Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 7:24
And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
24. when the messengers of John were departed ] We notice here the exquisite tenderness of our Lord. He would not suffer the multitudes who had heard the question of John to cherish one depreciatory thought of the Baptist; and yet he suffers the messengers to depart, lest, while hearing the grand eulogy of their Master, they should be pained by its concluding words. It is natural to suppose that the two disciples carried back to John some private message of peace and consolation.
A reed ] John was not like the reeds which they had seen waving in the wind on the banks of Jordan, but rather, as Lange says, ‘a cedar half uprooted by the storm.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Luk 7:24-27
What went ye out into the wilderness for to see?
—
Three questions
Why did our Lord select these figures rather than others?
I. Our Lords three questions RECALL THE WRY SCENE, THE PECULIAR FORM, AND THE ANIMATING SPIRIT OF THE BAPTISTS MINISTRY.
1. The first would recall, to the listening crowd, Jordan, with its reedy, wind-swept banks–the strong rapid stream, by which they had listened to the prophets call, and in which they had been plunged for the remission of their sins.
2. The second would recall the asceticism of the Baptist, the rude simplicity of his garb, the rustic fare with which he was content.
3. The third would recall the fervour and inspiration with which he spoke, whom all men confessed to be a prophet indeed, and the profound impression he had made upon their light, fluctuating hearts.
II. We may take these questions as SETTING FORTH THE BAPTISTS RELATIONS TO MAN, TO SELF, TO GOD.
1. John was no reed to be shaken by the breath of popular applause. He delivered his rebukes with fearlessness.
2. Severe to others, he was also severe to himself. He might have dwelt in kings houses, yet he made the desert his home. A preacher of temperance, he carried his own temperance to asceticism.
3. Severe in the demands he made on men, still more severe in his demands on himself; he devoted himself wholly to the will and service of God. In his relation to God he proved himself a true prophet, yea, and very much more than a prophet, a man of God who was not disobedient to the word of the Lord.
III. We may take these questions as ADDRESSED TO THE THOUGHTS AND INTENTS, THE WISHES AND HOPES, OF THE CROWD WHO LISTENED TO THEM. What did you want and expect to find? Did you not covertly hope that, as John became popular, he would bend before the popular currents of thought and aim? And yet, could this have been your expectation and your hope? Had you wanted a courtier who would speak smooth things to you, would you not have gone to the palace for him? But, whatever drew you into the wilderness, whatever you thought or hoped, did not you find a prophet? As you listened to him, did not you find that life grew large and solemn? (S. Cox, D. D.)
Sight-seers
Thrice, in as many minutes, our Lord demands of the multitude, What went ye out to see? Here was their error: professing concern to know the will of God, to prepare themselves for His service and kingdom, they were bent on sights, on spectacles, on indulging their curiosity and love of the marvellous. They went out not to hear a prophet, but to see a prophet; not to imitate the temperance and abstinence of the Baptist, but to gaze on a man who could prefer camels hair to soft clothing; not to feel the Divine regenerating mind of the Spirit, but to gape at the reed which shook and trembled in it. And this is the error against which we must guard. We are not to be over-much concerned with the spectacular, the external, the marvellous in religion, but to fix our thoughts and affections on its interior and eternal realities. (S. Cox, D. D.)
The unshaken prophet
The form into which Christ in this passage throws His view of the character of John the Baptist illustrates more than the symbolic method of His teaching. One sees in the choice of a natural object like the reed shaking in the wind in order to form a contrast to the unshaken temper of the Baptist, the same love of symbolism which led Him in His parables to make the ordinary things of Nature and of human nature images of the relations and laws of the spiritual kingdom. In the case of the parables, symbolism is deliberately used for the purpose of instruction. In the case before us it is used, as it were, unconsciously, and it reveals the natural way in which His mind united the world of Nature to the world of Man. When the image of the Baptist rose before Him–stern, uncompromising, fixed in moral strength, and with it the Jordan bank where first He met him, and the baptismal hour when He stood in the flowing river–He remembered the reeds as they shook in impotent vacillation in the wind, clasped the two images together in vivid contrast, and said, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind in the stream of the Jordan? nay, a rock, deep-rooted, firm, removable.
I. EVERYTHING WE KNOW OF THE BAPTIST CONFIRMS THIS VIEW He learnt concentration of will in the solitary life of the desert. With the unshaken firmness which Christ saw as a root in his character, he accepted his position at once and for ever. Not one step did be take beyond his mission, though he must have seen to some distance beyond it. Never for a moment did he cease to point to Another away from himself. Iris as noble a piece of self-renunciation as history affords, and it was unshaken. Though a hundred temptations beset him to do so, he never allowed his teaching to step beyond the limits of its special work. He met his death because he was no reed to be shaken by the promises of a wicked king.
II. AND NOW TO MAKE THIS REAL TO OURSELVES.
1. Fidelity to our vocation in life.
2. The sinking of self in religious work.
3. The being unshaken in our truth and right, both in act and speech, against worldly influences when they are evil; and even When they are not evil in themselves, when they make us weak and vacillating. (Stopford A. Brooke, M. A.)
The Christian ministry
I. IT IS NOT A LINE OF PRIESTS. The principle of the priesthood rests upon a truth, the mediatorial power which man exercises over man. The apostles were in a sense mediators, and so far priests. But the prophecy of old was taken up joyfully by the apostles as the richest tune in the mediatorial kingdom, when the last offices of the priesthood should be taken away, when they should no longer teach every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all should know Him, from the least even unto the greatest. This, then, is the spiritual priesthood. But the priestly system-1. Removes God from the soul, whereas God is ever near.
2. Degrades humanity, for its language tells us not of the affinity of man to God, but of the immense distance between the two.
3. Produces a slavish worship. Pass on to consider what the ministry is.
II. IT IS PROPHETICAL, not priestly. We greatly mistake if we think that the office of the prophet was simply to predict future events.
1. It was the office of the prophet to teach eternal truths. Johns only prediction was, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
2. All the most sublime passages in the Bible are from the writings of the prophets. The priestly writings were but temporary.
3. The difference between the prophet and the priest was that it was the office of the prophet to counteract the priestly office. Bring no more vain oblations, &c. Wash you, make you clean.
III. THE MINISTRY OF OUR BLESSED LORD HIMSELF, HERE ON EARTH, WAS PROPHETICAL AND NOT PRIESTLY. I lay a stress on that expression here on earth, because unquestionably He is a priest in heaven above. The high priesthood of the Son of Man is spoken of in the Hebrews. There it is denied on earth, but asserted to be in heaven. For if He were on earth, He should not be a priest; in other words, there is a priesthood now, but no earthly priesthood. In conclusion, I notice two points which seem to favour the notion of a priesthood:–
1. Absolution. Unquestionably, there is a power of absolution in the ministry of the Church of Christ, but it is the power of the prophet and not of the priest.
2. Apostolical succession. There is such a thing; but it is a succession of prophets and not of priests, a succession never extinct or broken. (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)
Good and bad ends in attending ministrations
I. WE OUGHT ALWAYS TO HAVE AN END IN VIEW IN ATTENDING THE MINISTRATIONS OF THE SANCTUARY.
1. It is due to ourselves.
2. It is due to God.
3. It is due to the occasion.
II. THERE ARE SOME ENDS WE OUGHT NOT TO PROPOSE TO OURSELVES.
1. The gratification of curiosity.
2. The exercise of a critical and censorious spirit.
3. The improvement of our social position.
4. The pacifying of our conscience.
III. THERE ARE SOME ENDS THAT SHOULD ALWAYS BE PRESENT TO OUR THOUGHTS.
1. Conversion.
2. Instruction.
3. Impression.
4. The diffusion of the gospel. (G. Brooks.)
A reed shaken by the wind
The ordinary interpretation of this expression has been this: Did you suppose that John was one of the weaklings of this world, a mere courtier with delicate words and flowing robes, who would be tremulously seeking popular approval, who would turn and trim in order to secure favour, now one thing and now another, like a rush shivering in the breeze? But lately, a new suggestion has been made by one who was born in Palestine, and who has been educated in the Greek language. He says that shepherd-boys often shelter them selves among the tall grass, and while away the hours of hot sunshine by playing on their native flutes; hence one frequently almost stumbles upon such a musician by the rivers or along the hillsides. So soft is the tone of the feeble instrument that it appears effeminate, and might well be the symbol of a gentle sweetness of entertainment without vigour or force. So here the exposition may be somewhat like this– Did ye come down here beside the Jordan to hear a timid little flute-player, a reed blown with ones breath? (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
See Poole on “Mat 11:7“, and following verses to Mat 11:15, where we met with this testimony concerning John, given by our Saviour, with some considerable enlargements.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And when the messengers of John were departed,…. The Syriac and Persic versions read, “the disciples of John”; and the Arabic version, “the two disciples of John”; the two that he sent, when they were gone back with the answer of Christ;
he, “Jesus”, as the Persic version expresses it,
began to speak unto the people concerning John; not caring to say any thing about him to the messengers, or whilst they were present, lest he should be charged with flattery; [See comments on Mt 11:7]
What went ye into the wilderness for to see? a reed shaken with the wind? an inconsistent, wavering, and unstable man? if so, they were greatly mistaken; or the motions and gesture of the man?
[See comments on Mt 11:7].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
When the messengers of John were departed ( ). Genitive absolute of aorist active participle. Mt 11:7 has the present middle participle , suggesting that Jesus began his eulogy of John as soon as the messengers (angels, Luke calls them) were on their way. The vivid questions about the people’s interest in John are precisely alike in both Matthew and Luke.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
To see [] . Rev. is correct but awkward, to behold. The verb implies steadfast, intent gazing. See on Mt 11:7.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
TESTIMONY OF JESUS SENT TO JOHN THE BAPTIST V. 24-29
1) “And when the messengers of John were departed,” (apelthonton de ton angelon loannou) “Then as the messengers of John went out and away,” from Jesus, to report what they had seen and heard of and from Jesus, Luk 7:20-23.
2) “He began to speak unto the people concerning John,” (erksato legein pros tous ochious per! loannou) “He began to say to the crowds concerning John,” asking concerning John the Baptist, His forerunner, who had preached about and baptized Him, Mat 3:1-7; Mat 3:15-17; Joh 1:29-34.
3) “What went ye out into the wilderness for to see?” (ti ekselthate eis ten eremon theasasthai) “What did you all go out and away into the desert, wilderness, or uninhabited area to see, to gaze upon?” as recounted Mat 3:1; Mar 1:1-8.
4) “A reed shaken with the wind?” (kalamon hupo anemou saleuomenon) “Was it a reed shaken (being shaken) by wind?” Is that all it was to you all? An unstable, emotional man of exciting deportment? Mar 11:7-11.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Butlers Comments
SECTION 4
The Superficial (Luk. 7:24-35)
24 When the messengers of John had gone, he began to speak to the crowds concerning John: What did you go out into the wilderness to behold? A reed shaken by the wind? 25What then did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft clothing? Behold, those who are gorgeously appareled and live in luxury are in kings courts. 26What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 27This is he of whom it is written,
Behold, I send my messenger before thy face,
who shall prepare thy way before thee.
28I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. 29(When they heard this all the people and the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John; 30but the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the purpose of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him.)
31 To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? 32They are like children sitting in the market place and calling to one another,
We piped to you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not weep.
33For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine; and you say, He has a demon. 34The Son of man has come eating and drinking; and you say, Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners! 35Yet wisdom is justified by all her children.
Luk. 7:24-30 Perversity: John the Baptist had been a fire-eating prophet of the judgment of God upon his own nation so filled with materialism and hypocrisy. Many people had initially heard Johns preaching with excitement (Luk. 3:15), but the penetrating righteousness of the truth he preached soon began to work on their consciences and they began to denounce him. Jesus takes this most opportune situation (Johns asking about His ministry) to vindicate Johns faithfulness in his ministry and his message as the revelation of God.
Jesus challenges their motives for first going out to hear John. What did they expect or want when they went to Johna fickle, unstable, vacillating good-old-boy who would bend with the ebb and flow of human opinion like a reed bends in the wind? Did they expect or want a preacher who was self-indulgent, fawning after those in positions of human power like those of Herods court or like Herod himself fawning after the Romans? Jesus rhetorical question implies that this is indeed what many of them wanted. That is why they turned away from John the Baptist, He was certainly no vacillating, self-indulgent pawn of human tyrants. He was in prison because he dared to condemn a kings conduct. He was a prophetand more than a prophet! He was the forerunner of the Messiah predicted by the prophets (esp. Mal. 3:1). He held a special place of service in Gods redemptive program afforded no other prophet. Jesus added this epitaph, to which a literal Greek translation adds idiomatic emphasis: I tell you, greater among those born of women than John, no one is! This applies not only to Johns position as forerunner, but to Johns personal character. Jesus said John was the greatest man in the human race. That statement of Jesus minimizes much of what the world calls greatness in human beings. John had none of the trappings of worldly power, worldly wealth, sophistication, travel, education, longevity and yet among those born of women, not a greater has ever lived.
Then Jesus utters a very interesting and paradoxical statement, . . . yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Hobbs puts it this way, He (John) stood on the shoulders of all foregoing prophets as the one forerunner of Him whom they foresaw. But those coming thereafter stand on Johns shoulders. . . . He saw only one picture of the Christ. But those who have come after him see the whole; death, resurrection, promised return and coming judgment. We see the end from the beginning. Jesus means that those who have become Christians have their covenant enacted upon better promises (cf. Heb. 8:6). Those who believe in Christ after the cross and resurrection and the ministry of the Holy Spirit have seen God as John the Baptist could never have seen Him. As great as Johns position and character was, those who believe in the Christ after him have a much greater privilege. Do we not also have greater responsibility? Only the perverse would reject the message John preached. What he proclaimed was so transparently true only the calloused hypocrite would object to it. When Jesus announced that John was Gods forerunner of the Messiah and that he was the greatest, in Gods scheme of things, among all the prophets, many sinners justified (Gr. edikaiosan) God, by submitting to Johns baptism. The word justified means they declared God to be right (as He spoke through John) that they needed to repent and be baptized by John. So they did! Justifying God means to put God in His rightful place, Absolute Sovereign in ones life. But the Pharisees and lawyers, hypocrites who pretended to worship God, rejected the purpose (Gr. boulen, will, counsel, deliberate design) of God for themselves (which was forgiveness and repentance) refusing to be baptized in Johns baptism. These hypocrites, no matter how much they pretended, would not put God in his rightful placeSovereign over their lives. Why? Because, as Jesus would soon reveal (Luk. 7:43 ff), they did not think they needed forgiveness or repentance!
Luk. 7:31-35 Petulance: Those who wish only a superficial relationship to God and truth will find every excuse possible to have it. The Pharisees and other hypocrites of that age were like petulant children of the streets. They did not want to play Gods game at all. When John the Baptist came, they said Johns concepts are too austere. John is all doom and gloom and judgment. John demands too rigid a lifehe is too ascetic. So they would not accept Johns concepts. When Jesus came, they said His concepts were too liberated, too normal, too cheerful. Jesus is a wine-bibber and a glutton. So they would not accept Jesus concepts. They condemned in Jesus what they implied John should have manifested, and condemned in John what they implied Jesus should have manifested. They simply were not going to play God-games unless they could dictate the rules. They really did not want to play at all so they said neither John or Jesus was playing the right game.
But Jesus reply was, Wisdom is justified by all her children. In other words, the rightness of both Johns ministry and His is vindicated by what those ministries were producingrepentance and faith and changed lives! As seen by superficial people, who really did not want to see, the ministries of John and Jesus might have appeared to be in conflict. But that was because the hypocrites, Pharisees and others, judged them by human standards. Their concept of the kingdom game was human power, exploitation of the poor and ignorant, manipulation through human traditions and violent wresting of the kingdom from Gods hands into their own (cf. the parallel to this incident in Mat. 11:7-19). So they said neither John nor Jesus knew anything about the kingdom game at all. Jesus said, Wait and seewhat John the Baptist and I both say about the kingdom will be proven to be true! There are still worldly-minded people with superficial views of the kingdom of God, acting like spoiled brats, unwilling to accept Christs mind on the kingdom. They do not want to play by Gods rules so they either try to destroy the game for others or do not get in the game at all!
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(24-35) And when the messengers of John were departed.See Notes on Mat. 11:7-19. The two narratives agree very closely. The few variations will be noticed as they occur.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
40. JESUS’S REFLECTIONS ON THIS APPEAL TO HIS MIGHTY WORKS, Luk 7:24-36 .
(See notes on Mat 11:20-30.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to say to the crowds concerning John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to behold? A reed shaken with the wind?” ’
Jesus now turned to challenge the crowds. He did not want them to see John as failing. Indeed the problem lay not with John and his honest doubts, but with those who failed to follow the counsel or purpose of God (Luk 7:30).
So they should now recognise that they had gone out to John in the wilderness, not because he bowed to the winds of the Scribes and Pharisees and of Herod, and to the winds of change, but because he came with a powerful, firm and consistent message. (Anyone less like a reed bending before the wind than John the Baptiser it is difficult to imagine).
The idea here may be taken from 1Ki 14:15 where a reed in the water, shaken in the wind, is illustrative of those who are rejected by God because of failure.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Christ’s testimony concerning John:
v. 24. And when the messengers of John were departed, He began to speak unto the people concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
v. 25. But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously appareled, and live delicately, are in kings’ courts.
v. 26. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet.
v. 27. This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face which shall prepare Thy way before Thee. See Mat 11:7-15. The Lord took this opportunity to bear witness to John and his ministry. The happenings of that time were so recent that they were still fresh in the memory. He put the question to the whole multitude, since many of them, undoubtedly, had been among those that were drawn by the reputation and by the powerful sermons of John. Had they gone out into the wilderness to see a reed agitated and swayed by the wind? John had not been a weather vane in his preaching, 2Ti 4:2-5. He had spoken the truth in a most uncompromising way, regardless of the fact that the great ones of the earth may have felt offended. Had they gone out into the wilderness to find a man clothed in soft garments? There is a place for such people; they may be found among those that live in the houses of kings. There those living in luxury and clothed with splendid apparel properly belonged. But John was a poor preacher of repentance. The luxuries of life had no appeal for him; he spurned the delicate side of wealth. Note: There is a fine hint in both references of the Lord for him that will read aright. But now came the main question: Had they gone out to see a prophet? Then indeed they had not been disappointed. For John was a prophet, and greater than the prophets of old. Of him it had been prophesied that he should be a messenger before the face of the Messiah, to prepare the way before Him, Mal 3:1.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
24 28. ] See Matt.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 7:24-30 . Encomium on the Baptist .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Luk 7:24 . : if we take = what, the question will be: what went ye out to see? and the answer: “a reed, etc.”; if = why, it will be: why went ye out? and the answer: “to see a reed, etc.” (T. R.): this reading, as different from Mt. ( ), has a measure of probability and is adopted by Tischendorf, here and in Luk 7:25-26 . But against this J. Weiss emphasises the fact that the “emendators” were fond of perfects. The aorists seem more appropriate to the connection as containing a reference to a past event, the visit of the persons addressed to the scene of John’s ministry.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk 7:24-30
24When the messengers of John had left, He began to speak to the crowds about John, “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 25But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothing? Those who are splendidly clothed and live in luxury are found in royal palaces! 26But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and one who is more than a prophet. 27This is the one about whom it is written, ‘Behold, I send My messenger ahead of You, Who will prepare Your way before You.’ 28I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” 29When all the people and the tax collectors heard this, they acknowledged God’s justice, having been baptized with the baptism of John. 30But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John.
Luk 7:24-27 This is a series of questions expecting a “no” answer. They emphasize the quality of John’s character.
Luk 7:27 “it is written” These references (cf. Mal 3:1; Mal 4:5; Isa 40:3-4) show that Jesus recognized who and what he was.
Luk 7:28 “I say to you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John” What a tremendous statement from the Messiah concerning the forerunner (cf. Mat 11:11)! It must be recognized that Jesus’ concluding remarks in Luk 7:28 show that John was the last of the OT prophets, not the first of the NT gospel preachers.
The NT affirms the unique power of John’s preaching and message. He was a Spirit-led prophet. However, the NT also depreciates John so that the worship and preeminence goes to Jesus’ person and ministry. There were some heretical groups in the early centuries that tried to elevate John.
“yet he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he” As radical as the first part of Luk 7:28 is, this second phrase is even more shocking! It does clearly demonstrate the radical newness of the age of the Spirit, the Kingdom of God. The context shows the least:
1. Roman centurion and his servant (Luk 7:2-10)
2. widow of Nain and her child (Luk 7:11-17)
3. the people of Isa 61:1 (Luk 7:21-22)
4. tax collectors (Luk 7:29)
Luk 7:29-30 These two verses can be seen as to how
1. Jesus comments about how John 6’s message was received
2. Luke’s comments about Jesus’ message was received (NET Bible)
Luk 7:29 This verse and Luk 7:30 show the makeup of the crowd that continuously followed Jesus: social outcasts and religious leaders. I am sure that they stood in their respective groups! These two verses may be Luke’s editorial comment.
The social outcasts were receptive to a message of repentance and faith (cf. Mar 1:15), but the religious leaders were not. They thought they were an elite group who were exclusively accepted by God.
NASB”they acknowledged God’s justice”
NKJV”justified God”
NRSV”acknowledged the justice of God”
TEV”who had obeyed God’s righteous demands”
NJB”acknowledged God’s saving justice”
This is literally “justified (aorist active indicative) God.” The spiritually receptive ones recognized God’s righteous ways being revealed in John’s message. John’s public baptism was an admission of spiritual need and trust in God’s acceptance of repentant people.
It is surprising how limited is the Gospel’s use of “justify” (cf. Mat 11:19; Mat 12:37; Luk 7:29; Luk 7:35; Luk 10:29; Luk 16:15; Luk 18:14) when it is used so often in Paul’ writings (i.e., 13 times in Romans , 8 times in Galatians). Paul speaks often of justification (i.e., how a sinner is right with God), but Jesus speaks of being part of the Kingdom of God.
Jesus was speaking to Jews who thought they were accepted by God because of Abraham and the Law of Moses, but Paul spoke mostly to Gentiles who had no covenant background. They both address the need of being in fellowship with God and how that fellowship will manifest itself in believers’ lives (i.e., words, actions, motives).
“baptized by John” John’s and Jesus’ messages were initially similar, but there is a vast difference between John’s baptism and Christian baptism. John focused on an OT foundation, whereas Jesus focused on Himself on a NT foundation.
One wonders whether John’s disciples who followed Jesus were re-baptized. Rituals are symbols, carriers of meaning, but they are not mechanisms of grace! Religious acts and liturgy without personal faith are barriers instead of bridges to God. The key in true faith is the heart, not just the outward forms of faith.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
concerning. Greek. peri. App-104.
went ye out = have ye gone out (perfect tense). All the texts, however, read “went ye out” (aor.)
for to see = to look at. Greek theaomai. App-133.
with = by. Greek. hupo. App-104.
wind. Greek. anemos.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
24-28.] See Matt.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 7:24. And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
Certainly not; John could never be compared to a reed shaken with the wind, for he was strong, sturdy, firm, and steadfast. He was not like so many preachers, nowadays, who are swayed by the ever-changing opinion of the age, the thought of these modern times, and so prove themselves to be mere reeds shaken with the wind.
Luk 7:25. But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment! Behold, they which are gorgeously appareled, and live delicately, are in kings courts.
John had been preaching in the desert, with all his might warning sinners to flee from the wrath to come. He was no court preacher, but a minister to the multitude, who delivered his heaven-inspired message in his own straightforward earnest style.
Luk 7:26-27. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
John was the morning star, and Christ the glorious Sun. John was the herald proclaiming the coming of Christ, and Christ himself followed close at his heels.
Luk 7:28. For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist:
His was the highest office of all, immediately to precede Messiah himself.
Luk 7:28. But he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.
We have a fuller gospel to preach than John had, and we may expect to see greater results from the preaching of that gospel than John could hope to see.
Luk 7:29-32. And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him. And the Lord said, whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, we have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.
These children could not agree as to what game they would play. Come, they said, let us imitate a wedding, we will pipe, and you can dance. But the others would not dance. Well, they said, let us play at something. Let us imitate a funeral; we will be the mourners. Then the others would not weep. They would agree to nothing that was proposed, and that is the point of the Saviours analogy, that there are multitudes of men who always quarrel with any kind of ministry that God may send to them. This mans style is much too florid; he has a superabundance of the flowers of oratory. That other man is much too dull; there is nothing interesting about his discourses. This man is too coarse; he is so rough as even to be vulgar. That other man is too refined, and uses language which shoots over peoples heads. It is easy to find fault when you want to do so. And stick will do to beat a dog, and any kind of excuse will do to allow your conscience to escape from the message of an earnest ministry. Our Lord told the people that this was the way they had acted towards himself and John the Baptist.
Luk 7:33. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine;
An ascetic of ascetics,
Luk 7:33. And ye say, He hath a devil.
He is out of his mind altogether, possessed by the devil.
Luk 7:34. The Son of man is come eating and drinking;
That is the Lord Jesus himself. He comes as a man among men, and sits with you at your feasts, and does not lead the life of an ascetic.
Luk 7:34. And ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!
There was no pleasing them either way; whichever form of preacher the Lord sent, whether an ascetic or one like themselves, they found fault.
Luk 7:35. But wisdom is justified of all her children.
There shall come a day when it shall be seen that, after all, God knew best what style of preacher to send. He had work for each man to do, and he adapted the man for the work he had entrusted to his charge.
Luk 7:36. And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisees house, and sat down to meat.
Invitations from Pharisees were rather scarce; they did not often ask Christ to their houses. Even before this meal is over, there will be sure to be something like a quarrel, depend upon it.
Luk 7:37. And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner,
Her name is not given; and there are good reasons why it should not be given. Certainly, she was not Mary the sister of Lazarus, nor yet Mary Magdalene, we may be quite cure of that. Our Saviour leaves her in an anonymous condition; and it is usually best that converts of this character should not be exhibited, and their names made known. I believe that much cruel wrong has been done to reclaimed sinners when they have been pushed to the front. Behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner,
Luk 7:37-38. When she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisees house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood at his feet behind him weeping,
His feet probably lay towards the door as he reclined at the table, and she could readily get at them without becoming too conspicuous in the room: she stood at his feet behind him weeping,
Luk 7:38. And began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
What a blessed amalgam of humility penitence, gratitude, and love! All these are seen in what she did, especially in that unbinding of the tresses of her beauty, which had been her nets in which she had taken the souls of men, now she uses these for a towel. She began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
Luk 7:39. Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself,
He did not like to say it in so many words, but he spoke loudly enough for himself to hear it, and for Christ to hear it, too.
Luk 7:39-44. Saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman?
You did see this woman, and you looked upon her with a frowning face; now take another look at her by the light of my parable. Simon, seest thou this woman?
Luk 7:44. I entered into thine house,
Therefore thou wast bound by the obligations of a host,
Luk 7:44. Thou gavest me no water for my feet:
An ordinary commonplace courtesy in the East, almost a necessity for those who have walked far, and whose feet are weary and dusty: Thou gavest me no water for my feet:
Luk 7:44. But she hath washed my feet with tears,
Costly water this! She hath washed my feet with tears.
Luk 7:44. And wiped them with the hairs of her head.
She has done it, she has done it better than thou wouldst have done it, she has done it best of all, she has done what thou oughtest to have done, she has done it when there seemed to be no claim upon her to do it.
Luk 7:45. Thou gavest me no kiss:
Though that was the ordinary mode of !an honoured guest,
Luk 7:46. But this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.
You said in your heart that, if I had been a prophet, I should have known who and what manner of woman this was. I do know, and I am telling you. If you had given me a kiss, you would only have coldly kissed my brow, but she has found it in her heart to honour me by kissing my feet. Since I came in, she has not ceased to kiss them, unwashed as they were; and she has not only kissed them, but she has also washed them with her tears.
Luk 7:46. My head with oil thou didst not anoint:
Thou, the host, whose duty it was to anoint guest, didst not do it,
Luk 7:46. But this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.
The best unguent she possessed or could procure.
Luk 7:47-48. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.
Not because she has done this, but this is an evidence that her sine are forgiven. This act of greater love is the proof that she must be conscious of the greater forgiveness: she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. It is always like that; your converted Pharisees have to be made to feel like this woman before they will render love like hers; and if Simon is ever made to feel that his sin, in a certain light, is as great as the sin of this fallen woman, then he will love as much as she does, but not till then.
Jesus said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. Oh, the marvellous music of that short sentence! If I had to choose from all language the choicest sentence that my ear could hear when under a sense of him, it would be these four words which the Master addressed to this woman who was a notable public sinner, Thy sins are forgiven.
Luk 7:49. And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also?
Now, you see, they begin to mutter and to cavil. What is this poor woman to do? Probably she felt ready to speak up for her Master; but, sometimes, it happens that the Lord Jesus Christ will not permit certain even of his forgiven ones to be very prominent.
Luk 7:50. And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.
She was best out of the way of all controversy; she would honour him most by going home, and there sweetly singing to his praise, and drinking deep draughts of his love. If any of you converts are meeting with those who cavil at you, do not stop where they are, but go about your business with these sweet words of your Master ringing in your ears: Thy faith hath saved thee; go in piece.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
a Great Man and a Still Greater
Luk 7:24-35
The Master chose the moment of Johns fainting fit to pass this high eulogium on the Baptists stalwart character, his indifference to worldly bribes and his divine commission. When we write hard things against ourselves, He may be judging us with infinite tenderness and wisdom. Heaven does not estimate us by our passing moods. But the least believer in this Christian age has a clearer knowledge of Christ and a closer relationship to Him, than had the Baptist. He was a servant; we are brothers, sons, heirs, Rom 8:16-17.
If we will not accept the lower call of duty, as was manifested in the appeal of the Baptist, we shall never profit by Christ. Accept the dim light of the morning star and it will lead to the dawn.
It ill becomes us to observe the winds of human caprice. If we please one party, we shall displease the other. There is but one path through life, and that is to do the will of God, in which, as Dante puts it, is our peace. But the children of wisdom recognize her alike in the anxiety of the Baptist and in the graces of the Son of man.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Chapter 40
Our Great Defender
Did you ever notice how often the scriptures portray the Lord our God as our Shield and Defence? Particularly in the psalms, we see our great God spoken of in this way. How often we see the man after Gods own heart running to him for defence, hiding in him for refuge, seeking protection behind the mighty God of Jacob as his shield. Davids son, Solomon, learned this valuable, soul cheering truth from his father (Psa 119:114; Psa 144:1-2; Pro 18:10; Pro 30:5). He who is our shield and hiding place is our Defender. The psalmist sang with joy, God is my defence! (Psa 7:10; Psa 31:2; Psa 89:18; Psa 94:22). The Lord Jesus Christ, our great God and Saviour, is the great Defender of our souls.
Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation. He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved. How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence. They only consult to cast him down from his excellency: they delight in lies: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah. My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah (Psa 62:1-8).
Christ Our Defender
In the passage before us God the Holy Spirit holds before us an instructive example of Christ our God defending one of his own. That is what we see in Luk 7:24-28. Our Lord seems to have sensed that those who had heard his conversation with Johns disciples might, as sinful men are prone to do, put a bad construction upon what they had heard. He seems to have read the thoughts of their hearts, and what he read was not good. Perhaps the fact that John was imprisoned by Herod caused the multitudes to look upon him with suspicion. Perhaps the question he sent his disciples to ask caused those who heard it to look upon John as a weak, fluctuating, unsteady man, one whose faith had begun to fail. Whatever their thoughts were, they were obviously thoughts of unwarranted unkindness, harshness and evil regarding John the Baptist.
Whatever the reason was, our Lord Jesus immediately took up Johns cause. Without a moments hesitation, like a faithful friend, the Son of God takes upon himself the defence of his faithful servant. There is much to be learned here. Blessed are those who have Christ for their Friend; and blessed are those who follow his example as friends to others (Pro 17:17; Pro 18:24).
The Lord Jesus pleaded Johns cause earnestly, with the strong, firm, unquestionable language of a loyal, faithful friend. He took it upon himself to silence the suspicious thoughts and doubts in the minds of those around him about John. He said that John was no mere reed, shaken in the wind. He was not a man of unstable, wavering character, but a prophet, a great prophet. He asserted that John was not a man living in luxury, courting the favour of men, particularly of powerful men. He did not hang around the kings palace, grovelling for the kings smile. John was Gods prophet; and he acted like Gods prophet.
Indeed, John the Baptist was much more than a prophet. He was a prophet of whom the prophet Malachi wrote (Mal 3:1), Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. John was that Elijah who came to prepare the way for the Christ, who came to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children by turning their hearts to Christ. Then, our Master said, Among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist.
What a blessed picture we have before us! I find it sweet beyond expression, touching and instructive. Just a few years earlier, John was the best known, most popular, most highly esteemed preacher in the land. There was a time when all Jerusalem and Judea hung upon his words. They followed him from one place to another, walking for miles at a time, just to hear him preach. All men were baptized by him (Mat 3:5). But now John the Baptist was a prisoner in Herods hands, deserted by all, held in contempt by all but a few, friendless and alone. The only thing awaiting him was his execution. But he was not deserted by that One whose name is the Mighty God. John could say of him what all who ever knew him could, This is my Beloved, and this is my Friend.
Jesus! What a Friend for sinners! Jesus! Lover of my soul!
Friends may fail me, foes assail me, he my Saviour, makes me whole.
Jesus! What a Strength in weakness! Let me hide myself in Him;
Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing, He, my Strength, my victory wins.
Jesus! What a Help in sorrow! While the billows oer me roll;
Even when my heart is breaking, He, my Comfort, helps my soul!
Jesus! What a Guide and Keeper! While the tempest still is high;
Storms about me, night oertakes me, He, my Pilot, hears my cry!
Jesus! I now flee unto him! More than all in him I find;
He has granted me forgiveness. I am his and he is mine!
Hallelujah! What a Saviour! Hallelujah! What a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving, he is with me to the end!
J. Wilbur Chapman
John the Baptist had in the Son of God a Friend who never failed him and never forsook him. He is that Friend who says to all his Jacobs, I am the Lord, I change not. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee
Let me show you what there is in all this for you. Do you know what it is to be held in suspicion? Do you know what it is to be slandered, falsely accused, to have your name evil spoken of, to have your character assaulted? There are few of Gods children here who do not experience these things.
Noahs son Ham sought to mar his fathers name among his own brothers. Moses was the object of much slander in Pharaohs house; but the slander in the house of Israel was more bitter; and the suspicions of Miriam and Aaron were even worse. Josephs brethren spoke evil of him. David was maligned by Saul, betrayed by Ahithophel, and cursed by Shimei. Jeremiah was falsely accused by those for whom he laboured, to whom he carried the burden of the Word of the Lord. John the Baptist was praised as a great prophet one day and accused of being possessed of the devil the next. Our Lord himself was slandered, maligned, falsely accused, betrayed and looked upon by the multitudes, those who would not hear him, as a vile, reprehensible man, a glutton, a drunk, and the constant companion of sinners. The women who anointed the Saviour had their motives suspected and were slandered, even by their fellow disciples. Paul was accused of being a self-serving false prophet, a promoter of licentiousness, and a wicked man.
These things are not easy to bear. In fact, there are few trials more difficult to endure. The fiend of hell is called the accuser of the brethren (at least in part), because false accusation is that which he most often uses as a weapon against our souls. Satan knows that a mans character is the point at which he is most easily, most painfully, and most permanently wounded. He knows that men and women who seek to honour God are most sensitive about maintaining an honourable name, seeking to live blamelessly before others. Therefore, he most often assaults us there.
J. C. Ryle wrote, Slanders are easily called into existence, greedily received and propagated, and seldom entirely silenced. Lies and false accusations are the devils chosen weapons, by which he tries to injure the Lords people, seeks to destroy a persons usefulness and disturbs our peace.
Knowing these things, by bitter and painful experience, there is nothing more comforting and assuring than this: We have an Advocate in heaven who knows our sorrow and is touched by that which touches us. That same Advocate who took up the cause of John the Baptist before this Jewish crowd is our Advocate today. The Son of God will never desert his own. Our names may be cast in the mud and evil spoken of by wicked men. The world may frown upon us. But our Saviour never changes. He has undertaken our cause. He will protect and defend us in the best way. And, one day soon, he will plead our cause before the entire world (1Co 4:3-5).
Peculiar Blessedness
In Luk 7:28 the Lord Jesus tells us that we live in an age of peculiar blessedness. For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. The last phrase of this verse has been interpreted by faithful men in a variety of ways. But he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.
Without question, these words apply to our Lord himself. The Son of God became the least among men, the very least in the kingdom of God, though he is greater than all. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich (2Co 8:9; Php 2:5-11). He who is God over all and blessed forever became a man. He who created all things became the Servant of men. He who is our Lord and Master washed his disciples feet. He who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He who is life was made to die the painful, shameful, ignominious death of the cross, that we might have eternal life in him!
However, our Lord is here talking about his disciples in this gospel age. These words speak of the peculiar, distinctive privilege that is ours as the children of God in this gospel age. He that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Compared with the saints of the Old Testament era, believers in this gospel age enjoy a position of tremendous advantage and superiority. After describing and commending Johns gifts and graces, the Saviour says, but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.
He is not suggesting that believers in this age are superior to those of the Old Testament in gifts, in faith or in faithfulness. If we had no other passage than Hebrews 11 to convince us, Hebrews 11 is enough to convince us that our Lord is not suggesting that believers in this age are superior to those of the Old Testament in gifts, in faith or in faithfulness.
What he is saying is this: in this gospel age believers have superior light and revelation. We have the full, final, complete revelation of God in Christ inscripturated (Heb 1:1-3; 2Ti 3:16-17; 2Pe 1:19-21). Living on this side of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ we live in a position of indescribably greater light than John the Baptist and those who lived in that age of types, pictures and prophecy.
I do not suggest that those believers of old did not know and believe the same gospel we do. They most certainly did. But they saw things as through a glass darkly. They were not given such a precise, exact and complete revelation of gospel truth as we now have in the full revelation of God. They saw the Fountain. We see the Fountain opened. They saw the veil. We see the veil rent in twain and the way to the holiest of all open. Priscilla and Aquila took Apollos home and instructed that great orator in the way of the Lord more perfectly.
This is exactly what God promised in the covenant. They all shall know me … A child shall lead them! To put it in plain, simple terms, insofar as spiritual knowledge is concerned, the new born babe in this gospel age, knowing the wondrous doctrine of the cross, being taught of God, has greater spiritual knowledge than John the Baptist and those men and women of the Old Testament possessed. The Old Testament age was the churchs age of infancy and childhood. This is the age of the churchs maturity. The law was our schoolmaster unto Christ. But now that Christ has come we are no longer its pupils (Eph 3:1-11; Col 1:25-27; 1Pe 1:10-17).
A Solemn Lesson
In Luk 7:29-30 the Spirit of God sets before us a very solemn lesson. All who are privileged to hear the gospel either justify God or reject the counsel of God against themselves.
And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.
To some the gospel is made of God to be the sweet savour of life and salvation. Being born of the Spirit, convinced of our guilt and sin, looking to Christ, all true believers justify God (Psa 51:1-5). Self-righteous rebels reject, despise and cast off the counsel of God against themselves (Pro 1:23-33; Isa 65:1-5; Isa 66:1-2).
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
were departed
Having gently removed His servant’s doubt, the Lord bears witness to him before others: He knows when to reprove, and where, and when, to praise.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
What: Mat 11:7, Mat 11:8
wilderness: Luk 1:80, Luk 3:2, Mat 3:1-5, Mar 1:4, Mar 1:5, Joh 1:23
A reed: Gen 49:4, 2Co 1:17-20, Eph 4:14, Jam 1:6-8, 2Pe 2:17, 2Pe 3:17
Reciprocal: 1Ki 14:15 – as a reed Joh 1:38 – What Act 19:32 – and the
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
4
The importance of John and his work will be the subject of some verses, all of which will show that Jesus had a high regard for him. A reed is a tall and slender stem that would be swayed easily by the wind. Such would illustrate a man with little stability and one who could be easily influenced. The question of Jesus implies that John was not that way.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
THE first point that demands our notice in this passage, is the tender care which Jesus takes of the characters of His faithful servants. He defends the reputation of John the Baptist, as soon as his messengers were departed. He saw that the people around him were apt to think lightly of John, partly because he was in prison, partly because of the inquiry which his disciples had just brought. He pleads the cause of His absent friend in warm and strong language. He bids His hearers dismiss from their minds their unworthy doubts and suspicions about this holy man. He tells them that John was no wavering and unstable character, a mere reed shaken by the wind. He tells them that John was no mere courtier and hanger-on about king’s palaces, though circumstances at the end of his ministry had brought him into connection with king Herod. He declares to them that John was “much more than a prophet,” for he was a prophet who had been the subject of prophecy himself. And he winds up his testimony by the remarkable saying, that “among those that are born of woman there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist.”
There is something deeply touching in these sayings of our Lord on behalf of his absent servant. The position which John now occupied as Herod’s prisoner was widely different from that which he occupied at the beginning of his ministry. At one time he was the best-known and most popular preacher of his day. There was a time when “there went out to him Jerusalem and all Juda,-and were baptized in Jordan.” (Mat 3:5.) Now he was a solitary prisoner in Herod’s hands, deserted, friendless, and with nothing before him but death. But the want of man’s favor is no proof that God is displeased. John the Baptist had one Friend who never failed him and never forsook him,-a Friend whose kindness did not ebb and flow like John’s popularity, but was always the same. That Friend was our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is comfort here for all believers who are suspected, slandered, and falsely accused. Few are the children of God who do not suffer in this way, at some time or other. The accuser of the brethren knows well that character is one of the points in which he can most easily wound a Christian. He knows well that slanders are easily called into existence, greedily received and propagated, and seldom entirely silenced. Lies and false reports are the chosen weapons by which he labors to injure the Christian’s usefulness, and destroy his peace. But let all who are assaulted in their characters rest in the thought that they have an Advocate in heaven who knows their sorrows. That same Jesus who maintained the character of His imprisoned servant before a Jewish crowd, will never desert any of His people. The world may frown on them. Their names may be cast out as evil by man. But Jesus never changes, and will one day plead their cause before the whole world.
The second point which demands our attention in these verses is, the vast superiority of the privileges enjoyed by believers under the New Testament, compared to those of believers under the Old. This is a lesson which appears to be taught by one expression used by our Lord respecting John the Baptist. After commending his graces and gifts, He adds these remarkable words, “He that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
Our Lord’s meaning in using this expression appears to be simply this. He declares that the religious light of the least disciple who lived after His crucifixion and resurrection, would be far greater than that of John Baptist, who died before those mighty events took place. The weakest believing hearer of Paul would understand things, by the light of Christ’s death on the cross, which John the Baptist could never have explained. Great as that holy man was in faith and courage, the humblest Christian would, in one sense, be greater than he. Greater in grace and works he certainly could not be. But beyond doubt he would be greater in privileges and knowledge.
Such an expression as this should teach all Christians to be deeply thankful for Christianity. We have probably very little idea of the wide difference between the religious knowledge of the best-instructed Old Testament believer and the knowledge of one familiar with the New Testament. We little know how many blessed truths of the Gospel were at one time seen through a glass darkly, which now appear to us plain as noon-day. Our very familiarity with the Gospel makes us blind to the extent of our privileges. We can hardly realize at this time how many glorious verities of our faith were brought out in their full proportions by Christ’s death on the cross, and were never unveiled and understood till His blood was shed. The hopes of John the Baptist and Paul were undoubtedly one and the same. Both were led by one Spirit. Both knew their sinfulness. Both trusted in the Lamb of God. But we cannot suppose that John could have given as full an account of the way of salvation as Paul. Both looked at the same object of faith. But one saw it afar off, and could only describe it generally. The other saw it close at hand, and could describe the reason of his hope particularly. Let us learn to be more thankful. The child who knows the story of the cross, possesses a key to religious knowledge which patriarchs and prophets never enjoyed.
The last point which demands our attention in these verses is, the solemn declaration which it makes about man’s power to injure his own soul. We read that “The Pharisees and Scribes rejected the counsel of God against themselves.” The meaning of these words appears to be simply this, that they rejected God’s offer of salvation. They refused to avail themselves of the door of repentance which was offered to them by John the Baptist’s preaching. In short they fulfilled to the very letter the words of Solomon: “Ye have set at naught all my counsel and would none of my reproof.” (Pro 1:25.)
That every man possesses a power to ruin himself forever in hell is a great foundation truth of Scripture, and a truth which ought to be continually before our minds. Impotent and weak as we all are for everything which is good, we are all naturally potent for that which is evil. By continued impenitence and unbelief, by persevering in the love and practice of sin, by pride, self-will, laziness, and determined love of the world, we may bring upon ourselves everlasting destruction. And if this takes place, we shall find that we have no one to blame but ourselves. God has “no pleasure in the death of him that dieth.” (Eze 18:32.) Christ is “willing to gather” men to His bosom, if they will only be gathered. (Mat 23:37.) The fault will lie at man’s own door. They that are lost will find that they have “lost their own souls.” (Mar 8:36.)
What are we doing ourselves? This is the chief question that the passage should suggest to our minds. Are we likely to be lost or saved? Are we in the way towards heaven or hell? Have we received into our hearts that Gospel which we hear? Do we really live by that Bible which we profess to believe? Or are we daily traveling towards the pit, and ruining our own souls? It is a painful thought that the Pharisees are not the only persons who “reject the counsel of God.” There are thousands of persons called Christians who are continually doing the very same thing.
==================
Notes-
v24.-[What went ye out to see?…a reed, &c.] Let it be noted that both here and in the two following verses the question is equivalent to a strong and positive affirmation. It is as if our Lord had said, “John the Baptist was not a reed shaken by the wind,”-“was not a man clothed in soft raiment,”-“was not merely a prophet.”-Such a form of expression is not uncommon in the Bible. A striking example is to be seen in the famous question, “What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” It is equivalent to saying, “It shall profit him nothing at all.”
[A reed shaken by the wind.] Chemnitius observes that this is the very same expression which is used by the heathen satirist, Lucian, in describing the unsettled opinion of the philosophical sects.
v25.-[They which are gorgeously appareled…delicately.] The literal translation of the Greek words here would be, “They that are in gorgeous apparel, and delicate living.”
The words translated “delicate living,” is only used in one other place in the New Testament, and is there rendered, “riot.” (2Pe 2:13.)
v28.-[Among those…born of women.] Chrysostom thinks, that by this expression our Lord “tacitly excepted himself. For though He too was born of a woman, yet not as John, for He was not a mere man, neither was He born in like manner as man, but by a strange and wondrous kind of birth.” This is not a satisfactory interpretation, and seems to involve dangerous consequences.
[He that is least…greater than he.] There are many diverse and strange opinions among the commentators about the meaning of these words. Those who wish to examine them, will find a full account of them in Chemnitius and Barradius.
Some think, that the “least in the kingdom of God,” means the least of those who receive Christian baptism, and that John the Baptist never having been baptized, was never regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and therefore was inferior to the humblest person baptized by the Apostles. This is the opinion of Cyril. It is too absurd to require refutation. To say of John, who was “filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb,” that he was not born again of the Spirit, is preposterous, and revolting to common sense.
Some think that the “least in the kingdom of God,” means the least saint in heaven. This is the opinion of Jerome and Beda.
Some think that the “least in the kingdom” means the least angel. This is the opinion of Ambrose, Bonaventura, and Thomas Aquinas.
Some think, that the “least in the kingdom,” means our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who humbled Himself and said, “I am a worm and no man.” (Psa 22:6.) This is the opinion of Augustine and Chrysostom, and has been maintained by many in every age. But it seems a strained and forced sense to place upon the words.
I believe the true interpretation to be the one I have maintained in the exposition. I believe the “least in the kingdom of God,” to mean the least believer who lived after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. I believe the weakest member of the Churches planted by Paul, had a clearer knowledge of the exact manner in which God would justify the ungodly than John the Baptist, or any one who lived before the crucifixion ever could have. The contrast our Lord is drawing, is between the privileges of those who lived to see the great fountain of sin opened by His blood-shedding, and those who died before that blood was shed. We do not realize the enormous difference in the position of these two classes of persons. We do not sufficiently remember how very dimly and indistinctly many great saving truths must needs have been apprehended, before Christ died and the veil was rent in twain. The “way into the holiest was not made manifest,” while John the Baptist lived, and for that reason Jesus says that the least member of the Gospel Church was “greater than he.” His grace and gifts were not greater, but His knowledge and privileges decidedly were.
v29.-[And all the people that heard, &c.] It is a disputed point whether this verse and the following one contain the words of Christ or of Luke, whether they are a continuation of our Lord’s speech or a remark of the Evangelist’s. The question is discussed at length by Maldonatus.
The ancient commentators, including Ambrose, Beda, Euthymius, and, according to Thomas Aquinas, Chrysostom also, regard the two verses as the words of our Lord. Chemnitius supports this opinion.
Lyranus and the modern commentators regard the two verses as the inspired comment of the Evangelist on what our Lord had just been saying.
The question, perhaps, is not one of much importance. To me the two verses appear to read awkwardly and unnaturally, if taken as the words of the Lord. I should never have thought of regarding them as anything but the words of Luke, if the idea had not been suggested to me by others.
[Justified God…being baptized.] The meaning of this expression appears to be, that “they declared their belief that John was a prophet sent from God, by submitting to his baptism.” Burkitt says, “Those who believe the message that God sendeth, and obey it, justify God. They that do not believe and obey, accuse and condemn God.” Burgon says, “They acknowledged God’s justice, mercy, truth and goodness.”
Let it be noted, that here as elsewhere in the New Testament, it is impossible to interpret the word “justify” in the sense of “to make just.” Man cannot make God just. (See Psa 51:4.) The word means always, “To declare, count, or reckon just.” “Justified” persons are not persons who are made righteous, but persons who are reckoned and counted righteous.
v30.-[Rejected the counsel of God against themselves.] The meaning of this expression appears to be, that they despised, and frustrated, and made of no avail the gracious offer of repentance and salvation, which God sent to them by John the Baptist.
The Greek word translated “rejected” is more frequently translated “despised.” It is also rendered by the words to “disannul,” to “cast off,” to “frustrate,” and to “bring to nothing.” Luk 10:16; Gal 3:15; 1Ti 5:12; Gal 2:21; 1Co 1:19.
The “counsel” spoken of here can in no wise be interpreted as the everlasting counsel of God, whereby He has decreed to save His own elect by Christ. This counsel shall stand. It is not in the power of man to disannul or frustrate it. It probably means here God’s gracious purpose in sending John to preach repentance, and that will of benevolence which God declares Himself to have towards all mankind, and reveals in the Gospel
The words “against themselves” might equally well have been translated, “towards themselves.” The marginal reading is “within” themselves, which seems less probable than either of the other two senses. The general meaning of the whole sentence, which ever sense of the three we take, remains unaltered.
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Our Saviour having given, as we may suppose, full satisfaction to John’s disciples and sent them away, he enters upon a large commendation of John himself.
Where we have observable, 1. The persons whom he commended John before: not his own disciples, but before the multitude; for John’s disciples had too high an opinion of their master already, insomuch, that they envied our Saviour for overshadowing their master: Joh 7:26
Behold Christ baptizeth, and all men come unto him. It was a great eye-sore to John’s disciples, that Christ had more hearers and followers than their master; therefore not before John’s disciples, but before the multitude, is John commended: for as John’s disciples had too high, so the multitude had too low, an opinion of John; possibly because of his imprisonment and sufferings. There was a time when the people had high thoughts of John’s person and ministry; but being now clouded with sufferings, they disesteem and undervalue him.
Learn hence, how vain it is for any men, but especially for the ministers of the gospel, to value themselves by popular applause. The people condemn today whom they admired yesterday; he who today is cried up, tomorrow is trodden down; the word and ministers are the same, but this proceeds from the fickleness and inconsistency of the people: nothing is so mutable as the mind of man; nothing so variable as the opinion of the multitude.
Observe, 2. The time when our Saviour thus commended John; when he was cast into prison by Herod. Not when he was in prosperity, when the people flocked after him, when he preached at court, and was reverenced by Herod; but when the giddy multitude had forsaken him; when he was disgraced at court, and had preached himself into a prison; now it is that Christ proclaims his worth, maintains his honor, and tells the people that the world was not worthy of such a preacher.
Learn hence, that Christ will evermore stand by, and stick fast unto, his faithful ministers, when all the world forsakes them. Let the world slight and despise them at their pleasure; yet Christ will maintain their honor, and support their cause; as they bear a faithful witness to Christ, so Christ will bear witness to their faithfulness for him.
Observe, 3. The commendation itself. Our Saviour commends John for four things! For his constancy, for his sobriety, for his humility, for gospel ministry.
1. For his constancy: he was not a reed shaken with the wind; that is, a man of an unstable and unsettled judgment, but fixed and steady.
2. For his sobriety, austerity, and high degree of mortification and self-denial: He was no delicate, voluptous person, but grave, sober, and severe. He was mortified to the glory and honor, to the ease and pleasure, of the world: John wrought no miracles, but his conversation was almost miraculous, and as effectual as miracles to prevail upon the people.
3. For his humility: John might once have been what he would, the people were ready to cry him up for the Messiah, the Christ of God: but John’s humble and lowly spirit refuses all: He confessed, and denied not, saying, I am not the Christ, but a poor minister of his willing, but not worthy, to do him the meanest service. This will commend our ministry to the consciences of our people; when we seek not our own glory, but the glory of Christ.
4. Our Saviour commends John for his clear preaching the gospel, and for his making known the coming of the Messiah to the people: He was more than a prophet, because he pointed out Christ more clearly and fully than any of the prophets before him. The ancient prophets beheld Christ afar off, but John saw him face to face. They prophesied of him, he pointed at him, saying, This is he. The clearer any ministry is in discovering of Christ, the more excellent and useful it is.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
2 d. Luk 7:24-35. The Discourse of Jesus.
Jesus had a debt to discharge. John had borne striking testimony to Him; He avails Himself of this occasion to pay public homage in His turn to His forerunner. He would not allow this opportunity to pass without doing it, because there was a strict solidarity between John’s mission and His own. This discourse of Jesus concerning John is, as it were, the funeral oration of the latter; for he was put to death soon after. Jesus begins by declaring the importance of John’s appearing (Luk 7:24-28); he next speaks of the influence exerted by his ministry (Luk 7:29-30); lastly, He describes the conduct of the people under these two great divine calls
John’s ministry and His own (Luk 7:31-35). The same general order is found in Mat 11:1, Luk 7:7-11; Luke 2 d, Luk 7:12-15; Luke 3 d, Luk 7:16-20.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
CHAPTER 22.
JOHN THE BAPTIST THE GREATEST PROPHET
Mat 11:7-15, & Luk 7:24-30. And the messengers of John having gone away, He began to speak to the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? Well did the multitude remember the thrilling scenes two years ago, when they all left their employments and went away to hear the wonderful prophet of the wilderness; and the waving of the tall reeds growing in the rich alluvial soil on Jordans bank, moved by the sighing zephyrs, hither and thither, were vivid in their memories. Those reeds are there now, fifteen feet high. My comrades, a few days ago, brought away some of them as souvenirs. But what went ye out to see? A man clothed in soft raiments? Behold, those who are in gaudy and soft apparel are in kings houses. No, they never went to see a royal dude or a leader of the hon tons. A great man of the world could never have attracted that multitude, away into the wilderness, to run a camp-meeting six solid months. He was the very opposite, dressed like a tramp, and living like a soldier who proposed to conquer or die. But what went ye out to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it has been written, Behold, I send My messenger before Thee, who will prepare Thy way before Thee. Mal 3:1 For I say unto you, That among those who have been born of women, no prophet is greater than John; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. That John the Baptist was a transcendent intellectualist and climacterically spiritual, actually filled with the Holy Ghost from his infancy, the greatest of the prophets and peerless in his dispensation, no one can call in question; yet the smallest saint in the Pentecostal age is dispensationally greater than John, the prince of prophets, and even more than a prophet, as he was the precursor of our Lord. While the Bible is preeminently spiritual, yet it is the most intellectual Book in the world, exhibiting many specimens of the highest mental culture the ages have produced, among those who have given themselves world-wide notoriety as hornines unhts libri, men of one book. Our Savior frequently indulges in terse, enigmatical statements of truth, in order to sharpen our wits, develop our intellects, and superinduce profound and exhaustive research. If John the Baptist were living now, he would be the sensation of the world, as he was in his day; yet, dispensationally, he lived and died under the Law. Hence all the sons of gospel grace stand on a plane superior and more luminous, and richer in privileges and opportunities, than the brightest and the best enjoyed under the old covenant. And all the people hearing, and the publicans justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John; but the Pharisees and theologians rejected the counsel of God against themselves, not having been baptized by him. While the rank and the of the Jewish nation, and especially the poor, were melted and convicted by the preaching of John, gladly receiving baptism at his hands, the Pharisees (i.e., the influential and official members of the Church) and the lawyers Greek, nomikoi, from nomos, law; i.e., the law of Moses who were the learned exponents of the Old Testament Scriptures, and not lawyers in the modern sense, but theologians (i.e., the learned preachers), took gross offense at the stern rebuke of John, calling them generation of vipers, and demanding of them satisfactory evidence of repentance, and consequently they were not baptized by him. (Mat 3:7.)
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
7:24 {4} And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
(4) That which the prophets showed long before, John shows presently: and Christ himself presents it daily unto us in the gospel, but for the most part in vain, because many seek nothing else than foolish toys and vain glory.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jesus’ testimony to John’s identity 7:24-28 (cf. Matthew 11:7-11)
Evidently Jesus spoke these words praising John because John’s question about Jesus’ identity made John look like a vacillator, a reed blowing in the wind. Jesus assured his hearers that that was not what John was. John’s testimony to Jesus’ messiahship was reliable.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
John was not reed-like nor was he soft or effeminate. John did not serve an earthly king but the heavenly King, and his clothing identified him as a prophet of God. Jesus said that John was a prophet but more than a prophet.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 15
THE KINGDOM OF GOD.
IN considering the words of Jesus, if we may not be able to measure their depth or to scale their height, we can with absolute certainty discover their drift, and see in what direction they move, and we shall find that their orbit is an ellipse. Moving around the two centers, sin and salvation, they describe what is not a geometric figure, but a glorious reality, “the kingdom of God.” It is not unlikely that the expression was one of the current phrases of the times, a golden casket, holding within it the dream of a restored Hebraism; for we find, without any collusion or rehearsal of parts, the Baptist making use of the identical words in his inaugural address, while it is certain the disciples themselves so misunderstood the thought of their Master as to refer His “kingdom” to that narrow realm of Hebrew sympathies and hopes. Nor did they see their error until, in the light of Pentecostal flames, their own dream disappeared and the new kingdom, opening out like a receding sky, embraced a world within its folds. That Jesus adopted the phrase, liable to misconstruction as it was, and that He used it so repeatedly, making it the center of so many parables and discourses, shows how completely the kingdom of God possessed both His mind and heart. Indeed, so accustomed were His thoughts and words to flow in this direction that even the Valley of Death, “lying darkly between” His two lives, could not alter their course, or turn His thoughts out of their familiar channel; and as we find the Christ back of the cross and tomb, amid the resurrection glories, we hear Him speaking still of “the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”
It will be observed that Jesus uses the two expressions “the kingdom of God” and “the kingdom of heaven” interchangeably. But in what sense is it the “kingdom of heaven?” Does it mean that the celestial realm will so far extend its bounds as to embrace our outlying and low-lying world? Not exactly, for the conditions of the two realms are so diverse. The one is the perfected, the visible kingdom, where the throne is set, and the King Himself is manifest, its citizens, angels, heavenly intelligences, and saints now freed from the cumbering clay of mortality, and forever safe from the solicitations of evil. This New Jerusalem does not come down to earth, except in the vision of the seer, as it were in a shadow. And yet the two kingdoms are in close correspondence, after all; for what is the kingdom of God in heaven but His eternal rule over the spirits of the redeemed and of the unredeemed? What are the harmonies of heaven but the harmonies of surrendered wills, as, without any hesitation or discord, they strike in with the Divine Will in absolute precision? To this extent, then, at least, heaven may project itself upon earth; the spirits of men not yet made perfect may be in subjection to the Supreme Spirit; the separate wills of a redeemed humanity, striking in with the Divine Will, may swell the heavenly harmonies with their earthly music.
And so Jesus speaks of this kingdom as being “within you.” As if He said, “You are looking in the wrong direction. You expect the kingdom of God to be set up around you, with its visible symbols of flags and coins, on which is the image of some new Caesar. You are mistaken. The kingdom, like its King, is unseen; it seeks, not countries, but consciences; its realm is in the heart, in the great interior of the soul.” And is not this the reason why it is called, with such emphatic repetition, “the kingdom,” as if it were, if not the only, at any rate the highest kingdom of God on earth? We speak of a kingdom of Nature, and who will know its secrets as He who was both Natures child and Natures Lord? And how far-reaching a realm is that! From the motes that swim in the air to the most distant stars, which themselves are but the gateway to the unseen Beyond! What forces are here, forces of chemical affinities and repulsions, of gravitation and of life! What successions and transformations can Nature show! What infinite varieties of substance, form, and color! What a realm of harmony and peace, with no irruptions of discordant elements! Surely one would think, if God has a kingdom upon earth, this kingdom of Nature is it. But no; Jesus does not often refer to that, except as He makes Nature speak in His parables, or as He uses the sparrows, the grass, and the lilies as so many lenses through which our weak human vision may see God. The kingdom of God on earth is as much higher than the kingdom of Nature as spirit is above matter, as love is more and greater than power.
We said just now how completely the thought of “the kingdom” possessed the mind and heart of Jesus. We might go one step farther, and say how completely Jesus identified Himself with that kingdom. He puts Himself in its pivotal center, with all possible naturalness, and with an ease that assumption cannot feign He gathers up its royalties and draws them around His own Person. He speaks of it as “My kingdom”; and this, not alone in familiar discourse with His disciples, but when face to face with the representative of earths greatest power. Nor is the personal pronoun some chance word, used in a far-off, accommodated sense; it is the crucial word of the sentence, underscored and emphasized by a threefold repetition; it is the word He will not strike out, nor recall, even to save Himself from the Cross. He never speaks of the kingdom but even His enemies acknowledge the “authority” that rings in His tones, the authority of conscious power, as well as of perfect knowledge. When His ministry is drawing to a close He says to Peter, “I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven”; which language may be understood as the official designation of the Apostle Peter to a position of pre-eminence in the Church, as its first leader. But whatever it may mean, it shows that the keys of the kingdom are His; He can bestow them on whom He will. The kingdom of heaven is not a realm in which authority and honors move upwards from below, the blossoming of “the peoples will”; it is an absolute monarchy, an autocracy, and Jesus Himself is here King supreme, His will swaying the lesser wills of men, and rearranging their positions, as the angel had foretold: “He shall reign over the house of David for ever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end.” Given Him of the Father it is, {Luk 22:29, Luk 1:32} but the kingdom is His, not either as a metaphor, but really, absolutely, inalienably; nor is there admittance within that kingdom but by Him who is the Way, as He is the Life. We enter into the kingdom, or the kingdom enters into us, as we find, and then crown the King, as we sanctify in our hearts Christ as 1Pe 3:15.
This brings us to the question of citizenship, the conditions and demands of the kingdom; and here we see how far this new dynasty is removed from the kingdoms of this world. They deal with mankind in groups; they look at birth, not character; and their bounds are well defined by rivers, mountains, seas, or by accurately surveyed lines. The kingdom of heaven, on the other hand, dispenses with all space-limits, all physical configurations, and regards mankind as one group, a unity, a lapsed but a redeemed world. But while opening its gates and offering its privileges to all alike, irrespective of class or circumstance, it is most eclective in its requirements, and most rigid in the application of its test, its one test of character. Indeed, the laws of the heavenly kingdom are a complete reversal of the lines of worldly policy. Take, for instance, the two estimates of wealth, and see how different the position it occupies in the two societies. The world makes wealth its summum bonum; or if not exactly in itself the highest good, in commercial values it is equivalent to the highest good, which is position. Gold is all-powerful, the goal of mans vain ambitions, the panacea of earthly ill. Men chase it in hot, feverish haste, trampling upon each other in the mad scramble, and worshipping it in a blind idolatry. But where is wealth in the new kingdom? The worlds first becomes the last. It has no purchasing-power here; its golden key cannot open the least of these heavenly gates. Jesus sets it back, far back, in His estimate of the good. He speaks of it as if it were an encumbrance, a dead weight, that must be lifted, and that handicaps the heavenly athlete. “How hardly,” said Jesus, when the rich ruler turned away “very sorrowful,” “shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God”; {Luk 18:24} and then, by way of illustration, He shows us the picture of the camel passing through the so-called “needles eye” of an Eastern door. He does not say that such a thing is impossible, for the camel could pass through the “needles eye,” but it must first kneel down and be stripped of all its baggage, before it can pass the narrow door, within the larger, but now closed gate. Wealth may have its uses, and noble uses too, within the kingdom-for it is somewhat remarkable how the faith of the two rich disciples shone out the brightest, when the faith of the rest suffered a temporary eclipse from the passing cross-but he who possesses it must be as if he possessed it not. He must not regard it as his own, but as talents given him in trust by his Lord, their image and superscription being that of the Invisible King.
Again, Jesus sets down vacillation, hesitancy, as a disqualification for citizenship in His kingdom. At the close of His Galilean ministry our Evangelist introduces us to a group of embryo disciples. The first of the three says, “Lord, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest”. {Luk 9:57} Bold words they were, and doubtless well meant, but it was the language of a passing impulse, rather than of a settled conviction; it was the coruscation of a glowing, ardent temperament. He had not counted the cost. The large word “whithersoever” might, indeed, easily be spoken, but it held within it a Gethsemane and a Calvary, paths of sorrow, shame, and death he was not prepared to face. And so Jesus neither welcomed nor dismissed him, but opening out one part of his “whithersoever,” He gave it back to him in the words, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.” The second responds to the “Follow Me” of Christ with the request that he might be allowed first to go and bury his father. It was a most natural request, but participation in these funeral rites would entail a. ceremonial uncleanness of seven days, by which time Jesus would be far away. Besides, Jesus must teach him, and the ages after him, that His claims were paramount; that when He commands obedience must be instant and absolute, with no interventions, no postponement. Jesus replies to him in that enigmatical way of His, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead: but go thou and publish abroad the kingdom of God”; indicating that this supreme crisis of his life is virtually a passing from death to life, a “resurrection from earth to things above.” The last in this group of three volunteers his pledge, “I will follow Thee, Lord; but first suffer me to bid farewell to them that are at my house”; {Luk 9:61} but to him Jesus replies, mournfully and sorrowfully, “No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God”. {Luk 9:62} Why does Jesus treat these two candidates so differently? They both say, “I will follow Thee,” the one in word, the other by implication; they both request a little time for what they regard a filial duty; why, then, be treated so differently, the one thrust forward to a still higher service, commissioned to preach the kingdom, and afterwards, if we may accept the tradition that he was Philip the Evangelist, passing up into the diaconate; the other, unwelcomed and uncommissioned, but disapproved as “not fit for the kingdom?” Why there should be this wide divergence between the two lives we cannot see, either from their manner or their words. It must have been a difference in the moral attitude of the two men, and which He who heard thoughts and read motives detected at once. In the case of the former there was the fixed, determined resolve, which the bier of the dead father might hold back a little, but which it could not break or bend. But Jesus saw in the other a double-minded soul, whose feet and heart moved in diverse, opposite ways, who gave, not his whole, but a very partial, self to his work; and this halting, wavering one He dismissed with the words of forecasted doom, “Not fit for the kingdom of God.”
It is a hard saying, with a seeming severity about it; but is it not a truth universal and eternal? Are any kingdoms, either of knowledge or power, won and held by the irresolute and wavering? Like the stricken men of Sodom, they weary themselves to find the door of the kingdom; or if they do see the Beautiful Gates of a better life, they sit with the lame man, outside, or they linger on the steps, hearing the music indeed, but hearing it from afar. It is a truth of both dispensations, written in all the books; the Reubens who are “unstable as water” can never excel; the elder born, in the accident of years, they may be, but the birthright passes by them, to be inherited and enjoyed by others.
But if the gates of the kingdom are irrevocably closed against the halfhearted, the self-indulgent, and the proud, there is a sesame to which they open gladly. “Blessed are ye poor,” so reads the first and great Beatitude: “for yours is the kingdom of God”; {Luk 6:20} and beginning with this present realization, Jesus goes on to speak of the strange contrasts and inversions the perfected kingdom will show, when the weepers will laugh, the hungry be full, and those who are despised and persecuted will rejoice in their exceeding great reward. But who are the “poor” to whom the gates of the kingdom are open so soon and so wide? At first sight it would appear as if we must give a literal interpretation to the word, reading it in a worldly, temporal sense; but this is not necessary. Jesus was now directly addressing His disciples, {Luk 6:20} though, doubtless, His words were intended to pass beyond them, to those ever-enlarging circles of humanity who in the after-years should press forward to hear Him. But evidently the disciples were in no weeping mood today; they would be elated and joyful over the recent miracles. Neither should we call them “poor,” in the worldly sense of that word, for most of them had been called from honorable positions in society, while some had even “hired servants” to wait upon them and assist them. Indeed, it was not the wont of Jesus to recognize the class distinctions Society was so fond of drawing and defining. He appraised men, not by their means, but by the manhood which was in them; and when He found a nobility of soul-whether in the higher or the lower walks of life it made no difference who stepped forward to recognize and to salute it. We must therefore give to these words of Jesus, as to so many others, the deeper meaning, making the “blessed” of this Beatitude, who are now welcomed to the opened gate of the kingdom, the “poor in spirit,” as, indeed, St. Matthew writes it.
What this spirit-poverty is, Jesus Himself explains, in a brief but wonderfully realistic parable. He draws for us the picture of two men at their Temple devotions. The one, a Pharisee, stands erect, with head uplifted, as if it were quite on a level with the heaven he was addressing, and with supercilious pride he counts his beads of rounded egotisms. He calls it a worship of God, when it is but a worship of self. He inflates the great “I,” and then plays upon it, making it strike sharp and loud, like the tom-tom of a heathen fetish. Such is the man who fancies that he is rich toward God, that he has need of nothing, not even of mercy, when all the time he is utterly blind and miserably poor. The other is a publican, and so presumably rich. But how different his posture! With heart broken and contrite, self with him is a nothing, a zero; nay, in his lowly estimate it had become a minus quantity, less than nothing, deserving only rebuke and chastisement. Disclaiming any good, either inherent or acquired, he puts the deep need and hunger of his soul into one broken cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner”. {Luk 18:13} Such are the two characters Jesus portrays as standing by the gate of the kingdom, the one proud in spirit, the other “poor in spirit”; the one throwing upon the heavens the shadow of his magnified self, the other shrinking up into the pauper, the nothing that he was. But Jesus tells us that he was “justified,” accepted, rather than the other. With nought he could call his own, save his deep need and his great sin, he finds an opened gate and a welcome within the kingdom; while the proud spirit is sent empty away, or carrying back only the tithed mint and anise, and all the vain oblations Heaven could not accept.
“Blessed” indeed are such “poor”; for He giveth grace unto the lowly, while the proud He knoweth afar off. The humble, the meek, these shall inherit the earth, aye, and the heavens too, and they shall know how true is the paradox, having nothing, yet possessing all things. The fruit of the tree of life hangs low, and he must stoop who would gather it. He who would enter Gods kingdom must first become “as a little child,” knowing nothing as yet, but longing to know even the mysteries of the kingdom, and having nothing but the plea of a great mercy and a great need. And are they not “blessed” who are citizens of the kingdom-with righteousness, peace, and joy all their own, a peace which is perfect and Divine, and a joy which no man taketh from them? Are they not blessed, thrice blessed, when the bright shadow of the Throne covers all their earthly life, making its dark places light, and weaving rainbows out of their very tears? He who through the strait gate of repentance passes within the kingdom finds it “the kingdom of heaven” indeed, his earthly years the beginnings of the heavenly life.
And now we touch a point Jesus ever loved to illustrate and emphasize, the manner of the kingdoms growth, as with ever-widening frontiers it sweeps outward in its conquest of a world. It was a beautiful dream of Hebrew prophecy that in the latter days the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of the Messiah, should overlap the bounds of human empires, and ultimately cover the whole earth. Looking through her kaleidoscope of ever-shifting but harmonious figures, Prophecy was never weary of telling of the Golden Age she saw in the far future, when the shadows would lift, and a new Dawn, breaking out of Jerusalem, would steal over the world. Even the Gentiles should be drawn to its light, and kings to the brightness of its rising; the seas should offer their abundance as a willing tribute, and the isles should wait for and welcome its laws. Taking up into itself the petty strifes and jealousies of men, the discords of earth should cease; humanity should again become a Unit, restored and regenerate fellow-citizens of the new kingdom, the kingdom which should have no end, no boundaries either of space or time.
Such was the dream of Prophecy, the kingdom Jesus sets Himself to found and realize upon earth. But how? Disclaiming any rivalry with Pilate, or with his imperial master, Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world,” so lifting it altogether out of the mould in which earthly dynasties are cast. “This world” uses force; its kingdoms are won and held by metallic processes, tinctures of iron and steel. In the kingdom of God carnal weapons are out of place; its only forces are truth and love, and he who takes the sword to advance this cause wounds but himself, after the vain manner of Baals priests. “This world” counts heads or hands; the kingdom of God numbers its citizens by hearts alone. “This world” believes in pomp and show, in outward visibilities and symbols; the kingdom of God cometh not “with observation”; its voices are gentle as a zephyr, its footsteps noiseless as the coming of spring. If man had had the ordering of the kingdom he would have summoned to his aid all kinds of portents and surprises: he would have arranged processions of imposing events; but Jesus likens the coming of the kingdom to a grain of mustard cast into a garden, or to a handful of leaven hid in three sata of meal. The two parables, with minor distinctions, are one in their import, the leading thought common to both being the contrast between its ultimate growth and the smallness and obscurity of its beginnings. In both the recreative force is a hidden force, buried out of sight, in the soil or in the meal. In both the force works outward from its center, the invisible becoming visible, the inner life assuming an outer, external form. In both we see the touch of life upon death; for left to itself the soil never would be anything more than dead earth, as the meal would be nothing more than dust, the broken ashes of a life that was departed. In both there is extension by assimilation, the leaven throwing itself out among the particles of kindred meal, while the tree attracts to itself the kindred elements of the soil. In both there is the mediation of the human hand; but as if to show that the kingdom offers equal privilege to male and female, with like possibilities of service, the one parable shows us the hand of a man, the other the hand of a woman. In both there is a consummation, the one par perfect work, an able showing us the whole mass leavened, the other showing us the wide-spreading tree, with the birds nesting in its branches.
Such, in outline, is the rise and progress of the kingdom of God in the heart of the individual man, and in the world; for the human soul is the protoplasm, the germ-cell, out of which this world-wide kingdom is evolved. The mass is leavened only by the leavening of the separate units. And how comes the kingdom of God within the soul and life of man? Not with observation or supernatural portents, but silently as the flashing forth of light. Thought, desire, purpose, prayer-these are the wheels of the chariot in which the Lord comes to His temple, the King into His kingdom And when the kingdom of God is set up within you the outer life shapes itself to the new purpose and aim, the writ and will of the King running unhindered through every department, even to its outmost frontier, while thoughts, feelings, desires, and all the golden coinage of the hear bear, not, as before, the image of Self, but the image and superscription of the Invisible King-the “Not I, but Christ.”
And so the honor of the kingdom is in our keeping, as the growths of the kingdom are in our hands. The Divine Cloud adjusts its pace to our human steps, alas often far too slow! Shall the leaven stop with us, as we make religion a kind of sanctified selfishness, doing nothing but gauging the emotions and staging its little doxologies? Do we forget that the weak human hand carries the Ark of God, and pushes forward the boundaries of the kingdom? Do, we forget that hearts are only won by hearts? The kingdom of God on earth is the kingdom of surrendered wills and of consecrated lives. Shall we not, then, pray, “thy kingdom come,” and living “more nearly as we pray,” seek a redeemed humanity as subjects of our King? So will the Divine purpose become a realization, and the “morning” which now is always “somewhere in the world” will be everywhere, the promise and the dawn of a heavenly day, the eternal Sabbath!