After the Ascent . . . A Descent

While Peter wanted to memorialize the amazing experience on the mountain (Luke 9:28—36), Jesus led his three companions back down to rejoin his followers.

“No sooner had Jesus descended from the mountain top than the demands and disappointments of life were upon him,” writes William Barclay in The Gospel of Luke, (Westminster John Knox Press, Louisville, Kentucky, 1975, page 125).

A great crowd was waiting for him.  Then a man calls out:

“Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child. A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams; it throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not” (Luke 9:38—40).

Jesus replied with an abrupt, somewhat shocking statement:  

“You unbelieving and perverse generation, how long shall I stay with you and put up with you?” (Luke 9:41 NIV)

Did his words reflect his humanity? Did he react impatiently? Did his response hint that he had an emotional letdown the day after his mountain top experience? 

See how different translators phrase his reply:

“O faithless and twisted generation! How long will I be with you” (Wright)

“You faithless and depraved generation! How long shall I be with you and put up with you?” (Barclay)

“You really are an unbelieving and difficult people. How long must I be with you, how long must I put up with you?” (Phillips)

“What a generation! No sense of God! No focus to your lives! How many times do I have to go over these things? How much longer do I have to put up with this?” (Message)

If his initial reply was unexpected, and difficult to express, these translators all agree on what happened next, by using the same words—Jesus said: “Bring your son here.”

“Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the impure spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father. And they were all amazed at the greatness of God” (Luke 9:42-43).

In his comments, N.T. Wright notes that all four gospel writers link “the mountain top experience and the shrieking, stubborn demon.”

Wright also provides a perspective we can apply:

“We are right to be wary when we return from some great worship service, when we rise from a time of prayer in which God has seemed close and his love real and powerful. These things are never given for their own sake, but so that, as we are equipped by them, God can use us within his needy world”  

(Luke for Everyone, by N.T. Wright, Westminster John Knox Press, 2004; page 114).