Luke 9:38
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Suddenly a man in the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, for he is my only child.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
MISSION OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES. (Luk 9:1-6) power and authority--He both qualified and authorized them.
Open source ↗In this chapter we have, I. The commission Christ gave to his twelve apostles to go out for some time to preach the gospel, and confirm it by miracles (Luk 9:1-6). II. Herod's terror at the growing greatness of our Lord Jesus (Luk 9:7-9). III. The apostles' return to Christ, his retirement with them into a place of solitude, the great resort of people to them notwithstanding, and his feeding five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes (Luk 9:10-17). IV. His discourse with his disciples concerning himself and his own sufferings for them, and their for him (Luk 9:18-27). V. Christ's transfiguration (Luk 9:28-36). VI. The cure of a lunatic child (Luk 9:37-42). VII. The repeated notice Christ gave his disciples of his approaching sufferings (Luk 9:43-45). VIII. His check to the ambition of his disciples (Luk 9:46-48), and to their monopolizing the power over devils to themselves (Luk 9:49, Luk 9:50). IX. The rebuke he gave them for an over-due resentment of an affront given him by a village of the Samaritans (Luk 9:51-56). X. The answers he gave to several that were inclined to follow him, but not considerately, or not zealously and heartily, so inclined (Luk 9:57-62).
Open source ↗9:38 my only child: The loss of an only son was especially tragic, since this left no one to carry on the family name (cp. 7:12; see Gen 22:16; 1 Kgs 17:17-24; Jer 6:26; Amos 8:10; Zech 12:10).
Open source ↗Cross-references
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When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Him to come down and heal his son, who was about to die.
Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
And a Canaanite woman from that region came to Him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is miserably possessed by a demon.”
As He approached the town gate, He saw a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.
And we answered, ‘We have an elderly father and a younger brother, the child of his old age. The boy’s brother is dead. He is the only one of his mother’s sons left, and his father loves him.’