Although the Lord had told the disciples to “put these words” into their ears, they did not have the ability to hear what He was saying. They could not understand His word; they could not perceive it. Their inability to understand what the Lord was saying is indicated by the fact that they were reasoning among themselves concerning which of them would be greater (v. 46).
Luke 9:47-48 says, “And Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their heart, took hold of a little child and stood it beside Himself, and said to them, Whoever receives this little child in My name receives Me, and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me; for he who is littler among you all, this one is great.” As soon as the Lord spoke these words, John answered and said, “Master, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him, because he does not follow with us” (v. 49). John’s word indicates that the disciples could not receive the Lord’s word. We may say that they could not appreciate the “music” He was playing. The reason they could not take in the Lord’s word was that they were natural and still in the old creation. With them there was no jubilee. They were not yet qualified to participate in the enjoyment of the jubilee.
The jubilee can be carried out only through Christ’s death and resurrection. Furthermore, only through our identification with Christ in His death can we share in the enjoyment of the jubilee. For the jubilee and the experience of the jubilee, it was necessary for the Lord to die and for us to die with Him. He died for the accomplishment of the jubilee, and we died with Him in order to participate in the enjoyment of the jubilee.
In reading the Gospel of Luke, we need to have the view that the jubilee declared in chapter four is the key to interpreting the entire book. In the past I saw the matter of jubilee in this Gospel; however, I did not see that the jubilee in chapter four was the key to interpreting all the following chapters.
At the time of 9:50 the Lord’s ministry in Galilee was completed. As we shall see, beginning in 9:51, He left Galilee for Jerusalem. Do you think that when the Lord completed the section of His ministry in Galilee, Peter, John, James, and the other disciples were in the enjoyment of the jubilee? They were not at all in this enjoyment. They could not understand the Lord’s word concerning His death. It was necessary for the Lord to go with them to Jerusalem where He would die to accomplish the jubilee and where the disciples would die with Him in order to participate in the enjoyment of the jubilee.
In chapter nine we have seen that although the disciples were in the jubilee, they did not have any participation in the enjoyment of the jubilee. Actually, the jubilee had not yet been accomplished, for it could only be accomplished by the death of Christ and in His resurrection. Therefore, eventually the Lord decided to go from Galilee to Jerusalem with His disciples. He went to Jerusalem to die, but He did not go there to die alone. Rather, He brought His disciples with Him so that they would realize that it was necessary for Him to die for the accomplishment of the jubilee and also necessary for them to die to participate in the enjoyment of the jubilee.