Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 11:27
And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed [is] the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.
27-32. The Womanly Exclamation. The Peril of Privileges abused.
27. Blessed is the womb that bare thee ] See Luk 1:28; Luk 1:48. “How many women have blessed the Holy Virgin, and desired to be such a mother as she was! What hinders them? Christ has made for us a wide way to this happiness, and not only women, but men may tread it the way of obedience; this it is which makes such a mother, and not the throes of parturition.” St Chrysostom. It is a curious undesigned coincidence that (as we see from Mat 12:46) the Virgin had just arrived upon the scene.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
A certain woman – One of the crowd.
Blessed is the womb … – She thought that the mother of such a person must be especially happy in having such a son.
Yea, rather blessed … – Jesus admits that she was happy – that it was an honor to be his mother, but he says that the chief happiness, the highest honor, was to obey the word of God. Compared with this, all earthly distinctions and honors are as nothing. Mans greatest dignity is in keeping the holy commandments of God, and in being prepared for heaven. See the notes at Luk 10:20.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Luk 11:27-28
Blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it
Blessedness from the Divine point of view
I.
THE WOMANS EXCLAMATION.
1. Implying, in an indirect yet very strong manner, the blessedness of our Lord Himself; the idea being that from Him a blessedness was reflected on His mother. In this there is nothing but what is altogether commendable and deserving of imitation.
2. The exclamation was directly and chiefly intended to proclaim the blessedness of our Lords mother. Neither is it, in this sense, to be condemned. Jesus Himself does net deny, and we ought not to question its truth. The happiness of parents is very much involved in the conduct and history of their children. The relation is most intimate and most tender. Their offspring are so closely entwined round their heart, as to occasion them, either most acute anguish, or most exquisite pleasure. But, if it is thus a general truth that parents are happy in the happiness of their children, how great must have been the happiness of such a woman as the
Virgin Mary, in having such a son as Jesus Christ! Vast indeed were the blessing and honour which were hers! And, as Mary was blessed in bringing forth such a son at first, so she was blessed in His future character and exploits. She was blessed in His dutiful conduct as a son: for He went down to Nazareth, and was subject unto His parents. She was blessed in the progressive improvement of His human nature, for, Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. She was blessed in the whole tenor of His holy life, as He was perfectly free from all taint of sin, and exhibited a pattern of every grace. She was blessed in hearing many of His delightful discourses, as she frequently attended His ministrations, and formed one of the many hearers who bore Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. She was blessed in seeing many of the wonderful works which He performed: for on many other occasions of this kind it might have been said, as it was said on that at Cana in Galilee, that the mother of Jesus was them. She was blessed in His glorious resurrection and ascension, when He rose a conqueror over death and hell, and when He was taken up into heaven, and sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, to wait till all His enemies be made His footstool. There she still continues to be blessed in contemplating His blessedness, and in hearing the blessings which are multiplied on His name.
II. OUR LORDS AMENDMENT ON THE WOMANS EXCLAMATION, He does not contradict what the pious woman had said. He only modifies and explains it, and makes an addition to it. Now, His amendment on the womans words teaches us–
1. That the happiness of Mary herself consisted rather in her being a believer in Christ, than in her being the mother of Christ.
2. That all true believers, as such, are more blessed than Christs mother, as such. Was she honoured in her maternal relation to Him?–they are all connected with Him by a still closer relation, even by that union in consequence of which He and they are said to be one. They are blessed with light, pardon, sanctification, comfort, and every present privilege; and all these are sure pledges of the everlasting blessedness of heaven. There is still another idea included in this amendment of our Lords; for, in its most extended meaning, it states a comparison, not only between the advantage of true religion, and that of having been the mother of Jesus, but also between the advantage of true religion and all other advantages whatever. We are here taught, then–
3. That those who are believers, are more blessed on that account than on any other. Are you rich? or, at least, in easy circumstances?–then it is true that you may be, in some degree, happy in freedom from anxiety about your temporal wants, and in the moderate enjoyment of earthly good: but what are such possessions in comparison of your spiritual treasures, the unsearchable riches of Christ? All things are yours. Other possessions are uncertain and temporary: but yours are the better, the durable riches; yours is the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away. Are you learned in human knowledge?–so far well, for therein you may find much rational enjoyment. But rather blessed are you because you are taught of God in the wisdom which is from above, and instructed to know the Holy Scriptures, which have proved sufficient to make you wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. (James Foote, M. A.)
Believers as blessed as the Blessed Virgin
I. A BLESSEDNESS WHICH IS NOT TO BE DENIED. The Virgin Mother was blessed among women. To God alone we must render worship; but the memory of this saintly woman is to be revered. The angel made no mistake when he said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured: blessed art thou among women. Nor was she in error when she said, From henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. We call her blessed most heartily, for so she was.
1. The blessing which she received had been the desire of ages.
2. When at last the boon was bestowed upon the humble virgin of Nazareth, who was of the house of David, it came as a great favour. We must not, then, treat it as a light thing. The Saviours yea was emphatic when the woman spake of His mother as highly blessed.
3. She herself received this honour as a great blessing. It was no vain thing to her to have charge of the infancy of our Lord. She felt it to be great blessedness to be placed in such a relation to the holy child Jesus.
4. She was, she must have been, Messed among women, and this woman who spake of her as such made no mistake; for think what blessings have come to all the world through the Virgins wondrous child. In Him shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. If all generations call Mary blessed, it is only because she brought into the world one who is a blessing to us all. And it was, it must have been, a great blessedness to Marys heart to think that that holy thing which was born of her was the channel of such blessedness to all mankind.
5. I must, however, remind you that whatever the blessedness which this holy woman derived from being the mother of our Saviours humanity, she needed it all, for she was called to a great fight of affliction because of it.
II. That brings us to our second head: To hear the Word of God and keep it is A BLESSING PREFERABLE to having been the mother of our Lord.
1. We are sure of this, because in the weighing of the blessings the blessed Master of Beatitudes holds the balances. Jesus Himself adjusts the scales of blessedness. He who began His ministry with the word Blessed, so often repeated, knows best which blessing is the best.
2. Happily this preference so truly given by the Master puts the highest blessedness within the reach of all of us who are here this morning. We are at this moment in a position to hear the Word of God, and keep it. If grace be given, there are only these two steps to blessedness.
3. I now ask you to notice that this preferable blessing is found in a very simple manner. Blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it. The process is stripped of all ambiguity or mystery; there is nothing about it that is hard or difficult: Hear the word, and keep it–that is all.
III. So now we close by considering this as A BLESSEDNESS TO BE AT ONCE ENJOYED. I breathe to heaven this earnest prayer, that we may now enter into this blessedness. Let us see if we cannot sit still in our seats for a while, and drink in this wine on the lees well refined.
1. This blessedness belongs to the present. Blessed are they that are hearing the Word of God, and keeping it. It is not a remote, but an immediate blessedness. While you are hearing and keeping Gods Word you are then blessed. The blessedness is for this world, and for you. But I am so cast down. Yes, but you are blessedl! Alas! I bear such a burden of afflictions. Yes, but you are blessed. Alas! I have not known a good time of late. No, but you are blessed! Your blessedness does not depend upon your fancies and feelings. If you hear the Word of God, and keep it, you are at this moment blessed. Faith finds a present blessedness in the Word of God, which she hears and keeps.
2. This blessedness lies, in a great measure, in the very act of hearing and keeping Gods Word.
3. This blessing is not dependent upon outward circumstances. If you hear Gods Wind, and keep it, you may be very ill, and yet in spirit you will be well; you may be very feeble, and yet in spirit you will be strong; you may be dying, and yet you shall not die, for he that heareth the Word of God shall never see death. In hearkening to the Lord you have reached a region from which you look down upon the dust and smoke of time and sense. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Blessedness
I. THE WOMANS EXCLAMATION. We may notice the cause of her exclamation, the speaking of Jesus. His word, though powerful, is not a hurricane, but harmony.
II. ON WHAT HER ADMIRATION TURNED–Jesus. The cold-hearted Pharisee might have felt disposed to exclaim, What irregularity! What a breach of order! Jesus, however, was in no danger of being disconcerted in His discourse from any casual interruption, but was at all times fully at liberty to take advantage of every passing event.
III. OUR LORDS REPLY. Rather blessed are they that hear the Word, etc. This reply naturally includes these particulars–
1. His admission of the truth she declared.
2. His assertion–Blessed are they that hear the Word, and keep it.
3. The description–They that keep it. Unfortunately, many content themselves with hearing (Eze_30:30; Eze_30:32).
I conclude–
1. To hear the Word of God is not to keep it. Many seem to believe religion consists in hearing.
2. Hearing is only instrumental to salvation.
3. The promise is not made to hearing, but to doing. Hear, and your souls live. Be not a hearer, but a doer, otherwise–
4. The blessing will prove a curse. (W. Jay.)
The blessing of those who hear and keep the Word of God
I. THE NECESSITY OF KNOWING THE WORD OF GOD. One great cause to which our falling so frequently into sin may be ascribed is, a want of attention to the duties incumbent upon us. Now it is evident that if we were to make it our daily practice to meditate upon the Word of God, we should have our duty continually before us. We should have the promises and the threatenings of the Almighty ever before our eyes: this would necessarily produce such an impression upon our hearts, as to make us fear and dread all iniquity, and to turn from the sins to which we are naturally inclined, and most strongly addicted.
II. How THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORD OF GOD, so necessary to our salvation, IS TO BE ACQUIRED. The two chief means for the attainment of Divine knowledge are the reading of Gods holy Word, and the hearing of it preached. The sacred Scriptures are the great means of converting sinners, and of building up saints in their holy faith. History is full of conversions which the reading and hearing of Gods Word have occasioned. That eminent father of the Church, Augustine, tells us that he owed his conversion to the reading of St. Pauls Epistle to the Rom 13:11. Others have been converted from the hearing and the reading ofthese words: Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In the beginning was the word. Another in reading the Acts of the Apostles; and another from these words of St. Paul to Timothy: This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. If such be their mighty and magnificent effects, how necessary to be known, and studied, and understood of men! Every part of Scripture, as being of Divine inspiration, ought to be thoroughly studied, and inwardly digested; though, doubtless, there are some books and chapters which claim our meditations, and require our studious perusal, more than others. And then, in order that we may reap real benefit and advantage from the perusal of the sacred Oracles, it is necessary that, like the Ethiopian eunuch, we should read them with care and application, as containing the true knowledge of salvation.
III. THAT THE READING AND HEARING OF THE WORD OF GOD ARE NOT SUFFICIENT FOR SALVATION, UNLESS IT BE REDUCED TO PRACTICE, is evident from these words of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Mat 7:24).
IV. THE BLESSEDNESS AND HAPPINESS WHICH ATTEND THOSE WHO HEAR THE WORD OF GOD AND KEEP IT. The blessedness of a true believer–of a faithful servant of Christ, is even greater than that of the mother of the Saviour. How noble–how glorious a privilege is this! In hearing and meditating upon the Word of God, believers experience a pleasure and a satisfaction of which the men of the world can form no estimate, and entertain no idea whatsoever. (J. Rudge, D. D.)
The blessedness of obedience
I. GOD INTENDS HIS WORD TO BLESS MAN. It is sent for this purpose. Truth is Gods greatest boon to man.
II. IF THIS BE SO, THEN THE BLESSING COMES OBVIOUSLY ENOUGH BY HEARING. The most natural way of conveying the truth is by speech. It is the earliest, the readiest, perhaps it shall be the latest. In many senses it will ever be the best. In simple, earnest speech you get all the requisites, truth itself in its appositeness, punctuation, emphasis, and, above all, the living soul transmitted by the living voice.
III. EVEN WHEN THE WORD IS PURE, AND THE PREACHER A TRUE MAN, PREACHER AND TRUTH ARE NOT ENOUGH. TO HAVE THE BLESSING THERE MUST BE THE INWARD HEARING AS WELL AS THE OUTWARD. Nothing will serve but the actual contact of truth with the spiritual intelligence, the cordial reception of the quickening Word, and its verification in the stillness of the souls depths. The Spirit quickeneth the Word by quickening the man, and, again, the man by the Word. Christs words let in the Spirit to listening hearts, for they were spirit and life.
IV. THE TRUTH MUST BE KEPT IN ORDER TO THE BLESSING. It must be kept, first, by spiritual means–by prayer, meditation, and constant endeavour of the soul to blend and assimilate the truth with itself, till they become, as it were, one. But nothing gives the truth a greater fixity in our nature and makes it ours so truly as embodying it in act and deed. It is at hand, it must be grasped; floating as sentiment and feeling, it must be secured, organized, converted into facts, and so into history. Truth is intended to be practised–it cannot otherwise pass into life.
1. When the heart has learned to endorse the truth, the outward doing is most natural and easy.
2. The nature that keeps the Word is blessed by being itself ennobled. As we learn to live by truth and for truth, we have sympathy with God.
3. And the blessing power of the truth thus heard and thus cherished is continuous.
V. BUT WHAT ABOUT HEARING AND NOT KEEPING? One cannot conceive of anything sadder. For hearing prepares a man for a higher test. We go to be examined in our own class, and thence depart to our own place. And the most tragic of all earths other tragedies appear to me necessarily to fall far short of this spiritual one. To have looked into the highest, and sunk to the lowest, to have had the noblest issues in our grasp, and to have preferred these miserable husks of self-indulgence and self-contentment! (T. Islip.)
A certain womans commendation of Christ
These be the parts of my text; and of these in order.
I. Blessed is the womb that bare thee, &c., saith the woman.
1. And that which occasioned and moved her thus to lift up her voice was the power of Christs works and words. Be not deceived–every good lesson should be unto you as a miracle to move you to give sentence for Christ against the Pharisees and all the enemies He hath; against the pride that despiseth Him, the luxury that defileth Him, the disobedience that trampleth Him under foot. Every good motion (for therein Christ speaketh to us) should beget a resolution; every resolution, a good work; every good work, a love of goodness; and the love of goodness should root and stablish and build us in the faith.
2. And so I pass from the motive and occasion to the person, who from what she saw and heard gave this free attestation. Truth doth not fail, though a Pharisee oppose it, but is of strength sufficient to make the weakest of its champions conqueror. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (1Co 1:25). Neither number nor sex hath so much power upon truth as to alter its complexion. And as it was no prejudice to the truth that she was but one, no more was it that she was a woman. For why might not a woman, whose eye was clear and single, see more in Christ than the proudest Pharisee who wore his phylactery the broadest? All is, not in the miracle, but in the eye, in the mind, which, being goggle or mis-set, or dimmed with malice or prejudice, be-holdeth not things as they are, but, through false mediums, putteth upon them what shape it pleaseth, receiveth not the true and natural species they present, but vieweth them at home in itself as in a false glass, which returneth back by a deceitful reflection. And this is the reason why not only miracles, but doctrinal precepts also, find so different entertainment. Every man layeth hold on them and wresteth them to his own purpose, worketh them on his own anvil, and shapeth them to his own fancy and affections; as out of the same mass Phidias could make a goddess, and Lysippus a satyr. Prejudice will make a man persuade himself that is false which he cannot but know is most true. That which to a clear eye is a gross sin, and appeareth horror, to a corrupted mind may be as the beauty of holiness. The Pharisees saw it and the woman saw it: the one saw nothing but that which could not be seen, one devil casting out another; the other saw the finger and mighty power of God, and when she saw it, she lifted up her voice, and said unto Him, Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the paps that Thou hast sucked.
3. And so we descend to that which we proposed in the third place, the vehemency and heat of her affection, which could not contain itself in her heart, but brake forth at her mouth. And hereto we shall consider–
(1) That she spake.
(2) What she spake. She lifted up her voice, and said unto Him, Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the paps which Thou has sucked.
(a) Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh, saith our Saviour (Mat 12:34). It evaporateth itself into the outward habit, breaks forth into voice, opens her shop and wares, that she may behold her own provision and riches abroad. The love of the truth tuneth the heart, and the heart the tongue. And this is the advantage that love hath of knowledge. Knowledge may be idle and unactive, but love is a restless thing, and will call up and employ every part of the body and every faculty of the soul to compass its end. Love is active, and will pace it on where knowledge doth but stand and gaze. Knowledge doth not always command our tongue; nay, many times we speak and act against our knowledge; but who speaks against that which he doth love?
(b) Now, in the next place, what was it that begat her love but the admiration of Christs person, His power, and His wisdom? She had heard of Moses and his miracles; but beholds a greater than Moses here. Application–
1. And, first, let us learn from this woman here to have Christs wonderful works in remembrance, to look upon them with a steadfast and a fixed eye, that they may appear unto us in their full glory, and fill us with admiration. For admiration is a kind of voice of the soul. Behold, these are the wonderful things of Christ–to unite God and man, to tie them together by a new covenant, to raise dust and ashes to heaven: this is a great miracle indeed!
2. By her lifting up her voice, and blessing the womb that bare Christ, which was a kind of adoration (for admiration had not so shut up her devotion and love but that it was vocal and reverent), we are taught to magnify our Saviour with the tongue, and hand, and knee, and every member we have, as David speaketh. But I do but beat the air, and labour in vain. For now it is religion not to express it; and he is most devout who doth least show it. O when will this dumb devil be cast out? A strange thing it is that everything else, even our vices, should be loud and vocal, and religion should be the only thing that should want a tongue I that devotion should lie hid, and lurk and withdraw itself into the inward man!
3. Last of all: This womans voice is yet lifted up, and calls upon us to lift up ours, even before the Pharisees. If our fear were not greater than our love, amongst these we should lift up our voice like a trumpet, and put these monsters to shame, strike off their visor with noise, and bring in truth to tear off the veil of their hypocrisy. For, what I shall we not lift up our voice for truth but when she hath most voices on her side? Must truth be never published but in the times of peace? or must a song of praise be never chanted out but in a choir of angels? A Pharisee before us is a temptation, difficulty and danger are nothing else but a temptation, which is therefore laid in our way, to try if anything can sever us from the love of Christ and His truth. If we start back in silence, we have betrayed the truth to our fears, and left it to be trodden under foot by a Pharisee. He that can trifle with his God will at last blaspheme Him to His face. We have already handled the circumstantial parts of the text; we are now to treat of the substantial–the womans speech and our Saviours.
4. We begin with the womans, Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, etc. And that the mother of Christ was blessed we need not doubt. For we have not only the voice of this woman to prove it, but the voice of an angel, Blessed art thou among women. All generations shall call her blessed Luk 1:48).
(1) Blessed, as the occasion of so much good. For when we see a clear and silver stream, we bless the fountain; and, for the glory and quickening power of the beams, some have made a god of the sun. Whatsoever presents itself unto us in beauty or excellency, doth not only take and delight us, but, in the midst of wonder, forceth our thoughts to look back to the coasts from whence it came.
(2) Again: if it be a kind of curse to beget a wicked son, or, as Solomon did, the foolishness of the people (Sir 47:23). The historian observes that many famous men amongst the Romans either died childless, or left such children behind them that it had been better their name had quite been blotted out, and they had left no posterity. And speaking of Tully, who had a drunken and a sottish son, he adds, It had been better for him to have had no child at all, than such an one.
II. We come, next, to our Saviours gentle corrective, Yea rather. And this Yea rather comes in seasonably. For the eye is ready to be dazzled with a lesser good, if it be not diverted to a greater; as he will wonder at a star that never saw the sun. We stay many times and dwell with delight upon those truths which are of lesser alloy, and make not any approach towards that which is saving and necessary.
1. The philosopher will tell us that he that will compare two things together, must know them both. What a brightness hath honour to blind him that hath not tasted of the favour of God! What a paradise is carnal pleasure to him that a good conscience never feasted! What a substance is a ceremony to him that makes the precepts of the law but shadows! Therefore it is the method of wisdom itself to present them both unto us in their just and proper weight; not to deny what is true, but to take off our thoughts, and direct them to something better; that we may not dote so long on the one as to neglect and cast off the other. In my text the woman had discovered Christs excellency; and Christ discovers to her His will, His Fathers will, the doing of which will will unite her unto Him whom she thus admired, and make her one with Him, as He and His Father is one. Blessed parents! yea, rather, Blessed thou, if thou hear My word and keep it. This is a timely grace, to lead her yet nearer to the kingdom of heaven; the lifting up of her voice was too weak to lift up those everlasting gates. This was a seasonable–reprehension shall I call it, or direction?
2. And now if we look into the Church, we shall find that most men stand in need of a Yea rather; who will magnify Christ and His mother too, but not do His will; will do what they ought to do, but leave that undone for which that which they do was ordained. Blessed sacrament of the Lords supper! It is true; but, Yea rather, Blessed are they that dwell in Christ. Blessed profession of Christianity! Yea rather, Blessed are they that are Christs. Blessed cross! The fathers call it so. Yea rather, Blessed are they that have crucified their flesh with the affections and lusts. Blessed church! Yea rather, Blessed are they who are members of Christ. Blessed Reformation! Yea rather, Blessed are they that reform themselves.
3. This resolve of wisdom itself, as it doth cool and moderate our affections towards the outward and temporal favours and blessings of God, towards those of his light hand, and those of His left, so it doth intend and quicken them towards that which is blessedness indeed. It sets us up a glass, that royal law (Jam 2:8), that perfect law of liberty, which if we look into, and continue in it, being not forgetful hearers, but doers of the work, we shall be blessed in it (Jam 1:25). Blessed are they that hear the Word of God, reacheth not home; and therefore there is a conjunction copulative to draw it closer, and link it with obedience, Blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it. For, first, God hath fitted us hereunto. For, can we imagine that He should thus build us up, and stamp His own image upon us, that we should be an habitation for owls and satyrs, for wild and brutish imaginations? that He did give us understandings to find out an art of pleasure, a method and craft of enjoying that which is but for a season? Was the soul made immortal for that which passeth away as a shadow, and is no more? Indeed, faith, in respect of the remoteness of the object, and its elevation above the ken of nature, may seem a hard lesson, yet in the soul there is a capacity to receive it; and if the other condition, of obedience and doing Gods will, did not lie heavy upon the flesh, the more brutish part, we should be readier scholars in our creed than we are. Secondly. As the precepts of Christ are proportioned to the soul, so being embraced they fill it with light and joy, and give it a taste of the world to come. For as Christs yoke is easy, but not till it is put on; so His precepts are not delightful till they are kept. Aristotles happiness in his books is but an idea, and heaven itself is no more to us till we enjoy it. The precepts of Christ in the letter may please the understanding part, which is always well-affected and inclinable to that which is apparently true; but till the will have set the feet and hands at liberty, even that which we approve we distaste, and that which we call honey is to us as bitter as gall. Contemplation may delight us for a time and bring some content, but the perverseness of our will breeds that worm which will soon eat it up. It is but a poor happiness to think and speak well of happiness, as from a mount to behold that Canaan which we cannot enjoy. A thought hath not strength and wing enough to carry us to bliss. But when the will is subdued and made obedient to the truth, then Gods precepts, which are from heaven, heavenly, fill the soul with a joy of the same nature, not gross and earthy, but refined and spiritual; a joy that is the pledge and the earnest, as the apostle calls it, of that which is to come. (A. Farindon, D. D.)
The incarnation
For, first, she knew at large that it was a blessed thing to be an instrument or conveyance of any great good unto others. Blessed above women shall Jail the wife of Heber be, blessed shall she be above women in the tent (Jdg 5:24). She had done her part to work deliverance for Israel. A cistern that contains the waters poured into it is much inferior to a fountain that sends them forth. It is nothing so laudable to be wrought upon, as to work that which is honourable. Even the parents that have enriched the world with such as are ornaments unto it, benediction reflects upon them for it, because they are conduit pipes of public felicity. Yet all those that have made others happy by their gifts and qualities had been for ever unhappy themselves if the child that was born this day had not sucked the breasts of a virgin. O happy parent I whose womb contained all the treasure that maintains the whole earth. Somewhat she collineated at this meaning that said unto our Saviour, Blessed, &c. And each parent partakes in this reason, that it is joy and honour to them to have a renowned Son. All fruitfulness is to be congratulated, but hers especially–Blessed is the womb, &c. I make no scruple to affirm it, that this was the very thought and fancy of the woman that uttered these words, that the mother was most honoured, full of fame and glory, who had a Son that spake so divinely, and wrought such heavenly miracles. It is a great recompense which God gives to careful parents upon earth when their offspring live soberly and temperately to be their comfort and honour. The fear of the Lord which is instilled into children from their infancy is not only the childrens, but even the parents happiness. The rare endowments that appeared in Christ made a certain woman hero cast the praise of it upon the mother, Blessed, &c. And thus far in the literal sense, as far as flesh and blood could reveal unto her; but if she could have seen into the Scriptures, as the Holy Spirit hath enabled us to see into them, there are other grounds of more evangelical observation. And first let it be noted, that the blessedness which is attributed to the womb that bore our Saviour redounds to all the members of His mystical body. Even as upon that saying of our Saviour to St. Peter, Blessed art thou, &c. (Mat 16:1-28.). The eternal Father did more for us when He made Him flesh than when He made the heaven and the earth beside; without His incarnation the earth had been our curse, all the elements our plague, the heaven above our envy, and the hell beneath our portion for ever. One man in a family having a fortunate advancement makes his whole blood and kindred fortunate with him; how much more shall Christ make all mankind happy being made one of us. He is come near unto us all by that nature which He assumed of ours; and He hath redeemed us all by that glorious Deity which was ever His own. Finally, there was a concurrency of all sorts of blessedness in this most mysterious incarnation.
II. I have done with the first general part of the text, the acclamation, both as a certain woman apprehended the words in her natural understanding, and in that prophetical sense which was above her understanding. Now it will be most material to observe how the Master of all wisdom corrected and refined it, Yea rather, blessed, &c. O sacred Virgin, much more happy in entertaining the faith of Christ than in conceiving the flesh of Christ. I must not (and if I would I have no time) set forth before you what a fecundity of error there is in mans heart about the notion of blessedness. Our Saviour confines our straggling imaginations to this rule, that no good thing of a subordinate condition can style a man happy; it is a title to be given to that immense communication of good, when the soul shall enjoy the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. And this is tried by two particulars–First, if we treasure up the precious things of God in our ear, then if wetransmit them to a more inward and a safer place, and treasure them up in our heart. So that the understanding of the law of God consists not in knowledge and speculation, but in practice and execution. We must be servants as well as disciples. (Bishop Hacket.)
Keeping the Word of God
The Rev. Mr. Erskine mentions a fact which may afford a very useful hint to every hearer of the gospel. A person who had been to public worship, having returned home perhaps somewhat sooner than usual, was asked by another member of the family who had not been there, Is all done? No, replied he, all is said, but all is not done! How little is commonly done of all that is heard! Blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 27. A certain woman – lifted up her voice, and said] It was very natural for a woman, who was probably a mother, to exclaim thus. She thought that the happiness of the woman who was mother to such a son was great indeed; but our blessed Lord shows her that even the holy virgin could not be benefited by her merely being the mother of his human nature, and that they only were happy who carried Christ in their hearts. True happiness is found in hearing the glad tidings of salvation by Christ Jesus, and keeping them in a holy heart, and practising them in an unblamable life.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
We are very prone to bless persons from external privileges, and the favours of Divine Providence, which do not at all change or affect the hearts of those to whom they are given; but God looketh with another eye upon persons. Christ doth not here deny his mother to have been blessed; her cousin Elisabeth (Luk 1:42) had pronounced her blessed amongst women, and the angel had before called her highly favoured, and told her that she had found favour with God. But our Saviour here declareth that her blessing did not so much lie in that her womb bare, and her paps gave suck to him, as in that she was one who heard and kept the word of God; for he pronounces all such as did so principally blessed. Nor must we separate what God hath put together; the blessing is not pronounced to those who barely hear the word of God, the blessed and the unblessed pariter adeunt, pariter audiunt, they may go to church together, and hear the word together, but the blessing is to those that hear the word of God, and keep it. See Jam 1:22,23. The word to some that hear it may be a savour of death unto death. The soul that through grace is made obedient to the will of God, is a more happy soul than the virgin Mary was, considered merely as the mother of Christ, without the consideration of her faith and holiness.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
27, 28. as he spake these things, a. . . woman of the companyof the multitude, the crowd. Acharming little incident and profoundly instructive. With truewomanly feeling, she envies the mother of such a wonderful Teacher.Well, and higher and better than she had said as much before her(Luk 1:28; Luk 1:42);and our Lord is far from condemning it. He only holds upas”blessed rather“the hearers and keepers of God’sword; in other words, the humblest real saint of God. (See onMt 12:49, 50.) How utterly alien isthis sentiment from the teaching of the Church of Rome, which wouldexcommunicate any one of its members who dared to talk in the spiritof this glorious saying! (Also see on Mt12:43.)
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And it came to pass as he spoke these things,…. That is, as Christ spoke, or “had finished these sayings”, as the Persic version expresses it, before related, in vindication of himself and his miracles, from the blasphemy of the Scribes and Pharisees to their entire confusion, and had delivered the above parable concerning the unclean spirit, which had a particular regard to them:
a certain woman of the company: observing the miracle he had wrought, in casting out a devil, and being affected with his discourse, in which he so fully cleared himself, and so strongly confuted his enemies, and set them forth in so just a light:
lift up her voice, and said unto him, aloud, in the hearing of all the people, and with great earnestness and fervour:
blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked: whether this woman personally knew Mary, the mother of Christ, is not certain; it may be that she was now present, or at least not far off; and this woman hearing that she, with the brethren of Christ, were without, and desired to speak with him, might be the occasion of her uttering these words; Mt 12:46 though they are said not so much in praise, and to the honour of Mary, as in commendation of Christ, from whom, and for the sake of bearing and suckling so great a person, she was denominated blessed as before, both by the angel and Elisabeth, Luke 1:28 This was a form of blessing among the Jews: so it is said s of R. Joshuah ben Chananiah, a disciple of R. Jochanan ben Zaccai, who lived about these times, , “blessed is she that bore him”: and they had also a form of cursing among them, much after the same manner, as , “cursed be the paps that suckled him” t. The Jews, in their blasphemous rage against Christ, and all that belong to him, say of Mary, the daughter of Eli, by whom they seem to design the mother of our Lord, that she hangs in the shades by the fibres of her paps u but this woman had a different opinion of her.
s Pirke Abot, c. 2. sect. 8. t T. Hieros. Celaim, fol. 27. 2. Bereshit Rabba, sect. 5. fol. 5. 1. u T. Hieros. Chagiga, fol. 77. 4. & Sanhedrin, fol. 23. 3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Praise and a Blessing. |
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27 And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. 28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
We had not this passage in the other evangelists, nor can we tack it, as Dr. Hammond does, to that of Christ’s mother and brethren desiring to speak with him (for this evangelist also has related that in ch. viii. 19), but it contains an interruption much like that, and, like that, occasion is taken from it for instruction.
1. The applause which an affectionate, honest, well-meaning woman gave to our Lord Jesus, upon hearing his excellent discourses. While the scribes and Pharisees despised and blasphemed them, this good woman (and probably she was a person of some quality) admired them, and the wisdom and power with which he spoke: As he spoke these things (v. 27), with a convincing force and evidence, a certain woman of the company was so pleased to hear how he had confounded the Pharisees, and conquered them, and put them to shame, and cleared himself from their vile insinuations, that she could not forbear crying out, “Blessed is the womb that bore thee. What an admirable, what an excellent man is this! Surely never was there a greater or better born of a woman: happy the woman that has him for her son. I should have thought myself very happy to have been the mother of one that speaks as never man spoke, that has so much of the grace of heaven in him, and is so great a blessing to this earth.” This was well said, as it expressed her high esteem of Christ, and that for the sake of his doctrine; and it was not amiss that it reflected honour upon the virgin Mary his mother, for it agreed with what she herself had said (ch. i. 48), All generations shall call me blessed; some even of this generation, bad as it was. Note, To all that believe the word of Christ the person of Christ is precious, and he is an honour, 1 Pet. ii. 7. Yet we must be careful, lest, as this good woman, we too much magnify the honour of his natural kindred, and so know him after the flesh, whereas we must now henceforth know him so no more.
2. The occasion which Christ took from this to pronounce them more happy who are his faithful and obedient followers than she was who bore and nursed him. He does not deny what this woman said, nor refuse her respect to him and his mother; but leads her from this to that which was of higher consideration, and which more concerned her: Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it, v. 28. He thinks them so; and his saying that they are so makes them so, and should make us of his mind. This is intended partly as a check to her, for doting so much upon his bodily presence and his human nature, partly as an encouragement to her to hope that she might be as happy as his own mother, whose happiness she was ready to envy, if she would hear the word of God and keep it. Note, Though it is a great privilege to hear the word of God, yet those only are truly blessed, that is, blessed of the Lord, that hear it and keep it, that keep it in memory, and keep to it as their way and rule.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
As he said these things ( ). Luke’s common idiom, with articular infinitive. Verses Luke 11:27; Luke 11:28 are peculiar to Luke. His Gospel in a special sense is the Gospel of Woman. This woman “speaks well, but womanly” (Bengel). Her beatitude () reminds us of Elisabeth’s words (Lu 1:42, ). She is fulfilling Mary’s own prophecy in 1:48 ( , shall call me happy).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Blessed, etc. “She speaks well, but womanly” (Bengel).
29 – 36. Compare Mt 12:38 – 45.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And It came to pass, as he spake these things,” (egeneto de en to legein auton tauta) “Then it occurred as He spoke these things,” while he was still speaking, a dear soul who was deeply moved interrupted.
2) “A certain woman of the company lifted up her voice,” (eparasa tis phonen gune ek tou echlou) “A certain woman out of the crowd lifted up her voice,” speaking loudly, without fear of identity with Jesus and His teachings, Mat 12:46-50.
3) “And said unto him,” (eipen auto) “Said to him,” in response to what she had heard and believed, said directly to. Him, having perhaps seen His mother and brethren in the edge of the crowd.
4) “Blessed Is the womb that bare thee,” (makaria he kollia he bastasasa se) “Blessed be the womb which has borne you,” or the mother, much as the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary at His begettal, Luk 1:26; Luk 1:28.
5) “And the paps which thou hast sucked.” (kai mastoi hous ethelasas) “And the breasts which you did suck or nurse,” much as Mary also praised the Lord for the angel Gabriel’s message, Luk 1:48.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Luk 11:27
. Blessed is the womb. By this eulogium the woman intended to magnify the excellence of Christ; for she had no reference to Mary, (154) whom, perhaps, she had never seen. And yet it tends in a high degree to illustrate the glory of Christ, that she pronounces the womb that bore him to be noble and blessed. Nor was the blessing inappropriate, but in strict accordance with the manner of Scripture; for we know that offspring, and particularly when endued with distinguished virtues, is declared to be a remarkable gift of God, preferable to all others. It cannot even be denied that God conferred the highest honor on Mary, by choosing and appointing her to be the mother of his Son. And yet Christ’s reply is so far from assenting to this female voice, that it contains an indirect reproof.
Nay, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God. We see that Christ treats almost as a matter of indifference that point on which the woman had set a high value. And undoubtedly what she supposed to be Mary’s highest honor was far inferior to the other favors which she had received; for it was of vastly greater importance to be regenerated by the Spirit of God than to conceive Christ, according to the flesh, in her womb; to have Christ living spiritually within her than to suckle him with her breasts. In a word, the highest happiness and glory of the holy Virgin consisted in her being a member of his Son, so that the heavenly Father reckoned her in the number of new creatures.
In my opinion, however, it was for another reason, and with a view to another object, that Christ now corrected the saying of the woman. It was because men are commonly chargeable with neglecting even those gifts of God, on which they gaze with astonishment, and bestow the highest praise. This woman, in applauding Christ, had left out what was of the very highest consequence, that in him salvation is exhibited to all; and, therefore, it was a feeble commendation, that made no mention of his grace and power, which is extended to all. Christ justly claims for himself another kind of praise, not that his mother alone is reckoned blessed, but that he brings to us all perfect and eternal happiness. We never form a just estimate of the excellence of Christ, till we consider for what purpose he was given to us by the Father, and perceive the benefits which he has brought to us, so that we who are wretched in ourselves may become happy in him. But why does he say nothing about himself, and mention only the word of God? It is because in this way he opens to us all his treasures; for without the word he has no intercourse with us, nor we with him. Communicating himself to us by the word, he rightly and properly calls us to hear and keep it, that by faith he may become ours.
We now see the difference between Christ’s reply and the woman’s commendation; for the blessedness, which she had limited to his own relatives, is a favor which he offers freely to all. He shows that we ought to entertain no ordinary esteem for him, because he has all the treasures of life, blessedness, and glory, hidden in him, (Col 2:3,) which he dispenses by the word, that they may be communicated to those who embrace the word by faith; for God’s free adoption of us, which we obtain by faith, is the key to the kingdom of heaven. The connection between the two things must also be observed. We must first hear, and then keep; for as faith cometh by hearing, (Rom 10:17,) it is in this way that the spiritual life must be commenced. Now as the simple hearing is like a transitory looking into a mirror, (155) as James says, (1:23,) he likewise adds, the keeping of the word, which means the effectual reception of it, when it strikes its roots deep into our hearts, and yields its fruit. The forgetful hearer, whose ears alone are struck by the outward doctrine, gains no advantage. On the other hand, they who boast that they are satisfied with the secret inspiration, and on this ground disregard the outward preaching, shut themselves out from the heavenly life. What the Son of God hath joined let not men, with wicked rashness, put asunder, (Mat 19:6.) The Papists discover amazing stupidity by singing, in honor of Mary, those very words by which their superstition is expressly condemned, and who, in giving thanks, detach the woman’s saying, and leave out the correction. (156) But it was proper that such a universal stupefaction should come upon those who intentionally profane, at their pleasure, the sacred word of God.
(154) “ Il ne faut pas penser qu’elle eust regard a Marie;” — “we must not suppose that she had reference to Mary.”
(155) “ Autant que l’ouye simple est comme quand on regarde en un mirroir, et que la memoire s’en escoule incontinent;” — “since the simple hearing is as when we look into a mirror, and the remembrance of it immediately passes away.”
(156) “ Et en leurs graces apres le repas, ils prenent le dire de la femme, laissans la correction qui estoit le principal;” — “and in their thanksgivings after a meal, they employ the woman’s saying leaving out the correction, which was the most important matter,”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Appleburys Comments
Praise for the Mother who Bore Him
Scripture
Luk. 11:27-28 And it came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the breasts which thou didst suck. 28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
Comments
a certain woman of the multitude.The crowd had just witnessed the remarkable miracle of casting out the dumb demon. The woman paid tribute to Christ in an indirect way by voicing her praise for His mother. It was a perfectly natural thing for her to do. The words in no way tend to praise Mary beyond the suggestion of appreciation for the mother of Him who had been such a blessing to the distressed man. Mary herself had said that all generations would call her blessed. That was because she was to have the privilege of giving birth to the Savior of the world.
Yea rather, Blessed are they that hear the word of God.Jesus approved the praise for His mother. But He said that those who hear the word of God and keep it are to be congratulated. All who do Gods will are to share in the praise that belongs to His servants.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(27) A certain woman of the company.The incident is peculiar to St. Luke, and, like many other of the facts recorded by him, seems to have been derived from the company of devout women (Luk. 8:1; see Introduction) with whom he came into contact. It is interesting as being the first direct fulfilment of the words of the Magnificat, All generations shall call me blessed (Luk. 1:48), and as showing how the Son of Mary in this instance, as in Mat. 12:46-50, extended the beatitude. There is at once a singular agreement in the manner in which each incident, embodying substantially the same lesson, follows on the parable of the Unclean Spirit, and a singular difference in the forms which the incident takes in the two narratives. A possible solution of the problem thus presented may be found in supposing the exclamation which St. Luke records to have been uttered by one of the women who was present when, as St. Matthew relates (Mat. 12:47), one said unto Him, Behold Thy mother and Thy brethren stand without . . .
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
44. THE BLESSEDNESS OF CHRIST’S MOTHER MAY BE EXTENDED TO ALL THE HOLY, Luk 11:27-28 .
Luke alone preserves a remarkable interruption of the discourse of Jesus by a hearty but intelligent ejaculation of a mother present. She sympathizes with Jesus as a great Rabbi, but especially, we suppose, in his eloquent denunciations of that class who not only blasphemed him, but devoured widow’s houses!
27. Lifted up her voice Her feminine tones overtopping all other sounds in the crowd.
‘And it came about that, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the crowd lifted up her voice, and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bare you, and the breasts which you sucked.” ’
‘While he was saying these things’. When Luke puts in a connection like this it has a purpose. What follows is to be linked with what has gone before.
A woman in the crowd cries out, “Blessed is the womb that bare you, and the breasts which you sucked.” Her view was that Jesus’ home is blessed, and His mother is blessed. And in a sense she was right. But the point is being made that neither it or she are as blessed as they should be. (Like Martha she is distracted by much serving). The contrast is made clearly. She is not of those who hear the word of God as proclaimed by Jesus. She has not as yet entered under the Kingly Rule of God by response to the King. Were Jesus to return home He would not find it ‘cleansed and put in order’. He would find it still under the old regime. Jesus does not deny to her limited blessing. He simply points out that as yet she has not received the true blessing.
A woman’s judgment of Christ:
v. 27. And it came to pass, as He spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said unto Him, Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the paps which Thou hast sucked.
v. 28. But He said, Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it.
The words of Christ may not have had much influence upon the hard-hearted Pharisees, but they certainly did make a deep impression upon an, certain woman in the crowd. Raising her voice, she called out, calling the mother that had borne and nourished such a Son happy and blessed. She thought and spoke like a mother, and one that would have counted herself lucky in having such a Son. But Jesus corrected her. True happiness, true blessedness, has a different basis a different reason. Rather let this be known and acted upon, that they that hear the Word of God and keep it are the truly blessed. Hearing alone is not sufficient, as He has shown in the Parable of the Fourfold Soil, but to this must be added the observing and keeping of the Word and the bringing forth of fruit in accordance with their profession. “Therefore let us thank God for such grace that to aid us He sent His Son against the devil to cast him out, and left His Word with us, through which to this day such work is carried on, the kingdom of the devil destroyed, and the kingdom of God is established and increased.”
Luk 11:27-28 . A woman (assuredly a mother ), following without restraint her true understanding and impulse, publicly and earnestly pays to Jesus her tribute of admiration. Luke alone has this feminine type of character also (comp. Luk 10:38 ff.), which bears the stamp of originality, on the one hand, in the genuine navet of the woman (“bene sentit, sed muliebriter loquitur,” Bengel); on the other, in the reply of Jesus forthwith turning to the highest practical interest. This answer contains so absolutely the highest truth that lay at the heart of Jesus in His ministry, that Strauss, I. p. 719 (comp. Weizscker, p. 169), concludes, very erroneously, from the resemblance of the passage to Luk 8:21 , that there were two different frames or moulds of the tradition in which this saying of Christ was set. The incident is not parallel even with Mar 3:31 ff. (Holtzmann), even although in its idea it is similar.
] , , Euthymius Zigabenus.
] out of the crowd she lifted up her voice.
. . .] See analogous beatitudes from the Rabbins and classical writers in Wetstein, Schoettgen, and Elsner, Obss . p. 226.
Luk 11:28 . ] may serve as corrective ( imo vero ) as well as confirmatory ( utique ). See generally, Hartung, Partikell . II. p. 400; Khner, ad Xen. Mem . i. 3. 9, ii. 7. 5. In this passage it is the former, comp. Rom 9:20 ; Rom 10:18 ; Jesus does not deny His mother’s blessedness, but He defines the predicate , not as the woman had done, as a special external relation, but as a general moral relation, which might be established in the case of every one , and under which even Mary was brought, so that thus the benediction upon the mother, merely considered as mother , is corrected. The position of and at the beginning of the sentence belongs to the later Greek usage. See examples in Wetstein, Sturz, Dial. Al . p. 203; Lobeck, ad Phryn . p. 342.
DISCOURSE: 1523 Luk 11:27-28. And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
THE words of our Lord, though made the continual subject of cavil and dispute amongst his obstinate opposers, carried conviction to the hearts of all who candidly considered them: nor was the gentleness of his manners less impressive than the wisdom of his discourses. He had been just exposing the folly of imputing his miracles to a confederacy with Beelzebub: and to such a degree had his discourse wrought upon one of his audience, that she exclaimed out of the midst of the multitude, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, &c. This was the most natural language for a woman to use in expressing her admiration of him: and it furnished him with an occasion to declare before all, who, and who only, could with propriety be accounted blessed. I.
The character of the true Christian
Numberless are the ways in which this is drawn in the Holy Scriptures. But there is a peculiar simplicity in the description before us, at the same time that it very sufficiently distinguishes the Christian from all others.
1.
He hears the word of God
[Every true Christian considers the preaching of the Gospel as Gods instituted means of converting and edifying the souls of men. Instead therefore of making frivolous excuses for staying at home, he will suffer many inconveniences rather than absent himself from public worship. And when he is there, he will receive the word, not as the word of man, but, as it is in truth, the word of God. He will listen to it as the word of God to his own soul in particular, and will apply to himself the truths which the minister, as Gods ambassador, shall set before him. 2.
He keeps it
[The godly keep it in their hearts us a ground of hope. They do not come to the word of God, determining to receive nothing but what accords with their own pre-conceived notions; but they desire to know what method God has prescribed for the reconciling of sinners to himself: and when they find that he has sent his only dear Son to die for them, they do not say, How can this be? but they acquiesce thankfully in the divine appointment, and trust in Christ as their only Saviour [Note: They see his suitableness, and sufficiency, and excellency, and say as Paul, 1Co 2:2. Gal 6:14.]
They keep it also in their lives, as a rule of conduct. They will no longer regulate themselves according to the maxims of the world, but will inquire, What does my God require of me? What is the way in which he has directed me to walk? Having ascertained these points, he does not turn back because the world calls him precise, or because his own corruptions render his progress difficult; but he holds on in his course with firmness and uniformity. He finds many who endeavour to turn him out of the way; but he keeps the word of God, as a light, that points out his path in general, and as a lantern, that is to direct every step he takes
It is scarcely needful to observe, that this part of the character is peculiar to the Christian; for there is no other person that can at all be compared with him in these respects.] II.
His blessedness
We are not to take a general view of this subject, but to consider it in that particular light, in which it is represented in the text. 1.
He has a closer union with Christ than ever she had
[The union which the Virgin had with Christ was that of a mother with her child. He was bone of her bone, and flesh of her flesh [Note: Gen 2:23.]. Yet this, close as it was, cannot be compared with that which subsists between Christ and his believing people: for he is formed in their souls [Note: Gal 4:19.]; he dwells in their hearts by faith [Note: Eph 3:17.]: he in them is the hope of glory [Note: Col 1:27.]: and so inseparable is this privilege from the Christian character, that, if he dwell not in us, we are reprobates [Note: 2Co 13:5.]. She was one flesh with him: but believers are one spirit with him [Note: 1Co 6:17.]. Her union was like that which universally obtains between parents and children; but that which believers enjoy, resembles rather that which subsists between Christ and his heavenly Father [Note: Joh 17:20-23.].]
2.
He has a more intimate communion with him
[Doubtless, till he attained to the age of thirty, she must have enjoyed many sweet seasons of communion with him under her own roof: and during the four years of his ministry, she must have had familiar access to him on many occasions. But, after all, this was no other fellowship than what every parent, and every friend, enjoys. She beheld him only as a man; we behold him as God. she saw him merely as a prophet; we see him in the whole of his mediatorial character, as the King, Priest, and Prophet, of the universal Church. She heard only partial instructions, on particular occasions, with the outward ear: but we have access to him at all times, to hear the whole of his revealed will, and to receive instruction in our inmost souls.
How far preferable this is to his bodily presence our Lord himself informs us [Note: Joh 16:7.]: and consequently our state is far more blessed than even that of his own mother.]
3.
He has richer communications from him
[She, as his mother, received nothing from him in this world [Note: Mat 12:46-50.]; nor does she receive any thing in heaven on account of this relation to him [Note: Mat 22:30.]. But every believer, as a believer, is blessed in him with all spiritual and eternal blessings [Note: Eph 1:3.]. Unspeakable are the benefits he imparts to all his people. Whatever grace they possess, they have received it all out of his fulness [Note: Joh 1:16.]. In heaven also their relation to him shall be acknowledged, and suitable honours be conferred upon them. A throne [Note: Rev 3:21.], a crown [Note: 2Ti 4:8.], a kingdom [Note: Luk 22:29.], are the inheritance that he has reserved for them, and will finally bestow upon them.
Let these things be considered, and, however blessed we may conceive the Virgin to have been on account of her relation to him, we shall see that incomparably greater blessedness is ours, provided we hear the word of God, and keep it.]
Address Those who do not statedly hear the word of God
[Upon what principle can you conceive that any blessedness belongs to you, when you prefer your ease, your business, your pleasure, to an attendance on Gods ordinances? Can it be imagined that God is unconcerned about the honour of his word, and that he will not notice the contempt poured upon it? Has he not repeatedly declared the very reverse [Note: Deu 18:19. Mat 10:14-15. Luk 10:16. 1Th 4:8. Heb 2:1-3.]? Whatever excuses then you may make, remember that you have not even the semblance of Christianity, so long as you remain indifferent to the public ministration of the word, and neglectful of it in your secret retirements.]
2.
Those who hear the word, but without keeping it
[There are many who are regular in their attendance on divine worship, but never regard one word they hear. They are taught to come to Christ as their righteousness and strength [Note: Isa 45:24.]; but they still cherish self-righteousness and self-dependence. They are instructed to die unto the world, and to live unto God [Note: 1Pe 2:24. 2Co 5:15.]; but they still continue alive to the world, and dead to God. But what will their hearing profit them, if they will not keep the word they hear? To what purpose do they cry, Lord! Lord! if they will not do his will [Note: Luk 6:46.]? Let such then know that they deceive themselves [Note: Jam 1:22.]; and that they must both embrace in their hearts, and exemplify in their lives, the word of God, if ever they would be blessed in their deeds [Note: Jam 1:23-25.].]
3.
Those who both hear and keep it
[Whatever the world may say of these persons, they are, and shall be, blessed. The Lord Jesus Christ pronounces them so, and will himself impart the blessedness that he has reserved for them. Go on then, holding forth, and holding fast, the word of life [Note: Php 2:16.]. You will find numberless temptations to forsake the good way; but keep it steadfastly unto the end. You may meet with trials for your adherence to the word; but your consolations shall be sure to abound above all your tribulations [Note: 2Co 1:5.]; and strength shall be given you according to your day [Note: Deu 33:25.]. Even in this world you shall have no reason to repent of your steadfastness; and in the world to come your blessedness shall be complete.]
(27) And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. (28) But he said, Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
There is somewhat very singular in this relation. A certain woman of the company. What company? Not of the company of them who charged Christ with casting out devils through Beelzebub. Probably of the people that, it is said, wondered at Jesus’s miracle, which he had, just before this discourse, wrought, (Luk 11:14 ). This woman, it should seem, was so struck with the miracle, and the discourse which followed, that she could not contain expressing her astonishment in the words here recorded. But from our Lord’s answer, it doth not appear as if Jesus regarded her as one of his people. Natural feelings will sometimes ascend great heights: but nature is not grace. Numbers heard Jesus, and wondered at the gracious things which proceeded out of his mouth: but here the whole ended. Oh! Reader! how sure is it that the saving effectual call of every sinner is of God!
27 And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.
Ver. 27. Blessed is the womb that bare thee ] So the heathen poet,
-” qui te genuere beati,
Et mater faelix, et quae dedit ubera nutrix. (Ovid, Metam. lib. 4.)
27, 28. ] This little but most instructive incident, here interposed, serves to shew the originality of Luke’s account, and that, whatever its position may be, it is itself of the highest authority. The woman apparently was influenced by nothing but common-place and unintelligent wonder at the sayings and doings of Jesus: and she broke out, with true womanly feeling, into a blessing of the mother who bare such a wonderful Teacher. Such seems to be the account of the incident itself.
Our Lord’s reply is indeed wonderful: (1) In reproof . He corrects in her the un-apprehensiveness of his word, which had caused her to go no further into the meaning of it than this ordinary eulogy imported, and gives her an admonition how to profit better by it in future.
(2) In humility . He disclaims all this kind of admiration for his humanity: and says not ‘ my word ,’ but the word of God, which is in fact the same, but takes the view off from Him in his abasement, unto the Father who sent Him.
(3) In truth . He does not deny the honour hereby pronounced upon his mother, but beautifully turns it to its true side viz. that which was given her long since , ch. Luk 1:45 .
Her blessedness consisted not so much in being His mother, as in her lowly and faithful observance of the word of the Lord spoken to her: see ch. Luk 2:19 ; Luk 2:51 . Nor again does He deny that to have borne Him was an honour is ‘imo vero’ ‘yes, indeed, but.’
(4) In prophetic discernment . It will be seen that this answer cuts at the root of all Mariolatry, and shews us in what the true honour of that holy woman consisted, in faith and obedience . As the mother of the Lord, she represents our human race, unto whom a child is born, a son is given; no individual exclusive honour is due to her, any more than to Cornelius, who was singled out from the Gentile world, and honoured by an angelic message relative to the divine purposes: if she were, as there is every reason to conclude she was, a believer in her Son, the Son of man , she bore Christ in a far higher and more blessed sense than by being His mother in His humanity. And this honour may all believers in Him partake of with her; therefore the Lord says not . . but . The last and boldest perversion of these words of our Lord by Father Newman, viz. that He thus does but still further exalt her honour, in that, besides being His mother, she heard His word, and kept it, need only be mentioned, to shew the follies to which able men are abandoned, who once desert truth and simplicity.
Luk 11:27-28 . The woman in the crowd . In Lk. only, though reminding one of Mat 12:46-50 , Mar 3:32-35 . It reports an honest matron’s blessing on the, to her probably unknown, mother of Jesus, who in this case, as in an earlier instance (Luk 8:19-21 ), treats the felicity of natural motherhood as entirely subordinate to that of disciplehood.
Luk 11:27 . , : “Mulier bene sentit sed muliebriter loquitur” (Bengel).
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk 11:27-28
27While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.” 28But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”
Luk 11:27 The parallel in Mat 12:46-50 records the account of Jesus’ mother and brothers seeking an audience with Him. Luke has recorded this earlier in Luk 8:19-21.
This shows us that the Gospels are not structured chronologically. This does not depreciate their historicity, but helps us remember that the Gospels are not modern, western cause-and-effect, sequential histories, nor are they biographies. They are gospel tracts for the purpose of salvation and Christian maturity. The main issue is the person and work of Christ.
Luk 11:28 “But He said” Jesus was appreciative of the woman’s affirmation of approval, but He affirmed that an even closer relationship (even a blessing) exists between those who hear and follow (cf. Luk 6:46-49) His message more than those who simply have family ties (i.e., blood kin).
NASB”On the contrary”
NKJV”more than”
NRSV, TEV”rather”
NJB”more”
The Greek compound (men + oun) has several connotations. It addresses what has just been said and adds to it. It can (1) affirm it, (2) negate it, or (3) go beyond it (cf. Rom 9:20; Rom 10:18; Php 3:8). Option three fits this context best.
“blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it” This is parallel to Luk 8:21. These are both present active participles. Together they reflect the Hebrew word shema, Deu 6:4-6. Jesus’ true family are those who hear and do God’s will expressed in God’s word! God wants a people who reveal and demonstrate His characteristics to the world.
Jesus is the one who is giving the word (Logos) and is the Word (cf. Joh 1:1). Believers are blessed when they hear and do the gospel.
as He spake = in (Greek. en. App-104.) His speaking.
company = crowd.
Blessed = Happy.
hast sucked = didst suck.
27, 28.] This little but most instructive incident, here interposed, serves to shew the originality of Lukes account, and that, whatever its position may be, it is itself of the highest authority. The woman apparently was influenced by nothing but common-place and unintelligent wonder at the sayings and doings of Jesus:-and she broke out, with true womanly feeling, into a blessing of the mother who bare such a wonderful Teacher. Such seems to be the account of the incident itself.
Our Lords reply is indeed wonderful:-(1) In reproof. He corrects in her the un-apprehensiveness of his word, which had caused her to go no further into the meaning of it than this ordinary eulogy imported,-and gives her an admonition how to profit better by it in future.
(2) In humility. He disclaims all this kind of admiration for his humanity: and says not my word, but the word of God, which is in fact the same, but takes the view off from Him in his abasement, unto the Father who sent Him.
(3) In truth. He does not deny the honour hereby pronounced upon his mother, but beautifully turns it to its true side-viz. that which was given her long since- , ch. Luk 1:45.
Her blessedness consisted not so much in being His mother, as in her lowly and faithful observance of the word of the Lord spoken to her: see ch. Luk 2:19; Luk 2:51. Nor again does He deny that to have borne Him was an honour- is imo vero-yes, indeed, but.
(4) In prophetic discernment. It will be seen that this answer cuts at the root of all Mariolatry, and shews us in what the true honour of that holy woman consisted,-in faith and obedience. As the mother of the Lord, she represents our human race, unto whom a child is born, a son is given; no individual exclusive honour is due to her, any more than to Cornelius, who was singled out from the Gentile world, and honoured by an angelic message relative to the divine purposes:-if she were, as there is every reason to conclude she was, a believer in her Son, the Son of man, she bore Christ in a far higher and more blessed sense than by being His mother in His humanity. And this honour may all believers in Him partake of with her; therefore the Lord says not . . but . The last and boldest perversion of these words of our Lord by Father Newman, viz. that He thus does but still further exalt her honour, in that, besides being His mother, she heard His word, and kept it, need only be mentioned, to shew the follies to which able men are abandoned, who once desert truth and simplicity.
Luk 11:27. , having lifted up) It would be good, and not a thing to be laughed at, if hearers would discover the emotions of their hearts whilst hearing, in however simple a manner.- , the womb) The woman has good sentiments, but speaks as a woman in womans fashion. The Saviour reduces this into due order.-, the paps) Comp. concerning the Messiah, Psa 22:10.
The Sign of Jonah
Luk 11:27-32
What a tribute this woman paid our Lord! He was full of grace as well as truth; and those who, with unbiased and unprejudiced minds, saw Him moving among men, were constrained to confess His inimitable beauty. Notice that the simplest soul that hears and obeys Gods Word is equally beatified with His mother, Luk 11:28.
Men will be judged by the opportunities they have had. Every age and every race and every individual on which the sun has ever shone has had a chance. Not our chance, but a chance suited to the spiritual vision of each, Joh 1:9; Rom 1:20; Rom 2:5, etc. So God will be able to judge all men. But in how many cases will they who have not had our advantages be found in a higher class in the great University of Heaven than some of us who have lived amid the light of Christ!
Chapter 73
Looking For A Sign
Are you looking for a sign? Are you waiting for the Lord to show you a sign? We live in an age of such religious deception and perversity that men and women are taught from the pulpits to do so. Such a generation is described by the Son of God in this passage of holy scripture as a wicked, perverse and adulterous generation.
Any faith that is based upon a sign, the observation of a miracle, the proof of logic, a feeling of something spiritual, an experience, or anything else other than the revelation of God in holy scripture is a false faith. True, God-given, saving faith has for its foundation the Word of God alone.
That is the message of the text before us. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. May God give us grace to believe him, not our experiences! him, not our feelings! him, not our reason! him, not signs and wonders!
The Blessedness Of Faith
The greatest blessing God can bestow upon anyone in this world is the gift of faith in Christ. And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it (Luk 11:27-28).
The Lord Jesus had just cast out a devil, by the power of his omnipotent grace, causing a dumb man to speak. After performing this great miracle, he was accused by the religious right, the moral majority, of performing his work by the power of Satan, of being in league with the devil, maybe of even being the devil himself.
Then, the Son of God explained publicly who he is (the King of Glory), by what power he works (the Finger of God), the result of his work (Satan cast out) and, at the same time, exposed the hypocrisy of those whited sepulchres who were indeed the servants of Satan.
Hearing these things, observing the power of his grace, perhaps rejoicing in the embarrassment of the Pharisees, perhaps remembering what the Son of God had done for her by his grace, there was a woman in the crowd whose adoration of Christ, because of her remembrance of his mercy, caused her to break the rules of politeness. She cried out, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked!
These words were not a pronouncement of praise and veneration of Mary. It is sad that such a statement as that must be made; but the Mariolatry of Rome is so profuse that often the mother of Jesus is elevated in the minds of people above other women to a position of kinship to divinity. It is utter idolatry to pray to Mary! Mary is not God; and she certainly is not, as the papists chant, the mother of God!
This was not a word of praise to Mary. Rather it was a figure of speech, by which this woman expressed adulation and praise for the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not use the same words, but we often praise someone in the same way. That child is an honour to his parents. That child speaks well of his parents. That child must make his parents very proud.
Mary was indeed a blessed woman. Both the angel Gabriel and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, spoke of her blessedness (Luk 1:28; Luk 1:42). I do not doubt for a moment that sister Mary was a woman of remarkable character, exemplary faith and behaviour, and stedfast virtue. I am certain that she was such a woman.
However, Marys blessedness was the blessedness of a sinner saved by grace, nothing less, and nothing more. Her blessedness did not arise so much from the fact that the Son of God was in her womb, but from the fact that he was in her heart. Mary was highly favoured of God as the object of his grace; chosen, redeemed, called, sanctified and accepted in Christ, just like us. She worshipped the baby in her belly as God her Saviour in her heart. After she had given birth to the Lord Jesus, to our Saviours humanity, she came to the temple with the sacrifice of the law, because of her uncleanness, because she was a sinner who needed the blood atonement of Christ just like us (Luk 2:24; Lev 12:6-8).
When the Saviour heard this womans praise, he immediately knew what horrid blasphemy would soon come to be attached to those words by the deceivers in Rome. So he immediately gives us a word of instruction, declaring, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
True blessedness is the blessedness of grace bestowed upon all who are born of God. How great are the privileges of grace bestowed upon sinners in this world who hear the Word of God and keep it! It is a great privilege indeed to hear the Word of God faithfully preached. But our Saviour is not talking about the mere outward hearing of the gospel. That will prove an everlasting curse, unless there is, with the hearing of the Word, the accompaniment of saving grace causing us to hear the Word and keep it. We must hear it with faith and understanding; guard it, prize it and keep it as the Word of God. All to whom God grants the gift of faith in his Son are truly blessed of God. Blessed with all the blessings of grace (Eph 1:3). Blessed with all the blessings of providence (Rom 8:28). Blessed with all the blessings of heavenly glory (Eph 1:11).
The Demand Of Unbelief
Unbelief always demands something more than the Word of God. And when the people were gathered thick together, he began to say, This is an evil generation: they seek a sign; and there shall no sign be given it, but the sign of Jonas the prophet. Matthew tells us that our Lord Jesus also declared, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign (Mat 12:39).
Without question, our Lord was speaking specifically of the generation in which he then walked in this world. It was a distinctly evil and adulterous generation, a generation much like our own. Like the day in which we live, those were days of indescribable, horrid evil. Philosophical, political, moral and spiritual evil was seen everywhere (Rom 1:18-32).
But the emphasis, both here and in Matthews account, appears to be upon the evil of those who seek after a sign as a basis for believing God. The people gathered in thick crowds to hear the Son of God preach. But they were a people who demanded a sign, something they could see, something they could feel, something they could understand, something they could prove, as the basis of faith. They professed that they would believe God, if the Lord God would simply prove himself in the court of carnal reason and experience. They wanted evidences for faith. But faith that is based upon evidence is not faith.
The God of glory will never bow to you and me. We must bow to him. He condescends in great grace to save sinners. But he will never stoop to be judged by us! If we would be saved, we must bow to him, believing him (1Co 1:17-31).
The Sign Of Jonah
The only sign upon which faith can rest is the accomplishment of redemption proclaimed and revealed in the gospel. For as Jonas was a sign unto the Ninevites, so shall also the Son of man be to this generation (Luk 11:30). The sign of Jonah was both a declaration of grace and a prophecy of redemption accomplished. Jonah declared, Salvation is of the LORD! Jonahs being raised to life again after three days in the belly of the whale was a prophetic picture of our redemption by Christs death and resurrection as our Substitute.
As Jonah was cast into the sea and swallowed by the whale to appease the storm of judgment, another man, the God-man, Christ Jesus, was swallowed up in the wrath of God. When wrath was turned away, that man, our Substitute, arose from the belly of hell, after three days in the heart of the earth. And as Jonah went and preached to the men of Nineveh, that risen man, Christ the Lord, proclaimed grace to sinners deserving the wrath of God.
The Judgment Of God
Be sure you understand our Lords doctrine in Luk 11:31-32. Divine justice will make everything that should have been a means of blessedness and salvation here an instrument of torment in hell.
The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here (Luk 11:31-32).
The Queen of Sheba, when she heard report of Solomons riches, greatness, wisdom and glory, travelled many miles at great expense to meet that great man, on the basis of nothing but the word of men. And Solomon was only a sinful man. Behold, a greater than Solomon is here! The men of Nineveh, when they heard the message of God by the lips of Jonah, a prophet who was at best less than desirable, repented. Behold, a greater than Jonah is here! You have heard and read the Word of God, the gospel of his grace. Will that be to you a blessing, or a curse? If the Lord God gives you faith in his dear Son, the Word that you have heard and read will be an everlasting blessing of Gods grace to you. But if you refuse to trust Christ, that same word shall rise up in judgment against you and forever torment your soul in hell (2Co 2:14-16; 1Jn 5:1-14).
Blessed: Luk 1:28, Luk 1:42, Luk 1:48
Reciprocal: 1Sa 1:23 – son suck Job 29:11 – the ear Pro 7:4 – Thou Pro 23:25 – and she Mat 11:6 – blessed Mat 12:50 – do Mar 3:34 – Behold Luk 1:45 – blessed Luk 8:21 – My mother
HEARING AND KEEPING GODS WORD
A certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto Him, Blessed is the womb that bare Thee, and the paps which Thou hast sucked. But He said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
Luk 11:27-28
The wonder is not that this woman spake as she did, but that oftener men do not speak in the praise of that Blessed Lord, of Whom we read, Never man spake like this Man.
I. A blessing not to be denied.In our great eagerness to keep clear of anything like superstitious reverence of the Virgin Mary, some of us have scarcely given to her her due. The Virgin Mary was blessed, for the blessing which she received had been desired for years; it had been predicted that the Seed of the woman shall bruise the serpents head, and all Israel had longed to behold the Promised One, the Restorer of the race. The blessing came to Mary as a great boon, and she herself received the blessing as such.
II. The blessing to be preferred.We see the preferable blessednessto hear the Word of God and keep it is a blessing preferable to having been the mother of our Lord. We are sure of this, because in the weighing of the blessings the blessed Master of beatitudes holds the scales. Will not you yield at once to what He says, Whose words are sure truth? These words place the highest blessing that is conceivable within our reach, if we can only reach to the standard of hearing and keeping the Word of God. Remember that this made up the height of Marys blessing, for she was a believer. She hid these holy things, and pondered them in her heart; she rejoiced in God her Saviour. Marys blessedness lay mainly in the fact that she believed; that she acquiesced in the Divine message that He was the Saviour Whom she nursed in her arms! It was her faith that made her blessed.
III. The blessedness may be even now enjoyed.This blessedness belongs to the present. Blessed are they that are hearing the Word of God and keeping it. It might strictly be rendered so. That ought to fill you with a calm, serene delight. This blessedness is not dependent upon outward circumstances. Hear, and your soul shall live. Every man wants happiness; blessedness is the aspiration of us all. Will you have it? The Word is nigh thee, on thy lip, and in thy heart; if thou hear the Word of God and keep it, there shall come to thee a double blessing; God will bless thee, and thou shalt be blessed.
Illustration
I would suggest to everybody, whatever may be the occupation of his or her life, that they should make it their duty to read every day, whether they feel inclined to do so or not, part of the Holy Scriptures appointed in the lectionary as the lesson for the day. Every day, in the morning, you should read a few verses if you have not time to read all the lesson. You would probably find some thought which would carry you through the difficulties of the day. Every night before you lie down to rest just read a few verses of one of the evening lessons. By so doing you join yourself to the greatest of all Bible Unionsthe Anglican Church all over the world.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE POWER OF THE BOOK
Just now there is a certain feeling of anxiety in the minds of some persons with regard to the Holy Bible. We fear criticism. Now if the Bible is really the Word of God, do you think that any human criticism can destroy its glowing brilliancy and pathos, or its power? Our Lord said, The words I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Any fear, therefore, with regard to what is called the Higher Criticism is utterly irrational. There is a religion which may be called a religion of the Book, and there is a religion which may be called a religion of the Person. The literature has one definite object and one only, and that is to lead the mind on to be independent of the literature, that it may live in constant communion with the Person.
I. The power of the book.There is a certain inherent power with the Holy Bible which is only to be accounted for upon the hypothesis that it is the Word of God. There are stories too numerous to repeat of the power that has come from single utterances in the Holy Scriptures (see illustrations). We have this wonderful literature which bears its own guarantee by its power in the world, that it is indeed the Word of God. There is not a height that is not scaled by it, not a depth which cannot be plumbed by it, not a heart which cannot be consoled by it.
II. The value of criticism.This wonderful literature was fixed in its present form by the Council of Carthage, and we accept it as the result of the criticism of the wise and holy men of that day who rejected a large number of books and gathered together others. But the power of criticism did not cease with the Council of Carthage, and during the past fifty years there has been brought to bear very careful, reverent criticism. Men like Professor Driver of Oxford and others have, with the utmost care, scientifically searched into the authorship of the books of the Bible. All the obvious interpolations which have got into it through over-zealous scribes have been expunged, with the result that so far from the book being in danger, and people being obliged to rush to the public Press to defend it, the book has been given back to us infinitely more valuable, with a far more definite assurance than it ever possessed before. There is no harm whatever in the application of honest, reverent, and careful criticism to the Holy Scriptures. Having come to us by the inspiration of God Himself, all the criticism that can be brought to bear upon the Bible can only increase its value, lustre, and power.
III. A book to live by.Our Lords words implied that the Bible is a book to live by. Blessed are they that hear the Word of God, and keep it. Are we doing that? Do we search the Scriptures, we who belong to the race which boasts of having possession of the open Bible? We of the English nation which supplies the world with its Bibles, are we hearing and keeping its precepts? Everybody has a Bible, but it is not everybody who has an open Bible. When you lose your taste for the Bible there is something wrong with your spiritual perception. It is a note of warning.
IV. The book reveals Christ.Love the literature, follow it, but do not rest on it as an end in itself. Look upon it as a means to an end, and that end a personal knowledge of and personal union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Each one of us can say, I wonder how far in my own heart I have been keeping the Word of God? It is not always the greatest students of Holy Scripture who have the fullest realisation of the blessedness spoken of by our Lord. What hinders many from coming to the Lord is a sort of unexpressed idea that He might demand sacrifice. There is a great deal in my life, we say, which might be contrary to His will and purpose. But if our Lord demands sacrifice, He always gives something better in its place. There is not one single case in history of those who have really come to our Blessed Lord, and have had to make sacrifices to do so, who have not been abundantly recompensed with some higher, nobler joy. The blessedness of hearing and keeping the Word of God is that it brings us face to face with the Lord Jesus.
Archdeacon Wilberforce.
Illustrations
(1) We all know how the Czar Alexander, who emancipated the serfs in Russia, said that when he was young someone put into his hands a Bible. He studied it greedily, and he said to his tutor, If ever I grow up to be Czar, I will set free all the slaves in Russia: this book teaches it to me. There is power about the Bible.
(2) We all remember how Voltaire made the prophecy that in one hundred years the Bible would have passed away, yet in the very room in which he was, the Geneva Bible Society, not long after, started its operations, and the very press which Voltaire had used for the propagation of his atheistic opinions was used for the printing of the Scriptures; and under that very roof, within twenty years, there were above twenty tons of Bibles.
(3) Men of profound intellect, men who have risen to the very top of literary success, like Sir Walter Scott, have lived by the Bible. It was the one thing he cared for when he was a dying man. He said, Read me the book, and they said to him, What book? and he said, There is only one book.
(4) Robert Ingersoll, the great atheist of America, said once to an intellectual Boston lady who loved her Bible: Madam, you seem very fond of your Bible. Why are you? Well, said she, the fact is, the Author of this book is a very particular, personal friend of mine.
(5) Not every one recognises the blessedness of the book. Take the case of such a brilliantly intellectual man as Bishop Butler. What does the world not owe to that great logician? The man who demolished not only the outworks but the very foundations of intellectual atheism. Yet he did not understand this feeling until he lay a dying man. He said to his chaplain, Do you think that I have a right to believe that the Lord will receive me? And the chaplain quoted to him the words, Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out. And the bishop said, I have preached on that text scores and scores of times, I have turned it over in my mind, but I never saw the light in it until this moment.
7
This woman meant that the mother of Jesus was to be considered in a special sense. The Ro-manists make a great ado about the Virgin just as this woman did, except she did not even suggest that any worship should be offered to her.
A WOMAN is brought before us in this passage of Scripture of whose name and history we know nothing. We read that, as our Lord spake, “A certain woman of the company lifted up her voice and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee.” At once our Lord founds on her remark a great lesson. His perfect wisdom turned every incident within His reach to profit.
We should observe in these verses how great are the privileges of those who hear and keep God’s word. They are regarded by Christ with as much honor as if they were His nearest relatives. It is more blessed to be a believer in the Lord Jesus than it would have been to have been one of the family in which He was born after the flesh. It was a greater honor to Mary herself to have Christ dwelling in her heart by faith, than to have been the mother of Christ, and to have nursed Him on her bosom.
Truths like these we are generally very slow to receive. We are apt to fancy that to have seen Christ, and heard Christ, and lived near Christ, and been a relative of Christ according to the flesh, would have had some mighty effect upon our souls. We are all naturally inclined to attach great importance to a religion of sight, and sense, and touch, and eye, and ear. We love a sensuous, tangible , material Christianity, far better than one of faith. And we need reminding that seeing is not always believing. Thousands saw Christ continually, while He was on earth, and yet clung to their sins. Even His brethren at one time “did not believe in him.” (Joh 7:5.) A mere fleshly knowledge of Christ saves no one. The words of Paul are very instructive:-“Though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” (2Co 5:16.)
Let us learn from our Lord’s words before us that the highest privileges our souls can desire are close at hand, and within our reach, if we only believe. We need not idly wish that we had lived near Capernaum, or hard by Joseph’s house at Nazareth. We need not dream of a deeper love and a more thorough devotion if we had really pressed Christ’s hand, or heard Christ’s voice, or been numbered among Christ’s relatives. All this could have done nothing more for us than simple faith can do now. Do we hear Christ’s voice and follow Him? Do we take Him for our only Savior and our only Friend, and forsaking all other hopes, cleave only unto Him? If this be so, all things are ours. We need no higher privilege. We can have no higher, until Christ comes again. No man can be nearer and dearer to Jesus than the man who simply believes.
We should observe, secondly, in these verses, the desperate unbelief of the Jews in our Lord’s time. We are told that though they “gathered thick together” to hear Christ preach, they still professed to be waiting for a sign. They pretended to want more evidence before they believed. Our Lord declares that the Queen of Sheba and the men of Nineveh would put the Jews to shame at the last day. The Queen of Sheba had such faith that she traveled a vast distance in order to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Yet Solomon, with all his wisdom, was an erring and imperfect king. The Ninevites had such faith that they believed the message which Jonah brought from God, and repented. Yet even Jonah was a weak and unstable prophet. The Jews of our Lord’s time had far higher light and infinitely clearer teachings than either Solomon or Jonah could supply. They had amongst them the King of kings, the Prophet greater than Moses. Yet the Jews neither repented nor believed!
Let it never surprise us to see unbelief abounding, both in the church and in the world. So far from wondering that there have been men like Hobbes, and Paine, and Rousseau, and Voltaire, we ought rather to wonder that such men have been so few. So far from marveling that the vast majority of professing Christians remain unaffected and unmoved by the preaching of the Gospel, we ought to marvel that any around us believe at all. Why should we wonder to see that old disease which began with Adam and Eve infecting all their children? Why should we expect to see more faith among men and women now than was seen in our Lord’s time? The enormous amount of unbelief and hardness on every side may well grieve and pain us. But it ought not to cause surprise.
Let us thank God if we have received the gift of faith. It is a great thing to believe all the Bible. We do not sufficiently realize the corruption of human nature. We do not see the full virulence of the disease by which all Adam’s children are infected, and the small number of those who are saved.-Have we faith, however weak and small? Let us praise God for the privilege. Who are we that God should have made us to differ?
Let us watch against unbelief. The root of it often lies within us even after the tree is cut down. Let us guard our faith with a godly jealousy. It is the shield of the soul. It is the grace above all others which Satan labors to overthrow. Let us hold it fast. Blessed are they that believe!
We should observe, lastly, in these verses, how our Lord Jesus Christ testifies to the truth of a resurrection, and a life to come. He speaks of the queen of the south, whose name and dwelling-place are now alike unknown to us. He says “she shall rise up in the judgment.” He speaks of the men of Nineveh, a people who have passed away from the face of the earth. He says of them also, “they shall rise up.”
There is something very solemn and instructive in the language which our Lord here uses. It reminds us that this world is not all, and that the life which man lives in the body on earth is not the only life of which we ought to think. The kings and queens of olden time are all to live again one day, and to stand before the bar of God. The vast multitudes who once swarmed round the palaces of Nineveh are all to come forth from their graves, and to give an account of their works. To our eyes they seem to have passed away forever. We read with wonder of their empty halls, and talk of them as a people who have completely perished. Their dwelling-places are a desolation. Their very bones are dust. But to the eye of God they all live still. The queen of the south and the men of Nineveh will all rise again. We shall yet see them face to face.
Let the truth of the resurrection be often before our minds. Let the life to come be frequently before our thoughts. All is not over when the grave receives its tenant, and man goes to his long home. Other people may dwell in our houses, and spend our money. Our very names may soon be forgotten. But still all is not over! Yet a little time and we shall all live again. “The earth shall cast out the dead.” (Isa 26:19.) Many, like Felix, may well tremble when they think of such things. But men who live by faith in the Son of God, like Paul, should lift up their heads and rejoice.
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Notes-
v27.-[A certain woman.] We are not told who this woman was. Her exclamation seems to have been the expression of mingled pleasure and wonder, such as the impressible heart of a Jewish woman would utter. It would be too much to conclude that she was a disciple and a believer.
[of the company.] This expression would be more literally rendered, “out of the crowd or multitude.”
v28.-[Yea, rather.] The Greek word so translated is only found in three other places, and in each is variously rendered. “Nay, but.” (Rom 9:20.) “Yes verily.” (Rom 10:18.) “Yea doubtless.” (Php 3:8.)
We cannot doubt that the words of this verse were spoken with a prophetic foresight of that unscriptural worship of Mary, which was one day to arise and prevail so extensively in the Church of Christ. By no ingenuity, or torturing process, can the words be made to bear any but one plain meaning. They declare, that to hear the word of God and keep it, is to be more blessed than to be connected with Christ by the ties of flesh, and that to be the mother of Christ according to the flesh does not confer on any one greater honour and privileges than to believe and obey the Gospel.
v29.-[Gathered thick together.] The Greek word so rendered is only found here. Parkhurst says that it means “crowding upon.”
[They seek a sign.] The extraordinary perverseness of the Jews in ever wanting some sign to produce in them faith, is noteworthy. Heart unbelief always professes to want evidence. It is not evidence, but a right will which is needful, if a man’s soul is to be saved.
v30.-[Jonas was a sign.] The likeness between Jonas and our Lord has been variously explained. The three days and nights during which Jonah was in the whale’s belly, and his coming forth alive at the end of them are undoubtedly the principal point. They were a type of our Lord being in the grave, and rising again the third day.-The forty days after which Nineveh was to be destroyed are probably another point. They were a type of the forty years which elapsed between our Lord’s ministry and the destruction of Jerusalem.-The mighty fact of the resurrection is unquestionably the main point in the type. It was the hinge on which the whole Gospel turned, and the truth which the apostles constantly pressed on the Jews.
v31.-[The queen of the south.] It need hardly be remarked that the person so described is the queen of Sheba of the Old Testament. (1Ki 10:1.) Her name is not known at all. Her dominions are not known with certainty. Some think that they were in Arabia. Some think they were in Ethiopia. “The utmost parts of the earth” must be interpreted with qualifications as a very distant land.
[A greater than Solomon.] Let it be noted, that both here and in the end of the following verses, the Greek word translated “a greater,” is literally “a greater thing.” It is not improbable that the “thing” referred to is “the sign.”-There is one here who is a sign of far greater moment than either Jonah or Solomon.
Let it be observed, that the point in which the queen of the South surpassed the Jews of our Lord’s time and put them to shame, was “faith.” She had faith enough to come a long journey to hear a wise man. The Jews, on the other hand, had “the wisdom of God” actually in the midst of them, preaching and teaching for three years, and yet they would not believe.
Let it be observed, that the point in which the Ninevites surpassed the Jews, and put them to shame, was repentance. They had among them for a short time a prophet, and a very weak and erring prophet too. Yet they repented and turned to God. The Jews had among them the mightiest and most faithfull preacher that ever warned a people, and yet they would not repent.
In this, as well as in other passages, we should not fail to remark that our Lord speaks of the story of Jonah as an undoubtedly true story, and of Jonah himself and the queen of Sheba as real persons. The modern theory which says that the histories of the Old Testament are nothing better than amusing fables, finds no countenance in the New Testament.
Here again, as well as elsewhere, we see the general judgment and the resurrection spoken of as events which will undoubtedly take place, and events in which the saints of the Old Testament are as much and really interested as those who lived after Christ’s ministry began.
Luk 11:27. A certain woman. Herself a mother, we infer from her language. Tradition calls her Marcella, a maid-servant of Martha.
Blessed is the womb. A natural expression of womanly enthusiasm at the sayings and doings of Christ. As Mary herself shortly after appeared (chap. Luk 8:19) on the edge of the crowd, it is possible that this woman may have perceived her and therefore spoken this blessing. The fact that Luke places it after a severe utterance does not prove it untrustworthy. The womans state of mind was the effect of the whole discourse, and her ignorant enthusiasm would only be increased by the severe tone of His words. Every observant public speaker will understand this.
Observe here, 1. How ready we are to admire persons for their external privileges, and the favors of divine Providence, and pronounce such blessed: Blessed is the womb that bare thee.
Observe, 2. That Christ makes another judgment of persons, and pronounces them more blessed that bear him in their hearts by faith, than his own mother, who bare him in her womb by sense. The blessedness of being an obedient believer, is far greater than that of being the mother of our blessed Saviour.
Blessed be God, this great and gracious privilege is not denied unto us now. Although we cannot see Christ, yet love him we may; his bodily presence cannot be enjoyed by us, but his spiritual gracious presence is not denied us. Though Christ be not ours in house, in arms, by affinity, by consanguinity; yet in heart, in faith, in love, in service, he is or may be ours; verily spiritual regeneration, and an obediental doing of God’s will, brings men into a more honorable relation to Christ, than natural generation ever did: Yet, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
Luk 11:27-28. As he spake these things, a certain woman, &c. While Jesus thus reasoned, in confutation of the Pharisees, a woman of the company, ravished with his wisdom, and perhaps believing him to be their long-expected Messiah, expressed her admiration of his character in an exclamation upon the happiness of the woman who had the honour of giving him birth; a thought very natural for a woman. But he said, Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it As if he had said, The blessedness which you prize so much, and which could be enjoyed by one woman only, however great, is far inferior to a blessedness which is in every ones power, namely, that which arises from the knowledge and practice of the will of God. If even she that bare me had not attended to this, she would have forfeited all her blessedness.
CONSANGUINITY OF THE HOLY GHOST
Mat 12:46-50; Mar 3:31-35; & Luk 8:19; Luk 8:21; Luk 11:27-28. And it came to pass while He was speaking these things, a certain woman, lifting up her voice from the crowd, said to Him, Blessed is the womb having born Thee, and the breast which Thou didst suck. And He said, Truly, blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it. This is simply the gushing ejaculation of a woman in the crowd, so carried away with admiration of His mighty works and wonderful preaching that she is electrified with the conception of the glorious honor appertaining to the woman who enjoyed the privilege and the blessing of motherhood, thus giving the world such a Son. Matthew: And He, speaking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers are standing without, seeking to speak to Him. And responding, He said to the one having spoken to Him, Who is My mother and who are My brothers? Reaching forth His hand toward His disciples [Mark says they were all sitting down around Him in a circle], said, Behold, My mother and My brothers. For whosoever may do the will of My Father who is in the heavens, the same is My brother, My sister, and My mother. Luke says, My mother and My brothers are those who hear the Word of God and do it. His reputed father, Joseph, is not mentioned here in connection with the family, neither have we a single word in reference to him since Jesus accompanied them to the temple when He was twelve years old. There is not doubt but he died during the ensuing eighteen years. We hear of Jesus having sisters living in Nazareth; doubtless married. Questions arise in reference to these brothers of Jesus four in number, James, Judas, Simon, and Joses the Roman Catholics, conservatively to their Mariolatry, claiming that they were the sons of Joseph by a former marriage; and the Protestants, certainly with more plausibility, that they were the uterine brothers of Jesus, and of course younger than Himself, as we have not an intimation that Joseph had a former marriage, and especially from the fact that we always find them in company with Mary, which looks much like she was their mother. Jesus then being thirty-two years old, if they were children of Joseph by a former marriage, it would put them up considerably in bachelorhood, and not seem very plausible that they would have been giving a stepmother so much attention. There is no doubt but they, thinking that He was wearing Himself out, wanted to prevail on Him to relax labor, and go home with them, and take a good rest, which was incompatible with the urgency of His important ministry. We see here, His natural relatives go into eclipse when contrasted with the spiritual. So we all find, as we become more spiritual, our physical consanguinity sinks into deeper eclipse; not that we love our natural relatives less, but the consanguinity of the Holy Ghost is so much sweeter and richer than that of this world, that we find our affections absorbed and literally captured by the saints of God, admiring and appreciating them in proportion to their approximation to that Perfect Man, the fairest among ten thousand and altogether lovely.
Luk 11:27 f. Jesus and His Mother.A variant of Luk 8:19-21*. The introduction of feminine sentiment is characteristic of Lk. Human relationship is not the highest claim; cf. Mat 15:5 f.*
11:27 {7} And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed [is] the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.
(7) Christ does not seek praise for himself, but in our salvation.
2. The importance of observing God’s Word 11:27-28
Instead of attacking Jesus’ works, His critics should have received and obeyed His words. A woman’s comment, called out from the crowd, triggered this response from Jesus that provides a fitting conclusion to the previous incident.
The woman expressed how wonderful it must have been for Mary to have given birth to such a son as Jesus. This was an indirect way of complementing Jesus. His response did not reflect unfavorably on Mary. Her privilege as the mother of the Messiah was great indeed (cf. Luk 1:45). However those who heard God’s word of salvation through Jesus and His disciples, believed it, and acted upon it had an even greater position. The implication that His hearers should do so was obvious. In the immediate context, the word of God was the teaching that Jesus had been giving. Jesus’ words should also warn us against venerating Mary too highly.
"Such praise must have been peculiarly unwelcome to Christ, as being the exaltation of only His Human Personal excellence, intellectual or moral. It quite looked away from that which He would present: His Work and Mission as the Saviour. Hence it was, although from the opposite direction, as great a misunderstanding as the Personal depreciation of the Pharisees." [Note: Edersheim, 2:202.]
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE TRUE CHRISTIAN
In his answer he sets before us,
In this he differs widely from all other persons: for though others may be regular in their attendance on divine ordinances, they do not hear the word of God with that reverence, that self-application, that submission, which become sinners in the presence of their God.]
Together with the character of a Christian our Lord proclaims also,
The Virgin Mary, beyond a doubt, was the most highly favoured of women, in that she was honoured with bringing into the world her incarnate God. So the angel told her; and so she expected that all future ages would consider her [Note: Luk 1:28; Luk 1:48.]. But the true Christian, whoever he be, is incomparably more blessed than she [Note: The Virgin, as a believer in Jesus, was doubtless a partaker of all the privileges that we enjoy through him: but, simply as his mother, she possessed none of them: and all our assertions respecting her must be understood with this limitation.].
1.
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)