Sunken Words

Introduction

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And on day one he created light and separated it from darkness. Day two was separating the sky from the waters. Then he separated the waters and the earth. On day four, the sun, moon, and stars were created and day five all the birds and fish and sea creatures were made. On day 6 God created the land animals and humanity: the only creature to be made in his image.

And we see in Genesis 2 that God made a special place for Adam and Eve. He created a special garden. What we don’t see in Genesis 2, but find out in Ezekiel 28 is that this Garden of Eden was on a mountain—the mountain of God. And it was on this mountain and in this garden that God walked with and spoke with Adam and Eve. When Adam and Eve fell, they were banished from the garden and sent out east of Eden. No longer to be in the garden and no longer to be on the mountain. No longer to walk and talk with God as they once did.

Since then, man has been seeking to make their way back up to God—to have fellowship with him. And pretty much every time they tried, they ended up messing things up. God had originally told the people of Israel that there would be a place where he was to be worshiped and there only should they come to worship. That placed ended up being the temple in Jerusalem—on Mt. Zion. But we see even before then that the law was given on Mt. Sinai (aka Mt. Horeb) where God met with Moses and later met with Elijah as we saw last week. It was on some unnamed mountain that God told Abraham that Isaac would be born and what would happen to Sodom and Gomorrah. It was always on the high places that the people went to worship instead of the temple. And when Jeroboam split the kingdom of Israel in two, he ordered a new temple be built on Mt. Gerizim.

It was not new to think of meeting with God on some mountain. And last week we saw that Peter, John, and James were on a mountain when Jesus’s face was altered by his own glory and there before them were Elijah and Moses. But like all good things, we saw that this experience had to come to an end. And this morning, we find that things went down hill almost immediately.

As we open up the text, I want us to notice two reactions. The first is the reaction of the crowd. The second is the reaction of Jesus. These two reactions don’t match one another in the slightest.

Luke 9:37–45 ESV

On the next day, when they had come down from the mountain, a great crowd met him. And behold, a man from the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. And behold, a spirit seizes him, and he suddenly cries out. It convulses him so that he foams at the mouth, and shatters him, and will hardly leave him. And I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.” While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. And all were astonished at the majesty of God. But while they were all marveling at everything he was doing, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” But they did not understand this saying, and it was concealed from them, so that they might not perceive it. And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.

The Initial Reaction of the Crowd: Concern

The first reaction that we come to, comes from the crowd. And that reaction seems to be concern. This is not a new reaction. The crowd is constantly coming to Jesus out of concern; some in the crowd may certainly be excited to see what Jesus is going to do next, but this crowd—represented by the man who has a demon-possessed son—seems more concerned than excited. And rightly so. Here is a boy who is being controlled by a demon and has been for years.

Look at what this demon is doing to him. Imagine it was your own son. The demon seizes him. It takes hold of him. Imagine a kidnapper taking hold of a child, wrapping his arms around the body so they cannot get away and cannot fight back. So this demon takes hold of this child so that he suddenly cries out, whether in fear or in pain or for some other reason, you see your child seize up and cry out and you can do nothing.. And it convulses him, shaking him violently, so badly that the father says that the spirit shatters him. Shatters is a great translation. It’s used of the demoniac who broke the chains they used to bind him. It’s used of the woman who broke the jar to pour ointment over Jesus. It’s used of Jesus who rules with an iron rod and shatters the earthen vessels. What must it look like for this young child to be shattered by the demon. Bruised and bloodied? Cut to pieces? That may not even be the half of it. He foams at the mouth. And this demon is unrelenting. It hardly ever leaves the kid alone! Can you see it in your mind’s eye? Your child suddenly—constantly—being taken hold of by a demon and in fear and pain crying out and there is nothing you can do about it. He’s thrown around, shaken, shattered, and foaming at the mouth.

No wonder the father is afraid and the crowd is concerned. They went to the disciples and they couldn’t cast the demon out for some reason. So when they see Jesus and Peter, John, and James coming down from the mountain, they meet them, needing his power.

Now, I said that the disciples could not cast the demon out for some reason. Luke doesn’t tell us the reason. And for the most part, we’ve read Luke through Luke’s eyes and not through Matthew and Mark’s, but we will need to go to those two accounts in a moment to get a better picture as to why the disciples couldn’t cast the demon out. But for now, let me just say that there was a faith issue which is hinted at in Jesus’s response to the crowd. It very well may have been and I personally believe that there was a domino effect of doubt. The religious leaders seemed to think that the disciples should not or could not heal him. This may have then led the disciples to doubt the power and authority that Jesus gave to them. And then the crowd seems to have followed suit, doubting the disciples ability when they saw they could not heal him.

Brothers and sisters, it is so easy to be disheartened and doubtful when others we look up to (or at least, those we see to be professionals) become disheartened and doubtful. Our faith in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, can be increased by looking at others’ faith and faithfulness, but we must be careful not to allow their doubts, their despairs, their disheartened feelings, their disbelief to ransack or ambush our own faith. We must see to it that our faith is not built upon another person so that their cynicism or criticism causes our faith to tumble.

Seeing other people’s faith and faithfulness can be like scaffolding that helps to strengthen our faith. But scaffolding is never a base. It is built up on the sides for momentary support, but it can always be taken down without harm to the structure.

The Initial Reaction of Jesus: Disgust

This takes us to the second reaction. Jesus’s first reaction; and it is seems different than we normally read. Jesus seems to be reacting to the crowd in disgust.

After having spent forty days in the presence of God, Moses heard noise coming from the bottom of the mountain. God told him to go and see what was going on. It wasn’t good. When he went down, he saw what God already told him was happening; Israel had turned their backs on God, his law, and his deliverer. They were dancing and worshiping a golden calf.

Elijah went to confront Ahab and his prophets: 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah. And he challenged them to a dual on a different mountain: Mt. Carmel. There all Israel had come to watch the show. Though Elijah had challenged the prophets to a dual, he challenged the people as well.

1 Kings 18:21 ESV

And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” And the people did not answer him a word.

While there are certainly mountain top experiences that people have, eventually they have to come down and be in the real world. Moses had to do it. Elijah had to do it. You have to and I have to. And even Jesus had to. But it wasn’t simply that Jesus had to come down from such a “spiritual high” as we are apt to call it. It was what he came down to. It wasn’t that the crowd had met him and butted into his personal time with his disciples.

It was the reason the crowd came to meet him. It wasn’t so much that the boy was demon possessed. But that the dominoes had all fallen. They were all in doubt of God’s power being given to the disciples; including the disciples themselves.

Like I said, we need to go Matthew and Mark to get the full picture. So let’s take a look at

Mark 9:14 ESV

And when they came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them.

We aren’t told what the Scribes were arguing with the disciples over. However, we know that the Scribes were antagonistic to Jesus and the disciples’s ministry. So it is very likely that the Scribes were arguing over their ability or their authority to do the work of casting out demons. And the Scribes were smart men. They could formulate arguments and turn phrases in such a way that an average person would get confused or begin to agree with what they were told. I don’t think that it is too far of a stretch of imagination to think that this was what was going on.

Of course, it could have been the opposite. For whatever reason, the disciples began to doubt their authority and power given by Jesus and the Scribes begin to mock and argue that they were frauds or never had the power and authority to begin with. Thus bringing the crowd to doubt their ability.

One way or another, we know the disciples had doubted their ability. As we read in

Matthew 17:20 ESV

He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

So the Scribes did not believe and were antagonistic. The disciples did not believe and were powerless. The crowd no longer believed and were concerned. So they all turned to Jesus. Don’t get me wrong, we need to turn to Jesus in our doubts and fears. But the power of the Holy Spirit that he has given to those who follow him, is the same power that Jesus had on earth. So while we do need to turn to Jesus, we must not disbelieve in the power of the Spirit at work among us as believers. We need not exclude our brothers and sisters as if they are without the power to help.

All this lack of faith, brought out a sigh of disgust from Jesus.

Luke 9:41 ESV

Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you? Bring your son here.”

These words echo, though are not the same words, that God expressed to Moses when he told him to go down the mountain. In fact, God’s words were a speech, not a single sentence, but this single sentence would summarize his speech. In Exodus 32, God called Israel corrupt/lawless and had turned aside from all that he had commanded and were stiff-necked. Sounds faithless and twisted to me. Again, there on Mt. Carmel, Elijah knew the hearts of the people and how they were limping between God and Baal and couldn’t decide who they would worship. Faithless and twisted. And once again, Scribes who were antagonistic, disciples who were powerless, and a crowd who was unconvinced and concerned. All of which were faithless and twisted.

But notice, that even in his disgust, Jesus did not refuse the request. They still came to him in faith. They still believed he was able, even though they no longer believed the disciples were. The boy would be healed. Jesus, disgusted by the faithlessness and twistedness of this generation, was even more disgusted by what the demon had done and was doing to this boy. And so he rebuked the demon and cured the child.

Beloved, let us go to Jesus. We certainly need him. We cannot live or breathe without him. But he has given us each other. He has given us his Spirit.

1 John 4:13 ESV

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

That Spirit that is in us is able to do so much if we would believe in him. But the way we believe in him is by going to our brothers and sisters in Christ so that the Spirit may work in them for us. Jesus had given the towns and the crowds a special gift by sending his disciples to them with the power and authority to heal, exorcise demons, and proclaim the gospel of God’s Kingdom. And now they were unbelieving and it grieved him.

In the same way, he has given us a great gift called the Church. It is made up of Christians everywhere. Brothers and sisters in Christ who are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

John 14:12 ESV

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.

Right after this, Jesus spoke of giving the Holy Spirit; the very power by which we do the works we are able to do. Do we need Jesus? Yes! But he has given us a wonderful gift: each other and we need each other as well!

The Second Reaction of the Crowd: Marvel

Jesus cured the boy and the crowd went wild. That’s the second reaction we get from the crowd. The crowd was at first concerned, but now they marvel. They had seen the majesty of God.

It’s interesting that Luke would use this word: majesty. The Greek is megaleiotes. You can hear the word mega in it. Majesty is a great word to use. It means grandeur or extremely impressive. Awesome would be a good word to use if it wasn’t overused today. It’s awesome or majestic or impressive in the way that the Grand Canyon is. Or the great pyramids were described by a Greek inscription around this time with the same megaleiotes word.

Later Peter, in describing Jesus’s transfiguration, would use the same word for that experience.

2 Peter 1:16 ESV

For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Peter, James, and John were eyewitness of his majesty on the mountain. The crowd were eyewitnesses of it on the way down from the mountain. So whether you’re on the mountain of on your way down from the mountain, you are still able to see God’s majesty if you will but keep your faith in him.

Luke used two different words here to describe the reaction of the crowd: astonished and marveled. Most likely he is using two different words but expressing the same sentiment. But we need not think so much that this was merely celebration. I am sure that was going on as well. But both words convey an overwhelming sense of feeling. While it was great that the child was cured, it was also unsettling. It was overwhelming. The word astonished is used when Luke spoke about Jesus’s parents found Jesus in the temple as a boy. They were astonished, not just that Jesus was answering questions, but that he was there. They were happy to have found him, as the fear was dissipating, but also anger rising, so that Mary rebuked Jesus. The same goes with marvel. It is the idea of being amazed, but also can come with being disturbed.

So the crowd here is facing a mixture of emotions, it would seem.

The Second Reaction of Jesus: Sorrow

And in the midst of it all, we find a second reaction by Jesus. Rather than disgust, we find sorrow.

Luke 9:44 ESV

“Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.”

It is no coincidence that Peter, James, and John had just heard from God himself saying, “This is my Son, my Chosen One. Listen to him,” and now hear Jesus saying, “Let these words sink into your ears.” Don’t just hear what he is saying. Listen to what he says. Think on what he says. Don’t let these words go in one ear and out the other. The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.

The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men. The Son of Man—a title coming from Daniel 7—describing the Anointed one of God—the Christ of God, would soon be delivered into the hands of mortal men.

The significance of Jesus saying these words, is that he says them in the midst of those marveling. It isn’t just a contrast of emotions; it is that those same people who are astonished now will be inflamed to violence soon.

And the disciples didn’t understand; literally, they were ignorant. They didn’t get it. God was concealing it from them. Was it meant to remain concealed, or was it a test? Were they not supposed to understand until Jesus explained it to them after the resurrection or was it a test to see if they would listen to Jesus and ask him to explain? We find that they were too afraid to ask any follow up question. They didn’t understand, but did they want to? Were they afraid that Jesus would rebuke them for asking? It could be. They just got rebuked along with the crowd. But it could have been that they were afraid Jesus would explain it.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss, isn’t it? Jesus said that these words were supposed to sink into their ears, but instead, they put their fingers into their ears. la la la la. I don’t want to know anymore. It’s too much. I’d rather not hear anything else.

Sometimes ignorance is bliss. But sometimes, ignorance is rebellion. Beloved, the truth is sometimes frightening to hear. We often say that we just want to know what God is up to, but if he were to begin to tell us, it is likely we would not listen and would be too afraid to ask questions. We have been given God’s Word. It is not everything we can know, but it is everything we need to know. But it is when we know what is contained therein, that we really become accountable for what we do with that knowledge. And many Christians don’t want that accountability and so they remain willfully ignorant of what God has said—of what Jesus has said.

Conclusion

As we conclude this passage in Luke we have seen that the crowd came to Jesus in concern, but that concern was built on a lack of faith in Jesus’s absence. We see Jesus disgusted with such a lack of faith, but not so much that he turns away from their request which left the crowd astonished and marveling over what Jesus had done. There was both amazement and a disturbance that went through them. And while they were marveling, Jesus was sorrowful and the disciples confused.

Beloved, let me encourage you to keep the faith. Not just in Jesus, but in the power of the Holy Spirit as he works in our brothers and sisters. We need each other; we are a gift to one another that Jesus has given us. Let us not pretend that isn’t the case. Let us listen to the Word of God, and let us not be afraid to seek to understand it better when we are ignorant of its meaning. Let us probe when God has concealed something from us. Moses was correct when he said,

Deuteronomy 29:29 (ESV)

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God. . .

But that’s not all he said. That’s just the first part. He followed it up with,

Deuteronomy 29:29 ESV

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Let us listen; Let the words sink into our ears; let us ask; let us do by the power that God works in us by his Spirit.

Prayer

Our Heavenly Father,

Thank you for the promise and fulfillment you made concerning your Holy Spirit dwelling within all of us who have believed in your Son. By him, your very power is at work. May we never doubt that. May we not doubt his work in ourselves and may we not doubt his work in our brothers and sisters around us and around this world.

It is so easy to doubt; it is so easy to misunderstand. So I pray that you would cause your words to sink deep into our ears and thoughts. May they be like an old song that gets stuck in our heads, but rather than be annoyed that it won’t leave, may we delight to meditate upon it, ask questions about it, and seek your will through it in our lives.

I pray this in Jesus’s name. Amen.