Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 21:1
And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
Luk 21:1-4. The Widow’s Mite.
1. he looked up ] The expression seems to shew that He was sitting with downcast eyes, saddened, perhaps, in His human spirit and agitated by the great Denunciation; but this last little incident is ‘like a rose amid a field of thistles,’ an act genuinely beautiful in the desert of ‘official devotion.’
the rich men ] More literally, “ He saw those who were casting their gifts into the treasury rich men.” St Mark tells us that the gifts were large (Mar 12:41).
into the treasury ] See Joh 8:20. This was in the Court of the Women. The High Priest Jehoiada had put a chest for this purpose at the entrance of the House, 2Ki 12:9; see Neh 10:38; Jos. B. J. vi. 5; Antt. xix. 6, 1, and 2Ma 3:6-12. It contained the Corban, Mat 27:6. But in our Lord’s day there were thirteen chests called Shopheroth, from their trumpet-shaped openings, adorned with various inscriptions. These rich men do not seem to have been observing the injunctions both sacred and Talmudic to give secretly, Mat 6:4; Mat 6:18.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
See this explained in the notes at Mar 12:41-44.
Luk 21:4
Penury – Poverty. See this explained in the notes at Mar 12:41-44.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Luk 21:1-4
This poor Widow hath cast in more than they all
The widows mites
Our Lord wished to see how the multitude cast money into the collection-chest–not only how much–anybody could have discovered that–but in what manner and spirit it was being done: reverently or irreverently–as unto God or as unto man–so as to display or so as to conceal the offering–with a conscientious aim to give all that was due, or a self-convicted sense that a part thereof was being withheld.
The searching eye of the Master struck through the outward demeanour of each passing worshipper, right down to the motive that swayed the hand. He was reading the heart of each giver. He was marking whether the gift was the mere fruit of a devotionless habit–a sheer affectation of religious liberality–or, as it ought to be, a humble and sincere token of gratitude and consecration to God. These were the inquiries that were engaging the mind of our Lord on this memorable occasion. We are not informed how long He had sat or what discoveries He had made before the arrival of the poor widow, but He noticed that she gave but two mites; and knowing that this was all she had, He discerned the unselfishness and love that prompted an offering which would perhaps be her last oblation on the altar of the Lord. This act of unfeigned devotion touched Him at once, insomuch that He immediately called His disciples, and drew their attention to so striking and instructive a case. It was her gift, rather than any other, that attracted the greatest interest in the courts of heaven. It was her offering, rather than any other, that was alone worthy of a permanent record in the Gospel History and the books of eternal remembrance. And why? Not only because she gave all her living, but because she gave it unto the Lord with all her heart. Not at all in a spirit of petulance or desperation, as might have been the case; not at all because she saw want staring her in the face, and thought it no longer worth her while to retain the paltry coins she possessed. On the contrary, it was the fineness of the womans spirit, the richness of her gratitude and love, the wealth of her self-forgetfulness and trust under the severity of her trials, that gave her little gift the exceeding rareness of its value. She was neither despairing nor repining, but walking by faith and in contentment, reflecting that, not withstanding her indigence, there was none to whom she was so great a debtor as unto the Lord her God, who in His providence had given her all she had, or ever had had, or ever would have, temporal and spiritual. And out of the depths of her adoration and thankfulness she says unto herself, I will go, in my poverty and sincerity, and pay my vows unto the Lord in the presence of all His people, cast my slender and only offering into the sacred treasury, and await the goodness of His hand in the land of the living. The other worshippers were giving variously, but all of their abundance; or, as the Revised Version has it, of their superfluity. They never missed what they gave. They were sacrificing nothing to enable them to give. They could have given more, some of them far more, and never have felt the slightest pressure in consequence. But the poor widow had not an iota more to offer. She gave her uttermost farthing, and she gave it gladly. (J. W.Pringle, M. A.)
The duty of almsgiving
1. It is necessary and scriptural that there be public voluntary contributions for pious and charitable purposes.
2. Both the rich and the poor should contribute to pious and charitable purposes, and that according to their respective ability.
3. It concerns us all to see that our contributions be such, in respect of the principles and motives from which they flow, as will meet with the Divine approbation.
4. Be exhorted to cast liberally into the offerings of God, by the encouraging considerations which are placed before you in His Word.
(1) Remember that the eye of the Lord Jesus Christ is upon you.
(2) Remember, again, the considerations connected with the amazing kindness of your God and Saviour to you.
(3) Be exhorted, once more, to give liberally, by the consideration of the promise of an abundant recompense, both in this world and in the world to come. (James Foote, M. A.)
The anonymous widow
It is related of Father Taylor, the sailor missionary of Boston, that on one occasion, when a minister was urging that the names of the subscribers to an institution (it was tile missionary cause) should be published, in order to increase the funds, and quoted the account of the poor widow and her two mites, to justify this trumpet-sounding, he settled the question by rising from his seat, and asking in his clear, shrill voice, Will the speaker please give us the name of that poor widow? (Christian Age.)
The widows mite
When it is said that this mite was all this womans living, it must, of course, mean all her living for that day. She threw herself upon the providence of God to supply her with her evening meal or nights lodging. From what she gave, which the Lord brought to light and commended, the expression I give my mite has passed into a proverb, which in the mouths of many who use it is ridiculous, if not profane. What ought to be the mite of one in a good business which yields him several hundreds a year clear profit? What ought to be the mite of a professional man in good practice, after all reasonable family claims are provided for? A man with an income of at least two or three hundred a year once said to me, when I called upon him for assistance in keeping up a national school, I will think about it, sir, and I will give you my mite. He did think, and his mite was two shillings. Contrast this with the following. Two aged paupers, having only the usual parish pay, became communicants. They determined that they would not neglect the offertory; but how was this to be done, as they were on starvation allowance? Well, during the week before the celebration, they did without light, sat up for two or three hours in the dark, and then went to bed, and gave the few pence which they saved in oil or rushlights to be laid on the altar of God. (M. F. Sadler.)
Giving his all
A gentleman was walking late one night along a street in London, in which stands the hospital where some of our little friends support a bed (The May Fair Cot, in Ormond Street Hospital) for a sick child. There were three acrobats passing along there, plodding wearily home to their miserable lodgings after their days work; two of them were men, and they were carrying the ladders and poles with which they gave their performance in the streets whenever they could collect a crowd to look on. The third was a little boy in a clowns dress. He trotted wearily behind, very tired, and looking pale and sick. Just as they were passing the hospital the little lads sad face brightened for a moment. He ran up the steps and dropped into the box attached to the door a little bit of paper. It was found next morning there. It contained a sixpence, and on the paper was written, For a sick child. The one who saw it afterwards ascertained, as he tells us, that the poor little waif, almost destitute, had been sick, and in his weary pilgrimage was a year before brought to the hospital, which had been a House Beautiful to him, and he was there cured of his bodily disease. Hands of kindness had ministered to him, words of kindness had been spoken to him, and he had left it cured in body and whole in heart. Some one on that day in a crowd had slipped a sixpence into his hand, and that same night as he passed by, his grateful little heart gave up for other child-sufferers all the living that he had. It was all done so quietly, so noiselessly; but oh I believe me, the sound of that little coin falling into Gods treasury that night rose above the roar and din of this mighty city, and was heard with joy in the very presence of God Himself
The giving out of abundance and out of penury
Mamma, I thought a mite was a very little thing. What did the Lord mean when He said the widows mite was more than all the money the rich men gave? It was Sunday afternoon, and the question was asked by a little child of eight, who had large, dark, inquiring eyes, that were always trying to look into things. Mamma had just been reading to her the story from the Bible, and now she wanted it explained. Mamma thought for a few minutes, and then said, Well, Lulu, I will tell you a little story, and then I think you will understand why the widows mite was more valuable than ordinary mites. There was once a little girl, whose name was Kitty, and this little girl had ever so many dolls, almost more than she could count. Some were made of china, and others were made of wax, with real hair and beautiful eyes that would open and shut; but Kitty was tired of them all, except the newest one, which her auntie had given her at Christmas. One day a poor little girl came to the door begging, and Kittys mother told her to go and get one of her old dolls and give it away. She did so, and her old doll was like what the rich men put into the treasury. She could give it away just as well as not, and it didnt cost her anything. But the poor little beggar girl was delighted with her doll. She had never had but one before, and that was a rag doll; but this one had such lovely curly hair, and she had never seen any lady with such an elegant pink silk dress on. She was almost afraid to hold it against her dirty shawl, for fear of soiling it; so she hurried home as fast as she could, to hide it away with her few small treasures. Just as she was going upstairs to their poor rooms, she saw through the crack of the door in the basement her little friend Sally, who had been sick in bed all summer, and who was all alone all day, while her mother went out washing, to try and earn money enough to keep them from starving. As our little girl looked through the crack she thought to herself, I must show Sally my new dolly. So she rushed into the room and on to the bed, crying, O Sally! see! Sally tried to reach out her arms to take it, but she was too sick; so her little friend held up the dolly, and as she did so, she thought, How sick Sally looks to-day! and she hasnt any dolly. Then, with one generous impulse, she said, Here, Sally, you may have her. Now, Lulu, do you see? The little girls dolly was like the widows mite–she gave her all.
The largest giver
The late Bishop Selwyn was a man of ready wit as well as of devout Christian feeling. In his New Zealand diocese it was proposed to allot the seats of a new church, when the Bishop asked on what principle the allotment was to be made, to which it was replied that the largest donors should have the best seats, and so on in proportion. To this arrangement, to the surprise of every one, the Bishop assented, and presently the question arose who had given the most. This, it was answered, should be decided by the subscription list. And now, said the Bishop, who has given the most? The poor widow in the temple, in casting into the treasury her two mites, had cast in more than they all; for they of their abundance had cast into the treasury, but she had cast in all the living that she had. (W. Baxendale.)
A Welsh boys offering
It is related of a little Welsh boy who attended a missionary meeting that when he had given in his collecting card and what he had obtained from his friends, he was greatly distressed because he had not a halfpenny of his own to put in the plate at the meeting. His heart was so thrilled with interest in the work that he ran home and told his mother that he wanted to be a missionary, and asked her to give him something for the collection, but she was too poor to give him any money. He was disappointed and cried; but a thought struck him. He collected all his marbles, went out, and sold them for a penny, and then went to the meeting again and put it on the plate, feeling glad that he was able to do something to promote the cause of missions.
What one halfpenny can do
A son of one of the chiefs of Burdwan was converted by a single tract. He could not read, but he went to Rangoon, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles; a missionarys wife taught him to read, and in forty-eight hours he could read the tract through. He then took a basket full of tracts; with much difficulty preached the gospel at his own home, and was the means of converting hundreds to God. He was a man of influence; the people flocked to hear him; and in one year one thousand five hundred natives were baptized in Arracan as members of the Church. And all this through one little tract I That tract cost one halfpenny! Oh! whose halfpenny was it? God only knows. Perhaps it was the mite of some little girl; perhaps the well-earned offering of some little boy. But what a blessing it was! (Bowes.)
The gifts of the poor
Sarah Hosmer, while a factory girl, gave fifty guineas to support native pastors. When more than sixty years old she longed so to furnish Nestoria with one more preacher that, living in an attic, she took in sewing until she had accomplished her cherished purpose. Dr. Gordon has well said, In the hands of this consecrated woman, money transformed the factory girl and the seamstress into a missionary of the Cross and then multiplied her sixfold. But might we not give a thousand times as much money as Sarah Hosmer gave, and yet not earn her reward?
The true worth of money
After all, objects take their colour from the eyes that look at them. And let us be assured that there is an infinite difference in the sight of an eye which is the window of a sordid soul and an eye from which looks a soul that has been ennobled by the royal touch of Christ. There are some eyes that read upon a piece of gold nothing but the figures that tell its denomination. There are others, thank God, that see upon it truths that thrill and gladden and uplift. If the lust of gold has blinded your eyes to all else but its conventional value, go to the feet of Christ, and to His question, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? answer, Lord, that mine eyes might be opened. And when you have learned to look through money into that infinite reach that lies beyond it, you will have learned the lesson of the gospel. You may then be a rich Christian, making earth brighter and better, and building for yourself in heaven everlasting habitations.
Liberal giving
In a sequestered glen in Burmah lived a woman, who was known as Naughapo (Daughter of Goodness). Sire was the Dorcas of the glen–clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, soothing the afflicted, and often making her little dwelling the home of the poor, that they might enjoy the privilege of the neighbouring school. Mrs. Mason, the missionary, visiting her, was struck with the beauty of her peaceful home–evidently a spot which the Lord had blessed The day before she left, apedlar had called with his tempting fabrics for sale; but though this poor woman was in poor garments, she had but one rupee for purchases, while on the following morning she and her family put thirteen rupees into Mrs. Masons hand, to be deposited in the mission treasury. (Mrs. Wylies Life of Mrs. Mason.)
Noble giving
General Gordon had a great number of medals, for which he cared nothing. There was a gold one, however, given to him by the Empress of China, with a special inscription engraved upon it, for which he had a great liking. But it suddenly disappeared, no one knew when or how. Years afterwards it was found out by a curious accident that he had erased the inscription, sold the medal for ten pounds, and sent the sum anonymously to Canon Millar, for the relief of the sufferers from the cotton famine at Manchester. (E. Hake.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXI.
The poor widow casting two mites into the treasury, 1-4.
the destruction of the temple foretold, 5, 6.
The signs of this desolation, 7.
False Christs, 8.
Wars, 9, 10.
Earthquakes and fearful sights, 11.
Persecutions against the godly, 12-19.
Directions how to escape, 20-22.
The tribulation of those times, 23-28.
The parable of the fig tree, illustrative of the time when they
may expect these calamities, 29-33.
The necessity of sobriety and watchfulness, 34-36.
He teaches by day in the temple, and lodges by night in the
mount of Olives, and the people come early to hear him, 37, 38.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXI.
Verse 1. The rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.] See all this, from Lu 21:1-4, explained on Mr 12:41-44.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
We met with this piece of history, Mar 12:41-44. Mark telleth us, that Christ was sitting right over against the treasury. For other things necessary to be known to understand this piece of history, See Poole on “Mar 12:41“, and following verses to Mar 12:44.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. looked upHe had “satdown over against the treasury” (Mr12:41), probably to rest, for He had continued long standing ashe taught in the temple court (Mr11:27), and “looking up He saw”as in Zaccheus’ case,not quite casually.
the rich, c.”thepeople,” says Mr 12:41“cast money into the treasury, and many rich east in much”that is, into chests deposited in one of the courts of the temple toreceive the offerings of the people towards its maintenance (2Ki 12:9;Joh 8:20).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he looked up,…. As Christ sat over against the treasury, looking upon the ground, he lift up his eyes; for the treasury was not in an high place, or above Christ, who was right against it. The Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions leave out this clause.
And saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury;
[See comments on Mr 12:41].
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Christ Commendeth the Poor Widow. |
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1 And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. 2 And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. 3 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: 4 For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.
This short passage of story we had before in Mark. It is thus recorded twice, to teach us, 1. That charity to the poor is a main matter in religion. Our Lord Jesus took all occasions to commend it and recommend it. He had just mentioned the barbarity of the scribes, who devoured poor widows (ch. xx.); and perhaps this is designed as an aggravation of it, that the poor widows were the best benefactors to the public funds, of which the scribes had the disposal. 2. That Jesus Christ has his eye upon us, to observe what we give to the poor, and what we contribute to works of piety and charity. Christ, though intent upon his preaching, looked up, to see what gifts were cast into the treasury, v. 1. He observes whether we give largely and liberally, in proportion to what we have, or whether we be sneaking and paltry in it; nay, his eye goes further, he observes whether we give charitably and with a willing mind, or grudgingly and with reluctance. This should make us afraid of coming short of our duty in this matter; men may be deceived with excuses which Christ knows to be frivolous. And this should encourage us to be abundant in it, without desiring that men should know it; it is enough that Christ does; he sees in secret, and will reward openly. 3. That Christ observes and accepts the charity of the poor in a particular manner. Those that have nothing to give may yet do a great deal in charity by ministering to the poor, and helping them, and begging for them, that cannot help themselves, or beg for themselves. But here was one that was herself poor and yet gave what little she had to the treasury. It was but two mites, which make a farthing; but Christ magnified it as a piece of charity exceeding all the rest: She has cast in more than they all. Christ does not blame her for indiscretion, in giving what she wanted herself, nor for vanity in giving among the rich to the treasury; but commended her liberality, and her willingness to part with what little she had for the glory of God, which proceeded from a belief of and dependence upon God’s providence to take care of her. Jehovah-jireh–the Lord will provide. 4. That, whatever may be called the offerings of God, we ought to have a respect for, and to our power, yea, and beyond our power, to contribute cheerfully to. These have cast in unto the offerings of God. What is given to the support of the ministry and the gospel, to the spreading and propagating of religion, the education of youth, the release of prisoners, the relief of widows and strangers, and the maintenance of poor families, is given to the offerings of God, and it shall be so accepted and recompensed.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
And he looked up ( ). He had taken his seat, after the debate was over and the Sanhedrin had slunk away in sheer defeat, “over against the treasury” (Mr 12:41). The word for “treasury” () is a compound of (Persian word for royal treasury) and guard or protection. It is common in the LXX, but in the N.T. only here and Mark 12:41; Mark 12:43; John 8:20. Jesus was watching (Mr 12:41) the rich put in their gifts as a slight diversion from the intense strain of the hours before.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Treasury. See on Mr 12:41.
Rich. Standing last and emphatically in the sentence, “Saw them that were casting, etc. – rich men.” Not the rich only were casting in. Compare Mr 12:41.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
THE WIDOWS MITE V. 1-4
1) “And he looked up;” (anablepsas de) “Then he looked up;” Mar 12:41 indicates that Jesus was seated in the court of the women where thirteen chests with trumpet-shaped mouths were placed and marked for offerings to be given for special causes.
2) “And saw the rich men,” (eidon tous plousious) “And he saw the rich ones,” 2Ki 12:9; Joh 8:20, wealthy or plutocratic ones, Mar 12:41. Mark says He beheld “how much” they cast in, watching the attitude of their expressions as they gave; Luk 6:24; Luk 16:21; Luk 16:19-31, etc.
3) “Casting their gifts into the treasury.” (ballontas eis to gazophulakeion ta dora auton) “Tossing, casting, or throwing their gifts into the treasury,” free will offerings, not the tithe, Mar 12:41; Luk 18:23-27; Luk 19:2-10.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
Luk. 21:1. Looked up.From the parallel passage in Mar. 12:41 we learn that our Lord had taken his seat in the court of the women, where were the chests for containing gifts and offerings to the Temple. These chests were thirteen in number, and had trumpet-shaped mouths for receiving the money. On the chests were labels specifying the purposes to which the money was to be applied.
Luk. 21:2. Saw also.Omit also; omitted in R.V. Poor widow.The word poor is emphatic; almost equivalent to beggar. Two mites.The mite was the smallest Jewish coin, about equal to a tenth of an English penny.
Luk. 21:3. More than they all.The estimate being formed, not on the amount given, but on the amount remaining after the gift; or, in other words, on the quality of the gift and not on its quantity.
Luk. 21:4. Of their abundance.Rather, of their superfluity (R.V.). A sharp antithesis to the destitution of the widow. All the living.Lit. lifei.e., means of subsistence. Yet the word seems chosen expressly to indicate entire devotion of herself, her life, as well as livelihood, to Gods service (Speakers Commentary).
Luk. 21:5. Gifts.Rather, sacred offerings (R.V.). Such as the golden chain of Agrippa; gifts of Ptolemy Philadelphus, Augustus, Helen of Adiabene, and crowns, shields, goblets, etc.; the golden vine, with its vast clusters, given by Herod (Farrar).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Luk. 21:1-6
Self-sacrifice.This little incident occupies a striking place in the Gospel records. Jesus has just uttered woe after woe upon His hypocritical and malignant foes, and is about to impart to His disciples a revelation of dread events yet to comethe overthrow of the Jewish people, the destruction of the Temple, and startling phenomena that would usher in His Second Coming. Between His burning words of denunciation and the awe-inspiring disclosures He makes to His disciples, comes this genial appreciation of a deed of self-sacrifice and love, done by a poor and obscure worshipper as she passed out of the house of God. As if to show that no feelings of personal anger mingled with His righteous anger, and that, though his heart was sad, His mind was unruffled, He sat down as an unoccupied spectator in the court of the Temple, and, with gentle voice and mien, commented upon the good deed which had come under His observation. We may note His approval of the principle that self-sacrifice is an essential part of true worship, and the commendation He bestowed upon the action of this poor widow.
I. Self-sacrifice an essential part of true worship.The fact that provision was made in the Temple for gifts and offerings to be presented by worshippers as they retired, is very significant. It teaches that all worship of God should tend towards and end in self-sacrifice. We come to church to worship Godto join with the saints upon earth, and with the angels and the redeemed in heaven, in adoring the Divine majesty and holiness. This is our reasonable service, and by it our lives are sanctified. We humble ourselves before Him who is of purer eyes than to behold evil; in His presence we disclose our thoughts, we acknowledge our transgressions and secret faults, and seek to exhibit that contrition that will justify forgiveness. We contemplate the mercy God has revealed, adore the Saviour whom He has sent, rejoice in the thought of the Divine compassion, and give expression to our gratitude in hymns of praise. This is the worship which God seeks; it is the holy incense which is acceptable to Him: but this worship should issue in self-sacrifice. Sacrifice is the one main idea in every form of religion known to man. Horrible as many of the forms of sacrifice have been, and are, among heathen races, yet in all cases they proclaim the same great truth, that man owes himself and all he has to God. And Christianity, above all other religions, sets forth this truth. What is the cross but the symbol of the greatest of all deeds of self-sacrificethe complete surrender of a life for the glory of God and the good of mankind? What does it teach but that we belong altogether to God, and should yield ourselves to Him? This is how the holy apostles conceive of religion. In all their writings they remind us that we are not our own, but His, and that we should offer ourselves to Him as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable.
II. The commendation bestowed upon the poor widow.Why were the two mites of greater value than all the gold and silver which others cast in lavishly? Because, trifling though they were in intrinsic value, they were the sign of a complete and unreserved sacrifice of the whole being to God. She gave herself; the tiny bits of copper were but the symbol of this higher, nobler offering. This it was that threw into insignificance all the treasures that enriched the coffers of the Temple, and even the gifts with which wealthy devotees had adorned the building and made it the pride of the nation. Others gave something they could afford to sparegave of their superfluityand in this way gave less than she did. So that it is not a question of giving much or little of our property to a good cause, but of discovering by the light of this passage of Scripture whether we are offering to God a complete sacrifice of ourselves, or are substituting for it something which we can afford to part with, but which in comparison with ourselves has no value. Anything short of the gift of our all to God is unacceptable to Him. Take the case of those who would fain dedicate only part of the life, of the affections, of the interests, to His service. The young man, let us say, plans out the sort of life he would like to lead; he forms schemes of self-advancement, happiness, and self-gratification, from which thoughts of God are excluded. Religion is kept, as it were, in reserve, to be a resource and a consolation, when all the pleasures of life are exhausted, and the time of old age, weakness, and disappointment, has come. When the fortune is made, and success is won, there will be leisure for heavenly things. Is not this professing to give the superfluity and to retain the essential part? And yet we cannot be sure of retaining it, for at any moment death may seize the whole. We have the word of Christ to assure us that we do not lose what we give to God, but lay up for ourselves a treasure in heaven, which will never know diminution, but be an abiding possession. The life which is consecrated to God is not robbed of its delightsnay, it alone is the happy life; it multiplies present enjoyments a hundredfold, and secures for us the crown of eternal blessedness. But if we choose to keep all for ourselves, we are sure of losing it. She cast in all the living that she had. How foolish of her! some will say. Yes; it has been by folly like this, by lavish and unselfish love, that the world has been redeemed. Her action remains as a cutting rebuke of the selfish, worldly spirit, and of that mean and calculating prudence which even the world despises. For if there are few in the present age who have imitated her literal impoverishment of herself for the sake of religion, there are many who have followed a like course for the sake of country. There are many who have, from patriotic motives, forfeited property, happiness, and even reputation, and are willing to give up their lives for their countrys sake. And what is admirable in the lower sphere is surely not ridiculous in the higher. It is, then, with something like a reproachful pang of conscience that we should listen to the commendation bestowed on this poor widow: She of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had; she hath cast in more than they all. (See an interesting sermon on this text by Bernier: La veuve, ou le don sans rserve.)
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk. 21:1-6
Luk. 21:1-6. The Widows Offering and the Stones of the Temple.While the disciples were wondering at the majestic towers and carved stone-work as a great offering dedicated by man to God, Christ had seen in the gift of the poor widow an offering equally great in the eye of Heaven. The contrast suggests
I. The true measure of sacrifice.Not the greatness of the outward act, but the perfectness of the inward motive.
II. The true idea of a temple.The disciples saw Gods dwelling-place in the house of stone with its Holy of Holies and altars of sacrifice. Christ saw it in the broken heart of the widow.
Three practical lessons we may learn:
1. A lesson of dutyto live to God in small things; to dedicate our lives to Him, even if we have no great opportunities of service, and are vexed by cares.
2. A lesson of encouragement. Live to God in all things; consider no sacrifice too great or too small; do your best in everything, as in His sight;and you will find Him everywhere.
3. A lesson of warning. The Jews had come to see God only in the Temple at Jerusalem. As a consequence they became formaliststhe surrender of their souls was forgotten. And the splendid Temple fell! So now and ever. Forget the Divinity of all life, and the temple of your soul will become desolate.Hull.
Luk. 21:1-4. The Eye of Christ.He beheld. This text is full of instruction; it encourages the very humblest to give; it thus makes giving a universal duty and privilege; it proclaims a searching paradox as to more and less; and it requires us to feel that our givings are scrutinised by Him before whose judgment-seat we are to stand.
I. The circumstances are instructive.
II. The scrutiny of the Saviour was very searching.
III. This poor widow gave all she had.Relatively, it was a great gift.
IV. The Lord does not receive any offering unless it is large enough to prove self-denial on the part of the giver.The money in itself is valueless to God, but is of value as representing thankfulness, self-denial, prayer, and trust.Symington.
Hypocrisy and Piety.
I. Some pretended to love God.They did their good works, their righteousness, to be seen of men. They loved themselves, their reputationnot God.
II. One really loved God.She gave all she had. She had nothing left. There was no ostentation. There would have been condemnation had others known that all she gave was two mites. Really, however, others only gave a little, this worshipper gave all, out of grateful love to God.
III. What pleases God.Not outside show, not display of goodness, not ostentatious giving of much. But love, gratitude, humility, self-sacrificethese are pleasing in Gods sight. We can please God in little, if that little is our all.Sunday School Chronicle.
Heartiness in Action.Giving is one form of action for God. What is the aspect which many of the Lords people present to the world in this particular? Where is their heartiness in it? How much is there of form, and how little of decided action! Many who are steeped in poverty are rich indeed in action. The poor widow is a case in point.
I. She was of no account in the worlds estimation.
II. She was of no account, so far as man was concerned, in the Temple of the Lord.
III. Yet she alone receives the commendation of the Lord.To Him who seeth not as man seeth she was immeasurably above all others.
IV. Learn that when we think we are unobserved we are doing all under the immediate eye of God.We too often forget that we are the servants of One whose eye is ever on us, taking note of what we think, and speak, and do. In all our givings we should so perform these acts that we do not desire them to be hidden from the eyes of God. He who is like this poor widow will delight in the thought that his Lord knows all. Act, then, on all occasions as though you wished Jesus to look on.Power.
Two mites.Just between the woes and predictions of doom there befel an exquisite little incident, full of the tenderest and loveliest beauty. Jesus was sitting over against the treasury, watching the givers.
I. He sees who give, what they give, why they give.
II. He is arrested by the liberal giving of a poor widow.He had pleasure in what she did. He commends her with an overflow of joy. He says nothing to herselfnothing in her hearing even; but He teaches the disciples a lesson in the political economy of the kingdom of heaven.
III. The money value of the offering was very small.Probably it was the smallest of any presented there that day. But the relative value was very great. She had nothing left after giving her two mites. So this was the greatest offering of all contributed that day.
IV. The offering had also spiritual value, because of what it represented.Men may value money for itself; the Lord does not. It is the heart He cares for. Jesus would not have spoken as He did unless her offering had expressed grateful love to God, and trust in Him for time to come, whatever may betide. Were the principles which appear in this little incident to pervade all Christian giving, the Lords treasury would contain exactly the right sum.Culross.
The Widows Mites.
I. It is good to have our Lords estimate of the earths gifts.
II. In the eyes of Christ, this offering was of great price.
III. This value arose from the motive and spirit of the giver.Miller.
Human and Divine Estimates.The widows offering was, in the eyes of men
I. Less than all.Only a farthing. Not worth giving.
II. More than all.In Christs estimate. She had given all, and left nothing. The others had retained much. What is Christs estimate of your givings?W. Taylor.
I. The lively interest which Christ takes in the smaller details of our life.
II. The special interest He takes in the free-will offerings of His servants.
III. The mode in which He measures our offerings of money or service.Ibid.
Luk. 21:1. Looked up.I.e., turned His attention from those who had been listening to Him, and took note of what was going on near at hand, where the boxes for receiving offerings stood.
Luk. 21:2. Two mites.She might have kept one of them.Bengel.
Luk. 21:3. More.Jesus draws attention to the moral quality of the action, and bestows on it the praise which vulgar minds usually reserve for liberality that bulks largely in quantity. With the two mites she gave her heart also.
Luk. 21:4-5.
I. The action of the poor widow appeals to Christ as worthy of admiration.As having great moral and spiritual value.
II. The disciples admire the magnificence of the Temple building.They are impressed with the splendour that appeals to the senses and delights the sthetic taste.
Luk. 21:4. Of her penury.
I. The loving heart counts no sacrifice too great.
II. The gracious Redeemer despises no gift, however small, when the motive of the giver is pure.
A Flower in The Desert.What a contrast to the greed with which the scribes and Pharisees are charged in the preceding verses! This incident, which meets His notice just at this moment, is like a flower which He sees suddenly springing up in the desert of official devotion, the beauty and fragrance of which fills His heart with joy.Godet.
Luk. 21:5. Adorned.
1. Beauty of outward semblance.
2. Yet perishable for lack of the indwelling spirit of religion.
Gifts.The disciples take pleasure in looking upon the splendid gifts, made for the most part by heathen princes; they delight in them
(1) because of their beauty and value, and
(2) doubtless because they saw in them the fulfilment of such prophetical passages of Scripture as Psalms 72, Isaiah 60. They can scarcely fail to infer, from Christs words, that a doom rests upon the sanctuary; yet they can scarcely realise the fact, and almost intercede for its preservation.
Luk. 21:6. Not be left one stone.
1. The beauty of these things will not persuade the enemy to spare them.
2. The strength of the buildings will not be able to resist the power of the enemy.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Butlers Comments
SECTION 1
Presentment of Sions Default (Luk. 21:1-4)
21 He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury; 2and he saw a poor widow put in two copper coins. 3And he said, Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; 4for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all the living that she had.
Luk. 21:1-2 Appearances: After His scathing denunciation of the Pharisees (Luk. 20:45-47 and Mat. 23:1-39) probably within the Court of Israel (where men only were allowed), Jesus walked down about 15 steps to the spacious Court of the Women and sat down near the place of the Treasury. The Greek word is gazophulakion, a combination of gaza, thing stored, and phulake, guarded. The Greek may be a translation of an Aramaic or Hebrew word ginzaya which also means, treasure house. Solomons temple treasuries were closely connected to the porches (cf. 1Ch. 28:11). The Second temple also had treasuries (cf. Neh. 13:4 ff.). In Herods temple (the one of Jesus day) the Womens Court was called the treasury because that is where the 13 bronze, trumpet-shaped boxes were placed for the reception of the offerings of the worshippers. The boxes or chests were narrow at the mouth and wide at the bottom, with their contents clearly marked on them; trumpets 1 and 2 were for the half-shekel Temple-tax for the current year and the year immediately past; trumpets 3 and 4 received the sin-offering money for the purchase of turtledoves by women who needed this particular sacrificethe money was daily taken out and a corresponding number of turtledoves were offered; trumpet 5 contained offerings for the purchase of wood used in the temple altars, etc.; trumpet 6, offerings for the purchase of incense; trumpet 7, offerings for the golden vessels; if a man put aside a certain sum for a sin-offering, and any money was left over after its purchase, such money was to be cast into trumpet 8; and trumpets 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 were to receive any money of a worshipper left over from trespass-offerings, offerings of birds, the offering of the Nazarite, of the cleansed leper, and voluntary offerings. These chests were out in the open, accessible spaces of the Womens Court, but there was also a special treasury-chamber into which, at certain times, they carried the contents of the thirteen chests for safe-keeping. Marks record of this incident says Jesus watched the multitude putting money into the treasury. Mark uses the Greek word etheorei (Mar. 12:41) which means His observation was not an accidental one but deliberate. He sat down purposely to observe the worshippers. What Jesus saw was a representation of the cancer of rebellion which was destroying the Jewish nation. He saw many rich putting in muchbut their much was only a facade. He saw a poor, probably oppressed, widow putting in all her living. The many rich were only giving for appearances sake. Probably the reason the rich gave much was that the many coins would make a louder and longer sound sliding down the narrow openings of the bronze boxes and clanging into the flaring, trumpet-like bottoms. The widow put in two small copper coins. The Greek word for her coins is lepta; the word literally means, peeled, fine, thin, small, light. It came to be used to designate a small copper coin, often mentioned in the Mishna as the smallest Jewish coin. Its value was about one-eighth of the Roman money, as, or about one-one hundred twenty-eighth of a denarius; one denarii constituted a days wages in buying power for the common laborer then. Two mites or lepta would be worth about 60 in American coin today. What would 60 be compared to probably hundreds of dollars being cast into the treasury by the rich?
Luk. 21:3-4 Actualities: If a contributors-list had been published in the Temple News-letter these two mites would probably be hidden in the Miscellaneous Gifts section, if listed at all! Yet out of the midst of all the large gifts by important people, the Son of God selected these two mites and held them up for all the world to see and for centuries of believers to marvel at and use to examine themselves. Contrasted with all the powerful and great people and over against all their hostility and unbelief is this nameless widow and her insignificant coins. As God saw it, it was the most important thing that happened there on that Tuesday. The Lords standard of values are out of this world! What Jesus said was more is exactly opposite from what the world says is great. And why?because of the motive, because of the attitude. Any amount given grudgingly, of necessity or out of coercion is an abomination before God (cf. 2Co. 9:5-8). On the other hand, if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a man has, not according to what he has not, (2Co. 8:12). These many rich people cast into the treasury boxes out of their abundance. The Greek word translated abundance is perisseuontos and may be translated superfluity, or, sometimes, left-over (see Mar. 8:8). What these rich gave was what they had left over after they made sure their own needs and wants were secured (probably with a goodly portion also socked away in savings for a rainy day). It was an out and out manifestation of greed, selfishness, and, worst of all, mistrust in Gods promises to supply every need. What these rich gave represented no sacrifice of self at all! There was nothing spiritual in their giving at allit was all ritual and pretense. In giving only left-overs, even though it was much, they revealed their blatant disrespect for Gods Law. This is the way Christ saw their offerings!
The widow put into the offering box, more than all of them because she gave when she was suffering privation and poverty herself. Not only did she give, she gave all she had to live on. The Greek word translated living is bios which is the word for physical life. Those two mites represented all that was between her and starvation! It is almost incredible that anyone would do such a thing as this widow did. If it were not in the Bible we could not believe it! This widow follows in the train of that godly widow in Elijahs day who had only a handful of meal and a little oil between starvation for herself and her son but by faith in God willingly shared it with the prophet, (1Ki. 17:12-16).
What this widow did was probably scorned by the rich, but for Jesus it manifested her complete trust in the Fathers word. Such a deed is evidence of belief in God like nothing else. This is the way the Macedonians gave (2Co. 8:1-7)in their extreme poverty. Such faith proves our love (2Co. 8:8; 2Co. 8:24) and our obedience (2Co. 9:13). Giving like this is doing the work of God (2Co. 8:7). The widows offering was sacrificial. Sacrifice means literally, to slay and offer. This widow put self to death and offered self to God, totally. She gave all her living. God measures sacrifices and offerings not so much by what one gives as by what one keeps! He evaluates offerings not in terms of amount but in terms of devotion (2Co. 8:12; 2Co. 9:5; 2Co. 9:7-8). Her deed was altogether spiritual. She would not accept the philosophy that life consists in the things one possessesthat there is no life after death and that we live only in the realm of the material existence. She put the glorification of God before her own physical life. She did so, right where she was, with what she had at that momentnot waiting until something more exciting and applaudable came along. She would never know what her last coin would accomplishshe would never be acknowledged by men or receive applause. But that was not her concern. She loved God and was grateful to God with all her being. She believed and trusted the First Commandment. The widows offering shows the superficiality of the saying: nine-tenths with Gods blessing, equals more, and all those other pragmatic, materialistic motivations for tithing.
While Jesus waited and watched to see some fruit of godliness and respect for Gods Law in the religious leaders of Israel in that dark and desolate hour, He saw in them only hypocrisy and contempt for God. But He did see one godly widow living in poverty, come to show there was still a small remnant of faith, real faith, in Israel. If Jesus were to write down what He sees in the church today, would it approximate what He saw in the Treasury (cf. Rev. 2:9; Rev. 3:17)? What He saw in the Treasury indicated to Him that Gods Zion, His redemptive nation, had defaulted on its call and covenant. Time was fast approaching when the terrible judgment of Jehovah must fall. They had rejected HimHe will reject them.
Appleburys Comments
A Poor Widows Two Small Coins
Scripture
Luk. 21:1-4 And he looked up, and saw the rich men that were casting their gifts into the treasury. 2 And he saw a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. 3 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, This poor widow cast in more than they all: 4 for all these did of their superfluity cast in unto the gifts; but she of her want did cast in all the living that she had.
Comments
And he looked up.Jesus had been teaching in the temple. He had just warned the people to beware of the hypocrisy of the scribes whose long prayers failed to cover up the fact that they were devouring widows houses. As He looked up, He saw the rich men putting their gifts into the treasury.
Earlier in His ministry, Jesus had spoken against the hypocrisy of giving to be seen of men (Mat. 6:2-4). Nothing is said that would suggest that these rich men were guilty either of hypocrisy or of acquiring wealth by defrauding the poor. Because some rich men make riches their god, there is no reason to assume that all do. The point of the lesson is the contrast between those who put in their gifts out of their riches and the poor widow who gave all she had to live on.
a certain poor widow casting in her two mites.They were just two little copper coins. It didnt amount to much. It would scarcely be noticed in the total offering of that day, but Jesus saw it. Her act is memorialized in Lukes gospel for all ages to come.
Paul reminded the Corinthians that If the readiness is there, it is acceptable as a man hath, not as he hath not (2Co. 8:12).
This poor widow cast in more than they all.The Lords work certainly requires large amounts from those who have riches as well as the seemingly insignificant amounts from those who are like the poor widow. But in the eyes of Jesus, the poor widow did more than all the others. The reason? She gave all she had to live on; the others gave out of their abundance.
Paul commended the churches of Macedonia for their liberality in face of their real poverty, for they first gave their own selves to the Lord (2Co. 8:5). He also upheld the principle of proportionate giving (1Co. 16:2).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXI.
(1-4) And saw the rich men casting their gifts.See Notes on Mar. 12:41-44. This may, perhaps, be thought of as one of the incidents which St. Luke derived from verbal communication with his brother-evangelist. (See Introduction.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 21
THE PRECIOUS GIFT ( Luk 21:1-4 ) 21:1-4 Jesus looked up and saw those who were putting their gifts into the treasury–rich people–and he saw a poor widow putting in two lepta. So he said, “I tell you truly that this poor widow has put in more than all, for all these contributed to the gifts out of their abundance, but she, out of her need, has put in everything she had to live on.”
In the Court of the Women in the Temple there were thirteen collecting boxes known as the Trumpets. They were shaped like trumpets with the narrow part at the top and the wider part at the foot. Each was assigned to offerings for a different purpose–for the wood that was used to burn the sacrifice, for the incense that was burned on the altar, for the upkeep of the golden vessels, and so on. It was near the Trumpets that Jesus was sitting.
After the strenuous debates with the emissaries of the Sanhedrin and the Sadducees he was tired and his head drooped between his hands. He looked up and he saw many people flinging their offerings into the Trumpets; and then came a poor widow. All she had in the world was two lepta. A lepton ( G3016) was the smallest of all coins; the name means “the thin one.” It was worth one fortieth of a new penny; and, therefore, the offering of the widow woman was only one-twentieth of a new penny. But Jesus said that it far outvalued all the other offerings, because it was everything she had.
Two things determine the value of any gift.
(i) There is the spirit in which it is given. A gift which is unwillingly extracted, a gift which is given with a grudge, a gift that is given for the sake of prestige or of self-display loses more than half its value. The only real gift is that which is the inevitable outflow of the loving heart, that which is given because the giver cannot help it.
(ii) There is the sacrifice which it involves. That which is a mere trifle to one man may be a vast sum to another. The gifts of the rich, as they flung their offerings into the Trumpets, did not really cost them much; but the two lepta ( G3016) of the widow woman cost her everything she had. They no doubt gave having nicely calculated how much they could afford; she gave with that utterly reckless generosity which could give no more.
Giving does not begin to be real giving until it hurts. A gift shows our love only when we have had to do without something or have had to work doubly hard in order to give it. How few people give to God like that! Someone draws a picture of a man in church, lustily singing,
Were the whole realm of Nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my soul, my life, my all,
while, all the time, he is carefully feeling the coins in his pocket to make sure that it is 10 p and not 50 p that he will put into the collection which is immediately to follow.
He is an insensate man who can read the story of the widow and her two lepta without searching and humiliating self-examination.
TIDINGS OF TROUBLE ( Luk 21:5-24 )
21:5-24 When some were speaking about the Temple, how it was adorned with lovely stones and offerings, Jesus said, “As for these things at which you are looking–days will come in which not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be pulled down.” They asked him, “Teacher, when, then, will these things be? And what will be the sign when these things are going to happen?” He said, “Take care that you are not led astray. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them. When you hear of wars and upheavals, do not be alarmed; for these things must happen first; but the end will not come at once.”
Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes; in some places there will be famines and pestilences; there will be terrifying things, and great signs from heaven. Before all these things, they will lay hands upon you, and they will hand you over to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for the sake of my name. It will all be an opportunity for you to bear witness to me. So, then, make up your minds not to prepare your defence beforehand, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom against which all your opponents will be unable to stand or argue. You will be handed over even by parents, and brothers, and kinsfolk and friends; some of you will be put to death; and you will be hated by all for the sake of my name. But not one hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will win your souls.
“When you shall see Jerusalem encircled by armies, then know that the time of the desolation is at hand. At that time let those in Jerusalem flee to the mountains; let those who are in the midst of her go out of her; and let not those in the country districts enter into her, because these are days of vengeance, to fulfil all that stands written. Woe to those who, in those days, are carrying a child in the womb, or who have a babe at the breast. For great distress will be upon the earth and wrath upon all the people. They shall fall by the edge of the sword, and they will be taken away captive to all nations. Jerusalem will be trodden underfoot by the gentiles, until the times of gentiles are completed.”
From Luk 21:5 onwards this becomes a very difficult chapter. Its difficulty rests in the fact that beneath it lie four different conceptions.
(i) There is the conception of the day of the Lord. The Jews regarded time as being in two ages. There was the present age, which was altogether bad and evil, incapable of being cured, and fit only for destruction. There was the age to come, which was the golden age of God and of Jewish supremacy. But in between the two there would be the day of the Lord, which would be a terrible time of cosmic upheaval and destruction, the desperate birth-pangs of the new age.
It would be a day of terror. “Behold the day of the Lord comes, cruel with wrath and fierce anger, to make the earth a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it.” ( Isa 13:9; compare Joe 2:1-2; Amo 5:18-20; Zep 1:14-18.) It would come suddenly. “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.” ( 1Th 5:2; compare 2Pe 3:10.) It would be a day when the world would be shattered. “The stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising and the moon will not shed its light…. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place, at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.” ( Isa 13:10-13; compare Joe 2:30-31; 2Pe 3:10.)
The day of the Lord was one of the basic conceptions of religious thought in the time of Jesus; everyone knew these terrible pictures. In this passage Luk 21:9; Luk 21:11, Luk 21:25-26 take their imagery from that.
(ii) There is the prophesied fall of Jerusalem. Jerusalem fell to the Roman armies in A.D. 70 after a desperate siege in which the inhabitants were actually reduced to cannibalism and in which the city had to be taken literally stone by stone. Josephus says that an incredible number of 1,100,000 people perished in the siege and 97,000 were carried away into captivity. The Jewish nation was obliterated; and the Temple was fired and became a desolation. In this passage Luk 21:5-6, Luk 21:20-24 clearly refer to that event still to come.
(iii) There is the second coming of Christ. Jesus was sure that he was to come again and the early church waited for that coming. It will often help us to understand the New Testament passages about the second coming if we remember that much of the older imagery which had to do with the day of the Lord was taken and attached to it. In this passage Luk 21:27-28 clearly refer to it. Before the second coming it was expected that many false claimants to be the Christ would arise and great upheavals take place. In this passage Luk 21:7-9 refer to that.
(iv) There is the idea of persecution to come. Jesus clearly foresaw and foretold the terrible things his people would have to suffer for his sake in the days to come. In this passage Luk 21:12-19 refer to that.
This passage will become much more intelligible and valuable if we remember that beneath it there is not one consistent idea, but these four allied conceptions.
The Passage
It was a comment on the splendour of the Temple that moved Jesus to prophesy. In the Temple the pillars of the porches and of the cloisters were columns of white marble, forty feet high, each made of one single block of stone. Of the ornaments, the most famous was the great vine made of solid gold, each of whose clusters was as tall as a man. The finest description of the Temple as it stood in the time of Jesus is in Josephus, The Wars of the Jews, book 5, section 5. At one point he writes, “The outward face of the Temple in its front wanted nothing that was likely to surprise either men’s minds or their eyes, for it was covered all over with plates of gold of great weight, and, at the first rising of the sun, reflected back a very fiery splendour, and made those who forced themselves to look upon it to turn their eyes away, just as they would have done at the sun’s own rays. But the Temple appeared to strangers, when they were at a distance, like a mountain covered with snow, for, as to those parts of it that were not gilt, they were exceeding white.” To the Jews it was unthinkable that the glory of the Temple should be shattered to dust.
From this passage we learn certain basic things about Jesus and about the Christian life.
(i) Jesus could read the signs of history. Others might be blind to the approaching disaster but he saw the avalanche about to descend. It is only when a man sees things through the eyes of God that he sees them clearly.
(ii) Jesus was completely honest. “This,” he said to his disciples, “is what you must expect if you choose to follow me.” Once in the middle of a great struggle for righteousness, an heroic leader wrote to a friend, “Heads are rolling in the sand; come and add yours.” Jesus believed in men enough to offer them, not an easy way, but a way for heroes.
(iii) Jesus promised that his disciples would never meet their tribulations alone. It is the sheer evidence of history that the great Christians have written over and over again, when their bodies were in torture and when they were awaiting death, of sweet times with Christ. A prison can be like a palace, a scaffold like a throne, the storms of life like summer weather, when Christ is with us.
(iv) Jesus spoke of a safety that overpasses the threats of earth. “Not one hair of your head,” he said, “will be harmed.” In the days of the 1914-18 war Rupert Brooke, out of his faith and his ideal, wrote these lines:
We have found safety with all things undying,
The winds, and morning, tears of men and mirth,
The deep night, and birds singing, and clouds flying,
And sleep, and freedom, and the autumnal earth.
We have built a house which is not for Time’s throwing,
We have gained a peace unshaken by pain for ever.
War knows no power. Safe shall be my going,
Secretly armed against all death’s endeavour:
Safe though all safety’s lost; safe where men fall;
And if these poor limbs die, safest of all.
The man who walks with Christ may lose his life but he can never lose his soul.
WATCH! ( Luk 21:25-37 )
21:25-37 And there will be signs in sun, and moon, and stars, and on earth the nations will be in distress and will not know what to do in the roaring of the sea and of the wave, while men’s hearts will swoon from fear and from foreboding of the things that are coming on the world. The power of the heavens will be shaken; and then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, with power and much glory. When these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your hearts for your deliverance is near.
And he spoke this parable to them, “Look at the fig-tree and all the trees; whenever they put out their leaves, you see it for yourselves and you know that the harvest is near. So, whenever you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near. This is the truth I tell you, that this generation will not pass away until all these things have happened. The heaven and the earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
Take care lest your hearts grow heavy with dissipation and drunkenness and anxieties for the things of this life, and lest that day come suddenly upon you like a trap closing, for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the earth. Be watchful at all times, and keep praying that you may have strength to escape all the things that are going to happen, and to be able to stand before the Son of Man.
During the days Jesus was teaching in the Temple, but at night he went out and stayed in the Mount called the Mount of Olives; and all the people came early in the morning to listen to him in the Temple.
There are two main conceptions here.
(i) There is the conception of the second coming of Jesus Christ. There has always been much useless argument and speculation about the second coming. When it will be and what it will be like, are not ours to know. But the one great truth it enshrines is this–that history is going somewhere. The Stoics regarded history as circular. They held that every three thousand years or so the world was consumed by a great conflagration, then it started all over again and history repeated itself. That meant that history was going nowhere and men were tramping round on a kind of eternal treadmill. The Christian conception of history is that it has a goal and at that goal Jesus Christ will be Lord of all. That is all we know, and all we need to know.
(ii) There is stressed the need to be upon the watch. The Christian must never come to think that he is living in a settled situation. He must be a man who lives in a permanent state of expectation. A novelist, in one of her books, has a character who will not stoop to certain things that others do. “I know,” she said, “that some day the great thing will come into my life and I want to keep myself fit to take it.” We must live forever in the shadow of eternity, in the certainty that we are men who are fitting or unfitting themselves to appear in the presence of God. There can be nothing so thrilling as the Christian life.
(iii) Jesus spent the day amidst the crowds of the Temple; he spent the night beneath the stars with God. He won his strength to meet the crowds through his quiet time alone; he could face men because he came to men from God’s presence.
-Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT)
Fuente: Barclay Daily Study Bible
114. JESUS DISCOURSES WITH CHIEF PRIESTS AND OTHERS, Luk 21:1-19 .
See notes on Mat 21:23 Luk 22:14; Mar 11:27 to Mar 12:12.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
117. JESUS PREFERS THE WIDOW’S OFFERING TO THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE RICH, Luk 21:1-4 .
See notes on Mar 12:41-44.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he looked up, and saw the rich men who were casting their gifts into the treasury.’
As we see from the chiasmus of the passage Luke connects the behaviour of the Scribes towards widows’ possessions with the behaviour of a godly widow towards God. Here we see one whose livelihood is swallowed up, but by her own choice because of her trust in God to provide for her. And she is also here compared with the wealthy generally. We are here reminded of Jesus’ words, ‘Blessed are you poor, for yours is the Kingly Rule of God’ (Luk 6:20).
In this case, which also connects up with the next passage, Jesus is possibly sitting with His disciples in the Temple courtyard not far from a group of trumpet shaped collection boxes placed in the wall of the court of the women for the purpose of receiving nominated contributions to various needs. Each box was for a different purpose which was clearly indicated on it. From there the gifts would make their way to the Temple strong room. Or it may be that they were seated near where the vow offerings were made, when the amount being offered would be openly stated to the officiating priest.
He noted how the rich men came along and ostentatiously ‘cast’ their gifts into the Treasury. This ostentation linked them with the follies of the Scribes. Or it may be that they handed them over ostentatiously, making sure that all knew what they were giving. And no doubt many were watching in admiration, including possibly the disciples, who may even have commented on particularly generous gifts.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
SECTION 7 God’s Only Beloved Son (19:29-21:38).
Throughout Luke the glory, and power, and uniqueness of Jesus has been revealed, and especially His uniqueness in His relationship with God. And now the central idea of this Section is that Jesus has come as God’s only and unique Son (Luk 20:13). He reveals His authority in His ride into Jerusalem (Luk 19:29-40), in His cleansing of the Temple (Luk 19:45-46), in His decisive teaching (Luk 19:47 to Luk 20:8; Luk 20:19 to Luk 21:4), by His direct claim in the parable of the wicked tenants (the wicked husbandmen – Luk 20:9-18), and in His final prophecies concerning the future of Jerusalem and the world (Luk 21:5-38), all of which reveal that He is God’s Chosen One.
In chapter 19 Luke puts all this together in such a way as to emphasise Jesus’ glory even more strongly.
Twice he stresses that Jesus is entering as ‘the Lord’ Who has the right to commandeer His means of travel as He will (Luk 19:31; Luk 19:34, compare Luk 20:41-44).
He reveals that He is proclaimed in terms of ‘the King Who has come in the name of the Lord’ (Luk 19:38) Whose entry is such that if men were silent the very stones would cry out (Luk 19:40).
Then he portrays Him as the Prophet Who is prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem because it has not responded to His coming (Luk 19:41).
And finally he reveals why this is necessary by depicting Jesus as entering the Temple and clearing ‘His House’ of unscrupulous traders, calling it ‘a Den of Robbers’ (Luk 19:45), when it was intended by Him to be a House of Prayer.
The full significance of all this is brought out in the way that Luke presents the material, for the events themselves were partly veiled, and at the time were not all fully understood.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jesus Rides Into Jerusalem, And Reveals Himself As God’s Only Son, Which Finally Results in His Description of His Triumphant Return (19:29-21:38).
The Section may be analysed as follows:
a After initial preparations Jesus rides into Jerusalem in triumph on a colt revealing Himself as the Messianic King. If the people had not welcomed Him the very stones would have cried out (Luk 19:29-40).
b Jesus weeps over a Jerusalem which will be desolated, thus revealing Himself as the Messianic Judge. Not one stone will be left upon another (Luk 19:41-44).
c Jesus enters the Temple, in which Israel trusts, revealing Himself as its Lord, and as God’s Cleanser, of the Temple, as a warning against the unworthiness of the chief priests, who have forfeited their authority, and of the state of their Temple which is subject to condemnation as a Den of Robbers, thus revealing Himself as the Messianic Purger (Luk 19:45-46).
d The chief priests and scribes and elders seek to destroy Jesus but could not, revealing that they lack any real authority (Luk 19:47-48).
e Jesus is challenged as to His authority and reveals their inability to judge levels of authority, because they are fearful of being stoned (Luk 20:1-8).
f The parable of the vineyard – Jesus is revealed as the only Son and the Head Cornerstone, the One in supreme authority. He is the Great Cornerstone on which His people will be established, but on which His antagonists will stumble (Luk 20:9-18).
e Jesus challenges His questioners use of Caesar’s image, and reveals that their authority comes only from Caesar (Luk 20:19-26).
d The Sadducees seek to undermine Jesus’ teaching, but could not, and have to admit His authority (Luk 20:27-40).
c Jesus as David’s Lord, the Messiah, Who has come with authority from God, is contrasted with the unworthiness of the Scribes who claim that authority and yet desolate others, for they will receive the greater condemnation in that they have forfeited their authority. They in turn are contrasted with the poor widow (Luk 20:41 to Luk 21:4).
b Jerusalem is to be desolated. Not one stone will be left upon another (Luk 21:5-7).
a After initial preparations Jesus will come back in triumph to the world (Luk 21:8-36).
“But you, watch at every season, making supplication, that you may prevail to escape all these things that will come about, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luk 21:36).
Note that the section commences in ‘a’ with the ride in triumph into Jerusalem and in the parallel it ends in the return in triumph to the world. In ‘b’ Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, not one stone will be left on another and in the parallel Jerusalem is to be devastated, and not one stone left on another. In ‘c’ Jesus as God’s Messiah cleanses the Temple as an indication of the unworthiness of the Jewish leaders, and in the parallel He demonstrates that David had declared Him to be the Messiah, and that the Scribes are unworthy. In ‘d’ the Jewish leadership conspire to destroy Jesus but could not, and in the parallel they seek to undermine His teaching, but could not. In ‘e’ Jesus is challenged concerning His authority, and in the parallel He challenges whose authority the leaders are under. In ‘f’ He reveals His unique sonship and the unworthiness of the present Jewish leadership.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jesus Preaches In The Temple (19:47-21:38).
Having driven the traders out of the Temple in His prophetic zeal Jesus then revealed the greatness of His great courage by returning daily to that same Temple in order to teach the people. As the traders, who would quickly have returned, watched with baleful eyes, and the Temple police stood by alert for trouble, Jesus boldly entered the Temple again, and ignoring both, proceeded to address the crowds gathered there. Indeed the great crowds that gathered to Him would make it seem to the authorities as though He had almost taken over the Temple, apart from the Sanctuary itself.
And perhaps that was how He intended it to be seen. Having driven out the traders He has now taken possession of it in the name of the Lord, for its genuine purpose, that of proclaiming the word of God within it (a theme of Luke/Acts) and of prayer. In the coming months and years this will be one of its purposes until at length it will be finally rejected because it had rejected Him (see Luk 19:47. Luk 20:1; Luk 21:37-38; Luk 24:53; Act 2:46; Act 3:1; Act 3:8; Act 4:1; Act 5:20-21; Act 5:25; Act 5:42). While it continued as the hub of the Jewish religion, it also became for a time the source from which light could go out from the Jews to the world (Isa 2:2-4).
But whereas the authorities wanted to arrest Him they did not dare make a move in public, because He was too popular. They were forced to recognise that any move against Him could only result in tumult, and that that would then bring down on them the wrath of their Roman overlords. Thus they turned to a new tactic, and got together to decide how they might discredit Him in the eyes of the people. They knew that if they could only do that, then they could take Him. This therefore resulted in a number of challenges which are found in what follows. These included the challenge as to His authority for behaving as He did (Luk 20:1-8), the challenge as to whether it was right to give tribute to Caesar (Luk 20:20-26) , and the challenge concerning the truth of the resurrection (Luk 20:27-38).
In dealing with these Jesus not only showed them up as being hypocritical and incompetent, but went on to denounce them and their fellow leaders by means of a parable which demonstrated their connection with the villainy of those who in the past had persecuted those sent from God (Luk 20:9-18). Within this parable at the same time He revealed His own uniqueness as God’s only Son. Then once their challenges were exhausted He riposted with a quotation from Scripture concerning His Messiahship (Luk 20:41-44), following it up with a further attack on the Scribes (Luk 20:45-47) and a contrasting of them with an impoverished widow whose godly giving aroused His admiration (Luk 21:1-4). This was then followed by His description to His disciples of the future destruction of the Temple, along with prophecies concerning the future, which ended up with the promise of His return in glory (Luk 21:5-36). And during all this period He continued teaching daily to the crowds in the Temple (Luk 21:37-38).
In all these episodes Luke was calling, at least to some extent, on Marcan material, but altered so as to suit the points that he was trying to get over, and in terms of other information received. This was, however done without altering their essential message. It all begins with an attack on His authority.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jesus Warns Against The Hypocrisy Of The Pharisees and Commends The Example Of The Poor Widow (20:45-21:3).
Having established His position over against Pharisaic teaching, Jesus now warned further against following the ways of the Pharisees, who did ape such ways. Just as in the parallel in the Section chiasmus above, the Temple was a Den of Robbers, thus condemning the chief priests, so are the Rabbis hypocritical seekers of glory in the eyes of the world, and despoilers of widows. And an example of one such widow is then given, who in spite of her poverty, gives all that she has to God, her consecration highlighting the godliness of such people in contrast with the unscrupulousness and greed of these Rabbis.
We can compare His condemnation here with that in Luk 11:39-52, but there it was the Pharisees who received the initial assault, whereas here all was reserved for the Scribes. It will be noted that unusually for Luke, who generally avoids repetitions, there is almost a ‘repetition’ of Luk 11:43, for there He accuses the Pharisees of loving the best seats in the synagogues and the salutations in the marketplaces, whereas here He applies the same accusations to the Scribes. Clearly He felt that this typified what they were truly like. Spiritual pride has been the downfall of far too many for it not to be taken with the deepest seriousness.
Analysis.
a
b “Who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers” (Luk 20:47 a).
c “These will receive greater condemnation” (Luk 20:47 b).
b And he looked up, and saw the rich men who were casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw a certain poor widow casting in there two mites (Luk 21:1-2).
a And he said, “Of a truth I say to you, This poor widow cast in more than they all, for all these did of their superfluity cast in to the gifts, but she of her want did cast in all the living that she had” (Luk 21:3).
Note that in ‘a’ the Scribes make a great show of their own importance, and in the parallel, where men continue to make a show, they are shown up in contrast with a poor widow. In ‘b’ the Scribes devour widow’s houses and yet make a pretence of sanctity by praying long prayers, and in the parallel their giving is contrasted with that of a widow who in what she is represents all whom they have despoiled. In ‘c’, and centrally, their great condemnation is declared.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Witnesses of Jesus Justifying Him as the Saviour of the World (God the Father’s Justification of Jesus) Luk 4:31 to Luk 21:38 contains the testimony of Jesus’ public ministry, as He justifies Himself as the Saviour of the world. In this major section Jesus demonstrates His divine authority over man, over the Law, and over creation itself, until finally He reveals Himself to His three close disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration as God manifested in the flesh. Jesus is the Saviour over every area of man’s life and over creation itself, a role that can only be identified with God Himself. This was the revelation that Peter had when he said that Jesus was Christ, the Son of the Living God. Luk 4:14 to Luk 9:50 begins with His rejection in His hometown of Nazareth and this section culminates in Luk 9:50 with Peter’s confession and testimony of Jesus as the Anointed One sent from God. In summary, this section of material is a collection of narratives that testifies to Jesus’ authority over every aspect of humanity to be called the Christ, or the Saviour of the world.
Luke presents Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world that was presently under the authority of Roman rule. He was writing to a Roman official who was able to exercise his authority over men. Thus, Luke was able to contrast Jesus’ divine authority and power to that of the Roman rule. Jesus rightfully held the title as the Saviour of the world because of the fact that He had authority over mankind as well as the rest of God’s creation. Someone who saves and delivers a person does it because he has the authority and power over that which oppresses the person.
In a similar way, Matthew portrays Jesus Christ as the Messiah who fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. Matthew’s presentation of Jesus as the King of the Jews supports His claim as the Messiah. John gives us the testimony of God the Father, who says that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. John uses the additional testimonies of John the Baptist, of His miracles, of the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies and of Jesus Himself to support this claim. Mark testifies of the many miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ by emphasizing the preaching of the Gospel as the way in which these miracles take place.
This major section of the public ministry of Jesus Christ can be subdivided into His prophetic testimonies. In Luk 4:31 to Luk 6:49 Jesus testifies of true justification in the Kingdom of God. In Luk 7:1 to Luk 8:21 Jesus testifies of His doctrine. In Luk 8:22 to Luk 10:37 Jesus testifies of divine service in the Kingdom of God as He sets His face towards Jerusalem. In Luk 10:38 to Luk 17:10 Jesus testifies of perseverance in the Kingdom of God as He travels towards Jerusalem. Finally, in Luk 17:11 to Luk 21:38 Jesus teaches on glorification in the Kingdom of God.
The Two-Fold Structure in Luke of Doing/Teaching As Reflected in the Prologue to the Book of Acts – The prologue to the book of Acts serves as a brief summary and outline of the Gospel of Luke. In Act 1:1 the writer makes a clear reference to the Gospel of Luke, as a companion book to the book of Acts, by telling us that this “former treatise” was about “all that Jesus began to do and to teach.” If we examine the Gospel of Luke we can find two major divisions in the narrative material of Jesus’ earthly ministry leading up to His Passion. In Luk 4:14 to Luk 9:50 we have the testimony of His Galilean Ministry in which Jesus did many wonderful miracles to reveal His divine authority as the Christ, the Son of God. This passage emphasized the works that Jesus did to testify of Himself as the Saviour of the world. The emphasis then shifts beginning in Luk 9:51 to Luk 21:38 as it focuses upon Jesus teaching and preparing His disciples to do the work of the Kingdom of God. Thus, Luk 4:14 to Luk 21:38 can be divided into this two-fold emphasis of Jesus’ works and His teachings. [186]
[186] We can also see this two-fold aspect of doing and teaching in the Gospel of Matthew, as Jesus always demonstrated the work of the ministry before teaching it in one of His five major discourses. The narrative material preceding his discourses serves as a demonstration of what He then taught. For example, in Matthew 8:1 to 9:38, Jesus performed nine miracles before teaching His disciples in Matthew 10:1-42 and sending them out to perform these same types of miracles. In Matthew 11:1 to 12:50 this Gospel records examples of how people reacted to the preaching of the Gospel before Jesus teaches on this same subject in the parables of Matthew 13:1-52. We see examples of how Jesus handled offences in Matthew 13:53 to 17:27 before He teaches on this subject in Matthew 18:1-35. Jesus also prepares for His departure in Matthew 19:1 to 25:46 before teaching on His second coming in Matthew 24-25.
Jesus’ Public Ministry One observation that can be made about Jesus’ Galilean ministry and his lengthy travel narrative to Jerusalem is that He attempts to visit every city and village in Israel that will receive Him. He even sends out His disciples in order to reach them all. But why is such an effort made to preach the Gospel to all of Israel during Jesus’ earthly ministry? Part of the answer lies in the fact that Jesus wanted everyone to have the opportunity to hear and believe. For those who rejected Him, they now will stand before God on the great Judgment Day without an excuse for their sinful lifestyles. Jesus wanted everyone to have the opportunity to believe and be saved. This seemed to be His passion throughout His Public Ministry. Another aspect of the answer is the impending outpouring of the Holy Ghost and the sending out of the Twelve to the uttermost parts of the earth. Jesus understood the necessity to first preach the Gospel to all of Israel before sending out the apostles to other cities and nations.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Glorification: Jesus Testifies on the Kingdom of God (Passing thru Samaria and Galilee) – In Luk 17:11 to Luk 21:38 Jesus testifies about the Kingdom of God as He passes through Samaria and Galilee towards Jerusalem. This part of the journey will take Jesus into the Temple to teach the people for the last time. At this time the emphasis of Jesus’ teachings focuses on eschatology, or His Second Coming and the Kingdom of God.
He first enters a village and heals ten lepers (Luk 17:11-19) and is able to teach His disciples about thankfulness. He then responds to a question by the Pharisees and teaches about the coming of the Kingdom of God and tells them the importance of watchfulness (Luk 17:20-37). Jesus followed this teaching with the Parable of the Persistent Widow in order to explain to them how to persevere in faith while awaiting His Second Coming (Luk 18:1-8). To the self-righteous Jesus taught on humility using the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luk 18:9-14). Jesus then blesses the children who are brought to Him in order to teach on childlikeness (Luk 18:15-17). When a rich young ruler asks Jesus about inheriting eternal life, Jesus teaches him and those with Him on the dangers of riches and covetousness (Luk 18:18-30). Thus, each one of these stories tell us virtues that we are to pursue as children of the Kingdom of God awaiting His Second Coming. Jesus concludes this teaching session with a prediction to His twelve disciples about His pending death (Luk 18:31-34). After healing a blind man (Luk 18:35-43), dining with Zacchaeus (Luk 19:1-10), and teaching of faithfulness in the Kingdom of God (Luk 19:11-27), Jesus gives three prophecies concerning His arrival in Jerusalem (Luk 19:28-47), His rejection (Luk 20:1-19), and His exaltation (Luk 20:20-47). This major division closes with an eschatological discourse (Luk 21:1-38).
Here is a proposed outline:
A. Narrative: Jesus Teachings (Thru Samaria & Galilee) Luk 17:11 to Luk 19:27
B. Discourse: Jesus Instructs (Into Jerusalem) Luk 19:28 to Luk 21:38
Luk 17:11 to Luk 19:27
Narrative: Jesus Teaches on the Kingdom of God in Samaria and Galilee
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Healing of the Ten Lepers (Thankfulness) Luk 17:11-19
2. Jesus Instructs Disciples on Second Coming Luk 17:20-37
3. Jesus Instructs Disciples on Prayer Luk 18:1-8
4. Corrects Pharisees on Humility Luk 18:9-14
5. Jesus Instructs Disciples on Childlikeness Luk 18:15-17
6. Jesus Teaches Disciples on Covetousness Luk 18:18-30
7. Jesus Predicts His Death Luk 18:31-34
8. Jesus Heals a Blind Man Luk 18:35-43
9. Jesus Dines with Zacchaeus Luk 19:1-10
10. Jesus Teaches on the Faithfulness in the Kingdom Luk 19:11-27
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Discourse: Jesus Instructs (Into Jerusalem) – In Luk 19:28 to Luk 21:38 Jesus enters Jerusalem. This part of the journey will take Jesus into the Temple to teach the people for the last time. At this time the emphasis of Jesus’ teachings focuses on eschatology, or His Second Coming.
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Prophecy of His Arrival Luk 19:28-48
2. Prophecy of His Rejection Luk 20:1-19
3. Prophecy of His Exaltation Luk 20:20 to Luk 21:4
4. Eschatological Discourse Luk 21:5-38
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Prophecy of His Exaltation Luk 20:20 to Luk 21:4 gives a prophecy of Jesus’ exaltation as Jesus cites from Psa 110:1.
Psa 110:1, “A Psalm of David. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.”
Outline Here is a proposed outline:
1. Jesus Is Questioned on Taxes Luk 20:20-26
2. Jesus Is Questioned on the Resurrection Luk 20:27-40
3. Jesus Asks the Sadducees About David’s Son Luk 20:41-44
4. Jesus Denounces the Jewish Leaders to the People Luk 20:45 to Luk 21:4
Luk 20:20-26 Jesus Is Questioned on Taxes ( Mat 22:15-22 , Mar 12:13-17 ) In Luk 20:20-26 Jesus responds to a question that is asked by the Jewish leaders about paying taxes to Caesar.
Luk 20:24
Luk 20:27-40 Jesus Is Questioned on the Resurrection ( Mat 22:23-33 , Mar 12:18-27 ) In Luk 20:27-40 Jesus responds to a question asked by the Sadducees on the resurrection.
Luk 20:27 Comments The Sadducees did not believe in a resurrection or life after death. [271]
[271] R. F. Youngblood, F. F. Bruce, R. K. Harrison, and Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nelson’s New Illustrated Bible Dictionary, rev. ed. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), in Libronix Digital Library System, v. 2.1c [CD-ROM] (Bellingham, WA: Libronix Corp., 2000-2004), “Sadducees.”
Luk 20:28 Comments This law is found in Deu 25:5-10.
Deu 25:5, “If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry without unto a stranger: her husband’s brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of an husband’s brother unto her.”
Luk 20:35 “neither marry, nor are given in marriage” – Comments Is this a reference to marriage here on earth, now?
Luk 20:34-38 Comments Two Points of Doctrine – Jesus explains two points of doctrine in this passage:
1. God’s view of marriage and the kingdom of God (verses 34-36).
2. The resurrection (verses 31-38).
Luk 20:41-44 Jesus Asks the Sadducees About David’s Son ( Mat 22:41-46 , Mar 12:35-37 ) In Luk 20:41-44 Jesus asks the Sadducees a question about the resurrection by referring to Christ as the Son of David in the book of Psalms.
Luk 20:45 to Luk 21:4 Jesus Denounces the Jewish Leaders to the People ( Mat 23:1-36 , Mar 12:38-40 ) After answering the questions from the Jewish leaders Jesus turns to the people and denounces the hypocrisy of these leaders (Luk 20:45-47). He uses the illustration of a widow who was giving into the treasury to illustrate true service to God.
The Widow’s Mites ( Mar 12:41-44 ) In Luk 21:1-4 Jesus takes the opportunity to teach the people by using the example of a widow woman whom He and the others saw casting in two mites into the Temple treasury. He contrasts her sincere giving to the hypocritical offers of the Jewish leaders.
A Lesson on Giving – This story teaches us how to give. This poor widow gave sacrificially. The rich men did not make a sacrifice. She also gave willingly. Paul, the apostle, teaches about these same attitudes of giving in 2 Corinthians.
2Co 8:1-2, “Moreover, brethren, we do you to wit of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia; How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.”
They also gave joyfully and out of poverty. Note that God accepts the gift we are able to give, no matter how small, and He does not expect us to give that which we do not have:
2Co 8:12, “For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.”
The Poor Verses the Rich – Those who were rich probably had many friends in the Temple court to greet and chat with that day (Pro 19:6). Jesus probably observed the rich as they noisily dropped their many coins into the Temple treasury. The poor widow probably had not many friends to chat with (Pro 19:7). She probably felt uneasy around so many richly dressed people. Probably, like many widows today, she had been done wrong by evil merchants to the point that now she did not trust many people (Also Pro 14:20)
Pro 19:6, “Many will intreat the favour of the prince: and every man is a friend to him that giveth gifts.”
Pro 19:7, “All the brethren of the poor do hate him: how much more do his friends go far from him? he pursueth them with words, yet they are wanting to him.”
Pro 14:20, “The poor is hated even of his own neighbour: but the rich hath many friends.”
Luk 20:47 “Which devour widows’ houses” – Comments The religious leaders lived a luxurious life from the offerings of the Temple, which was partly made up of the offerings of widows. The next passage of Scripture illustrates the widow’s offering in Luk 21:1-4 when the widow gives two mites into the Temple treasury.
Luk 21:2 Comments Alfred Edersheim says that it was not lawful to contribute a lesser amount than two mites. [272]
[272] Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. 2 (New York: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1899), 388.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Widow’s Gift. v. 1 And He looked up and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
v. 2. And He saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.
v. 3. And He said, Of a truth I say unto you that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all;
v. 4. for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God; but she of her penury hath cast in an the living that she had. Jesus had probably delivered His last discourse in the Court of Women, where there were situated the thirteen trumpet-shaped treasure-chests, or collection boxes, of the Temple. Looking up now, He saw something which not only did not insult His holy eyes, but filled Him with joy. His looking was not a casual, momentary glance, but He scrutinized the people intently for some time, deliberately taking note of their coming and the size of their gifts. The rich people put in large gifts, which was an easy matter for them to do. Gifts of a comparatively large size represented no sacrifice for them. But then the Lord’s attention was drawn to a widow, a miserably poor and needy woman. Going up to one of the chests, this woman deposited therein two mites. “Another coin, translated mite, is in Greek lepton, ‘the small one,’ or the ‘bit. ‘ It was two of these that the widow cast into the treasury. Two of them equaled a quadrans. The mite was, then, of the value of 1/8 of a cent. It was doubtless the smallest coin in circulation. ” This act of real love and sacrifice made a deep impression upon Christ. With warm feeling He told His disciples: Truly I say to you that this poor widow cast in more than all the others. The actual amount was, of course, much smaller than the gifts of the rich. But in proportion to the ability of the others her simple gift stood so far ahead of the rest that there was no comparison possible. The others had given of their superfluity: they did not even feel the giving of the amount they cast into the chest. But this widow might have been expected to beg rather than to be giving to the Temple treasury. And yet out of her want, when she was deprived of practically all her living, she had given her last quarter of a cent to the Lord, all that she had to sustain life. True love and real sacrifice are here exemplified, and this is the attitude in which all work for the Lord and all gifts for His “kingdom should be given. See Mar 12:41-44.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Luk 21:1-4
The widow‘s mite. We find this little sketch only here and in St. Mark (Mar 12:41-44). The Master was sittingresting, probably, after the effort of the great denunciation of the scribes and Phariseesin the covered colonnade of that part of the temple which was open to the Jewish women. Here was the treasury, with its thirteen boxes in the wall, for the reception of the alms of the people. These boxes were called shopheroth, or trumpets, because they were shaped like trumpets, swelling out beneath, and tapering upward into a narrow mouth, or opening, into which the alms were dropped. Some of these “trumpets” were marked with special inscriptions, denoting the destination of the offerings.
Luk 21:1
And he looked up, and saw the rich men outing their gifts into the treasury. It is not improbable that a special stream of almsgivers were just then passing through the temple court, many being specially impressed by the solemn words they had just been listening to.
Luk 21:2
And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. The mite () was the smallest current coin. Two of these little pieces were the smallest legal offering which could be dropped into the “trumpet.” But this sum, as the Heart-reader, who knew all things, tells us (Luk 21:4), was every particle of money she had in the world; and it was this splendid generosity on the part of the poor solitary widow which won the Lord’s praise, which has touched the hearts of so many generations since, which has stirred up in so many hearts an admiration of an act so strangely beautiful, but well-nigh inimitable.
Luk 21:5-7
The templeits impending ruin. The disciples‘ questions.
Luk 21:5
And as some spake of the temple. After the Lord’s remark upon the alms-giving of the rich men and the poor widow to the treasury of the temple, the Master left the sacred building for his lodging outside the city walls. As far as we know, his comment upon the widow’s alms was his last word of public teaching. On their way home, while crossing the Mount of Olives, they apparently halted for a brief rest. It was then that some of his friends called attention to the glorious prospect of the temple, then lit up by the setting sun. It was, no doubt, then in all its perfect beauty, a vast glittering mass of white marble, touched here and there with gold and color. Whosoever had not gazed on it, said the old rabbis, had not seen the perfection of beauty. It is possible that the bystander’s remark was suggested by the memory of the last bit of Divine teaching they had listened to. “Lord, is not the house on Zion lovely? But if only such gifts as those you have just praised with such unstinting praise had been made, never had that glorious pile been raised in honor of the Eternal King.” More probable, however, the sight of the great temple, then bathed in the golden glory of the fast-setting sun, recalled some of the Master’s sayings of that eventful day, notably such as, “Your house is left unto you desolate,” which occurred in the famous twice-spoken apostrophe, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets!” (Mat 23:38; Luk 13:35). “What, Lord I will that house, so great, so perfect in its beauty, so loved, the joy of the whole earth,will that house be left desolate and in shapeless ruins?” With goodly stones. The enormous size of the stones and blocks of marble with which the temple of Jerusalem was built excited the surprise of Titus when the city fell. Josephus mentions (‘Bell. Jud.,’ v. 5) that some of the levelled blocks of marble or stone were forty cubits long and ten high. And gifts; better rendered, sacred offerings, such as the “golden vine,” with its vast clusters, the gift of Herodwhich probably suggested the discourse, “I am the true Vine” (reported in Joh 15:1-27.)such as crowns, shields, vessels of gold and silver, presented by princes and others who visited the holy house on Zion. The temple was rich in these votive offerings. The historian Tacitus, for instance, calls it “a temple of vast wealth” (‘Hist.,’ 5. 8).
Luk 21:6
There shall not be left one stone upon another. There is a remarkable passage in 2 Esdr. 10:54, “In the place wherein the Highest beginneth to show his city, there can no man’s building be able to stand.” The Lord’s words were fulfilled, in spite of the strong wish of Titus to spare the temple. Josephus, writing upon the utter demolition of the city and temple, says that, with the exception of Herod’s three great towers and part of the western wall, the whole circuit of the city was so thoroughly levelled and dug up that no one visiting it would believe that it had ever been inhabited (‘Bell. Jud. 7.1. 1).
Luk 21:7
And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass? St. Mark (Mar 13:3) tells us that these questioners were Peter and James, John and Andrew. They said to their Master, “When shall these things be, and what sign shall precede them?” They asked their question with mingled feelings of awe and gladness: of awe, for the ruin of their loved temple, and all that would probably accompany the catastrophe, was a dread thought; of gladness, for they associated the fall of city and temple with the manifestation of their Lord in glory. In this glory they would assuredly share. But they wished to know more respecting the times and seasons of the dread event. Of late the disciples had begun dimly to see that no Messianic restoration such as they had been taught to expect was contemplated by their Master. They were recasting their hopes, and this solemn prediction they read in the light of the late sad and gloomy words which he had spoken of himself and his fortunes. Perhaps he would leave them for a season and then return, and, amid the crash of the ruined city and temple, set up his glorious kingdom. But they longed to know when this would be; hence the question of the four.
The Lord’s answer treated, in its first and longer portion, exclusively of the destruction of Jerusalem and its templethe fair city and the glorious house on which they were then gazing, glorified in the light of the sunset splendor; then, as he spoke, gradually the horizon widened, and the Master touched upon the fortunes of the great world lying beyond the narrow pale of the doomed, chosen people. He closes his grand summary of the world’s fortunes By a sketch of his own return in glory. The disciples’ hearts must have sunk as they listened; for how many ages lay Between now and then! Yet was the great prophecy full of comfort, and in later days was of inestimable practical value to the Jerusalem Christians. The discourse, which extends from verse 8 to verse 36, has been well divided by Godet into four divisions.
(1) The apparent signs of the great catastrophe, which must not Be mistaken for true signs (verses 8b-19).
(2) The true sign, and the destruction of Jerusalem, which will immediately follow it, with the time of the Gentiles, which will be connected with it (verses 20-24).
(3) The coming of the Lord, which will bring this period to an end (verses 25-27).
(4) The practical application (verses 28-36).
Luk 21:8-19
The apparent signs which (could show themselves, but which must not be mistaken for the true signs immediately preceding the catastrophe.
Luk 21:8
Many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ. Many of these pretenders appeared in the lifetime of the apostles. Josephus mentions several of these impostors (‘Ant.,’ 20.8 6-10; ‘Bell. Jud.,’ 2.13. 5). Theudas, one of these pretenders, is referred to in Act 21:38 (see, too, Josephus, ‘Ant.,’ 20.5. 1). Simon Magus announced that he was Messiah. His riyal Dositheus, his disciple Menander, advanced similar pretences. Mr. Greswell (quoted by Dean Manse], ‘Speaker’s Commentary,’ on Mat 24:5) has called attention to the remarkable fact that, while many of these false Messiahs appeared in the interval between the Lord’s ascension and the Jewish war, there is no evidence that any one arose claiming this title before the beginning of his ministry. It was necessary, he infers, that the true Christ should first appear and be rejected by the great body of the nation, before they were judicially given over to the delusions of the false Christs.
Luk 21:9, Luk 21:10
Wars and commotions nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Josephus the Jewish, and Tacitus the Roman, historianthe former in his ‘Jewish Wars,’ and the latter in his ‘Annals’describe the period which immediately followed the Crucifixion as full of wars, crimes, violences, earthquakes. “It was a time,” says Tacitus, “rich in disasters, horrible with battles, torn with seditions, savage even in peace itself.”
Luk 21:11
Great earthquakes. These seem to have been very frequent during the period; we hear of them in Palestine, Italy, Greece, Asia Minor, Crete, Syria. Famines and pestilences. The Jewish and pagan historians of this timeJosephus, Suetonius, Taecitus, and othersenumerate several memorable instances of these scourges in this eventful time. Fearful sights and great signs. Among the former may be especially enumerated the foul and terrible scenes connected with the proceedings of the Zealots (see Josephus,, Bell. Jud.,’ 4.3. 7; v. 6. 1, etc.). Among the great signs “would be the rumor of monstrous births; the cry, ‘Woe! woe!’ for seven and a half years of the peasant Jesus, son of Hanan; the voice and sound of departing guardian-angels; and the sudden opening of the vast brazen temple gate which required twenty men to move it” (Farrar).
Luk 21:12
But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you. The Master continues his prophetic picture. From speaking generally of wars, and disasters, and tumults, and awful natural phenomena, which would mark the sad age in which his hearers were living, he proceeded to tell them of things which would surely befall them. But even then, though terrible trials would be their lot, they were not to be dismayed, nor to dream that the great catastrophe he had been predicting was yet at hand. Some doubt exists as to the meaning of “before” () in this twelfth verse usually has been understood in a temporal sense, i.e. “Before all the wars, etc., I have been telling you of, you will be persecuted.” A more definite sense is, however, produced by giving the word (before) the signification of “before,” equivalent to “more important””more important for you as signs will be the grave trials you will have to endure: even these signs must not dismay you, or cause you to give up your posts as teachers, for the end will not be heralded even by these personal signs.” Delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my Name’s sake. What may be termed instances of many of these special persecutions are detailed in the Acts (see, for instance, Act 5:40; and portions of Act 6:1-15; Act 7:1-60; Act 8:1-40; Act 12:1-25; Act 14:1-28; Act 16:1-40; Act 21:1-40, and following).
Luk 21:15
For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. Instances of the splendid fulfillment of this promise are supplied in the “Acts” report of St. Stephen’s speech (Act 7:1-60.), and St. Paul’s defense spoken before the Roman governor Felix (Act 25:1-27.) and before King Agrippa (Act 26:1-32.).
Luk 21:16
And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, and friends. His disciples must be prepared to pay, as the price of their friendship with him, the sacrifice of all home and domestic life and peace. How often in the records of the early Christians are these terrible sufferings added to public persecution! Literally, his own would have very often to give up mother, father, friends, for his sake. And some of you shall they cause to be put to death. This was literally true in the case of several of those then listening to him.
Luk 21:17
And ye shall be hated of all men for my Name’s sake. All the records of early Christianity unite in bearing witness to the universal hatred with which the new sect were regarded by pagans as well as Jews. The words of the Roman Jews reported in Act 28:22 well sum this up, “As concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against” (see, too, Act 24:5 and 1Pe 2:12). The Roman writers Tacitus, Pliny, and Suctonius, bear the same testimony.
Luk 21:18
But there shall not an hair of your head perish. Not, of course, to be understood literally; for comp. Luk 21:16. Bengel’s comment accurately paraphrases it: “Not a hair of your head shall perish without the special providence of God, nor without reward, nor before the due time.” The words, too, had a general fulfillment; for the Christian community of Palestine, warned by this very discourse of the Lord’s, fled in time from the doomed city, and so escaped the extermination which overtook the Jewish people in the great war which ended in the fall of Jerusalem (a.d. 70).
Luk 21:19
In your patience possess ye your souls. Quiet, brave patience in all difficulty, perplexity, and danger, was the attitude pressed upon the believers of the first days by the inspired teachers. St. Paul constantly strikes this note.
Luk 21:20-24
The true signs which his people are to be on the watch for.
Luk 21:20
And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. This is to be the sign that the end has come for temple, city, and people. Wars and rumors of wars, physical portents, famine and pestilence succeeding each other with a terrible persistence, all these will, in the forthcoming years, terrify and perplex men’s minds, presages of something which seems impending. But his people are to bear in mind that these were not the immediate signs of the awful ruin he was foretelling. But when the holy city was invested, when hostile armies were encamped about herthen this would surely come to pass, and some of these very bystanders would behold itthen, and not till then, let his people take alarm. Let them at once and at all cost flee from temple and city, for there would be no deliverance, God had left his house, given up the chosen people. “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles” (Luk 21:24). It is probable that these solemn words of the Master, becoming, as they did, at a comparatively early date, the property of the Church, saved the Christian congregations in Palestine from the fate which overtook the Jewish nation in the last great war. Clearly warned by Jesus that the gathering of the Roman armies in the neighborhood of Jerusalem was the unmistakable sign of the end of the Jewish polity, the Christian congregations fled to Pella beyond Jordan. The Jews never ceased to the last trusting that deliverance from on high would be vouchsafed to the holy city and temple. The Christians were warned by the words of the Founder of their faithwords spoken nigh forty years before the siegethat the time of mercy was hopelessly past.
Luk 21:24
And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations. It is computed that 1,100,000 Jews perished in the terrible war when Jerusalem fell (a.d. 70). Renan writes of this awful slaughter, “that it would seem as though the whole (Jewish) race had determined upon a rendezvous for extermination.” Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles. After incredible slaughter and woes, Titus, the Emperor Vespasian’s son, who commanded the Roman armies, ordered the city (of Jerusalem) to be razed so completely as to look like a spot which had never been inhabited (Josephus, ‘Bell. Jud.,’ v. 10. 5). The storied city has been rebuilt on the old sitebut without the templeand since that fatal day, more than eighteen centuries ago, no Jew save on bare sufferance has dwelt in the old loved and sacred spot. In turn, Roman and Saracen, Norseman and Turk, have trodden Jerusalem down. Literally, indeed, have the sad words of Jesus been fulfilled. Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. These few words carry on the prophecy past our own time (how far past?)carry it on close to the days of the end. “The times of the Gentiles” signify the whole period or epoch which must elapse between the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the beginning of the times of the end when the Lord will return. In other words, these “times of the Gentiles” denote the period during which theythe Gentileshold the Church of God in place of the Jews, deposal from that position of favor and honor. These words separate the prophecy of Jesus which belongs solely to the ruin of the cry and temple from the eschatological portion of the same prophecy. Hitherto the Lord’s words referred solely to the fall of Jerusalem and the ruin of the Jewish race. Now begins a short prophetic description of the end and of the coming of the Son of man in glory.
Luk 21:25-27
The prophecy of the coming of the Son of man in glory. The signs which shall precede this advent. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. The Lord continues his solemn prophecy respecting things to come. Now, the question of the four disciplesto Which this great discourse was the answerwas, When were they to look for that awful ruin of city and temple of which their loved Master spoke? But they, it must be remembered, in their own minds closely connected the temple‘s fall with some glorious epiphany of their Master, in which they should share. He answers generally their formal question as to the temple, describing to them the very signs they are to look for as heralding the temple’s fall. He now proceeds to reply to their real query respecting the glorious epiphany. The temple‘s ruin, that belonged to the period in which they were living; but the glorious epiphany, that lay in a far distance. “See,” he said, “city and temple will be destroyed; this catastrophe some of you will live to see. The ruin will be irreparable; a new epoch will set in, an epoch I call ‘the times of the Gentiles.’ These once despised peoples will have their turn, for I shall be their Light. Ages will pass before these ‘times of the Gentiles’ shall be fulfilled, but the end will come, and then, and not till then, will the Son of man come in glory. Listen; these shall be the signs which shall herald this glorious advent: Signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars.“ St. Matthew (Mat 24:29) supplies more details concerning these “signs.” The sun would be darkened, and the moon would not give her light; the stars would fall from heaven. These words are evidently a memory of language used by the Hebrew prophets to express figuratively the downfall of kingdoms. So Isaiah (Isa 13:10)speaks thus of the destruction of Babylon, and Ezekiel (Eze 32:7) of the fall of Egypt (see too Isa 34:4). It is, however, probable that our Lord, while using language and figures familiar to Hebrew thought, foreshadowed a literal fulfillment of his words. So Godet, who picturesquely likens our globe just before the second advent to “a ship creaking in every timber at the moment of its going to pieces.” He suggests that “our whole solar system shall then undergo unusual commotions. The moving forces (), regular in their action tilt then, shall be, as it were, set free from their laws by an unknown power, and, at the end of this violent but short distress, the world shall see him appear” (see 2Pe 3:10-12, where it is plainly foretold that tremendous physical disturbances shall precede the second coming of the Lord). The Son of man coming in a cloud. The same luminous cloud we read of so often in the Pentateuch: the flames of the desert-wanderings; the pillar of cloud and fire; the same bright cloud enveloped the Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration; it received him as he was taken up (Act 1:9). Nothing is said in this place as to any millennial reign of Christ on earth. The description is that of a transitory appearance destined to effect the work upon quick and deadan appear-ante defined more particularly by St. Paul in 1Co 15:23 and 1Th 4:16, 1Th 4:17.
Luk 21:28-36
Practical teaching arising the foregoing prophecy respecting the Jerusalem and the “last things.“
Luk 21:28
And when these things begin to come to pan, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. There is no doubt that the first reference in this verse is to the earlier part of the prophecythe fate of the city and the ruin of the Jewish power. “Your redemption” would then signify “your deliverance from the constant and bitter hostility of the Jewish authority.” After a.d. 70 and the fall of Jerusalem, the growth of Christianity was far more rapid than it had been the first thirty or forty years of its It had no longer to cope with the skilfully ordered, relentless opposition of its deadly Jewish foe. Yet between the lines a yet deeper meaning is discernible. In all times the earnest Christian is on the watch for the signs of the advent of his Lord, and the restless watch serves to keep hope alive, for the watcher knows that that advent will be the sure herald of his redemption from all the weariness and painfulness of this life.
Luk 21:29
And he spake to them a parable. “It is certain,” went on the Lord to say, “that summer follows the season when the fig tree and other trees put forth their green shoots. It is no less certain that these thingsthe fall of Jerusalem, and later the end of the worldwill follow closely on the signs I have just told you about.”
Luk 21:32
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pan away, till all be fulfilled. In the interpretation of this verse, a verse which has occasioned much perplexity to students, any non-natural sense for “generation” (), such as being an equivalent for the Christian Church (Origen and Chrysostom) or the human race (Jerome) must be at once set aside. (generation) denotes roughly a period of thirty to forty years. Thus the words of the Lord here simply asserted that within thirty or forty years all he had been particularly detailing would be fulfilled. Now, the burden of his prophecy had been the destruction of the city and temple, and the signs they were to look for as immediately preceding this great catastrophe. This was the plain and simple answer to their question of Luk 21:7, which asked “when these things should come to pass.” The words he had added relative to the coming of the Son of man did not belong to the formal answer, but were spoken in passing. This mighty advent the Lord alluded to as probably a very remote eventan event certainly to be postponed, to use his own words, “until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” Not so the great catastrophe involving the ruin of Jerusalem and the temple, the prophecy concerning which occupied so much of the Lord’s reply. That lay in the immediate future; that would happen in the lifetime of some of those standing by. Before forty years had elapsed the city and temple, now lying before them in all its strength and beauty, would have disappeared.
Luk 21:33
Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. A general conclusion to the whole prophecy. “No word of mine,” said the Master, “will ever pass away unfulfilled. Some of you will even live to see the terrible fulfillment of the first part of these utterances. All that mighty pile of buildings called Jerusalem will pass away, but my words which told of their coming ruin will remain. All this vast creation, earth, and stars will disappear in their turn, but these sayings of mine, which predict their future passing away into nothingness, will outlive both earth and heaven.”
Luk 21:34
And take heed to yourselves. The Master ended his discourse with an earnest practical reminder to his disciples to live ever with the sure expectation of his return to judgment. As for those who heard him then, conscious of the oncoming doom of the city, temple, and people, with the solemn procession of signs heralding the impending ruin ever before their eyes, no passions or cares of earth surely would hinder them from living the brave, pure life worthy of his servants. As for coming generationsfor the warning voice of Jesus here is equally addressed to themthey too must watch for another and far more tremendous ruin falling upon their homes than ever fell upon Jerusalem. The attitude of his people in every age must be that of the “watcher” till he come.
Luk 21:37
And in the daytime he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the Mount of Olives. This brief picture of the last days of public work is retrospective. This was how our Lord spent “Palm Sunday” and the Monday and Tuesday of the last week. The prophetic discourse reported in this twenty-first chapter was, most probably, spoken on the afternoon of Tuesday. After Tuesday evening he never entered the temple as a public Teacher again. Wednesday and Thursday were spent in retirement. Thursday evening he returned to the city to eat the last Passover with his own.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Luk 21:1-4
Worth in the estimate of wisdom.
What is the real worth of a human action? Surely, to us who are acting every wakeful hour of life, a very serious question. How shall we decide that an action of ours is worthy or unworthy, and what is the standard by which we shall estimate the comparative excellence of worthy deeds? Our text gives us one principle by which to judge. There are, however, two others which are essentially Christian, that should be placed in the foreground. Acts are worthy
I. As THEY ARE USEFUL; as they tend to promote well-being. And here we should note that their usefulness is greater:
1. As they affect character rather than circumstance.
2. As they are free from drawback; for the usefulness of many a course of action is the difference between the intentional good and the incidental evil that is wrought.
3. As they are permanently influential and therefore reproductive. Many a deed, being done, is done with; it has no appreciable results; but many another is as seed in the soilthere is a fruitful harvest to be reaped from it in the after-time.
II. ACCORDING TO THE SPIRIT IN WHICH THEY ARE DONE. If useful things are done in the spirit of rivalry, or for the purpose of display, or in the hope of social or material remuneration, their worth in God’s sight is nothing or next to nothing. If they are done to honor and to please Jesus Christ, or prompted by pure benevolence, or in the spirit of filial obedience, they have a real worth and are the objects of Divine approval. But the teaching of our text is that actions are worthy
III. MEASURED BY THEIR UNSELFISHNESS. If at heart they are selfish, then in the judgment of God they are without virtue; in proportion to their generosity, and that is to say, to their costliness, they are beautiful, and even noble.
1. The gift of money. The widow’s mite was more in the sight of God than the rich men’s gold; and it was so because they gave of their abundance a sum the loss of which they would not feela sum that entailed no reduction of their comfort and constituted no sacrifice at all; but she gave all that she hada sum she would miss much, a truly generous sacrifice. How often we applaud the donation of some hundreds of pounds, when the ten shillings contributed by some struggling worker has a higher place in the heavenly ledger!
2. The gift of time. The man whose easy circumstances allow him to give much time to religion or philanthropy may be less worthy and may be making a really smaller contribution than he who, pressed hard by pecuniary obligations and having a heavy burden of family responsibility to carry, yet squeezes a few hours from toilful days to ]end a helping hand to the cause of Christ and of man. The horae subscecivae are of more account than many leisure days.
3. Active service in the field of Christian labor. Some men are so constituted that they can render service in the pulpit, on the platform, in the class-room, almost without cost; they can speak without previous preparation and without subsequent exhaustion. But others can only serve at much cost to themselves; their strength is taxed to be ready for the hour of opportunity, they expend themselves freely in the act of utterance or in the outpouring of sympathy and they know what the miseries of prostration mean. A slight service, as reckoned by the time-table or the census, on the part of these latter may be more than equal to very prominent and much-appreciated work rendered by the former.
4. The sacrifice of life. It might seem that those who gave their life for their Lord or for their kind were all offering a gift of the same value. But not so. Life has very different values at different stages. It is comparatively little for the man who has spent his days and his powers to surrender the short and uninteresting remainder; it is much for the young man who has all the pleasures and prizes of life within his reach to part with the bright, inviting future in order to serve his fellows; the deed is nobler, for the sacrifice is greater.
(1) Let us take care that we do not judge by the appearance only, or we shall be unjust.
(2) Let us be sure that every true act of worthy service is appreciated and will be owned of Christ.C.
Luk 21:5, Luk 21:6
The destructible and the indestructible.
We have our Lord’s own authority for comparing the temple with a human being (Joh 2:19). He, however, compared it with his body; we may without any impropriety make the comparison with a human spiritwith the man himself. We look at it in regard to its destructibleness.
I. THE BUILDING ITSELF, AND OUR BEING ITSELF. The temple was the pride and the delight of every Jew. Among other things that gratified him, he rejoiced in its strength; he felt that it was secure. Generations of men would come and go, but that building would remain. Built of the most durable materials, it would defy the action of the elements; placed in the strong city and guarded with such ramparts, the enemy would assail it in vain. Where it then stood, there after many centuries it would be found. But the Jew was wrong; already those elements were at work which would bring on the fatal conflict, and that generation was not to pass (Luk 21:33) until that glorious fabric should be cast down and “not one stone left upon another.” A very slight thing in comparison with such a great and imposing structure seems a human being How easily destroyed I “crushed before the moth;” “destroyed between the morning and the evening.” Yet is there within the compass of the smallest and feeblest man that which is more lasting than the temple, that which will survive the strongest structure that art or nature ever reared. Not that the human soul is absolutely indestructible: “He can create and he [can] destroy it.” But it is created and intended for immortality. And if only it be on the side of truth and in the service of Godin Christ Jesus, it is destined for immortality; it will survive the strongest temples and the most impregnable castles; no wrath of man, no lapse and wear of time, no shock of material forces, can destroy it; it is indestructible.
II. ITS STRENGTH AND BEAUTY, AND OUR OWN. The temple was “adorned with goodly stones and gifts.” But strong as these massive stones were, and carefully as those gifts were guarded, the day came, and came in the experience of that very generation, when not one stone was left upon another, and nothing of the exquisite offerings was preserved; everything perished in the fire or was ploughed up by the ruthless share. Now, there is one thing which no fire can consume and no violence shattera spiritually strong and spiritually beautiful character; a holy and lovely character rooted in Christ and sustained by his indwelling Spirit. Buildings massive and solid, fortunes large and brilliant, kingdoms fortified by great armies and costly navies,these may be broken to pieces and perish. But the character of a Christian man, who is simply loyal to his Master, cannot be broken. Character that is not rooted in faith and that is not sustained by devotion may fall and be broken, and great and sad is the fall of it. But
(1) let a man build on the foundation which is laid for it, even Jesus Christ;
(2) let him abide in Christ by a living faith;
(3) let him seek the continual sustenance of the Spirit of God;and no opposing or wasting forces will touch him to harm him. The strength and beauty of his character will remain, will become stronger and fairer with the passing years, will be the object of commendation when the eye of the great Judge shall rest upon them at last.C.
Luk 21:13
Afterwards.
“No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness.” Concerning any course we take the question how it affects us now is not so important as is the question to what it leads, or, in the words of the text, “to what it turns.” And while that which is very pleasant often “turns to” much that is painful and bitter, or even shameful (see Rev 10:10), on the other hand, that which is very trying and even saddening at the time often “turns to” an issue that is full of honor and of joy. The context suggests that
I. PERSECUTION TURNS TO TESTIMONYto a most valuable proof of sincerity and faithfulness. When a man endures the blows and buffetings of the cruel hand of the persecutor, “we know the proof of him;” we write him down a true, loyal, noble servant of Christ. To how many men, not of the earliest age only but of all ages, has this steadfastness in the hour of trial been accepted by us as a “testimony” of the very greatest worth, so that their names are treasured by us as those of men that have done highest honor to their race! And their martyr-sufferings have turned to a testimony in the heavenly country; they have gained for them there the commendation of their Lord and the greeting of their glorified brethren. When, from “wandering in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth,” the persecuted Christians of Madagascar came forth to be welcomed by those who were then living under a kindly rule, they were greeted as such faithful and heroic men deserved to be; their persecution had turned into a testimony. In a similar way we may say that
II. TOIL TURNS INTO ACHIEVEMENT. The toil of the desk, of the field, of the shop, of the factory, may be hard and wearisome; our back may bend beneath our burden; our mind may be strained to its utmost capacity of continuance; but let us take courage and work on at our task; further on is the precious goal of achievement; after a while we shall look with unspeakable satisfaction on the work that has been done, the result that has been reached.
III. PRIVATION TURNS INTO ENRICHMENT. Sad and serious indeed are the privations, the losses, which are suffered when men are suddenly reduced in their temporal possessions, or when they are bereaved of near relatives or most intimate friends. Yet is there something more than compensation when the loss of the one leads, as it has often led, to the enrichment of the soul, by its finding refuge in God and in his service; or when the loss of the other has brought to the soul the fullness of the sympathy and friendship of Jesus Christ; privation has turned to enrichment.
IV. SERVICE TURNS INTO RULE. The soldier in the ranks becomes an officer of the army; the apprentice becomes the master; by long and faithful service in any one of the fields of human activity we prepare to rule. Thus is it in the spiritual realm. Obedience to Divine law turns into a perfect self-command, which is another name for liberty. And a lifelong service of Jesus Christ will turn to an occupancy of that heavenly sphere for which our fidelity shall have fitted us; the “faithful and wise servant” his Lord will “make ruler over all his goods” (Mat 24:45-47). Faithful service here “turns to” happy and helpful rule hereafter.
V. PATIENT WAITING TURNS TO BLISSFUL PARTICIPATION. Some souls have much waiting for the hour of deliverance, for the redemption of our body; it is a weary and a trying time. To “learn to wait” is the hardest of all lessons. But though the night seem very long, the morning will come in time; and if the steadfast soul wait patiently the holy will of God, the long endurance shall turn to a full and joyous participation in the glory that is to be revealedthe “glorious liberty of the children of God.”C.
Luk 21:14-19
Inevitable trial and unfailing resources.
Here we have one more illustration of the faithfulness of Jesus Christ toward his apostles. So far was he from encouraging in them the thought that their path would be one of easy conquest and delightful possession, that he was frequently warning them of a contrary experience. It was not his fault if they failed to anticipate hardship and suffering in the neat’ future; he told them plainly that his service meant the cross, with all its pain and shame. In reference to the apostles of our Lord, we have here
I. THE SEVERITY OF THE TRIALS THAT WERE BEFORE THEM. Jesus Christ had already indicated the fact that fidelity to his cause would entail severe loss and trial; here he goes into detail. He says that it will include:
1. General execration. They would be “hated of all men.” This is a trial of no small severity; to move among men as if we were unworthy of their fellowship; to be condemned, to be despised, to be shunned by all men; to be the object of universal reprobation;this is a blow which, if it “breaks no bones,” cuts into the spirit and wounds the heart with a deep injury. Fidelity to their Master and to their mission would entail this.
2. Desertion and treachery on the part of their own friends and kindred. (Luk 21:16.) Very few sorrows can be more piercing, more intolerable, than desertion by our own family, than betrayal by our dearest friends; it is the last and worst calamity when “our own familiar friend lifts up his heel against us.” Those who abandoned the old faith, or rather the Pharisaic version of it, and who followed Christ had to be prepared for this domestic and social sorrow.
3. Death. (Luk 21:16.)
II. THE UNFAILING RESOURCES ON WHICH THEY COULD DEPEND.
1. Everything they suffered would be endured for the sake of Jesus Christ; all would be “for my Name’s sake” (Luk 21:17). We know how the thought that they were experiencing wrong and undergoing shame for Christ’s sake could not only alleviate, not only dissipate sorrow, but even turn it into joy (see Act 5:41; Php 1:29). To suffer for Christ’s sake could give a thrill of sacred joy such as no pleasures could possibly afford.
2. They would have the shield of the Master’s power (Luk 21:18). Not a hair of their head should perish until he allowed it. That mighty Friend who had kept them in perfect safety, though enemies were many and fierce, would be as near to them as everse His presence would attend them, and no shaft should touch them which he did not wish to hurt them.
3. They should have the advantage of his animating Spirit (Luk 21:14, Luk 21:15). Whenever wisdom or utterance should he needed, the Spirit of Christ would put thoughts into their mind and words into their lips. His animating power should be upon them, should dwell within them.
4. They should triumph in the end; not, indeed, by martial victories, but by unyielding loyalty. “In patience” (in persistency in the right course) “they would possess their souls.” Losing their life in noble martyrdom, they would save it (Luk 9:24); loving their life, they would lose it; but “hating their life in this world, they would keep it unto. life eternal” (Joh 12:25). The bright promise of an unfading crown might cheer them on their way, and help them to pursue without flagging the path of devoted loyalty.
APPLICATION.
1. Similar trials await the faithful now. The dislike, the aversion, the opposition, of some, if not the active and strong hatred of all; the opposition, perhaps quiet enough, and yet keen and injurious enough, of our own friends or relatives; loss, struggle, suffering, if not fatal consequences of enmity. Downright loyalty to Jesus Christ, tenacity and intensity of conviction, usually carry persecution and trial with them.
2. We have the same resources the apostles had.
(1) The constant, sustaining, inspiring sense that we are enduring all for Christ our Saviorfor him who suffered all things for us.
(2) His protecting care.
(3) His indwelling, upholding Spirit.
(4) The strong assurance that he will cause us to triumph, that he will help us to be faithful unto death, and will then give us the crown of life; that by “patient continuance in well-doing” (patience, perseverance) we. shall have “eternal life” (shall possess our souls).C.
Luk 21:28
The second redemption.
“Lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” Jesus Christ led his disciples to think that beyond the redemption which he was working out for them, and subsequent to it in time, was another great deliverance which should prove of unspeakable value to them. This is true now of our discipleship; we look for and we sorely need a second redemption.
I. ITS CHARACTER. It is not, like the first, distinctively and purely spiritual. That was; men were yearning for a political revolution and redemption. But the kingdom of heaven was not to be “of this world;” it was to be wholly inward and spiritual; it was to be our redemption from sin and restoration to the favor and the likeness of our Divine Father. But the second redemption is not distinctively and primarily that of the soul; it is to be “the redemption of our body” (Rom 8:23). It will have a gracious and beneficent effect, a redeeming and elevating influence, upon the soul; but in the first instance it is a redemption from a troublous and trying condition; it is being taken away, by the appearance of Christ, in the providence of God, from a state in which happy service is almost impossible; it is a removal from storm to calm, from hostile to friendly forces, from turbulence to serenity; from hard conflict, or tense anxiety, or painful suffering, to “the rest which remaineth for the people of God.” It is a blessed and merciful change from unfavourable to favorable conditions.
II. OUR HUMAN NEED OF IT. We are not of this world, we who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ and renewed by the Spirit of God. And we may be nobly, even grandly, victorious over it, being “always caused to triumph” by that Divine Spirit that dwells within us, and “strengthens us with all might.” Yet are we actually, and by universal experience, seriously affected by it, and we suffer many things as we pass through it. We may suffer, as the early Christians did (to whom these words were addressed), from persecution, and thereby be made “most miserable” (1Co 15:19). Our life may be made worthless, or worse than worthless, to us by the cruelties of our fellow-men. Or we may suffer so much from privation of privilege, or from the struggles of daily life, or from grief and disappointment, or from a steadily advancing decrepitude, that we may earnestly long for this second redemption, the redemption of our body. We may be in sore need of its approach, of its presence.
III. ITS KINDLY SHADOW. It will then be much to us, perhaps everything; that our redemption draweth nigh.
1. It is something that at any moment we may be within a step of the heavenly sphere; for anything we know, Christ may be about to say concerning us, “This day ye shall be with me in Paradise.”
2. It is more that we may be confident that a life of holy activity will rapidly pass away and bring us to the day of rest and of reward.
3. It is very much indeed that the duration of the blessed future will prove to be such that any number of years of earthly trouble will be nothing in comparison.
4. It is also a truth full of hope and healing that every day spent in faithful service or patient waiting brings us that distance nearer to the blessedness that lies beyond.
“We nightly pitch our moving tent
A day’s march nearer home.”
Beneath the varied and heavy burdens of time we are fain to bow our heads; but we shall lift them up with strength and eager-hearted expectation as we realize that every step forward is a step onward to the heavenly horizon.C.
Luk 21:33
The immortality of Christian truth.
These striking words suggest to us
I. CHRIST‘S CONSCIOUS CONNECTION WITH THE ETERNAL FATHER. Had there not been in him a profound and abiding consciousness that, in a sense far transcending our own experience, God dwelt in him and he in God, these words would have been wholly indefensible; they would have been in the last degree immodest. Proceeding from any other than the Son of God himself, they would have simply repelled us, and would have cast grave discredit on every other utterance from the same lips. It was because he was Divine, and felt the authority which his Divinity conveyed, that he could and did use such words as these without any trace of assumption; without violating that “meekness and lowliness of heart” which he claimed to possessthe possession of which neither friend nor enemy has attempted to dispute.
II. THE PERMANENCE OF TRUTH COMPARED WITH THE TRANSITORINESS OF MATTER. It is only in a limited and figurative sense that we can speak of material things as eternal. The hour will come when they will perish; indeed, they are perishing as we speak. The immovable rocks, the everlasting hills, are being disintegrated by sun and rain; the fixed earth rises and falls; the “changeless rivers” are cutting new courses for their waters. Only truth abides; it is only the words in which the thought of the Eternal is expressed that do not pass away. Fashions do not touch it with their finger; revolutions do not overthrow it; dispensations leave it in its integrity. We look particularly at
III. THE IMMORTALITY OR THE THOUGHTS OF CHRIST.
1. We have found him a true Prophet. Events have happened according to his word.
2. We are finding hint to be the Divine Teacher of truth to-day. He has that to say to us which, in our better moods and worthier moments, we hunger and thirst to hear. In his deathless words there are still treasured for us salvation from our sin, comfort in our sorrow, sanctity in our joy, strength in our struggle, companionship in our loneliness, and peace and hope in our decline and death. Unto whom shall we go if we sit at his feet no longer?
3. We shall find him the Source of truth in the after-life. Death will not make his words less true, even of it makes some of them less applicable than they are here and now. His thoughts will never lose their hold upon our heart, never cease to affect and shape our course. The truths which Jesus spake eighteen centuries ago will beautify our life and bless our spirit in the furthest epochs and the highest spheres of the heavenly world.
(1) If we would render the truest service to ourselves, we shall do our utmost to fill our minds with the thoughts of Christ; for these will prepare us for any and every condition, here or hereafter, in which we can possibly be placed.
(2) If we would serve our race most effectively, we shall consider in how many ways we can impress his thoughts upon the minds of men and weave them into the institutions of the world. And we shall find, at any rate, these three:
(a) The testimony of a Christian life.
(b) The utterance, in public or in private, of Christian doctrine.
(c) The support of Christian institutions.C.
Luk 21:34
Christian and unchristian carefulness.
Take care not to be overtaken and overweighted by care is the simple and intelligible paradox of the text; in other words, have a wise care lest you have much care that is unwise. There is a carefulness that is eminently godly and worthy, the absence of which is not only faulty and dangerous, but even guilty and fatal; but there is another carefulness which is an excess, a wrong, an injury in the last degree.
I. A WISE ORDINATION OF GOD. Surely it is in pure kindness to us that God has ordained that if we will not work neither shell we eat; that possession and enjoyment involve thoughtfulness and activity on our part. To be provided with everything we could wish for without the necessity for habitual consideration as well as regular exertion is found to be hurtful, if not positively disastrous to the spirit. The necessity for care, in the sense of a thoughtful provision for this life, involves two great blessings.
1. The formation of many homely but valuable virtuesthe cultivation of the intellect, forethought, diligence, sobriety of thought and conduct, regularity of daily habits, the practice of courtesy, and the avoidance of offense, etc.
2. The practice of piety; there is perhaps no better field in which we can be serving God than in that of our daily duties as citizens of this world. Whether it be the counting-house, the desk, the factory, the shop, the home, the school,in each and in all of these there is a constant opportunity for remembering and doing the will of God; there will true and genuine godliness find a field for its exercise and its growth.
II.. OCCASION FOR FILIAL TRUST. Care, in the sense of anxiety, about our temporal affairs is an evil to be met and mastered by Christian thought. Christ has said to us, “Take no thought [be not anxious] for your life” (Mat 6:25); Paul writes, “Be careful [anxious] for nothing,” etc. (Php 4:6); Peter says, “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you” (1Pe 5:7). Clearly our Christian duty is to do our best with head and hand, by thoughtfulness and diligence, to ask for God’s direction and blessing, and then to put our trust in him, resting humbly but confidently on his Word of promise. This is a promise where there is much occasion for filial trustfulness. When the way is dark we must not yield to an unspiritual anxiety, hut rise to a holy, childlike faith in our heavenly Father.
III. A SPHERE FOR DETERMINED LIMITATION. The great and the growing temptation is to fill our lives and hearts with the affairs of time. No more needful or seasonable counsel could be given us than this of our Lord, “Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be overcharged with.., the cares of this life.” Undue and unwise carefulness about these mundane interests does two evil things: it wears out that which is goodgood health, good spirits, good temper; and it shuts out that which is bestfor it excludes the worship and the direct service of God; it leaves no time for devout meditation, for profitable and instructive reading, for religious exercises, for Christian work. It shuts men up to the lesser and lower activities; it dwarfs their life, it starves their soul; they “lose their life itself for the sake of the means of living.” Two things are requisite, requiring a very firm and vigorous hand.
1. To resist the temptation to enlarge our worldly activities when such enlargement means spiritual shrinkage, as it very often does.
2. To insist upon it that the cares of life shall not exclude daily communion with God and the culture of the soul. If we do not exhibit this wise care against the unwise carefulness, we shall
(1) displease our Divine Lord by our disobedience;
(2) sacrifice ourselves to our circumstances;
(3) be unready for the advancing future;
“that day will come upon us unawares,” and we shall not be “worthy to stand before the Son of man” (see next homily).C.
Luk 21:36
Standing before Christ.
“Watch and pray that ye may be accounted worthy to stand before the Son of man.” What is involved in this worthiness? It must include our being
I. PREPARED TO GIVE ACCOUNT TO HIM. We know that we shall have to do that (Rom 10:1-21; 2Co 5:10); and we must expect, when we do stand before the Judge, to account to Jesus Christ for
(1) the relation which we have voluntarily sustained to himselfhow we have received his invitation, and with what fullness we have accepted him as the Redeemer, the Friend, the Lord of our heart and life;
(2) the way in which we have served him since we called ourselves by his Namei.e. how closely we have followed him, how obedient we have been to his commandments, how earnest and faithful we have Showed ourselves in his cause; in tact, hove true and loyal we have proved to be as his servants here.
II. CONFORMED TO HIS LIKENESS, Will not our Lord expect to find those who professed to be his disciples, who had access to so many and such great privileges, stand before him such as he lived and died to make them.t We know what that is. “He gave himself for us, to redeem us from all iniquity;” he has “called us to holiness;” he came and wrought his work in order that he might make us to be in our spirit and character the children of God, bearing our heavenly Father’s image. He will therefore look to those who stand before him as his redeemed ones for:
1. Purity of heart; the abhorrence of all that is evil, and love for that which is good and true and pure.
2. A loving spirit; a spirit of unselfishness, of devotedness, of generosity, of tender solicitude for the well-being of others.
3. Reverence and consecration of heart to God.
III. READY FOR THE HEAVENLY SPHERE, To “stand before” the king meant to be ready to fulfill his royal behest, prepared to do at once and to do effectively whatever he might require. To stand before our Divine Sovereign means to be ready to do his bidding, to execute his commandments as he shall employ us in his heavenly service. We naturally and rightly hope that he will entrust us with the most honorable errands, will appoint us to elevated posts, will charge us with noble occupations that will demand enlarged ability and that will contribute great things to his cause and kingdom. We may be sure that the devoted and faithful discharge of our duties here will prove the best preparation for celestial activity and usefulness, lie that is faithful in a few things now will be made ruler over many things hereafter. He who puts out his talents here will be found worthy to stand before the King, and to be employed by him in broad and blessed spheres of service there. If we would be “accounted worthy” to do this, we must “watch and pray.”
1. We must spend much time with Godin the study of his will and in supplication for the quickening influences of his Spirit.
2. We must often examine our own hearts, observing our progress or retrogression, ready for the act of penitence, or of praise, or of reconsecration as we find ourselves declining. We must also observe the forces that are around us, and distinguish carefully between the hostile and the friendly, between those which make for folly and for sin and those which lead up to wisdom and to righteousness.C.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR
Luk 21:5-38
Preliminaries of the second advent.
It would seem that, as an interlude amid his diligent teaching in Jerusalem, Jesus and the disciples, on their way back to Bethany, had paused on the Mount of Olives and contemplated the temple. The building was a superb one, and so well put together that the disciples and people generally believed it would last till doomsday. Hence, amid their admiration for the gorgeous pile, came their question about the end of the world, which would, they believed, synchronize with that of the temple. Now, our Lord, while prophesying its destruction, warns them not to be mistaken about times and signs.
I. OUR LORD WARNS THE DISCIPLES AGAINST FALSE ALARMS. (Luk 21:7-9.) He indicates that many false Messiahs will arise, declaring their Messiahship and the speedy approach of the end. They are to be for the most part of the military type, for this was the kind of Messiah Israel wanted. The result will of necessity be “wars and tumults.” But the disciples ought not to be alarmed at these mere preliminaries. The end would not be “immediately” (Revised Version). It is well known that between our Lord’s time and the destruction of Jerusalem quite a number of military and mushroom Messiahs arose, “making confusion worse confounded.” They were only the outcome of the people’s false hopes, and of no prophetic import.
II. THE DISCIPLES, AS THEIR LORD‘S WITNESSES, WOULD EXPERIENCE BOTH PERSECUTIONS AND INSPIRATIONS. (Luk 21:10-19.) And here the Lord states that persecution of his people would precede national and natural troubles. War, earthquake, and pestilence would be the providential judgment upon unrighteous persecution. But the persecuted witnesses should receive the inspiration needful to speak resistlessly. They might be betrayed and martyred, but no real injury would overtake them. “There shall not an hair of your head perish.” In this remarkable deliverance of our Lord about persecution he implies that his people are really imperishable. The world might do its best to annihilate them by fire and sword; their bones might be scattered, no marble tells whither; but the Lord who loves and prizes his people’s dust will reorganize the scattered remains, and demonstrate how absolutely imperishable his people are. Hence he urges patience. “In your patience,” he declares, “ye shall win your souls.” So that it was a most wonderful preparation of these marked men for martyrdom and all preceding tribulation. Were we more dependent on Divine inspirations, we should be There calm and influential before a hostile world.
III. THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM. IS DISTINCTLY FORETOLD AS AN INSTANCE OF DESERVED VENGEANCE. (Luk 21:20-24.) And here the Lord gives his people directions to escape from the doomed city as soon as they should see the armies gathering round it. The siege was drawn upon it by no misconduct of theirs, but by the misconduct of their enemies: why, therefore, should the Christians lay down their lives for a false policy and cause? Their duty was, if possible, to escape. He also hires at the horrors of the siege, and how mothers with their infant children would suffer terribly. The issue of the investment would be the slaughter of multitudes and the exile of the rest, The Jews became wanderers and exiles from that moment.
“Tribes of the wandering foot and weary breast,
How shall ye flee away and be at rest!
The wild dove hath her nest, the fox his cave,
Mankind their countryIsrael but the grave!”
IV. REDEMPTION MAY BE DISCERNED AS DRAWING NIGH. (Luk 21:25-33.) Our Lord. indicates that distress of nations, perplexity, and faint-heartedness through fear will precede his second coming. But his people need be no sharers in this fear. So far from this, as soon as the judgment-signs begin they are to lift up their heads, assured that redemption is drawing nigh. The outlook may be wintry for the world, but it is summer for the saints of God. And here we may notice:
1. The parable of the spring trees. (Luk 21:29, Luk 21:30.) Our Lord reminds the disciples that every spring, in the buds and shoots of the various trees there is the promise of the summer. The progress is gradual, yet noticeable. In the same way his people are to look for the signs of coming summer, and to manifest a hopeful spirit in beautiful contrast to the despairing spirit of the world.
2. The imperishable character of the Christian stock. (Luk 21:31-33.) All the world’s opposition and persecution will not annihilate the Christian stock. As the martyrs fall before their persecutors, it is only to summon fresh witnesses for the Master from the ranks of their enemies. The Christian stock abides. There need be no fear. Let this be left to the unbelieving world.
V. THE LORD‘S PEOPLE OUGHT CONSEQUENTLY TO BE WATCHING AND PRAYING FOR THE ADVENT. (Luk 21:34-38.) And in the conclusion of this discourse our Lord clearly indicates:
1. That it is possible to escape the judgments which are coming on the earth before the advent. For there is no merit in allowing one’s self to be involved in judgments which others by their unbelief have invited. It is our duty to escape, if possible, the catastrophe.
2. It can only be by a watchful and prayerful spirit. Self indulgence, everything that would dull our sense of the impending advent, must be avoided. It is to come as a thief and a snare upon those that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Hence the imperative necessity of watching. And it is prayer which will help us in our watching. We must wrestle with the coming King, that he may count us worthy to escape the world’s judgments and to stand before him.
3. How great a privilege it will be to be permitted to stand in the presence of the Son of man! No such privilege is afforded even by the greatest of earthly kings. It becomes us, therefore, to be in downright earnest about this privilege, and by persevering prayer to secure it.
VI. OUR LORD GAVE THE DISCIPLES THE EXAMPLE OF THE WATCHFUL PRAYER REQUIRED. (Luk 21:37, Luk 21:38.) For it would seem that, in the closing days, the people came so early to the temple to be taught, that he could not go as far as Bethany to spend the night. He went out, therefore, at nightfall to the Mount of Olives, and spent the night-watches more in prayer than in sleep. He was showing what persevering prayer in the crises of history must be. Let our Lord’s Gethsemane habits call each of us to privacy and patient prayer such as will alone secure the proper public spirit.R.M.E.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Luk 21:1-4 . See on Mar 12:41-44 .
] previously, Luk 20:45 ff., Jesus spoke to His disciples surrounding Him; now He lifts up His glance from these to the people farther off, and sees, etc. He must therefore have stood not far from the .
] is connected together: the rich men casting in . After might also be supplied (Bornemann), in which case, however, the meaning comes out less appropriately, for they were not rich people only who were casting in (comp. Mar 12:41 ).
Luk 21:2 . (see the critical remarks): aliquam, eamque viduam, egenam . Comp. Plat. Phaed . p. 58 D, and thereon Stallbaum. is: and indeed .
Luk 21:4 . refers to the more remote subject (Frtsch, Obss. in Lys . p. 74; Winer, p. 142 [E. T. 195]). Jesus points to the persons in question.
] to the gifts (that were in the treasury), not: guae donarent (Beza), to which the article is opposed.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
C. Revelations concerning the Parusia, and Leave-takings in the midst of His Friends
Luk 21:1 to Luk 22:36
The Leaving of the Temple. Prophecy of the Destruction of Jerusalem and the Fulness of the Time
1. The Widows Mite (Luk 21:1-4)
(Parallel to Mar 12:41-44.)
1And he looked up, and [Looking up, he], saw the [om., the] rich men casting theirgifts into the treasury. 2And he saw also a certain [some one and that a, for 1] poor widow casting in thither two mites. 3And he said, Of a truth I say untoyou, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: 4For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God:2but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Luk 21:1. And looking up, .Here also we must unite the accounts of Mark and Luke, in order to be able to form to ourselves a correct conception of the true course of this miniature but lovely narrative. Even this deserves to be noted, that we see our Lord sitting so tranquilly in the temple (, Mark) shortly after His terrific Woe to you! had resounded. He will avoid even the slightest appearance of having gone away in any excitement, or from any sort of fear of further attacks. The place where we have to seek Him, over against Gods chest, is known to us also from Joh 8:20. We may understand the thirteen offering chests (Shofaroth) which were marked with letters of the Hebrew alphabet, and stood open there in order to receive gifts for different sacred and benevolent purposes, about whose destination and arrangement we find much that is interesting gathered in Lightfoot, Decas Chorograph. in Marcum, Luke 3. Perhaps, however, a particular treasure-chest is meant, of which also Josephus speaks, Ant. Jud. xix. 6, 1. Comp. 2Ki 12:9. In view of the uncertainty of the matter, it is at least precipitate to be so ready with the imputation that the Evangelists have been inexact in their statement, like, for instance, De Wette.
Luk 21:2. Some one, and that a poor widow, .See notes on the text. Perhaps one of those whose unhappy fate Jesus had just portrayed, Luk 20:47. We need not, however, assert on this account that He designedly made such honorable mention of this particular widow in order to make the contrast yet stronger with the haughty and unloving Pharisees. He is now through with them. The contrast was not made, but born of the reality of life.Two mites, .As to the pecuniary value, see on the parallel in Mark. It is a question of little account whether the Rabbinic rule, nemo ponat in cistam elemosynarum, is really applicable here, which Meyer disputes, and whether, therefore, it was true that in no case could less than two mites be cast into the . It certainly cannot be proved that this rule was applicable also to the . At all events, necessity knows no law, and Bengels remark, quorum unum vidua retinere poterat, remains therefore true.
Luk 21:3. .It deserves to be noted that our Lord does not at all censure or lightly esteem the gifts of the rich. Not once again does there resound a Woe to you, ye hypocrites! in rebuke He will, after what has just been said in the temple, not again open His mouth. Only He extols far above the beneficence of these, the gift of the poor widow. For the rich have of their abundance cast in , that is, not ad monumenta preciosa, ibi in perpetuum dedicata (Bengel), but ad dona, in thesauro asservata. The woman, on the other hand, gave of her poverty, , comp. Luk 8:43; Luk 15:12 (yet more strongly and briefly, Mark: ). The value of her gift is, therefore, reckoned not according to the pecuniary amount, but according to the sacrifice connected therewith. How our Lord became acquainted with the widows necessity we do not know; perhaps she belonged to those known as poor; nothing hinders us, however, to refer it to the Divine knowledge which penetrated the life of Nathanael and the Samaritan woman. Enough, He shows that He has attentively observed the work of love, and praises it because He knows out of what source it flowed. He does not, it is true, directly compare the disposition, but only the ability, of the different givers with each other; but certainly He would not have so highly valued the material worth of the little gift, if He had not at the same time calculated also the moral worth. In no case would He have praised the widow if she had brought her offering, like most of the Pharisees, from ignoble impulses. Now, He will not withhold from her His approbation, since her heart in His eyes passes for richer than her gift. He does not ask whether this gift will be a vain one; whether it is well to support with such offerings the temple-chest and its misuse; whether a worship ought to be yet supported by widows, which a few years afterwards is to fall before the sword of the enemy. He looks alone at the ground, the character and purpose of her act, and the poor woman who has given up all in good faith, but has kept her faith, gains now with her two pieces of copper an income of imperishable honor.
How the judgment of our Lord respecting this widow finds at the same time an echo in every human heart, appears to us if we direct our look to particular parallel expressions from profane literature. According to the Jewish legend (see Wetstein on Mar 12:43), a high-priest who had despised a handful of meal which a poor woman brought to a sacrifice, is said to have received a revelation not to contemn this small gift, because she had therewith, as it were, given her whole soul. According to Seneca, De Benef, i. Luk 1:58, the poor schines, who, instead of an offering of money, dedicated himself to Socrates, brought a greater offering than Alcibiades and others with their rich gifts. An act similar to that of the poor widow we find stated in Hofmann, Missionsstunden, i. 5. Vorlesung.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The narrative of the Widows Mite makes in this connection a similar impression to that of a friendly sunbeam on a dark tempestuous heaven, or a single rose upon a heath full of thistles and thorns. Just in this appears the Divine in our Lord, that He, in a moment when the fate of Jerusalem, and with this the coming of the kingdom of God into the whole world, so completely fills His mind, has yet eyes and heart for the most insignificant individual, and is disposed to adorn even so lowly a head with the crown of honor. We need no other proof for the celestially pure temper in which He left the accursed temple after such words of wrath. It is as if He cannot so part, as if at least His last word must be a word of blessing and of peace, so that we scarcely know in what character in this hour of sundering we shall most admire the King of the kingdom of God, whether more as Punisher of hidden evil, or as Rewarder of hidden good.
2. In the judgment also which He passes, the Son is the image of the invisible Father. Comp. 1Sa 16:1-13. Men judge the heart according to the deeds; the Lord judges the deed according to the heart. Therewith is connected, moreover, the phenomenon that the sacred history relates very much which profane history gives over to oblivion, and the reverse. Heroic deeds and great events of the world are passed over here in silence, but not the cup of cold water, the widows mite, the ointment of Mary, and the like.
3. The history of the two mites is a new proof of the power of little things, and of the gracious favor with which the Lord looks upon the least offering which only bears the stamp of a sancta simplicitas. With right, therefore, has this text been regarded as an admirable mission-text, since the mission-chest receives no insignificant increment from widows mites, over which an Increase and multiply has been uttered. By the example of this woman the penny clubs for the mission cause, the Ketten-vereine of the Gustavus Adolphus Society, [the weekly penny offerings of our Sunday scholars,] &c., are sanctioned. Even in a material respect the word 2Co 12:10, becomes true for the church of our Lord.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The last look of the Lord at those surrounding Him in the temple.The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all, Pro 20:2.The beneficence of the rich and of the poor compared with one another.How one can be beneficent even without giving much, Act 3:6.The true art of reckoning: 1. For love no offering is too great; 2. in Gods eyes no offering of love is too little.The judgment of the Lord: 1. Other than the judgment of man; 2. better than the judgment of man.How little really a rich man does when he does nothing but give.The heart is the standard of the deeds.The need of bringing something as a sacrifice, inseparable from the inwardly religious life, 2Sa 24:24.How the history of the poor widow teaches us: 1. Carefulness in our judgment upon others; 2. strictness in our judgment upon ourselves; 3. watchfulness in respect to the approaching judgment of the Lord.
Starke:The eyes of the Lord are directed upon Gods chest; keepers of it, look well to what ye do!Canstein:It is something comforting and refreshing to the poor, that they can give more than the rich.Cramer:As God does not regard the person, so does He not regard the gifts and offerings, but the heart and the simplicity of faith.Let no one despise true widows; there are heroines of faith among them, 1Ti 5:3.Heubner:All gifts should be a sacrifice.What once was done too much, now is done too little.Even small gifts are of importance for the general cause; the Lord can add His blessing thereto.Religion raises the value of all gifts.Liberality, honor and love to the temple, contempt of earthly things, trust in God, are the main traits in the portrait of the widow.Carl Beck:The measure of the Heavenly Judge for our good works: 1. A staff to support the lowly; 2. a staff to beat down the lofty.W. Hofacker:Jesus look of pleasure and acknowledgment which rested upon the gift of the widow: 1. A look full of strengthening, comforting favor; 2. a look full of the earnestness of lofty and holy inquiry upon us all.Knapp:The standard with which the Lord our Saviour determines the worth or unworthiness of our benevolent gifts and works.Kapff:The practice of beneficent compassion.N. Beets:The work of love and its Witness.
Footnotes:
[1]Luk 21:2. must not be expunged, nor with Lachmann bracketed, but with Tischendorf be placed after , as a more particular description of the woman.
[2]Luk 21:4. , suspicious, as an explicative addition, which is wanting in B., [Cod. Sin.,] L., X., Cursives, Coptic version, &c.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The Lord Jesus foretells of the Destruction of the Temple. He answers the anxious Questions of His Disciples, in fortifying their Minds with suitable Advice for the Approaching Trials.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.
By Jesus looking up is not meant to say that the treasury was on an elevated spot, for Mark tells us that he sat over against it. It was near to the temple, and placed there most probably for conveniency, that those who were going to or from the temple might bring their alms. Our Lord furnisheth a lovely example of a poor widow, in her rich and costly offering. How little is understood of the nature of true charity. A man may give thousands, and yet have no real charity towards God. And another may give but little, yea, nothing, and yet in the Lord’s sight be very bountiful. And the reason is plain. Where the love of God in Christ is in the heart, this, like a fountain, will diffuse streams from the same source all around. But, where that first and predisposing cause of all that is good is wanting, the motive cannot be right, and therefore nothing of good can follow. Hence thousands may be bestowed, and no true charity accompanying. And a precious child of God, like Peter, may have nothing to give, and yet in God’s sight be a most liberal soul. Act 3:6 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Presence of Christ (For Advent)
Luk 21:5-6
This discourse of our Lord is one of the most difficult for us to follow and apply, and yet it has made a vivid impression on the imagination of the world. Our Advent hymns and services are full of reminiscences of it, while, like so much else in Holy Scripture, it has suffered from an irreverent literalism which has at times imposed too great a strain on the imagination until faith has closed her wings and dropped heavily to the earth. The Day of Judgment, even more than the judgment of individual souls, seems to have struck into the background of the articles of faith until ‘we believe that Thou shalt come to be our Judge’ has come to be a statement which all Christians pronounce and few Christians believe. Yet the season of Advent was set apart, among other purposes, to keep this great fact before us as a living motive and guide of conduct. It may be worth while therefore to try reverently to gather what was in our Lord’s mind when He spoke what was transitory, what was permanent. It is impossible to leave on one side a matter of such vital importance as the final destiny of the world, and the promised presence or coming of Christ. We notice at once these two things.
I. The Transitory and the Permanent. First that, as, in an exhibition of dissolving views, one scene melts imperceptibly into another so that at a given time we hardly know what is before us, so here a great deal of our Lord’s words refer to an immediate, local catastrophe of tremendous importance to His hearers the fall of Jerusalem. And then His words dissolve, melt almost imperceptibly into another scene the end of the world, His own second coming, and the dread phenomena which will precede and accompany it the one event being connected with the other as that which symbolises with that which is symbolised.
II. The Coming of Christ. Secondly, we must remember and realise that there are certain images in Holy Scripture which cannot be reproduced pictorially, nor represented in human language. Our Blessed Lord Himself seems to say that a full knowledge of what is meant by the Day of Judgment and when it will be is impossible to the human understanding. ‘Of that clay and of that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.’… But there is a blight side to final judgment. We are apt to forget this. In spite of the imagery of flame and earthquake, of wrath on sinners, of shame and endless doom, the idea which most strongly impressed itself on the early Church was the presence of Christ, the victory of Christ, the coming and permanent reign of Christ.
III. The Presence of Christ. His presence! It is what they so longed to see. How impatient they were for it, how they hurried forward in imagination the slow winding up of the ages. ‘O thou enemy,’ they would say, ‘destructions are come to a perpetual end’ and Christ is coming. His will be a great Presence. In the dark days of the Catacombs where they found Him in the mystic Eucharistic Presence on the altar which covered the bones of some friend or some earlier martyr who had laid down his life for Christ, the presence was a hurried and a fleeting one, to be followed too often by dark days of persecution and anguish. It was so difficult for them to keep Christ’s presence with them in its living beauty. We too know how difficult it is to retain the presence of Christ. The presence of Christ always and everywhere in a time when there should be neither day nor night, but one day this was the conception that swallowed up all others in the loving hearts of the Christians as they talked of the coming of Christ which was promised. This is a side of the Judgment Day of which we think too little, one which surely has power to diminish much of our fear.
IV. What has the Presence been to us? As we look back over life we each of us can see what the presence, the coming, of Christ has been to us. ‘Thy song shall be of mercy and judgment.’ Life has had its destructions. God has cast down for us those false ideals which once threatened to divert our energies and spoil our prospects. Life has had its catastrophes. The wood, the hay, the stubble, yea, even the precious stones as we thought them, all that was worthless, is gone. Nature herself inflicts on us her destruction; as life advances and old age approaches one thing after another falls away from us bodily health, mental vigour, power of leadership, power of vigorous work. God nips off those things that we valued youth, health, strength and vigour in order to develop the life of saintliness, the life of union with Himself. If you would meet your Judge with trembling hope, if you would rejoice in His presence with exceeding great joy, go and tell it out among the heathen that the Lord is King; go and proclaim the paradox of welcome: ‘Let the floods clap their hands, and let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, for He cometh to judge the earth’.
Luk 21:8
To deny, to believe, and to doubt well, are to a man what paces are to a horse.
Pascal.
References. XXI. 8. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vi. p. 404. XXI. 10. Ibid. vol. v. p. 136. XXI. 13. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in a Religious House, vol. ii. p. 458. C. Perren, Outline Sermons, p. 312.
The Tyranny of Time
Luk 21:19
I. It is easy to become impatient in regard to the development of our own character. Yet it is unreasonable to lose hope and courage. We often lose heart by comparing our present selves with our moral and spiritual history of yesterday. How impossible to gauge moral movement! If we are living rightly, the deepest changes are being silently wrought in the depths of our nature, and the faintest of these is a cause for infinite gratitude. No impatience will accelerate the unfolding of flower or soul, lit can only retard. Nor let us be impatient with the circumstances which discipline character; God knows best how long the gold ought to remain in the furnace, how long the jewel must suffer the grinding of the wheel.
II. We become weary waiting for the renewal of the world. Yet the kingdom of God is coming, however deeply sometimes its development may be veiled. ‘What is to last for ever takes a long time to grow.’ We must be struck with the spirit of patience displayed everywhere in the New Testament. Nothing is more wonderful than the serenity of our Lord in the prosecution of His great mission. The same spirit of tranquil confidence animated the apostles. Because they exulted in glorious power they were patient and long-suffering.
III. In these days of feverishness and haste our eye is too much on the clock. Rae, writing of ‘The White Sea Peninsula,’ alleges that in all the hundreds of Russian peasants’ huts, cottages, and houses that he visited every one had a clock, yet he saw only one going. Wise people! It is well to remember that we are children of time; but the agitation and tension of watching the clock are not good for us in any sense, least of all in relation to spiritual things. When the Duke of Wellington saw a painting of Waterloo which represented him sitting on horse-back with a watch in his hand anxiously scanning the hour, the great soldier ridiculed the picture, declared the posture false, and told the artist to paint the watch out. No battle is won with a watch in our palm. The victory over our own nature, the victory that overcometh the world, are gained in patient faith and endeavour. The victory of Christ, and the setting up of His kingdom over all the earth, will be achieved, not as against time, but in quietness and confidence.
W. L. Watkinson, The Ashes of Roses, p. 31.
Patient Perseverance
Luk 21:19
I. The Christian life has ever to be maintained in the face of opposition.
1. There is our own evil.
2. There are the direct temptations to defection.
3. There is always a world of unsympathising men, varying in every age.
4. There are the sorrows and trials to which all are exposed.
II. That opposition can only be met by patient perseverance.
III. That patient perseverance wins for us ourselves.
A. Maclaren.
Winning and Saving Souls
Luk 21:19
When Christ spoke of losing the soul, He did not primarily refer to the loss of heaven by-and-by.
I. What is it to lose a soul? When a soul is dissipated before the body decays, when man’s worldly interests destroy his capacity for truth and honour, chivalry and love, when sin exhausts his force as weeds do the soil, then a man is losing soul. We speak of saving the soul alive. What is the soul but a man’s true, complete self, the sum total of all the higher faculties; and what is the life of the soul but true faith, hope, love, graciousness, generosity, joy? Not to have them, though you sin the whole world, is to lose your soul. These are the qualities which link you to God and make you a member of His family; without them your soul is null and void.
II. There is a hint in this text of Christ’s, that you and I have to co-operate with the Creator in making our own souls. We were born with potentialities. We have to train our faculties, to develop our powers, to win our souls. God may, for aught I know, have made angels in the same instantaneous way in which He called light into being; but only the discipline of life can make human souls God working in us; we working in God. Live with all the soul you have.
B. J. Snell, The All-Enfolding Love, p. 17.
Winning the Soul
Luk 21:19
It is a pity that our translation runs here as it does: it conceals the point of the original entirely. What our Lord says is, as the Revised Version has it, ‘in your patience (or endurance) ye shall win your souls’. The text is not a precept, but a promise. It does not send men to a duty, but assures them of a reward.
I. One is struck here with the fact, to begin with, that Christ takes for granted that these men have their souls yet to win. By means of your patience or endurance, He says, ye shall win them. And yet they had followed Him for some three years now. Could it be, we ask, that the twelve men were in some sense soulless still? If any of us find this a hard saying, probably that is because we forget one thing. We forget the immense distance that lay between Him and them. While He moves about among them He is living nevertheless, in a larger, loftier region into which they cannot enter because of their unbelief in other words because they have no soul. The soul, then, in this sense, is another name for the faculty of faith. It is the key to the spiritual world.
II. It follows then we may note it in the second place that the acquiring of a soul is a progressive affair. As much indeed is directly stated in the text: ‘In your patience that is, in your trying, suffering life in the course of it and by means of it ye shall come to possess your souls’. Let no one, then, suppose that the gaining of the soul is a thing to be effected once for all. We are born into the Kingdom not men but babes. There is just one purpose that runs through all our history like a shining thread, binding its various elements and experiences into a unity: it is the purpose of God to make us alive to Himself and to righteousness, to make us partakers of a Divine nature, citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. We have just one opportunity of having His saving will fulfilled in us of winning a soul to ourselves but it is a lifelong opportunity.
III. Not only is the soul an imperfect and growing thing, but our possession of it is imperfect too. If the one has to develop so has the other also. ‘In your patience,’ He says, ‘Ye shall possess that is, more and more ye shall come to possess your souls.’ Now is not this true? The soul is not like a clod or a stone which, once you have taken it in your hands, you can hold fast. It is a far more volatile possession than that. What is the reason of the sad variations which pass across our lives so often? It is, of course, that the soul within us is so variable. God does not mean this intermittent life for His children, and there should be getting to be always less of it.
A. Martin, Winning the Soul, p. 3.
Luk 21:19
Faith and Sanctity are indeed not very frequent; but yet they are not miracles, but brought to pass by education, discipline, correction, and other naturall wayes, by which God worketh them in his elect, at such times as he thinketh fit.
Hobbes, Leviathan.
References. XXI. 19. John Brown, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 212. A. G. Mortimer, The Church’s Lessons for the Christian Year, pt. ii. p. 305. F. Lynch, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 86. Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. p. 186; ibid. (6th Series), vol. vi. p. 399.
Luk 21:20
Alas! for the proud time when I planned, when I had present to my mind, the materials as well as the scheme of the Hymn entitled Spirit, Sun, Earth, Air, Water, Fire, and Man, and the Epic poem on what still appears to me the only fit subject remaining for an Epic poem Jerusalem besieged and destroyed by Titus.
Coleridge’s Letters.
‘We do not enough realise the utterly unpatriotic aspect which the attitude of Christ must have taken in the eyes of such of His countrymen as had entered into this compromise between political and religious ends,’ writes Miss Wedgwood in her Message of Israel. ‘His agonised reference to the coming struggle with Rome shows how misleading was this aspect. But it was inevitable. At great political crises he who opposes the patriots is not so likely to be considered their worst foe, as he who ignores them. It was not that our Lord preached submission to Rome, though no doubt the decision as to the tribute money was capable of being represented in that light it was that He roused a spirit which moved in another plane than that of resistance or submission to imperial power. He created a weapon (it would seem) and withheld it from the service of the State. It will be found, in general, that no other treason is felt so deadly as this.
References. XXI. 20-36. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Luke, p. 204. XXI. 22. Expositor (6th Series), vol. ii. p. 402. XXI. 24. A. Mackennel, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 168. F. E. Paget, Helps and Hindrances to the Christian Life, vol. i. p. 67.
Luk 21:25
Probably the last great historical event which in any European state has externally assumed a religious almost an ecclesiastical form is nearly the only event familiar to most of us in Russian history, namely, the expulsion of the French from Moscow…. The services of Christmas Day are almost obscured by those which celebrate the retreat of the invaders on that same day, the 25th of December 1812, from the Russian soil; the last of that succession of national thanksgivings, which begin with the victory of the Don and the flight of Tamerlane, and end with the victory of the Beresina and the flight of Napoleon. ‘How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!’ This is the lesson appointed for the services of that day. ‘There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity. Look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.’
Dean Stanley’s History of the Eastern Church, pp. 277, 278.
References. XXI. 25, 26. O. Heagle, That Blessed Hope, p. 78. XXI. 27. Expositor (5th Series), vol. i. p. 193. XXI. 27, 32. W. H. Brookfield, Sermons, p. 187.
Law and Love
Luk 21:28
Consider two subjects suggested by our Lord’s words: (1) The seriousness of life; (2) the survival of the spiritual.
I. The seriousness of life. Many most of us live on the surface of things. Life in these modern days has been made so secure that we have forgotten danger. And yet we are often reminded amid what forces we move. Fires, earthquakes, pestilence lie slumbering around. The laws of nature are unalterable; where cause is, effect must follow. In the spiritual as in the natural world cause and effect are tied together. Seriousness is not gloom. It has been well said that only the serious know the meaning of joy.
II. The survival of the spiritual. Material things are constantly showing themselves to be transient. But the spiritual things the unseen bonds which bind man to man and men to God remain. God speaks in power. It may be the hour of our redemption from the blind pursuit of material things. Those who look up listen and want to have love.
S. A. Barnett, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xvi. p. 48.
Luk 21:28
The doom of the Old has long been pronounced, and irrevocable; the Old has passed away; but, alas! the New appeal’s not in its stead; the Time is still in pangs of travail with the New. Man has walked by the light of conflagrations, and amid the sound of falling cities; and now there is darkness and long watching till it be morning. The voice even of the faithful can but exclaim: ‘As yet struggles the twelfth hour of the night: birds of darkness are on the wing, spectres uproar, the dead walk, the living dream. Thou, Eternal Providence, wilt cause the day to dawn!’ So Carlyle, in the ‘Characteristics’ essay, in which he subsequently adds: ‘Deep and sad as is our feeling that we stand yet in the bodeful Night; equally deep, indestructible is our assurance that the Morning also will not fail. Nay, already, as we look around, streaks of a dayspring are in the east; it is dawning; when the time shall be fulfilled, it will be day.’
Earth we have, and all its produce (moving from the first appearance, and the hope with infants’ eyes, through the bloom of beauty’s promise, to the rich and bright fulfilment, and the falling back to rest); sea we have (with all its wonder shed on eyes, and ears, and heart; and the thought of something more) but without the sky to look at, what would earth and sea and even our own selves be to us? Do we look at earth with hope? Yes, for victuals only. Do we look at sea for hope? Yes, that we may escape it. At the sky above (though questioned with the doubts of sunshine, or scattered with uncertain stars), at the sky alone we look, with pure hope and with memory.
R. D. Blackmore, in Lorna Doone.
References. XXI. 28. C. Bradley, Faithful Teaching, p. 69. J. Keble, Sermons for Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 300. XXI. 28-31. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlii. No. 2496.
Luk 21:33
The new commandment to love one another; the recognition that the greatest are those who serve, not who are served by, others; the reverence for the weak and humble, which is the foundation of chivalry, they, and not the strong, being pointed out as having the first place in God’s regard, and the first claim on their fellow-men; the lesson of the parable of the Good Samaritan; that of ‘He who is without sin, let him throw the first stone’; the precept of doing as we would be done by; and such other noble moralities as are to be found, mixed with some poetical exaggerations, and some maxims of which it is difficult to ascertain the precise object; in the sayings of Jesus of Nazareth: these are surely in sufficient harmony with the intellect and feelings of every good man or woman to be in no danger of being let go, after having been once acknowledged as the creed of the best and foremost portion of our species. There will be, as there have been, shortcomings enough for a long time to come in acting on them; but that they should be forgotten, or cease to be operative on the human conscience, while human beings remain civilised or cultivated, may be pronounced, once for all, impossible.
John Stuart Mill.
References. XXI. 33 Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlv. No. 2636. F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons (2nd Series), p. 20. J. Jones, Sermons by Welshmen, p. 224. A. P. Stanley, Canterbury Sermons, p. 15. R. Allen, The Words of Christ, p. 1. T. D. Barlow, Rays from the Sun of Righteousness, p. 88. J. C. M. Bellew, Christ in Life: Life in Christ, p. 194. F. Bourdillon, Plain Sermons for Family Reading (2nd Series), p. 1.
Luk 21:34
Here is the fear: ‘Lest at any time’ the day shall come upon us when we are not prepared for it, which at some time will come upon us most certainly: ‘lest at any time’ the cry shall be made ‘behold the Bridegroom cometh,’ go ye out to meet Him, and we shall find that our lamps are gone out; ‘lest at any time’ we shall be hurried into the presence of the king and not have had time to put on the wedding garment.
I. ‘Lest at any time.’ But what then? What are we to do? What comes before this? Hear our Lord’s words. ‘Take heed to yourselves.’ That is to be our great business, continually to watch, perpetually to take care. And it is ‘Take heed to yourselves ‘. No one can do it for us, we must set about it for ourselves.
II. Is it very wearisome to watch? So it is. But better to be weary with watching than to be drowsy and to be lost. Hear a little story. Some English sailors went on expedition into a cold, frozen country, where the frost is bitter beyond any that we have here. A doctor was with them, who said, ‘I am used to this. You are not. Let me tell you one thing. Probably one or more of you will be sleepy with cold and will ask to lie down. If any man lies down to sleep, he will never wake again in this world. It is the first sign of being frozen to death. The rest of you must push him on, drive him on, goad him on, if it be necessary; but, as you value his life, do not let him lie down.’ Well, they went on; and who should be the first that complained of sleepiness but the doctor himself! ‘Let me lie down only for two minutes,’ he said, ‘I shall be rested directly only a few minutes’ sleep and I shall be refreshed.’ ‘No, no,’ they cried, ‘you yourself told us of the danger; we will not allow it; we will prick you on with our swords, if it be necessary, but lie down you shall not’ They went on, and the doctor lived to thank them for remembering his words.
So it is with us; if we lie down, that is, if we are careless and take our ease in this world, we are lost; ‘therefore, let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober’.
III. ‘Lest at any time.’ But there is a world where we shall have no cause to say this. There can be no ‘lest at any time’ in heaven. There, danger is over. ‘There,’ as the prophet says, ‘we may lie down and none shall make us afraid.’ There need be no watching there. The sheep there are in a fold, into which none can come to do them harm.
J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College Chapel, vol. i. p. 108.
Luk 21:34
‘Observance, loyal concurrence in some high purpose for him, patient waiting on the hand one might miss in the darkness, with the gift or gifts therein of which he had the presentiment, and upon the due acceptance of which the true fortune of life would turn; these,’ says Mr. Pater, in his romance of Gaston de Latour, ‘were the hereditary traits awake in Gaston, as he lay awake in the absolute, moonlit stillness.’
Luk 21:34
The fighter for conquering is the one who can last and has the open brain; and there you have a point against alcohol.
George Meredith.
I hear the voice of my God commanding, Let not your heart be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness. Drunkenness is far from me; Thou wilt have mercy, that it come not near me. But full feeding sometimes creepeth on Thy servant: Thou wilt have mercy, that it may be far from me.
Augustine.
References. XXI. 34. Expositor (6th Series), vol. i. p. 275; ibid. vol. vii. p. 109. XXI. 34-36. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 74.
Luk 21:36
The command of the New Testament, Watch that ye may be counted worthy to stand before the Son of man, put into other words, what is it? It is this: ‘So live, as to be worthy of that high and true ideal of man and of man’s life, which shall be at last victorious.’ All the future is there.
Matthew Arnold.
References. XXI. 36. T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iv. p. 77. XXI. 37. J. Keble, Sermons for the Holy Week, p. 11. XXI. 37, 38. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. p. 225; ibid. (6th Series), vol. xi. p. 172. XXI. 38. Ibid. p. 171. XXI. 41. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. v. p. 312. XXI. 45, 46. J. Keble, Sermons far the Holy Week, p. 46. XXII. 3. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ix. p. 437. XXII. 4. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 105. XXII. 5. Ibid. vol. i. p. 195. XXII. 7-20. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Luke, p. 211. XXII. 11. F. St. John Corbett, The Preacher’s Year, p. 141. XXII. 14. J. Bannerman, Sermons, p. 153. XXII. 14-30. F. B. Meyer, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. p. 382.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
How to Treat Commotion
Luk 21:14-29
Jesus Christ is teaching us how to conduct ourselves in the midst of tremendous commotions. The chapter should be read from Luk 21:5-36 : within that space you hear thunder, and great winds blowing like tempests; you are made familiar with the shock of earthquake and the falling of things supposed to be immovable. There is in very deed what we have termed tremendous commotion, nation rising against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and great earthquakes, and famines, and pestilences, and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. How are we to conduct ourselves amid all this infinite storm? Can we do anything? Nothing. There are occasions upon which we are taught that we have no strength, and that our strength is to stand still. What man can turn away the whirlwind by a wave of his impotent hand? What skill can control the earthquake, or keep that perpendicular which the Lord has shaken at its root? But may not men have the gift of eloquence under the sting of accusation? If they have that gift they had better hold it in abeyance. The accusation is also a great whirlwind, a tempest let loose. A storm must be left to cry itself to rest. Even cyclones cannot work always: they have their little sweep of madness, and then they pass away as if they begged to be forgiven. What a voice of calmness is this amidst all the storm! The voice could rise to the dignity of the occasion. The speaker shows how energetic he can be in portrayal, description, and representation of elemental war and scenic havoc: now his voice becomes all the tenderer because of its louder tones in the other direction; like whispered love falls the injunction “Settle it therefore in your hearts ” not to trouble yourselves about your own defence: the case is not yours; you are only representatives, you are only speaking a word which you have heard from heaven; the answer must come whence the word came: God does not give half a blessing, the Lord does not give you a gospel, and then leave you to defend it he will use you in both instances as an instrument; therefore settle it in your hearts to let God be your strength and refuge. He will know how much you trust him by feeling how much you lean upon him, “Casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you.” He loves us when we do not keep back so much as one finger that it may work for us in some little skilful way, but when we give ourselves wholly up to him, saying, Lord, undertake for me; I can see nothing, do nothing; I am poor and blind and helpless; I hide myself in thine almightiness, the roof of that pavilion was never shattered by any storm. Be instruments in the hand of God, and wait for the divine word.
“For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.” He will give the mouth as well as the wisdom. He will not only give the great lesson in sacred philosophy, but he will shape the lip, and tip with fire the tongue that shall express the divine thought and purpose: it is all of God. We have nothing that we have not received. Do leave room in your lives for the action of your Creator. If you have sketched out anything you are going to say, let it be but a framework within which God can operate in all the sweep of his power and all the radiance of his wisdom. We should pray better if we did not think about it beforehand. We should qualify ourselves to pray by first feeling the depth and agony of our want. Feel the hunger, and the petition will come, in urgent and prevailing words. No man who is in real hunger prepares a speech about it; he has but to open his lips, and he becomes livingly eloquent. All this instruction is part of the larger scheme of education. Jesus Christ knew what was in men, he knew how apt they were to be self-reliant, self-defensive, and how much they would trust to their own craftiness, and to their own choice of words, so that they might resist the enemy. There is only one resistance effectual in the case of the oncoming foe: “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” We cannot keep these mischievous fingers from some little erection, and some small miracle of self-protection. Why not live nakedly before God? The sword is long and sharp, but it is blunt beside God’s lightning.
Thus trusting upon God, we are to expect the very worst that can come. Some idea of that worst is given in Luk 21:16-18 . Looking to the Revised Version we receive at the opening of Luk 21:16 a point of light. In the Authorised Version the first word is “and “; change it into “but” “But ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends.” The emphasis can only be received fully into the mind by reading Luk 21:15 and Luk 21:16 together: “I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. But” for all that you shall have trouble enough. How double-sided is the whole economy of God’s ministry amongst men. At the end of Luk 21:15 we thought we had nothing to do and nothing to fear; the paraphrase of the Saviour’s words would be, Keep yourselves perfectly quiet, wait for the living God, plan nothing in the way of self-excuse, mitigation, palliation, defence, rest the whole thing upon your Father, and I will give you a mouth and wisdom which shall confound all your adversaries. There is a happy end. No: but, notwithstanding all this, you Shall have the ground struck from under your feet by the very friends that ought to support you most constantly and lovingly; your own children shall fasten their teeth in your flesh; those that ought to make your reputation their own will pour slanderous words upon your fame. You shall have mouth and eloquence enough, but some of you shall be put to death before you have a chance to open your lips. Could not this Man that gave us mouth and wisdom have caused that we should not have been betrayed? Yes, but that would not have been for our advantage: we only understand one another in times of crisis; we do not know one another in fair weather and in prosperity, in smooth seas and in the middle of golden harvest-fields, where there is plenty for both hands, and where all the birds of heaven seem to have been gathered for our entertainment and delight. Betrayal tests friendship. Real religious conviction tests the household. We must put such verses as 15 and 16 together; and even 17 must come in, for it says, “Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.” It is easy to be Christian now. Not to be Christian is to lose some measure of social standing; not to name the name of Christ now is to incur the opprobrium of being atheistical and untrustworthy and morally pestilential. There was a time when to be a Christian was to be a martyr, when to be a Christian was to live in darkness and contempt and derision, and ostracism from every fireside that was indicative of the higher respectability.
In Luk 21:18 the Saviour seems to take up the thread of the thought in Luk 21:16 . We could have done well without Luk 21:16 and Luk 21:17 ; every man could have done very well without the storm. Luk 21:18 reads “But there shall not a hair of your head perish.” Change this “but” into “and,” then hear the weird music, listen to the paradoxical exhortation “Ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. And there shall not an hair of your head perish.” Who can understand this talker Christ? We have been deprived of a good deal of meaning by the insertion of this English word “but” in Luk 21:18 ; now that the revisers have replaced it with “and,” although they involve us in a paradox yet they surround us with a new and beauteous morning light: And ye shall be betrayed… And ye shall be put to death… And ye shall be hated… And there shall not an hair of your head perish. This is the paradox of truth; this is the mysterious eloquence that takes up into its musical thunder all the emphases of human experience and Christian utterance. How can I be betrayed by parents, brethren, kinsfolks, friends, and yet not a hair of my head perish? How can I be hated of all men for my Lord’s sake, and not a hair of my head perish? How can I be put to death, and yet not a hair of my head perish? Here is the exaltation of the larger life over the smaller; here is the elevation of our little roof, hand-made and hand-adorned, into God’s great sky not built with hands, flaming with uncounted lamps. What say you of a man who thus talks? Your house shall be burned down, and you shall not be left without a home. How aggravating is such speech. Every picture on the wall shall be cast into the fire, and you shall not lose one vision of beauty. But I have lost all the pictures! So you have; but you have not lost one hue of colour, one gleam of beauty’s tenderest light. You shall lose every penny you ever possessed, and ye shall be richer than ever. This is the paradoxical talk of Christ. Paul caught the same feeling, he was the victim of the same contagion; for he said, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” What shall we say to the paradox that we shall fall down dead and be buried with our mother in the churchyard, and there shall not a hair of our head perish? It is all true. We live our selves into the higher meanings. Poor grammar, willing to lend us what oil it can, and willing to trim our lamps as far as it can, falls back at certain points, and says, You must go to rest on the road alone. So there be in God’s Church those who have suffered the loss of all things that they might gain all things, who have died that they might begin to live, who have ceased their individuality that they might be translated into sympathy with the almightiness of God himself. There have been those who have glorified exceedingly in tribulation also. These are the practical paradoxes that cannot be understood from the outside; they reveal themselves in all the tenderness of their meaning and all the lustre of their wisdom to those who pray without ceasing.
“In your patience possess ye your souls.” That cannot be explained as it stands. “Patience” has a meaning that must be dug for as men dig for silver. “Possess” is not the right word there. Say, rather, In your patience, or by your patience, you win your souls, you win your lives, you win yourselves. Patience always wins. “He that endureth unto the end” one more day “shall be saved.” Many cannot endure, therefore they know not what is meant by the salvation of God: for a time they run well, but they soon give up the race, and fall down dead, where they ought to have prayed some larger and tenderer prayer. “Ye did run well; who did hinder you?” “In your patience,” patience means keeping on, persisting; and persisting means sisting through, pushing by, insisting upon progress: it does not mean aggressiveness, it means persisting by submission; it is the mystery of resignation, it is the miracle of union with him who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, threatened not; but committed himself unto God wholly, that is patience. Patience is not languor, indifference, reluctance, unwillingness to work or suffer: patience is continuance in submission. “Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek ” O Man of Gethsemane, who but thyself could have said it? “turn to him the other also.” We cannot do it, but thou didst it, and art not thou the Son of man, and may we not hide our infirmity in thy majesty? What is “possession”? It does not mean the mere act of holding, it means the act of winning, acquiring by a process, seizing hold upon by right of conquest. You have seen some skilled player, some chief in the tournament, who has a silver cup, and we say to him, “That cup is yours?” and he replies, “Not yet.” He has it in possession, but he has not yet won it. He says, “If I succeed in two more encounters the cup will be mine.” “But you have it in possession?” “Yes, but possession is not final; there is yet a process of conflict, noble test to be passed through: if I succeed on two more occasions no man can take the cup away from me.” Here you have exactly what is meant by possession and winning. The cup is in the possession of the man, but it is not yet his by right; he means to contend for it, and he will be disappointed if he succeed not. That is precisely how it stands with us. You have your souls in possession? Yes. Now win them. Seven years’ more fighting. The devil will not let you have one quiet night’s rest if he can help it; he can be quiet, he can be siren-like, he can be seductive, he can be defiant, aggressive, threatening; he can be as an angel of light, he can be “that old serpent,” or he can be the roaring lion; but he can never be anything except your enemy. Are not our souls our own now? Partially. They are our own to fight for and to win. In your patience you shall win your life. Have I to fight for my own soul as a man would contend for a prize? That is exactly so: now you know the truth. Yourself! what a mistake you make in thinking of your completeness, and how you boast yourself in the sophistical reasoning when you say, “May I not do what I will with my own?” You have nothing your own; you are not yourself your own yet. We are men that we may fight for our manhood; we are souls that we may escape being beasts; we have a touch of immortality, now fight. This is the talk of Jesus Christ to men who were surrounded by cyclones, whirlwinds, tempests, storms, in the highest degree of violence. What a prize to fight for! We say in our songs that men will fight for hearth and home and liberty. They are chivalrous words, they cannot but touch the heroic nerve in every soul, but the sweeter hymn, the louder thunder psalm is this, Win yourselves, win your souls, take up your poor selves to Christ and say, O Captain of my salvation, I bring myself as prey won by thy sword: bind me to thy chariot wheel.
What a revelation we have in these verses of the character of Christ! He calls himself the Good Shepherd: is there anything shepherdly here? Why, every tone is the tone of a shepherd’s voice. He calls himself the Bread of Life; is there any nourishment here for the soul? Every word is meant to sustain the soul in its most strenuous endeavours at self-conquest and self-perfecting. He is called the Captain of our salvation: is there aught of a captain’s tone here? It is the tone of a general leading on the army to victory. Here is the power of the Church. See it in all these commotions: all evil maddened, all hypocrisy in arms, all vested interests resentful. O Church of the Crucified, thou wilt trouble the world until the devil is cast out! All these details have changed, but the governing principle remains. To the end life will grow and act within the zone of commotion. To that tumult what is to be our relation? Are we to answer wrath by wrath? Are we to hide ourselves as men who are afraid? Or are we to perform the miracle of controlling uproar and vengeance by the dignity of patience? This method is in harmony with the whole spirit of Christ. This method is not worldly; it would not commend itself to men of the world; it is not in harmony with the militarism, the pomp, and the arrogance of cardboard thrones that have nothing to trust to but scarlet and steel, powder and cannon. But to what vulgar ends do vulgar processes inevitably come! The cannon roars, but the sap rises silently in all the anatomy of the forest; the blood that soaks the soldier’s steel feeds no root of corn or flower, but the noiseless dew is secretly working to feed the hungry with bread, and satisfy the tongue that burns with thirst. The army, proud army, mad with resentment or ambition, overwhelms the city in destruction and calls it triumph; but the force we know as gravitation impalpable, imponderable, invisible cries not, nor lifts up its voice whilst it holds in perfect sovereignty the empire of the stars. Christ was the Prince of Peace. It was left to him to show how much can be done by quietness, and to show what miracles are possible to patience.
Comfort and Discipline
Luk 21:28
“And when these things ” What things? Trumpets, and dances, and festivals? What things? They have been named, generally and in detail, so that there need be no difficulty in ascertaining their scope and quality. The things that were to take place were unpleasant things “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven ” as if all things had gone mad. Nor were they material phenomena only, such as could be gazed upon from quiet towers, and estimated by geometricians and men skilled in other law and science: “But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake.” So then, all the action did not take place in sun and moon, in earthquake and famine and pestilence; the prophecy came very near to flesh and bone and spirit, “And ye shall be betrayed” worst cruelty of all: a blow is not to be named in quality with treachery, “And he should be betrayed both by parents” an impossible revulsion of feeling, and yet historically and literally true in every syllable, “And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.” And so the dark eloquence rolls on, until we come to the words, “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” Now Christ adds, “And when these things” [earthquakes, famines, pestilences, darknesses sevenfold] “begin to come to pass, then ” Everything depends upon the point of time. It is no difficult thing to look up on a summer day, to see the light and the verdure, the blossom and the shaking fruit; but to look up when all the heaven is churned by reason of humanly ungovernable violence of action, and to sing as if standing on solid marble and domed by radiant heavens, what is this but a miracle, God’s supreme miracle of providence and grace? What can these words mean but Play the man: be strongest when danger is nearest: let the heads that are lifted up be the heads that were bowed down in prayer? No man can look up aright who has not first looked down, with genuine devoutness, self-distrust, and reverent anticipation of seeing that the foot of the ladder is resting on the earth.
There can be no doubt that these words uttered by Jesus Christ refer to the destruction of Jerusalem, and there they might be left: but when can Jesus Christ’s words be left at any one point as final? They serve historical purposes, and then take upon themselves new indications; they flame out into omens and signs, and suggestive indications never ripening except intermediately, always having an after harvest, a subsequent revelation and benediction. There can be no doubt that Jesus Christ spoke much about the destruction of Jerusalem. There have been books written full of critical care and learning, which go to show that Jesus Christ has already returned to the earth, has already fulfilled all his prophecies, and has in the destruction of Jerusalem completed the testimony. Some of these books are striking in their method of representing the whole case; their learning, within given bounds, is unquestioned and unquestionable; they are etymological or grammatical books; they are skilful in the analysis and application of terms; but they are false from my point of view. If the universe were a letter these books would be admirable and unanswerable, but the universe is not a letter, it is a thought, a purpose, a beginning; it is something growing. Let men beware how they thrust in the sickle. To thrust in the sickle before the harvest is ripe is to bring back an armful of nothingness. God is a Spirit: therefore never attempt to define him in catechism or standard of orthodox or literal creed. He is the fulness of all things: lay not upon him, therefore, the measuring-line of an alphabet, as if he could be caught within the few inches covered by the frail letters out of which as out of a root we get our daily speech. Unquestionably, much that Jesus Christ said referred to the fall of Jerusalem. Unquestionably, some of the apostles believed that Jesus Christ was coming back almost immediately, and therefore they said Let them that are married be as if they were not married; do not complete the furrow ripped up by the plough; pay no heed to these things that are round about you, he will be here presently! Parts of the New Testament can hardly be read intelligibly without coming to the conclusion that the apostles were expecting Christ to-day, tomorrow, or in the night between. They were right too. That is the only state of mind in which a wise man can live never knowing what is going to happen, but always believing that something great is going to occur: Therefore! If all were accomplished at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, then the whole Bible, Old Testament and New, is an exhausted light. But I can admit that very much did happen then, and that Christ in a certain sense came then, and yet that everything has yet to take place on a wider scale, and with fuller meanings. Jesus Christ never ends. He comes, shows himself, departs; comes again, shows himself, vanishes; he always comes, and is always coming. Without, therefore, disputing with men of letters concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, I can accept very much that they say as to criticism: I would endeavour to turn them from criticism to prophecy, to enlarge the literalist into a seer. Occupying this position, I can find in the text lessons of eternal import, suggestions that come upon our immediate life, blessing it as with light and dew, calling our life to discipline, and enriching our life with rarest, sweetest comfort.
“When these things begin to come to pass” Then appearances are not the measure and value of life. When these things begin to come to pass, common reason would say, All is over; the battle is lost, the foe has conquered; all we have to do is to accept the destiny of despair, and die as quickly as we can. At some points of history we need the strong man more than at others, some mighty, chivalrous, hardy brother who can say, Now, be men! His voice may be an inspiration, for we thought no one dare speak in darkness so dense, and in the face of violence so ungovernable. Behold, this Man of Nazareth, this teacher sent from God, is calmest when the storm is loudest. It would seem to take a tempest to reveal his real peacefulness of soul: if he had so much as fluttered the battle would have been lost; but as violence came after violence, like billow upon billow, his tranquillity became more evident, and influenced others more like an all-inclusive benediction. Yet we seldom learn much from these things, because we will persist in taking the case into our own hands. We think that if we grow hot the Lord will probably avow our side as his own, and Providence might descend to help us. Some men cannot sit still; some cannot be quiet: if they could but be kept under the influence even of an opiate the universe would feel more contented; but they will act, they will run, and stir, and move about, and develop plans, and set up institutions, and if they cannot build a solid house they will do something with tarpaulin. Why will they not love? Why will they not sweetly pray when other speech would be impertinence? Why do we not lie down in the arms of Omnipotence and say, The case is too large for us, dear Lord; we cannot handle these awful materials; but we will sleep in love, and in the morning thou wilt bring back the sun, unshorn of a beam, and we shall get back to our ploughing and our commerce and all our household life because we have lost our fatigue in the embrace and blessing of God. We have nothing to do with appearances; we ought to leave these to the journals of the day that have nothing else to live upon. We are men of faith, men who have found a castle in providence that never can be violated. The face of the saint should never be writhed with a care; it should always be radiant with a sweet, wise confidence.
“When these things begin to come to pass” Then appearances must be under control. That is the point we have forgotten. When nation rises against nation and kingdom against kingdom, the Former of nations and the Creator of kingdoms must have the whole mystery in his hand. He is manipulating his own systems, and astronomies, and infinities: let him alone. All things are under control, if the Bible doctrine be right, and that it is right has been proved now for thousands of years. The Bible doctrine is, “The Lord reigneth.” May he not sometimes invest himself with clouds and darkness? May he not wear the night as a robe, and go forth to the trumpeting and the drumming of the storm and the tempest, as well as to the quieter music of dawning day and westering sun flooding the whole heaven with purple? “The chariots of God are twenty thou sand”; “the clouds are the dust of his feet”; “On cherub and on cherubim full royally he rides.” We have not correctly interpreted the darker sides of nature. When the Lord shaped things, and sent them forth with names, he called one part Day, and another part called he Night. Did he fix an hour at which he would withdraw from the astronomy, and say, The dark time must take care of itself, for I now retire to needed rest? He never uttered such words God never blasphemed. God never left his providence for a moment in the care of any being; he never vacates the throne. All things, therefore, must be considered as under control, management; they are working together for good: at this moment how violent, how portentous, how impossible of settlement! And yet, another revolution of the wheel, where is the noise, where the storm, where the tempest ye spake of, where the darkness that made you afraid? Gone! What queen is that which presides now what king? the Lord. This faith is not sentiment, is not rhetoric, is not poetry, because it comes so down into the soul as to make a man doubly strong; this faith says to a man, Dry your tears, and go forth to battle; lift up your head, and begin to sing; fear not, for the deliverer is coming in his own way, and will arrive at his own time, and will make all things work together for good. It is by this practical action that the Christian faith saves itself from the futile, sometimes malicious, charge of being but a sentiment. It inspires, it invigorates, it makes men; it has made some men forget the weight of the burden in the growing strength of their confidence. Any religion born at Athens or born in Bethlehem that can do this is a religion that the world will never willingly let die.
We must always distinguish between historical providences and personal discipline. Some men are born in rough ages We cannot fix the time of our birth, the period within which our little life shall revolve among the visible stars. It was hard to be born when nation rose against nation and kingdom against kingdom; to be born amid earthquakes and famines and pestilences and fearful sights and great signs: it would have been better to have been born at midnight, with a star to watch the birthplace, and angels to sing the natal song, and quiet shepherds to come and knock at the mother’s door and make inquiry about the child. But we cannot fix the time of our nativity. Circumstances develop men, test their quality, shape their course, call them to their destiny. We cannot overget the fixed environment of life. We may accept it, make the best of it, pray to take hold of it and use it aright; but there it is. It is right that lions should be born in jungles; it would be a misfit if tigers were born in the nursery where the children have their toys and their letters. The ages have been mapped out, and the earthquakes have been set down; every famine and pestilence has been in the counsel and view of God, and all the births that were to take place under circumstances so disturbed have all been matters of the divine providence. What wonder if some men should feel that they have been born a day too late? When they read of what happened when the sea was a battlefield and the land an Aceldama, the soldier starts up in them and says, Why was I not born then? To-day I am dying with dotards, passing the food to toothless lions. But these misfits are not so numerous as one might imagine from those who suppose they could have done better if they had been born last century. They might have done better then; certainly they could hardly do less and worse than now.
What is the inspiring comfort? What is the doctrine that lifts this exhortation above rhetoric, and fixes it amongst the severest realities of history and logic? Jesus Christ explains: he says You are to be superior to the action of events, because they do not hinder the coming of the Son of man: “And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and glory.” That is the comfort. Only that which hinders him can or ought to hinder us. How is the night? Stormy. At what rate drives the wind? A hundred miles an hour or more, and blows from the cold east with intolerable bitterness. Are there any stars alight? Not one. Is all over? From a human point of view, yes, all is over. What is that which breaks through the cloud? It is an image like unto the Son of man. How it brightens, how it enlarges, how it descends; how all things are afraid of it that are hostile to it, and how all praying life leaps to greet that image as if by an instinct of kinship! In that doctrine Christianity stands. If anything can keep back the Son of man from coming in power and great glory, then the case of the Church is lost. But if nothing can happen to hinder Christ, nothing can happen to hinder the Church. When Omnipotence is foiled, then strike your tents, and flee away with the heels of cowards; and let the universe watch those feet as they run, while you are asking for some woman to house the white-livered deserters. So we now interpret Providence as to comfort ourselves and call ourselves to discipline. So, when nation rises against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and great earthquakes are in divers places, and famines, and pestilences, and fearful sights and great signs are all operating, we simply open our eyes and say, Has the sun risen this morning? Yes. Then all is well; if the sun is not hindered, peace will not be hindered. When there is great upset and fear in the land, we have simply to say as Christian men, Are the seasons still revolving? Do seedtime, and summer, and harvest, and winter still appear in the land? Do they come in regular order? Yes. Then be quiet; pray on; you may even sing a little: if the four seasons have not been hindered in their course, have not fled away in fear and lost the path by which they have come these thousands of years to the earth, then pray without ceasing; God is master, the Lord reigneth.
This was the reasoning of Christ: Because all these things spoken of in the text could not hinder his own advent, therefore men were to lift up their heads, and look up, and know that their redemption was drawing nigh. In that hour all self-dependence was to be renounced: “Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.” Do not trouble your memory to reckon up dates and facts and circumstances and phenomena that you can shape into a reply; have no words, and thus be more eloquent than if you had charged your memory with all the riches of rhetoric and eloquence. So he says to preachers: If you are only preaching what you have learned in the study, you will never preach: what you have to do is to read the Scriptures, get into the spirit of them, pray night and day as strength will allow, and then stand up and I will do the rest. But men will “prepare” themselves. Self-control is to be exercised: “In your patience possess ye your souls.” [R.V. “By your patience ye shall win your lives.”] In your doing nothing you are doing everything; in a negative position you are achieving affirmative results; in your patience hold ye your souls, keep your souls quiet, and if you have not patience no matter what genius you have. There is a time when virtue is everything; there is another time when grace is larger than virtue. Patience is a grace. Self-culture is to be a law: “And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.” Do not be beasts, do not be mere animals, do not be mere eaters and drinkers, gluttons and winebibbers; let the spirit be larger than the body; live in your soul, and for your soul, and through your soul; then the word “unawares” can never happen in the journal or the diary of the true heart.
Then comes a sublime injunction: “Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” That is what we are called upon to do to watch. He may come from the east, from the west, from the north, from the south. May he come from the north that north which never held the sun, but only looked at the south burning with his majesty? Yes, he may come from the north. May he come from the east, whence the cold wind blows? Do not speak of the cold wind. The dawn comes from the east; day is born orientally. Speak no more of the biting wind, but think of the summer dawn. When may he come? Now. How may he come? No man can tell. What should we do? Be ready be caught on our knees.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XVIII
ANOTHER QUESTION AND ITS ANSWER; HIS LAST PUBLIC DISCOURSE; OVER AGAINST THE TREASURY
Harmony, pages 155-159 and Mat 22:34-23:39
This section commences on page 155 of the Harmony and consists of the last question of Christ’s enemies, differing bitterly among themselves, yet led by a common interest, conspired to test, tempt, and ensnare him by hard questions. He had answered the question concerning his authority, the question concerning paying tribute to Caesar, and the resurrection question. The Pharisees, seeing that he had muzzled the Sadducees, rapidly held a council, selected with great care the form of a final question and a representative to propound it. It will be understood that this representative is a better man than those he represents, but he speaks representatively. And the word “tempt” is used in its usual bad sense. They consulted first as to what question should be propounded. Second, who should propound it. The querist was a lawyer. The word “lawyer” in the Bible does not mean altogether what our word “lawyer” means. A lawyer in the time of Moses and after, and especially in mediaeval ages, was one who was an expert in both civil and canon law, or ecclesiastical law. The first business of a scribe was to copy the text, then expound it. And after a while they became authorities both on text and exposition, and from them originated the meaning of the degree LL. D., the word “laws” being plural, that is, one being skilled in both civil and canon law. In all countries where there is a union of church and state there are two forms of law, one applying to ecclesiastical matters and the other to civil matters. Oftentimes the two blend. A matter can be both civil and ecclesiastical.
It is quite important here to note the precise form of the question they propound. Following the Greek literally this is the question: “What sort of commandment is great?” We usually understand that the question seeks to find a distinction between the various commandments of the moral law, as to relative importance. This seems not to have been their idea. There would not have been a snare in such a question. Let us see if we can find just what was the snare. They themselves continually distinguished between a commandment that was written and a commandment that was oral or traditional. And they were accustomed to put the traditional law above the written law. One of themselves had said, “The commandments of the written law are sometimes weighty, and sometimes little, but the commandments of the scribes are always weighty.” So when they put the question in this form, “What sort of commandment is great?” they want to commit him either for or against the oral law. If he decides against the oral or traditional law they hope to make capital out of it before the people, who were very much devoted to the traditional law. Now, from the very beginning there had been a marked difference between them and him on the meaning of law. When he says law he means only the written law. When they say law they mean both the written and the oral law. All through the Sermon on the Mount we see how he magnifies the written law, and throws contempt upon their traditional law. He shows that in their construction of traditional law they oftentimes set aside the written law entirely. We have considered a case already where they set aside the commandment, “Honor thy father and thy mother,” by following the traditional law, to the effect that if a man said to himself that the money with which he ought to help the aged, feeble parents was in his mind consecrated to something else, that would exclude him from piety toward his father and mother, that is, relieve him from the burden of taking care of them. All along he has been setting aside their conception of law. Now their hope is that if he takes his old ground, that only written law is great, it would turn away from him the people who believed in the oral law. We have a passage in Mark often quoted in baptismal controversies showing how punctilious they were in their observance of their traditional law, the diligent washing of their hands and, when they returned from the market, the dipping of themselves lest they had contracted ceremonial defilement by touch with unclean people. And even the dipping of their tables and beds, and anything that might by a possibility have become ceremonially defiled. Hence the form of this question: “What sort of commandment is great?” In other words, “Do you say that only the written law is great, or do you agree with us that the traditional law is even greater?” He replies by a quotation from the Pentateuch. The first part of his answer is from Deu 6:4 , the second part from Lev 19:18 . He says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the great and first commandment. The second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Here he accepts the condensation of all the first table of the law by Moses into one commandment and his condemnation of the second table of the law into another commandment.
Spurgeon, while seeming to misapprehend the precise point of this question propounded to Christ, has a great sermon on the text, “The first and the great commandment.” To love God supremely is first in order of position in the Ten Commandments. It is first in order of importance. It is first and greatest because it includes the second. That is to say, unless we love God supremely we can never obey the second commandment to love our neighbor as ourself. Some magnify the first table of the law and disregard the second. They think that if they pray and pay tithes to God, and do not worship images) and keep the sabbath day, it makes little difference how they do toward their neighbors. They may refuse to honor their parents, steal, lie, commit adultery, if only they comply with what they think is the .First Commandment. On the other hand it is the custom of the world to utterly disregard the First Commandment and magnify the Second. Businessmen on the streets conceive of law simply as it relates to our fellow man. They think if we kill nobody, do not wrong our neighbor in any respect, we are all right. Their stress is on morality, but our Lord shows an indissoluble connection between the two commandments: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself. He conceives of no sound morality apart from supreme love of God.
This representative LLD who propounded this question was much interested in our Lord’s answer. It becomes evident that he is a better man than those who loaded him with the question. He expresses hearty approval of Christ’s answer, and our Lord said that he was not far from the kingdom.
As usual, our Lord follows up his victory. He puts a question before the Pharisees are scattered. They still stand grouped where they had consulted to determine what question should be propounded to him. So he propounds a counter question. “What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he?” They readily answered as any Jew would have answered, “The Son of David.” Then he puts a question with a barb on it: “If he is only the Son of David, how is it that David, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, calls him Lord, in Psa 110 , to wit: The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand?” The object of his question is to correct their limited conception of the Messiah. They were disposed to look at him as a mere human Jewish king establishing an earthly government and raising the throne of David so as to bear reign over the whole Gentile world. His object is to convince them that the Messiah foretold in their Old Testament was not merely a man, and to prove it by David: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand.” He wants to bring out the thought which he himself later expressed to John in Revelation: “I am the root as well as the offspring of David.” In the divine sense he is the source of David; in the flesh he is the offspring of David. This statement of our Lord is of incalculable value in its bearing on the radical criticism. They do not hesitate to say that David never wrote Psa 110 . Jesus says that he did. He explicitly ascribed that psalm to David. They say the psalms are not inspired. Jesus says that David wrote that psalm in the Spirit. They deny any reference to a coming One in that psalm. Jesus shows that there is a reference to himself, the coming Messiah. It is a little remarkable that this particular psalm is quoted oftener in the New Testament as messianic than any other passage in the Old Testament. Our Lord himself quotes it more than once. Peter quotes it in his great address recorded in Act 2 , and yet again in his first letter. Paul quotes it expressly in his first letter to the Corinthians, and again in the letter to the Ephesians and four times in the letter to the Hebrews, and all of them say that David wrote it; that David wrote it by inspiration; and that David wrote it with reference to the coming Messiah. And so we come to the end of the great catechism. It has been a duel to the death.
THE LAST PUBLIC DISCOURSE OF OUR LORD
We do not mean to intimate that Christ will not hereafter speak to his disciples. We mean that this discourse that we are now to consider ends his public ministry to the Jews. He considers the battle ended. They have rejected him, and now he makes the most serious indictment against the nation and its rulers known in the annals of time. It is the sharpest arraignment and the deepest denunciation to be found in the whole Bible.
This discourse consists, first, of a great indictment; second, the denunciation of a great penalty; third, the suggestion of a great hope. Let us see then what is the indictment.
We have already learned from the preceding discussion that the chief item of the indictment is their rejection of the Messiah and their purpose to murder him. Then follows the other items of the indictment relating particularly to the leaders: First, sitting in the seat of authority, they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne upon the people, which they themselves will not move with their finger. Second, all their works are done to be seen of men, hence they make broad their phylacteries, enlarge the borders of their garments, love the chief places at feasts and the chief seats in the synagogues, and salutations in the marketplaces to be called rabbi. Third, they shut up the kingdom of heaven against men, themselves not entering nor suffering those to enter who would enter. Fourth, they compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is become so, he is made twofold more a son of hell than themselves. Fifth, they swear by the lesser things, disregarding the greater, swearing by the gift on the altar as more than the altar which sanctifies the gift, swearing by the gold of the Temple as more than the Temple itself. Sixth, they tithe mint and anise and cummin and ignore the weightier matters of the law judgment, mercy, and faith strain out a gnat and swallow a camel. Seventh, they cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within are full of extortion and excess, as whited sepulchres, outwardly appearing beautiful, while inwardly they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness, so they outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inwardly are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Eighth, they are as monument-builders garnishing the tombs of the righteous, as if they thus said, “We would never have been partakers in the blood of the prophets.” All the time they are sons in spirit, as well as in flesh, of them that slew the prophets. In this way they fill up the measure of their fathers. And now comes
THE PENALTY
“Upon you shall come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of Abel, the righteous, unto the blood of Zachariah, son of Barachiah. . . . Your house is left unto you desolate.” It has long been a puzzle to the thinker how the blood of Abel should came on the Jewish people, who, in their father Abraham, originated so many years subsequent to Abel. The answer to the puzzle is this: Abel and all subsequent martyrs believed in salvation by a coming Messiah. This doctrine was the hope of the whole world. And when the Jewish nation was established they were made the custodians of this doctrine. To them were committed the oracles of God. If, therefore, when the Messiah comes, to whom Abel and every martyr had looked forward, and the Jews rejected and killed that Messiah, they sin, not only against the Messiah, and not only against themselves, but they sin against the whole world. They sin against the hope of the world. If their attitude toward the Messiah is true, then Abel died in vain. If they alone of all the nations were entrusted with the doctrine of Abel’s saving faith, and they repudiate that doctrine, on them comes the blood of Abel. The penalty denounced is not merely the destruction of the Holy City and the sacred Temple, and the dispersion of the Jewish nation, but it is a desolation a tribulation that shall last through all the ages until the coming of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Therefore, as we learn later, it is called a trouble such as the world had never known before and would never know again. It is surprising that commentators, in discussing “the great tribulation” set forth in our Lord’s great prophecy, make it a general tribulation bearing upon Gentile nations. It is exclusively a Jewish tribulation, which has already lasted about 1900 years. Nor is the end yet in sight. They were on probation twenty centuries as the bearers of the oracles of God. Their tribulation has already lasted nearly twenty centuries.
THE GREAT HOPE The great hope is suggested in this final word of his discourse, “Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” (Mat 23:39 ). So, that the last word to the Jews, the last public message, touches the second advent of our Lord.
Following this discourse we have an account of Jesus seated over against the treasury and beholding how men put money into the treasury. What a lesson is here! Christ watching the contributions, noting the amount, noting the motive, measuring the relative importance of the contributions, not by the amount, but by the unselfish sacrifice in the donation.
In my young days I preached a sermon to the Waco Association on this text, on the theme, “The Treasury of God’s People, and Christ’s Observation of the Contributions to This Fund.” The association called for its publication. The discussion was an epoch in the history of the association. From that time on enlargements in both spirituality and gifts, and broader fields came to Waco Association. Always before God’s people should be this picture of Christ sitting over against the treasury watching how men put money into the treasury. (The author’s sermon to which references are here made will be found in his first book of sermons.)
QUESTIONS
1. What was the Pharisees’ last effort to entangle Christ by questioning him, how did they proceed and what two points upon which they consulted?
2. What is the meaning and usage of the words “lawyer” and “doctor”?
3. What was the form of the question they propounded to Christ and why important to note its form?
4. What difference between the Pharisees’ use of the word “law,” and Christ’s use of it and in what did the trap here set for our Lord consist?
5. What was Christ’s attitude toward their oral law, what example of their setting aside the written commandment cited, and what example of their punctiliousness in the observance of their oral law given?
6. State clearly the question as they propounded it to him and give his answer verbatim.
7. What sermon cited on this passage, what is the substance of it, and what application of this interpretation to our own generation?
8. What evidence here that this lawyer was better than those whom he represented?
9. How does Christ follow up his victory in this instance?
10. What was their answer to his question, what his second question and what the purpose of our Lord in these last questions?
11. What is the value of this statement of Christ in its bearing on radical criticism and what is the fallacy of the position of the radical critics in this case?
12. Of what does our Lord’s last public discourse consist?
13. What items of the indictment?
14. What penalty denounced and its meaning and application?
15. What great hope suggested and its far-reaching meaning?
16. What great lesson of Christ and the treasury?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
1 And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
Ver. 1. See Trapp on “ Mar 12:41 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1 4. ] THE WIDOW’S MITES. Mar 12:41-44 , where see notes.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1. ] Our Lord as yet has been surrounded with His disciples (see ch. Luk 20:45 ), and speaking to them and the multitude. He now lifts up His eyes, and sees at a distance, &c.
. belongs to ., and is not to be supplied, nor a comma put after . It was not the rich only , which that would imply but (Mark), who were casting gifts in.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 21:1-4 . The widow’s offering (Mar 12:41-44 ), unfortunately placed at the beginning of this chapter, which should have been devoted wholly to Christ’s solemn discourse concerning the future. Yet this mal-arrangement corresponds to the manner in which Lk. introduces that discourse, by comparison with Mt. and Mk., markedly unemphatic.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Luk 21:1 . , looking up, giving the impression of a casual, momentary glance taken by one who had been previously preoccupied with very different matters. Mk’s narrative conveys the idea of deliberate, interested observation by one who took a position convenient for the purpose, and continued observing ( , ). , instead of Mk’s . Lk. has in view only the rich; Mk., in the first place, the multitude. : the whole clause from may be taken as the object of , saw the rich casting in, etc., or . may be in apposition with = saw those casting in, etc., being rich men (so Hahn and Farrar). The former (A.V [169] , Wzs.) is to be preferred.
[169] Authorised Version.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Luke Chapter 21
Luk 21:1-4
Mar 12:41-44
Luke again is with Mark in giving the story of the widow poor but rich, and this doubtless for reasons analogous to their report of the exposure of the proud and empty scribes; Matthew has it not at all. For far different was the Israel of the then day, and with this he is occupied, the judgment coming on Jerusalem, rich but poor, with which the Lord concludes His denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees.
And he looked up and saw the rich casting their gifts into the treasury, but he saw also a certain poor widow casting into it two mites. And he said, Verily I say unto you, that this poor woman hath cast in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have cast into the gifts,* but she out of her need hath cast in all the living which she had.” It is a lovely picture of devotedness in the widow; how much lovelier to behold Him, who gave her the faith and drew out her love, admiring and so richly appreciating the fruit of His own grace! May He have so to speak of our wealth toward God in the day that approaches, when mammon and every false estimate shall have disappeared for ever!tid=66#bkm511-
*After “gifts,” ADG, nearly, all cursives (33, 69), Syrpesch Old Lat. add “of God,” which Edd. omit, as BLX, 1, Syrrcu sin hier Memph.
Luk 21:5 f.
Mat 24:1 f.; Mar 13:1 f.
Luke alone of the Evangelists notices the fact that the disciples spoke to the Lord about the votive offerings with which the temple was adorned; all three speak of its goodly stones or buildings. But this does not warrant the inference that the prophetic discourse which followstid=66#bkm512- belongs to those in the temple, rather than those on the Mount of Olives. It has been properly remarked that the questions are distinct from the Lord’s solemn answer to the admiration expressed, and may well have been to the chosen four on retiring thither as we are told He did by night at the end of our chapter.
“And as sometid=66#bkm512a- spoke of the temple that it was adorned with goodly stones and consecrated offerings, he said, [As for] these things which ye are beholding, days are coming in which stone shall not be left upon stone which shall not be thrown down.” On the other hand, it is surely without justification to assume that Luke could not have omitted the change of scene and auditory if aware of it. On both sides such reasoning leaves out the Spirit of God, and His having a purpose by each which alone accounts for differences on the basis of His own perfect knowledge of all, not of the writer’s ignorance.
Luk 21:7-9 .
Mat 24:3-6 ; Mar 13:3-7 .
“And they asked him saying, Teacher, when then shall these things be? and what [is] the sign when these things are going to take place? And he said, See that ye be not misled. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am [he]; and the time is drawn nigh: go ye not* after them. And when ye shall hear of wars and tumults be not terrified; for these things must first take place,”‘ but the end [is] not immediately.” It will be observed that the Holy Spirit inspired the writer to drop the question respecting the coming of the Son of man and the completion of the age. As with Mark, they ask when the destruction of the temple shall be, and the sign of its commencement. The Lord fully replies, but as usual gives much more. But there is neither the completeness of dispensational information right through, nor details as to the consummation of the age, found in the Gospel of Matthew. On the other hand, here only are we given distinct light on the coming siege and capture of Jerusalem by the Romans, here only its subsequent ignominious subjection till the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Other peculiarities of Luke we may see as we proceed through the chapter. The question of the disciples goes no farther than the demolition the Lord spoke of, the Spirit having reserved for Matthew the parabolic history of the course, conduct, and judgment of Christendom as well as the special account of the Jews at the end of the age, and of all the Gentiles gathered before the throne of the Son of man when He is come. The early warning that follows the inquiry here refers to what soon ensued. There may be analogous deceits in the last days; but I apprehend that here we are in view of what has been. If it were the closing scenes, where would be the propriety of assuring the disciples that the end is not immediately? Matthew may take in what soon followed; but the characteristic feature with him is the end of the age, first in general, then specifically, with its shadows before.
*A, etc., most cursives (1, 33, 69), Amiat., here add “therefore.” Edd. omit, according to BDLX, Syrrcu sin Old Lat. Aeth. Arm.
Luk 21:10-19 .
Mat 24:7-13 ; Mar 13:8 f. 11-13.
“Then said he to them,* Nation shall rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: there shrill be both great earthquakes in different places and pestilences and famines, and there shall be fearful sights and great signs from heaven. But before all these thingstid=66#bkm514- they shall lay their hands upon you and persecute you, delivering up to synagogues and prisons, bringing before kings and governors on account of my name; but it shall turn outtid=66#bkm515- to you for a testimony. Settle therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand [your] defence; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to resist or reply unto.tid=66#bkm515a- Moreover ye will be delivered up even by parents and brethren and relations and friends, and they shall put to death [some] from among you, and ye will be hated by all”” on account of my name; and a hair of your head shall in no wise perish. (See above.) By your patient endurance gain your souls.” The strict application of all this to the state of things, whether in the world or among the disciples, before the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans must be evident to every unprejudiced mind. Luke alone sets forth the grace of the Lord in giving His own a mouth and wisdom beyond the craft and power of all adversaries. In Mark they are to speak “whatsoever shall be given you; for not ye are the speakers but the Holy Spirit.” Luke also puts in broad terms the consequences of their testimony, which would true in the highest sense for heaven if they were slain.tid=66#bkm517-
*”Then said he to them.” These words, omitted by Blass (as in D with some Latt. Syrrcu sin), are retained by other Edd.
The critical text connects “in different places” with “famines” – “and in different places famines.”
“To resist or reply unto”: such is the order of the verbs in BL, 69 (Edd.), instead of “gainsay or resist.”
“Gain”: after Tisch., from DLRXG, etc. Other Edd. (Revv.) adopt “ye shall gain,” as in AB, Syrrcu pesch hcl Latt. Aeth. Arm. Tertullian, Origen. A reading at least questionable. Ab are but slender authority for a difference of only one letter. (B.T.)
Luk 21:20-24 .
Next we have a graphic picture of the crisis for Jerusalem under Titus. “But when ye see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, then know that its desolation tid=66#bkm518- is drawn nigh. Then let those who are in Judea flee unto the mountains,tid=66#bkm519- and those in the midst of it depart out, and those in the fields not enter into it. For these are days of vengeance,tid=66#bkm520- that all the things written may be accomplished. Woe* to them that are with child and to them that give suck in those days; for there shall be great distresstid=66#bkm521- upon the land and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by [the] nationstid=66#bkm522- until [the] times of [the] nationstid=66#bkm522a- be fulfilled.” Here there can be no misunderstanding unless for a preoccupied mind. The siege with its consequences described by our Lord cannot be a future event because it is followed by the humiliating possession of the Jewish capital by one nation after another till the allotted seasons of Gentile supremacy terminate. This is peculiar to our Evangelist, who accordingly speaks of armies encompassing the city, which was true then, not like Matthew and Mark of the abomination of desolation, which can only be verified in its closing throes. Hence, too, the reader may notice that, in spite of a considerable measure of analogy (for there will be a future siege, and even a twofold attack, one of which will be partially successful, the other to the ruin of their enemies, as we learn from Isa 28 , Isa 29 , and Zec 14 ), there are the strangest contrasts in the issue; for the future siege will be closed by Jehovah’s deliverance and reign, as the past was in the capture and destruction of the people dispersed ever since till the times of the Gentiles are full. Accordingly we hear nothing in this Gospel of the abomination of desolation, nor of the time of tribulation beyond all that was or shall be; we hear of both in Matthew and Mark, where the Spirit contemplates the last days. Here we are told of great distress on the land and wrath on the Jewish people, as indeed there was. The notion that Luke’s variation is designed as a paraphrase of Matthew and Mark, a simpler expression in his Gospel for one more obscure in theirs, is most unworthy of the Holy Ghost and destructive of the truth in the first two Gospels if not in the third. There is fresh truth, and not a sacred comment on what the others said.
*”But” before this “woe,” is in AC, etc., 1, 33, 69, Syrrcu sin Memph. It is not in BDL or most Old Latin and is rejected by Edd.
Luk 21:25-28 .
Mat 24:29-31 ; Mar 13:24-27 .
In verse 25 and onward we are naturally carried on to the conclusion of the Gentile times. “And there shall be signs tid=66#bkm523- in sun and moon and stars, and upon the earth distress of nations in perplexity, for at the roar* of the sea and rolling waves, men ready to die through fear and expectation of the things coming on the habitable earth; for the powers of the heavens shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man comingtid=66#bkm524- in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draweth nigh.” It is Luke only who mentions the moral signs of men’s anguish spite of the deceits and pretensions of that day. No doubt there will be strong delusion and the belief of falsehood; but for this very reason there is no rest nor contentment, for only the grace and truth of God in Christ can give peaceful enjoyment with a good conscience. Hence God will know how to trouble men’s dreams and to break up Satan’s ease, their horror culminating at the sight of the rejected Lord, the Son of man, coming in a cloud with power and glory. But there will be those then on earth, disciples tried by the evils of that day, for whom even the beginning of these troubles and the tokens of change for the world will be the sure harbinger of deliverance.
*”In perplexity . . . roar”: so Tisch., W. H., etc., with ABCLM, etc., 1, 33, 69, Syrrpesch hcl. Old Lat. Memph. Arm. (Edd.). The text underlying A,V. has the support of D, etc., most cursives, Old Lat. Blass reads: “in perplexity, roar () as () of, etc.” So Syrrcu sin, the latter without “as” (i.e. “the voice of the sea and shaking”).
Luk 21:29-36 .
Mat 24:32-51 ; Mar 13:28-37 .
“And he spoke a parable to them, Behold the fig-tree and all the trees: when they already sprout, by looking ye know of your own selves that already summer is near. So also ye, when ye see these things take place, know that the kingdom of God is near.tid=66#bkm525- Verily I say unto you that this generation shall in no wise pass away until all come to pass. The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but my words shall in no wise pass away. But take heed to yourselves lest possibly your hearts be weighed down with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of life, and that day come upon you suddenly unawares, for as a snare* it will come upon all that are settled down upon the face of the whole earth. But watch, at every season praying that ye may be deemed worthy to escape all these things that are about to come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” We have here an instance of the exceeding accuracy of Scripture even in figures. Who but God could have thought of giving only the fig-tree in Matthew, speaking of Israel, the fig-tree and all the trees in Luke where the Gentiles are mixed up with the troubles of Israel?
*”That day come upon you suddenly; for as a snare”: so Blass, as Wordsworth, Milligan, McClellan, after AC, later uncials and most cursives, Syrrcu pesch hcl hier Arm. (Euseb. Basil). Other Edd. (Alford and Revv.) follow BDL, Old Lat. Memph.: “come upon you suddenly as a snare; for it shall come.”
“But watch”: as Edd. with BD. “Watch therefore” of T.R. is as ACRL, etc., Syrcu Amiat., Aeth. Memph. Arm.
“May be deemed worthy”: so Blass, with ACDR and all later uncials, most cursives, Syrr. Old Lat.. Arm. Tertullian. Tisch., W. H., etc., adopt “may have strength” (R.V. “prevail”), following BLX, 1, 33, Memph.
But, this is not the only point of interest in this appendix to the prophecy. For the Lord has given us the positive proof. by the way in which verse 32 stands here, that “this generation” cannot mean a mere chronological space of thirty or even one hundred years, for it is brought in after the running out of Gentile times and the coming of the Son of man with power and glory, events still unfulfilled. Its force is moral; not exactly the nation of Israel but that Christ-rejecting race which then refused their Messiah as they do still. This will go on till all these solemn threats of judgment are accomplished. It is profitable to remark that here, not in doctrine or in practice only, but in these unfoldings of the future, the Lord pledges the impossibility of failing in His words. The Lord does not say that this generation “shall not pass away till the temple is destroyed or the city taken, but till all be fulfilled. Now, He had introduced the subsequent treading down of Jerusalem to the end of Israel’s trials at His appearing, and He declares that this generation shall not pass away till then; as indeed it is only then grace will form a new generation, the generation to come. The more we hold fast the continuity of the stream of the prophecy, as distinguished from the crisis in Matthew and Mark, the greater will be seen to be the importance of this remark.tid=66#bkm526-
Notice the strongly moral tone in which the dangers and snares of the days before the Son of man appears are touched by the Lord, an often recurring characteristic of our Evangelist.tid=66#bkm527-
Luk 21:37 f.
The concluding verses are a summary of our Lord’s manner or habit at this time, the nights spent on the Mount of Olivet, and by day teaching in the temple, whither all the people came early to hear Him. It was this which led several copyists to insert here the paragraph from Joh 7:53 to 8: 11; but there is no real ground for such a transposition, any more than for denying it to be the genuine writing of the last Evangelist, in spite of alleged difficulties.
NOTES ON THE TWENTY-FIRST CHAPTER.
511 Luk 21:1-4 . – “The Widow with the Two Mites” is the subject of Whyte’s discourse LXXXIII., in “Bible Characters.”
512 Luk 21:5-36 . – On Messianic prophecy, see Edersheim, Warburton Lectures (“Prophecy and History in Relation to the Messiah”), and as to the prophecy on Olivet in particular, Stuart, pp. 238-246; also note 126 on Mark. Jewish opinion may be learned from Abrahams’ recent interesting book in Constable’s series (chapter vii.).
For comparison with Mat 24 and Mar 13 , chapter 3 of a recent unpretentious but instructive little book, “The Time of the End, but the End not yet,” by E. J. Thomas (Weston, 53, Paternoster Row), would be found helpful.
512a Luk 21:5 f. – “Some.” Wellhausen rightly calls attention to the fact that the question, as it appears in Luke’s Gospel, proceeded from a wider circle than the disciples merely. This is borne out by verse 7, where the Lord is addressed as “Teacher” (), whilst the disciples in Luke’s Gospel regularly use “Lord” (), or “Master” (). Cf. note 119 above.
513 Luk 21:9 . – Down to verse 11 we have what Matthew and Mark describe as , “beginning of throes.” As to these “sorrows of Messiah,” so-called, see Edersheim, op. cit., p. 247. Tacitus supplies information about such events as are here referred to, in his History, i. 2, 1.
514 Luk 21:12 . – The order here is as in Mar 13:9-13 . Cf. Mat 10:34-42 .
515 Luk 21:13 . – “Turn out,” so Field, who refers to Phi 1:19 .
515a Luk 21:15 . – Robert South preached from this verse.
516 Luk 21:17 . – “Hated by all.” Cf. Joh 15:19 , Act 28:22 , and see Tacitus, “Ann.,” xv. 44.
517 Luk 21:19 . – Cf. Luk 17:33 , and see Dean Vaughan, “Authorised or Revised?” p. 67.
518 Luk 21:20 . – “Desolation.” Schmiedel ( 153) represents Luke as identifying, in the Evangelist’s own mind, Titus’ desolation of Jerusalem with Daniel’s “abomination,” which does but evidence that critic’s ignorance of the scheme of Old Testament Prophecy. As the Expositor shows, it is characteristic of Luke that our Evangelist distinguished them.
“Luke’s language here,” Purves remarks, “is only an interpretation of Christ’s words (cf. Mat 24:15 , Mar 13:14 ), designed to make their meaning clear to Gentile readers” (“Christianity in the Apostolic Age,” p. 272).
519 Luk 21:21 . – “Flee to the mountains.” Wellhausen, as others, speaks of Luke’s bringing the prophecy “up to date.” But some date for it before 70 finds support from these words, because the historical flight was to Pella, in the Jordan valley.
520 Luk 21:22 . – “Vengeance.” The Greek () is the same as that of Hos 9:7 . Cf. note on Luk 7:16 .
521 Luk 21:23 . – “Distress,” (cf. 1Co 7:6 ). It is the of Matthew and Mark.
522 Luk 21:24 . – “Trodden down,” etc., by Romans, Saracens, Franks, etc., in succession.
522a The “times of the nations” run from Nebuchadnezzar to the Apocalyptic head of the revived Roman empire (Rev 13:1-10 ). It is a phrase to be distinguished from “fulness of the Gentiles” in Rom 11:25 , which refers to the completion of the Church. In Tobit xiv. 5 we meet with the “times of that age”: on the similarity of and in MSS. (e.g., Rev 15:3 ). see Nestle, in Expository Times, March, 1909.
523 Luk 21:25 – “And there shall be signs,” i.e., of the of Christ’s Presence (, Matthew, cf. next note): cf. Rev 8:12 . The “and,” introducing a detached narration, is analogous to a peculiarity of the conjunction (), of which Isa 61:2 affords one of the most striking illustrations in Old Testament Scripture. That passage was used by our Lord on the occasion spoken of in Luk 4:16-19 . He stopped before the words, “and the day of vengeance,” etc. (cf. Zec 9:9 f.). “Rejoice . . . the foal of an ass,” and then abruptly, “And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim,” etc. A long space of time may intervene between the respective incidents of such seemingly disjointed passages or portions of them; and so here, between verses 24 and 25.
To understand verses 25-33, it is necessary to see that here is taken up that which was suspended with verse 11. Cf. Luk 17:22-37 , which was anticipatory of the section now reached.
524 Luk 21:27 (cf. note 498). – “Coming,” : cf. 2Jn 1:7 . This is, doubtless, the same coming as in Rev 1:7 , referred to by Westcott (“Historic Faith,” Lecture VII., p. 41), but the “Manifestation” and the “Presence” are not equivalent expressions; for Paul speaks of the of the (2Th 2:8 ), showing that the . is at first secret: cf. Psa 27:5 . In the last-cited New Testament passage, “brightness” has in the hands of the Revv. given place to the true rendering.
The phrase “Second Coming” is sometimes questioned, but it is sufficiently sanctioned by Heb 9:28 .
The word was used in everyday Greek of the time for the visit of a prince to any locality, so as to mean where the “Court” was (Deissmann, op. cit., pp. 269-273).
Charles. after H. Holtzmann and Wendt, writes: “That JESUS expected to return during the existing generation is proved beyond question by the universal hopes of the apostolic age” (“Encyclopaedia Britannica,” art. “Eschatology,” col. 1373). As the Fourth Evangelist belonged to that age, which closed with his death, are we to suppose that he conceived that the Master was mistaken? See Joh 21:2 , and cf. note 526 below, as to the disciples.
Montefiore here has a good note on the Jewish and the Christian conceptions of Messiah.
525 Luk 21:31 f. – A comparison of verse 27 f. sets Matthew’s “Son of Man coming in His Kingdom” (Luk 16:28 ) in solid connection with Luke’s record here of the future manifestation of the Kingdom.
526 “This generation.” Cf. note above on Luk 16:8 , and notes 135, 136 on Mark. For the Jewish “moral” connection of the word, cf. Old Testament passages, such as Gen 7:1 and Psa 12:8 ; in particular, Deu 32 : verses 5 and 20, besides, in Lucan writings, Act 2:40 . The Deuteronomic references seem not to have been duly weighed, with regard to their marked difference in time, by Zahn; they do not bear out his note on Mat 24:34 . Cf. Jer 7:8 , Jer 8:3 , in the LXX. For Gentile connection, see, e.g., Phi 2:15 , cited by Hahn. The successive races of men since the Flood are in this light regarded by Scripture as one generation.
The word as used in this Synoptic connection has “a nearer and a farther meaning” (Farrar).
Cremer and Hahn regard the , “this,” as explained by verse 28. In any case, the words come in the future part of Luke’s record.
There are some excellent remarks on the whole subject in Jowett’s essay, “On Belief in the Coming of Christ.” As to “that day” in Mar 13:32 , the writer asks: “Is it reverent or irreverent to say that Christ knew what He Himself declared that He did not know” (p. 88 of recent reprint). Cf. Horton, on the moral beauty of Mark’s report, which commands adhesion to what the Lord said from His actual knowledge while on earth.
With regard to Charles’s statement (supra), may it not be said that the Lord’s words about “that day” recorded by Mark of themselves suggest that it would not fall in the near future? They rebut critics’ fancy that there is “confusion” in that Evangelist’s record, by alleging which they do but create an inconsistency on his part.
Luk 21:32 is only difficult to reconcile with verse 24 for those who take “generation” to mean a period elapsing between father and son, a sense it might indeed have borne had it occurred in the same context as 23: 38 “weep for yourselves and for your children.”
Neander (p. 130, followed by various English writers down to Selbie) says that the early disciples were mistaken in their view. Rather, they did not fully apprehend the Lord’s meaning: it was not intended that they should do so (1Co 13:9 ).
The whole question is trenchantly discussed by B. W. Newton in his “Prophecy of the Lord Jesus in Mat 24 f. Considered,” pp. 39-79 (3rd ed., 1879). As to the bearing of verse 32 on the question of the date of this Gospel, see note 2 above, ad fin.
527 Luk 21:36 . – “Praying . . . may be deemed worthy” (or, reading as Revv., , “may be strong”) “. . . to stand (be set) before the Son of Man.” See note on Luk 20:35 , and for “to be set” (), cf. Psa 1:5 (note 370) and Wisdom of Solomon v. 1. Resurrection is affirmed in the Hebrew of the Psalm: cf. note 108 on John, and see also Mal 3:2 . This is not a judgment in the sense of Joh 5:24 (cf. Psa 143:2 ), but the occasion of our Lord’s assigning reward or loss (1Co 3:13-15 ) to those of the House of God (1Pe 4:17 ), when He holds His first inquest, reviewing the life of each disciple as such.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk 21:1-4
1And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury. 2And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. 3And He said, “Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; 4for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on.”
Luk 21:1-4 This is paralleled in Mar 12:41-44.
Luk 21:1 “the treasury” This is a compound word of “treasure” and “guard” (cf. LXX 2Ki 23:11; Est 3:9; Ezr 5:17; Ezr 6:1; Ezr 7:20). Jewish tradition (Shekalim 6 [fourth tractate in Moed]; Josephus, Jewish Wars 5.5.2; 6.5.2; Antiq. 19.6.2; and Alfred Edersheim, Temple, pp. 48-49) asserts that there were thirteen trumpet-shaped, metal boxes located in the Court of the Women, where Jesus regularly taught (cf. Luk 20:1). Each one of them was designated for a different charitable purpose (cf. Joh 8:20). Archaeology has never confirmed the existence of these metal containers.
Luk 21:2 “a poor widow” Luke chooses from Jesus’ words and actions to cast the religious and social outcasts of His day in a positive light (esp. women). Here a poor widow set the standard of sacrificial giving that all disciples should emulate.
“two small copper coins” This refers to two copper Jewish coins called lepton. This term means “the thin one.” This is the only Jewish coin mentioned in the NT. See Special Topic at Luk 15:8. Two lepta equal one quadrant; four quadrants equal one assarion; 16 assarions equal one denarius, which was a day’s wage for a soldier or laborer.
Commentators often mentioned that someone could not give one lepta (rabbinical tradition), but this is a misunderstanding of the Jewish Talmud.
Luk 21:3 “Truly” This is the Greek term alths (cf. Luk 9:27; Luk 12:44), which is used synonymously with amn in Luk 21:32. The parallel in Mar 12:43 has amn. See SPECIAL TOPIC: AMEN at Luk 4:24.
Luk 21:4
NASB”into the offering”
NKJV”in offerings for God”
NRSV”have contributed”
TEV”offered their gifts”
NJB”put in money”
Literally this is “put into the gifts” (cf. MSS , B, and L), but several other uncial manuscripts (cf. MSS A, D, W) and most ancient versions add “of God” to clarify the context for Gentiles. The UBS4 committee rated the shorter text as “B” (almost certain).
“out of their surplus” This same principle of spiritual giving is found in 2Co 8:12. It is surprising that the NT does not discuss regular giving principles. 2 Corinthians 8-9 deals with the Gentile churches’ one-time gift to the mother church in Jerusalem. Tithing is an OT principle (see SPECIAL TOPIC: TITHING at Luk 11:42).
“put in all that she had to live on” This woman trusted in God’s daily provision (cf. Mat 6:33). Luke records many of Jesus’ teachings about worldly possessions and wealth (see SPECIAL TOPIC: WEALTH at Luk 12:21). Giving is a spiritual thermometer. It reveals our motives and priorities.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
And He looked up, &c. The Lord was still in the Temple, showing that this prophetic discourse is not the same as that spoken later on the Mount of Olives. They are similar to Luk 21:11, when the Lord goes back and speaks of what shall happen “before all these things”. See App-165.
looked up. Greek. anablepo. App-133.
saw. Greek. eidon. App-133.
into. Greek. eis. App-104.
the treasury. See note on Mat 24:1 and Mar 12:41. Compare Joh 8:20.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
1-4.] THE WIDOWS MITES. Mar 12:41-44, where see notes.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Chapter 21
And he looked up, and he saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites ( Luk 21:1-2 ).
A mite was one-sixteenth of a penny. In other words, it took sixteen mites to make a penny. Two mites would be an eighth of a penny. Now here are these rich people putting in their great gifts and this certain poor little widow goes up…and there in the temple the offering things are sort of like a horn and they would drop them in…and the poor little widow cast in her two mites.
And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow has cast in more than all of them: for all of these have of their abundance cast into the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all of the living that she had ( Luk 21:3-4 ).
So, an interesting thing in God’s economy is not the amount that you give, but what it costs you to give. So, many who are giving less in God’s economy are giving more. The amount is immaterial. What’s the sacrifice? What’s it costing you to give?
When David was wanting to buy the threshing floor of Araunah, because the angel of the Lord had stopped there at the threshing floor and David had wanted to buy it and to offer a sacrifice unto the God, Araunah says, “Take it, man, it’s yours.” And David said, “No, I will not give to God that which costs me nothing.” And David insisted on buying it. He wouldn’t take it as a gift, because he wanted to give it to God. And he said, “I won’t offer to God that which costs me nothing.” What does it cost you to give? That’s what God measures the gift by.
And as some of them spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts ( Luk 21:5 ),
In “The Wars of the Jews” by Josephus, book number 5 and chapter 5, he gives an interesting description of the temple in Jerusalem; of these great white columns of solid marble, each column a single stone of solid white marble. And how along the fascia all of these gold shields, so that if you would look at the temple, the reflection of the gold was so tremendous that it was like looking at the sun itself. And you couldn’t just look at the temple because of these gold plates when the sun was reflecting off of it. It would be hard on your eyes and like looking in a mirror. And he describes the beauty and the glory of this temple that was built by Herod, describing some of the stones as weighing as much as 180 tons. And so some of them were speaking to Jesus of the temple, how it was adorned with these goodly stones, these beautiful marble towers, and the gifts, the gold and the silver and the brass gates and all that were around it. And He said,
As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down ( Luk 21:6 ).
Today when you go to Jerusalem, as you go up the walk next to the western wall that leads on to the temple mount area, they have excavated the area to the right side of this walk. They have excavated down to the pavement that was the Roman street that went through the bottom of the Teropian Valley. And as they have excavated down to this Roman street, street level at the time of Christ, down there on the pavement which was made of great huge stones, there are these huge stones that have been pushed over the wall and that cracked the pavement down below. And you see them as they are just lying there in disarray as they fell and were pushed over the wall and crashed into the valley several hundred feet below, breaking the pavement down below. I’ve climbed down in to that area and I’ve touched these big stones and I’ve marveled at them. Because as I looked at them, I realized I was seeing the fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus Christ. “Not one stone was left standing upon another.” They filled the Teropian Valley with stones that they pushed over from the temple, watching them crash below.
When we were up in the Grand Canyon, there was one area that I had a bunch of kids. And they were starting to push stones over this canyon cliff, because there was about a 3,000-foot drop before they hit. And it was terrifying to see the momentum that these stones would develop before they hit the bottom, and the crash, of course, echoing up the canyon. But here were the Roman soldiers, when they destroyed the temple, pushing the stones over. And that whole Teropian Valley was filled with the debris and the stones that they pushed over the wall at the time of the destruction of the temple. But it fulfilled literally the prophecy of Jesus, as He said, “You look at these stones, but there shall not be one left standing upon another that will not be thrown down.” Thus, as you go up on the temple mount, there is no evidence anywhere of where the temple of Solomon stood. The temple mount that he built is there. But there is no evidence at all of the place of the temple, because not one stone was left standing upon another.
And so they asked him, saying, Master, when shall these things be? ( Luk 21:7 )
What things? When the temple is destroyed and the stones are thrown down.
and what sign will there be when these things ( Luk 21:7 )
That is, the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem.
what will be the sign when these things come to pass? And so he said unto them, Take heed that you be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am; and that the time is drawing near: but go ye not therefore after them. But when you shall hear of wars and commotions, don’t be terrified: for these things must first come to pass; and the end is not yet. Then he said unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom: And there will be great earthquakes in different places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful signs and great signs shall there be from heaven. But before ( Luk 21:7-12 )
Now He’s going on to the times of the end with these signs of the great earthquakes in different places, the famines, the pestilences, the fearful signs in heaven, and the worldwide state of wars.
But before all of these, they shall lay their hands on you ( Luk 21:12 ),
Coming back to the destruction of the temple.
and they will persecute you, delivering you up into the synagogues, and into the prisons, and you’ll be brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony ( Luk 21:12-13 ).
Jesus said, “Look, you’re going to get arrested, you’re going to be hauled before the kings and all for My name’s sake, but that’s all right. It’s going to give you a chance to witness.” And I find it fascinating that every time Paul was brought before a judge or before the king, he took the opportunity to give a witness for Jesus Christ. “Oh, King Agrippa, I count it a privilege to be able to share with you what’s happened to me, because I know that you’ve studied the law of the Jews and you understand these things. And the things that Jesus did weren’t in a corner. Now, I myself was like you, I thought to be against this Man, and I was commissioned to arrest Him,” and so forth. And he went on and he gave a heavy witness to King Agrippa. “King Agrippa, do you believe? I know you believe.” He says, “Paul, wait a minute! Your much learning has made you mad.” And King Agrippa says, “Hey, wait a minute! Hold on! You think that you’re going to persuade me to be a Christian?” But Paul was trying. Jesus said, “Hey, they’re going to bring you before kings, but don’t worry. It’s going to give you a chance to witness.” And Paul used it every time he got before the king.
Now, Paul was taken before Nero. There’s nothing in the biblical account that tells us what Paul said, but as we study secular history, it would seem that Nero wasn’t too bad a fellow. He was actually very anxious to leave his mark upon Rome and to build some monuments in Rome. His castle is a great monument in itself that has been uncovered recently. But Nero wasn’t really too awful a fellow until in history he met this fellow Paul the apostle. The first time that Paul was imprisoned in Rome, he had his opportunity. You remember when he was before Festus he appealed to Caesar. And so he was sent to Rome, placed there in prison where he wrote his Philippian epistle and he had his chance to go before Nero.
Now, you think that the witness he laid on Agrippa was heavy. You can be sure that Paul thought, “Man, if I can convert this pagan to Christianity, what that would do!” And I’m sure that Paul laid on Nero a witness second to none in the history of the church.
Secular history records this dramatic personality change of Nero right after the time that Paul laid the witness on him. It was at that same period of time in history that Nero went through a drastic personality change and became a beast. He burned Rome because he wanted to rebuild a new glorious Rome for his credit. And then he blamed the Christians for it. But he became almost a man possessed, insane. I feel that, personally, that he became demon possessed after Paul’s witness and his rejection of Paul’s witness. I believe that he opened his heart and life to demon possession. And I believe that the things that he did can only be ascribed to a man possessed by an evil spirit. But up until that time of Paul’s witness, he wasn’t that bad of a fellow, his story.
So, Jesus said, “Now don’t worry about it. It’s going to give you a chance to witness.” And Paul took that chance every time he got it. And He said, “Don’t make up a little speech in advance in your own heart, what you’re going to say… ‘Well, I’m going to say this and that and the other…'” But He said,
For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist ( Luk 21:15 ).
Now don’t worry about what you’re going to say, because I’ll give you the words in that time. And you can wipe ’em out.
And you will be betrayed both by your parents, and your brothers, and your kinfolk, and your friends; and some of you they will cause you to be put to death ( Luk 21:16 ).
Fox’s “Book of Martyrs” relates to us that sad portion of the history of the church.
And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. But there shall not a hair of your head perish ( Luk 21:17-18 ).
They may kill your body, but after that, they have no power.
And in your patience possess ye your souls ( Luk 21:19 ).
What an important bit of instruction! “In patience.” God help us! We’re so impatient when it comes to the things of God. “In your patience possess ye your souls.” God, give me patience!
And when you will see Jerusalem encircled with armies ( Luk 21:20 ),
Which happens within forty years.
then know that the desolation is near. Let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let them that are in the countries enter in there too. For these are the days of vengeance ( Luk 21:20-22 ),
Rome is going to take out here vengeance upon the rebellion.
and all of the things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to those that are nursing, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and they will be led away captive to all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled ( Luk 21:22-24 ).
So, in 70 A.D., when Titus came with the Roman troops and besieged Jerusalem, killed 1,100,000 Jews, carried away the remaining 97,000 as captive, Israel ceased to be a nation. They were carried away captive into all nations and the prophecy of Jesus was fulfilled. And Jerusalem from that day had been trodden down by the Gentiles until June of 1967.
Now, as I understand prophecy, in June of 1967 the time of the Gentiles came to an end. You say, “Well, what are we in now?” Just a space gap. I believe that the Lord is going to begin a very special work with the nation of Israel very soon. There is a seven-year period of prophecy that is not yet been fulfilled, Daniel’s seventieth week. And that seven-year period of God’s Spirit upon the nation of Israel and dealing with them, and their restoration must come. That period has not yet begun. But in 1967, for all practical purposes, when Jerusalem became again the territory of the nation of Israel, when they drove out the Jordanian troops and they took the city of Jerusalem, at that point, according to the words of Jesus, Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Since that time, it’s just been a short period of God’s grace giving others that opportunity to become a part of God’s kingdom before He gathers His church together unto Himself. So, we’re just living in a period of God’s extended grace to man. But even as God said in the time of Noah, “My Spirit will not always strive with man,” I believe that God’s striving with men has just about come to an end. The time of the Gentiles fulfilled.
And now Jesus goes ahead to give signs of His return. And He said,
There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity ( Luk 21:25 );
Signs in the heavens. We know that the comet known as Halley’s Comet will be returning into our area of the solar system in just a couple of years. And with the advent of the return of Halley’s Comet, there’s been a lot of writing in the astronomy magazines and a lot of speculation about asteroids and about comets, and the possibilities of a comet or an asteroid striking the earth. And it is interesting that a large part of the physical makeup of comets is cyanide. And it is also interesting that in the book of Revelation, “he saw a star fall from heaven and strike the earth and all of the fresh waters became bitter; they were called wormwood because they were bitter.” It sounds like it could almost be a comet striking the earth and that cyanide poisoning the fresh water systems turning them bitter. The cyanide taste, of course, is a bitter taste. You might pick up the Astronomy Magazine; I think it was December’s issue. It had an interesting issue on comets and their makeup. And, of course, because Halley’s is returning, there’s just a lot of things that you can read now in the astronomy journals and all about asteroids and comets. And there’s always that likelihood that an asteroid is going to strike the earth. In fact, our government is making contingency plans. If there seems to be some threat of a large asteroid striking the earth, of sending a rocket out with a nuclear warhead to try and explode it in space so that it won’t get to the earth. And these kind of things are things that are being thought of by the science. Signs! “…and the sun and the moon and the stars.”
“On the earth there will be distress of nations with perplexity.” That means that the distress of nations is problems that nations will be facing. The word perplexity in the Greek is “no way out.” Now the government is searching for a way out. We’re going to cut taxes and we’re going to balance the budget. Government has become burdensome. In fact, government has become so expensive, we can’t afford it anymore. And that’s the problem that we’ve hit. There’s no way that we can afford government any longer. It’s a monster that has just continued to grow, gobbling up everything, until it has grown to such an extent that there are not enough people left to support the government workers. I read a statistic someplace, and I don’t know the accuracy of it. But it said some 49% of the people are on the government payroll some way or another; either through welfare or through jobs that are related to the government. So 51% of the people are productive, and the rest are working for the government, supporting the 49. What are we going to do? What’s the answer? There is none. So, what shall we do? Have heart failure.
I thought that this was interesting that it came this week.
the sea and the waves roaring ( Luk 21:25 );
Any of you live at Sunset Beach? Seal Beach?
Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for the looking after of those things which are coming upon the earth: and the powers of the heaven will be shaken. And then ( Luk 21:26-27 ),
Of course, He’s describing events of the Great Tribulation period here, “And then,” after this Great Tribulation,
shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your head; for your redemption is drawing close ( Luk 21:27-28 ).
Now, last October in one of the shopping malls, towards the end of October, I saw them putting them up Christmas decorations. And I said, “Well, Thanksgiving must be getting close.” Why? Because I know that Thanksgiving comes before Christmas. And if they’re putting up Christmas decorations and Thanksgiving hasn’t come yet, then Thanksgiving must be getting close. Because it’s got to come before Christmas. Now Jesus is giving you signs of His return. Signs that will happen before His second coming. But if the rapture of the church is to precede the second coming by seven years, then when we will see the signs of the coming of the Lord, we have to say, “Hey, the rapture must be getting close. I see the signs of the Lord’s return.” That makes the rapture that much closer. So, when you see these things beginning to come to pass, then you look up and lift up your head, for your redemption is drawing nigh.
And he spoke to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all of the trees; When they now shoot forth, and you see and you know of your own selves that summer is now near end ( Luk 21:29-30 ).
And Jesus is basically saying the same thing. If you see the trees start to blossom out and leaf out, you say, “Oh, summer must be getting close.” Because I see the trees leaving out, I see the blossoms; summer must be getting close.
Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all is fulfilled. Now heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away ( Luk 21:32-33 ).
We have the solid word of Christ. Now even as Jerusalem was destroyed and not one stone was left standing upon another, and the Jews were decimated and the remainder were made slaves throughout the earth, and Jerusalem went under the hand of the Gentiles…just as all of that was fulfilled, you can be sure that Jesus is coming again. The rest of the prophecies will be fulfilled. God didn’t bring it along this far to drop it now. We are moving towards the end. The whole system is moving towards this climax, the return of Jesus Christ in power and glory. But when we see the signs of that return, we know that our redemption is so close. And Jesus affirms it; He says, “Now look, heaven and earth will pass away, but not My words.”
Take heed to yourselves ( Luk 21:34 ),
Now this is a message for you. “Take heed, be careful.”
lest at any time your hearts are overcharged with surfeiting, drunkenness, [partying,] the cares of this life, and that day overtake you unaware ( Luk 21:34 ).
There is a party spirit in the world today. Be careful you’re not caught up in it, and that Day of the Lord catch you by surprise. Be careful of these things. Jesus warns you that these things are going to be like a trap for men. “…drunkenness, surfeiting, gourmet type of eating, cares of this life, so that Day come upon you unaware.
For as a snare ( Luk 21:35 )
It’s a trap.
shall it come upon all of them that dwell upon the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore ( Luk 21:35-36 ),
The Lord’s command to His church to watch.
and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things ( Luk 21:36 )
All what things? These things of God’s judgment that will be coming to pass upon the earth as there are the signs and the sun and the moon and the stars and the heaven shaken, and the earthquakes and the pestilences and the famines… “pray that you’ll be accounted worthy to escape all of these things.”
that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man ( Luk 21:36 ).
Now, in the book of Revelation, chapter 5, John saw a scroll in the right hand of Him who was sitting upon the throne, sealed with seven seals, and it had writing both within and without. “And he heard an angel proclaim with a loud voice, ‘Who is worthy to take the scroll and loose the seals?'” And when no one was found worthy in heaven or earth, John began to sob convulsively until the elders said, “Don’t sob, John. Behold, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah hath prevailed to take the scroll and loose the seals.” “And I turned and I saw Him as a Lamb that had been slaughtered, and He took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat upon the throne. And when He did, the twenty-four elders came forth with their golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of the saints, and they offered them before the throne of God. And they sang a new song, saying, ‘Worthy is the Lamb to take the scroll and to loose the seals, for He was slain; but He has redeemed us by His blood, out of every nation, tribe, kindred, tongue and people, and He has made us unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign with Him upon the earth.'”
Listen to the lyric of the song in heaven. “Worthy is the Lamb; He was slain, He has redeemed us by His blood . . . out of all of the nations, tribes, tongues and people…made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign with Him upon the earth.” These are those who are standing before the Son of man. And the Great Tribulation does not begin until the beginning of chapter 6. “And when He loosed the first seal, the angel said unto me, ‘Come. And I saw a white horse coming forth upon the earth, conquering and to conquer with his rider.” And there begins the Great Tribulation period when, after the book is open. But while the book is there in the right hand of the Father, and when Jesus steps forth to take it, that glorious song of the church, “Worthy is the Lamb,” sung by those who are standing before the Son of man, Jesus is saying, “Look, you pray always. Watch and pray always that you’ll be accounted worthy to escape all of these things that are going to be happening upon the earth, that you’ll be standing before the Son of man.” It is my prayer and anticipation that I will be accounted worthy to be standing with the company of God’s redeemed saints in heaven, singing of the worthiness of the Lamb to take the title deed to the earth, and to lay claim to it. I want to be standing before the Son of man. I surely do not want to be down here on this earth when God’s wrath is poured out, as Jesus has described a portion of it here, but you find the full description in Revelation chapter 6 through 18.
And in the daytime ( Luk 21:37 )
That’s the end of the message,
he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and stayed at the mount which is called the mount of Olives ( Luk 21:37 ).
So He crossed the Kidron Valley and went up into the Mount of Olives in the evening.
And all of the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, to hear him ( Luk 21:38 ).
So, there was a popular movement towards Jesus by the common people as the chief priest and the scribes and the elders were plotting His death. And so, we move into the final chapters as we get into chapter 22 and Judas’ betrayal, the last supper. And we’re moving into the final events of Jesus’ life, which we will complete next Sunday night, as we finish the book of Luke.
Shall we pray? Father, as we look around the world in which we live, and as we look at Your Word and as we see these things beginning to come to pass, we see the nation of Israel existing once again. We see the city of Jerusalem under the control of the nation of Israel. And we see the distress of nations and the perplexities, we see the nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom, the increased earthquakes, these pestilences and famines. Oh Lord, help us that we will be accounted worthy to escape all of these things that are going to come to pass. Oh God, we want to stand in that heavenly throng around the throne of God proclaiming the worthiness of Jesus, our Lord and Savior, who died for us, who redeemed us by His blood and has made us unto our God kings and priests. Thank you, Jesus, for that redemption that we have tonight. Oh Lord, may we be worthy to be in that throng. In Jesus’ name. Amen. “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Luk 21:1-6. And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but like of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had. And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.
This was literally true of the temple at Jerusalem; and today there remains nothing of it. It is also true of all earthly buildings and of all earthly things. However firm they appear to be, as though they might outlast the centuries themselves, yet the things which are seen are temporal, and like the baseless fabric of a vision, they shall all melt into thin air, and pass away. The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Luk 21:7. And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass?
Those questions are always being asked, they are being asked at this very day about Christs second coming. They shall have no answer, for Christ himself assures us that, as the Son of man, he knew not the day nor the hour of his own coming. As the Son of God he knew all things; but as a man like ourselves, he was willing to be a know-nothing upon that point.
Luk 21:8. And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.
This passage refers, in the first place, to the siege of Jerusalem and in its second and yet fuller meaning, to the coming of the Lord. It looks to me that our Lord regarded the destruction of Jerusalem as the beginning of the end, the great type and anticipation of all that will take place when he himself shall stand in the latter day upon the earth. And, as before the destruction of Jerusalem there were many false christs, so will there be the more of them the nearer the end of the world shall be. This shall be to us one of the tokens of our Lords speedy appearing, but we shall not be deceived thereby. Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them.
Luk 21:9. But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified; for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by.
Everywhere throughout the Scriptures there is this double message of our Lord, Watch, for I may come at any moment. Expect me to come, and to come soon; yet never be terrified as though the time were immediately at hand, for there are certain events which must occur before my advent. How to reconcile these two thoughts, I do not know, and I do not care to know. I would like to be found in that condition which consists in part of watching and in the other part of patiently waiting and working till Christ appears.
Luk 21:10-11. Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
Someone says, perhaps, All this we have had, times without number; yet Christ has not come. Just so, for these signs are not sent to minister to our curiosity, but to keep us always on the watch; and whenever we mark these earthquakes, and wars, and famines, and pestilences, then are we to think, Behold, he cometh, and watch the more earnestly. You know how it is often with the man who is very sick. It is reported that he cannot last long; you call many times, yet he is still living, do you therefore conclude that he will not die? No, but you the more certainly expect that he will soon be gone. So is it with Christs second advent. He bids us note the signs of his coming, and yet, when some of those signs appear, he does not come, all this is to keep us still on the alert watching for him. Even in his own day, when he so spoke that his servants expected him to come at once, yet he also added words from which they might fairly judge that he would not come directly.
Luk 21:12-16. But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my names sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
Nowadays, the fashion is always to meditate, and think, and excogitate a gospel for yourself. To be a thinker, that is the very crown of perfection to some minds, but it is not so according to our Masters mind. His servants are to speak, not their own thoughts, but his thoughts. If they will keep to his gospel, he will give them a mouth and wisdom, which all their adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. We are to be the repeaters of a message which is given to us, not the manufacturers of tidings. There is to be an exhibitions of inventions very soon, and it is quite right and proper that there should be; but I pray that none of us may ever be the inventors of a new gospel, or of new doctrines, or of new systems of theology, but, on the contrary, let us settle it in our hearts that we will speak Christs Word all our days; and if thereby we are brought into trouble, we will depend upon him to give us a mouth and wisdom, which all our adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.
Luk 21:16. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death.
How true that has been many a time! For how long a period the saints were martyred! And the days of martyrdom are not yet over.
Luk 21:17-18. And ye shall be hated of all men for my names sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish.
During all the terrible siege of Jerusalem, it is believed that not one Christian perished, for God took special care of the followers of his Son. They were the most hated of all men, yet nobody could touch them. None of them took up arms, for it was contrary to their religion; as, indeed, if we are Christians, it is contrary to our religion to resist evil, but we are to bear and endure. The early Christians did so; and because of their very defenselessness, they were safe under the guardian care of the Lord their God.
Luk 21:19-24. In your patience possess ye your souls. And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
And it is so even to this day. Here is another instance in which the Lord bade his people expect his coming, and yet at the same time told them that he would not come so long as Jerusalem should be trodden down of the Gentiles. Until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled means the time when the Messiah shall gather in those Gentiles unto himself; for, when he shall appear, they shall look on him whom they have despised, and turn to him whom they have so long rejected.
Luk 21:25. And there shall be signs in the sun
As there were at the destruction of Jerusalem, and as there will be at the second coming of Christ. We have had a rehearsal of that coming in the destruction of the favored city; but the grand event itself, who shall rightly speak of it?
Luk 21:25-27. And in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Mens hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see
Whether they wish to see him or not, then shall they see
Luk 21:27-32. The Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; when they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.
As I understand it, for the first time; and afterwards it shall be fulfilled again. It is a prophecy that bears two meanings, an outer and an inner; it has been fulfilled once, and it shall soon be fulfilled again.
Luk 21:33-34. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life,
Please notice that cares of this life are put down with over-eating and over-drinking, for men can be intoxicated and surfeited with care, either the care of getting, or the care of keeping, or the care of spending, or the care of losing. Any of these cares may cause a surfeit and a drunkenness wherefore, take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life,
Luk 21:34. And so that day come upon you unawares.
All that you can see in this world, you are to regard as being doomed to destruction; that destruction commenced, so to speak, when Jerusalem fell beneath the Roman sword. Everything earthly is doomed. You are living, not in your eternal mansions but you are living a makeshift life; you are passing through a wilderness, you are pilgrims, you are sojourners; this is not your rest. Do not get to love this world, or to be taken up with it. Do not strike your roots into it; you are not to dwell here, and to live here always. You are walking among shadows; regard them as such. Hug them not to your bosom; feed not your souls upon them, lest, when that day comes, before whose coming all of them shall melt away, you shall be filled with amazement and shame.
Luk 21:35-37. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. And in the day time he was teaching in the temple; and at night he went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives.
You know what he did there, for
Cold mountains and the midnight air,
Witnessed the fervor of his prayer.
Jesus ever practiced what he preached. He said to his disciples, Watch ye therefore, and pray always, so he himself both watched and prayed.
Luk 21:38. And all the people came early in the morning to him in the temple, for to hear him.
May we all be willing, not only to hear him, but also to heed what he says! Amen.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Luk 21:1. , having looked up) from His hearers to others. [Whatever thou mayest do, Jesus looks at thee also, and at thy action, and the intention with which thou doest it.-V. g.]
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Luk 21:1-4
7. THE WIDOW’S MITES
Luk 21:1-4
1 And he looked up, and saw the rich men-A parallel record of this is found in Mar 12:41-44. It seems that Jesus had taken his seat after the debate was over and his enemies had retreated; even his disciples were not very close to him. He had taken a position near the treasury, “over against the treasury.” (Mar 12:41.) The word for “treasury” is a compound in the original and means guard or protection. Jesus was observing, according to Mark, the rich who put in their gifts. This was the last occurrence in the public ministry of Jesus except the trial and crucifixion; this is his last appearance in the temple. His public teaching is over except the few sentences of his defense in his trial and the seven statements that he uttered on the cross. The Pharisees and Sadducees had been defeated and had withdrawn from the scene, and even the disciples were at some distance as Jesus sat alone by the treasury.
2 And he saw a certain poor widow-As Jesus sat there and observed the rich “cast money into the treasury,” there came a “certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.” “Mite” was the smallest coin in circulation during the ministry of Jesus; its value has been variously estimated from one-eighth to one-fifth of a cent. Mark says: “There came a poor widow, and she cast in two mites, which make a farthing.” (Mar 12:42.) The value of the “two mites” was estimated at less than half a cent in our money. The coin was bronze.
3, 4 And he said, Of a truth I say unto you,-Mark records that Jesus “called unto him his disciples” (Mar 12:43), and said: “This poor widow cast in more than they all.” He compares or contrasts what the widow cast in with, not what one rich man cast in, but with what all the rich men cast in. Her contribution is thus contrasted with the sum total of the contributions of all who contributed on that occasion. Jesus knew how to evaluate gifts and he evaluated her gift as being “more than all they that are casting into the treasury.” He tells the ground or basis of his evaluation; they cast in “of their superfluity,” hut “she of her want did cast in all the living that she had.” Of their abundance they contributed a little, but of her meager and scant supply, she gave all. Hers was real self-denial; she felt what she gave; in love she devoted all to God, and trusted in his providential care.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Here we have another illustration of the fact that nothing could escape the Master’s vigilance. Of the gifts being cast into the treasury He was the true Appraiser. He saw the widow as she cast in her gift, and said that she had “cast in more than they all.” In the realm of superfluity God does not begin to count. The first entry in the heavenly books is that of sacrifice.
Addressing His disciples, Jesus spoke to them especially about their service and attitude. His words must have come with special force to the men who had heard with what wisdom He had answered the malicious attacks on Him. He declared that they should have “mouth and wisdom.” Herein is discovered the secret of the wonderful utterances of these men chronicled in the Acts of the Apostles. Finally, in this connection He uttered the superlative claim, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away.” This statement had special application to what He had been saying concerning the future.
Then He laid certain injunctions upon His disciples of the utmost importance. They were first to ”take heed to themselves,” and things which they were to guard against were named, “surfeiting,” “drunkenness,” “cares of this life.” In view of these responsibilities they were to “watch . . . at every season,” and, finally, to make “supplication.”
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
21:1-4. The Widows Mites. Mar 12:41-44. The incident is not recorded by Mt. The saying respecting widows houses might lead to the preservation of this narrative. Mk. and Lk. give both neither.
1. . Mk. has . The long discussions had wearied Him, and He had been sitting with downcast or closed eyes.
. Either, He saw the rich who were casting, etc. Or, He saw those who were casting rich people. The former is better. In either case the imperf. part. expresses what was continually going on: vidit eos qui mittebant munera sua in gazophylacium divites (Vulg.).
. We are not sure that there was a separate building the Treasury. But the thirteen trumpet-mouthed boxes which stood in the spacious Court of the Women appear to have been known as the Treasury. These Shoparoth or trumpets were each of them inscribed with the purpose to which the money put into them was to be devoted. See Edersh. The Temple, p. 26. Besides these there was the strong-room whither their contents were taken from time to time. This, however, of be meant here. Comp. Joh 8:20.
Both in LXX and in Josephus we find sometimes (Neh 10:38., Neh 10:13:9; B. J. v. 5. 2, vi. 5, 2), sometimes (2Ki 23:11; 2Ki_1 Mac. 14:49; Ant. xix. 6, 1): and we cannot say that there is any difference of meaning.
2. . Exo 22:25; Pro 28:15, 29:7; but nowhere else in N.T. Vulg. and l have pauperculam: see also Vulg. of Isa 66:2. Note the .
. See on 12:59. The exact amount would not be visible from a distance. Jesus knew this, as He knew that it was all that she had, supernaturally. It was not lawful to offer less than two perutahs or mites. This was therefore the smallest offering ever made by anyone; so that Bengels remark on the two mites is out of place: quorum unum vidua retinere potuit. She could have kept both.
3. . Introduces something contrary to the usual view. Here, as in 9:27 and 12:44, Lk. has , where Mk. or Mt. has . . Non modo proportione geometrica, sed animo, quem spectabat Dominus (Beng.).
For (A B G ), which is supported by (), Tisch. prefers (D Q X), which is supported by (L). Orig. has several times.
4. . Pointing to those of them who were still in sight.
. Unto the gifts, which were already in the boxes.
. Comp. 2Co 8:14, 2Co 8:11:9; Jdg 19:20; Psa 33:10. Whereas they had more than they needed for their wants, she had less: they had a surplus, and she a deficit. Yet out of this deficient store she gave,-gave all she had.
The Latin Versions vary much in rendering both expressions: de exuperantia (s), de eo quod superfuit illis (e), de quo super illis fuit (a), fre> (f), ex abundanti (Vulg.): de exiguitate sua (a), de inopia suo (e r), de minimo suo (d), ex eo quad deest illi (f Vulg.).
. All that she had to support her at that time: comp. 8:43, 15:12, 30; Son 8:7; Soph. Phil. 933, 1283.
5-36. The destruction of the Temple and of Jerusalem foretold. Mat 24:1-36; Mar 13:1-32. The section falls into three divisions: the Occasion of the Prophecy (5-7), the Prophecy (8-28), the Exhortation to Vigilance based on the Parable of the Fig Tree (29-36). Edersheim has shown in detail how different contemporary Jewish opinion respecting the end of the world was from what is contained in this prediction, and therefore how untenable is the hypothesis that we have here only a reflexion of ordinary Jewish tradition (L. & T. 2. pp. 434-445).
5-7. Lk. gives no indication of time or place. Mk. and Mt. tell us that it was as Jesus was leaving the precincts that the remark of the disciples was made. The discourse as to the comparative merits of the offerings made in the Temple would easily lead on to thoughts respecting the magnificence of the temple itself and of the votive gifts which it received.
5. . Mt. and Mk. tell us that these were disciples.
Here again Cod. Bezae has a reproduction of the gen. abs in Latin. quorundam dicentium: comp. Ver. 26.
. Some of the stones of the substructure were enormous. The columns of the cloister or portico were monoliths of marble over forty feet high. See Josephus, whose account should be read in full (B. J. v. 5), Tacitus (Hist. v. 12), Milman (Hist. of the Jews, 2. bk. 16, p. 332), Edersheim (Temple, p. 21.), Renan (V. de J. p. 210). It is almost impossible to realise the effect which would be produced by a building longer and higher than York Cathedral, standing on a solid mass of masonry almost equal in height to the tallest of our church spires (Wilson, Recovery of Jerusalem, p. 9).
. Mt. and Mk. say nothing about the rich offerings, which were many and various, from princes and private individuals (2 Mal 3:2-7): e.g. the golden vine of Herod, with bunches as tall as a man (Jos. B. J. v. 5, 4; Ant. xv. 11, 3: comp. 17:6, 3; 18:3, 5, 19:6, 1). Illic immens opulenti templum (Tac. Hist. v. 8, 1). For comp. 2 Mac. 9:16; 3 Mal 3:17; Hdt. i. 183, 6. Here only in N.T.
On the relation between and see Ellicott and Lft. on Gal 1:8; Trench, Syn. v.; Crerner, Lex. p. 547. In MSS. the two words are often confounded. Here A D X have , which Tisch. adopts.
6. . Nom. pendens: comp. Mat 10:14, Mat 10:12:36; Joh 6:39, Joh 6:7:38, Joh 6:15:2, Joh 6:17:2; Act 7:40.
. Days will come: no article. Comp. 5:35, 17:22, 19:43, 23:29.
. A strange prediction to those who had been expecting that the Messianic Kingdom would immediately begin, and that Jerusalem would be the centre of it. Respecting the completeness of the fulfilment of this prediction see Stanley, Sin. & Pal. p. 183; Robinson, Res. in Psa_1. p. 295.
7. Just as Lk. omits the fact that the remark about the glorious buildings was made as Jesus was leaving the temple (ver. 5), so he omits the fact that this question was asked while Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives. Mt. knows that it was the disciples who asked; but the interpreter of Peter knows that Peter, James, John, and Andrew were the enquirers. Both state that the question was asked .
; They accept the prediction without question, and ask as to the date, respecting which Christ gives them no answer: comp. 13:23, 24, 17:20. Perhaps they considered that this temple was to be destroyed to make room for one more worthy of the Kingdom. Their second question, , shows that they expect to live to see the preparatory catastrophe.
8-28. The Prophecy. The Troubles which will follow the Departure of Christ-False Christs, Wars, Persecutions (8-19), The Destruction of Jerusalem (20-24). The Signs of the Return of the Son of Man (25-28). The record of the prediction in Mt. and Mk. is similarly arranged. But in all three records the outlines of the two main events, with their signs, cannot always, be disentangled. Some of the utterances clearly point to the Destruction of Jerusalem; others equally clearly to the Return of the Christ. But there are some which might apply to either or both; and we, who stand between the two, cannot be sure which one, if only one, is intended. In its application to the lives of the hearers each event taught a similar truth, and conveyed a similar warning; and therefore a clearly cut distinction between them was as little needed as an exact statement of date. Some of the early commentators held that the whole of the prophecy refers to the end of the world without including the fall of Jerusalem.
8. . Be led astray? The verb is used nowhere else in Lk. It implies no mere mistake, but fundamental departure from the truth: Joh 7:47; 1Jn 1:8, 1Jn 1:2:26, 1Jn 1:3:7; Rev 2:20, Rev 12:9, Rev 20:3-10, etc. Deceive (AV.) would rather be (Jam 1:26: comp. 1Co 3:18; Gal 6:3).
. Christs name will be the basis of their claim. We know of no false Messiahs between the Ascension and the fall of Jerusalem. Theudas (Act 5:36), Simon Magus (Act 8:9), the Egyptian (Act 21:38) do not seem to have come forward as Messiahs. Dositheus, Simon Magus, and Menander might be counted among the many antichrists of 1Jn 2:18, but not as false Christs. We seem, therefore, at the outset to have a sign which refers rather to Christs return than to the destruction of Jerusalem.
9. Comp. 1Co 14:33; 2Co 6:5, 2Co 6:12:20; Jam 3:16; Pro 26:28; Tob, 4:13. In Josephus we have abundant evidence of such things. Tacitus says of this period-opimum casibus, atrox prliis, discors seditionibus, ips etiam pace svum. Quatuor Principes ferro interempti. Trina bella civilia, plura externa ac plerumque permixta (Hist. i. 2, I).-. only here and 24:37: Mt. and Mk. have .
. It is so ordered by God: Comp. 13:33, 17:25, 19:5, 24:7, 26, 44.
. First, with emphasis: Not immediately is the end. For by-and-by as a translation of see on 17:7. By is not meant (comp. Mat 24:8), but (1Pe 4:7), the end of the world and the coming of the Son of Man.
10. A new introduction to mark a solemn utterance, The with is unusual; but that does not make the combination of with (Beza, Casaubon, Hahn) probable,
D, Syr-Cur. Syr-Sin. a d e ff2 i l r omit the words.
. Only here and in the parallel use of found in N.T. Comp, [] (Isa 19:2).
11. After describing the general political disturbances which shall precede the end, Jesus mentions four disturbances of nature which shall also form a prelude: earthquakes, famines, pestilences, and terrible phenomena in the heaven. Lk. alone mentions the (elsewhere in a metaphorical sense: Act 24:5; Pro 21:24; Psa 1:1; Psa_1 Mac. 15:21). Lk. alone also mentions the . On the prodigies which preceded the capture of Jerusalem see Jos. B. J. 6:5, 3; Tac. Hist. v. 13.
According to the better text ( B L, Aegyptt. Arm. Aeth.) belongs to , not (as in Mk.) to (A D, Latt.).Syr-Sin. has in divers places with both. Many authorities ( A D L, de Boh.) have . . For the paronomasia comp. (Act 17:25); (Act 8:30); (Heb 5:8); in (Phm 1:20); (Rom 11:17). Some Latin, Syriac, and Aethiopic authorities here insert et hiemes (tempestates), probably from an extraneous source written or oral (WH. 2. App. p. 63). Comp. the addition of in Mar 13:8. And as regards the terrors generally comp. 4 Esdr. v. 4-10.
12-19. Calamities specially affecting the Disciples; Persecution and Treachery. While Lk. and Mk. emphasize the persecution that will come from the Jews, Mt. seems almost to confine it to the Gentiles (but see Mat 10:17-19). Jn. also records that Christ foretold persecution (15:18-21), and in particular from the Jews (16:2, 3). The Acts may supply abundant illustrations. Note that Lk. has nothing about the Gospel being preached to all, the nations (Mar 13:10; Mat 24:14). Would he have omitted this, if either of those documents was before him ?
12. . The prep. is certainly used of time, and of superiority in magnitude. Persecutions are among the first things to be expected. The tendency of Mt. to slur the misdeeds of the Jews is conspicuous here. While Lk. mentions and Mk. adds , Mt. has the vague term .
13. . The result to you will be that your sufferings will be for a testimony. A testimony to what? Not to the innocence of the persecuted, which is not the point: and they were commonly condemned as guilty. Possibly to their loyalty: comp. Php 1:19. More probably to the truth of the Gospel. For the verb comp. Job 13:16; Job_2 Mac. 9:24.
14. . The regular word for conning over a speech: here only in N.T. Mk. has the less classical . Comp. Mat 10:20, and see on 12:11. Hahn would make the word mean anxiety about the result of the defence.
15. . With emphasis: all of that will be My care. In the parallel assurances in Mat 10:20 and Mar 13:11 it is the help of the Holy Spirit that is promised. In form this verse is peculiar to Lk. By is meant the power of speech; by the choice of matter and form. Comp. (Exo 4:12), and (Jer 1:9).
. This refers to (Act 6:10) as to . Their opponents will find no words in which to answer, and will be unable to refute what the disciples have advanced. Vos ad certamen acceditis, sed ego prlior. Vos verba editis, sed ego sum qui loquor (Bede). Quid sapientius et incontradicbilius confessione simplici et exserta in martyris nomine cum Deo invalescentis (Tert. Adv. Marc. 4:39, 20). Holtzmann would have it that these verses (12-15) are the composition of the Evangelist with definite reference to the sufferings of S. Paul and S. Stephen.
16. . Even by parents (RV.) rather than both by ants (AV.). Cov. also has even. Comp. 12:52, 53; Mat 10:35 for similar predictions of discord in families to be produced by the Gospel.
. This verb is in all three accounts. It cannot be watered down to mean put in danger of death (Volkmar): ver. 18 does not require this evasion. Comp. (Mat 23:34) and (Luk 9:49). Here naturally means some of you Apostles. Three of the four who heard these words-James, Peter, and Andrew-suffered a martyrs death.
17. . This verse is found in the same form in all three, excepting that Mt. inserts after , which is in harmony with his omitting synagogues as centres of persecution (24:9). For the paraphrastic future see on 1:20.
18. . Peculiar to Lk. This proverbial expression of great security must here be understood spiritually; for it has just been declared (ver. 16) that some will be put to death. Your souls will be absolutely safe; your eternal welfare shall in nowise suffer (Mey. Weiss, Nsg.). Joh 10:28 is in substance closely parallel. This is more satisfactory than to take it literally and supply sine prmio, ante tempus (Beng.); or supply from Mat 10:29 (Hahn). The proverb is used of physical preservation, Act 27:34; 1Sa 14:45; 2Sa 14:11; 1Ki 1:52.
19. . In your endurance of suffering without giving way; whereas is patience of injuries without paying back. See Trench, Syn. liii.; Lft. on Col 1:11, Col 1:3:12; Wsctt on Heb 6:12. The Latin Versions often confuse the two words.
Here we have patientia (e f ff2 i q r s Vulg.), tolerantia (a), sufferentia (d). These three translations are found also 8:15. In no other Gospel does occur; and in no Gospel does occur.
. Ye shall win your souls, or your lives. This confirms the interpretation given above of ver. 18. There the loss of eternal salvation is spoken of as death. Here the gaining of it is called winning ones life. See on 9:25 and 17:33 In Mt. (24:13, 10:22) and Mk. (13:13) this saying is represented by He that endureth () to the end, the same shall be saved. Neither Lk. nor Jn. use in this sense.
The reading is uncertain as regards the verb. A B some cursives, Latt. Syr. Arm. Aeth. and best MSS. of Bob., Tert. Orig. support , which is adopted by Treg. WH. RV. and Weiss; while D L R X G D etc., some MSS. of Bob., Const-Apost Bas. support , which is adopted by Tisch. Neither reading justifies possess your souls, a meaning confined to the perf. Cov. has holde fast but nearly all others have possess, following in verb, though not in tense, the possidebitis of Vulg. Other Lat. texts have adquiretis (c ff2 l) or adquirite (d i). See last now on 18:12.
20-24. The Destruction of Jerusalem.
20. . Being compassed: when the process was completed it would be too late; comp. Heb 11:30. No English Version preserves this distinction: but Vulg. has videritis circumdari, not circumdatam. (a e). Instead of this Mt. and Mk. have the abomination of desolation, etc.
. The word is freq. in LXX, but in N.T. occurs only here and the parallels. The disciples had been expecting an immediate glorification of Jerusalem as the seat of the Messianic Kingdom. It is the desolation of Jerusalem that is really near at hand.
21. . Verbatim the same in all three. What follows, to the end of ver. 22, is peculiar to Lk. By the mountains is meant the mountainous parts of Juda: but (see on 8:7) refers, like , not to Juda, but to Jerusalem.
Land-estates (12:16), country as opposed to the town. See Blass on Act 8:2. The Jews who fled from the country into Jerusalem for safety greatly increased the miseries of the siege. It is probably to this prophecy that Eusebius refers when he speaks of the people of the Church in Jerusalem being commanded to leave and dwell in a city of Pera called Pella, in accordance with a certain oracle which was uttered before the war to the approved men there by way of revelation (H. E. 3:5, 3). The flight to Pella illustrates the prophecy; but we need not confine so general a warning to a single incident. It is important to note that the wording of the warning as recorded here has not been altered to suit this incident. Marcion omitted vv. 18, 21, 22.
Vulg. and Lat. Vet. are misleading in translating it in regionibus The Frag. Ambrosiana (s) give more rightly in agris. See old. Latin Biblical texts, 2. p, 88.
22. . Comp. LXX of Deu 32:35; Hos 9:7; Ecclus. 5:9. In what follows note the characteristic construction, and verb, and adjective. There is an abundance of such utterances throughout the O.T. Lev 26:31-33; Deu 28:49-57; 1Ki 9:6-9; Mic 3:12; Zec 11:6; Dan 9:26, Dan 9:27. The famous passage in Eus. H. E. 2:23, 20should be compared, in which (like Origen before him) he quotes as from Josephus words which are in no MS. of Josephus which is extant: These things happened to the Jews to avenge ( ) James the Just, who was a brother of Jesus, that is called the Christ. For the Jews slew him, although he was a very just man.
23. . Verbatim the same in all three. For Mt. and Mk. have In Job 15:24 we have : comp. Job 7:11, Job 18:14, Job 20:22. In class. Grk. rarely means distress, a meaning common in bibl. Grk. (1Co 7:26; 1Th 3:7; 2Co 6:4, 2Co 6:12:10; Psa 106:6, Psa 106:13, Psa 106:19, Psa 106:28; Ps. Son 5:8). See small print on ver. 25. The meaning of is determined by . The latter means the Jews, and therefore the former means Palestine (AV. RV.) and not the earth (Weiss). For the Divine comp. 1 Mac. 1:64, Mal 1:2:49; Mal_2 Mac. 5:20; PS. Sol. 2:26, 17:14. The is provoked by the people qui tantam gratiam clestem spreverit (Beng.).
24. . This verse and the last words of Ver. 23 are peculiar to Lk. Note the characteristic , periphrastic future, and . The often repeated assertion of Josephus, that 1,100,000 perished in the siege and 97,000 were carried into captivity (B. J. 6:9, 3) is quite incredible: they could not have found standing-ground within the walls. The sexcenta millia of Tacitus (Hist. v. 13, 4), if taken literally, is far too many for the number of those besieged: but sexcenti need not mean more than very many. Perhaps 70,000 is an ample estimate.
The phrase occurs Gen 24:26; Gen 10:28; , 6:21, 8:24; , Jos 10:30, Jos 10:32, Jos 10:35, Jos 10:37, Jos 10:39. The plur. is found Heb 11:34 In the best MSS. substantives in form gen. and dat. in and (WH, 2. App. p. 156).
. See on 1:20, and see also Burton., 71.Plus sonat quam (Beng.): it expresses the permanent condition, la domination crasante (Godet). Comp. the LXX of Zec 12:3, .1 Jerusalem has more often been under the feet of Gentiles than in the hands of Christians. Romans, Saracens, Persians, and Turks have all trampled upon her in turn.
The Latin Versions vary much: erit calcata (d) erit incalcata (e), erit in concalcation (a), concalcabitur (r), calcabitur (Vulg.).
. See on 2:20: is possibly correct Rom 11:25; Heb 3:13.
. As stated already, the whole of this verse is peculiar to Lk., and some have supposed that the last part of it is in addition made by him. It is not necessary to charge him with any such licence; although it is possible that oral tradition has here, as elsewhere, paraphrased and condensed what was said. The seasons of the Gentiles or opportunities of the Gentiles cannot be interpreted with certainty. Either (1) Seasons for executing the Divine judgments; or (2) for lording it over Israel; or (3) for existing as Gentiles; or (4) for themselves becoming subject to Divine judgments; or (5) opportunities of turning to God; or (6) of possessing the privileges which the Jews had forfeited. The first and last are best, and they are not mutually exclusive. Comp. (Rom 11:25), where the whole section is a comment on the promise that the punishment of Israel has a limit. The plur. corresponds with the plur. : each nation has its but comp. (Tob. 14:5), where the whole passage should be compared with this.
25-28. The Signs of the Second Advent. Lk. here omits what is said about shortening the days and the appearance of impostors (Mat 24:22&-26; Mar 13:20-23). On the latter subject he has already recorded a warning (17:23, 24).
25. . . . In sun and moon and stars. In Mt. and Mk. the three words have the article. All English Versions prior to RV. wrongly insert the article here, Cov. with sun, the rest with all three words. Similar language is common in the Prophets: Isa 13:10; Eze 32:7; Joe 2:10, Joe 3:15: comp. Isa 34:4; Hag 2:6, Hag 2:21, etc. Such expressions indicate the perplexity and distress caused by violent changes: the very sources of light are cut off. To what extent they are to be understood literally cannot be determined: but it is quite out of place to introduce here the thought of Christ as the sun and the Church as the moon, as do Ambr. and Wordsw. ad loc. (Migne, 15:1813). The remainder of this verse and most of the next are peculiar to Lk.
occurs only here and 2Co 2:4 in N.T.; but comp. 8:45, 19:43, 12:50. In LXX it is found Jdg 2:3; Job 30:3; Jer 52:5; Mic 5:1. In Vulg. Jerome carelessly uses pressura both for here and for in ver. 23; although Lat. Vet. distinguishes, with conpressic (a), conflictio (d), conclusio (e), or occursus (f) for , and necessitas (a d e r) or pressura (f) for . See small print on 19:43.
. All English Versions prior to RV. go astray here, but Wic. and Rhem. less than the rest, owing to the Vulgate: in terris Pressura gentium prae confusione sonitus maris et fluctuum. Tertullian is better: in terra angustias nationum obstupescentium velut a sonitu matis fluctuantis (Adv. Marc. 4:39). It is the nations who are in perplexity at the resounding of sea and surge. Figurative language of this kind is common in the Prophets: Isa 28:2, Isa 28:29:6, 30:30; Eze 38:22; Psa 42:7, Psa 55:7, Psa 88:7. See Stanley, Jewish Church, 1. p. 130.
It is uncertain whether is to be accented as from or as from (4:37; Heb 12:19; Act 2:2). See WH. 2. App. p. 158. The reading (D etc.) is a manifest correction: the evidence against it ( A B C L M R X and Versions) is overwhelming. For the gen. after , perplexity because of, Comp, (Hdt. 4:83. 1.). The conjecture is baseless, an gives an inferior meaning.
26. . Fainting, swooning, as Hom. Od. 24:348, rather than expiring, as Thuc. 1:134, 3; Soph. A.j. 1031.
The arescentibus of Lat. Vet. and Vulg. is remarkable; but a has a refrigescentibus and d has deficientium.1 Of these three words refrigescere best represents . But in LXX is used of drying in the sun or air: Num 11:32; 2Sa 17:19. Comp, , (Hom. Il. 11:621): They dried the sweat off their tunics. Rhem. renders arescentibus withering away. Hobart claims both and as medical (pp. 161, 166). But medical writers use of being chilled, not of swooning or expiring. He gives many instances from Galen of (which occurs here and Act 12:11 It only in N.T.) as denoting the expectation of an unfavourable result. For this use of see on 24:41.
. See on 4:5.
. Comp. (Isa 34:4). The verb which Lk. substitutes is one of which he is fond (6:38, 48, 7:24; Act 2:25, Act 4:31, Act 16:26, Act 17:13). By . . is meant, not the Angels (Euthym.), nor the cosmic powers which uphold the heavens (Mey. Oosterz), but the heavenly bodies, the stars (De W. Holtz. Weiss, Hahn): Comp. Isa 40:26; Psa 33:6. Evidently physical existences are meant.
27. . Not till then shall they see. Not : there is perhaps a hint that those present will not live to see this. This verse is in all three: comp. 1Th 4:16; 2Th 1:7, 2Th 1:2:8; Rev 1:8, Rev 19:11-16.
28. This word of comfort is given by Lk. alone. Only here in N.T. is used of being elated after sorrow. Comp. Job 10:15, and contrast Luk 13:2; [Jn.] 8:7, 10. The disciples present are regarded as representatives of believers generally, Only those who witness the signs can actually fulfil this injunction.
. At the Second Advent. Here the word means little more than release or deliverance, without any idea of ransom (). See Sanday on Rom 3:24, Abbott on Eph 1:7, and Wsctt. Heb. pp. 295-297. Comp. Enoch, 51:2.
29-33. The Parable of the Fig Tree. Mat 24:32-35; Mar 13:28-32.
29. . This marks the resumption of the discourse after a pause: comp. 9:5. More often Lk. uses or : 14:12, 20:41, etc. For see on 6:39. Lk. alone makes the addition : see on 6:30 and 7:35. Writing for Gentiles, Lk. preserves words which cover those to whom fig trees are unknown.
30. . Here only without acc. We must understand . In Jos Ant. 4:8, 19 is added: comp. Act 19:33.
. Of your own selves ye recognize: i.e. with out being told. For , -, of the 2nd pers. comp. 12:1, 33, 16:9, 15, 17:3, 14, 22:17, 23:28. It occurs in class. Grk. where no ambiguity is involved.
There is no justification for rendering harvest, which would be (10:2). In N.T. occurs only in this parable.
32. . This cannot well mean anything but the generation living when these words were spoken: 7:31, 11:29-32, 50, 51, 17:25; Mat 11:16, etc. The reference, therefore, is to the destruction of Jerusalem regarded as the type of the end of the world. To make mean the Jewish race, or the generation contemporaneous with the beginning of the signs, is not satisfactory. See on 9:27, where, as here, the coming of the Kingdom of God seems to refer to the destruction of Jerusalem.
33. . Comp. 2Pe 3:10; Heb 1:11, Heb 1:12; Rev 20:11, 21:1; Psa 102:26; Isa 51:6. A time will come when everything material will cease to exist; but Christs words will ever hold good. The prophecy just uttered is specially meant; but all His sayings are included. Comp. (Addit. Esth. 10:5).
. So also in Mar 13:31, but in Mat 24:35 , which A R X etc. read here and A C D X etc. read in Mk. As the subj. is the usual constr, in N.T. after , copyists often corrected the fut. indic. to aor. subj. Comp. Mar 14:31; Mat 15:5; Gal 4:30; Heb 10:17, etc. The Old Latin MSS. used by Jerome seem here to have read transient transient. Our best MSS. of the Vulgate read transibunt transient. Jerome may have forgotten to correct the second transient into transibunt: or he may have wished to mark the difference between and . Cod. Brix. with the Book of Dimma and some other authorities has transibunt prteribunt. See Hermathena, No 19. p. 386.
34-36. Concluding Warning as to the Necessity of Ceaseless Vigilance. Comp. Mat 25:13-15; Mar 13:33-37. The form of this warning differs considerably in the three Gospels. Not many words are common to any two of them; and very few are common to all three. It should be noted that here as elsewhere (10:7 = Tim. 5:18, 24:34 = 1Co_5), Lk. in differing from Mt. and Mk. agrees with S. Paul. Comp. with this 1Th 5:3 See Lft. Epp. p. 72.
34. For see on ver. 30 and 12:1; and for see on 9:32.
. Not surfeiting, but the nausea which follows a debauch: crapula. Here only in bibl. Grk. For this and (Rom 13:13; Gal. v. 21) see Trench, Syn. lxi.; and for the orthography see WH. 2. App. p. 151.
. The adj. occurs 1Co 6:3, 1Co 6:4: but is not found in LXX, nor earlier than Aristotle. Comp. (Philo, Vit. Mo. 3:18).
The remarkable rendering soniis for in Cod. Bezae has long attracted attention, and has been regarded by some as a manifest Gallicism. It is confidently connected with the French soins. But the connexion is not certain. The word may be a form of somniis, and the transition from turbing dreams to perplexities and own would not be difficult, The word occurs once in the St. Gall MS. of the Sortes, and soniari occurs four times. It was therefore a word which was established in use early in the sixth century. Whether it is original in the text of D, or is a later substitution, is much debated. Here other renderings are sollicitudinibus (a e), cogitationibus (b f), curis (Tert. Vulg.). The prevalent Old Latin rendering was sollicitudines (a b d f) both in 8:14 and Mat 13:22 (comp. Mar 4:19); and the translator of Irenus has sollicitudinibus here. see Scrivener, Codex Bezae, pp. 44, 45 Rendel Harris, p. 26; and an excellent review in the Guardian, May 18, 1892, p. 743.
. Here, but not 1Th 5:3 or Wisd. 17:14, this form is best attested. WH. Intr. 309, App. 151. The Latin renderings are repentaneus (a), subitaneus (d e), repentina (f Vulg.).
. This is the one expression which in section is common to all three accounts. Comp. 10:12, 17:31. The day of the Messiahs return is meant.
. According to the best authorities ( B D L, a b c e ff2 1 Boh., Tert.) these words belong to what precedes, and the follows , not . The whole recalls (Isa 24:17). The resemblance between the passages, and the fact that suits the notion of a (noose or lasso), accounts for the transposition of the . Originally () is that which holds fast: Psa 91:3; Pro 7:23; Ecc 9:12. Here most Latin texts have laqueus, but Cod. Palat. has muscipula.
35-36. Note the characteristic repetition of .
35. . Not the land of the Jews only. Possibly indicates that, as at the flood. and at Belshazzars feast, people are sitting at ease, eating and drinking, etc. (17:27): but it need not mean more than inhabiting. Comp. (Jer 25:29). For . . . Comp. 2Sa 18:8. The phrase is Hebraistic.
36. . Comp. Eph 6:18; Heb 13:17; 2Sa 12:21; Psa 126:1; Pro 8:34.
The (A C R, b c ff2. Syrr. Aeth. Arm.) for ( B D, a d e) probably comes from Mat 25:13 and Mar 13:35,
18:1 and 1Th 5:17 are in favour of taking these words with (Wic. Gen. Rhem. AV.) rather than with (Tyn. Cov. Cran. RV.). For similar questions comp. 9:17, 18, 57, 10:18, 9:39, etc.
. This is the reading of B L X 33, Aegyptt. Aeth. and is adopted by the best editors. It properly means prevail against. (Mat 16:18; Jer 15:18; 2Ch 8:3; comp. Luk 23:23; Isa 22:4; Wisd. 17:5). The of A C D R, Latt. Syrr. Arm., Tert. perhaps comes from 20:35.
. To hold your place. comp. (Wisd. 5:1). It is clear from 11:18. 18:11, 40, 19:8; Act 2:14, Act 5:20, Act 11:13, Act 17:22, Act 25:18, Act 27:21, etc., that is not to be taken passively of being placed by the Angels (Mat 24:31). Comp. ; (Rev 6:17). For the opposite of see 23:30; Rev 6:16: comp. 1Jn 2:28.
The Apocalypse of Jesus
Hase (Gesch. Jesu, 97). Colani (J. C. et les croyances messianiques de son temps). and others think that Jesus had penetration enough to foresee and predict the destruction of Jerusalem, but they cannot believe that He was such a fanatic as to foretell that He would return in glory and judge the world. Hence they, conclude that these predictions about the Parusia were never uttered by Him Keim sees that Mar 13:32 cannot be an invention (Jes. of Naz. 5. p. 241): in some shape or other Jesus must have foretold His glorious Return. therefore this eschatological discourse is based upon some genuine utterances of Jesus; but has been expanded into an apocalyptic poem with the help of other material. Both Keim and some of those who deny the authenticity of any prediction of Christs Return assume the existence of an apocalypse by some Jewish Christian; as the source from which large portions of this discourse are taken. Weizscker holds that the apocalypse was Jewish, and was taken from a lost section of the Book of Enoch. Weiffenbach. followed by Wendt and Vischer, upholds the theory of a Jewish-Christian original.
But did this spurious apocalypse, the existence of which is pure conjecture. supply Lk. with what he has recorded 11:49-51. 13:23-27, 35, 17:23, 37. 18:8, 19:15, 43, 20:16? Did it supply Mt. with what he has recorded 7:22, 10:23, 19:28, 21:44. 13:7. 25:31, 26:64? Mk. also with the parallels to them passages? That all three derived these utterances from Apostolic tradition is credible. Is it credible that a writing otherwise unknown and by an unknown author should have had such enormous influence? And its influence does not end with the three Evangelists. It has contributed largely to the Epistles of S. Paul. especially to the very earliest of them. Comp. 1Th 2:16, 1Th 2:4:6, 1Th 2:17, 5:1Th 2:1-3;, 2Th 2:1-12. And it would seem to have influenced much of the imagery in Revelation. which foretells wars. famine, pestilence. and persecution (6:4, 5, 8, 9), and the Return of the Saviour accompanied by the armies of heaven (19:11-16). This supposed fictitious apocalypse is assigned to A.D. 68, or thereabouts; and therefore long after the Pauline Epistles were written. Apostolic tradition, which is known to have existed, is a far safer hypothesis. See Godet. ad loc. (2. PP. 430 ff.), whose remarks have been, freely used in this note. See also Briggs, The Messiah of the Gospels, T. & T. Clark. 1894, ch. 4. where this Apocalypse of Jesus is critically discussed, with special reference to the theory of Weiffenbach and others that the assumed Jewish-Christian apocalypse consisted of these three portions:-(a) the , Mar 13:7, Mar 13:8=Mat 24:6-8=Luk 21:9-11; () the , Mar 13:14-20=Mat 24:15-22; () the , Mar 13:24-27=Mat 24:29-31=Luk 21:25-27.Luk 21:1 Briggs points out the insignificance of the fact that ideas such as these are found in Jewish pseudepigrapha. These ideas were by them derived from the O.T.. which was the common source of both canonical and uncanonical apocalypses, whether Jewish or Christian. Jesus uses this source on other occasions, and there is nothing unreasonable in the belief that He uses it here. The cosmical disturbances foretold (vv. 25-27) belong not only to the theophanies and the Christophanies of prophecy, but also to the theophanies and Christophanies of history In both the Old Testament and the New. They represent the response of the creature to the presence of the Creator (p. 155). Both Briggs and Nsgen (Gesch. J. C. Kap. 9.), give abundant references to the literature of the subject in Beyschlag (L.J.), Hilgenfeld (Einl. 1. N.T.), Holsten (die syn. Ev..), Immer (Ntl. Theol.), Mangold in Bleek (Einl. 1. N.T.), Pfleiderer (Urchristen.), Pressens (J.C.) Spitta (die Offbg. des Joh.) and Wendt (Lehre Jesu). See also especially D. E. Haupt (Eschatolog Aussagen Jesu in d. syn. Evang., Berlin, 1895).
37, 38. General Description of the last Days of Christs Public Ministry.
37. . During the days. From the other narratives we infer that this covers the day of the triumphal entry and the next two days. It is, therefore, retrospective, and is a repetition, with additional detail, of 19:47. The contrast with , but during the nights, is obvious. It is not clear whether belongs to or to , which probably ought to follow ( A C D L R X G ) and not precede (B K) .
. Leaving (the temple) He used to go and bivouac on (4:23, 7:1, 9:61, 11:7). Comp. (Tobit 14:10), (Ecclus. 14:26). On the M. of Olives He would be undisturbed (22:39). For see on 6:15, and for see on 19:29. It is not probable that is to taken with , but the participle of motion has influenced the choice of preposition.
38. . Another condensed expression: rose early and came to Him. The verb occurs here only in N.T., but is freq. in LXX. Twice we have the two verbs combined. (Jdg 19:9); (Son 7:11, Son 7:12). The literal meaning is the right one here, although may mean seek eagerly (Ps. 77:34; Ecclus. 4:12, 6:36; Wisd. 6:14). Contrast Psa 127:2; Psa_1 Mac. 4:52, Mal 4:6:33, 11:67; Gospel of Nicodemus xv. The classical form is always used in the literal sense.
Most MSS. of Vulg. here have the strange rendering manicabat ad eum, which is also the rendering in Cod. Brix. (f), the best representative of the Old Latin text on which Jerome worked. But G has mane ibat, which may possibly be Jeromes correction of manicabat, a word of which Augustine says mihi non occurrit. See Rnsch, It. und Vulg. p. 174. Other renderings are-vigilabat ad eum (d), de luce vigilabant ad eum (a), ante lucem veneibat ad eum (e r), diluculo conveniendum erat (Tert.). See on 16:26.
Five cursives (13, 69, 124, 346, 556), which are closely related, here insert the pericope of the Woman taken in Adultery, an arrangement which was perhaps suggested by here and Joh 8:2. The common origin of 13, 69, 124, 346 is regarded as certain. See Scrivener. Int. to Crit. of N.T. i. pp. 192, 202, 231; T.K. Abbott, Collation of Four Important MSS. of the Gospels, Dublin, 1877. The Section was probably known to the scribe exclusively as a church lesson, recently come into use; and placed by him here on account of the close resemblance between vv. 37, 38 and [Jo] 7:53, 8:1, 2. Had he known it as part of a continuous text of St. Johns Gospel. he was not likely to transpose it (WH. ii. App. p. 63).
Vulg. Vulgate.
Beng. Bengel.
A A. Cod. Alexandrinus, sc. v. Once in the Patriarchal Library at Alexandria; sent by Cyril Lucar as a present to Charles 1. in 1628, and now in the British Museum. Complete.
B B. Cod. Vaticanus, sc. 4. In the Vatican Library certainly since 15331 (Batiffol, La Vaticane de Paul 3, etc., p. 86).
G G. Cod. Harleianus, sc. ix. In the British Museum. Contains considerable portions.
. Cod. Sangallensis, sc. ix. In the monastery of St. Gall in Switzerland. Greek and Latin. Contains the whole Gospel.
Cod. Sinaiticus, sc. iv. Brought by Tischendorf from the Convent of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai; now at St. Petersburg. Contains the whole Gospel complete.
Tisch. Tischendorf.
D D. Cod. Bezae, sc. vi. Given by Beza to the University Library at Cambridge 1581. Greek and Latin. Contains the whole Gospel.
X X. Cod. Monacensis, sc. ix. In the University Library at Munich. Contains 1:1-37, 2:19-3:38, 4:21-10:37, 11:1-18:43, 20:46-24:53.
L L. Cod. Regius Parisiensis, sc. viii. National Library at Paris. Contains the whole Gospel.
Orig. Origen.
L. & T. Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah.
V. de J. Vie de Jsus.
Jos. Josephus.
Trench, Trench, New Testament Synonyms.
Sin. Sinaitic.
AV. Authorized Version.
Syr Syriac.
Cur. Curetonian.
Aegyptt. Egyptian.
Arm. Armenian.
Aeth. Ethiopic.
Boh. Bohairic.
WH. Westcott and Hort.
Tert. Tertullian.
RV. Revised Version.
Cov. Coverdale.
Mey. Meyer.
Nsg. Nsgen.
Latt. Latin.
Treg. Tregelles.
R R. Cod. Nitriensis Rescriptus, sc. 8. Brought from a convent in the Nitrian desert about 1847, and now in the British Museum. Contains 1:1-13, 1:69-2:4, 16-27, 4:38-5:5, 5:25-6:8, 18-36, 39, 6:49-7:22, 44, 46, 47, 8:5-15, 8:25-9:1, 12-43, 10:3-16, 11:5-27, 12:4-15, 40-52, 13:26-14:1, 14:12-15:1, 15:13-16:16, 17:21-18:10, 18:22-20:20, 20:33-47, 21:12-22:15, 42-56, 22:71-23:11, 38-51. By a second hand 15:19-21.
Bas. Basil.
Lat. Vet. Vetus Latina.
Eus. Eusebius of Csarea
Burton. Burton, N.T. Moods and Tenses.
1 This use of , I tread, as = , I trample on, is classical: Plat. Phdr. 248 A; Soph. Aj. 1146; Ant. 745; Aristoph. Vesp. 377: The meaning is certainly not shall be inhabited by (Hahn), as in Isa 42:5. Comp. Rev 9:2; PS. Son 7:2, Son 2:2.
Ambr. Ambrose.
Wordsw. Wordsworth (Chr.)
Wic. Wiclif.
Rhem. Rheims (or Douay).
C
C. Cod. Ephraemi Rescriptus, sc. 5. In the National Library at Paris. Contains the following portions of the Gospel: 1:2-2:5, 2:42-3:21, 4:25-6:4, 6:37-7:16, or 17, 8:28-12:3, 19:42-20:27, 21:21-22:19, 23:25-24:7, 24:46-53.
These four MSS. are parts of what were once complete Bibles, and are designated by the same letter throughout the LXX and N.T.
M M. Cod. Campianus, sc. ix. In the National Library at Paris. Contains the whole Gospel.
1 Deficientium hominum a timore: another reproduction of gem abs. in Latin. Comp. 3:15, 9:43, 19:11, 21:5, 24:36, 41.
Euthym. Euthymius Zigabenus.
De W. De Wette.
Wsctt. Westcott.
Lft. J. B. Lightfoot,* Notes on Epistles of S. Paul.
Gen. Geneva.
Tyn. Tyndale.
1 Holtzmann (Handcomm. on Mat 24:4-34, Eng. tr. p. 112) Makes the divisions thus: (a) Mat 24:4-14; () 15-28; () 29-34.
K K. Cod. Cyprius, sc. ix. In the National Library at Paris. Contains the whole Gospel.
Fuente: International Critical Commentary New Testament
Davids Lord Testing Men and Women
Luk 20:41-47; Luk 21:1-4
It was the Masters turn to question. As man, He was Davids descendant and son; as the Son of God, He was his Lord. Though it sealed His doom, our Lord tore the veil from before these hypocrites, that when He had passed, His followers might be warned against these sunken rocks, Jud 1:12.
We note the difference between the false teachers, who devoured widows houses, and the true Leader and Teacher, who set so high a value on a widows gift. Our gifts to God should cost us something, else they are not reckoned in the accounts of eternity. The real value of a gift is to be estimated by what is left behind. Remember that the fragrance and beauty of this act have lasted, while the stones of the Temple have crumbled to dust. Holy deeds are imperishable! Jesus is still sitting by the treasury, watching and estimating our gifts.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Our Lord’s Great Prophetic Discourse — Luk 21:1-24
And He looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And He said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had. And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, He said, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. And they asked Him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass? And He said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them. But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by. Then said He unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for My names sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for My names sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. In your patience possess ye your souls. And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled – Luk 21:1-24.
And He looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. There are two important things which we learn from a consideration of this incident. The first is that our blessed Lord is deeply interested in what we give to God. Sometimes there is a tendency, even on the part of Christians, to belittle the importance of giving; and there is a repugnance to taking up offerings in Christian services, as though it savors too much of worldly commercialism. But we need to remember that all through the history of Gods dealings with His people, He has looked to them to give of their substance for the carrying on of His work. It is a recognition of our discipleship if we bring our offerings to Him from time to time. It was so in Israel of old; it has been so all through the centuries. Our Lord was sitting over against the treasury, taking note of what the people contributed. He is still observant of what His people give to Him; He knows whether or not it is out of love to Him that we give; He knows whether or not those who give do so sacrificially and with real self-denial.
In the second place, we learn from this passage that heavens arithmetic-heavens method of bookkeeping-is altogether different from ours. We generally judge people by the amount of money they give. If a rich man gives a large sum we say he has given much; but if one brings in little we may pay scant attention to it. Gods way of reckoning is quite otherwise. He takes note, not so much of the amount given, as of what is left. A rich man might give thousands and have hundreds of thousands left; another person, in lowly circumstances, might give a very small amount, but because he had very little left for himself it would go down as a large contribution. The Lord Jesus saw the poor widow casting in two mites, a very small sum. Two mites, we are told, amount to a farthing, a very infinitesimal coin, even of less value than a British farthing. Yet Jesus said, Of truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: for all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had. I take it that was her whole days pay. She worked all day and this was all she had for it, and she put it all into the treasury of the Lord. No one giving thus to God ever suffers because of it. God will reimburse him in His own way and time. He will be no ones debtor; He will make it up in some way for whatever we give to Him.
We must next turn to consider Lukes account of our Lords great prophetic discourse: And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts. At that time Jerusalem was a great city, as cities were in the Orient. It was surrounded by a strong wall. Its large buildings were beautiful, particularly the glorious temple on which Herod had spent millions of dollars in his endeavor to make it as grand as the temple of Solomon before that was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzars army. Naturally, the Jews were very proud of the temple and the other buildings; and the apostles evidenced the same spirit as they turned to Jesus and sought to impress Him with their architectural magnificence. But He saw it all with prophetic eyes in a way they could not see. He saw what was going to happen to these buildings. He declared, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down. It must have appeared most unlikely that such words would ever be fulfilled. Yet within the next forty years the great temple and all the other buildings of the city were leveled to the ground. Every prophecy of Scripture either has been or will be fulfilled literally as written or spoken. When the Lord Jesus told His disciples ,of these things to come they were amazed, and they asked Him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass? In order to get His complete answer we need to read the report of this entire discourse as given in the three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew 24, Mark 13, and here in Luke 21. Luke gives an account of the circumstances which should take place before and leading up to the destruction of Jerusalem; Matthew deals particularly with what was to take place afterward, leading on to the second coming of Christ. Luke tells us something of that, but does not give us nearly as full and complete a report as Matthew does. Marks account is very much like that of Matthews, though not quite so full. In the threefold report of these words from the lips of the Lord, we have a remarkable prophecy of the things that will take place after His death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven. The destruction of Jerusalem, the state of the world during all the present age, and the conditions that will prevail in the time of the end-the last unfulfilled seventieth week of Daniel (chapter 9)-and the second advent in glory, are all graphically portrayed. There is nothing here about the Church, the Body of Christ, or the rapture. These were truths yet to be revealed.
And He said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them. History tells us that there were many deceivers who rose up in Israel, making Messianic claims, during the forty years that elapsed after the cross. The true Messiah had been rejected. The greater part of Jerusalem refused to believe that Jesus was the promised One, and so they fell readily under the influence of these false prophets. Jesus gave a general description of conditions that would prevail in the world before Jerusalem met its doom. But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by. By and by is one word in the Greek original, translated into three words, and is generally rendered immediately or forthwith. So what our Lord was saying is this: There will be wars and rumors of wars, but you are not to be disturbed, because these things must happen and will happen, but the end is not yet. It is clear from a careful study of Matthews report that such conditions will prevail until Christ comes back. But He never gives us these things as definite signs of the coming of the end; they are simply the natural result of the rejection of the Prince of Peace.
The better acquainted with history we become, the more we realize how literally fulfilled were the words of our Lord during that forty-year period. Then He said, Before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for My names sake. We need only to read the Book ,of Acts to see how this prophecy had its fulfilment in connection with the early disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. They were persecuted by the Jews in the synagogues and also by the Gentiles; many were put to death for His names sake. The Lord encouraged the disciples by assuring them that they did not need to fear: their foes could not really harm them. At the worst they could but send the disciples home to the Fathers house. Death is not evil for a child of God. They need not fear their adversaries. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. Again we need but to turn to the Book of Acts and read how marvelously Peter, Stephen, and Paul were enabled to make their defence. We realize that the Lord Jesus did give them help by enabling them to speak just the right words at the right time under all circumstances. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for My names sake. In those days people looked with more suspicion upon the Christian Church and individual Christians than upon any other institution or group of people in the world. Believers were thought of as the bitterest enemies of mankind, and yet they were the representatives of the God who so loved men that He gave His only Son to be their Saviour. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. Did they not die? Yes. Did they not perish? No! For the moment that death came they were absent from the body and present with the Lord. So they lost nothing by being killed by their enemies; rather, death ushered them into the joys for which they had waited in hope. In your patience possess ye your souls. Or it might be stated, In patience win your souls: that is, in enduring persecution, in going through suffering for Christs sake they would become stronger disciples. Growth in grace comes in times of persecution and severe trial.
Next He came directly to the question as to when these things should be of which He had spoken. When would Jerusalem be destroyed and its buildings cast down? These events occurred about A.D. 70. He foresaw all this and said, When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed about with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Many who were living when He spoke these words would see the armies of Titus beleaguering the city. Jesus gave instruction to them: Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. Josephus is the authority for the statement that when the Christians saw Jerusalem compassed with armies they remembered the words of the Lord, and they left Jerusalem and fled to the city of Pella, where they were protected by the Roman Government, so that they did not have to endure the judgment that came upon Jerusalem and its guilty people who knew not the time of their visitation.
For these be days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. See how clearly our blessed Lord looked down through the centuries and observed what would take place in connection with Israel, Gods earthly people, and their city, Jerusalem. The city was destroyed. Thousands upon thousands were slaughtered; the most awful condition imaginable prevailed in Jerusalem during the time of the Roman siege. And when at last the armies of Titus entered the city-although he, himself, gave the command that the temple was not to be destroyed-we are told by Josephus that a drunken soldier flung a lighted torch into the temple area and within a little while the temple burst into flames, and it was destroyed completely. Today where that temple once stood there is a mosque; where the smoke of sacrifice once ascended to Jehohah, Mohammedans meet to join in the praise of their false prophet.
Those of the Jews who were not destroyed were led away captives into all nations. Moses long before had predicted that they should be sold into slavery to the Gentiles, until no man shall buy you (Deu 28:68); and history tells us that many thousands of Jews were thus sold. The slave-markets of the world were glutted; and strong able-bodied Jewish men were offered for sale in the great cities of the Roman Empire, in Alexandria, Corinth, Rome itself, and other cities, at prices so low that it was almost impossible to make a profit on them.
Jesus declared, Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled. Notice, there is a limit to Jerusalems degradation. The city shall not be trodden down forever; but just until the times of the Gentiles be completed. The expression the times of the Gentiles, found only here, covers the entire period during which the Jews-Jerusalem and the land of Palestine-are under Gentile domination. This began with Nebuchadnezzar, about 606 B.C. It will go on until the Lord Jesus comes again to deliver His earthly election, at the close of the great tribulation. Meantime, the truth of the Church as the Body of Christ has been revealed; and while Israel is rejected nationally and their holy city dominated by the Gentiles, God is taking out from Jew and Gentile a people for His name. These constitute the Church of God, the fellowship of His Son, and must be removed from the earth ere the time of Jacobs trouble, the great tribulation, begins.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Luk 21:13
The Testimony of Life.
The power and the will to sacrifice self is, after all, the grandest assurance of immortality. The things most essential to the being are those which we set about proving after, and not before, we believe. No man’s belief in God rests on a demonstration. No man builds a scheme of life on the proof of the doctrine of immortality. A Divine something within moves him to live a life of which immortality is the only possible explanation.
I. The question has been often discussed, why belief in immortality plays so slight a part in the doctrinal system of the Jewish Church. It seems at first sight incredible that a legislator, so far-sighted and profound as Moses, should have overlooked so tremendous a means of influence as the idea of eternal rewards and punishments would afford. The true explanation is, I believe, a very simple one, and lies close at hand. It was because of the entire healthiness of their belief in it that they said so little about it, and made so little of it as an instrument of influence on men. This separation of the two worlds, as if they had different interests, which may possibly oppose or balance each other, is the sign of a by no means healthy spiritual state.
II. But when we are asked to believe that the horizon of sense and of time bounded the vision of these grand old heroes of the faith, we remind ourselves how they lived, and what they wrought, and ask ourselves how much such deeds, such lives involve. It is sheer idleness to ask us to believe that eternity meant less to these men than it means to us in our easy, luxurious, self-glorifying days. We know there is but one explanation of such lives, such deaths. They “endured as seeing Him who is invisible.”
III. “But it shall turn to them for a testimony.” The light of their lives shall shine through their forms, and reveal the inner glory in eternity. This is the eternal recompense, revelation-the revelation of the Christlike spirit in a world where to be Christlike is to be glorious and blessed; where the scars of battle are marks of honour, and the martyr’s brow is anointed like Christ’s with the oil of joy and gladness through eternity.
J. Baldwin Brown, The Sunday Afternoon, p. 124.
Reference: Luk 21:13.-J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 458.
Luk 21:19
Or, as it may rather be termed, “By your endurance ye shall gain possession of your lives, ye shall secure yourselves from perils of bodily harm and death.” It is also, “Ye shall save your souls,” and bring your spiritual life safely through the coming troubles; though the physical salvation is more prominent in the passage.
I. There was always in the converts of Jerusalem, a strong temptation to relapse into Judaism; and in those disturbed times which preceded the fall, any man with the Jewish blood in his veins, with the traditional Jewish temper, the ancestral beliefs, the intense love for his nation and people, must have been hard beset. Why should he, too, not choose the heroic part; and cast in his lot with the defenders of the sacred walls? Why not with his dying body make a rampart against the on-pressing Romans, rather than slip away in cowardly desertion, like a traitor, leaving the glorious city to perish as it might. All patriotic instincts, all that the Jew most cherished, must have drawn the convert in that direction; it was a sore trial to have to make this choice between the Old Testament and the New. It was by endurance and self-denial that these Jewish Christians succeeded in overcoming the danger besetting them at every turn. They endured to the end; they learnt by patience to get a broader and wiser view of the true position and relation of the faith of their adoption. The sneers of the unconverted Jews, the sense that they had lost their patriotic standing-ground, the oppression and sword of their Roman masters-these were the bitter draughts which refreshed their souls, and nerved them for independence in a larger sphere of life. By these, they not only saved their souls, but ennobled their views and aims, till they were able to enter fully into the new conditions of the Faith of Christ; and thereby take an active part in the outward movements of a Missionary Church.
II. Age after age have the conditions of the world’s advance called men to display something of the same firmness, endurance, and patience. Each change of time has seemed to bring with it the end, and at each successive crisis have been heard the same appeals to heaven, the same despair of earth, the same assurances that the world’s end was come. And yet to those who had patience, and could endure, the evil time has always passed away, leaving the face of Heaven once more serene; and men have found themselves living in a fresh air of hope, with expanded vision, and larger powers for good. The true Christian calling, as the Apostle has it, is to “try all things,” to “hold fast that which is good,” to criticise, to select, to know the evil from the good, and choose aright. That is the real business for which God has sent us into the world and set us in this place, and a system of organised protection for our opinions, be they never so holy, or never so true, is but a mean way of fitting out a young man for the difficulties and dangers of his coming life, when he must take up his staff and make his way through the world. For this our faith must be robust, as well as pure; manly and fearless, as of those who endure as seeing Him that is invisible. It is not enough, to say, “Let us live the devoted, self-denying life, which befits the humble followers of Christ, and leave aside all that distresses or distracts.” We have a higher duty than this. The nobler our idea of the Divine nature, the higher we rate our Christian privileges-the better our lives, the more we shall desire to testify of those things before the world of unbelief. If to our souls the revelation of Jesus Christ provides solutions for admitted ills; if it can comfort our aching hearts in sorrow, and stir us to noble acts in danger; if it weds the ideal to the commonplace, and draws man ever from himself, then, surely, we need not be afraid to be left face to face with the materialist or the sceptic. There is in the Gospel a spiritual power which bears the pilgrims safely through the waterfloods; we may tremble and be perplexed, yet we will not fail nor fall. “If God be with me, I will not fear what man can do unto me.” So to us, as to the Jewish Christians to whom the Lord spoke of patience, the darkest crisis will not be fatal, frightful though it may be; but from the wrecks of the past we, too, shall emerge, strong in endurance, possessing our souls, ready for a larger future of faithful works.
G. W. Kitchin, Oxford and Cambridge Journal, March 1st, 1877.
Luk 21:19 (R.V.)
Making for Ourselves Souls.
The Revised Translation restores this word of Jesus to it original force. The Lord did not bid His disciples simply to possess their souls in patience. He told them that through endurance they were to win their souls. Souls, then, are for us to win. Literally, the word used by Jesus means, “Procure for yourselves souls.” Life is to be to us, in some sense, an acquisition of soul. We usually think of human souls as so many ready-made products of nature bestowed on us at birth, so many receptacles for life of different sizes; and we are to fill them up with experience and education as best we can, as bees fill their hives. But Jesus used of the souls of His disciples a word of purchase and acquisition. In some real sense a true life will be an acquisition of soul. Its daily ambition may be-more soul and better. In what ways are we to set about procuring for ourselves souls?
I. The first thing for us to do is the thing which these men had already done to whom Jesus gave this promise that they should win their souls. They counted not the cost; they obeyed when they found themselves commanded by God in Christ. The promise, “Ye shall win your souls,” was addressed to men who had surrendered themselves wholly to that which they had seen and knew of God. It was a pledge of soul made to men who had the wills of disciples. The first step in the way of acquiring our souls is the decision of discipleship.
II. We are to acquire soul by living now with all the soul we do have. If we are to win souls from life, we must put our whole souls into life, but the trouble with us is, that we often do not: we live half-hearted, and with a certain reserve, often of ourselves from our everyday life in the world. But you remember how Jesus insisted that His disciples should serve God and love man with all their souls and with all their strength. The way to gain more soul and better is to live freely and heartily with all the soul we do have. “In your patience ye shall win your souls.” God gives to common people this opportunity of winning on earth souls large enough-good enough to appreciate by and by what heaven is. Patience may be the making of a soul. That regiment of men is held all the morning waiting under fire. They broke camp with enthusiasm enough-to sweep them up to any line of flame. But they are held still through long hours. They might show splendid courage in action, but the orders are to stand. Only to stand still under fire! But that day of endurance is enough to make a veteran of the recruit of yesterday. The discipline of waiting under life’s fire makes veteran souls. Through the habit of endurance God trains often His best souls. If you keep up heart in your life of trial, by that patience what a soul for God’s kingdom may be won!
N. Smyth, The Reality of Faith, p. 135.
References: Luk 21:23.-S. Greg, A Layman’s Legacy, p. 168. Luk 21:24.-E. Cooper, Practical Sermons, vol. ii., p. 127. Luk 21:25-33.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 472; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 290. Luk 21:27.-Ibid., vol. v., p. 31. Luk 21:28.-J. Keble, Sermons from Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 300; Parker, Christian Commonwealth, vol. vi., p. 479. Luke 21-F. D. Maurice, The Gospel of the Kingdom, p. 312; C. Kingsley, Westminster Sermons, p. 109; E. Thring, Church of England Pulpit, vol. xiv., p. 149.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 21
1. The Widows Mite. (Luk 21:1-4)
2. The Destruction of the Temple Predicted. (Luk 21:5-6)
3. The Disciples Question Concerning the Future. (Luk 21:7)
4. Things to Come. (Luk 21:8-19)
5. The Destruction of Jerusalem and the World-wide Dispersion of Israel. (Luk 21:20-24)
6. The Return of the Lord with Power and Great Glory. (Luk 21:25-28)
7. The Fig Tree and Warnings. (Luk 21:29-38.)
This entire chapter with the exception of the incident of the widows mite is prophetic. Lukes account however differs in many ways from the account given of the prophetic Olivet discourse in Matthew and also that in Mark. Matthew gives the Olivet discourse in its completest form. (See Mat 24:1-51; Mat 25:1-46.) He reports what the Lord had to say concerning the end of the age, the great tribulation, which concerns the Jewish believers living at that time; then in three parables He revealed the moral conditions existing in Christendom and how He will deal with them and finally He revealed, as reported by Matthew, the judgment of the Gentile nations.
The characteristic feature of Lukes report is that he has little to say about the details of the end of the age, such as the great tribulation and what will take place during that period of time (Mat 24:4-42). Instead of this he was led by the Spirit of God to record in the fullest way what our Lord had said concerning the fall of Jerusalem, the fate of Jerusalem, the dispersion of the nation and the duration of all this. The Lord announced that Jerusalem would be compassed by armies and that days of vengeance would come. (Luk 21:20-23.) There would then be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people.
This great prophecy was fulfilled in the year 70 A.D., when the Romans besieged Jerusalem and a million perished, besides 100,000 who were made slaves. It is one of the most awful pages in human history. So has Luk 21:24 been fulfilled. The Jewish nation has been scattered among all the nations; Jerusalem has been trodden down by the Gentiles and is still in that state. But the times of the Gentiles will be fulfilled in the future and when that comes, deliverance and restoration for Jerusalem and the nation are promised. Luke significantly tells us about the fig tree, and all the trees. (Luk 21:29.) They are to shoot forth and that would be a sign of His Return. The fig tree is Israel. Who are the other trees? Other nations, who are to see a revival before the Lord comes, such as the centers of the Roman empire, Italy, Greece and Egypt. Israel and these other nations indeed shoot forth; from this we are to learn that great events in connection with the Kingdom of God are at hand. May we also heed the warnings with which this chapter closes.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Chapter 37
Lessons For Troublesome Times
We are living in troublesome times. These are perilous days. These are difficult days for everyone. But they are particularly difficult for people who believe God and seek, in all things and above all things, to honour him. I know that your minds are constantly full of questions, for which there seems to be no answer. Moral decadence, fornication, adultery, homosexuality, and the paedophilia that it spawns are not just tolerated, but actively promoted in our public schools and by law. The brutal slaughter of unborn babies is as common as the removal of warts. By some perverse logic, the same people who want to protect rattlesnakes from extinction and weep over the misuse of laboratory rats, tell us that the murder of a baby is a matter of choice! Domestic violence is epidemic. War is an everyday activity. And the religion of the day is nothing short of men worshipping themselves. When I think about these things, three passages of scripture come to my mind (Deu 31:17; Psa 10:4; Gal 6:7).
Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? (Deu 31:17).
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts (Psa 10:4).
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap (Gal 6:7).
How do we deal with these things? How are we to react to the things going on around us every day? Where are we to find help for our souls in these perilous times? In the first 24 verses of Luke 21 our blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, gives us some needed lessons for troublesome times. Let us look at them together.
Christ Sees All
Here is the first lesson. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, he with whom we have to do, sees all and knows all.
And he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites. And he said, Of a truth I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast in more than they all: For all these have of their abundance cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had (Luk 21:1-4).
How keenly our Lord Jesus Christ observes the things that are done upon earth. We read that he looked up and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.
It would seem reasonable to me that our Lords mind would have been on other things. His betrayal, his unjust arrest, his mock trial, his crucifixion, his sufferings, and his death, were all at hand; and he knew it. The destruction of the temple at Jerusalem, and the casting away of Israel, the long period of this gospel age, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, and his glorious second advent were all spread before his mind like a great picture. Yet, he took notice of the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And he saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.
Truly, he sees all and knows all. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do (Heb 4:13). The eyes of the Lord are in every place (Pro 15:3). Nothing escapes his observation. Every act and thought of every person is written down in the book of his remembrance. The same eye that sees the council-chambers of the mighty observes all that goes on in your house and mine. He observed the pompous show of these rich men. And he observed the great sacrifice of the poor widow. He observed not only what they did, but also why.
Yes, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, he with whom we have to do, sees all and knows all! To religious hypocrites, that fact is terrifying, and ought to be. To the believer, it is blessedly comforting (Joh 21:17).
Marked For Destruction
Here is the second lesson. Everything on this earth is marked for destruction.
And as some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts, he said, As for these things which ye behold, the days will come, in the which there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down (Luk 21:5-6).
These words were a striking prophecy. How strange and startling they must have sounded to those who heard them. The temple at Jerusalem was utterly destroyed just a few years after these words were spoken. Soon, all earthly buildings and all earthly things, no matter how firm they appear to be, no matter how much they are prized and treasured by us, shall melt with a fervent heat and be destroyed. Hold nothing here with a firm hand. Value nothing on this earth more than you will value it when you die (2Co 4:17 to 2Co 5:9).
Our Lord was talking about the temple of God. It was a fabulous piece of architecture. To the Jews, the thought of it being destroyed was incomprehensible. They looked upon that building with idolatrous veneration. It was built according to the pattern given by God himself. David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Josiah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezra, Haggai, Zechariah, and Nehemiah were the venerated names associated with that building. Every devout Jew in every corner of the world prayed toward the temple daily.
But the temple was to be destroyed by the hand of God. The temple at Jerusalem, though once the place of Gods manifest glory, though once the place where God met with men, though once the place where men and women drew near to and worshipped the triune God, had become an empty shell, a den of thieves, and a synagogue of Satan. That which was once the house of God had become the brothel of Babylon, and must be destroyed. So it shall be with every local church, every form of religion, and every person who abandons the gospel of Christ and the worship of God. When Babylon falls, all who sleep in her bed shall fall with her. When the world is ablaze with Divine judgment, all false religion shall be burned as wood, hay, and stubble.
The true temple of God is not a building, or a system of religion, but the broken and contrite heart of poor sinners trusting his Son (Joh 4:23-24; Php 3:3).
False Christs
And they asked him, saying, Master, but when shall these things be? and what sign will there be when these things shall come to pass? And he said, Take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go ye not therefore after them (Luk 21:7-8).
Everyone wants to know when the end of the world will be, when Christ shall come again, and when the great Day of Judgment shall come. But our Lord Jesus completely passes over the questions asked in verse seven, because all such questions are totally unimportant. They are questions to which no answer can be found, because God has hidden the answer. Our Master refused to indulge their vain curiosity about prophecy. We would be wise to do the same.
Instead, he addressed himself to a matter that ought to be of great concern to us all. Here is the third lesson. Many false christs are in the world, by whom multitudes are deceived. I am not interested in the many men who appeared in the years following our Lords crucifixion who claimed to be the Christ. They are of no danger to us today. But there are many false christs being preached in the name of the true, just as there were in the days of the Apostles (2Co 11:3-4; Gal 1:6-9; 1Jn 4:1-3). Of these false christs, we must beware.
I urge you to give earnest heed to the words of the Son of God.
Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many … For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elects sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect (Mat 24:4-5; Mat 24:21-24).
The plain fact is there are many false christs, many antichrists, by whom the souls of men are deceived and damned. I want to be as charitable, kind, and gracious as I can; but charity, kindness, and grace will not allow me to be silent while immortal souls are deceived and Gods glory is trampled beneath the feet of men. If you trust a false christ, you cannot be saved any more than you could be saved by trusting a tadpole. We are called of God to trust, love, follow, and obey the true Christ and him only. Salvation is promised to none but those who trust the true Christ. Therefore, we are warned in our text to Take heed that no man deceive you. We must take heed to the teachings of holy scripture, lest we be deceived by some false christ.
We know about the christ of the liberals. He was a social do-gooder. Of course, we are told, he is not God. The virgin birth, the incarnation, the resurrection are all things that must be understood allegorically. In fact, theChrist of the liberals is considered by many to be a man of very questionable moral character. Any who are deceived by liberal theology and the christ of the liberals are willingly deceived. We are not deceived by the christ of the liberals. Only a prating fool would pretend to be a Christian while teaching what liberals do concerning Christ. The christ of the liberals is a false christ. All who trust the christ of the liberals are lost.
We also know about the christ of the various cults. He is represented to us as a good man, a prophet, a teacher of morality, the first and greatest creation of God, or even a sort of secondary god. But the christ of the cults is never represented as the true and eternal God. Their christ receives his existence from another god, one who is greater than he is. This, of course, is not the Christ of the Bible. We are not deceived by him. The christ of the cults is a false christ. All who trust the christ of the cults are lost.
We know about the christ of Roman Catholicism. The papists profess that Jesus Christ is God, that he came into the world as a man, that he suffered the wrath of God as a substitute for sinners, that he died, was buried, rose again the third day, ascended back to heaven, and that he is coming again. But the christ of Romanism is not a complete Saviour. The christ of Rome cannot save sinners without their own good works, the intercessions of priests, and the sacraments of the church. The christ of Rome is not the Christ of the Bible. We are not deceived by him. Though many are damned by the darkness of Roman Catholic idolatry, that is not a danger and deception by which any who read these lines are likely to be deceived. The christ of the papists, we know, is a false christ. All who trust the christ of Rome are lost.
However, there is a false christ much more dangerous than the antichrists of the liberals, the cults, and the papists. There is a false christ by whom the souls of men have been deceived for years, by whom millions are being deceived today. In fact, I am compelled to say, the vast majority of those who profess faith in Christ are followers of this false christ who will ultimately lead them to eternal ruin. This christ, this antichrist is such a dangerous and deceptive christ, that our Lord tells us he would deceive the very elect were it not impossible for Gods elect to be deceived (Mat 24:24). He must be identified. The christ I speak of is the christ of Arminian, freewill, works religion.
Few think that I am uncharitable when I denounce the false christs of liberals, cults, and papists as antichrists, and warn men that following those false christs will result in everlasting damnation. Yet, whenever I assert that the christ of Arminian, freewill, works religion is a false christ and that all who trust him are lost, I am castigated as an evil man. Be that as it may, as a watchman upon the walls of Zion, I am responsible to warn you of the danger of this antichrist.
The christ of Arminian, freewill, works religion is extremely dangerous, because in many ways he appears to be the true Christ. The freewillers and workmongers of this age tell us that Christ is the true God, in every way equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. They even assert that he saves by grace alone, without the works of man. They insist vehemently that good works play no part in their salvation. The devotees of this christ will have nothing to do with the christ of the liberals, the cults, or the papists. But take heed that no man deceive you! Do not be fooled. The christ of Arminian, freewill, works religion is not the Christ of the Bible. He is a false christ. All who trust this false christ are lost, too.
Be sure you understand the issue. The issue is not what or how much does a person have to know to be saved. The issue is who. Who must I know? The answer to that question is plainly stated in Joh 17:3. We must know the true God and the true Christ. Let me make five comparisons of the false christ of modern religion, the christ of Arminian, freewill, works religion, with the Christ of the Bible. When you have considered these five comparisons in the light of holy scripture, I have no doubt that you will see the obvious distinctions between the false christs and the true.
1. The christ of modern, freewill, works religion loves everyone in the universe and wants to save them.
We are told that Christ loves all men alike, desires the salvation of all men alike, and is gracious to all men alike. That makes the love, will, and grace of Christ helpless and useless. However, that language cannot be applied to the Christ of the Bible. The true Christ, the Christ of the Bible, the saving Christ loves his people, wills and prays for the salvation of his people, and is gracious to his people, the people unconditionally chosen unto salvation from eternity, whom he came to save (Psa 5:5; Psa 7:11; Psa 11:5; Mat 1:21; Mat 11:27; Joh 10:16; Joh 17:9-10; Act 13:48; Rom 9:21-24; Eph 1:3-6).
2. The christ of modern, freewill, works religion tries to save everyone.
We are told that he offers salvation to every sinner and does everything he can to save them all; but that his offer is rejected and his work is frustrated by the will of those who refuse to come to him and be saved. The Christ of the Bible does not merely offer salvation. He performs it! Grace is not an offer. It is an operation! The Son of God effectually calls to himself all his elect, his sheep, and sovereignly works salvation in them by the irresistible power and grace of his Holy Spirit. Not one of them will be lost. Is this, or is it not the teaching of holy scripture? (Psa 65:4; Psa 110:3; Isa 55:11; Joh 5:21; Joh 6:37-40; Joh 10:3; Joh 10:25-30; Joh 17:2; Php 2:13)
3. The false christ of Arminianism cannot regenerate and save anyone who does not first choose to be saved by him.
We are told that man has a freewill, but that Christs will is bound by and must wait upon mans will, because it would not be right for him to violate mans will! The true, saving Christ does violate mans imaginary freewill; and I am very thankful that he does. Had he not violated my freewill, I would be lost or in hell now! The same is true of you. He sovereignly regenerates and saves every chosen, redeemed sinner. His operations of grace are totally independent of the will and choice of the sinner. Apart from his work of grace in us, spiritually dead sinners never would or could believe on him and come to him in faith. Faith is not our contribution to the work of salvation. Our faith in Christ is the result, not the cause of Gods saving operations. Let God be true, but every man a liar (Joh 3:3-7; Joh 6:44; Joh 6:65; Joh 15:16; Act 11:18; Rom 2:4; Rom 9:16; Eph 2:1-4; Eph 2:8-10; Php 1:6; Php 1:29; Col 2:12; Heb 12:2).
4. The false christ of modern, Arminian, freewill, works, man-centred religion died on the cross for everyone in the world, to make it possible for everyone in the world to be saved, but actually secured no ones salvation by his death.
We are told that Christ by his death made it possible for all men to be redeemed, justified, and saved, but that his death has no efficacy and saving power for anyone until they believe on him. Thus, we are informed that the Son of God died in vain for all who perish in unbelief. Though he tried to save them, he failed! The Christ of God is not a frustrated failure! He died for Gods elect and effectually put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself. Having satisfied the justice of God for us, he obtained eternal salvation for us. We were and are forever pardoned, justified, and sanctified by his blood (Isa 42:4; Isa 53:8; Mat 20:28; Joh 10:14-15; Joh 10:26; Act 20:28; Rom 5:9-10; Eph 5:25; Heb 9:12; Heb 10:10-14; 1Pe 3:18; Rev 5:9-10).
5. The false christ of Arminianism loses many who have been saved by him because they do not hang on, hold out, or persevere to the end.
Among the heretical Baptists of our day, some do grant that the sinner has what has come to be called eternal security. But it is not security based upon the will, work, and purpose of God in Christ. It is not security based upon the blood of Christ, or the operations of his Spirit. According to the freewiller, all these things are done for all people alike. So their doctrine of eternal security is a declaration of security based upon the choice and will of man, not the choice and will of God. The true Christ, the saving Christ, the Christ of the Bible preserves his chosen, redeemed, called ones by his almighty grace, so that they cannot fall away and perish at last. We are kept in life, grace, and faith by the immutability of his will, the power of his blood, the efficacy of his grace, the seal of his Spirit, and the perfection of his intercession (Mal 3:6; Joh 5:24; Joh 10:27-29; Rom 8:28-39; 1Pe 1:2-5; Jud 1:24-25).
At first glance, the christ of modern, Arminian, freewill, works religion may seem to closely resemble the true Christ, the Christ of Scripture; but he does not. The one is a false christ, antichrist. The other is true, the Christ of God. One is weak and helpless, waiting upon and bowing to the will of man. The other is the sovereign Lord, Who wills what he pleases and does what he will! The one is supposed to be able to save with your cooperation. The other is able to save without any cooperation on your part. His salvation produces your cooperation!
Those who believe on and serve the false christ of freewill, works religion do not believe on and serve the Christ of the Bible. They are deceived. They are lost. And they shall forever perish under the wrath of God, unless they come to know and trust the Christ of God, who saves his people from their sins by himself. We must, as we fear God and care for the souls of men, have no fellowship with and give no credibility to Arminian, freewill, works religion (2Co 6:14 to 2Co 7:1; Rev 18:4). We must, in these days of darkness, deception, and delusion, proclaim the Christ of God in all his saving fulness, grace, and glory. He alone is able to save (Rom 1:15-17). Let us ever adore, praise, and extol the Lord Jesus Christ, alone and completely, as our great Saviour (Isa 59:16)
By And By
Here is the fourth lesson. The Lord Jesus will appear when its time, as he puts it in Luk 21:9, by and by.
But when ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified: for these things must first come to pass; but the end is not by and by (Luk 21:9).
We are to watch and look for him to come at any moment. Expect him to appear, and to appear soon. Yet, we must never begin to think the time of the end is immediately at hand. We are to watch for him with anxious, hopeful expectation, on the tiptoe of faith. Yet, we are to patiently wait for him, serving him with diligence and perseverance, with an eye to the generation before us and to the future generations that may be influenced by us.
Troubles Sure
Here is the fifth lesson. Until Christ returns, troubles are sure and will only increase, troubles in the world and persecutions against the gospel and all who worship and faithfully serve the Lord Jesus.
Then said he unto them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven. But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my names sake (Luk 21:10-12).
For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake (Php 1:29).
For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls (1Pe 2:21-25).
Confess Christ
Here is the sixth lesson. Times of great trouble are times of great opportunity to confess Christ.
But before all these, they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my names sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist (Luk 21:12-15).
All these things, our Saviour says, shall turn to you for a testimony. They supply us with great opportunity to confess him before men, to proclaim to this wicked and perverse generation the glorious gospel of Gods free, saving grace in Christ.
And we are not left to come up with something to say. He has in his Word given us the mouth and wisdom needed for the hour in which we live; and that mouth and wisdom is the gospel. Let us settle it in our hearts that we will speak Christs gospel in the day he has given us. The gospel we preach, the grace of which we testify, our adversaries can neither gainsay nor resist, for the Word of God is not bound.
Perfectly Safe
Here is the seventh lesson. Though we may be betrayed, hated, persecuted, and sometimes even put to death, for Christs sake, Gods saints are always perfectly safe in his omnipotent hands, and shall never suffer any harm or injury of any kind. And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my names sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish (Luk 21:16-18). It is written, There shall no evil happen to the just. It shall be well with the righteous.
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me (Heb 13:5-6).
Patient Possessing
In your patience possess ye your souls. And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled (Luk 21:19-24).
Here is the eighth lesson in our text. Our Lord Jesus teaches us, in the midst of troublesome times, In your patience possess ye your souls. Child of God, enjoy yourself, and enjoy your God and Saviour. Let nothing disturb or distress you. You possess that peace and joy in your souls which the world cannot take away (Rom 5:3-5). And he tells us that we are to possess our souls in this patience of grace and faith and peace until all his elect have been gathered into his kingdom, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled (Rom 11:25-27).
William Cowper wrote these encouraging and comforting words:
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up his bright designs
And works his sovereign will.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,
But trust him for his grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
and saw: Mar 7:11-13, Mar 12:41-44
the treasury: Jos 6:19, Jos 6:24, 1Ki 14:26, 2Ki 24:13, 2Ch 36:18, Neh 13:13, Mat 27:6, Joh 8:20
Reciprocal: Lev 27:8 – poorer 1Ch 28:11 – the treasuries Ezr 2:68 – offered freely Neh 7:71 – chief Mat 23:5 – all Rom 12:8 – giveth 2Co 8:2 – their deep 2Co 8:12 – if Eph 4:28 – that he
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
THEN HE LOOKED up, and here were some of these rich men ostentatiously casting their money into the temple treasury, and amongst them came a poor widow casting in her two mites. We must not allow the break of the chapters to divorce in our minds these opening verses from the closing two of Luk 20:1-47. The widow was presumably one of those whose house had been devoured, yet instead of repining, she cast her last two mites into the temple treasury. Under these circumstances her gift was truly a great one, and the Lord pronounced it to be so. She went to the utmost limit; casting in her all.
Nor must we divorce this touching incident from the verses that follow, particularly verse Luk 21:6. The widow expressed her devotion to God by casting her two mites into the collection for the upkeep of the temple fabric; yet the Lord proceeds to foretell its total destruction. Already it was displaced by the presence of the Lord. God was in Christ, not in Herods temple. In her understanding the widow was, as we should say, behind the times; yet this did not mar the Lords approval of her gift. Whole-hearted devotion
He does appreciate, even if the expression of it is not marked by complete intelligence. This should be a great comfort to us.
Luke now gives us the Lords prophetic discourse, putting on record that part of it which specially answered the disciples question, as recorded in verse Luk 21:7. As Matthews account shows, both their question and the Lords answer contained in them a good deal more than Luke puts on record. Here the question is as to the time of the overthrow of the temple, and the sign of it. The answer divides itself into two parts: verses Luk 21:8-24, events that led up to the destruction and treading down of Jerusalem by the Romans, verses Luk 21:25-33, the appearing of the Son of Man at the end of the age.
It is very noticeable how the Lord presents the whole matter not as a mass of details, appealing to our curiosity, but as predictions which sound a note of warning, and convey instructions of the utmost importance to His disciples. Everything is stated in a way to appeal to our consciences and not our curiosity.
The first part of the discourse, verses Luk 21:8-19, is occupied with very personal instructions to the disciples. The Lord does indeed make predictions. He foretells (1) the rising up of false Christs, (2) wars and commotions, together with abnormal happenings in the physical world around, (3) the coming of bitter opposition and persecution, even unto death. But in each case His disciples are to be forearmed by His warnings. They are not for one moment to be deceived by false Christs, or follow them. They are not to be afraid of the violent movements of men, nor imagine that these convulsions mean that the end is coming immediately-for that is what by and by means here. They are to accept the persecution as an occasion for testimony, and in testifying are not to rely on a prepared defence but on supernatural wisdom to be granted to them when the moment arrives.
Verse Luk 21:18 is evidently intended to convey the personal and intimate way in which God would care for them. The closing words of verse Luk 21:16 show it does not mean that all of them would escape; but even if death claimed them, all would be made good in resurrection. By patient endurance they would win through, whether in life or in death. This seems to be the meaning of verse Luk 21:19. We can see in the Acts how these things were fulfilled in the Apostles.
Then, verses Luk 21:20-24, He predicts the desolation of Jerusalem. No word appears here as to the setting up of the abomination of desolation, for that is only to happen at the end of the times of the Gentiles: all the things the Lord specifies were fulfilled when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. Then the city was compassed with armies. Then those who believed the words of Jesus did flee to the mountains, and so escaped the horrors of the siege. Then there commenced days of vengeance for the Jew, which will not cease for them until all that is predicted is fulfilled. Then started the long captivity which has persisted, and will persist, with Jerusalem under the feet of the nations, until the times of the Gentiles are ended. Those times began when God raised up Nebuchadnezzar, who dispossessed the last king of Davids line, and they will be ended by the crushing of Gentile dominion at the appearing of Christ.
Consequently verse Luk 21:25 carries us right on to the time of the end, and speaks of things which will just precede His advent. There will be signs in the heavenly regions, and on earth distress and perplexity; sea and waves being expressions figurative of the masses of mankind in a state of violent unrest and agitation. In result men will be ready to die through fear and expectation of what is coming (N.Tr.). In view of the state of things that prevails on earth as we write, it is not difficult for us to conceive the condition of things which the Lord thus predicts.
This is the moment when God is going to shake the heavens as well as the earth, as Haggai predicted; and when only things which cannot be shaken will remain. All will lead up to the public appearing of the Son of Man in power and great glory. The day of His poverty will be over, as well as the day of His patience; and the day of His power, of which Psa 110:1-7 speaks, will have fully arrived. Previous to His coming, the hearts of unconverted men will be filled with fear: when He has come, their worst fears will be realized, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him (Rev 1:7).
But to His saints His coming will wear another aspect, as verse Luk 21:28 makes happily manifest. For them it means a final redemption, when all creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption. That being so, the first signs of His advent are to fill us with glad anticipation. We are to look up, for the next movement that really counts is to come from the right hand of God, where He sits. We are to lift up our heads, the opposite of hanging them down in depression or fear. The very things that frighten the world are to fill the believer with the optimism of holy expectation.
Next comes the short parable of the fig tree. It is said to be a parable, you notice, not a mere illustration. The fig tree stands for the Jew nationally. For centuries he has been dead nationally, and when at last there are signs of national reviving with them, and signs of reviving too with other trees, of ancient nationalities, we may know that the millennial summer is near. Until that time comes there shall be no passing away of this generation-by this term the Lord indicated, we believe, that froward generation… in whom is no faith, of which Moses spoke in Deu 32:5, Deu 32:20. When the kingdom is established, that generation will be gone.
Lukes short account of the Lords prophecy ends with the solemn words in which He asserted the truth and reliability of His words. Every word of His lips has something in it, something to be fulfilled, and is more stable than the heavens and the earth. Thus verse Luk 21:33 furnishes the striking thought that the words of His lips are more enduring than the works of His fingers.
He closed with another appeal to the consciences of His disciples, and our consciences as well. No doubt those three verses, 34, 35, 36, have special application to saints who will be on earth just before His appearing, but they have a great voice for the believer today. A multiplicity of pleasures surrounds us, and we may easily become over-charged with a surfeit of them. On the other hand, there were never more and greater dangers on the horizon, and our hearts may be laden with forebodings, so that we lose sight of the day that is coming. It is very possible to be occupied so much with the doings of dictators and the progress of world movements that the coming of the Lord is obscured in our minds. The word for us is, Watch ye therefore, and pray always. Then shall we be thoroughly awake, and ready to greet the Lord when He comes.
In the closing verses of the chapter, Luke reminds us that He, who thus foretold His coming again, was still the rejected One. By day during that last week, He diligently uttered the word of God: at night, having no home, He abode on the Mount of Olives.
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
1
This money was a voluntary offering, made for the upkeep of the temple. The rich men were casting in much in actual count of the money.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
WE learn, for one thing, from these verses, how keenly our Lord Jesus Christ observes the things that are done upon earth. We read that “He looked up and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury. And He saw also a certain poor widow casting in thither two mites.” We might well suppose that our Lord’s mind at this season would have been wholly occupied with the things immediately before Him. His betrayal, His unjust judgment, His cross, His passion, His death, were all close at hand; and He knew it. The approaching destruction of the temple, the scattering of the Jews, the long period of time before His second advent, were all things which were spread before His mind like a picture. It was but a few moments and He spoke of them.-And yet at a time like this we find Him taking note of all that is going on around Him! He thinks it not beneath Him to observe the conduct of a “certain poor widow.”
Let us remember, that the Lord Jesus never changes. The thing that we read of in the passage before us is the thing that is going on all over the world. “The eyes of the LORD are in every place.” (Pro 15:3.) Nothing is too little to escape His observation. No act is too trifling to be noted down in the book of His remembrance. The same hand that formed the sun, moon, and stars, was the hand that formed the tongue of the gnat and the wing of the fly with perfect wisdom. The same eye that sees the council-chambers of kings and emperors, is the eye that notices all that goes on in the laborer’s cottage. “All things are naked and opened to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” (Heb 4:13.) He measures littleness and greatness by a very different measure from the measure of man. Events in our own daily life, to which we attach no importance, are often very grave and serious matters in Christ’s sight. Actions and deeds in the weekly history of a poor man, which the great of this world think trivial and contemptible, are often registered as weighty and important in Christ’s books. He lives who marked the gift of one “poor widow” as attentively as the gifts of many “rich men.”
Let the believer of low degree take comfort in this mighty truth. Let him remember daily that his Master in heaven takes account of everything that is done on earth, and that the lives of cottagers are noticed by Him as much as the lives of kings. The acts of a poor believer have as much dignity about them as the acts of a prince. The little contributions to religious objects which the laborer makes out of his scanty earnings, are as much valued in God’s sight as a ten thousand pound note from a peer. To know this thoroughly is one great secret of contentment. To feel that Christ looks at what a man is, and not at what a man has, will help to preserve us from envious and murmuring thoughts. Happy is he who has learned to say with David, “I am poor and needy; yet the LORD thinketh upon me.” (Psa 40:17.)
We learn, for another thing, from these verses, who they are whom Christ reckons most liberal in giving money to religious purposes. We read that He said of her who cast in two mites into the treasury, “She hath cast in more than they all. All these of their abundance have cast in unto the offerings of God: but she of her penury hath cast in all the living that she had.” These words teach us that Christ looks at something more than the mere amount of men’s gifts in measuring their liberality. He looks at the proportion which their gifts bear to their property. He looks at the degree of self-denial which their giving entails upon them. He would have us know that some persons appear to give much to religious purposes who in God’s sight give very little, and that some appear to give very little who in God’s sight give very much.
The subject before us is peculiarly heart-searching. On no point perhaps do professing Christians come short so much as in the matter of giving money to God’s cause. Thousands, it may be feared, know nothing whatever of “giving” as a Christian duty. The little giving that there is, is confined entirely to a select few in the churches. Even among those who give, it may be boldly asserted, that the poor generally give far more in proportion to their means than the rich. These are plain facts which cannot be denied. The experience of all who collect for religious societies and Christian charities, will testify that they are correct and true.
Let us judge ourselves in this matter of giving, that we may not be judged and condemned at the great day. Let it be a settled principle with us to watch against stinginess, and whatever else we do with our money, to give regularly and habitually to the cause of God.-Let us remember, that although Christ’s work does not depend on our money, yet Christ is pleased to test the reality of our grace by allowing us to help Him. If we can not find it in our hearts to give anything to Christ’s cause, we may well doubt the reality of our faith and charity.-Let us recollect that our use of the money God has given us, will have to be accounted for at the last day. The “Judge of all” will be He who noticed the widow’s mite. Our incomes and expenditures will be brought to light before an assembled world. If we prove in that day to have been rich toward ourselves, but poor toward God, it would be good if we had never been born.-Not least, let us look round the world and ask where are the men that were ever ruined by liberal giving to godly purposes, and who ever found himself really poorer by lending to the Lord? We shall find that the words of Solomon are strictly true: “There is that scattereth and yet increaseth: and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty.” (Pro 11:24.)
Finally, let us pray for rich men, who as yet know nothing of the luxury of “giving,” that their riches may not be their ruin. Hundreds of charitable and religious movements are standing still continually for want of funds. Great and effectual doors are open to the church of Christ for doing good all over the world, but for want of money few can be sent to enter in by them. Let us pray for the Holy Ghost to come down on all our congregations, and to teach all our worshipers what to do with their money. Of all people on earth, none ought to be such liberal givers as Christians. All that they have they owe to the free gift of God. Christ, the Holy Ghost, the Gospel, the Bible, the means of grace, the hope of glory, all are undeserved, incomparable gifts, which millions of heathen never heard of. The possessors of such gifts ought surely to be “ready to distribute” and “willing to communicate.” A giving Savior ought to have giving disciples. Freely we have received: freely we ought to give. (1Ti 6:18; Mat 10:8.)
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Notes-
v1.-[Casting…gifts…treasury.] Major says, “In the second court of the temple, the court of the women, were fixed thirteen chests, with inscriptions, directing to what use the offerings in each were allotted. Into one of these the widow cast her two mites.” This court was hence called occasionally “the treasury.” (Joh 8:20.) These offerings were made at the three great feasts, to compound for tithes and dues, and to fulfil the precept, “Thou shalt not appear empty before the LORD.” (Exo 23:15; Deu 16:16.) See 2Ki 12:9.
v2.-[Poor widow.] Here, as in other places in the Bible, we must remember the exceedingly depressed and dependent condition of a poor man’s widow in the countries where our Lord was. The expression is almost proverbial for one very badly off, and most unlikely to contribute anything to a charitable purpose.
[Two mites.] A mite was the smallest coin in use among the Jews in our Saviour’s time. Major says that it was equal to about three-eighths of a farthing of our money.
v3.-[Hath cast in more.] “More,” in this expression, does not of course mean a larger sum in reality, but more in God’s sight, a gift which God values more than one of far more value in man’s eyes;-more in the judgment of Him who looks at the motives of givers, and at the money they keep for themselves as well as the money they give;-more in proportion to her means.
v4.-[They have of their abundance cast in.] This means that what the rich gave, they gave out of a large and abundant store, and hardly felt what they gave, because much was left behind.
[She of her penury hath cast in.] This means that what the widow gave, she gave out of a store so small that, after giving, nothing seemed to be left.
[All her living.] The meaning of this expression is disputed. Some think that it means that the widow gave the whole of her property. Others think that it means that she gave the whole amount of her daily income. The latter view seems the more probable one. A person so poor as the widow would necessarily live from hand to mouth, and possess no capital or property, except what she received from one source or another day after day.
Let it be noted, in leaving this passage, that our Lord says not a word here against the lawfulness and propriety of giving money to these treasuries in the temple, though He doubtless knew that the money was often ill applied, and the temple dispensation soon passing away. An excessive censoriousness about the failings and infirmities of religious Societies which are sound in principle, is not to be praised. All institutions worked by man must needs be imperfect.
Finally, let us beware of lightly using the expression “giving our mite,” in reference to giving money to religious or charitable causes. The phrase is often employed without thought or consideration. If people would “give their mite” really and literally as the widow gave her’s, many would have to give far more money than they ever give now. Her “mite” meant something that she gave with immense self-denial, and at great sacrifice. Most men’s “mite,” now-a-days, means something that is not felt, not missed, and makes no difference to their comfort. If all people gave their “mite,” as the widow gave her’s, the world and the Church would soon be in a very different state.
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Luk 21:1. And he looked up (Luk 21:1). From where he had been sitting during the delivery of His denunciatory discourse over against the treasury (Mark). The distance could not have been very great.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
At the door of the temple, through which all the people passed in and out, who came up three times a year at the solemn feasts, to worship Almighty God in his own house, there was a chest set, (like the poor man’s box in some of our churches,) into which all persons cast their free-will offerings and oblations, which were employed either for the use of the poor, or for the service of the temple; and what was thus given, our Saviour calls an offering to God, verse 4. These of their abundance have cast in unto the offerings of God.
Thence learn, that what we rightly give to the relief of the poor, or for the service and towards the support of God’s public worship, is consecrated to God, and as such is accepted of him, and ought to be esteemed by us.
Observe, 2. With what pleasure and satisfaction our Saviour sets himself to view those offerings, He beheld the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
Thence note, that our Saviour sets himself to view those offerings, He beheld the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
Thence note, that our Saviour sees with pleasure, and beholds with delight, whatever we have hearts to give unto him; whether for the relief of his members, or for the support of his service. Oh blessed Saviour, while now thou sits at thy Father’s right hand in glory, thou sees every hand that is stretched forth to the relief of thy poor members here on earth.
Verse 2, But a certain poor widow cast in two mites. Several circumstances relating both to the person and the action are here observable: as 1. The person that offered was a widow: the married woman is under the careful provision of her husband; if she spends, he earns; but the widow has no hands but her own to work for her.
Observe, 2. She was a poor widow; poverty added to the sorrow of her widowhood, she had no rich jointure to live upon; it is some alleviation of the sorrow that attends widowhood, when the hand is left full, though the bed be left empty: this widow was needy and desolate, but yet gives; some in her circumstances would have looked upon themselves as having a right to receive what was given by others, rather than give anything themselves.
Observe, 3. Her bounty and munificence in giving; her two mites are proclaimed by Christ to be more than all the rich men’s talents: more in respect to the mind and affection of the giver: more with respect to the proportion of the gift; a mite to her being more than pounds to others. Pounds were little to them; two mites were all to her, she leaves herself nothing; so that the poor woman gave not only more than any of them all, but more than they all. Christ’s eye looked at once into the bottom of her purse, and into the bottom of her heart, and judged of the offering, rather by the mind of the giver than by the value of the gift.
From this instance we learn,
1. That the poorer, yea the poorest sort of people, are not exempted from good works; but even they must and ought to exercise charity according to their ability. This poor widow, that had not a pound, no, not a penny, presents God with a farthing.
2. That in all works of pious charity which we perform, God looks at the heart, the will, and the affection of the giver, more than at the largeness and liberality of the gift. It is not said, the Lord loves a liberal giver, but a cheerful giver; He accepteth the gift according to what a man hath, and not according to what he hath not.
Oh, our God! The poorest of us thy servants have our two mites also, a soul and a body; persuade and enable us to offer them both unto thee: though they are thine already, yet thou wilt graciously accept them: and oh how happy shall we be in thy acceptation!
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Luk 21:1-4. And he looked up From those on whom his eyes were fixed before; and saw the rich men casting their gifts, &c. See on Mar 12:41.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
8. The Widow’s Alms: Luk 21:1-4.
Vers. 1-4. This piece is wanting in Matthew. Why would he have rejected it, if, according to Holtzmann’s view, he had before him the document from which the other two have taken it? According to Mark (Mar 12:41-44), Jesus, probably worn out with the preceding scene, sat down. In the court of the women there were placed, according to the Talmud (tr. Schekalim, 6.1, 5, 13), thirteen coffers with horn-shaped orifices; whence their name . They were called , treasuries. This name in the sing. designated the locality as a whole where those coffers stood (Joh 8:20; Josephus, Antiq. 19.6. 1). This is perhaps the meaning in which the word is used in Mark (Mar 12:41): over against the treasury; in Luke it is applied to the coffers themselves. , mite: the smallest coin, probably the eighth part of the as, which was worth from six to eight centimes (from a halfpenny to three-farthings). Two , therefore, correspond nearly to two centime pieces. Bengel finely remarks on the two: one of which she might have retained. Mark translates this expression into Roman money: which make a farthing,a slight detail unknown to Luke, and fitted to throw light on the question where the second Gospel was composed.
In the sayings which Jesus addresses to His disciples, His object is to lead their minds to the true appreciation of human actions according to their quality, in opposition to the quantitative appreciation which forms the essence of pharisaism. Such is the meaning of the word: she hath cast in more; in reality, with those two mites, she had cast in her heart. The proof (, Luk 21:4) is given in what follows: she hath cast in of her penury all that she had. , deficiency, denotes what the woman had as insufficient for her maintenance. And of that too little, of that possession which in itself is already a deficiency, she has kept nothing. The word in Mark denotes not what the woman had as insufficient (), but her entire condition, as a state of continued penury. What a contrast to the avarice for which the scribes and Pharisees are upbraided in the preceding piece! This incident, witnessed by Jesus at such a time, resembles a flower which He comes upon all at once in the desert of official devotion, the sight and perfume of which make Him leap with joy. Such an example is the justification of the beatitudes, Luke 6, as the preceding discourse justifies the , woes, in the same passage.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
CXI.
OBSERVING THE OFFERINGS AND WIDOW’S MITES.
(In the Temple. Tuesday, April 4, A. D. 30.)
bMARK XII. 41-44; cLUKE XXI. 1-4.
b41 And he sat down over against the treasury [It is said that in the court of the women there were cloisters or porticos, and under the shelter of these were placed thirteen chests with trumpet-shaped mouths into which offerings might be dropped. The money cast in was for the benefit of the Temple. An inscription on each chest showed to which one of the thirteen special items of cost or expenditure the contents would be devoted; as, for the purchase of wood, or gold, or frankincense, etc.], and beheld how the multitude cast money into the treasury [We should remember this calm inspection of our Lord when we are about [611] to make an offering to his work. He is by no means indifferent as to our actions]: and many that were rich cast in much. c1 And he looked up, and saw the rich men that were casting their gifts into the treasury. b42 And there came c2 And he saw a certain poor widow casting in thither band she cast in two mites, which make a farthing. [The lepton or mite was worth one-fifth of a cent. It was a Greek coin, and the kodrantes or farthing was a Roman coin. It is suggested that she might have retained one of the coins, since she had two.] 43 And he called unto him his disciples [he had found an object-lesson which he wished them to see], and said unto them, Verily cOf a truth I say unto you, bThis poor widow cast in more than all they that are casting into the treasury: 44 for they {cthese} ball did cast in of their superfluity; cunto the gifts; bbut she of her want did cast in all that she had, even call the living that she had. {ball her living.} [We are disposed to measure the value of actions quantitatively rather than qualitatively. Moreover, we are better judges of actions than of motives, and can see the outward conduct much clearer than the inward character. God, therefore, in his word, constantly teaches us that he looks rather upon the inward than the outward. In this case, the value of the woman’s gift was measured, not by quantity, but its quality; in quantity it was two mites, in quality it was the gift of all she had. From considering the corrupt character of the Pharisees, Jesus must have turned with pleasure to look upon the beautiful heart of this devout widow.] [612]
[FFG 611-612]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Luke Chapter 21
The Lords discourse in chapter 21 displays the character of the Gospel in a peculiar manner. The spirit of grace, in contrast with the Judaic spirit, is seen in the account of the poor widows offering. But the Lords prophecy requires more detailed notice. Luk 21:6, as we saw at the end of chapter 19, speaks only of the destruction of Jerusalem as she then stood. This is true also of the disciples question. They say nothing of the end of the age. The Lord afterwards enters upon the duties and the circumstances of His disciples previous to that hour. In Luk 21:8 it is said, The time draweth near, which is not found in Matthew. He goes much more into detail with regard to their ministry during that period, encourages them, promises them necessary help. Persecution should turn to them for a testimony. From the middle of verse 11 to the end of verse 19 (Luk 21:11-19) we have details relative to His disciples, that are not found in the corresponding passage of Matthew. They present the general state of things in the same sense, adding the condition of the Jews, of those especially who, more or less, professedly received the word. The whole stream of testimony, as rendered in connection with Israel, but extending to the nations, is found in Matthew to the end of Luk 21:14. In Luke it is the coming service of the disciples, until the moment when the judgment of God should put an end to that which was virtually terminated by the rejection of Christ. Consequently the Lord says nothing in Luk 21:20 of the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel, but gives the fact of the siege of Jerusalem, and its then approaching desolation-not the end of the age, as in Matthew. These were the days of vengeance on the Jews, who had crowned their rebellion by rejecting the Lord. Therefore Jerusalem should be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles were fulfilled, that is, the times destined to the sovereignty of the Gentile empires according to the counsel of God revealed in the prophecies of Daniel. This is the period in which we now live. There is a break here in the discourse. Its principal subject is ended; but there are still some events of the last scene to be revealed, which close the history of this Gentile supremacy.
We shall see also that, although it is the commencement of the judgment, from which Jerusalem will not arise until all is accomplished and the song of Isa 40:1-31 is addressed to her, nevertheless, the great tribulation is not mentioned here. There is great distress, and wrath upon the people, as was indeed the case in the siege of Jerusalem by Titus; and the Jews were also led away captive. Neither is it said, Immediately after the tribulation of those days. Nevertheless, without designating the epoch, but after having spoken of the times of the Gentiles, the end of the age comes. There are signs in heaven, distress on earth, a mighty movement in the waves of human population. The heart of man, moved by a prophetic alarm, foresees the calamities which, still unknown, are threatening him; for all the influences that govern men are shaken. Then shall they see the Son of man, once rejected from the earth, coming from heaven with the ensigns of Jehovah, with power and great glory-the Son of man, of whom this Gospel has always spoken. There the prophecy ends. We have not here the gathering together of the elect Israelites, who had been dispersed, of which Matthew speaks.
That which follows consists of exhortations, in order that the day of distress may be a token of deliverance to the faith of those who, trusting in the Lord, obey the voice of His servant. The generation (a word already explained when considering Matthew) should not pass away till all was fulfilled. The length of the time that has elapsed since then, and that must elapse until the end, is left in darkness. Heavenly things are not measured by dates. Moreover that moment is hidden in the knowledge of the Father. Still heaven and earth should pass away, but not the words of Jesus. He then tells them that, as dwelling on earth, they must be watchful, lest their own hearts should be overcharged with things that would sink them into this world, in the midst of which they were to be witnesses. For that day would come as a snare upon all those who had their dwelling here, who were rooted here. They were to watch and pray, in order to escape all those things, and to stand in the presence of the Son of man. This is still the great subject of our Gospel. To be with Him, as those who have escaped from the earth, to be among the 144,000 on Mount Zion, will be an accomplishment of this blessing, but the place is not named; so that, supposing the faithfulness of those whom He was personally addressing, the hope awakened by His words would be fulfilled in a more excellent manner in His heavenly presence in the day of glory.
Fuente: John Darby’s Synopsis of the New Testament
CHAPTER 19
THE WIDOWS MITE
Luk 21:1-4; Mar 12:41-44. Jesus, sitting in front of the treasury, was seeing how the multitude cast their money into the treasury. And one poor widow, having come, cast in two mites, which is a farthing. And calling His disciples, He says to them, Truly I say unto you, that this poor widow has cast in more than all those casting into the treasury. For all, out of that which abounded to them, were casting in; but she, from her scarcity, cast in all things so many as she had, her entire living. Jesus knew that this was all she had, and it only amounted to three-eighths of a cent. Here is a matter of fact: These two mites i. e., three-eighths of a cent were all she possessed beneath the skies. With a grateful heart, making no reserve, she casts it all into the treasury of the Lord. N. B. God is not poor, and does not need anything that we can give Him. He looks upon the heart and knows precisely what we are doing. This widow gave more than any of the balance, because she was the only one who gave all she possessed. We should all take courage. God will feed us as He feeds the birds. Let us realize it a great privilege, like this poor widow, just to give all. In that case we are utterly disencumbered of all worldly care, depending on God alone, who will certainly take care of us.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Luk 21:5. Some spake of the temple, how it was adorned with goodly stones and gifts. This conversation occurred as they were going out of the temple. Mar 13:1. On mount Olivet the Lord delivered the luminous predictions which follow in the rest of the chapter. Mat 24:3. Like the holy patriarchs, he died overflowing with the prophetic spirit.
Luk 21:15. I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay. Proof of this we have in the apostles before the council. Act 5:29-32. In Stephens defence before the sanhedrim. Acts 7. In Pauls defence before Felix, and before Agrippa. Act 24:-26. These were great occasions, and made the confessors truly great. Their eloquence commanded admiration. It was the same with the apologetic writers, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and Minutius Felix. Their arguments are conclusive, and their eloquence incomparable. The apologies for the christian religion of the two latter, are truly astonishing productions, and seem to participate of divine inspiration.
Luk 21:24. Until the times of the gentiles be fulfilled. Our Joseph Mede interprets this difficult text as importing that the Turks shall tread down Jerusalem for the time of its sentence; and that the true church of Christ, till then, shall be among the gentiles. I like this better than any gloss I have found.
Luk 21:34. Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness; It is high time to awake out of sleep, to watch, and be ready. Here is the constant alarum of Christ. We know not how soon the watchman may sound his trumpet for war, for famine, or for the pestilence. How can christians dream of rest, in a world which crucified their Master.
Luk 21:35. As a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole () earth. It would seem from the whole of our Saviours predictions, that the word cannot be confined to Judea, but must be understood, in a succession of wars and troubles, to extend to the whole Roman empire. And are we in England prepared for the more tremendous visitations of providence? Have not calamities burst upon nations like thunder-storms, on the finest days of national prosperity? The Saviour exhorts us to pray that we may escape those disasters, and stand before the Son of man with joy at his appearing. So be it. Amen. For Reflections see Matthew 24.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Luk 21:1-4. The Widows Two Mites.With some abbreviation Lk. closely follows Mar 12:41-44*.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
THE WIDOW’S TWO MITES
(vs.1-4)
The first four verses are a continuation of the sublect of Chapter 20. If the scribes had no regard for widows, God takes full account of them. Rich men may donate large sums to the temple service and yet make no real sacrifice at all, however much it may impress others. The Lord of glory sees and discerns the motives of every heart as well as the actual gifts given. The poor widow, putting in only two mites, is commended above all the rich men, for she gave virtually all her living. If she had only given one mite, this would have been unusually generous, but her love toward the God of Israel was unreserved. Scribes had ways of prying money from the people, just as do many preachers today, but the widow was giving as to God an offering acceptable, well pleasing to Him; and she will not lack a full reward from God.
THE TEMPLE’S DESTRUCTION AND SIGNS OF THE TIMES
(vs.5-19)
The natural, earthbound thoughts of men then come out in another direction. Some drew attention to the adornments of the temple with its attractive and expensive stones and decorations. How little man sees as God does! The temple was God’s house, but men gave more honor to the house than to its Lord: in fact it had become virtually their house (Mat 23:38). The Lord pronounced solemn judgment upon it: there would not be left one stone upon another (v.6).
The fact of this coming destruction indicates clearly that Christ had not come to establish His kingdom. But He was asked as to when these things will take place. People commonly want to understand the chronological order of events while not being concerned about the moral issues connected with such events. They asked for a sign, little realizing that present moral and spiritual conditions are the most significant factors in reference to the future judgments of God.
The Lord did not satisfy mere curiosity, but admonished them to be careful not to be deceived. For as to prophecy there are innumerable deceptions, but if we are deceived, we are to blame, for God is not deceived, and honest communion with Him in subjection to His Word will preserve us. We have surely witnessed in our days the truth of what the Lord says, that many would come in His name, claiming to be the Messiah (v.8), and thousands have been deceived by them in spite of the Lord’s plain warning.
The Lord gave forewarnings of things in the end time, many of which we see today. Wars and commotions would come (v.9), as they have, but this is not enough to signify the end. Nations and kingdoms being at enmity with one another indicates there would be no gradual change for the better in the world by means of the gospel, as some have fondly imagined. Instead there would be a marked increase in alarming signs — earthquakes, famines, pestilences, — all of which we have known to have escalated in relatively recent years. Fearful sights, such as men’s cruel atrocities on a large scale, the murder of millions of Jews in Germany, the massacre of great numbers who followed Jim Jones to Guyana, massacres more recently in China, in Iraq and among the Serbs and Croatians, in Zaire, and many other dreadful occasions, have shocked the world. Great signs from heaven are evident – changing weather patterns, hurricanes, cyclones, tornadoes, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. How well the Lord knew and fully declared that the gospel would not convert the world. His words here are a rebuke to those who have cherished such futile hopes.
But previous to these the disciples would be subjected to bitter persecution, as a result of the enmity of religious Jews. The disciples would be imprisoned and brought before Gentile kings and rulers for the sake of the name of Christ. This became true very soon after the Lord Jesus returned to Glory. But the Lord used this persecution in a way that men did not expect, for a testimony to Himself and to the gospel of His grace. Also, the disciples were to depend completely upon His own power and wisdom when these things occurred, not considering beforehand as to what to say, for His superior power would intervene and give the words to speak that would silence the opposition of their adversaries. We see this in Peter and John (Act 4:13-14); in Stephen (Act 6:8-10; Act 7:1-60); and in Paul on various occasions (Act 22:1-21; Act 24:24-25; Act 26:1-31).
The deep pain and trial also of betrayal by even close relatives would be the experience of many of them, and some would suffer death as martyrs. The disciples of the Lord Jesus would in fact be the object of the hatred of all mankind generally. How contrary to their expectations of the advent of the kingdom! Yet in the face of such dreadful affliction He told them not a hair of their heads would (eternally) perish. The eternal end was secure, though this does not mean that none of them would die, for the Lord said some would die as martyrs (v.16). In fact, since then all the disciples have died, but they were to have no fear of the most bitter persecution.
THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
(vs.20-24)
Verse 20 refers to the siege of Jerusalem in 70AD, with its ensuing great distress for the Jews, which has continued for centuries. There are things here very similar to the description of the sorrows of the Great Tribulation as seen in Mat 24:15-21; but that will be more dreadful than the Roman destruction of Jerusalem here in Luk 21:1-38. Those in Judea are told to flee to the mountains, for Jerusalem would be totally desolated, as it was by the Romans armies under Titus. For those were days of vengeance because of Israel’s rejection of their Messiah, fulfilling Israel’s prophetic scriptures (v.22).
The Lord deeply felt what Israel was bringing upon herself (v.23). Though it was men — the religious leaders — directly responsible for killing their Messiah, yet it was their women with child who would greatly suffer. How careless are men in realizing that their ungodliness causes those who are dependent on them to suffer! The distress would be great, for God’s wrath would be upon Israel. Many should fall by the sword, and many carried captive in every direction (v.24). So it has been while “the times of the Gentiles” run their course. Israel for centuries was a people without a country. The fact that in 1948 they regained a country for themselves after centuries of dispersion signifies that the times of the Gentiles are nearly fulfilled.
THE COMING OF THE SON OF MAN
(vs.25-28)
Verse 25 now goes on to the time of the end. There will be signs literally in the sun, the moon and the stars, though the spiritual significance of these is the most important. The supreme light of the knowledge of God will be darkened through widespread apostasy — a complete turning away from the Lord. Reflected light (the moon, symbolical of Israel) will be greatly affected; and stars will fall, that is personal apostasy will become rampant. Nations on earth will be torn by distress, with perplexity, and the evidence of this has already begun in our day. The troubled sea and roaring waves speak of the troubled state of all nations, each fighting for what it considers its own rights.
While these things, and verse 26, refer directly to what will be seen in the future 7-year tribulation period, yet the similarity of conditions today tend to persuade us that that time must be very near. The hearts of many are failing them for fear now, seen for example in the great fright over the possibility of a nuclear holocaust and terrorism, and the alarm over certain nations becoming militarily strong and bold. The expression “the powers of the heavens shall be shaken” appears to infer man’s discovering the power of the atom, which God has used for man’s benefit, but man shaking those powers in a way that is harmful. The Greek word for heavens is ouranos from which the word uranium comes. Whether there is a direct connection here with man’s splitting of the atom may be questionable, but while God has for ages been using nuclear power in the sun for the great blessing of mankind, when man got possession of a little measure of that power, he immediately used it for destruction!
At any rate, there is a direct connection between the powers of the heavens being shaken and the Son of Man coming in power and glory. This is not His coming for the saints at the Rapture, but at least seven years later, at the end of the Great Tribulation, when He will subdue all nations under Him.
Verse 28 can have its application both to the believing remnant of Israel in the time of the tribulation and to ourselves now. For the first application, their redemption will be the liberating power of the Son of Man in setting Israel free from her ages of bondage. In the second case (taking place earlier) our redemption will be of our bodies at the Rapture (Rom 8:23). We already see the beginning of such signs as mentioned in verses 25 and 26, therefore let us look up.
THE PARABLE OF THE FIG TREE
(vs.29-32)
Then in verses 29-31 the Lord spoke the parable of the fig tree, typical of Israel, and all the trees symbolizing other nations. When the trees begin to blossom, it is the evidence that summer is near. In fact, even before the Rapture we see the beginning of the signs of the Lord’s coming in glory, which will be later than the Rapture. For Israel has once again become a nation possessing her own land. Other nations surrounding her, having been for years almost unheard of and of little significance, have become militant and are pressing to the front for recognition. This great resurgence of national ambition tells us that the kingdom of God is near. If the millennial kingdom is near, the coming of the Lord for the Church (the Rapture) is at least seven years nearer.
Verse 32 may infer that the generation that sees the beginning of these things will also see the end of them. If so, the end is very near indeed! But the word “generation” is also used by the Lord in a moral sense, as for example, “an evil and adulterous generation” (Mat 12:34); or “faithless generation” (Mar 9:19); so the implication may be in this case that men would not so change in character that their faith would bring in the kingdom, but rather, that the kingdom would cause the evil generation to pass. Or it may be that both applications are correct.
Verse 33 goes far beyond the kingdom to the passing away of heaven and earth at the time of the Great White Throne, some 1000 years later (Rev 20:11). The words of the Lord Jesus will never pass away.
THEREFORE WATCH!
(vs.34-38)
Then verses 34 to 36 press upon us the moral character suitable to the truth of these great future events. Verse 34 is negative, dealing with things that are the most common detriments to a walk with God — the undue emphasis put on eating and drinking and the cares of this life. How easily we slip into a state that seeks only the satisfaction of our own appetites, while matters of intense, eternal importance are left knocking at the door! Of course eating and drinking are necessary, but is it that for which we live? Should the cares of this life, the many details of living, so occupy us that we are loaded down with them? Where is the faith that looks out from all this in vibrant expectation of something infinitely better?
The warnings against carousing, drunkenness and cares of this life apply directly to those going through the future tribulation. They are to watch and pray always that they might be counted worthy to escape the things that threaten all around them, and at the end to stand before the Son of Man. At that time those believers will be kept through the tribulation, while the Church will be kept out of the hour of it (Rev 3:10). No reference is made in this chapter to the Lord’s coming for the Church, but rather to His coming in power and glory as the Son of Man at the end of the tribulation period.
The Lord spent the last few days of His life on earth teaching in the temple (v.27), but His nights were spent on the mount of Olives. The power of the Spirit of God moved the people to come early in the mornings to the temple to hear Him. How the people could so soon change from hearers to persecutors crying out for His crucifixion may seem astounding to us, but such is the sad fickleness of the crowd of those who are hearers only, and not doers of the Word of God. They were curious, but unsaved, without true knowledge as to who the Lord really is.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Verse 1
Gifts; the object of this contribution, it is supposed, was to sustain the expenses of the religious services of the temple.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
CHAPTER 21
Ver. 18.-But there shall not an hair of your head perish. “Because,” says S. Gregory, “what was said about death was hard, comfort is added at once, from the joy of the resurrection, when it is said, ‘a hair of your head shall not perish.’ For we know that the flesh when wounded, causes pain, but the hair when cut does not. Our Lord therefore said to His martyrs, ‘A hair of your head shall not perish.'” From these words of Christ, we may conclude that we shall rise again with our actual bodies. S. Augustine (De Civitate, chap.19, 2O.) So S. Bonaventure, S. Thomas, the master of the sentences, Soto, and others. Their proof is from Mat 10:30: “The very hairs of your head are all numbered;” and from this of S. Luke, “Not a hair of your head shall perish.” “Not in length,” says S. Augustine, “but in number.”
2. We may collect this from reason, for our bodies will rise without deformity, with their natural adornments and comeliness; the adornment of the head is the hair, the beard, the nails. If any one has not these he is a deformed.
Ver. 19.-In your patience possess ye your souls. Patience, therefore, is the possession of our souls. Firstly, because patience rules the soul and directs it in peace, and bends and influences it as it pleases. Secondly, because no one can keep the hope of a future life, as S. Augustine says, unless he have patience in the labours of the present one. Thirdly, S. Gregory (Homily xxxv. in Evangel.): “The possession of the soul consists of the virtue of patience, because patience is the root and guardian of all virtues. Through patience, we possess our souls, because, while we learn to govern ourselves, we begin to possess the knowledge that we are (quod sumus, quod adverb). It is patience to endure calmly the evils we suffer from others, and to be affected with no painful feeling against him who inflicts them upon us. For whoever so takes the oppressions of others, as to grieve in silence, but to look out for a time of retribution, does not possess this virtue, but only makes a show of it. Again, Solomon says, Pro 16:32: ‘The patient man is better than the valiant, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh cities.’ The taking of a city is therefore a less victory, because the conquest is outside ourselves. That which is subdued by patience is greater, because the mind is subdued by itself, and subjects itself to itself when patience subdues it to the humility of endurance.” S. Gregory adds the example of the Abbot Stephen, who returned contumelies with thanks, and thought a gain, loss, and considered his adversaries his helpers. Hence, at his death, angels were seen taking his soul to heaven.
The impatient do not possess their souls, but are possessed by the vices of wrath and vindictiveness, and consequently by Satan. They, only, who have ardent love can gain true patience, as those fervent martyrs-SS. Ignatius, Laurence, Sebastian, Vincent, and others. Trajan the Emperor, consequently, said when he conferred, by his sentence, martyrdom on S. Ignatius, “No people suffer so much for their God as the Christians.” S. Gregory (book v. Moral. chap. 13), “What is it to possess our souls, but to live perfectly in all things, and to govern all the emotions of our minds by the art of virtue? Whoever therefore possesses patience, possesses his soul, because he is thus made strong against all adversities, so that he rules even by subduing himself. By whatever he masters himself, he clearly shows himself unmastered, for when he masters himself in his pleasures, he prepares himself to be unmastered by their opposites.” In his 39th Epistle to Theoclister; “In your patience possess your souls. Consider a moment where patience would be if there were nothing to be endured. I suspect that he would not be an Abel who had no Cain. For if the good were without misfortunes, they could not be perfectly good, for they would have no purgation. Their very society with evil is the purification of the good.” Hence, says Theodore Studita in his 19th Catechetical Lecture, “Endurance is the highest perfection of virtue;” and Lucan (lib. ix.):
-Serpens, sitis, ardor, aren Dulcia Virtutis, gaudet Patientia duris. The sandy desert’s burning heat; the pangs Of raging thirst; its serpent’s cruel fangs, Are Virtue’s sweets; for Patience joys in these, And welcomes hardships more than softest case.Lastly, the whole band of virtues flows into patience, so that it appears to be the complex of all virtues. Sencea (Ep. 69. and following): “There is i fortitude of which the brands are patience, endurance, and toleration. There is prudence, without which no undertaking is entered upon, and which persuades us to endure bravely what we cannot escape. There is constancy which cannot be cast down from its pedestal, and the determination of which no force can overthrow. Here is that indivisible society of virtues.” And see the words of S. Jam 1:4.
Ver. 34.-And take heed to yourselves, lest “the cares of this life absorb the mind and sink the faculties,” says Euthymius, “and do not allow men to think about their salvation.” “The cares of this life,” says Titus, “debauchery and ebriety, deprive men of their senses, obscure their faith, and cause forgetfulness of all that is useful and necessary. They distract the mind, seize hold of it, and absorb it in the cares of this world.”
Ver. 35.-For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. As careless birds are taken craftily by snares, so in the day of judgment shall the men of pleasure be. 2 “As the snare strangles the birds, so shall the day of judgment choke sinners.” 3. “As the snare always keeps hold,” says the Interlinear, “of that which it has once caught, so shall the sentence, given by one Christian judge, be perpetual; and either for ever glorify him who is judged, in heaven, or consume him with fire in hell.”
Ver. 36.-Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand bore the Son of man. The Arabic has, “That you may be strengthened in flight.”
Stand before the Son of Man. So Wisdom 5:1 “They shall stand with great constancy.” “To those therefore who give themselves up to vigils, prayers, and good works, that day shall not be a snare, but a festival,” says Theophylact.
Ver. 37.-And in the daytime He was teaching in the temple; and at night He went out, and abode in the mount that is called the mount of Olives. Because olives abounded in it. Christ gave the day to preaching and to His neighbour, but the night to prayer, to Himself, and to God. Thus He gave very little time to repose and slumber. The same did S. Paul, Dominic, F. Xavier, and others like them. “He went by night,” says Theophylact, “into the mountain, to show us that we ought to hold communion with God in quiet at night. By day we should be gentle, and do good.” So Bede: “What He commanded in words, He confirmed by His own example; for when the time of His Passion drew near, He was instant in teaching, in watching, and in prayers, either urging those, for whom He was to suffer, to faith by His words, or commending them to His Father by His prayers.”
Ver. 38.-And all the people came early in the morning to Him. The senses are in their vigour in the morning, and the morning therefore, as the best part of the day, is to be given to God.
Fuente: Cornelius Lapide Commentary
21:1 And {1} he looked up, and saw the rich men casting their gifts into the treasury.
(1) According to the judgment of God, the poor may even exceed the rich in generosity and liberality.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
7. Jesus’ commendation of a widow 21:1-4 (cf. Mark 12:41-44)
The connecting link in Luke’s narrative is the mention of a widow (cf. Luk 20:47). The contrast is between the false piety of the rich lawyers and the genuine piety of one poor woman. This is another lesson for Luke’s readers on how one’s faith should influence his or her attitude toward money. Jesus presented the real issue as being how much one keeps for himself or herself rather than how much one gives away.
"We tend to appreciate the amount of a gift, not necessarily the sacrifice that went into the giving." [Note: Bock, Luke, p. 527.]
Jesus observed people depositing their gifts in the temple offering receptacles. The "treasury" was a section of the court of the women in the temple complex. When He spotted a poor widow making a contribution, He drew His disciples’ attention to her (cf. Luk 20:45; Mar 12:43). He prefaced His remark with His standard attention-getter. It was apparently evident to everyone that the woman was destitute. Her sacrificial gift demonstrated the depth of her love for God and her trust that God would provide for her (cf. 1Ki 17:8-16). The two small copper coins (Gr. lepta) that she donated were together worth only about one sixty-fourth of a denarius, the day’s wage of a workingman in Palestine. The lepta is the only Jewish coin mentioned in the New Testament. Some scholars believe there is evidence that the priests announced the amount of each person’s gift publicly as he or she gave it, but this is debatable. [Note: Marshall, The Gospel . . ., p. 751.]
"If the leaders of Jewish religion treated such pious people in the way criticized by Jesus in Luk 20:47, it followed that the system was ripe for judgment. It is no accident that the prophecy of the destruction of the temple follows: the priests were no better than the scribes in their attitude to wealth (Luk 20:45 f.)." [Note: Ibid., p. 752.]