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When you think about it, Jesus and His followers had almost no political power or influence. The ruling elites of the world had no interest or even knowledge of Him. What hope would they have had to see the kingdom of Jesus change the world?
One reason might have been the marvelous works that Jesus did. They represented a power far above that of the world, a power over all sickness, all evil, all demons, and all diseases. This would have given them hope.
But what about people who only read about Jesus’ marvelous works? People can read about the power of Jesus in the past and see that these things are marvelous works worthy of admiration. But, we might ask, does that have anything to do with today? Is there power available today for provision, for justice, for healing, for restoration, for deliverance? That’s what the first readers of the book of Luke might have asked, and that’s what we might ask as well.
And that’s what this passage is all about. Jesus was telling His disciples in these stories that they would experience His power not only on the day of the miracle but also in the future. This account can also give us hope that the power of Jesus is present now and will continue to be present in the future to heal, to deliver, and to save. We will consider this by looking at the following sections:
The Coming Provision (Luke 9:10–17)
The Coming Trial (Luke 9:18–27)
The Coming Glory (Luke 9:28–36)
The Coming Victory (Luke 9:37–43)
The Coming Provision (Luke 9:10–17)
Jesus had just sent the disciples out to preach and teach. He was preparing them for their future role. When they returned, they told Jesus all that they had done. To review what they had done and give them some rest, Jesus took them to a quiet area near a town called Bethsaida.
The plan for rest was quickly short-circuited. The crowds followed Jesus. Even though He had other things on His agenda, we read, “He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing” (Luke 9:11). Even though Jesus had other things on His mind, He gave a face of welcome to the people God brought on His way. Luke points out that Jesus often had an agenda of rest and retreat, but the Father had an agenda of outreach. Jesus trusted the Father’s leading and was willing to trust that the Father would provide what He needed for Him to do the work.
Then, the Twelve disciples got nervous. They realized that it was getting late, and the people needed to eat and needed lodging. Jesus responded with a surprising statement, “You give them something to eat.” Why would Jesus say this? Sometimes Jesus does not immediately relieve our crises when we go to Him. Instead, He sometimes aggravates them. Why? To cause us to look to our real resource in Him.
The disciples responded, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd” (Luke 9:13). They were really unsure of what to do. The text tells us that there were about 5,000 people there!