NOTES for Luk 9:1-27
All four Gospels speak of the miraculous multiplication of bread, recounting meals for many thousands of people that Jesus arranged as a sign of the coming Kingdom of God. In it there will no longer be enmity, hunger, or indifference, and so all people will gather around God’s table for a feast. This is precisely what Jesus begins to accomplish, thereby declaring that the Kingdom has arrived: everyone can come to Him and partake of the “bread of life.” Everyone can come, but the closest disciples will be required to make a most important spiritual effort: to understand the meaning of these meals still more deeply and to see in their Teacher not only the herald of the Kingdom, but also its Center—the Anointed One around whom all nations will gather at God’s table. After learning His mystery, they must hear strange and terrible words about the approaching trials that await Christ and His disciples. The evangelist shows how the disciples gradually walk the path of faith, learning ever more about their Teacher and taking on an ever greater burden of faith, which does not always speak of joy and victories. Perhaps he hopes that his readers will also follow this path.