LUKE 9
This chapter opens with the mission of the twelve. The Lord had chosen them in chapter 6, and what follows in that chapter seems to emphasise the need that they should be like Jesus. That is, the Lord speaks of loving their enemies, doing good, and being sons of the Highest. They are to be like Him, as He says, “Every one that is perfected shall be as his teacher”. It suggests the necessity of being like Him before any could be [p. 115] sent forth to represent Him. That is the idea of discipleship, not simply that we learn things, but we become as the teacher. The primary thought of God in creating man was that man might be in His image and after His likeness. Now if I understand this chapter aright, it is man in the image of God; that is, God is rightly represented in man. In order for that there must be likeness; the disciples were to be like Him, to be as the Teacher. When that is secured we have persons who can be the image of God; they can publicly express God in the scene where He is unknown. In sending out twelve I believe that the Lord had in mind that there would be a great extension of the representation of God in this world. The Lord was not going to limit the representation of God to His own Person, but He would give an extension so that, not only could He cast out demons and heal the sick, but He would give men the power to do what He had done. The representation of God in the power of grace was to be extended. Of course the Lord in securing the twelve had the heavenly city in view; He was thinking about the foundations of the city. When the heavenly city comes down with the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb on the foundations of its walls, there will be a glorious public representation of God in His creation, because the city has the glory of God.
We must not lose sight of the distinctive place of the twelve, but at the same time, in principle, every soul converted has in view the extension of the representation of God in this world. There is a further extension later on, in the mission of the seventy. We see the representation of God in one Man, then in twelve, and then in seventy; the thing is extended, and in a certain sense has been extending ever since. We should cherish the thought of representation; it has come very much before me of late. The twelve represented the Lord wherever they went; they did what He did and they said what He said. They preached the kingdom of God. It was the distinctive position of the twelve, but it is the position morally of all saints.
The Lord brought the disciples up to the full measure of His thoughts, and we all have to be brought up to it. The Lord did not cease to act by them until He had brought them into correspondence with His own thoughts, so that they fully represented Him to the five thousand. What a blessed representation of Him there was when they took the loaves out of His hand! They had to bring their own limited apprehension [p. 116] to Himself; but then, when He connected that with the grace of heaven and with His own blessedness, the disciples could dispense perfectly according to the fulness of the Lord’s own thoughts so that every one in the crowd was filled and satisfied. There was a perfect representation of the gracious power in Himself through the disciples. They had to learn, as we have to learn, that they were hopelessly inadequate for everything, but when things were livingly connected with His Person there was no inadequacy, and there was enough to fill every one of the five thousand men, representing, I suppose, the whole number right through the present dispensation that would be fed under His blessed Hand, and then there was enough left over for Israel.
This thought of representation is a very important thing in the mind of God. I believe it is the great primary thought of God, and it puts great dignity on the twelve, and on all who are represented in the twelve. For this representation nothing is requisite outside likeness to Jesus and what is in Him; no accessories are needed; no staff, no scrip, no bread, no money, and not two coats. The Lord could invest the disciples with ability to do as He did Himself, and to say the same things that He would say Himself; and to do things without any extraneous addition of any kind, no matter how necessary it might appear to be from a human point of view — they were adequately furnished without any addition. It is not only that things are done correctly, but that they are done in such a way and by such persons that there is a representation of Christ and of the blessed God in the way they are done. We want to see what the divine mind is, and to see that there is that in Christ that can make it good according to our measure in every one of us.
It seems to me that the verses we read cover a great scope of things; the delivering, healing, and proclaiming of the kingdom of God would cover the representative side in connection with what is evangelical. The feeding of the crowd would cover what we might speak of as church service. The delivering and healing would be the gospel side, but then when we have people delivered and healed they want feeding. It was in the Lord’s mind to feed them; He would have every one of them well fed. This crowd represents the result of the Lord’s delivering and healing. The Lord had great regard for the crowd, and not one of those five thousand escaped His notice.
[p. 117] The idea of a crowd is an unordered mass of persons; and the Lord would act to set the crowd in order so that they might be fed. In a desert place, such as this was, a vast company of persons were found who were divinely satisfied and nourished by that which is completely outside the ken of man. That was the divine thought, and the disciples, who were representative of Him in delivering and healing power, had to learn to become representative of Him in feeding.
The Lord says, “Give ye them to eat”. In this gospel He is not presented as doing it Himself, as in John’s gospel. Here He makes the disciples representative of Him. The saints have food to administer. In this chapter they had five loaves and two fishes, representing what has been acquired of Christ through spiritual exercise and spiritual diligence. A loaf is the result of various processes: there has been sowing, reaping, threshing, grinding, and baking, involving much diligence. A fish is not quite like that; it is not the product of man’s labour; it is brought into the net by the sovereign action of God. The loaf would represent what we learn of Christ through exercise and consideration, but the fish would represent what is given by God sovereignly. I believe that if we furnished the five loaves God would give us the two fishes. Five speaks of human weakness, but with two fishes we have seven, suggesting spiritual completeness, and it became adequate to feed the five thousand. No one can represent Christ in ministry apart from much exercise. There has to be much spiritual labour, seeking the mind of God, and prayer; but then also there is beyond that what God sovereignly gives out of His hidden resources, so that those who minister get thoughts and apprehensions of Christ that they did not labour for; they come sovereignly into their nets. That is how the food supply is made available.
Both the loaves and fishes represent what is of Christ, but as apprehended by His saints. The disciples could say, It is very little, but we have it. In a certain sense it does not matter how small it is, because if it is of Christ it can be multiplied immeasurably. The question is, Have we something that the Lord can multiply when He touches it? Philadelphia had something that the Lord could multiply; He could say, You have kept My word and not denied My name; you have kept the word of My patience. They had cherished Christ; there was something there that the Lord could multiply, and [p. 118] make it food for every saint on earth. The Laodiceans said they had a great deal — “We are rich and have grown rich, and have need of nothing” — but when the Lord touches it, it withers and crumbles into nothing — “thou art poor and blind and naked”. If we have an impression of Christ, however small, He can multiply it and make it food for the whole church of God on earth; there is no limit to what He can do with it. I look round on Christendom and see people everywhere going on with things that, if the Lord touched them, would burst like a bubble. What a mercy to be where there is the ministry of Christ, and where the Spirit gives precious thoughts of Christ! If we have only a little and it gets into the hand of Christ, there is something there that He can cover with all the grace and power of heaven. He looked up to heaven, blessed it, and gave it into the hands of the disciples, and there is enough for the whole five thousand. This is a remarkable picture of what the Lord is doing at the present time. There is an appalling lack of food among the people of God today. It is a desert place to many. The crowd is an unordered company, but the Lord would have things in order, and He makes them to sit down by companies of fifty, which is a suggestion that companies of such a number facilitate the administration of the food supply. It is important that what the Lord is giving universally should be made available in our localities. These “companies of fifty” provide suitable conditions for personal interest and pastoral care and for the effective representation of Christ in His service of nourishing and cherishing the assembly.
The disciples, in dispensing the food, were to be representative of Christ. It is a sobering thought that in all service among the saints I am to be personally representative of Christ. What a character it would give to the service! I am not to serve because I know a thing or two, but as personally representative of Christ in His feeding activities towards His saints. Our service would be more effective if we were more like Him — no other service is worth anything.
Luke’s account of the transfiguration (verses 28 - 36) is in keeping with the general outlook of his gospel; he speaks to us of the present aspect of [p. 119] the kingdom of God. Matthew presents the future glory of the kingdom, so that what is future may be present power in our souls: “the Son of man coming in his kingdom”, Matthew 16: 28. But here they were so see “the kingdom of God”. Matthew presents the majesty of the King; it is the divine side. Luke, on the other hand, presents our side as seen patterned in Jesus; He is the pattern for all who are true subjects of the kingdom. So here the Lord Jesus was transfigured as He prayed; it is a dependent Man seen in conditions of glory.
It is not without meaning that Luke describes the transfiguration as “about eight days after” the Lord’s words, whereas Matthew and Mark speak of six days. “Six days” suggests the period of man’s day after which God will bring in His seventh day in perfect contrast to all that has gone before, but the eighth day suggests an entirely new beginning. The number of the beast (see Revelation 13: 18) is 666, and this is short of perfection, but the number 8 speaks of the pleasure of God in Jesus. (It is remarkable that the numerical value of the Greek letters composing the name Jesus is 888.) We have seen that in this gospel He is constantly presented as praying. Subjection and dependence are primary elements in the kingdom of God, involving the surrender of our own wills and the recognition that the will of God must prevail. The first sign of a man being elevated is that he prays, as we see with Saul of Tarsus — “behold he prays”, Acts 9: 11. He was truly a subdued man, and this would be the result of Matthew’s presentation of the Lord in His majesty. Saul of Tarsus was brought down by “a light out of heaven” (Acts 9: 3), and the sense of it grew with him: in chapter 22 it was “a great light”, and in chapter 26 “a light above the brightness of the sun”. Then, having been subdued, he was marked by dependence, for he prayed. Man is never so elevated as when speaking to God. If I could always have an audience with the Queen, I should be regarded as having great dignity; to have access to God is the greatest possible dignity.
As Jesus prayed on the mountain, “the fashion of his countenance became different”. A man’s spirit expresses itself in his countenance. There was no need for any moral change in the Lord Jesus, but the proper effect of prayer is patterned for us in Him. As we pray we are filled with the sense of what God is, His feelings, compassions and thoughts, and this affects our very countenances. We are transformed (the same word as transfigured) as we behold the glory of the Lord (see 2 Corinthians 3). The actual transforming object is the glory, but it works through prayer. As we see the [p. 120] blessed shining of God in Jesus, we pray about it and we are changed.
Then His raiment became white and effulgent. It is a fore-shadowing of His glory. As applied to us it would suggest that everything about us is to be in keeping with the presence of God — our habits, associations, households, business, and relations with our brethren. The apostle exhorted even young converts that they should “walk worthy of God, who has called you to his kingdom and glory”, 1 Thessalonians 2: 11, 12. Are we all exercised to be in correspondence with the light that has shone upon us?
Then Moses and Elias are seen, two men talking with Jesus. They represent persons who have spiritual intelligence. It was not to be found then upon earth, so these two men are brought forward. They spoke of His departure, or exodus; He was going out of everything here. Moses and Elias knew well in spiritual, heavenly communion with Him that the kingdom of God as patterned in Jesus could not possibly have a place in this world. The kingdom of God necessitates that we too must have our exodus, because it is patterned in Jesus.
The children of Israel had to leave Egypt because there was nothing there suitable for them as the people of God, and we shall leave this world system even in its most religious character, for it was from Jerusalem that He went out. It is not here the aspect of atonement for sin, but that in His death Jesus has left the whole scene of the enemy’s power. In its application to us it would correspond with Romans 6: “he has died unto sin once for all”. He has left the whole sin-system behind Him for ever. So we are to “reckon ourselves dead indeed unto sin and alive unto God in Christ Jesus”. We are to make our exodus publicly “with a high hand”, as the Israelites left Egypt, not as convicted felons. It involves the teaching of baptism; they were all baptised in the cloud and in the sea. “Baptised in the cloud” answers to Romans 5; “baptised in the sea” to Romans 6. The cloud is the Shekinah glory cloud, all that God is in grace shining out through Jesus. If we knew what it was to be immersed in that — justification, peace with God, access, the love of God, reconciliation and eternal life — we should have a great desire to be baptised in the sea, to accept death to the system controlled by Satan in order to be here for God. The children of Israel went out triumphantly in military order, and they sang their song of [p. 121] victory on the wilderness side of the Red Sea; there is no such song in Egypt.
As these things have place with us we shall learn the blessedness of sonship. The reason why we do not know more of our place as sons with the Father is because we have not worked out the exercises which belong to the kingdom; there must be a moral foundation laid in the soul. “There came a voice out of the cloud”, and the scene around fades. Nothing can surpass in excellence the place the Son had with the Father, but kingdom conditions are necessary for its display. The Father calls attention to His beloved Son and says, “Hear him”, as if to say, I want you to know Me and He knows Me. Our place in sonship with the Father is patterned in Jesus, the beloved Son. We can only learn it in Him and from Him; we cannot learn it from books. He says, “And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them”, John 17: 22. It is an exodus from a world of darkness to the light of all that the Father has established in the Son — it is worthy of God.