Luke 9:1–9

JESUS HAD CALLED the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, 2and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. 3He told them: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra tunic. 4Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. 5If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them.” 6So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.

7Now Herod the tetrarch heard about all that was going on. And he was perplexed, because some were saying that John had been raised from the dead, 8others that Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life. 9But Herod said, “I beheaded John. Who, then, is this I hear such things about?” And he tried to see him.

Original Meaning

JESUS INTENDS TO get the message of the arrival of kingdom hope spread across the nation of Israel.1 To accomplish this, he commissions the Twelve to minister for him in the towns and villages of the nation. He sends them out with the same authority that he has exercised, including the power to heal and to exorcise.2 They are to preach the kingdom and heal the sick. This combination reflects Jesus’ ministry of word and deed, linking the proclamation of hope for the promised arrival of God’s rule with the demonstration of compassion. The disciples must minister in such a way that their concern to serve people where they are hurting is never in doubt.

The disciples are not to act like other practitioners of religion in their culture, who expected to be paid for their labors and went begging house to house to get provisions.3 Jesus calls on them to trust God. They must travel light, taking nothing extra for their journey, not even two tunics.4 They are to stay in one place, not go from house to house. Ministry should not burden those who are ministered to; rather, it should serve them. Wherever they are welcome, they should stay and minister; if they are not welcome, they must leave, shaking the dust from their feet to indicate God’s rejection for rejecting his messengers.5 The disciples leave on this mission, preaching the good news and healing.

A linkage in this passage should not be missed. In verse 2 the disciples are to “preach the kingdom of God,” while in verse 6 they “preach the gospel.” In other words, the gospel announces the arrival of blessing through Jesus in conjunction with the kingdom of God. The deeds of healing make evident the rule of God (8:22–56; 11:14–23). God has the power to deliver humanity from forces hostile to us, as Luke has just recorded in the four preceding miracles. In these acts, God’s power and concern have been put on public display.

Luke 9:7–9 continues to ask a basic question in this Gospel, “Who is Jesus?”6 This time it surfaces in Herod’s court. The ruler wants to see Jesus because he has heard about him. What interests Herod are Jesus’ miracles (23:8); he wants to see the show. Speculation on who can produce such works center on a few options: (1) Jesus is a prophet; (2) he has taken up the cause of John the Baptist, so he may be seen as John “resurrected”; (3) perhaps he is an eschatological prophet like Elijah, announcing the approach of the end. Herod’s perplexity indicates how even in the highest social circles people struggled to understand Jesus. Most opinions limited Jesus to prophetic categories, as the healing at Nain indicated (7:16; 9:19). His healing activity and challenge to walk with God remind many of the prophets of old. But the offer of the kingdom means that more is being offered by his ministry.

Bridging Contexts

THE TWO FUNDAMENTAL prongs of ministry evident in this passage cross the temporal boundaries between our era and that of the text. Preaching God’s Word and performing deeds of compassionate service complement each another. To teach that God loves sinners means evidencing that compassion in the ability to meet human needs. When the disciples get no response, they must leave and announce that rejection means the approach of judgment.

The call to travel light raises questions about how we minister today. One should be careful not to equate the type of itinerant ministry in these brief mission excursions with more permanent missionary efforts today. We may think that missionaries should take the most spartan approach to ministry, but this is hardly appropriate for those who go to reside in an area. Traveling lightly is more appropriate for someone who comes into an area for a short ministry campaign. Those called by God to live in an area for some time, however, must set up shop in a way that allows them to minister fully and be good hosts and neighbors to those around them. A minister and a missionary are both worthy of their hire.

The kind of speculation we see about Jesus in Herod’s house in 9:7–9 is not unlike speculation today, except that contemporary speculation tends not to give Jesus as much inherent respect as even ancient opinions did. The activity of Jesus was primarily seen as work of a prophetic nature, because of his healing and his challenge to repent. Our distance from these events and our inherent pluralism cause many today to place Jesus among the great religious teachers of all time, while questioning his miraculous power. Such a category does not offend religious sensibilities today and is culturally safe. Yet this category is inadequate as far as Luke is concerned, and he uses his entire Gospel to explain why. The claims of Jesus are not one among many. He brings a unique time of fulfillment to God’s plan of salvation that calls for decision.

Contemporary Significance

ONE OF THE great dangers of the church is that because of fear, we have lost our desire to minister in concrete action as we seek to share God’s word. Much evangelism today can be characterized as guerrilla strikes, where we venture in for a quick moment of sharing before returning home to our safe environment. When Jesus sent out his disciples, they were to trust in God’s care and become directly engaged with those to whom they were ministering. That is why they had to look for a home to stay in. They did not use guerrilla tactics of dogging the enemy and being in and out of sight, but used an infiltration strategy, where their presence would be obvious.

Evangelism requires engagement. It often requires serving people as well as preaching to them. Telling unbelievers that God cares should be reinforced by evidences of such caring. Though the service of the disciples involved miraculous activity to demonstrate God’s power in the new era, that aspect does not mean that miraculous ministry is called for today in order to give testimony to the gospel. The key to the disciples’ activity was the combination of compassion and message, and that is what should be displayed on a mission field as the gospel is preached in word and deed. God can and may act in a sovereign display of power, but usually our ministry of evangelism requires a more mundane approach, but one that is just as meaningful. Concentrating on a ministry of miracles, as some power evangelism groups do, puts the emphasis in the wrong place.7 This mission of the twelve introduces the kingdom. Our call now is to reflect its presence in service.

Most churches have lost this phase of evangelism, seeking only to share on the run. As excellent as many evangelism seminars are, they often lack a concrete ministry dimension. The goal is simply to get through a tract or a questionnaire. These approaches are not wrong, but they allow churches to create ministries that are self-focused on the church’s own growth and needs. What is needed are more engagement-oriented programs, where the church “travels light” and engages the community with service, not just words. Such outreach-intensive ministries are the hardest to produce and sustain because they require a great deal of labor to make them effective. Nonetheless, such ministries have the potential of speaking the gospel more clearly than words alone do. Acts of caring reinforce the claim that God cares, putting flesh and blood on the claim.

Regarding the Herod passage, religious issues are not a matter of a majority poll and vote. People love to speculate on what is taking place, even in religious spheres, but that does not make their judgment correct. All the options considered in Herod’s palace came up short in explaining who Jesus was. Respect for Jesus today, even regarding him as a prophetic figure, does not go far enough. We must accept his claim to bring God’s way. Islam and other world religions do respect Jesus as a man of God, but they deny his claims to bring us to God. If Jesus’ teaching is considered good, can his most basic claim be ignored? Can we honor Jesus and reject his unique claim to be the Promised One who brings forgiveness (24:47)?

Herod appears interested in Jesus only as a matter of curiosity. He longs to see him, but only because he has heard so much about him. This is not the best way to approach Jesus. His ministry is not a matter of popular, sociological inquiry, as if he were a figure in People magazine. Rather, one should take seriously the claim that he has been sent from God as the Messiah and that he shows us the way to God (9:18–20). Herod pictures a figure who almost tragically trivializes Jesus and his ministry.