We have seen that in 7:36—8:21 the Christian life begins with the forgiveness of sins and then reaches a point where we become the relatives of Christ, the members of His Body. As His relatives, we are ready to journey on the way He has ordained and to travel and visit different places with Him.
By the time we come to 9:1, the Lord’s disciples had been perfected to a certain extent. Now we need to see that their being perfected was for the spreading of the jubilee.
After the Man-Savior was fully prepared, He was baptized, tested, and anointed. Being fully qualified and perfected, He began His ministry. According to chapter four, His ministry opened with the proclamation of the jubilee.
When the Lord proclaimed the jubilee, He alone was carrying out the God-given ministry. After He made the proclamation concerning the jubilee, He called certain ones to Himself. In 6:13 we see that He called His disciples, and “He chose from them twelve, whom He also named apostles.” We may say that in chapters six through eight the twelve apostles were “apprentices” following the Lord to learn how to carry out His ministry. As indicated by the record in 7:36—8:56, their sins were forgiven and they began to love the Lord and live a life of peace. They also began to grow in life, shine as lamps, and become the relatives of Christ. In chapter eight they journeyed with the Lord at His word. In one place they encountered demons and saw how the Lord cleared up the business of hog raising. Elsewhere, they encountered a woman with a life-leaking condition and a girl who was raised from the dead. Therefore, at the end of chapter eight these followers of the Lord had been perfected to a certain extent.
Chapter nine begins another section of the Gospel of Luke, a section concerned with the spreading of the jubilee. What is the jubilee? The jubilee is actually the gospel of the New Testament. As we have seen, this gospel is the proclamation of the release of the captives and of the recovery of the lost birthright. Now in chapter nine we have the start of the spreading of this jubilee. Prior to this time, the ministry was carried out only by the Lord Himself. But in 9:1 we have the spreading through twelve others. Therefore, beginning with 9:1 we see the spreading of the ministry, the spreading of the jubilee, through the twelve apostles.
The thought of the spreading of the jubilee underlies the record in 9:1-26. Certain of the cases in 9:1-26 are found also in Matthew and Mark. In Matthew these cases are used as evidence to prove the doctrine of the kingdom of the heavens, and in Mark they are used to present the Lord Jesus as the faithful Slave of God carrying out God’s ordained ministry. In Luke, however, these cases are used to point out the spreading of the jubilee. The jubilee had already been proclaimed by the Man-Savior, and this proclamation continued until the end of chapter eight. Now in Luke 9 the spreading of the jubilee begins. No longer is there just one person proclaiming the jubilee. Now twelve others are sent out to spread the jubilee. Of course, in 9:1-26 the words “jubilee” or “acceptable year of the Lord” are not mentioned. Nevertheless, the underlying thought is very much related to the matter of jubilee.