When Disciples Fail

Scripture Introduction:

We are going to look this morning at Luke 9:37-50, I’m only going to read 37-43 for now. There is a verse in here that really threw me when I first read it. It seems so contrary to Jesus. It doesn’t seem as he normally responds.

We will enter into this text with Jesus and the Peter, James, and John coming down from a mountain. They have seen the glory of Jesus. It’s a tremendous moment. And as they come down from the mountain they see a great crowd waiting for them…you get the idea that it’s a bit of a noisy crowd. And there is a man with a boy who is suffering greatly....Luke gives us a word here that the other gospel writers do not—he says the boy is “shattered”.

Brokenness.

We know how Jesus normally responds to such brokenness. It’s with compassion. A bruised reed he will not break. But listen in to this story...

Luke 9:37–43 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,

Does that not seem a bit odd to you? Shattered. This man and his family is absolutely broken. What horrors and pain this must have been. One of the other gospel writers says that this spirit that seizes the boy will sometimes throw him in the fire, sometimes into water. Matthew calls it epilepsy. The point, though, is that evil aims to destroy this young man—and to destroy his family.

But here he comes to Jesus…begs him for healing…and verse 41. That’st he part that catches me off guard. How does Jesus respond?

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

It seems annoyed. It seems frustrated. It seems as if its directed at this man and his shattered family. “Ugh, fine. Bring your son here. I’ll heal him.”

But this seems so contrary to who Jesus is and how he normally responds. So one of the things I did, and this helps us sometimes in our Bible study, I scratched out verse 40-41. Those confusing verses. And I just read from verse 39 to verse 42. THIS seems like Jesus. Evil and darkness seems to be overcoming a boy…but Jesus steps in…heals the boy, rebukes the spirit, and gives the boy back to his father....a picture of restoring the family. Now THAT is the Jesus I’m familiar with.

So the troubling part is in verse 40 and 41. What is present there? And what is Luke doing? Why add this to the story? Why tell us that the disciples couldn’t cast it out? Why have Jesus answer this way?

And as I wrestled with this I came to see Jesus’ frustration anew. And that made this sermon come together but it also made it more difficult. It made it painful. Because I’m seeing in Jesus’ statement here affinity with those who are absolutely frustrated with the hypocrisy of the church, the pain that we so often bring to others (to each other), and how things just really are not what they are supposed to be.

I can see in my minds eye this vivid picture here. The word “shattered” just kept rattling around in my heart and brain. Brokenness all around us. And what emerges in this particular scene is not healthy and helpful and life-giving disciples. I think Luke is juxtaposing (that’s a fancy word for—comparing) the way of Jesus with the way of fallen humanity.

So I’m picturing something beautiful but shattered and broken on one hand. And I’m seeing the charge of Jesus, “fix that brokenness”....but what I’m seeing is luxury, tribalism, self-preservation, self-focus and all those ugly monsters.

Because I think Jesus’ words “O faithless and twisted generation” aren’t so much for this worried and grieving father…they are for the disciples. They are for the church…empowered but yet impotent. Because look at this.

Luke 9:1–2 ESV

And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.

The disciples had been empowered to fix the shattered boy. But they couldn’t. There is a painting by Raphael. That’s the red ninja turtle.

You’ll notice what Raphael does here is he connects the Transfiguration…when Jesus appears glorious with Moses and Elijah. You see that on the top there. And you see the sleepy disciples beholding it. (And if you’re curious about the two dudes of to the side on the top portion—that’s likely the patron saints of the church who commissioned this painting…so for our purposes, pay them no attention.

But look at the bottom. You see over on the right the boy who is convulsing. The father who is overcome with grief. And look at the disciples all around. I want you to notice down in the lower left hand corner. You’ve got what most believe is Matthew and he’s looking into a book. What is thought is that Raphael was trying to communicate that the disciples were relying on themselves, on what they had learned, etc. to heal the boy. They weren’t relying on the power of God to do the work. Some of the disciples are pointing to Jesus as the one who will have to do the healing. That’s true…absolutely true. It will be through the power of Jesus that anything will happen. But lets not forget Luke 9:1-2. They SHOULD have been able to heal him. Jesus had already given them everything they needed.

Powerful Christ. Impotent church. That’s what this painting shows us.

Now of course the failure of the disciples does highlight the majesty of God. You see that in verse 43. Their failure does shine a spotlight on the goodness of Jesus. But I don’t think what we are to take from this text is that their failure is a good thing—and we should be like them and be bumbling idiots so that people see how great Jesus is.

No, his “O faithless and twisted generation....” ought to be heard as the rebuke it is. It ought to drive us to our knees and to repentance. And so that’s kind of what we’re going to look at this morning. Because as Luke 9 continues we see this difference between the way of Jesus and the way of fallen humanity highlighted even more.

Look at verse 43 continuing. They are marveling…celebrating…Luke wants us to catch that this is a glory moment! Hallelujah moment. Celebration. But Jesus takes the disciples aside and says, “Get this in your head.”

I’m going to be delivered over. He’s already told them this but the language here is a bit different. This is the language of being delivered over…being handed over. This is a passive voice…it will be the Father who is delivering over the Son to be a ransom for many. This is the language of Isaiah 53. The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. It was the will of the Lord to crush him.

It’s almost as if Jesus is seeing that boy…shattered…battered…broken…and Jesus is telling them. That brokenness, I’m going to have to take it upon myself. I’m going to have to be shattered like that. I’m going to be delivered over…It’s not going to be my majesty that is going to ultimately bring the healing. It’s going to be my suffering.

But they did not understand this saying. They just couldn’t see it. And they were afraid to ask him about it. They just didn’t have within their frame of reference the idea that somehow suffering could lead to healing and glory and such.

I think Joel Green is correct:

The Gospel of Luke 4.6.4. The Misunderstanding of the Disciples (9:37-50)

That they cannot comprehend is rooted in their failure thus far to embrace fully the new view of the world that is the content of Jesus’ proclamation, a world in which conventional perspectives on honor and shame and on the meaning of suffering in relation to God’s purpose are subverted. Because they have not adopted this view of the world, they cannot really understand Jesus’ identity and mission. Not understanding Jesus, they cannot understand the nature of their own discipleship—

And this is obvious by what we see in verses 46-48. Look at the contrast here. “who is the greatest among them.” Jesus has just told them that he is going to be delivered over…if I thought that they even believed or understood that he was going to die I’d say this was a calloused, “dude, when you die can I have your stereo.” But it’s not that. The reason they cannot understand Jesus’ words about his death is because of what you see here. They are fixated on glory.

Self-promotion. That’s what this is about. You want to see one of the greatest markers of an impotent, do-nothing, withering and dying disciple or church look no further than self-promotion.

Oh, I’m sure these disciples were able to talk a great game. They could perhaps one up each other. But it’s a marker of death and not life. You show me a disciple bragging about self— “here’s who I am. Here’s what I do. Here’s my accomplishments.” or a church competing with other churches, trying to one-up, be the best church in town, etc. etc. It’s ridiculous.

The Gospel according to Luke Tension and Contention among the Disciples (9:46–50)

Bonhoeffer describes this “struggle of the natural man for self-justification … comparing oneself with others and condemning and judging them” as a life-and-death contest that can destroy a fellowship.

Jesus hears this. He knows what is going on and so he takes a little child and puts him by his side, and says, “you receive him. You receive me. He who is least among you is the greatest.”

This flips everything on its head. Or perhaps right side up. What is he doing here with this child?

Welcoming a “little child” means breaking social norms, lowering oneself to accept another of a lower status and thereby risking one’s own position of power and prestige.” Later the same commentator says, “True servant leadership flips social hierarchy on its head, lifting up and serving those of lower status in the eyes of the world.”

Do we serve only those who we might be able to get something out of? Likely a child but an extended metaphor of disciples (not just the twelve but anyone in Jesus’ name).

D.A. Carson quote

Why is it that we constantly parade Christian athletes, media personalities, and pop singers? Why should we think that their opinions or their experiences of grace are of any more significance than those of any other believer? When we tell outsiders about people in our church, do we instantly think of the despised and the lowly who have become Christians, or do we love to impress people with the importance of the men and women who have become Christians? Modern Western evangelicalism is deeply infected with the virus of triumphalism, and the resulting illness destroys humility, minimizes grace, and offers far too much homage to the money and influence and ‘wisdom’ of our day. (Carson, 29)

If our passion is to make our name great—even in the name of Jesus—then we won’t stoop and serve. We won’t spend our time doing the stuff in church that isn’t noticed. Serve as unto the Lord. Serve those who are broken, hurting, the untouchables.

Worried about your name in lights. Your spot in heaven. Or busting it for others to have a spot in heaven.

verse 49…John answered. Now wait a second. How in the world is this an “answer” to what Jesus is saying? It shows how far off the disciples are.

Self-preservation is what we have here.

Notice something in verse 49. The reason John gives for stopping this exorcist is that he “was not following us”. Notice what he doesn’t say, “he was not following you”. If this had been an unbeliever casting out demons (sort of like the sons of Sceva in Acts 19) then it would have been a different story. This is, by all appearances someone who believes in Jesus, desires to follow Jesus, and join him in his mission of overturning the works of the devil by rooting out of His kingdom all sin and unbelief and replacing it with passionate worshippers.

And this is incredibly ironic because this guy appears to be doing what the disciples are failing (at least in part) to do…overturn the works of darkness. This is on the heals of their not being able to heal that convulsing boy. And John is saying, “there is a guy who is successfully doing this stuff…but he’s not one of us…so I am stopping him.”

Again I turn to Joel Green:

The Gospel of Luke 4.6.4. The Misunderstanding of the Disciples (9:37-50)

The failure of the disciples is represented at its most basic level in this: Jesus had implored the disciples to honor those of no status at all, but they have refused partnership with one who did not share the status they assumed for themselves.

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More on self-promotion. self-reliance. self-preservation. Anything from Diane Langberg?

The disciples would not stay this way. We see a much different picture in Acts. We see their shadows healing people. We see them overturning darkness. We see them suffering. We see them about the Lord Jesus.

What’s the difference? The indwelling Spirit of God.

There is grace.

There is need for repentance.

Your own frustration. Your own church hurt. Jesus isn’t like this. That’s what this text tells us. Church folk—we’re going to have times when we slip back into these things. They will always be a temptation for us. And times we’ll falter. We’ll be about preserving ourselves instead of about integrity. We’ll be about self-promotion instead of about the kingdom. But Jesus rebukes us and stands with you. Trust him, in spite of our failures.