesus was the Messiah, how could He be delivered into the hands of men and be put to death?  The disciples did not understand because it was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it. 

In Luke 8:10 we learn that the reason the disciples were able to know the secrets of the kingdom was because they were seeking. The crowd did not come to the Lord Jesus and ask Him to explain the parable of the soils, but the disciples did. Since they were asking and seeking, the Lord Jesus revealed to them the meaning of the parable. 

Luke 9:45 reads, “They were afraid to ask him about this saying.” The disciples stopped asking for explanations. Before, when the Lord Jesus said something they did not understand, they went to Him and asked Him. Now, the disciples stop asking. Since they stopped asking they could not understand what the Lord Jesus meant.