CRITICAL NOTES
Luke 9:1. His twelve disciples.—A better reading is, “the twelve” (R.V.): the reading in the text is probably taken from the parallel passage in St. Matthew’s Gospel. Power and authority.—I.e. ability and right: the one applies to the endowment with special gifts, the other to the right of using them on fitting occasions.
Luke 9:3. Neither staves.—Rather, “neither staff” (R.V.). In the parallel passage in St. Mark the permission is given to take a staff. A comparison of the passages removes the apparent discrepancy. The apostles were to make no special preparation for the journey: if each had a staff for walking, let him take it, but not provide one specially. Scrip.—Leather wallet.
Luke 9:4. Whatsoever house, etc.—Not to seek for comfortable quarters, or to change about unnecessarily.
Luke 9:5. Shake off the very dust.—As a sign that all intercourse was at an end, and that the messengers of Christ left those who rejected Him to bear the full responsibility of their sinful conduct (cf. Acts 13:51; Acts 18:6). Against them.—A stronger expression than in the parallel passage in St. Mark, where we read, “for a testimony unto them” (Luke 6:11, R.V.).
Luke 9:6. Preaching the gospel.—Lit. “evangelising”: it is a different word from that in Luke 9:2, also translated “preach”—which means “to proclaim as heralds “the kingdom of God. The instructions to the apostles are given at greater length in Matthew 10.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Luke 9:1-6
The Servants sent forth.—The very summary account of the trial mission of the twelve here given presents only the salient points of the charge to them, and in its condensation makes these the more emphatic.
I. The gift of power.—Miracle-working in various forms is specified. We may call that Christ’s greatest miracle. That he could by His mere will endow a dozen men with such power is more, if degree come into view at all, than that He Himself should exercise it. But there is a lesson in the fact for all ages—even those in which miracles have ceased. Christ gives before He commands, and sends no man into the field without filling his basket with seed-corn. His gifts assimilate the receiver to Himself; and only in the measure in which His servants possess the power which is like His own, and drawn from Him, can they prepare His coming, or prepare hearts for it.
II. Equipment.—The special commands here given were repealed by Jesus when He gave His last commands. In their letter they apply only to that one journey, but in their spirit they are of universal and permanent obligation. The twelve were to travel light. Food, luggage, and money, the three requisites of a traveller, were to be “conspicuous by their absence.” That was repealed afterwards, and instructions given of an opposite character, because, after His ascension, the Church was to live more and more by ordinary means; but in this journey they were to learn to trust Him without means, that afterwards they might trust Him in the means. He showed them the purpose of these restrictions in the act of abrogating them. “When I sent you forth without purse … lacked ye anything?” But the spirit remains unabrogated, and the minimum of outward provision is likeliest to call out the maximum of faith. We are in more danger from having too much baggage than from too little. And the one indispensable requirement is that, whatever the quantity, it should hinder neither our march nor our trust in Him who alone is wealth and food.
III. The disposition of the messengers.—It is not to be self-indulgent. They are not to change quarters for the sake of greater comfort. They have not gone out to make a pleasure tour, but to preach, and so are to stay where they are welcomed and to make the best of it. Delicate regard for kindly hospitality, if offered by ever so poor a house, and scrupulous abstinence from whatever might suggest interested motives, must mark the true servant. That rule is not out of date. If ever a herald of Christ falls under suspicion of caring more about life’s comforts than about his work, good-bye to his usefulness. If ever he does so care, whether he be suspected of it or no, spiritual power will ebb from him.
IV. The messenger’s demeanour to the rejecters of their message.—Shaking the dust off the sandal is an emblem of solemn renunciation of participation, and perhaps of repudiating of responsibility. It meant certainly, “We have no more to do with you,” and possibly, “Your blood be on your own heads.” This journey of the twelve was meant to be of short duration, and to cover much ground, and therefore no time was to be spent unnecessarily. Their message was brief, and as well told quickly as slowly. The whole conditions of work now are different. Sometimes, perhaps, a Christian is warranted in solemnly declaring to those who receive not his message that he will have no more to say to them. That may do more than all his other words. But such cases are rare; and the rule that it is safest to follow is rather that of love, which despairs of none, and, though often repelled, returns with pleading, and, if it have told often in vain, tells now with tears, the story of the love that never abandons the most obstinate.
Such were the prominent points of this first Christian mission. They who carry Christ’s banner in the world must be possessed of power (His gift), must be lightly weighted, must care less for comfort than for service, must solemnly warn of the consequences of rejecting the message, and they will not fail to cast out devils and to heal many that are sick.—Maclaren.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luke 9:1-6
Luke 9:1-6. The Commission of the Twelve.
I. What Christ bestowed on them.—
1. Power—ability to do their work.
2. Authority—the right to do it.
II. The instructions He imparted to them.—
1. They were to live very simply.
2. They were to be prepared for failures.—W. Taylor.
Luke 9:1-5.—The nature and the importance of this mission.
I. Christ the source of power and authority: able to deliver sinners from Satan’s bondage, and to sustain His servants.
II. The duty of the ministers of Christ to attend to the necessities, temporal and spiritual, of men, and to be indifferent to their own ease and comfort.
III. Men are inexcusable when they reject and despise God’s message, and every circumstance will turn to a testimony against them.
The Miracles and the Doctrine.—Miracles of mercy proved the doctrine to be of God; the doctrine calling men to repentance proved that the miracles were wrought by the power of God.
Luke 9:1. “Power and authority.”—Ability to act and the right to exercise it. The evil spirits will owe obedience because of the authority with which the apostles are clothed, and will pay it because of the power they possess.
Power in Proportion to Faith.—Power is given by God, but becomes ours only by faith, and is in proportion to our faith. In Luke 9:40 we read of this power proving ineffectual from lack of faith.
Luke 9:2. A Temporary Commission.—They are now sent to proclaim through Judaea that the time of the promised restoration and salvation is at hand: at a future period Christ will appoint them to spread the gospel through the whole world. Here He employs them as assistants only, to secure attention to Him where His voice could not reach: afterwards He will commit into their hands the office of teaching which He had discharged.
“To preach the kingdom.”—We may suppose that the apostles would give some narrative of the life of Christ, reproduce some of His teaching, lay stress upon the importance of the message He had charged them with, and summon all to repentance and faith. The preaching was largely in anticipation of great blessings to be wrought by Jesus: after Pentecost their preaching was, ‘we announce the redemption which has been fulfilled, in order that ye too may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ’ (1 John 1:1-3).
“He sent them.”—Christ sent the apostles just as the sun sends out its beams, the rose the sweetness of its scent, the fire its sparks; and just as the sun appears in its beams, as the rose is felt in its scent, and the fire in its sparks, so is Christ recognised and apprehended in the virtues and powers of the apostles.—Chrysostom.
Luke 9:3. The Spirit of the Instructions.—The general spirit of the instructions merely is, Go forth in the simplest, humblest manner, with no hindrances to your movements, and in perfect faith; and this, as history shows, has always been the method of the most successful missions. At the same time we must remember that the wants of the twelve were very small, and were secured by the open hospitality of the East.—Farrar.
An Ample Equipment.—This prohibition of all provision is, if narrowly examined, itself a glorious equipment; for He who thus forbids thereby permits and commands them to expect in faith what they need, and to be fully assured beforehand of that which they afterwards (chap. Luke 22:35) were constrained to confess—that they should lack nothing.—Stier.
Luke 9:4. Two Evils to be avoided.—
1. The apostles were to be careful not to seem to be unduly interested in matters concerning their own convenience and comfort during their stay.
2. They were not to excite jealousy by preferring one family to another, when all should be equally the objects of their solicitude. Great harm is done to the cause of Christ when His ministers come under reasonable suspicion of acting from selfish and interested motives, and when they fail to manifest the courtesy and tact which are necessary for successful work among different classes of people. Most, if not all, of the disputes that spring up in Christian congregations are due to neglect of the one or the other of these rules.
Luke 9:5. “Will not receive you.”—The despisers are guilty of two offences:—
I. Ingratitude in refusing the inestimable treasure of the gospel.
II. Rebellion in rejecting the message sent from their King. No crime is more offensive to God than contempt of His word.
“Shake off the dust.”—A solemn act which might have two meanings:
(1) we take nothing of yours with us—we free ourselves from all contact and communion with you; or
(2) we free ourselves from all participation in your condemnation—will have nothing in common with those who have rejected God’s message. It was a custom of the Pharisees, when they entered Judœa from a Gentile land, to do this act, as renouncing all communion with Gentiles. Cf. the symbolical action of Pilate (Matthew 27:24).—Alford.
Warnings to the Impenitent still needed.—The spirit of the injunction runs through all the ages, and has come down to our day. And hence a very heavy responsibility rests on that minister of the gospel who gives no intimation of any kind to the impenitent with whom he associates, that they are impure in the sight of God, and in danger of eternal separation from the good.—Morison.