Luke 8, 9

Luke 8, 9

Overview:  We get a report on the women who support Jesus ministry.  Jesus tells a parable about a sower.  Jesus calms a storm, casts out a demon and brings a girl back from the dead.  The disciples get sent on a mission and Jesus is transfigured on a mountain while in the company of Moses and Elijah.

Peter and James and John accompany Jesus on to the mountain that will become the Mount of Transfiguration.  This little nugget in the midst of that story that caught my attention on this read through is "Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep, but since they stayed awake, they saw his glory...."(9:32).  This is something of the flip side of what will transpire at the Garden of Gethsemane. In the garden, Jesus will ask them to stay awake with him and they will fall asleep while he prays more than once.  Here while Jesus goes off, they are apparently exhausted, but they stay awake and as a result they witness this amazing event.  There is encouragement here for us when we are weary ourselves, physically, emotionally or spiritually that if we persevere we may experience something beyond our imagining.
Also in this reading is one of my favorite verses in all of Scripture, Luke 9:51.  "When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem."  This is the point from which there is no turning back.  He didn't decide to go back to the Galilee for another year.  He set his face to go to Jerusalem.  The power of these words goes well beyond a decision to go and celebrate the Passover.  This is Jesus making the decision to embrace the most demanding and painful portion of his mission.  We move now into Luke's traveling Gospel as Jesus and his followers make their way to the Holy City and the events that will unfold there.