Bible Study series: Luke 9:46-50. People who seem to do the works of the kingdom are not far off. But please note. He was expelling demons in the name of Jesus, not a false god. Don’t discourage them. Instruct them in the full gospel.
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In the next link to the original chapter, I comment more and offer the Greek text. At the bottom you will find a “Summary and Conclusion” section geared toward discipleship. Check it out!
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Luke 9:46-50
46 A dispute started up among them, that is, which one would be the greatest among them. 47 Jesus, knowing the dispute in their hearts, got a child and stood him beside himself. 48 And he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me, for he who is the least among you is great.”
49 In reply, John said, “Master, we saw someone expelling demons in your name, but we were forbidding him, because he is not following with us. 50 But Jesus said to him, “Do not forbid him, for whoever is not against you is for you.” (Luke 9:46-50)
Comments:
This dispute will happen again in 22:24-30. This must have been quite an issue for them as they jockeyed for position.
Jesus predicted his suffering and death (v. 22, 43b-45), yet the disciples were disputing over who would be the greatest. The irony of it all.
46:
Literally it reads: “A disputed entered among them.” When you are in the presence of Jesus, who was obviously serving and helping people, then it is a bad idea to get into a dispute about which one in your entourage or posse might be the greatest. The greatest goal is to be like Jesus. That means to serve and help people.
“dispute”: it is the noun dialogismos (pronounced dee-ah-loh-gees-mos, and the “g” is hard as in “get”). It means, depending on the context: (1) “thought, opinion, reasoning, design” or (2) “doubt, dispute, argument.” Here it is the second definition.
47:
Jesus could read hearts, as the Father willed. He did only what he saw his Father doing. There is a divine interplay between Jesus’s human nature, his divine nature, the Holy Spirit’s anointing, and the Father’s communication with him. We will never be able to figure out or sort out the details. We can believe, further, that God has given us his Spirit, so we too have the anointing. When we are born again, we share in his divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). So we can have a small taste of what his inner life was like, but on a much smaller and fainter scale.
“dispute”: it is the same word as in the previous verse.
A child must have been nearby. Was it a boy or girl? Let’s say a boy. Did he belong to one of the disciples? What about one of the women’s child? Recall that women were following Jesus (Luke 8:1-3). Or was he a child from the crowd? We don’t know, but it is fun to speculate. Mark 9:33 says that Jesus entered “the house,” which most likely means Peter’s house. It would be wonderful to think this child was Peter’s son Mark (1 Pet. 5:13).
Bock (p. 895) cites a passage from the Mishnah, showing that it was a waste of time to chat with children: “Morning sleep, midday wine, chattering with children, and tarrying [dawdling] in places where men of the common people assemble destroy a man (m. ‘Abot 3.11). Jesus was overturning the cultural prejudice among the extra-devout.
Jesus stood the child next to him. He was to be a living object lesson. Sweet scene, as Jesus also rebukes the disciples at the same time.
One quick point that is a little outside the main teaching here. Yes, we are initially to welcome or receive Jesus as children, but we must not remain children (1 Cor. 13:11).
48:
It is imperative to welcome a child in the name of Jesus. When we welcome the least child, we welcome Jesus. When we welcome Jesus, we welcome the Father who sent him. So we have a ladder of authority, and only the Father and Jesus can occupy the top rungs. If the disciples want to be great, they must occupy the rung that the child stands on. So once again we have the Great Reversal. To be great, one must become least.
So we have another paradox (see v. 23). A paradox is defined as placing seemingly contradictory ideas side by side. Here are two possible paradoxes, but only one really is. Which one is it?
1.. To be great, you must use all your willpower and ambition and drive.
2.. To be great, you must become like a child, the least of all.
The paradox is the second statement. Everyone follows the first one, but the way of the kingdom leads to the second one. In the world, the paradox (no. 2) makes no sense. In the kingdom, the two statements are reconciled because God lifts you up.
“sent me”: As noted at 4:43, Gabriel in his message to Zechariah said: “I am Gabriel who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent forth to speak to you and announce to you this good news” (1:19). This statement parallels that of Jesus (No, Jesus is not an angel, but the eternal Son of God.) The statement too is in the divine passive. Gabriel stands in God’s presence and came from heaven with a message of good news to Zechariah, and Jesus—who is the Son of God and not an angel—also came from heaven with a message of good news for the whole world. Jesus said in the context of one who welcome a little one that he welcomes “the one who sent me” (v. 48).
Some postmodern skeptics say that John is clear about God sending Jesus, while Luke (and Matthew and Mark) merely hints at it in such clauses as “I have been sent” or “I have come.” Therefore, the four Gospels are irreparably inconsistent and contradictory (they claim). The critics overemphasize the nuances, of course. John tells and shows loudly, and the Synoptic Gospel writers show and tell more subtly, for those who can see. John drops all subtleties, probably since his Gospel is the last one, so he does not need to be secretive to his readers.
5. Do I Really Know Jesus? He Came Down from Heaven
Celebrate the huge number of similarities in the four Gospels:
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
Don’t obsess over the tiny differences.
“name”: this noun stands in for the person—a living, real person. Let’s develop this thought, so it can apply to you. What’s in a name?
You carry your earthly father’s name. If he is dysfunctional, his name is a disadvantage. If he is functional and impacting society for the better, then his name is an advantage. In Jesus’s case, he has the highest status in the universe, next to the Father (Col. 1:15-20). He is exalted above every principality and power (Matt. 28:18; Eph. 1:20-23; Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8). His character is perfection itself. His authority and power are absolute, under the Father. In his name you are seated in the heavenly places with Christ (Eph. 2:6; Col. 3:1). Now down here on earth you walk and live as an ambassador in his name, in his stead, for he is no longer living on earth, so you have to represent him down here. We are his ambassadors who stand in for his name (2 Cor. 5:20). The good news is that he did not leave you without power and authority. He gave you his. Now you represent him in his name—his person, power and authority. Therefore under his authority we have his full authority to preach the gospel and set people free from bondages and satanic spirits and heal them of diseases.
49-50:
John seems to say that anyone outside the twelve should not even think that he could be the greatest. The dispute is among the elites.
In any case, the disciples reacted naturally. In vv. 1-6, Jesus had commissioned the twelve. They must have thought the commissioning was exclusive. But this verse shows that apparently it was not.
“were forbidding”: the one verb is in the imperfect tense (incomplete action from the past), indicating that the disciples tried on other occasions. So maybe it could be translated as “we were (continually) stopping him.” But that’s too awkward, so “tried to stop” is fine by me. Luke has a similar saying in 11:23: “He who is not with me is against me. He who does not gather with me scatters.”
Mark 9:38-39 is the parallel passage, and Jesus called the casting out of a demon a “miracle.” If someone does a miracle in Jesus’s name, then the man won’t soon speak bad about him. “For whoever is not against us is for us.”
We must be careful, however. The seven sons of Sceva tried to cast out demons in Jesus’s name whom Paul preached. The demons overpowered the seven sons and wounded them (Acts 19:11-20). Here, however, the exorcist was doing things right.
My speculation: this demon expeller would soon be part of the seventy-two, whom Luke is about to introduce in the next chapter. After all, he must have followed Jesus for at least a brief time, even to learn how to expel a demon in Jesus’s name. But let’s not hang on to my speculation, since the information is lacking.
In any case he was expelling demons in the name of Jesus, not in the name of a false god or the occult. So be careful if someone claims to expel a demon in that way. Instruct him about Jesus.
GrowApp for Luke 9:46-50
1. Study 1 Pet. 5:6. Do you have your own ambitions? How have you learned to bring them under the Father’s will?
2. You see someone going to a different church from yours? What is your attitude when you see someone outside of your group following Jesus? Do you see him as a friend or foe?
RELATED
11. Eyewitness Testimony in Luke’s Gospel
3. Church Fathers and Luke’s Gospel
2. Archaeology and the Synoptic Gospels
1. The Historical Reliability of the Gospels: Introduction to Series
SOURCES
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