Power and Partnership (Luke 9:1-17)

In this story Jesus gives his twelve hand-selected disciples his power and authority over demons and diseases.  Jesus sends them out equipped with his power to preach the kingdom and heal the sick (9:1-2).  They were to trust God because Jesus instructed them to take no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, and no extra shirt on their journey. They were to find a house and stay there until they left that town. If a town failed to welcome them, they were to shake the dust from their feet as a testimony against them. This is what Jews were known to do when returning from Gentile areas. Jesus was pushing them to exercise his authority and to trust God’s provisions. God would provide for them through the generosity of those to whom they were bringing their kingdom gospel. So off they went from village to village, preaching the kingdom and healing the people (9:4-6). Jesus wouldn't be physically with them, but his authority and power would be operating through them.

Herod Antipas, who ruled Galilee, heard about the exorcisms and the healings and he was perplexed. Jesus had avoided Herod, but now with his disciples expanding Jesus’ mission Herod must have been feeling threatened. Herod was curious and perplexed. Who was causing this commotion? Was this John the Baptist returned from the dead as some said? Was this Elijah reappeared or an old prophet raised from the dead? Herod had beheaded John, so he wanted to know what was up and he tried to see Jesus (9:7-9).

When the apostles returned from their trip they were anxious to tell Jesus what they had done. So they withdrew to the town of Bethsaida. Both atthew and Mark tell us they went by boat and that the crowd found out about this and they were waiting for Jesus when they arrived. Jesus welcomed the crowd and preached to them. He also healed all those who were in need of healing. Jesus wanted time with his disciples, but he was happy to minister to the crowd and this continued until late in the afternoon (9:10-12).

Then the twelve tell Jesus, a bit overconfident after their journey, send the crowd away to find food and lodging. They were in a remote place and they couldn’t accommodate the crowd or feed them considering they only had five loaves of bread and two fish. But Jesus tells the twelve to give the crowd food to eat. They know they don’t have enough food for the crowd unless they buy some food and John tells us that it would have taken eight months wages to buy enough for everyone in the crowd just have a bite (John 6:7).    

Jesus tells his disciples to feed the 5000 plus people. This sounds like Elisha telling his servant to feed 100 men with 20 small loaves of bread (2 Kings 4:42-44). Gehazi didn't think it was enough, but they all ate and were satisfied. Now this crowd was at least 50 times larger and they only had five loaves. Jesus tells his disciples to seat the crowd in groups of fifty. So there were 5000 men plus organized into 100 plus groups of 50 each. Jesus simply takes what they had, thanks God, blessed and broke it. He gives it to his disciples to give to the people and miraculously they all had enough and were satisfied. There were even twelve baskets of leftovers for the disciples. Some of the terms here remind me of when when Moses’ father-in-law told Moses to select capable men and divide the people into groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens (Exodus 18). The capable men were given oversight to elevate some of the work that was weighing on Moses. Clearly, in this story we find Jesus beginning to transition responsibility for his ministry to his own chosen disciples.  

Jesus’ disciples were to engage in Jesus’ kingdom building work. So we find Jesus empowering his closest followers to participate in proclaiming God’s kingdom and healing the sick. They were to rely entirely on the provision of others, although this particular trip wasn’t necessarily the only New Testament model. In Acts we find the early church selling property, pooling their resources, and carrying provisions. What we can learn from this is that all of Jesus’ followers everywhere need to trust God to provide for and empower their kingdom work.  

They lacked the food or the money to buy enough food for the crowd. But Jesus wanted them to trust God just as they had trusted God on their mission trip. They give Jesus the food they had and Jesus thanked God, blessed it, broke it and gave it to his disciples to distribute to the crowd. Moreover, Jesus multiplied what they had so that crowd received their fill and were satisfied! Then at the end of the day there were even twelve baskets of leftovers for the disciples. Luke describes this feeding in the words normally associated with the Lord’s Supper. So in the story Jesus empowers his disciples and enables them to meet the needs of people as part of Jesus' kingdom work (9:12-17).