Luke 9:43-45

1 st. The Second Announcement of the Passion: Luke 9:43; Luke 9:43.

We may infer from the two other Syn. (Matthew 17:22-23; Mark 9:30-32), more especially from Mark, that it was during the return from Caesarea Philippi to Capernaum that Jesus had this second conversation with His disciples respecting His sufferings. Luke places it in connection with the state of excitement into which the minds of those who were with Jesus had been thrown by the preceding miracles. The Lord desires to suppress this dangerous excitement in the hearts of His disciples. And we can understand, therefore, why this time Jesus makes no mention of the resurrection (comp. Luke 9:22). By the pronoun ὑμεῖς, you, He distinguishes the apostles from the multitude: “You who ought to know the real state of things.” The expression θέσθε εἰς τὰ ὦτα, literally, put this into your ears, is very forcible. “If even you do not understand it, nevertheless impress it on your memory; keep it as a saying.”

The sayings which they are thus to preserve, are those which are summarized in this very 44th verse, and not, as Meyer would have us think, the enthusiastic utterances of the people to which allusion is made in Luke 9:43. The for which follows is not opposed to this meaning, which is the only natural one: “Remember these sayings; for incredible as they appear to you, they will not fail to be realized.”

The term, be delivered into the hands of men, refers to the counsel of God, and not to the treachery of Judas.

They can know very little of the influence exercised by the will on the reason who find a difficulty in the want of understanding shown by the disciples (Luke 9:45). The prospect which Jesus put before them was regarded with aversion (Matthew 5:23), and consequently they refused to pay any serious attention to it, or even to question Jesus about it (Mark 5:32). Nothing more fully accords with psychological experience than this moral phenomenon indicated afresh by Luke. The following narrative will prove its reality. The ἵνα, in order that, Luke 9:45, does not signify simply, so that. The idea of purpose implied in this conjunction refers to the providential dispensation which permitted this blindness.

2 d. The question: Which is the greatest? Luke 9:46-48.

This incident also must belong, according to Matthew and Mark, to the same time (Matthew 18:1 et seq.; Mark 9:33 et seq.). According to Mark, the dispute on this question had taken place on the road, during their return from Caesarea to Capernaum. “ What were ye talking about by the way? ” Jesus asked them after their arrival (Luke 9:33); and it was then that the following scene took place in a house which, according to Matthew, was probably Peter's. We have several other indications of a serious dispute between the disciples happening about this time; for example, that admonition preserved by Mark at the end of the discourse spoken by Jesus on this occasion (Luke 9:50): “ Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace among yourselves; ” then there is the instruction of Jesus on the conduct to be pursued in the case of offences between brethren, Matthew 18:15: “ If thy brother sin against thee...; ” lastly, the question of Peter: “ How many times am I to forgive my brother? ” and the answer of Jesus, Luke 18:21-22. All these sayings belong to the period of the return to Capernaum, and are indications of a serious altercation between the disciples. According to the highly dramatic account of Mark, it is Jesus Himself who takes the initiative, and who questions them as to the subject of their dispute. Shame-stricken, like guilty children, at first they are silent; then they make up their minds to avow what the question was about which they had quarrelled. Each had put forward his claims to the first place, and depreciated those of the rest. Peter had been the most eager and, perhaps, the most severely handled. We see how superficial was the impression made on them by the announcement of their Master's sufferings. Jesus then seated Himself (Mark 9:35), and gathering the Twelve about Him, gave them the following instruction. All these circumstances are omitted by Matthew. In his concise way of dealing with facts, contrary to all moral probability, he puts the question: Which of us is the greatest? into the mouth of the disciples who address it to Jesus. All he regards as important is the teaching given on the occasion. As to Luke, Bleek, pressing the words ἐν αὐτοῖς, in them, supposes that, according to him, we have simply to do with the thoughts which had arisen in the hearts of the disciples (comp. Luke 9:47, τῆς καρδίας), and not with any outward quarrel. But the term εἰσῆλθε, occurred, indicates a positive fact, just such as that Mark so graphically describes; and the expression in them, or among them, applies to the circle of the disciples in the midst of which this discussion had taken place.

Jesus takes a child, and makes him the subject of His demonstration. It is a law of heaven, that the feeblest creature here below shall enjoy the largest measure of heavenly help and tenderness (Matthew 18:10). In conformity with this law of heaven, Jesus avows a peculiar interest in children, and commends them to the special care of His own people. Whoever entering into His views receives them as such, receives Him. He receives Jesus as the riches which have come to fill the void of his own existence, which in itself is so poor, and in Jesus, God, who, as a consequence of the same principle, is the constant complement of the existence of Jesus (John 6:57). Consequently, for a man to devote himself from love to Jesus to the service of the little ones, and so make himself the least, is to be on the road towards possessing God most completely, and becoming the greatest.

The meaning of Jesus' words in Matthew is somewhat different, at least as far as concerns the first part of the answer. Here Jesus lays down as the measure of true greatness, not a tender sympathy for the little, but the feeling of one's own littleness. The child set in the midst is not presented to the disciples as one in whom they are to interest themselves, but as an example of the feeling with which they must themselves be possessed. It is an invitation to return to their infantine humility and simplicity, rather than to love the little ones. It is only in the 5th verse that Matthew passes from this idea, by a natural transition, to that which is contained in the answer of Jesus as given by Luke and Mark. It is probable that the first part of the answer in Matthew is borrowed from another scene, which we find occurring later in Mark (Mark 10:13-16) and Luke (Luke 18:15-17), as well as in Matthew himself (Luke 19:13-15); this Gospel combines here, as usual, in a single discourse elements belonging to different occasions. Meyer thinks that in this expression, receive in my name, the in my name refers not to the disposition of him who receives, but of him who is received, in so far as he presents himself as a disciple of Jesus. But these two notions: presenting oneself in the name of Jesus (consciously or unconsciously), and being received in this name, cannot be opposed one to the other. As soon as the welcome takes place, one becomes united with the other.

The Alex. reading ἐστί, is, is more spiritual than the Byz. ἔσται, shall be, which has an eschatological meaning. It is difficult to decide between them.