Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 4:14
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
14 23. Jesus returns to Nazareth and preaches there
14. And Jesus returned ] St Luke here omits that series of occurrences which is mainly preserved for us by the Apostle who recorded the Judaean ministry St John; namely the deputation of the Sanhedrin to the Baptist (Luk 1:19-28), and his testimony about the baptism of Jesus (29 34); the call of Andrew and Simon (35 43); of Philip and Nathanael (44 51); the First Miracle, at Cana, and visit to Capernaum (Luk 2:1-12); the Passover at Jerusalem and first cleansing of the Temple (Luk 2:13-25); the secret visit of Nicodemus (Luk 3:1-21); the baptism of the disciples of Jesus, and the Baptist’s remarks to his disciples (Luk 3:22-36). St Luke has already mentioned by anticipation the imprisonment of John the Baptist (Luk 3:19-20), which probably hastened the return of Jesus to Galilee; but St John alone preserves the deeply interesting revelation to the Woman of Samaria, and the preaching among the Samaritans (Joh 4:4-42). This must have occurred during the journey from Judaea to Galilee mentioned in this verse.
into Galilee ] This district was the starting-point and main centre of our Lord’s ministry, Act 10:37, “which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee.” Luk 23:5, “He stirreth up the people, beginning from Galilee.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Luk 4:14-15
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee
The higher spiritual life
Jesus returns to Galilee in the power of the Spirit.
This is full of interest in every way.
1. As bringing up the question of Christs Divinity. Can One who is Divine receive augmented powers? Especially can He from another co-equal Spirit? To this inquiry it may be replied that Christs life on earth was the Divine circumscribed. The power of the Spirit that rested upon Christ brought forth no new elements, but it brought out the Divine element previously existing.
2. Interesting as a study of the life of Christ, it becomes even more so in its connection with ourselves–with the whole sphere and operation and possibilities of the human mind. A like experience will be traced in the apostles lives. At the time of His death they were very little advanced, except in personal affection for Him, beyond Nicodemus, or other devout and spiritually-minded Jews. He had told them to stay in Jerusalem until some great change should come upon them. And He declared what that change should be–power from on high; the power of the Holy Ghost. And then came the Pentecostal experience.
3. We find traces in the early Church to show that there were those who received this special power over and above mere ordinary endowments.
4. In every age there have been those to whom these disclosures have been made, pre-eminently the case with John Wesley, who laboured years, as he regarded it, in bondage, and at last came out in the power of the Spirit.
5. Lastly, many now living are distinctly conscious that this same impulse, this same clothing of extraordinary power remains on earth. Mens faculties are telescopic. Used in their lower state they are, as it were, undrawn cut. They are capable of being brought to a condition in which they will be a hundred times more than in their ordinary condition. The consciousness of this transcends all other evidences of the Divine life. APPLICATION: Many of you are longing for the renewal of life. Here is the instrument of your power. This is what you need; this is what we all need–that higher life which comes by the Spirit of God. (H. W. Beecher.)
The power of the Holy Ghost
There was no great natural capacity in Harlan Page; and yet he was an apostle; and his life has quickened the lives of tens of thousands since he has been gone. Being dead, he yet speaks. But he had the Holy Ghost rising upon him. There are men who say but little; and yet they give you anew ideal. They shine as stars in the heavens. And there can be no accounting for it, except on the ground of the dynamic influence of spiritual life and spiritual power in this world. There are men who stand in the centre of circles, and all rise up and call them blessed; and nobody can tell why, except that they bring heaven near, and bring invisible things near, and gain faith, and strengthen their moral tendencies, and see God, and have the power to reflect what they see upon other persons. It is these men who have the higher region of their soul enlightened by the Spirit of God, that do the most for other men; that set aside scepticism, that convince the unconvinced, that penetrate the unconverted through with a new and eternal sense, both of their lacks and of their possibilities and hopes. It is these men who are joined together, and who receive their power of life and of working from God, that, after all, are the lights of the world. (H. W. Beecher.)
Effects of the indwelling of the Spirit
Dr. Daniel Steele says, Soon after Dr. Finneys conversion he received a wonderful baptism of the Spirit which was followed by marvellous effects. His words uttered in private conversation, and forgotten by himself, fell like live coals on the hearts of men, and awakened a sense of guilt which would not let them rest till the blood of sprinkling was applied. At his presence, before he opened his lips, the operatives in a mill began to fall on their knees and cry for mercy, smitten by the invisible currents of Divine power which went forth from him. When, like a flame of fire, he was traversing western and central New York, he came to the village of Rome in a time of spiritual slumber. He had not been in the house of the pastor an hour before he had conversed with all the family, the pastor, children, boarders, and servants, and brought them all to their knees seeking pardon, or the fulness of the Spirit. In a few days almost every man and woman in the village and vicinity was converted, and the work ceased from lack of material to transform, and the evangelist passed on to other fields, to behold new triumphs of the gospel through his instrumentality. (Lightning Flashes.)
Spiritual power
Dr. Steele mentions another case, not, however, so well known in this country as that of Professor Finney. He says, Another rare instance of extraordinary spiritual power is that of Father Carpenter, of New Jersey, a Presbyterian layman of a past generation. A cipher in the Church, till anointed of the Holy Ghost, he immediately became a man of wonderful spiritual power, though of ordinary intellect, and very limited education. In personal effort, hardened sinners melted under his appeals and yielded to Christ. Once in a stage-coach going from Newark to New York, he found six unconverted men and one believer his fellow-passengers. He began to present the claims of Jesus, and so powerfully did the Spirit attend the truth, that four were converted in the coach, and the other two after reaching New York. At his death it was stated that by a very careful inquiry it had been ascertained that more than ten thousand souls had been converted through his direct instrumentality. (Lightning Flashes.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. Returned in the power of the Spirit] , In the mighty power of the Spirit. Having now conquered the grand adversary, he comes in the miracle-working energy of the Spirit to show forth his power, godhead, and love to the people, that they might believe and be saved. He who, through the grace of God, resists and overcomes temptation, is always bettered by it. This is one of the wonders of God’s grace, that those very things which are designed for our utter ruin he makes the instruments of our greatest good. Thus Satan is ever duped by his own proceedings, and caught in his own craft.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Both Matthew and Mark make the occasion of our Saviours going into Galilee to be his hearing that John was cast into prison. But certainly Matthew and Mark speak of a second going into Galilee, and mean by it Galilee of the Gentiles, which was in the jurisdiction of Philip, the brother of Herod Antipas. Else one might admire, why Christ should go into Galilee upon hearing that John was cast into prison; that had been for him to have thrown himself into Herods mouth, before that his time of suffering was come; but it should seem that after his temptations, he first went to Capernaum, where he did not stay many days, Joh 2:12, and then to Nazareth, which was his own country. But others think that all the evangelists speak of a second going into Galilee, which I cannot agree if Nazareth were within that Galilee which was called the Lower Galilee, and was within the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas, who was the tetrarch of Galilee, and the man that had imprisoned John, and afterwards caused him to be beheaded.
And he taught in their synagogues: he had the reputation of a prophet, which procured him that liberty of speaking in all those places, where the Jews celebrated their public worship;
being glorified, that is, admired and honoured, of all.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit,…. Of which he was full, and by which he was led into the wilderness, and had combated with Satan, and had got the victory over him; and by virtue of which, he entered on his public ministry, wrought miracles, and taught with authority. A like way of speaking is used by the Targumist, on Mic 3:8. I am filled, , “with the power of the spirit of prophecy”, from before the Lord. Moreover, this phrase is used, to show that his return
into Galilee, where he had been brought up, and from whence he came to John at Jordan, did not arise from a natural love to his country, and a fond desire of being there again; but was owing to the powerful impulse of the Holy Spirit, which was in him, and moved him to return thither; where he was to begin his ministry, and work his miracles, and so fulfil a prophecy of him, in Is 9:1 see Mt 4:12.
And there went out a fame of him through all the region round about: throughout all Galilee and Syria, Decapolis and Judea; see Mt 4:23, the report of his doctrines and miracles, was spread far and near; and on account of them, he became the subject of the common talk of people every where, who highly applauded and commended him for them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| Christ in the Synagogue of Nazareth; Christ Driven from Nazareth. |
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14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. 16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. 17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. 20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. 21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. 22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son? 23 And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. 24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. 25 But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; 26 But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. 27 And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. 28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, 29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. 30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
After Christ had vanquished the evil spirit, he made it appear how much he was under the influence of the good Spirit; and, having defended himself against the devil’s assaults, he now begins to act offensively, and to make those attacks upon him, by his preaching and miracles, which he could not resist or repel. Observe,
I. What is here said in general of his preaching, and the entertainment it met with in Galilee, a remote part of the country, distant from Jerusalem; it was a part of Christ’s humiliation that he began his ministry there.
But, 1. Thither he came in the power of the Spirit. The same Spirit that qualified him for the exercise of his prophetical office strongly inclined him to it. He was not to wait for a call from men, for he had light and life in himself. 2. There he taught in their synagogues, their places of public worship, where they met, not, as in the temple, for ceremonial services, but for the moral acts of devotion, to read, expound, and apply, the word, to pray and praise, and for church-discipline; these came to be more frequent since the captivity, when the ceremonial worship was near expiring. 3. This he did so as that he gained a great reputation. A fame of him went through all that region (v. 14), and it was a good fame; for (v. 15) he was glorified of all. Every body admired him, and cried him up; they never heard such preaching in all their lives. Now, at first, he met with no contempt or contradiction; all glorified him, and there were none as yet that vilified him.
II. Of his preaching at Nazareth, the city where he was brought up; and the entertainment it met with there. And here we are told how he preached there, and how he was persecuted.
1. How he preached there. In that observe,
(1.) The opportunity he had for it: He came to Nazareth when he had gained a reputation in other places, in hopes that thereby something at least of the contempt and prejudice with which his countrymen would look upon him might be worn off. There he took occasion to preach, [1.] In the synagogue, the proper place, where it had been his custom to attend when he was a private person, v. 16. We ought to attend on the public worship of God, as we have opportunity. But, now that he was entered upon his public ministry, there he preached. Where the multitudes of fish were, there this wise Fisherman would cast his net. [2.] On the sabbath day, the proper time which the pious Jews spent, not in a mere ceremonial rest from worldly labour, but in the duties of God’s worship, as of old they frequented the schools of the prophets on the new moons and the sabbaths. Note, It is good to keep sabbaths in solemn assemblies.
(2.) The call he had to it. [1.] He stood up to read. They had in their synagogues seven readers every sabbath, the first a priest, the second a Levite, and the other five Israelites of that synagogue. We often find Christ preaching in other synagogues, but never reading, except in this synagogue at Nazareth, of which he had been many years a member. Now he offered his service as he had perhaps often done; he read one of the lessons out of the prophets, Acts xiii. 15. Note, The reading of the scripture is very proper work to be done in religious assemblies; and Christ himself did not think it any disparagement to him to be employed in it. [2.] The book of the prophet Esaias was delivered to him, either by the ruler of the synagogue or by the minister mentioned (v. 20), so that he was no intruder, but duly authorized pro hac vice–on this occasion. The second lesson for that day being in the prophecy of Esaias, they gave him that volume to read in.
(3.) The text he preached upon. He stood up to read, to teach us reverence in reading and hearing the word of God. When Ezra opened the book of the law, all the people stood up (Neh. viii. 5); so did Christ here, when he read in the book of the prophets. Now the book being delivered to him, [1.] He opened it. The books of the Old Testament were in a manner shut up till Christ opened them, Isa. xxix. 11. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to take the book, and open the seals; for he can open, not the book only, but the understanding. [2.] He found the place which was appointed to be read that day in course, which he needed not to be directed to; he soon found it, and read it, and took it for his text. Now his text was taken out of Isa 61:1; Isa 61:2, which is here quoted at large, Luk 4:18; Luk 4:19. There was a providence in it that that portion of scripture should be read that day, which speaks so very plainly of the Messiah, that they might be left inexcusable who knew him not, though they heard the voices of the prophets read every sabbath day, which bore witness of him, Acts xiii. 27. This text gives a full account of Christ’s undertaking, and the work he came into the world to do. Observe,
First, How he was qualified for the work: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. All the gifts and graces of the Spirit were conferred upon him, not by measure, as upon other prophets, but without measure, John iii. 34. He now came in the power of the Spirit, v. 14.
Secondly, How he was commissioned: Because he had anointed me, and sent me. His extraordinary qualification amounted to a commission; his being anointed signifies both his being fitted for the undertaking and called to it. Those whom God appoints to any service he anoints for it: “Because he hath sent me, he hath sent his Spirit along with me.”
Thirdly, What his work was. He was qualified and commissioned,
1. To be a great prophet. He was anointed to preach; that is three times mentioned here, for that was the work he was now entering upon. Observe, (1.) To whom he was to preach: to the poor; to those that were poor in the world, whom the Jewish doctors disdained to undertake the teaching of and spoke of with contempt; to those that were poor in spirit, to the meek and humble, and to those that were truly sorrowful for sin: to them the gospel and the grace of it will be welcome, and they shall have it, Matt. xi. 5. (2.) What he was to preach. In general, he must preach the gospel. He is sent euangelizesthai–to evangelize them; not only to preach to them, but to make that preaching effectual; to bring it, not only to their ears, but to their hearts, and deliver them into the mould of it. Three things he is to preach:–
[1.] Deliverance to the captives, The gospel is a proclamation of liberty, like that to Israel in Egypt and in Babylon. By the merit of Christ sinners may be loosed from the bonds of guilt, and by his Spirit and grace from the bondage of corruption. It is a deliverance from the worst of thraldoms, which all those shall have the benefit of that are willing to make Christ their Head, and are willing to be ruled by him.
[2.] Recovering of sight to the blind. He came not only by the word of his gospel to bring light to them that sat in the dark, but by the power of his grace to give sight to them that were blind; not only the Gentile world, but every unregenerate soul, that is not only in bondage, but in blindness, like Samson and Zedekiah. Christ came to tell us that he has eye-salve for us, which we may have for the asking; that, if our prayer be, Lord, that our eyes may be opened, his answer shall be, Receive your sight.
[3.] The acceptable year of the Lord, v. 19. He came to let the world know that the God whom they had offended was willing to be reconciled to them, and to accept of them upon new terms; that there was yet a way of making their services acceptable to him; that there is now a time of good will toward men. It alludes to the year of release, or that of jubilee, which was an acceptable year to servants, who were then set at liberty; to debtors, against whom all actions then dropped; and to those who had mortgaged their lands, for then they returned to them again. Christ came to sound the jubilee-trumpet; and blessed were they that heard the joyful sound, Ps. lxxxix. 15. It was an acceptable time, for it was a day of salvation.
2. Christ came to be a great Physician; for he was sent to heal the broken-hearted, to comfort and cure afflicted consciences, to give peace to those that were troubled and humbled for sins, and under a dread of God’s wrath against them for them, and to bring them to rest who were weary and heavy-laden, under the burden of guilt and corruption.
3. To be a great Redeemer. He not only proclaims liberty to the captives, as Cyrus did to the Jews in Babylon (Whoever will, may go up), but he sets at liberty them that are bruised; he doth by his Spirit incline and enable them to make use of the liberty granted, as then none did but those whose spirit God stirred up, Ezra i. 5. He came in God’s name to discharge poor sinners that were debtors and prisoners to divine justice. The prophets could but proclaim liberty, but Christ, as one having authority, as one that had power on earth to forgive sins, came to set at liberty; and therefore this clause is added here. Dr. Lightfoot thinks that, according to a liberty the Jew allowed their readers, to compare scripture with scripture, in their reading, for the explication of the text, Christ added it from Isa. lviii. 6, where it is made the duty of the acceptable year to let the oppressed go free, where the phrase the LXX. uses is the same with this here.
(4.) Here is Christ’s application of this text to himself (v. 21): When he had read it, he rolled up the book, and gave it again to the minister, or clerk, that attended, and sat down, according to the custom of the Jewish teachers; he sat daily in the temple, teaching, Matt. xxvi. 55. Now he began his discourse thus, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. This, which Isaiah wrote by way of prophecy, I have now read to you by way of history.” It now began to be fulfilled in Christ’s entrance upon his public ministry; now, in the report they heard of his preaching and miracles in other places; now, in his preaching to them in their own synagogue. It is most probable that Christ went on, and showed particularly how this scripture was fulfilled in the doctrine he preached concerning the kingdom of heaven at hand; that it was preaching liberty, and sight, and healing, and all the blessings of the acceptable year of the Lord. Many other gracious words proceeded out of his mouth, which these were but the beginning of; for Christ often preached long sermons, which we have but a short account of. This was enough to introduce a great deal: This day is this scripture fulfilled. Note, [1.] All the scriptures of the Old Testament that were to be fulfilled in the Messiah had their full accomplishment in the Lord Jesus, which abundantly proves that this was he that should come. [2.] In the providences of God, it is fit to observe the fulfilling of the scriptures. The works of God are the accomplishment not only of his secret word, but of his word revealed; and it will help us to understand both the scriptures and the providences of God to compare them one with another.
(5.) Here is the attention and admiration of the auditors.
[1.] Their attention (v. 20): The eyes of all them that were in the synagogue (and, probably, there were a great many) were fastened on him, big with expectation what he would say, having heard so much of late concerning him. Note, It is good, in hearing the word, to keep the eye fixed upon the minister by whom God is speaking to us; for, as the eye effects the heart, so, usually, the heart follows the eye, and is wandering, or fixed, as that is. Or, rather, let us learn hence to keep the eye fixed upon Christ speaking to us in and by the minister. What saith my Lord unto his servants?
[2.] Their admiration (v. 22): They all bore him witness that he spoke admirably well, and to the purpose. They all commended him, and wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth; and yet, as appears by what follows, they did not believe in him. Note, It is possible that those who are admirers of good ministers and good preaching may yet be themselves not true Christians. Observe, First, What it was they admired: The gracious words which proceedeth out of his mouth. The words of grace; good words, and spoken in a winning melting way. Note, Christ’s words are words of grace, for, grace being poured into his lips (Ps. xlv. 2), words of grace poured from them. And these words of grace are to be wondered at; Christ’s name was Wonderful, and in nothing was he more so than in his grace, in the words of his grace, and the power that went along with those words. We may well wonder that he should speak such words of grace to such graceless wretches as we are. Secondly, What it was that increased their wonder and that was the consideration of his original: They said, Is not this Joseph’s son, and therefore his extraction mean and his education mean? Some from this suggestion took occasion perhaps so much the more to admire his gracious words, concluding he must needs be taught of God, for they knew no one else had taught him; while others perhaps with this consideration corrected their wonder at his gracious words, and concluded there could be nothing really admirable in them, whatever appeared, because he was the Son of Joseph. Can any thing great, or worthy our regard, come from one so mean?
(6.) Christ’s anticipating an objection which he knew to be in the minds of many of his hearers. Observe,
[1.] What the objection was (v. 23): “You will surely say to me, Physician, heal thyself. Because you know that I am the Son of Joseph, your neighbour, you will expect that I should work miracles among you, as I have done in other places; as one would expect that a physician, if he be able, should heal, not only himself, but those of his own family and fraternity.” Most of Christ’s miracles were cures;–“Now why should not the sick in thine own city be healed as well as those in other cities?” They were designed to cure people of their unbelief;–“Now why should not the disease of unbelief, if it be indeed a disease, be cured in those of thine own city as well as in those of others? Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, that has been so much talked of, do here also in thine own country.” They were pleased with Christ’s gracious words, only because they hoped they were but the introduction to some wondrous works of his. They wanted to have their lame, and blind, and sick, and lepers, healed and helped, that the charge of their town might be eased; and that was the chief thing they looked at. They thought their own town as worthy to be the stage of miracles as any other; and why should not he rather draw company to that than to any other? And why should not his neighbours and acquaintances have the benefit of his preaching and miracles, rather than any other?
[2.] How he answers this objection against the course he took.
First, By a plain and positive reason why he would not make Nazareth his headquarters (v. 24), because it generally holds true that no prophet is accepted in his own country, at least not so well, nor with such probability of doing good, as in some other country; experience seals this. When prophets have been sent with messages and miracles of mercy, few of their own country-men, that have known their extraction and education, have been fit to receive them. So Dr. Hammond. Familiarity breeds contempt; and we are apt to think meanly of those whose conversation we have been accustomed to; and they will scarcely be duly honoured as prophets who were well known when they were in the rank of private men. That is most esteemed that is far-fetched and dear-bought, above what is home-bred, though really more excellent. This arises likewise from the envy which neighbours commonly have towards one another, so that they cannot endure to see him their superior whom awhile ago they took to be every way their inferior. For this reason, Christ declined working miracles, or doing any thing extraordinary, at Nazareth, because of the rooted prejudices they had against him there.
Secondly, By pertinent examples of two of the most famous prophets of the Old Testament, who chose to dispense their favours among foreigners rather than among their own countrymen, and that, no doubt, by divine direction. 1. Elijah maintained a widow of Sarepta, a city of Sidon, one that was a stranger to the commonwealth of Israel, when there was a famine in the land,Luk 4:25; Luk 4:26. The story we have 1 Kings xvii. 9, c. It is said there that the heaven was shut up three years and six months whereas it is said, 1 Kings xviii. 1, that in the third year Elijah showed himself to Ahab, and there was rain; but that was not the third year of the drought, but the third year of Elijah’s sojourning with the widow of Sarepta. As God would hereby show himself a Father of the fatherless, and a Judge of the widows, so he would show that he was rich in mercy to all, even to the Gentiles. 2. Elisha cleansed Naaman the Syrian of his leprosy, though he was a Syrian, and not only a foreigner, but an enemy to Israel (v. 27); Many lepers were in Israel in the days of Eliseus, four particularly, that brought the news of the Syrians’ raising the siege of Samaria with precipitation, and leaving the plunder of their tents to enrich Samaria, when Elisha was himself in the besieged city, and this was the accomplishment of his prophecy too; see 2Ki 7:1; 2Ki 7:3, c. And yet we do not find that Elisha cleansed them, no not for a reward of their service, and the good tidings they brought, but only the Syrian for none besides had faith to apply himself to the prophet for a cure. Christ himself often met with greater faith among Gentiles than in Israel. And here he mentions both these instances, to show that he did not dispense the favour of his miracles by private respect, but according to God’s wise appointment. And the people of Israel might as justly have said to Elijah, or Elisha, as the Nazarenes to Christ, Physician, heal thyself. Nay, Christ wrought his miracles, though not among his townsmen, yet among Israelites, whereas these great prophets wrought theirs among Gentiles. The examples of the saints, though they will not make a bad action good, yet will help to free a good action from the blame of exceptious people.
2. How he was persecuted at Nazareth.
(1.) That which provoked them was his taking notice of the favour which God by Elijah and Elisha showed to the Gentiles: When they heard these things, they were filled with wrath (v. 28), they were all so; a great change since v. 22, when they wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth; thus uncertain are the opinions and affections of the multitude, and so very fickle. If they had mixed faith with those gracious words of Christ which they wondered at, they would have been awakened by these latter words of his to take heed of sinning away their opportunities; but those only pleased the ear, and went no further, and therefore these grated on the ear, and irritated their corruptions. They were angry that he should compare himself, whom they knew to be the son of Joseph, with those great prophets, and compare them with the men of that corrupt age, when all had bowed the knee to Baal. But that which especially exasperated them was that he intimated some kindness God had in reserve for the Gentiles, which the Jews could by no means bear the thoughts of, Acts xxii. 21. Their pious ancestors pleased themselves with the hopes of adding the Gentiles to the church (witness many of David’s psalms and Isaiah’s prophecies); but this degenerate race, when they had forfeited the covenant themselves, hated to think that any others should be taken in.
(2.) They were provoked to that degree that they made an attempt upon his life. This was a severe trial, now at his setting out, but a specimen of the usage he met with when he came to his own, and they received him not. [1.] They rose up in a tumultuous manner against him, interrupted him in his discourse, and themselves in their devotions, for they could not stay until their synagogue-worship was over. [2.] They thrust him out of the city, as one not worthy to have a residence among them, though there he had had a settlement so long. They thrust from them the Saviour and the salvation, as if he had been the offscouring of all things. How justly might he have called for fire from heaven upon them! But this was the day of his patience. [3.] They led him to the brow of the hill, with a purpose to throw him down headlong, as one not fit to live. Though they knew how inoffensively he had for so many years lived among them, how shining his conversation had been,–though they had heard such a fame of him and had but just now themselves admired his gracious words,–though in justice he ought to have been allowed a fair hearing and liberty to explain himself, yet they hurried him away in a popular fury, or frenzy rather, to put him to death in a most barbarous manner. Sometimes they were ready to stone him for the good works he did (John x. 32), here for not doing the good works they expected from him. To such a height of wickedness was violence sprung up.
(3.) Yet he escaped, because his hour was not yet come: He passed through the midst of them unhurt. Either he blinded their eyes, as God did those of the Sodomites and Syrians, or he bound their hands, or filled them with confusion, so that they could not do what they designed; for his work was not done, it was but just begun; his hour was not yet come, when it was come, he freely surrendered himself. They drove him from them, and he went his way. He would have gathered Nazareth, but they would not, and therefore their house is left to them desolate. This added to the reproach of his being Jesus of Nazareth, that not only it was a place whence no good thing was expected, but that it was such a wicked, rude place, and so unkind to him. Yet there was a providence in it, that he should not be much respected by the men of Nazareth, for that would have looked like a collusion between him and his old acquaintance; but now, though they received him not, there were those that did.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Returned (). Luke does not fill in the gap between the temptations in the wilderness of Judea and the Galilean Ministry. He follows the outline of Mark. It is John’s Gospel alone that tells of the year of obscurity (Stalker) in various parts of the Holy Land.
In the power of the Spirit ( ). Luke in these two verses (Luke 4:14; Luke 4:15) gives a description of the Galilean Ministry with three marked characteristics (Plummer): the power of the spirit, rapid spread of Christ’s fame, use of the Jewish synagogues. Luke often notes the power of the Holy Spirit in the work of Christ. Our word dynamite is this same word (power).
A fame (). An old Greek word found in the N.T. only here and Mt 9:26. It is from , to say. Talk ran rapidly in every direction. It assumes the previous ministry as told by John.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
JESUS RETURN TO NAZARETH, ENTERS THE SYNAGOGUE (Rejected) V. 14-29
1) “And Jesus returned,” (hupestrepsen ho lesous) “And Jesus returned,” very soon or shortly thereafter, from Judaea where He had been baptized, fasted, and been tempted, Mat 3:15-17; Luk 3:21-22; Mat 4:1-11.
2) “In the power of the Spirit into Galilee:” (en te dunamei tou pneumatos eis ten Galilaian) “In the dynamic power of the spirit into Galilee,” Mat 4:12, where most of His ministry was spent, Luk 23:5; Act 10:37. He returned with fresh, renewed strength, having been baptized, having overcome Satan, and ministered to by angels, Mat 4:11; Heb 1:14.
3) “And there went out a fame,” (kai phene ekselthen) “And there went forth a rumor,” a report of fame, a favorable report, Mat 4:24. This came as a result of two things: 1) His teaching, 2) His miracle working.
4) “Of him through all the region round about.” (kath’ holes tes perichomou peri autou) “Concerning him throughout all the country-area near about,” reaching into Syria, from where sick were brought to Him, Mat 4:24.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CHRIST AT CHURCH
Luke 4:14-32
THE life of Jesus is not a diary. Neither Matthew, Mark, Luke nor Johnthe four men who were so inspired by this matchless personage as to write each a brief record of His life, attempts a daily chronology. They were not mere computers of time; they are recorders of incidents instead; reporters of great pivotal points in the greatest of all personal history.
The temptation finished, they have called our attention first of all to the Galilean ministry, upon which He entered in the power of the Spirit. The minor incidents of that Galilean ministry they made little or nothing of; but when He works a work such as man had never accomplished, or speaks such a word as mortal tongue never uttered, they record it. Hence the record of the water made wine at Cana, and the inclusive statement, He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
His visit to Nazareth had in it so many elements of interest that the synoptical writers could not disregard it. Since Luke gives us the fullest report we have selected our text from his Gospel. This report fairly embarks Him upon His Messianic mission; and the place of His beginning work, was, as the prophets had foretold, in Galilee of the Gen-tiles.
This simple, straightforward record is both suggestive and instructive. It involves His knowledge of the Scriptures: the rejection by His neighbors: and His departure from Nazareth.
HIS KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCRIPTURES.
And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and, as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto Him the Book of the Prophet Esaias. And when He had opened the Book, He found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind; to set at liberty them, that are bruised; to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And He closed the Book and gave it again to the minister and sat down.
He was no stranger to the temple service. The little phrase, As His custom was is indicative of His early education, as well as of His personal habits. His parents were not infidels; nor yet indifferent members of Israel; they did not belong to the crowd who go to church only when attracted by the new bonnets of the Easter season; or by the special program of music at the Christmas time. They were not of that eminently respectable company who felt that they ought to be found in their pews at the dignified service of Sunday morning; but not at any other time. They were of that inner circle known to every church, and without which the pastors success would be impossible; they could be depended upon for practically every service, and they took the lad with them. They believed that children should attend upon the public ministry of the Word, and to all the knowledge that He might have gathered from their reading of the Scriptures in the family devotions, and to all that He might have gotten from a special teacher in a special class, they proposed to add that which He might receive also from the public temple service. And, in this judgment, father and mother agreed, while Joseph lived; and after His death, the devout widow was doubtless more diligent still in cultivating the religious life of her growing lad.
It seems strange that any father or mother who has ever had any experience in grace should be either blind or indifferent to the sweetness and strength that properly conducted religious services are sure to contribute to developing character. There are those who seem to think that the mental education is altogether the important process; that nothing must interfere with the childs school attendance; but that his spiritual equipment is a matter of minor concern. They can attend church, or not, as they like; adopt the custom of going or staying at home, as they please; and parents utter no protest, and apparently feel no disappointment. Fools we are to the correction of the stocks. We have longed for our children to be wholesome, strong, successful in life, and we ignore the chief element in all growththe cultivation of the soul.
And yet again, Jesus, the man, did not belong to that company who publicly say that the reason for non-church attendance is that they grew tired and sick of sacred services in their youth, that their parents compelled them to go so much that they learned to loathe the very sight of a church house; and so often, that they fell under the weakness of the flesh from which they have never recovered.
It is doubtful if His parents ever had to compel Him to go. There were few Sundays in my youth that I ever missed church. I do not recall a single instance in which my father or mother ever compelled me to attend. The lad in the house who, because there were not horses enough to go around the entire family was, once in a while, left behind, was enduring a great hardship; and many a time we rode double rather than be deprived the pleasure of the sanctuary. If a bright, interesting church service is a bore, may it not indicate an utterly rebellious heart?
Nor did Jesus belong to that company of men who will tell you that they attended church once and the people did not speak to them; and that the inhospitality froze the blood in their veins. A second trial might succeed better. Rev. Joseph Weston tells of the time when he attended church in New York City, and found no welcome. He remained to Sunday School. But not a hand was extended. Years have intervened since that day, but the memory of its loneliness still lies like a shadow over the mind. Churchmen, take heed and be cured of that cold treatment of the stranger. But that lad was wise enough to go again and that night, the same day when the evening was come, he testifies that no sooner had he reached the inside of the room than W. B. Templeton, that nobleman who was a worshipper at the Calvary Church, met him at the door, extended his hand, and said, You are a stranger here. I give you welcome. Come with me and let me give you a good seat. We like young men here, and we are glad to have you present. How much Templetons welcome had to do with Westons religious life, and even his entry upon the ministry, who can tell?
Had Weston dropped out after that first morning I should have accounted him a weakling. The young man who attempts an education and gives up after the first failure, or any business enterprise, and gives up because he does not do well from the first moment, is doomed; and this truth has its spiritual counterpart. Oh, but, says some one, I was even ordered out of a pew at church; and hence, I have no disposition to return. They tell us that years ago a scholarly-looking man, plainly dressed, came into a church in Holland, and took a seat. A few minutes later a haughty woman went up to the pew, and seeing a stranger in it, ordered him out by an imperious gesture. He quickly obeyed, and going into one of the pews reserved for the poor, he listened devoutly to the service. After it was over the ladys friends gathered around her and asked her why she had treated the king so. She replied, King? I saw no king! But it was King Oscar of Sweden that you ordered out of the pew. He is in this country visiting the Queen, and had taken his seat in your pew, thereby honoring you as you were never honored before, and you have done yourself an injustice in ordering out the royal visitor. You can imagine her mortification. The truth is that every time a pew is rented to anybody it is an unjustifiable barter in sacred things; and the additional truth is that every time a pew renter demands his rights and drives forth from it any man he orders out the King of Glory, for inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these, My brethren, ye did it unto Me, is the language of Christ. And yet, the great King Oscar of Sweden had too much sense to stop all visits to the sanctuary because one puny soul had purchased a pew there. No, not one of these customs, nor all of them, obtained with Jesus. He was an habitual attendant upon the synagogue services.
Again, He was splendidly familiar with the Sacred Scriptures.
There was delivered unto Him the Book of the Prophet Esaias. And when He had opened the Book, He found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
He could find the place. He was not lost when an open Bible was before Him. He knew its contents well, as is illustrated in His repeated reference to the Scriptures, and even His copious quotations from them.
It has become the custom, in this country now, to laugh at the ignorance of the Bible on the part of University and college students. Dr. L. W. Munhall, some years ago, called attention to an experience in our own Minneapolis Public Schools. The pupils were reading Evangeline, and when asked to tell what the lines, And crowed the cock with the self-same voice that in ages of old had startled Peter meant, twenty-two answers were submitted and only one was correct. He reports a freshman class in an Indiana college who were assigned the Book of Job as the subject for an essay and they went to the public library and asked for it, never dreaming that it was in the Bible; and says that in Northwestern University, a Methodist School, ninety-six men and women, mostly from the higher classes, were examined and thirty-six could not define the Pentateuch; forty did not know the Book of Jude was in the New Testament; thirty-three could not name the patriarchs of the Old Testament, fifty-one could not name one of the Judges; forty-nine could not name three kings of Israel; forty-four could not name three prophets; twenty could not write a beatitude; sixty-five could not write a verse from Romans; for Judges they named Solomon, Jeremiah, Daniel, and Lazarus; for the prophets they named Matthew, Luke, Herod, and Ananias. This trial has been often repeated in more recent days with little improvement.
Ignorance on the part of young men and women concerning the Word is an extremely serious matter; and yet that they stand not alone in this was made clear some years ago when one of the leading editors of America, on hearing a discussion of Mendelssohns oratorio1 of Elijah inquired, Who was Elijah? About that time Mr. Stead went over to Paris and arranged for the translation of his pamphlet on Peace and a cabinet minister seriously advised him to omit the reference to Cain, because he did not think the French would know who Cain was. In the London House of Commons Mr. Wyndham told how David created his army by hiding his men by fifties in a cave. Mr. Balfour, the champion of definite religious teaching in the elementary schools, referred to Aaron as having his hands supported by one on either side; and appeared to think that two babies were involved in the judgment of Solomon. Afterward a member of the House approached a Free Church representative and asked him who it was that hid his men by fifties in a cave, and when informed that it was Obadiah, he remarked, Obadiah? I never heard of him.
When the family altar falls down and the youth of the land attend church with irregularity, ignorance of the Word of God is the only possible result. It is little wonder that men are skeptical when they know so little of the Scriptures and easy dupes of every fad of faith promulgated when they have no biblical knowledge upon which to rest as a foundation; or by which to define an intelligent faith. The injunction of Jesus is the sore need of the twentieth centurySearch the Scriptures. The souls of men will never be saved apart from Scripture knowledge; the Church of God will never acquire strength apart from the same; and the cause of God will never conquer save as men follow the example of their Master and make themselves familiar with His Holy Word. It is the solitary lamp for their feet, the supreme light on their pathway.
He was capable of its proper interpretation.
And He closed the Book and gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And He began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Men may debate as long as they please the meaning of this passage and that, taken from any one of the great volumes of the Word. Some of Shakespeares sentences are capable of two or more interpretations; exactly what was meant by them, we may never know, for Shakespeare is dead; but if he could be brought back to life in all the fullness of his faculties, and asked the meaning, his answer would forever settle debate. The author of a sentence knows the meaning of the same. Christ was the Author of the WordChrist was the Word In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God; and the Word was God. When He speaks, let others keep silent. What blasphemy it is for a modern University president to say, Of the Old Testament Scriptures Christ was as ignorant as Thomas Aquinas was of the modern electric light. Thomas Aquinas was not the author of the modern electric light; Christ was the Author of the Old Testament Scriptures. Of them it is as true as of any part of the physical universe, Without Him was not anything made that was made. And when He said, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears, He interpreted it correctly and proved it conclusively.
Hushed be the noise and the strife of the schools,Volume and pamphlet, sermon and speech,The lips of the wise and the prattle of fools;Let the Son of Man teach!
Who has the key to the Future but He,Who can unravel the knots of the skein?We have groaned and have travailed and sought to be free: We have travailed in vain.
Bewildered, dejected, and prone to despair To Him as at first do we turn and beseech:Our ears are all opened; give heed to our prayer!O Son of Man, teach!
But we pass to the second suggestion:
HIS REJECTION BY HIS NEIGHBORS.
They said, Is not this Josephs son? And He said unto them, Ye will surely say unto Me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself; whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Thy country. And He said, Verily, I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them were cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synagogue when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust Him out of the city, and led Him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong (Luk 4:22-29).
His words profoundly impressed them.
All bare Him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.
His own townsmen must have felt within themselves that day as other enemies later expressed themselves, Never man spake like this Man. They marvelled the more because they knew Him; and they knew that He had not had the advantages of a common school, even of that hour; and they knew that He had had no instruction in elocution. The grace of His speech and the power of the same at once charmed and amazed them; and the main topic held their interest intent, for it was the theme of messiahship, the one subject in which they were more interested than in any or all others. To speak to the Jew of his Messianic hope is to start vibrating every string of the heart. Mr. Fellman, a converted Jew, speaking before our Bible Conference once wisely said, Do not preach a crucified Christ to Jews; preach to them the Coming Lord. They have little interest in a malefactor. The orthodox Jew is forever chained by his conception of a Messiah and so long as Jesus kept Himself to that subject, His words had a gracious sound; but the moment He said, I am He, the fashion of every Jewish countenance changed; and the claim which they interpreted to be a blasphemy struck them to a frenzy. If they had been profoundly impressed by the graciousness of His speech a deeper impression was made now by the egoism of His claims, and they swung from silent, intense interest to violent and vocal opposition. The most profound impression is not always peaceful; the most potent Gospel is not usually a sleeping powder.
The great Joseph Parker is quoting from the lips of people to whom we have all listened when he says: Hear the trumpet criticism of this day The sermon was so quiet, so delightfully quiet. The preacher was so pleasing, so tranquil, so composed, he never betrayed the faintest excitement! Or hear again in another form, I like him; his sermons are so comforting, healing; how richly he dwells upon the Divine promises; how aptly and happily he applied them to human necessities. Yes, there is room for all that kind of preaching! Christ sometimes did it; and every good man should sometimes do it. The world is full of sorrow; heartbreaks are a multitude, and the pouring out of oil is on occasion the preachers business; the binding up of the brokenhearted is a work so sweet, so gracious, that the Son of Man gave Himself unreservedly to it; but let no man forget that there are times when the thunders roar and the lightnings flash should also be in the sermon. Let no man forget that there are occasions for the sentences that will cut like a knife; for the very storming of the strongholds of iniquity; for royal battle against false beliefs, for criticism of the fox-like Herods and the cringing Pilates; for excoriation of the professedly pious, but inwardly rotten Pharisees of the world.
The man who reads the history of the great preachers of the past will find them sons of consolation and also sons of thunder. As one has suggested, Study the life of George Fox, one of the journals of John Wesley, or the biography of George Whitfield, or the more recent story of Charles Spurgeon and General Booth. Truly, as Parker remarks, God is full-orbed, now soft as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes, and now a wind that silences Euroclydon.
He declined their demands for miracles.
And He said unto them, Ye will surely say unto Me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself; whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Thy country, etc. (Luk 4:23-29).
One of the strange things about the conduct of Jesus, and yet to the mature judgment, one of the admirable things, was that He never created miracles on demand. When Herod had Him within his possession he questioned Him in many words, but He answered him nothing; and wrought for him no marvel. When certain of the Scribes and Pharisees said, We will see a sign from Thee, He replied, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh for a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but that of the Prophet Jonah.
There are some sects that must live on signs; and can only live by persistent reproduction of the same. Let it be understood that while Christ was the Mighty God, able to make wine from water, rebuke fever, cleanse the leper, raise the dead, and often did these things, He never did them on demand; and He never permitted His disciples to parade them when once they were done. The Christian Science testimony meeting is as distinctly removed from any assembly recorded in the New Testament as could be imagined.
The teaching of Dr. Dowie appealed to me; he knew much of Gods Word, and he knew it well, and in spirit he was no coward; but his claim that Thy will be done should be stricken from our prayer, that we should convert Gods promises into demands, were without Biblical example; and I fear, equally without sacred promise.
Christ experienced the wrath of resentment. Neighbors, like people, are more or less conceited. The pride of locality is almost as strong as pride of family. The fact that Christ had wrought miracles in Capernaum and refused them in Nazareth, looked to His fellow-townsmen like a silent criticism of the little city, and they rebelled. Remembering the precipitous sides of the mountain just beyond the limits of the town, they pushed Him hither, and would have flung Him down to His death. This is another instance of the insecurity of the public judgment, One moment it is charmed; in the next it chafes; in one hour it is crying, Crown Him Lord of all! and in the next it has actually taken His crucifixion in hand. Vox Populi is not always Vox Dei; and the truth remains till this hour almost as potent as in the day of Christ, that a prophet is not without honor save in his own country and among his own people. So mean is the judgment of the best of us, and so intense our easy prejudices!
But He, passing through the midst of them, went His way.
The passage marks
HIS DEPARTURE FROM NAZARETH.
Two or three things are suggested by it in the Scriptures that follow.
First of all, He seems to have walked away unmolested. There is no declaration here that a miracle was wrought; no claim that He was lifted into heaven; that He passed down through the earth; or that He was certainly made invisible. I have no question in my mind that when He passed through the midst of them, they fell back to a man, made afraid by the majesty of His face. Such an interpretation harmonizes with much that is found in the Word. On one occasion the Jews in the temple took up stones to stone Him, but those stones fell from nerveless grasp; on another, the Pharisees of the Sanhedrin proposed His arrest as He taught in public during the feast of the tabernacle at Jerusalem; but they never attempted it. On the night of His betrayal an armed band of enemies were round about Him, but when He suddenly stood full before them, they fell to the ground like men in a faint. Wherever Jesus walks the conscious ones are over-awed; the person of Christ makes vaunting impossible; renders boasting unlikely, and takes all natural bravery from the heart. The man who comes into His holy temple on the Lords Day does well to bow himself and in a holy hush, await silently the coming of the Son of God.
But the profound pity about this departure from Nazareth is:
He was quitting the place once for all. On other occasions Jesus was literally driven from neighborhoods to which He offered His services. In the country of the Gadarene, after He wrought the miracle of healing the man in the tombs, by casting out of him a legion of devils, and these had entered the swine and driven them into the sea, where they were drowned; They that fed them saw what was done, they fled, and went and told it in the city and to the owners doubtlessand they went out to see what was done, and they came to Jesus and besought Him that He would depart out of their coasts; and we read that Jesus passed over again by ship unto the other side. In other words, He went!
Christ is not compelling men to pay Him tribute; Christ is not -forcing Himself upon people who do not want Him; Christ is actually departing from those who pray Him so to do. When Jehovah found Ephraim joined to his idols He let him alone! When He found the heart of Saul set to do evil, He removed His spirit from him; when He saw that the antediluvians would not respond to Him, He said, My Spirit shall not always strive with man, and He turned them over to a reprobate mind.
Some people think it a simple sin to reject Jesus; but remember, the mighty consequences for Nazareth for His final departure; and be careful how you entreat Him to go away.
But the Scriptures following present a truthful contrast.
He located where He was expected. After passing through the midst of them He went His way and came down to Capernaum and taught them on the Sabbath days. And from that hour His home was Capernaum. Capernaum was a city favored beyond its sisters; a city in whose streets many marvelous works were wrought; and whose citizens were privileged such teaching as the world had never heard beside. Oh, Capernaum, thou art exalted unto Heaven! So is every city that gives to Christ a cordial reception; so is every house that keeps for Him open doors; so is every soul that shows Him hospitality.
Let the Saviour in!
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
CRITICAL NOTES
Luk. 4:14. Returned.I.e. from Juda. Galilee.The main centre of our Lords ministry (cf. Act. 10:37; Luk. 23:5). In the power of the Spirit.Fresh strength gained from His victory in the wilderness. A fame.The ground of this is given in Luk. 4:15.
Luk. 4:16. And He came to Nazareth.It is almost certain that this is the visit recorded in Mat. 13:53-58 and Mar. 6:1-6. These latter inform us that disciples accompanied Him and that He healed a few sick persons. As His custom was.I.e. the custom of attending the service, not necessarily of reading the lessons.
Luk. 4:17. The book.I.e. the roll. Opened.Lit. unrolled. Found the place.This seems to imply either that He accidentally lighted upon the passage or specially selected it, and not that it was part of the stated lesson for the day. The present order of lessons in the synagogue service is of a very much later date than this; so that we cannot discover by reference to it what particular Sabbath this was.
Luk. 4:18-19.The words are from Isa. 61:1-2, freely quoted from the LXX., supplemented by a passage from Isa. 58:6. To heal the brokenhearted.These words are not found in the best MSS. of the Gospel; omitted in R.V. The acceptable year of the Lord.I.e. the definite time in which the Lord is gracious.
Luk. 4:20. The minister.I.e. the attendant [chazzan], who brought the sacred volume to the reader and restored it to its place. Sat down.They read the Holy Scriptures standing [an attitude of respect], and taught sitting [an attitude of authority] (Speakers Commentary).
Luk. 4:21. And He began to say, etc.This was the theme of His discourse: that He was the Messiah [anointed One] of whom the prophet spoke. It is evident from Luk. 4:22 that He expatiated at some length on this topic.
Luk. 4:22. Bare Him witness.By expressing wonder and admiration. Gracious words.Reference is to the persuasive beauty and not to the ethical character of His words. Is not this Josephs son?This marks a change of feelingcontempt and envy beginning to overcome admiration.
Luk. 4:23. Physician, heal Thyself.The best modern equivalent of this proverb is, Charity begins at home: Do something for Thine own countrymen. It may, however, mean, Do something for Yourself, work a miracle here, and save Yourself from being rejected by us. Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum.There is no record in the Gospels of the miracles wrought at Capernaum to which reference is here made. They must belong to the period indicated in Joh. 2:12.
Luk. 4:24.No prophet is received in his own country, as he is elsewhere; and it is Gods way to send His messengers to strangers, as in the case of Elijah and Elisha, who were sent to be the ministers of Gods mercy to Gentiles (Speakers Commentary).
Luk. 4:25. Three years and six months.So in Jas. 5:17; in 1 King Luk. 18:1 three years are spoken of, but we do not know the terminus a quo from which they are reckoned; if from the flight of Elijah to Zarephath, the time would correspond with that here specified.
Luk. 4:26. Sarepta.I.e. Zarephath (1Ki. 18:9): a village half-way between Tyre and Sidon.
Luk. 4:29.Dean Stanley points out the accuracy of the description given of Nazareth in this place, though at first sight there seems to be inaccuracy. Most readers probably from these words imagine a town built on the summit of a mountain, from which summit the intended precipitation was to take place. This is not the situation of Nazareth. Yet its position is still in accordance with the narrative. It is built upon, that is, on the side of, a mountain; but the brow is not beneath but over the town, and such a cliff as is here implied is to be found in the abrupt face of the limestone rock, about thirty or forty feet high, at the south-west corner of the town, and another at a little farther distance (Sinai and Palestine, x.).
Luk. 4:30.A miraculous occurrence is evidently implied. The Nazarenes had Him in their grasp; so that the awe with which a dignified demeanour might impress a furious crowd and keep them within bounds would not account for His deliverance on this occasion.
CRITICAL NOTES
Luk. 4:15. Mused.Rather, reasoned, debated. The absence of outward splendour occasioned doubts as to whether John could be the promised Messiah; the holiness of his life and the authority with which he spoke suggested to some that he might be the Sent of God. This verse is peculiar to St. Luke but is equivalent to what is said in Joh. 1:19-25.
Luk. 4:16. Latchet.I.e. thong or lace. Shoes.Rather, sandals.
Luk. 4:17. Fan The Latin vannus, a great shovel with which corn was thrown up against the wind to separate it from the chaff (Farrar). Floor.I.e. threshing-floor (R.V.).
Luk. 4:18. Preached.Lit. evangelised the peopleproclaimed good tidings to them. With many other exhortations, therefore, preached he good tidings unto the people (R.V.). The allusion seems to be to the announcement of Christs coming or to references of Him, which underlay the Baptists teaching.
Luk. 4:19.The imprisonment of John is mentioned by anticipation. Cf. this passage with the fuller notices in Mat. 14:3-5; Mar. 6:17-20. Philips.Omit Philip (R.V.), his brothers wife. The first husband of Herodias was named Herod, and was a private citizen living in Rome. He was probably called Philip to distinguish him from Herod Antipas (cf. Mar. 6:17).
Luk. 4:20.It is interesting to find the same estimate of Herods conduct towards John in the history of Josephus (Antt., XVIII. Luk. 4:1-4). Prison.The Jewish historian tells us that the scene of Johns imprisonment was the fortress of Machrus, on the north of the Dead Sea.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Luk. 4:14-30
The Acceptable Year of the Lord.St. Lukes Gospel, which represents Christ as the Son of man, keeps up the note struck in its accounts of the birth and youth by giving as His first reported discourse this one, in the place where He had been brought up, and in the synagogue into which it had been His custom from childhood to enter on the Sabbath. It was a natural feeling which drew Him thither, that He might win disciples among the companions of His boyhood. The rumour of His miracles in Capernaum heightened His reputation among His fellow-villagers. One can fancy the curious looks of the congregation, and the busy remembrances filling His heart on that Sabbath. In the discourse He delivered, Christ described the nature of the work He had to do as Messiah, and intimated that the Gentile world would welcome the blessings which the Jews valued so lightly. St. Luke gives a brief outline of both topics of discourse, and describes the effect produced upon the hearers by each.
I. Christs conception of His work.Whether the passage He read was from the usual lesson for the day or not we cannot tell. But it is significant that He stopped in the middle of a verse, and said nothing about the day of vengeance of our God, as if He would keep the sweet and radiant side of His mission unshaded by any terror. After reading the words of the prophet He declared at length His claims to be the Messiah. Note
1. How definite and complete His conception of His work is from the first. He knew what He had come to be and do. His aims neither cleared nor grew, but were sun-clear and world-wide from the beginning. That is not the experience of Gods other servants. They are led by undreamed-of ways to an end which they never foresaw. But Jesus had no mist on His future, nor any unconsciousness of His significance. Note
2. Christs great theme was always Himself. His demand is not, Believe this or that which I tell, but, Believe in Me; and there in the synagogue, among those who had seen Him as a child, and played with Him in the streets, and known Him as the carpenter, He begins His ministry by proclaiming that the great prophecy is fulfilled in Him. If this is not the speech of incarnate Divinity, it is the boasting of arrogant egotism. He is conscious of possessing the Divine Spirit. It is the permanent effect of the sign at His baptism. Note
3. The view of mens condition implied. They are poor, captives, blind, bruised. The loving, sad eye is already looking on humanity with clear insight and yearning pity. Mark the calm consciousness of power to grapple with and overcome all these miseries. There stands a humble Galilan peasant, and singly fronts a world full of wretchedness, blindness, bondage, and bruises, and asserts that power to remedy them all is in Him. Was He right or wrong? If He was right, what and who is He?
II. The effect produced on the hearers.They bare Him witness. Something in their hearts was stirred by the gracious manner as well as substance of His words, and endorsed His claims and drew the hearers towards Him. That inward witness speaks still. Will the testimony within be listened to or stifled? Life and death hang on the answer. The balance wavers for a moment, and then goes the wrong way. A cold jet of criticism is turned on; and when the hearers got to saying, Is not this Josephs son? (which He was not), all was over. Let us take heed how we deal with the witness of our own hearts to Jesus; for we too are in danger of drowning its voice by noisy prejudices and inclinations.
III. Christ passes to the thought of His world-wide mission.The handful of Nazarenes becomes representative of the nation, and their rejection of Him the occasion of the blessings passing to the heathen. If Jesus had not long been familiar with this thought, it could not have come to Him now so quickly nor so clearly, nor been announced so decisively and calmly. Obviously He entered on His ministry with the consciousness that His kingdom was as wide as humanity, and His blessings meant for all the lonely and diseased everywhere. Note, too, how His mind is saturated with Scripture: it was His weapon in His desert conflict, and it is His unanswerable demonstration that Israels prophets carry blessings to Gentiles. He selects His examples from the hereditary enemies of Israel, and not only hints at the inclusion of the alien, but He plainly tells of the exclusion of the Jew. In this lay the sting of the examples.
IV. The anger of the Nazarenes.Their interest had quickly cooled. The carping question, and the craving for miracle, had effectually damped the incipient admiration. No doubt the words of prophecy had stirred some hopes of mere political freedom; and if He had preached revolt, He might have beat up a following. But this declaration that the outside heathen were to have a share in the healing, sight, and liberty which He proclaimed extinguished all the dreams of a political Messiah; and that helped to make the Nazarenes the angrier. They rose up, interrupting the synagogue service, and, in the whirlwind of their fury, drag Him to some cliff high enough to kill any one thrown over it.
Let us learn how little the mere familiarity with Christ in the flesh availed to open mens eyes to His beauty, and let us beware lest a similar familiarity with the letter of the record of His life may equally blind us to our need of Him, and His Divine authority over us, and Divine power to help and heal us. Let us take heed that we yield to and follow out the stirrings of conviction in our inmost hearts; and remember, for warning against dealing lightly with these, that the same people who one half-hour bare witness to Jesus, and wondered at His gracious words, were ready to fling Him over the rock the next, and, so far as we know, lost Him for ever when He passed through their midst and went His way. That way led Him unto the wide world. It leads Him to each heart that is sad and sore, and brings Him to our doors with hands pierced and laden with blessings.Maclaren.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk. 4:14-30
Luk. 4:14. Power of the Spirit.Strengthened by His victory over temptation. And now, the way being clear before Him, with God as His assured ally and Satan as His open foe, Jesus moves forward to the field of battle (Godet).
Fame.I.e. on account of
(1) His teaching, and
(2) of His miracles (cf. Luk. 4:23).
The Return with Power.The power was the power of the Spirit in which He returned to His own land. Who would not desire to be such a power in the world? Whence comes this ability? Where shall we win the subtle secret of such a power? The best gifts can neither be bought nor commanded. This power is of the very essence of a mans nature: it must radiate from his spirit.
I. The power which Jesus wielded was drawn forth in the experience of the wilderness.The wilderness and the temptation preceded the gracious words. No man gets power except in conflict; conflict is the schoolroom where power and courage are learned. This principle is true in the material world and in the world of mind. Pain and isolation discipline the spirit. No man is strong who has not learned to live alone. But
II. Loneliness is not enough.It is not because Jesus spent forty days in solitude that He was strong. It was because of the power which He matured in the wildernessthe power of living not by the earthly but by the heavenly law.
III. Our Lord shows that there is a heavenly light in ordinary human life.Our Lord had gone into the wilderness to bring hope to men. There was no lot in which God was not. This day, He cried, the hindering ills and the oppressive sorrows of life may disappear.Carpenter.
Luk. 4:15. Synagogues.In spite of the religious degeneracy of the Jewish people of this time, the word of God was still read publicly and endeavours made to elucidate its teaching and apply it to the hearts and lives of those who heard it.
Luk. 4:16-30. An Epitome of the History of Jesus.The whole scene in the synagogue at Nazareth from beginning to end is full of typical significance. Commencing with evangelic discourse, and closing with death-perils, it may be said to be an epitome of the history of Jesus. And for that very reason it is introduced here by the Evangelist at so early a place in his narrative. Luke selects it for the frontispiece of his Gospel, showing by sample the salient features of its contents.Bruce.
Christ an Example to Teachers
I. In His spirit of devotedness.
II. In His being filled with the Spirit.
III. In His custom of frequenting the synagogue.
IV. In His knowledge of and aptness to teach the word.
V. In His utterance of words of grace.Hone.
Where He had been brought up.It was a trying visit, for few tasks are harder than to give Gods message to ones own relatives and intimate friends, especially when they are in no mood to receive it.Blaikie.
Luk. 4:16. Church Attendance. As His custom was.There are many evidences that Jesus had fixed religious habits. Attending the weekly synagogue worship had been His custom from childhood; and although He was the Son of God, and had been manifested as the Messiah, He still continued to observe the custom. He went there to worship God, not to find an intellectual entertainment. The inconsistencies of His fellow-worshippers did not keep Him from the services. If He needed the means of grace, surely we need them far more.Miller.
Jesus a Lover of the House of God.It is strange to think of Jesus being preached to Sabbath after Sabbath during these silent years at Nazareth. What was the man like to whom Jesus listened? When He began His public work, He still regularly frequented the synagogue. This was in fact the centre from which His work developed itself. It is thus evident that Jesus was a passionate lover of the house of God. As the Scripture was read, the great and good of former ages thronged around Him; nay, heaven itself was in that narrow place for Him.Stalker.
Christ an Example as a Worshipper.There is a strong argument to be drawn from the example of Christ for attendance upon public worship on the day of rest. If He made a point of being present at the reading and exposition of Scripture, and of joining with others in worship of God, how much more should we attend to this duty. It was His customnot mere obedience to a rule imposed by ecclesiastical authoritybut a way of employing the Sabbath which He found to be for edification. The narrative seems to imply that this was the first time He had addressed the people of Nazareth: we are therefore to conceive of this as an occasion of special solemnity in the life of Jesus.
Stood up.Attitude of respect adopted by the Jews in reading the Scriptures: the attitude of sitting while engaged in teaching (Luk. 4:20) implies authority (cf. Mat. 23:2).
Luk. 4:18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me.This, it has been often noticed, contains a statement of the doctrine of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, operating distinctly but harmoniously in effecting mans salvation.
He hath anointed Me.The meaning of this prophetic citation may be better seen when we remember that it stands in the middle of the third great division of the Book of Isaiah (4966), that, viz., which comprises the prophecies of the person, office, sufferings, triumph, and Church of the Messiah; and thus by implication announces the fulfilment of all that went before, in Him who then addressed them.Alford.
The poor, etc.The troubles that afflict humanity and that are to be abolished by Christ are figuratively described as
(1) poverty,
(2) captivity,
(3) blindness, and
(4) oppression.
The Sermon at Nazareth.The opening of a ministry that has changed the world. A fourfold scheme of Christianity.
I. A social gospel.To the poor.
II. A healing gospel.To the brokenhearted.
III. An emancipating gospel.Deliverance.
IV. An enlightening gospel.Dawson.
The New Teacher.Three points make Him pre-eminent and unique.
I. The relation between His person and His word.
II. The consciousness He had of Himself and His truth.
III. His knowledge of Himself and His truth were throughout perfect and self-consistent.Fairbairn.
The Text of His First Sermon.There was nothing fortuitous in Christs choice of His first text in Nazareth. The occasion was a marked one. None could forget it. He turned in calm self-possession to the first three verses of Isaiahs sixty-first chapter, describing what should be the work and office of the destined Redeemer and Saviour of man. It scarcely needed that He should say what the application was. The audience felt, as He read, that the text said so.Vaughan.
Closed the book.When He had read the text from the Old Testament, He closed the book and gave it back to the attendant. As soon as the book had delivered its message, He presented Himself to the congregation as the fulfilment of the prophecy. His sermon consisted in permitting the prophet to pronounce the promise and then exhibiting Himself as its fulfilment. No other preacher, either false or true, ever acted thus.Arnot.
The Gospel to the Poor.The evangelisation of the poor was really the divinest thing in Christs ministry, the most original phase thereof, and the phenomenon which most convincingly showed that a new thing, destined to make all things new, had appeared in the worldthe religion of humanity, the universal religion. Such a religion is surely Divine; but when first it made its appearance, it could not but seem a very strange and startling phenomenon.Bruce.
Luk. 4:18-19. Five Portraits of our Blessed Lord.
I. Christ the Evangelist.
II. Christ the Good Physician.
III. Christ the Liberator.
IV. Christ the Revealer.
V. Christ the Jubilee of His Church.Vaughan.
Luk. 4:19. Acceptable year.The allusion is to the year of jubilee (Leviticus 25). The benefits conferred upon Jewish society by this institution were the following:
1. The Israelite who had sold himself into slavery received his freedom.
2. Families which had alienated their patrimony received it back again.
3. A generous amnesty was granted to those who were in debt. All these are most appropriate figures of the spiritual blessings which Christ was to confer upon men.
The acceptable year of the Lord.Our Lord laid emphasis on this last clause of His text.
I. What was in His mind when He said He was anointed to preach the acceptable year.The year of jubilee. In its remarkable position it was a type of gospel times. The jubilee year of the Lord was introduced by Christ and is in process now.
II. The genuine jubilee year goes beyond the Old Testament picture.We extend both time and place. Our year rolls out into centuries, our land into the whole earth. The liberty proclaimed is soul liberty. But a man cannot live on liberty. The slave was to return to land and family. So in the gospel. The home and the birthright are waiting for us.
III. The great delight God has in bestowing liberty.It is a great joy to Him. Jesus wished His first words to be all mercy. Judgment is in the background. He puts the acceptable year first, and so should it be with us. For those who despise His love and sacrifice there remains only judgment, the day of vengeance.Gibson.
Vengeance left out.If Christ left out vengeance, well may I. It belongs neither to my province nor to this dispensation. His first advent had nothing to do with vengeance. He did not come then to judge the world, but to save the world, and He could not, therefore, have said of this awful word, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.Vaughan.
Luk. 4:20. Eyes of all fastened on Him.Many things contributed to arrest their attention:
1. The report of His teaching and mighty works which had preceded Him.
2. The fact that it was the first time He whom they knew so well was to address them.
3. The remarkable character of the words He had read.
4. His manner and bearing, which convinced them that He was about to make some important statement of His claims and purposes.
Luk. 4:21. Fulfilled in your ears.The theme of Christs discourse was that the preaching which now re-sounded in the synagogue of Nazareth was a fulfilment of the prophecy He had just read.
Luk. 4:22. Wondered at the gracious words.This passage and Joh. 7:46 give us some idea of the majesty and sweetness which characterised our Lords utterances. It is the attractive manner of His speech rather than the substance that is here referred to; perhaps graceful utterances would be the best paraphrase of the expression gracious words (cf. Psa. 45:2). It is a poor result of preaching when the attention of the hearers is principally fastened upon the speakers oratorical gifts, and what he has to say is overlooked. Frivolous curiosity gives place to contempt and indignation. The inhabitants of Nazareth could not brook the lofty claims put forth by their fellow-townsman, whom they had known from His infancy.
Gracious Words.We can well believe that there was a peculiar charm in the Speakers manner, but it sprang from His heart being filled with enthusiasm for the mission on which He had been sent. The grace of manner had its source in the grace that lay in the message. He had come to preach the gospel to the poor, and proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. There can be no doubt how the Evangelist regarded the prophets words, which Christ made His own, and in what sense He calls them words of grace.Bruce.
Luk. 4:23. Heal Thyself.This was a taunt which was used again when He hung upon the cross (Luk. 23:35). As great a need existed in Nazareth for the healing labours of the Saviour as in Capernaum, but the unbelief of its inhabitants hindered the exercise of His powers (cf. Mat. 13:58; Mar. 6:5). He was like a skilful musician or able orator whose powers are chilled and almost nullified by an unsympathetic audience.
Luk. 4:24. No prophet, etc.Christ here gives the reason why, in His own town, He fails to make the impression He had made in Capernaum. So far from compelling His fellow-citizens to accept His claims by performing astounding prodigies, He is willing to accept the fate ordinarily encountered by Divine messengers.
Physician and Prophet.The Saviour at Nazareth reveals at once His double character as
(1) Physician, and
(2) Prophetas a Physician who is treated with scorn when He wishes to prepare help for others, and is at once bidden to heal Himself; and as a Prophet who deserves the highest honour and does not receive the least.Lange.
In his own country.Two causes may be assigned for the vulgar prejudice to which Christ here alludes.
1. In the case of one well known the charm of novelty is absent.
2. People are apt to think that circumstances of life so like their own, are wanting in that romance and mystery, which their imaginations lead them to associate with remarkable persons of whom they know but little.
Luk. 4:25-27. Elijah and Elisha.The cases of the mercy shown to the widow of Zarephath and to Naaman find a close parallel with those of the Syro-phnician woman (Mar. 7:26) and the centurions servant (chap. Luk. 7:1-10). The points of resemblance are
(1) the unbelief with which these prophets and Jesus were confronted at home, and
(2) the faith which they encountered in persons outside the pale of Judaism. The deeds of mercy shown to the destitute and to the leper by these earlier prophets were apt figures of the benefits which Christ was able and desired to confer.
God blesses whom He will.The general teaching of the incidents quoted from Old Testament history and of Christs own course of procedure on this occasion may be stated as follows:
1. That God is free to confer His blessings on whom He will.
2. That it is the fault of men if they do not receive these blessings. Widows and lepers in Israel had not the faith shown by those who actually received benefits from the prophets; the mood of the people of Nazareth was different from that of those who had been healed in Capernaum.
3. That in every nation those who fear God and work righteousness are accepted of Him.
Luk. 4:28. Filled with wrath.The angry and murderous feelings manifested by the people of Nazareth justify the severity of tone which Christ had adopted in addressing them, and the ill opinion which seems at that time to have been generally formed of them (cf. Joh. 1:46). The same anger was excited whenever the possibility of the Divine mercy being withdrawn from the Jews, because of their unbelief, and manifested to the Gentiles, was hinted at (cf. Act. 22:21-22). The word of God is a sword, is a war, is a poison, is a scandal, is a stumbling-block, is a ruin to those who resist it (Luther).
Luk. 4:29. Thrust Him out of the city.This was the first open insult that was offered to Jesus, and it is sad to think that it proceeded from those who had for nearly thirty years been witnesses of His innocent and holy life. He came unto His own, and they that were His own received Him not (Joh. 1:11).
Luk. 4:30. Passing through the midst of them.There is a tragic irony in the fact that the people of Nazareth desired to see some miracle wrought by Him to accredit His claims to be the Messiah; a miracle was granted to them, but it was in the supernatural way in which He escaped from their hands. In Christs escape from this great danger we may see a genuine fulfilment of the promise in Psa. 91:11-12, which Satan had urged Him to put to the test in another way: He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee, to guard Thee, lest haply Thou dash Thy foot against a stone.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Butlers Comments
SECTION 2
Visitation of the Son of Man in Time (Luk. 4:14-30)
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and a report concerning him went out through all the surrounding country. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified by all.
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up; and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read; 17and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written,
18The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
19to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
20And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. 22And all spoke well of him, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth; and they said, Is not this Josephs son? 23And he said to them, Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, Physician, heal yourself; what we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here also in your own country. 24And he said, Truly, I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his own country. 25But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there came a great famine over all the land; 26and Elijah was sent to none of them but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow, 27And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. 28When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. 29And they rose up and put him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw him down headlong. 30But passing through the midst of them he went away.
Luk. 4:14-20 Text: The victory Jesus won over the flesh and the devil gave Him great spiritual power. He left Judea and returned to Galilee where He went from village to village teaching in the synagogues. His wisdom and holiness were recognized by all who heard and observed Him and He became increasingly famous throughout Galilee. His name was on the lips of people wherever they gathered.
The Jewish Synagogue probably originated during the Babylonian Exile (606536 B.C.). It was never really intended as a substitute for their Temple, but it did provide every Jewish community in exile a place to meet, hear their scriptures read, and pray. The Synagogue remains today as the strongest factor in the preservation of Jewish culture and religion. Synagogues could be found in Jesus day in every city of the world where there were enough Jews to support them. The chief purpose of the synagogue was not public worship but instruction in the scriptures and the regulation of Jewish social and civil life (insofar as the country in which they lived might allow civil control by the synagogue). In Jesus day the Temple in Jerusalem was the chief place of worship. The Pharisees and the Scribes controlled the synagogues in the first century A.D. Each synagogue was ruled by the elders of the community but they usually appointed a president or chief ruler in each one who was responsible for its properties and services, and presided at its meetings. A minister or attendant was also appointed to carry out the rulings of the president and acted as his subordinate. The attendant handled the scrolls, instructed the children, administered the scourgings, sounded the trumpet on Sabbath, etc.
Services were held every Sabbath. The congregation filed in and the men seated themselves on one side of the building while the women took seats on the other side. Prominent members of the community, especially the elders, took seats at the front of the building facing the audience. Jesus characterized the Pharisees as hypocrites who competed with one another for the best seats in the synagogues in order to be seen of men (Mat. 23:6). The best historical information available indicates the synagogue service probably went as follows:
a.
Service began with a congregational recitation of the Shema (shema means, hear or obey) which was the Jewish confession of faith quoted from Deu. 6:4-5.
b.
This was followed by a congregational prayer called the Tefillah.
c.
A scripture lesson from the Law (the Pentateuch) was read. (Any member or visitor could be called upon, even a lad of 12 or more, to read the Law.)
d.
Next a scripture lesson from the Prophets was read (again any Jewish male could be asked to do so). The lesson from the Prophets was always restricted to less verses than the one from the Law.
e.
A sermon was preached on the scriptures read. Again any adult Jewish male could give the sermon although that was usually reserved for the elders, rabbis or rulers of the synagogue. Visiting rabbis were often invited to preach.
f.
A blessing was pronounced or a prayer was recited and the service was concluded.
g.
The congregation gave alms for the poor as they filed out of the meeting house.
Attendance at synagogue was not legislated in the Law of Moses. It was custom and tradition. It was a good custom and Jesus made it His custom to attend synagogue on the Sabbath. It afforded Jesus (and later the apostles) ready audiences assembled for the very purpose of religious pursuits. Jesus observed the customary ritual of the synagogue in standing to read and sitting down to preach.
Jesus took the scroll of Isaiah from the attendant and began to read. His text was Isa. 61:1-2. He rolled up the scroll and returned it to the attendant and sat down. To understand why there was such expectation and anticipation by the audience as they stared at Jesus, one should read the entire 61st chapter of Isaiah. Undoubtedly most of the adult men present knew the whole context from which Jesus had read only two verses. The whole 61st chapter of Isaiah is gloriously messianic. It predicts the messianic era as one of freedom, fortune and fame for the messianic people (cf. comments in Isaiah, Vol, III, by Butler, College Press). The intent of Isa. 61:1-11 is spiritual, as Jesus plainly indicates, but it is replete with highly figurative language describing the victorious vengeance, superfluity of wealth, subjugation of aliens, and national renown Gods messianic people are to have. For centuries Jewish rabbis in their apocryphal writings and traditions had been interpreting the messianic prophecies literally and physically. This Sabbath-day audience anticipated some such literal and materialistic rendering from Jesus, the widely acclaimed hometown boy.
Luk. 4:21-30 Teaching: They heard more than they expected. Rather than give the usual rabbinical interpretation of this passage, Jesus made a startling claim, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. The Greek text makes it emphaticthis day, this scripture. The Greek word peplerotai, translated fulfilled, is in the perfect tense. Greek perfect tense denotes an action accomplished with a continuing result. A good translation would be, This day this scripture stands fulfilled in your presence.
Jesus was the Servant of Jehovah (Isa. 61:1-11) anointed by the Holy Spirit to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to those bound, The Hebrew word used in Isa. 61:1-11 for liberty is deror and is also used in connection with the Year of Jubilee (Lev. 25:10; Eze. 46:17) when bond slaves were set free and land taken in payment for debts was returned to its original owners. The Mosaic Year of Jubilee was intended to typify the messianic liberation. Christ came to bind our jailor (the devil) and free us (cf. Mat. 12:25-30; Heb. 2:14-15;1Jn. 3:8-9; Rev. 20:1-6).
Jesus was also anointed to bring recovery of sight to the blind. He did physically heal a few blind people, but that was not the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy from Isaiah. He came to give all who believe in Him the recovery of spiritual sight! (cf. Joh. 9:39-41).
He came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. In Isa. 61:1-11, the Hebrew word ratzah is translated favorable or acceptable. It means literally, delightful, pleasurable, gracious. The Servant (Jesus) came to announce the precise time God chose in His divine schedule of redemption to accomplish His graciousness toward man. God, through Jesus Christ, summoned all men to His pleasurable, conciliating time. The messianic age is the age of Gods grace. Now is the acceptable time, today is the day of salvation (cf. 2Co. 6:1-2). (See our comments, Isaiah, Vol. III, College Press, pgs. 409413).
The Jews in this synagogue at Nazareth expected Jesus to interpret Isa. 61:1-11 physically and materially. When Jesus talked of food the Jews wanted bread and fish; when He talked of wholeness (peace) they wanted limbs restored; when He talked of freedom they wanted foreign rulers driven from their land. But physical circumstances are not what constitute the kingdom of Godit is character which does (Rom. 13:14; Rom. 14:17). Jesus intended the prophecy to be understood as having a spiritual fulfillment. His audience was momentarily caught up in dreams and reveries of a physical fulfillment. They all complimented Jesus on His masterful exposition of the prophet Isaiah. He aroused the feelings of national pride and eagerness for the messianic age in their hearts. Emotion welled up inside the listeners. Suddenly someone said, Is not this Josephs son? Abruptly it dawned on them they had known this young man for thirty years as he grew up in Nazareth and he had not done one great thing there.
Jesus anticipated their reasoning. He knew they wanted to shout at him the proverbial, Physician, heal yourself. They were reasoning, If this son of Joseph is the Messiah, charity begins at home! He speaks eloquently to us, they thought, but he does his great beneficent miracles in other places; his own home town folks should come first. Their reaction graphically exposes the unbelief of their hearts. Jesus was offering them Himself; they clamored for things! They also betray themselves as greedy, jealous and prejudiced. They should have rejoiced that Jesus had done miracles and helped needy people in other places, but they were envious.
The Lord had a proverb of His own, It is a truth proven by history that one generation persecutes and slays its prophets, and the next builds monuments to them. Their forefathers killed the prophets of old and these people of Nazareth adorned their tombs (cf. Mat. 23:29-36). It is the tragedy of one generation after another that so many wilfully reject opportunities to know God through His messengers. Now these faithless people are rejecting the One of whom all the other prophets spoke. They do not see and would not see even if a miracle were worked in their midst.
Thank God, there are those who will receive Gods messengers and trust their word in spite of unpleasant circumstances. Jesus cites two cases from the sacred history of Israel itself to bring the people of Nazareth to their senses. Israel rejected Elijah, but a woman of Sidon who suffered through the same three and one-half years of drought, and was about to starve, believed the prophet, took him in and fed him and received a great blessing (cf. 1Ki. 17:9 ff). The lepers of Israel did not believe Elisha, but a Syrian army captain named Naaman did and was cleansed (cf. 2Ki. 5:1 ff).
Jesus got His point across. God is no respecter of persons, but men and women of every race, culture, generation or social level who trust God and receive His messengers will, in turn, receive His approval. But the people of Nazareth would have none of this doctrine! Jewish apocryphal traditions held that God had created the Gentiles to be fuel for the fires of hell. Here this son of Joseph, a local boy who does nothing for his own home town, spouting messianic promises and claiming their fulfillment in Him, has the audacity to infer that God might favor Gentiles above Jews. Their reaction simply proves the people did not believe the prophet Isaiah either. Isaiah predicts in many places in his writings that God is going to bless men of all nations in the messianic age. In addition to the doctrine of the cross, the doctrine of the universality of the gospel was a stumbling-block to the Jews.
The people became violent. They rose up as one mob and took Jesus bodily and put Him out of the town. Outside the village they took Him to the brow of a steep hill upon which Nazareth was built and there tried to push Him off a cliff to His death. Jesus escaped. We are not told exactly how this was accomplished. John records similar escapes in Jerusalem (cf. Joh. 7:30; Joh. 10:39). Some think He simply walked through the crowd by the very power of His righteous personality. Others think something miraculous happened to allow Him to escape. Whatever the case, it was not His hour to die. He had full control of His destiny. He would lay down His life at the precise time appointed by God and He would take it up againnone would take it from Him!
Appleburys Comments
Scripture
Luk. 4:14-30 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and a fame went out concerning him through all the region round about. 15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and he entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read. 17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And he opened the book, and found the place where it was written,
18
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
Because he anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor:
He hath sent me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are bruised,
19
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
20
And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down: and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21
And he began to say unto them, To-day hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears. 22 And all bare him witness, and wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth: and they said, Is not this Josephs son? 23 And he said unto them, Doubtless ye will say unto me this parable, hysican, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done at Capernaum, do also here in thine own country. 24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is acceptable in his own country. 25 But of a truth I say unto you, There were man widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when there came a great famine over all the land; 26 and unto none of them was Elijah sent, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. 27 And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. 28 And they were all filled with wrath in the synagogue, as they heard these things; 29 and they rose up, and cast him forth out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, and they might throw him down headlong, 30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way.
Comments
And Jesus returned.Up to this point Luke has been concerned with the evidence that presents Jesus as the Son of God and the Son of Man. Now he begins to tell about His ministry in which both His deity and His humanity will continue to be emphasized.
Luke told about the baptism and temptation without mentioning other details of Jesus early Judean ministry. See Joh. 4:45.
Jesus returned to Galilee after He heard that John had been put in prison. Mat. 4:12.
in the power of the Spirit.When He returned to Galilee, He began His ministry of teaching and healing in that district. He performed miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit. These miracles were His credentials as Son of God. They were performed to help people believe His message. See Joh. 20:30-31; Act. 10:38.
Peter said that God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power and that He went about doing good and healing those who were oppressed of the devil. See Act. 10:38. His first miracle was at Cana of Galilee, but He also performed miracles when He was in Jerusalem at the passover (Joh. 2:13; Joh. 2:23).
a fame went out concerning him.It was only natural the distressed people should come to Him when they heard about all the things he was doing. See Luk. 4:40-41. This gave Him the opportunity to tell them about the kingdom of God.
he taught in their synagogues.Everywhere the Jews had built their synagogues where they could gather for religious instruction. See Act. 15:21. Both Jesus and the apostles went to the synagogues where Jews were gathered on the sabbath day, and being Jews, they spoke, to those assembled, the gospel message that fulfilled the law of Moses and the prophets. Rom. 3:21. Luke describes the order of service in Luk. 4:16-21 and also in Act. 13:14-43. It consisted in reading from the law and the prophets and the explanation of them for the benefit of the people.
Nazareth, where he had been brought up.Nathanael had raised the question with Philip, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Joh. 1:46. But in this humble village Jesus had grown to manhood and was known to the neighbors as Josephs son. In such a place, everyone would know just about everything about the rest of the people. Undoubtedly no one in the synagogue that day when they handed Him the book of Isaiah had the slightest notion that He was the Son of God and the Son of Man, the One who fulfilled what the prophet had written about the Messiah.
as his custom was.The synagogue was the center of the religious life of the community. Jesus had made it a habit to go to the synagogue on the sabbath day. He lived under the Old Covenant and kept the customs of the people who were under the Mosaic law. But Paul, whose ministry was of the New Covenant, went to the synagogue on the sabbath because there he found an audience that needed the gospel of Jesus the Savior.
stood up to read.Jesus stood while reading the Scriptures and sat down to teach. Paul, at Antioch, sat down while the Scriptures were being read and stood up when he addressed the audience. Apparently there was no fixed rule in the matter. Matthew says that Jesus sat down when He delivered the Sermon on the Mount to the disciples and the multitudes, but Luke says that He stood on a level place when He spoke similar wordsperhaps, on another occasion at another place. All these little sidelights tend to mark the genuineness of the sacred records.
the book of the prophet Isaiah.Isaiah had prophesied about the ministry of John the Baptist. Isaiahs prophecy about the Messiah is an outline of Jesus ministry.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.The ministry of Jesus was under the direction of God through the Spirit. The prophets and priests of the Old Testament were consecrated to their office by the ceremony of anointing with oil. Jesus, as Prophet, Priest and King, was anointed with the Holy Spirit as He began His ministry. That ministry consisted in preaching good tidings to the poor, proclaiming release to the captives, giving sight to the blind, and liberty to those broken in heart and body. His ministry that fulfilled this prophecy marked Him as the Messiah. See Luk. 7:22.
the acceptable year of the Lord.that is, the season during which Gods approval is given to those who accept the deliverance which Christ brought.
the eyes of all the synagogue.Every eye was fixed on Him. He read the Scriptures with meaning that was genuine, for He was the fulfillment of the words He read. But they were not quite ready to accept it when He said, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
the words of grace.The words of Isaiah and the words of Jesus, as He explained that He was fulfilling them, were words about the grace of God that brought relief to the oppressed. Jesus spoke them with gracious concern for all who heard Him.
Is not this Josephs son?They didnt know the facts about Jesus birth. What if Mary had tried to tell them? Who would have believed her then? But after the resurrection when God demonstrated that Jesus is His Son, the facts of His birth can be told as the only reasonable explanation of this One who is the Son of God and the Son of Man.
Physician heal thyself.Jesus recognized the problem and suggested this to them, for this is what they were thinking. They had probably heard of the miracle of healing the noblemans son at Capernaum while Jesus was at Cana (Joh. 4:46). Why not do in His own home town whataccording to reportshad been done elsewhere? But, of course, they didnt believe that He had performed such a cure. He answered, No prophet is acceptable in his own country. Thats why He had come back to Galilee (Joh. 4:44). In Judea there was a rising storm of opposition because they knew He was a prophet (Joh. 3:2). But in Galilee, they thought He was just Josephs son and were not too concerned about His activities, even though the crowds followed Him wherever He went. In the end, He was to journey back to Jerusalem, for it was there that He was to suffer for the sins of the people (Luk. 9:51; Luk. 13:33-35).
widows in Israel in the days of Elijah.See 1Ki. 17:8-24. The one miracle that Elijah performed was sufficient to convince this Gentile woman, for she said, Now I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the Lord that is in your mouth is true. The implied conclusion is that the one miracle Jesus had performed in Capernaum should have caused these who were Jews to believe Him.
lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha.See 2Ki. 5:1-27. This one miracle in Elishas time was sufficient to establish the fact that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel and that Elisha was His prophet. Again the implied conclusion is that Jesus one miracle should have caused them to believe in Him instead of asking, Is not this Josephs son?
they were filled with wrath.What made them so angry? They had been defeated in the debate by this One who had been reared in their midst whom they had been accustomed to call the carpenters son. But more than that, He had drawn an unfavorable comparison between them and the two Gentiles who believed Elijah and Elisha. This was the unforgivable offense. Rather than consider the force of His argument, they determined to destroy Him.
led him to the brow of the bill.It was mob violence with intent to kill; no doubt about it. This nearby precipice met their need as a place of execution. It would be swift; and in their madness they no doubt thought it would be easy.
he passing through their midst.Instead of permitting them to cast Him headlong to His death, He simply passed through their midst and went on His way. Was it a miracle that delivered Him? Or was it the strength of this Person who, although He had grown up in their city, was beginning His ministry as the Lords anointed? We cannot answer the question. I prefer to believe that, although He could have used divine power, He walked through that mob as a Man dedicated to His God. He was surely one of the most forceful persons every to walk on this earth.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(14) Returned in the power of the Spirit.The phrase, which meets us again in Rom. 15:13, indicates a new phase of the life of the Son of Man, a change from its former tenor as striking as that which passed over the Apostles on the day of Pentecost, when new powers of thought and utterance were developed which had before been latent.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
PERIOD THIRD.
THE PREPARATORY MINISTRY, Luk 4:14 to Luk 6:11.
Historical Synopsis ( Vol. 1,) 19- 34.
From the temptation Jesus returns to the Jordan, receives John’s attestation, and thence taking his first journey to Galilee, performs his first miracle at Cana, and then fixes his residence at Capernaum.
He soon goes to his first Passover at Jerusalem, cleanses the temple, discourses with Nicodemus, and departing into eastern Judea, baptizes coordinately with John. But upon hearing of John’s imprisonment he retires a SECOND TIME through Samaria ( passing Jacob’s well) into Galilee. While thus in Galilee the first visit to Nazareth takes place, which Luke is about to narrate. The main events of this interval are omitted by Luke.
23. JESUS RETIRES TO GALILEE AFTER JOHN’S IMPRISONMENT.
Mat 4:12
14. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit From this field of battle Jesus returned to John at Jordan (Joh 1:19) to receive from him the full acknowledgment, by the power of the Spirit, of being the Messiah and atoning Lamb.
Jesus returned From the wilderness of the temptation.
Into Galilee On his first journey; Luke omits the visit to John at the Jordan.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and fame went out concerning him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.’
Meanwhile Jesus, having sorted out in His own mind His future, returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. He was still full of the Spirit and walking as the Spirit led Him. And He began preaching and performing miracles in a number of places including Capernaum (‘what we have heard done in Capernaum’ – Luk 4:23) and His fame went throughout all the region round about, and He taught in their synagogues, and all spoke well of Him and wondered at what He said and did. After His experiences in the wilderness, this was the way that He had chosen to take.
This introduction leads us to expect remarkable things, and demonstrates a considerable ministry, and it is therefore salutary to recognise that the first activity that we are told about in detail is a failure. It is an indication that the Devil is smarting from his defeat and is now reacting. We will see in Acts that this is a typical scenario, initial success, reaction, persecution which causes a change in venue, blessing.
‘In their synagogues.’ At this time Jesus apparently preached in the synagogues. It is only later that the crowds become so large that the synagogues will not hold them. He may also no longer have been welcomed in many of them.
The decription of a powerful and successful minstry in two lines followed by a detailed incident is typcial of Luke. Regularly in Acts the continual proclamtion of the word is summarised, or even not mentioned, with emphasis being laid on some incident which reflects what is happening. For example in Acts 16 we are told nothing about the preaching that resulted in the lively Philippian church. We are simply given three incidents which reflect it.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The Conclusion to the Testimony Jesus’ Justification ( Mat 4:12-17 , Mar 1:14-15 ) Luk 4:14-15 serves as a conclusion to the three-fold testimony of Jesus’ justification to redeem mankind. These verses also record the beginning of Jesus’ Galilean ministry as He ministered under the anointing. The rest of the narrative material of His Galilean ministry (Luk 4:16 to Luk 9:50) serves as a testimony that Jesus ministered under the power and anointing of the Spirit. It characterizes His ministry from the time He returned from His wilderness temptation until He taught His last discourse in the Temple (Luk 21:38). In other words, the fame referred to in Luk 4:14 does not refer to the people’s excitement as He returned from the wilderness; but rather, this fame describes the growing hope and expectation that grew in the hearts of the Galileans during the course of His public ministry there. Throughout His public ministry the people were amazed at His words and anointing (see Luk 4:32; Luk 4:36-37; Luk 4:44; Luk 13:17), which serves as a testimony that Jesus ministered under the power and anointing of the Spirit.
Luk 4:32, “And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.”
Luk 4:36-37, “And they were all amazed, and spake among themselves, saying, What a word is this! for with authority and power he commandeth the unclean spirits, and they come out. And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about.”
Luk 4:44, “And he preached in the synagogues of Galilee.”
Luk 13:17, “And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.”
Comparison of Parallel Passages Recording the Beginning of the Public Ministry of Jesus Christ – When we compare the parallel passages of Jesus beginning His public ministry in the four Gospels, we find the third underlying themes clearly reflected.
The Gospel of Matthew – Matthew’s Gospel emphasizes the testimony of Old Testament Scriptures, which prophesies of the Messiah coming to establish the Kingdom of Heaven. In this Gospel, the Kingdom of Heaven is established by making disciples of all nations. Thus, Matthew explains how Jesus’ public ministry began as a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy (Luk 4:12-17). Jesus then calls disciples, who will be trained to fulfill the Great Commission of making disciples of all nations (Luk 4:18-22). Jesus then begins to establish the Kingdom of God upon the earth through His teaching ministry (Luk 4:23-25). Thus, Matthew’s Gospel places emphasis upon Jesus’ teaching ministry as Matthew states, “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.” (Mat 4:23)
The Gospel of Mark – Mark’s Gospel emphasizes the office of the evangelist, who preaches the Gospel with signs following. Therefore, he describes Jesus beginning His public ministry with the statement, “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” (Mar 1:14-15) Mark describes Jesus beginning His public ministry by preaching (Mar 1:14-15), which emphasizes Mark’s theme of the testimony of Jesus’ miracles through the preaching of the Gospel.
The Gospel of Luke – The parallel passage in Luke records the testimony of His ministry as one of great anointing and power (Luk 4:14-15), which emphasizes the testimony of those who were eye-witnesses of the authority of Jesus’ public ministry. Within the context of Luke’s Gospel, which reflects the prophetic ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, the statement, “Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee,” emphasizes the fact that Jesus was walking in the office of the prophet. In the opening chapters of Luke, we have already seen a number of people filled with the Spirit and deliver prophetic utterances. Zechariah, Elisabeth, Mary, Simeon and Anna have all been filled with the spirit and spoke of the Messiah. To show that this motif runs through the Gospel of Luke, in the closing chapter we see Jesus commanding His disciples to “tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” (Luk 24:49) Thus, the fact that Jesus was “full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,” (Luk 4:1) then “returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee” (Luk 4:14) to tell the people that “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” (Luk 4:18) tells us that Jesus will deliver prophetic messages throughout the Gospel of Luke.
The Gospel of John – John’s Gospel emphasizes Jesus in the office of the pastor. Thus, John describes Jesus as a Shepherd gathering His flock and gently leading the disciples. In this Gospel Jesus begins His public ministry in the office of a pastor by gathering His first disciples: John, Andrew, Simon Peter, Philip, and Nathanael (Joh 1:35-51). He will not move into the offices of Evangelist, Teacher, and Prophet until after the imprisonment of John the Baptist, as recorded in the Synoptic Gospels.
Comparison of Jesus’ Visit to Nazareth in the Synoptics The Synoptic Gospels give parallel accounts of Jesus’ visit to Nazareth (Mat 13:54-58, Mar 6:1-6, Luk 4:16-30). While the Gospel of Luke introduces Jesus’ public ministry beginning with His visit to His hometown of Nazareth, the Gospels of Matthew and Mark offer a prior record of Jesus’ early public ministry before He entered His hometown. Thus, Jesus had “taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all” (Luk 4:15) prior to entering the town of Nazareth. In other words, the narrative material of Jesus’ public ministry prior to His visit to Nazareth recorded in Matthew and Mark (Mat 4:12 to Mat 13:53, Mar 1:14 to Mar 5:43) shows us how Jesus was glorified throughout Galilee for His miracles and healing power before entering His hometown. Luke’s introductory statement (Luk 4:14-15) also tells us that Jesus continued to minister mightily in Galilee after being rejected in Nazareth. Jesus ministered in the power of the Spirit, teaching in their synagogues, and being glorified by the people. Thus, Luk 4:14-15 serves as an introductory passage of Jesus’ anointing and fame in Galilee, with examples found in the narrative material of Luke that follows. Although He was initially rejected in His hometown of Nazareth and was not able to heal the sick (Luk 4:16-30), the Galileans glorified Him while teaching in the synagogues (Luk 4:15; Luk 4:22). Later in a synagogue in Capernaum “they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power” (Luk 4:32), “they were all amazed” (Luk 4:36), “(Peter) was astonished, and all that were with him” (Luk 5:9), “there a fame abroad of him” (Luk 5:15), “they were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear” (Luk 5:26). The Galileans were amazed and declared that with authority and power He speaks. It is this authority that gave Him dominion all manner of sickness and disease. Luke’s account of Jesus’ Galilean ministry will place emphasis upon Jesus teaching and preaching with divine authority and power over every area of man’s life: sickness, sin and Jewish customs, including nature itself. He begins His Galilean ministry in the power of the Spirit (Luk 4:14). As a result, He heals the multitudes in the region of Galilee. This is the two-fold emphasis in Luke’s Gospel of His Galilean ministry, of preaching the Gospel under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, an emphasis not found in Matthew and Mark.
Luk 4:14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
Luk 4:14
Luk 4:15 And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
Luk 4:15
Luk 4:15 “being glorified of all” – Comments What did the people see in Jesus’ public ministry that called them to glorify Him. Luk 4:32 tells us that His words amazed them because it was with power. Luk 4:33-41 expounds upon this express by describing His ministry of healing the sick and casing out demons.
Luk 4:32, “And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Beginning of Christ’s Ministry and His Teaching in Nazareth. Luk 4:14-32
The return to Galilee:
v. 14. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee; and there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about.
v. 15. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. The evangelist has here omitted a part of the gospel-story, probably that related Joh 2:1-25. For he writes that Jesus turned back into Galilee, where He had been before. In the power of the Spirit, who was with Him and took an active part in His ministry, He made this journey which meant the public beginning of the work in which He spent the last years of His life. He had been known before in the section of Galilee near Cana, where He had performed His first miracle, and therefore at this time the news concerning Him went out and spread throughout the neighborhood. It preceded Him wherever He went, it made the people eager to see and hear Him. And He took up His work of bringing the Gospel to His countrymen; He taught in their synagogues, He tried to impart the great lessons of the coming of the kingdom of God. And He was highly praised by all, for all felt the power of His preaching, of whom at least some acknowledged the divinity of His mission.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Luk 4:14 . Comp. on Mat 4:12 ; Mar 1:14 . The public Galilaean ministry of Jesus begins, Luk 4:14 forming the introduction, after which, in Luk 4:15 ff., the detailed narrative follows. Schleiermacher, Schr. d. Luk . p. 50, arbitrarily, and contrary to the analogy of the parallels, says: that Luk 4:15 f. was the conclusion of a document which embraced the baptism, the genealogy, and the temptation.
. . .] invested with the power of the Holy Spirit: “post victoriam corroboratus,” Bengel.
. . .] and rumour went forth , etc., not anticipating what follows in Luk 4:15 (de Wette); but it is the rumour of the return of the man who had been so distinguished at his baptism, and had then for upwards of forty days been concealed from view, that is meant.
. . .] round about the whole neighbourhood , Act 8:31 ; Act 8:40 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
SECOND SECTION
THE JOURNEYINGS (Luk 4:14 to Luk 9:50)
A. Nazareth.The First Rejection of the Holy Son of Man by the Sinful Children of Men. Luk 4:14-30
14And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out afame of him through all the region round about. 15And he taught in their synagogues,being glorified [receiving honor] of all. 16And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was,5 he went into the synagogue on the Sabbathday and stood up for to read [stood up to read]. 17And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened [unrolled] the book,he found the place where it was written, 18The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel [or to bring good tidings] to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted,6 to preach deliverance to the captives, andrecovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19To preach theacceptable year of the Lord. 20And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister [attendant] and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagoguewere fastened upon him. 21And he began to say unto them, This day is thisScripture fulfilled in your ears. 22And all bare him [honorable] witness, and wondered at the gracious words [words of grace7] which proceeded out of his mouth. And theysaid, Is not this Josephs son? 23And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country [native place]. 24And he said, Verily I say unto you, Noprophet is accepted in his own country. 25But I tell you of a truth, many widows were [there were many widows] in Israel in the days of Elias [Elijah], when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when [a] great famine was throughout [came upon] all the land; 26But unto none [no one] of them was Elias [Elijah] sent, save untoSarepta [Zarephath], a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. 27And many lepers were [there were many lepers] in Israel in the time of Eliseus [Elisha] the prophet; and none [no one] of them was cleansed, saving [save] Naaman the Syrian.28And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,29And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow [or, a cliff]30of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he, passing through the midst of them, went his way.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Luk 4:14. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.With these words Luke begins to portray the public activity of the Lord in Galilee. Respecting this activity in general, see Langes Matthew, p. 91. That Luke speaks of a return of the Lord to Galilee, while Mark only speaks in general of a coming (1:14), is easily explicable from the fact that he had already spoken of a longer abode of Jesus in Galilee (Luk 2:39-52). And in saying that this took place in the power of the Spirit, he indicates not obscurely that the Spirit which was poured out at His baptism upon the Saviour, far from being suppressed or departing from Him in consequence of the temptation in the wilderness, on the other hand, exhibited itself for the first time in full power in Him after the triumph there achieved. As Bengel also has it: Post victoriam corroboratus.
A fame.Not a fame of the return of the man that had been so marked out at His baptism and then hidden more than forty days (Meyer); for it is quite as destitute of proof that the testimony given to the Lord at His baptism took place coram populo congregato as that John should have spoken of the miracle at the baptism to any one. Luk 4:14 plainly anticipates Luk 4:15, in which latter the actual cause of this fame is first stated. The doctrine which He preaches draws astonished attention, and finds at the beginning acceptance. This account of Luke deserves attention the more, from the fact that hitherto he has mentioned no miracles as the cause of this . The word of the Saviour in and of itself, independently even of the way in which He afterwards confirmed it, appears at once to have come home to many.
Luk 4:15. And He taught.Luke in this expression gives only a general account of the earliest activity of the Lord in Galilee, and moreover passes over all that preceded His appearance in Nazareth (Luk 4:16 seq.) in silence. It is not here the place to adventure ourselves in the labyrinth of the New Testament harmony and chronology. If any one, however, wishes to know how we believe that after the forty days temptation the different events are to be arranged, they appear to us to have followed one another in the following order:
1. The first friends (Joh 1:35-51);
2. The first miracle (Joh 2:1-12);
3. The first passover (Joh 2:13-22);
4. Jesus and Nicodemus (Joh 2:23 to Joh 3:21);
5. The Messiah in Samaria (Joh 4:1 seq.);
6. The second miracle in Cana (Joh 4:43 seq.);
7. The first sermon in Nazareth (Luk 4:16-30).
Luk 4:14, therefore, according to our opinion, proceeds parallel with Joh 4:43. The first sermon at Nazareth was immediately preceded by the second miracle of Cana, Joh 4:43 seq., and was followed immediately by the removal to Capernaum, Mat 4:13.
Luk 4:16. And He came to Nazareth.The question is, whether this visit to Nazareth was the same as that related in Mat 13:55-58, and if this is the case, which of the Synoptics has communicated this circumstance in its most exact historic connection. The first question we believe, with others and with Lange (Matthew, p. 255), that we must answer affirmatively; and in respect to the second inquiry, that we must give the preference to Luke. The opinion that the Lord preached twice in this way at Nazareth encounters, according to our view, insurmountable difficulties. That Jesus, after such treatment as is related by Luke, Luk 4:30, should have returned yet again; that He should have preached there again, should again have heard the same reproach, should again have given the same answer, is a supposition that perhaps no one would have defended had not his harmony been guided by doctrinal considerations and interests. Luke, it is true, does not speak of the miracles which are reported Mat 13:58. But nothing hinders us from assuming that He had already performed these before the sermon in the synagogue, since (Luk 4:27-29) immediately after that the attack upon His life followed, although Matthew and Mark end their account respecting Nazareth with the mention of these miracles. It appears that the Lord even before the sermon communicated by Luke had thought in this way to dispose their hearts in His favor,and let it not be said that this is an artificial interpretation (Stier). Is it not improbable that the Lord should only have remained one day at Nazareth and should only have come into the town on the same Sabbath on which He entered the synagogue? Even the Jewish Sabbath laws, which restricted travelling on this day, forbade this, and, on the supposition that the Lord had already wrought some miracles at Nazareth, His severe discourse acquires double force, and the comparison with the miracles of Elijah and Elisha, moreover, is fully in place. We do not admit the objection that then the words which the Lord puts in their mouths, Luk 4:23, would no longer be applicable. On the contrary, they were not content with the miracles wrought among themselves, but, on the other hand, desired miracles like those at Capernaum (Joh 4:45), miracles such as awaken astonishment at a distance. Why should not the report of that which had been done for the at Capernaum have made its way to Nazareth? and is there indeed anything that is harder to appease than the craving for marvels? If any one, however, believes that all the difficulties are not in this way, either, removed out of the way, he will yet have to acknowledge that the difficulties which spring from the repetition of all these events are at any rate somewhat more numerous.
Where He had been brought up.Evidently this account points back to the history of His childhood. A holy moment in the life of the Lord, when He for the first time should teach in the synagogue of the town in which He has spent so many years in silence. Respecting Nazareth, see Lange on Mat 2:23.
As His custom was.Videmus, quid egerit adolescens Jesus Nazareth, ante baptismum. Bengel. Apparently (see above) this Sabbath was the first after His return to Nazareth, where the Lord, before this public appearance, had already wrought some miracles in a smaller circle, and appears to have remarked the first traces of unbelief (Mat 13:58; Mar 6:5), the rebuke of which, in His first discourse, would otherwise not have been immediately necessary.
And stood up to read.Hitherto He had always been accustomed to sit among the hearers. The public reading in the synagogue consisted of a portion of the Law, which, in regular order, was followed by a section of the Prophets. Besides this, opportunity was sometimes given to respectable strangers to give a free word of exhortation or consolation (Act 13:15), and the Saviours rising served as a token that He also wished to make use of this liberty. The public reading of the Law had already taken place, and that of the Prophets was about to begin. He, therefore, receives from the hand of the attendant the roll, out of which on that day, according to the customary sequence, the lesson was to be read. It was that of Isaiah, and after He had unrolled this holy book, He finds, certainly without seeking, yet not without special higher guidance, the prophetic passage referred to.
Luk 4:17. The place where it was written.Strictly speaking, this passage (Isa 61:1) was the haphthara appointed for the morning of the great Day of Atonement (the 10th Tishri), and on this account Bengel, in his Ordo Temporum, p. 220, believed himself to have here come upon an infallible chronological datum; yet, even if it were assumed that this division of the lessons was already in use in the Saviours time, it would then be surprising that Luke has not said a word here of His seeking an appointed prophecy: exactly the opposite.
Luk 4:18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.Isaiah 61, freely quoted after the Septuagint. Jesus probably read the passage aloud in Hebrew, but Luke appears to communicate it from memory according to the Alexandrian version. From this arises the difference between the original text and the citation, which is more particularly stated by De Wette (ad locum). He has even taken the words: . . from Isa 58:6, so that accordingly he gives not so much the letter as the main thought of the text of this sermon. This text appears, however, to have been designedly ended at the words: The acceptable year of the Lord (that is, the definite time in which the Lord is gracious), although commonly not less than 21 verses were read from the Prophets. The freedom was used, according to later authors also, of often deviating from this usage, and then 3, 5, or 7 verses were sometimes read aloud. See Sepp, Leben Jesu, ii. p. 123. As respects the passage in itself, the prophet undoubtedly speaks primarily of his own vocation and dignity, but as the servant of Jehovah he was in his work and destiny the type and image of the Messiah, the perfect servant of the Father. What at the time of Isaiah was only relatively true for himself, could hold good in its full significance only of the Messiah, who had brought in an eternal redemption. Therefore Jesus can with the fullest right begin: , … Comp. Hoffmann, Weissag., and Erf. ii. p. 96.
Luk 4:20. And when He had rolled up the book.It is, of course, to be understood that the words: To-day is this Scripture fulfilled, &c., constituted not properly the contents but the beginning of this discourse. The text chosen gives the Lord occasion to set forth the work to be accomplished by Him on its most amiable side; no wonder, therefore, that the eyes of all are directed upon Him. With this one picturesque stroke, Luke (Pictor) gives to his narrative the greatest distinctness, and places us, as it were, in the midst of the citizens of Nazareth. What here took place he probably learned from Mary, or one of the , who were certainly present at this first discourse of Jesus of Nazareth, and therefore, he is able to go more into detail than Matthew and Mark, and even to communicate the prophetic text. Respecting the fulfilment of a prophecy, comp., moreover, the remark in O. von Gerlach, N. T. on Mat 2:16.
Luk 4:22. And all bare Him witness.To the gracious words of the Saviour is this testimony given, and from this it becomes very soon evident that it does not respect the contents but the form of the discourse of the Lord. They admired not what but the way in which the Saviour spoke, especially when they remembered His humble origin, which would have given occasion to no such expectation; for it is, of course, certain that the inhabitants of Nazareth could not have known of the mystery of His conception by the Holy Ghost. This passage, as well as Joh 7:46, is noteworthy, since it gives an unimpeachable evidence of the irresistible impression which the graciousness of the manner of Jesus in His discourse and preaching, produced even in the case of imperfectly developed or hostilely disposed persons.
Luk 4:23. Surely, .The Lord has the certain expectation of that which they will allege against Him, since He sees the captiousness of prejudice arising already in their hearts, and He makes use of the proverbial expression: Physician, heal thyself, not only in order to express His meaning more plainly, but also to give them an intimation in respect to the blessed purpose of His appearance as Israels physician. From comparison of Mat 13:57 and Mar 6:4 with Luk 4:24 it appears that the Synoptics deviate in some measure from each other in the report of the words in which the Lord expressed the idea that a prophet usually has nowhere less authority than in his own country. It is very possible that He used this apophthegm often, and that with slight variations; the most original and simple form of the proverb, however, we believe that we find in this passage of Luke. As to the causes why the prophet in his own immediate circle receives less honor than elsewhere, Neander deserves to be compared in his Leben Jesu, at this passage.Heal thyself, not: Undertake the remedy of thine own poverty before the world, or, Take better care than hitherto of thy prophetic dignity; but: Help thine own countrymen, who are naturally the nearest to thee. The figurative words are sufficiently explained by the literal words immediately following them: What we have heard, &c. To the craving for the marvellous, which of itself, indeed, knows no bounds, there is added now, moreover, the reckoning how great a fame their despised village would attain if He should make it the centre of a brilliant miraculous activity. On this account they indirectly reproach Him with having already bestowed an honor on Capernaum, to which they properly had the nearest claim. Of the many miracles which the Lord had already at an earlier point of time performed in Jerusalem (Joh 2:23), they appear as yet to have learned nothing.
Luk 4:25. Many widows were in Israel.With the greatest humility He, who was so much more than a prophet, places Himself so far on an equality with the prophets in the Old Testament as this, that He together with them must be content to suffer an unbelieving rejection, which, it is true, is most severely requited by God. This we see from two examples taken from the life of Elijah and Elisha, which are doubly noteworthy for this reason, that here at the beginning of the public life of Jesus in somewhat covert wise the same thing is announced which the Saviour at the end with explicit words threatens the Jews with, as punishment for their unbelief. See Mat 21:43.
As repects now the first of these examples, comp. 1Ki 17:18. There has some difficulty arisen, from the fact that the duration of the drought here (as well as in Jam 5:17) is stated as three years and six months, while from 1 Kings 18 it appears to result that Elijah in the 3d year returned to Ahab, and very soon after his return the rain commenced. We cannot agree with De Wette, who here, by comparison with Dan 12:7, maintains that he has deduced the fact, that it was a Jewish custom to give to a period of calamity the average duration of three and a half years, and as little can we assume with others (e.g., Gebser, Commentary on James), that in the New Testament another reckoning of time has been followed from that in the Old. We prefer supposing, with Olshausen, that the third year, 1Ki 18:1, must be reckoned from the arrival of Elijah at Sarepta, 1Ki 17:9, which, however, had been already preceded by a year of drought, during which the prophet had abode at the brook Cherith, Luk 4:7.That Elijah was actually sent only to this one and to no one of the many widows in Israel besides, we should not be absolutely obliged to conclude from the Old Testament, but we assume it upon the infallible word of the Saviour. [As our Lord here evidently proceeds upon the common ground of the history, which both parties were alike acquainted with, this last remark appears superfluous.C. C. S.]
Luk 4:27. Many lepers.Comp. 2Ki 7:3.In the time of Elijah, . Comp. Luk 3:2; Mar 2:26; Act 11:28.Naaman. See 2, Kings 6:119. Then might, the Lord means to say, the Jews also have been able to say to Elijah and Elisha: Do the same also here in your country. But it was not possible, because the Jews did not seek the help which they had at the door, and closed their hearts against the Lord. Theophilus, doubtless, when he read this, rejoiced in the God who is truly also the God of the Gentiles. Besser. The mention of the history of Naaman was the more humiliating since he had first been unbelieving, but afterwards, on the representations of his simple-minded servants, had become believing.
It would be most unjust to accuse this turn, which the Saviour gave His discourse, of excessive harshness (Hase, De Wette), since we must not forget what an unloving judgment (Luk 4:22-23), respecting His person and His work had preceded it, and how here everything depends on the tone and the voice of the speaker. Moreover, since Luke communicates to us only the main substance of the whole address, we must be very careful of rendering here a precipitate judgment; we have rather here to admire the wise Physician who does not shrink from heroic methods in order to attack the very heart of the chief moral disease of His contemporaries, namely, sensuousness and earthly-minded expectations, and who will rather set at stake His own safety than spare their perverseness. And ought not He who had spent so many years of retirement at Nazareth, and had carefully observed the moral condition of its inhabitants, to have been better able to judge how sternly and severely He was obliged to rebuke, than modern criticism, which here also is very far from being without pre-suppositions?
Luk 4:28. And all they in the synagogue were filled with wrath.The veritas odium parit never belied itself less than in respect to the Saviour, in whom the itself was personally manifested upon earth. How little do the embittered hearers apprehend that precisely by this they give the proof of the justice of the rebuke which they had heard! The reception which Jesus here found, agrees remarkably with that which afterwards Stephen found (Act 7:51). And if this rise of bitterness is compared with the earlier enthusiasm, Luk 4:22, it shows in a striking manner the inconstancy of human honor as well as the untrustworthiness of human passions. Not at Rome alone did the Capitoline border hard on the Tarpeian rock.
Luk 4:29. A cliff of the hill.Nazareth still lies at the present day on a mountain precipice of from 400 to 500 ft. high, which lifts itself above a valley of about a half a league in circumference; see Rhr, Palestine, pp. 126129, and the other eminent narratives of travel. Near the Maronite church they still show the rocky wall on the west side of the town, from 40 to 50 ft. high, where the event of the text is said to have happened, and from which He could easily escape them through the narrow and crowded streets of the town (Robinson, p. 423). That the monks show at a distance of two English miles from Nazareth another Mount of Precipitation, where there are yet two stones against which (they say) the Lord leaned in defending Himself, and which yet show traces of His hands and feet, is doubtless one of the grossest errors which tradition has committed in the sphere of the Saviours life.
Luk 4:30. But He.It will hardly be necessary to vindicate the historic reality of this fact against critics who are throughout disposed to place the Jews somewhat higher, and the Lord, indeed, somewhat lower than the Gospel does. Proofs of the turbulence, the cruelty, and the revengefulness of the Galileans can be found in abundance in Josephus, even in the history of his own life. As respects the escape of the Lord, we can here no more assume, with Olshausen, De Wette, and Strauss, something mysterious, than we can subscribe to the prosaic explanation: That He owed His deliverance only to the courage and the resoluteness with which He warded them off from Him (!!) and voluntarily expelled Himself from the synagogue, Joh 16:2 (Von Ammon). With Hase, Stier, and Lange, we ascribe Jesus escape to the composure with which He made a way for Himself, strong in the consciousness that His hour was not yet come. He goes thus, not in order to escape His Passion, but in order actively to await the agony of His Passion appointed for Him hereafter. Examples of the daunting influence which composure and self-control have often exercised, on raging crowds are too numerous to be all mentioned here. Let the reader only call to mind the effect of the crushing word: Slave, wilt thou slay Marius? and better than this, Joh 18:6. It is, then, unnecessary also to understand here a particular protection of God (in the sense of a miracle, Meyer), but it is better to bring all mirabilia of the kind, in the wider sense of the word, into connection with the elevated and wholly unique personality of the Lordthe absolute miraculumto which, in a certain sense, it was innate to make such an impression on the rude rabble surrounding Him. Not in any such sense as that they were struck with blindness does He go forth, invisible and with an outward miracle, for this is precisely what the Evangelist by means to deny; but He only beholds them with a look of His hitherto restrained majesty, reserved for this last need, and they, receiving yet another sign of His spiritual might as a parting token, are bound and incapable of touching Him. Nay, they are compelled on the right and left to make place reverently for His going forth. They stood, stumbled, sought, grew ashamed, fled, and went apart, as Pfenninger with striking pencil paints the close of the scene. R. Stier.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The Saviour comes forward in the might of the same Spirit with which He was baptized and with which He overcame Satan. The account of His preaching at Nazareth is especially noteworthy, because it shows how His personality and His word, even without doing miracles, made an irresistible impression so long as the sensibility was not closed up through hostility and prejudice. We remark the same in Samaria, Joh 4:41-42. The history of the Saviours first preaching in the town of His bringing up, may also serve as a proof how fully applicable to Him is the word of the Psalm, Psa 45:3.
2. Jesus discourse at Nazareth may be named at the same time an opening sermon of His whole activity in Galilee. Impossible, indeed, would it be to find a more admirable text than the Saviour found in turning over the prophetic roll; it is a gospel in brief, the best description of the Christus Consolator. The poor, the prisoners, the blind are indeed the best representatives of the whole mass of suffering mankind. Their names present before our eyes misery and sin in their whole compass. Freedom, light, healingwhat noble images of the salvation given in Christ! Christ finds all those to whom He comes blind, without knowledge of God, bound of Satan, and kept prisoners under death, sin, and the law. For out of the Gospel there is nothing but utter darkness and captivity, so that even if we have some little knowledge, yet can we not follow the same, because we are bound. Luther.
3. This sermon is of moment, because from it it appears in what relation Christ as Prophet placed Himself to the Old Testament. He grounds His proclamation of the Gospel upon the Scripture, cleaves not merely to its letter, but presses through to its spirit and proclaims Himself as the end of the Law and the Prophets. The Prophetic Scripture is the mirror in which He beholds His own image and shows it to His contemporaries. The genuine evangelical spirit comes to manifestation in an Old Testament form. Even the parallelismus membrorum, to be observed in the diction of the Old Testament, is not wanting in the way in which He opposes the widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, to the lepers in those of Elisha, and repeatedly declares: To none of them, &c. After such remarks the inquiry may well be called superfluous whether the Saviour, in the place where He was brought up, received into His soul the inmost spirit of the Scriptures of the Old Testament.
4. The Saviour at Nazareth reveals at once His double character as Physician and Prophet: as physician, who is treated with scorn when he wishes to prepare help for others and at once is bidden to heal himself; as prophet, who deserves the highest honor and does not receive the least. Upon the miracles wrought by the Lord in Nazareth, see Lange, Matthew, p. 255.
5. The first discourse of the Saviour at Nazareth bears so far as this a typico-symbolic character, that, on the one hand, it serves as a prototype of every true preaching of the gospel as to substance, ground, and tenor, and, on the other hand, as in a mirror brings to sight the cliffs on which the effects of a discourse commonly suffer shipwreckearthly-mindedness, prejudice, pride. Of the four classes of persons who are designated in the parable of the Sower, we find here particularly the second and the third.
6. The manner in which the Saviour begins His sermon at Nazareth deserves, in form as well as matter, to be called a model for every true preacher of the gospel. Comp. the chapter: Jsus Christ, modle du prdicateur, in the admirable tractate of Nap. Roussel, Comment il ne faut pas prcher, Paris and London, 1857.
7. Nazareths synagogue is an image of unbelieving Israel, Nazareths rock an image of the unshakable composure and inward tranquillity of Jesus.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The triumphal return from the wilderness of temptation.Whither Jesus comes, the fame of Him always precedes Him.The beginning of His pilgrimage takes place under the most favoring presages.Jesus returns to Nazareth, the place of His bringing up, as a prophet mighty in word and deed.The heart-winning art of Jesus.The visit to the synagogue on the Sabbath a settled custom of the Lord.The public reading of the word of God an important part of the joint worship of God.The high value of the prophetical word: 1. Before, 2. during, 3. after the time of the Saviour.All mourners are comforted when Christ appears.The true preacher of the gospel one anointed with the Holy Spirit.The time of the New Covenant an acceptable year of the Lord; as such, the day of salvation is: 1. Announced, 2. manifested, 3. confirmed in the case of all believers.The gracious year of the Lord precedes the day of vengeance of our God, yet the latter follows immediately.Christ: 1. The consolation of the poor, 2. the freedom of the prisoners, 3. the light of the blind.How admiration for the preacher may be united with the rejection of the preaching.The might of prejudice against the truth.The unbelief of earlier and later days at all times self-consistent: 1. Manifested, 2. punished, in the same way.Gods greatest exhibitions of grace are lost on those who give ear only to the voice of flesh and blood.The history of the Old Testament a testis temporum, lux veritatis, magistra vit.A believing Gentile more acceptable to God than an unbelieving Jew.No respect of persons with God.Craving for miracles easily excited, never contented, severely rebuked.Unless ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.The poor of this world hath God chosen, &c., 1Co 1:26 seq.The inconstancy of human laudations and emotions, Luk 4:22-28; comp. Act 14:18-19.Jesus rejected in Nazareth an argument for the truth of the declaration Joh 1:11. It is striking that unbelieving rejection of the Saviour: 1. Still shows the same character, 2. still betrays the same origin, 3. still deserves the same judgment as the behavior of the inhabitants of Nazareth.Christ the Vanquisher of His enemies even when He appears to give way to them.The immovable composure of the Lord over against the blind rage of His enemies.The servant of the Lord inviolable so long as his hour is not yet come.What a distinction between the mountain in the wilderness where the Lord surveys the kingdoms of the earth, and the rock at Nazareth where He beholds His own life threatened! And yet upon both is He victorious, and even the Mount of Precipitation is a step to His enthronement and dominion over all.
Starke:True preachers have to go through good and evil report, 2Co 6:8.New preachers of the gospel are wont to be praised, but not long, for the people get tired and their ears itch again for new doctrines, 2Ti 4:3.To visit the public assembly on the Sabbath is all Christians duty, Heb 10:25.Hedinger:The ground of all divine truth and its means of proof must be Scripture.When men first begin with despising the person of a teacher, they are wont also commonly to despise his words and office.Zeisius:So long as the gospel is preached with sweet words, the godless also put up with it, but so soon as the application is made, the best appearing are often ready to burst with anger.Osiander:It is a folly of men to esteem highly what is strange, but to account as nothing what has come up among themselves.Quesnel:Truth embitters those whom it does not enlighten and convert (the gospel a cause of tumult, Luther).Men are often worse than the devil, who did not do what the Jews wanted to do, Luk 4:29.Canstein:There is no might nor counsel against the Lord.It is often prudence and magnanimity to give way to inflamed dispositions.
Heubner on Luk 4:18-19 :The order of salvation is given in these verses as in 1Co 1:30 : 1. Wisdom =to preach the gospel to the poor; 2. righteousness =to heal the broken hearts (these words are, however, spurious. See above); 3. sanctification =to proclaim deliverance to the captive, &c.; 4. redemption =preaching the acceptable year of the Lord; in other words: 1. The prophetical, 2. the high-priestly, 3. and 4. the kingly office of the Lord. (Ingeniose magis quam vere! Van Oosterzee.)Arndt:The first sermon of Jesus at Nazareth: 1. How rich in matter it must have been; 2. what an impression must have been made!Palmer:How the people are astonished at the speech of the Lord! [Vere sed insipidissime.C. C. S.]Drseke:The acceptable year of the Lord.Van Oosterzee (inaugural discourse in his native town Rotterdam upon Luk 4:16-22):The first sermon of Jesus at Nazareth a standard for the minister of the gospel at the beginning of his work. The narrative imparts to the minister of the gospel pregnant suggestions: 1. In reference to the point of view from which he is to consider his work: a. origin, b. matter, c. object, of preaching (Luk 4:18-19). 2. In relation to the manner in which he must perform his work: as here the preaching must be: a. Grounded on Scripture, b. accommodated to the necessity of the hearers, c. presented in an attractive manner. 3. In relation to the fruit upon which he can reckon in this labor. Nazareth shows us: a. That blossoms are as yet no certain sign of fruit; b. that this fruit may be blasted by the most unhappy causes; c. that the harvest may turn out yet better than at the beginning it appears (there in the synagogue were Mary, and also the , who afterwards believed, and if the Saviour did not work many miracles at Nazareth, He yet wrought some, Mat 13:58). 4. In relation to the temper in which he is to begin a new work: a. With thankful recollections of the past (Luk 4:16); b. with holy spiritual might for the present (Luk 4:18); c. with joyful hope for the future (Luk 4:21). Happy the teacher who is permitted to begin his preaching under more favorable presages than Jesus began His in the city where He was brought up.
Footnotes:
[5]Luk 4:16.From the position of this clause it might appear as if His custom had been not only to visit the synagogue on the Sabbath, but also to read in the public service, but the position of in the Greek, makes it best to confine the reference to His habitual attendance in the synagogue.C. C. S.]
[6]Luk 4:18.The Rec. inserts , which, however, appears to be an interpolation from the LXX., Isa 61:1, rightly put in brackets by Lachmann, and rejected by De Wette and Meyer. [Wanting in B., D., L., and Sin.C. C. S.]
[7]Luk 4:22. does not refer to the ethical character of His words, but to their persuasive beauty. Anmuth, not Gnade.C. C. S.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
(14) And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. (15) And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. (16) And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. (17) And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, (18) The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, (19) To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. (20) And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. (21) And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. (22) And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
We shall enter into some of the very blessed things contained in this scripture, (but ah! how small a part,) if we do as we are commanded, while waiting on the Holy Ghost’s teaching, compare spiritual things with spiritual. 1Co 2:13 . By turning to the writings of the Prophet Isaiah, Isa 61:1 , etc. we are taught to expect Christ as there represented. And here we behold Christ exactly answering to the description. Jesus reads the passage, confirms thereby the character of Him that was to come into the world; and then appeals to their own senses for the application to himself.
It were to do little short of going over the life of Christ, to follow Jesus in all the parts of this most precious Sermon. Indeed it may be considered but as an abridgement of his whole Gospel. Sweet as it would be, and the most interesting discourse capable of being offered, yet that pleasure I must suppress, while remembering the limits suited to a Poor Man’s Commentary. But though constrained to pass over all observations on Christ’s Sermon, yet I do very earnestly beg the Reader not to overlook the decided testimony the people gave, in consequence thereof, to the truth of his divine character. For it is said, that all bare him witness. There seemed to be for the moment, one general common consent, that He was the Christ. I beg the Reader not to lose sight of this; and the more so, from what follows in a few verses after.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
XXVI
OUR LORD’S GREAT MINISTRY IN GALILEE
Part I
Harmony pages 85-39 and Mat 4:17-25
We now come to our Lord’s great ministry m Galilee. We will take a sort of preview of this whole division and then follow it up with more detailed discussions. The general theme of this division of the Harmony is “The kingdom of heaven.” We are prone at times to fall into errors of interpretation concerning the kingdom similar to those which led ancient Israel so far and so harmfully astray concerning the advent of the Messiah. Either we so fill our minds with the sublimity of world redemption, as applied to the race, in the outcome, so satisfy our hearts with rhetorical splendor in the glowing description of universal dominion that we lose sight of its application to individuals in our day, and the responsibilities arising from the salvation of one man, or we so concentrate our fancy upon the consummation that we forget the progressive element in the development of the kingdom and the required use of means in carrying on that progress. The former error breeds unprofitable dreamers the latter promotes skeptics. The preacher is more liable to be led astray by the one, the average church member by the other.
Perhaps the most unprofitable of all sermons is the one full of human eloquence and glowing description excited by the great generalities of salvation, and perhaps the most stubborn of all skepticism is that resulting from disappointment as not witnessing and receiving at once the very climax of salvation, both as to the individual and the race.
Such a spirit of disappointment finds expression in words like these: “The prophecies here of the kingdom are about 1,900 years old. Nineteen centuries have elapsed since the Child was born. Wars have not ceased. The poor are still oppressed. Justice, equity, and righteousness do not prevail. Sorrow, sin, and death still reign. And I am worried and burdened and perplexed. My soul is cast down and disquieted within me.” In such case we need to consider the false principles of interpretation which have misled us, and inquire: Have we been fair to the Book and its promise?
Here I submit certain carefully considered statements: (1) The consummation of the Messiah’s kingdom was never promised as an instantaneous result of the birth of the Child. (2) The era of universal peace must follow the utter and eternal removal of things and persons that offend. This will be the harvest of the world. (3) Again, this consummation was never promised as an immediate result, i.e., without the use of means to be employed by Christ’s people. (4) Yet again, this aggregate consummation approaches only by individual reception of the kingdom and individual progress in sanctification. (5) It is safe to say that the promises have been faithfully fulfilled to just the extent that individuals have received the light, walked in the light and discharged the obligations imposed by the gift of the light. These receptive and obedient ones in every age have experienced life, liberty, peace, and joy, and have contributed their part to the ultimate glorious outcome. (6) And this experience in individuals reliably forecasts the ultimate race and world result, and inspires rational hope of its coming. This is a common sense interpretation. In the light of it our duty is obvious. Our concern should be with our day and our lot and our own case as at present environed. The instances of fulfilment cited by the New Testament illustrate and verify this interpretation, particularly that recorded by Matthew as a fulfilment of the prophecies of Isaiah 4-13 inclusive, of his gospel. What dispassionate mind can read these ten chapters of Matthew, with the parallel passages in Mark and Luke, without conceding fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecies uttered seven centuries before?
Here is the shining of a great light, brighter than all of the material luminaries in the heavens which declare the glory of God and show his handiwork. This is, indeed, the clean, sure and perfect law of the Lord, converting the soul, making wise the simple, rejoicing the heart, enlightening the eyes, enduring forever, more desirable than gold and sweet “r than honey in the honeycomb. Here are judgments true and righteous altogether.
Here in sermon and similitude the incomparable Teacher discloses the principles and characteristics of a kingdom that, unlike anything earth-born, must be from heaven. Here is a fixed, faultless, supreme, and universal standard of morality. The Teacher not only speaks with authority and wisdom, but evidences divinity by supernatural miracles, signs, and wonders. But there is here more than a teacher and wonder worker. He is a Saviour, a Liberator, a Healer, conferring life, liberty, health, peace, and joy. To John’s question John in prison and in doubt the answer was conclusive that this, indeed, was the one foreshown by the prophets and there was no need to look for another: “Go and tell John the things which ye hear and see: the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And whosoever shall find no occasion for stumbling in me, blessed is he” (Mat 11:1-4 ).
The special matter here most worthy of our consideration is that the kingdom of heaven was not expanded by instantaneous diffusion over a community, a nation, or the world, regardless of human personality, activity, and responsibility ill receiving and propagating it, but it took hold of each receptive individual’s heart and worked out on that line toward the consummation.
To as many as received him to them he gave the power to become the sons of God. Those only who walked in the light realized the blessings of progressive sanctification. To the sons of peace, peace came as a thrilling reality. From those who preferred darkness to light) who judged themselves unworthy of eternal life, the proffered peace departed, returning to the evangelists who offered it.
The poor woman whom Satan had bound for eighteen years experienced no imaginary or figurative release from her bonds (Luk 11:10-16 ). That other woman, who had sinned much, and who, in grateful humility, washed his feet with her tears was not forgiveness real and sweet to her? That blind Bartimeus who kept crying, “Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me” did he not receive real sight? That publican, who stood afar off and beat upon his breast, crying, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner” was he not justified?
And when the Galilean disciples went forth in poverty and weakness preaching his gospel, did they not experience the Joy of the harvest on beholding the ingathering of souls? And when they saw even demons subject to them through the name of Jesus, was not that the joy of victory as when conquerors divide the spoil?
When the stronger than the strong man armed came upon him and bound him, might not our Lord justly say, “As lightning falls from heaven, I saw Satan fall before you”? And just so in our own time.
Every conversion brings life, liberty, peace, and joy to the redeemed soul. Every advance in a higher and better life attests that rest is found at every upward step in the growth of grace. Every talent or pound rightly employed gains 100 per cent for the capital invested, and so the individual Christian who looks persistently into the perfect law of liberty, being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the Word, is blessed in every deed. Willing to do the will of God, and following on to know the Lord, he not only knows the doctrine to be of God, but experimentally goes on from strength to strength, from grace to grace, and is changed into the divine image from glory to glory.
In the light of these personal experiences he understands how the kingdom of God is invincible, and doubts not the certain coming of the glorious consummation foreshown in prophecy and graciously extended, in the hand of promise. His faith, staggering not through unbelief, takes hold of the invisible, and his hope leaps forward to the final recompense of the reward.
The opening incident of the Galilean ministry is the healing of the nobleman’s son, the second miracle of our Lord in Galilee, and a most remarkable one. The nobleman was Herod’s steward, maybe Chuza, as many suppose, but that is uncertain. The nobleman manifested great faith and it was amply rewarded. This is an illustration of the tenderness with which Jesus ministered to the temporal needs of the people, thus reaching their souls through their bodies. The effect of this miracle was like that of the first: “He himself believed, and his whole house.”
The next section (Luk 4:16-31 ) gives the incident of his rejection at Nazareth. The account runs thus: “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and he entered, as his custom was, into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read.” How solemn, how sad in its immediate result how pathetic that scene in Nazareth when the Redeemer announced his mission and issued his proclamation of deliverance: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Because he anointed me to publish good tidings to the poor: He hath sent me to proclaim deliverance to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To send crushed ones away free, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
Oh! what a day when this scripture was fulfilled in the hearing of the captives I But the Spirit on him was not on them.
As Jewish widows in Elijah’s day, perished of famine, through unbelief, and left to Sarepta’s far-off widow in a foreign land to believe and be blessed with unfailing meal and oil, as Jewish lepers, through unbelief, in Elisha’s day died in uncleanness and loathsomeness while touching elbows with One having power to heal, leaving to a Syrian stranger to wash in Jordan and be clean, so here where Jesus “had been brought up,” the people of Nazareth shut their eyes, bugged their chains and died in darkness and under the power of Satan died unabsolved from sin, died unsanctified and disinherited, and so yet are dying and shall forever die.
The Year of Jubilee came to them in vain. In vain its silver trumpets pealed forth the notes of liberty. They had no ear to hear, and so by consent became slaves of the Terrible One forever.
This brings us to church responsibility and ministerial agency in the perpetuation of this proclamation of mercy. As Paul went forth to far-off shores, announcing in tears, yet with faith and hope and courage, the terms of eternal redemption, so now the churches find in the same mission their warrant for existence, and so now are we sent forth as witnesses to stand before every prison house where souls are immured, commissioned “to open the eyes of the prisoners that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in Christ.” Ours to blow the silver trumpets and proclaim to captives the year of jubilee. Ours is the evangel of liberty ours to make known that “if the Son of God make men free, they shall be free indeed.”
Leaving Nazareth, Jesus went to Capernaum, where he made his residence from which he radiates in his ministry in Galilee, teaching and healing on a large scale. His work here in Zebulun and Naphtali is a distinct fulfilment of Isa 9:1-2 , in which he is represented as a great light shining in the darkness. By the sea of Galilee near Capernaum he calls four fishermen to be his partners Peter, Andrew, James, and John, two sets of brothers. Here he announces his purpose for their lives to be fishers of men. What a lesson! These men were skilled in their occupation and now Jesus takes that skill and turns it into another direction, toward a greater end, “fishers of men.” Here he gives them a sign of his authority and messiahship in the incident of the great draught of fishes. The effect on Peter was marvelous. He was conscious of Christ’s divinity and of his own sinfulness. Thus he makes his confession, Luk 5:8 : “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” But our Lord replied to Peter: “Fear not, from henceforth thou shalt catch men.” Later (Joh 21 ), when Peter and his comrades went back to their old occupation, the risen Lord appeared to them and renewed their call, performing a miracle of a similar draught of fishes.
In Section 28 (Mar 1:21-28 ; Luk 4:31-37 😉 we have his first case of healing a demoniac. What is the meaning of the word “demoniac”? It means demon-possessed, and illustrates the fact of the impact of spirit on spirit, many instances of which we have in the Bible. Here the demons recognized him, which accords with Paul’s statement that he was seen of angels. They believed and trembled as James says, but they knew no conversion. The lesson there is one of faith. The effect of this miracle was amazement at his authority over the demons.
In Section 29 (Mat 8:14-17 ; Mar 1:29-34 ; Luk 4:38-41 ) we have an account of the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, which incident gives us light on the social relations of the disciples. Peter was married, the Romanist position to the contrary notwithstanding. Further scriptural evidence of his marriage is found in 2Co 8:5 . It is interesting to compare the parallel accounts of this incident in the Harmony and see how much more graphic is Mark’s account than those of Matthew and Luke. There is a fine lesson here on the relation between the mother-in-law and the son-in-law. Peter is a fine example of such relation. Immediately following the healing of Peter’s wife’s mother those that had sick ones brought them to Jesus and he healed them, thus fulfilling a prophecy of Isaiah, that he should take our infirmities and bear our diseases. Our Lord not only healed their sick ones, but he cast out the demons from many, upon which they recognized him. But he would not let them speak because they knew that he was the Christ.
The effect of our Lord’s great work as described in Section 29 was that Peter tried to work a corner on salvation and dam it up in Capernaum. This is indicated in the account of the interview of Peter with our Lord as described in Section 30 (Mat 4:23-25 ; Mar 1:35-39 ; Luk 4:42-44 ). Here it is said that Jesus, a great while before day, went out into a desert place to pray, and while out there Peter came to him and complained that they were wanting him everywhere. To this our Lord responded that it was to this end that he had come into the world. So Jesus at once launched out and made three great journeys about Galilee. His first journey included a great mass of teaching and healing, of which we have a few specimens in Sections 31-36, which apparently occurred at Capernaum, his headquarters. A second journey is recorded by Luke in Section 47 (Luk 8:1-3 ) and a third journey is found in Section 55. (For Broadus’ statement of these tours, see Harmony, p. 31.)
Here we have the occasion of one of the special prayers of Jesus. There are four such occasions in his ministry: (1) At his baptism he prayed for the anointing of the Holy Spirit; (2) here he prayed because of the effort to dam up his work of salvation in Capernaum; (3) the popularity caused by the healing of a leper (Sec. 31 Mat 8:2-4 ; Mar 1:40-45 ; Luk 5:12-16 ) drove him to prayer; (4) the fourth occasion was the ordination of the twelve apostles. The immense labors of Jesus are indicated in Mat 4:23-24 . These labors gave him great popularity beyond the borders of Palestine and caused the multitudes from every quarter to flock to him. Attention has already been called to the popularity caused by the healing of the leper (Sec. 31) and Jesus’ prayer as the result.
In the incident of the healing of the paralytic we have a most graphic account by the synoptics and several lessons: (1) That disease may be the result of sin, as “thy sin be forgiven thee”; (2) that of intelligent cooperation; (3) that of persistent effort; (4) that of conquering faith. These are lessons worthy of emulation upon the part of all Christians today. Out of this incident comes the first issue between our Lord and the Pharisees, respecting the authority to forgive sins. This was only a thought of their hearts, but he perceived their thought and rebuked their sin. From this time on they become more bold in their opposition, which finally culminated in his crucifixion. Let the reader note the development of this hatred from section to section of the Harmony.
In Section 33 (Mat 9:9-13 ; Mar 2:13-17 ; Luk 5:27-32 ) we have the account of the call of Matthew, his instant response and his entertainment of his fellow publicans. Here arose the second issue between Christ and the Pharisees, respecting his receiving publicans and sinners and eating with them. This was contrary to their idea in their self-righteousness, but Jesus replied that his mission was to call sinners rather than the righteous. This issue was greatly enlarged later, in Luk 15 , to which he replied with three parables showing his justification and his mission. In this instance (Mat 9:13 ) he refutes their contention with a quotation from Hosea which aptly fitted this case: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.”
Then came to him the disciples of John and made inquiry about fasting, to which he replied with the parable of the sons of the bride chamber, the interpretation of which is that we should let our joy or sorrow fit the occasion, or set fasting ments and old bottles, the interpretation of which is to let the form fit the life; beware of shrinking and expansion.
In Section 35 (Mat 9:18-25 ; Mar 5:22-43 ; Luk 8:41-56 ) we have the account of his healing of Jairus’ daughter and the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. Usually in the miracles of Christ, and in all preceding miracles, there was the touch of some kind between the healer and the healed. We are informed that great multitudes of people came to Jesus with this confidence, “If I but touch him I shall be healed.” Accordingly we find that Christ put his fingers on the eyes of the blind, on the ears of the deaf, or took hold of the hand of the dead. In some way usually there was either presence or contact.
We will now consider the special miracle connected with the fringe of the garment of Jesus which the Romanists cite to justify the usage concerning the relics of the saints. In Num 15:38 we have a statute: “Thou shalt put fringes on the wings or ends of the outer garment,” and this fringe had in it a cord or ribbon of blue, and the object of it was to remind the wearer of the commandments of God. The outer garment was an oblong piece of cloth, one solid piece of cloth, say, a foot and a half wide and four feet long. The edge was fringed on all the four sides, and in the fringe was run a blue thread, and the object of the fringe and of the blue thread also was to make them remember the commandments of God. The statute is repeated in Deu 22 . Again in Deu 6 is the additional law of phylacteries, or frontlets little pieces of leather worn between the eyes on which were inscribed the commandments of God. The people were taught to instruct their children in the commandments of God: “And they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes, and thou shalt put them upon thy door posts, and when thou goest out and when thou comest in, and when thou sittest down and when thou gettest up, and when thou liest down, thou shalt at all times teach thy children the Word of God.” Now, because of these statutes a superstitious veneration began to attach to the fringe and to the phylacteries. So we learn in Mat 23 , as stated by our Saviour, that the Pharisees made broad the phylacteries between their eyes and enlarged the fringe of the outer garment. They made the fringe or tassel very large. They did it to be seen of men. The law prescribed that when the wearer should see this fringe on his garment he should remember the commandments of the Lord his God. But these Pharisees put it on that others might see it, and that it might be an external token to outsiders of their peculiar sanctity and piety. What was intended to be a sign to the man himself was converted by superstition into a sign for other people. Hence this woman said within herself, “If I but touch that sacred fringe the border of his garment.” She could not go up and touch the phylactery between his eyes, in case he wore one, but he did wear the Jewish costume with the fringe or border on his outer garment, and she could reach that from behind. She would not have to go in front of him. She argued: “Now, if I can in the throng get up so that I can reach out and just touch that fringe, I shall be saved.” We see how near her thought connected the healing with the fringe of the garment, because by the double statute of God it was required on the Jewish garment to signify their devotion to his Word the matchless Word of Jehovah. Mark tells us that she was not the only woman, not the only person healed by touching the border of his garment (Mar 6:56 ). Her sentiment was not an isolated one. It was shared by the people at large. Multitudes of people came to touch the fringe of his garment that they might be healed.
The question arises, Why should Christ select that through contact with the fringe on his outer garment healing power should be bestowed? He did do it. The question is, why? There shall be no god introduced unless there be a necessity for a god. There shall be no special miracle unless the case demands it. Why? Let us see if we cannot get a reason. I do not announce the reason dogmatically, but as one that seems sufficient to my own mind. Christ was among the people speaking as never man spake, doing works that no man had done. He was awakening public attention. He was the cynosure of every eye. They came to him from every direction. They thronged him. And right here at this juncture Jairus had said, “Master, my little girl, twelve years old, is even now dead. Go and lay thy hand upon her that she may live.” He arose and started, the crowd surging around him and following him, and all at once he stopped and said, “Who touched me?” “Master, behold the crowd presseth thee on every side, and thou sayest, who touched me?” Here was a miracle necessary to discriminate between the touches of the people. “Who touched me?” Hundreds sin sick touched him and were not saved. Hundreds that had diseases touched him and were unhealed. Hundreds that were under the dominion of Satan looked in his face and heard his words and were not healed. It was touch and not touch. They touched, but there was no real contact. They rubbed up against salvation and were not saved. Salvation walked through their streets and talked to them face to face. The stream of life flowed right before their doors and they died of thirst. Health came with rosy color and bright eye and glowing cheek and with buoyant step walked through their plague district) and they died of sickness. But some touched him. Some reached forth the hand and laid hold upon the might of his power. This woman did.
Poor woman! What probably was her thought? “I heard that ruler tell him that he had a little girl twelve years old that was just dead, and he asked him to go and heal her, she twelve years old, and for twelve years I have been dead. For twelve years worse than death has had hold on me and I have spent all my money; have consulted many physicians. I have not been benefited by earthly remedies, but rendered worse. Twelve years has death been on me, and if he can heal that, girl that died at twelve years of age, maybe he can heal me twelve years dead. If that ruler says, ‘If you will but go and lay your hand upon her even now she will revive,’ what can I do? In my timidity, in the ceremonial uncleanness of my condition, in my shame, I dare not speak. I cannot in this crowd, for if they knew that I were here they would cast me out; for if any of them touch me they are unclean in the eyes of the law. I cannot go and kneel down before him, and say, ‘Master, have mercy on me.’ The ceremonial law of uncleanness forbids my showing my face, and if I come in contact with his power it must be with a touch upon the garment. And I beg for that. I say within myself, that if I but touch the fringe with its blue thread in it that reminds him of God’s commands, I shall be healed.”
There was the association of her healing with the memento of the Word of God. There was the touch of her faith, that came into contact with that Word of God and with him. So her faith reasoned, and virtue going out from him responded to her faith. And she felt in herself that she was healed. Well, he healed her and there it stands out one of the most beautiful lessons in the Word of God. Oh, what a lesson! Some will say at the judgment, “Lord Jesus, thou hast taught in our streets and we have done many wonders in thy name,” and he will say, “I never knew you.” “You were close to the Saviour. You did not touch him. You were his neighbor. You did not touch him.” There were many lepers in Israel in the days of Elisha, the prophet lepers that could have been healed of leprosy by an appeal to the power of God in Elisha. They died in leprosy, but Naaman came from afar and touched the healing power of the prophet and was healed. There were many widows in Israel whose staff of life was gone, whose barrel of meal was empty, whose cruse of oil had failed, and here was the prophet of God, who by a word could supply that empty barrel, that failing cruse, but they did not touch him. They did not reach out in faith and come in contact with that power. The widow of Sarepta did, and her barrel of meal never failed, and her cruse of oil never wasted. Now, the special miracle: It was designed to show that if there be a putting forth of faith, even one finger of faith, and that one finger of faith touches but the fringe, the outskirts of salvation only let there be a touch, though that touch covers no more space than the point of a cambric needle “let there be the touch of faith and thou art saved.”
In the midst of this stir about the woman the news of the death of Jairus’ daughter burst forth upon them with the request to trouble not the Master any further. But that did not stop our Lord. He proceeded immediately to the house to find a tumult and many weeping and wailing, for which he gently rebuked them. This brought forth their scorn, but taking Peter, James, and John, he went in and raised the child to life and his praise went forth into all that land.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the general theme of this division of the Harmony?
2. What common errors of interpretation of the kingdom? Illustrate.
3. What was the offspring of these errors respectively and who the most liable to each?
4. What, perhaps, was the most unprofitable sermon and what was the most stubborn skepticism?
5. How does such disappointment find expression?
6. Give the author’s statements relative to the kingdom,
7. Where do we find the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecies relative to the kingdom?
8. What specific prophecy in Isaiah fulfilled in Matthew?
9. Where do we find the principles of the kingdom disclosed?
10. What great office did our Lord fill besides teacher and wonder worker and what proof did he submit to John the Baptist?
11. What thing most worthy of special consideration in connection with the kingdom?
12. What the opening incident of the Galilean ministry, what its importance, what its great lesson and what its effect?
13. Give an account of our Lord’s rejection at Nazareth.
14. Why was he thus rejected?
15. By what incidents in the lives of the prophets does he illustrate the folly of their unbelief?
16. What is the church responsibility and ministerial agency in the proclamation of mercy?
17. Where does Jesus make his home after his rejection at Nazareth and what his first work in this region?
18. Recite the incident of the call of the four fishermen and its lessons.
19. What was Christ’s first case of healing a demoniac and what the meaning of the term “demoniac”? Illustrate.
20. What was the lesson of this miracle and what was its effect?
21. Recite the incident of the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law and give its lessons.
22. What were the great results of this miracle and why would not Christ allow the demons to speak?
23. How did Peter try to work a “corner” on salvation and how did our Lord defeat the plan?
24. How many and what journeys did Jesus make about Galilee?
25. Give the four special prayers of Jesus here cited and the occasion of each.
26. Describe the incident of the healing of the paralytic and its les sons.
27. What issue arises here between our Lord and the Pharisees and what was the final culmination?
28. Give an account of the call of Matthew, his entertainment, the second issue between our Lord and the Pharisees and how Jesus met it.
29. What question here arises, how was it brought up, how did our Lord reply and what the meaning of his parables here?
30. What double miracle follows and what was the usual method of miracles?
31. What was the law of fringes and phylacteries and what were their real purpose?
32. Why should Christ select that through contact with the fringe on his outer garment healing power should be bestowed?
33. What, probably, was the thought of this woman as she contemplated this venture of faith?
34. What was the great lesson of this incident of her healing?
35. Describe the miracle of raising Jairus’ daughter and its effect.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
Ver. 14. In the power of the Spirit ] Without which the word is preached to no purpose. Cathedram in coelo habet, qui corda docet, saith Augustine. It is with the word and spirit, as with the veins and arteries; as the veins carry the blood, so the arteries carry the spirits to quicken the blood.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
14 32. ] CIRCUIT OF GALILEE. TEACHING, AND REJECTION, AT NAZARETH. Peculiar to Luke in this form: but see Mat 4:12-25 ; Mat 13:53-58 [38] Mark, and note below.
[38] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25 , the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified , thus, ‘ Mk.,’ or ‘ Mt. Mk.,’ &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
14. ] . . ., in the power of that full anointing of the Spirit for His holy office, which He had received at His baptism: and also implying that this power was used by Him in doing mighty works.
Here the chronological order of Luke’s history begins to be confused, and the first evident marks occur of indefiniteness in arrangement, which I believe characterizes this Gospel. And in observing this, I would once for all premise, (1) that I have no bias for finding such chronological inaccuracy, and have only done so where no fair and honest means will solve the difficulty; (2) that where internal evidence appears to me to decide this to be the case, I have taken the only way open to a Commentator who would act uprightly by the Scriptures, and fairly acknowledged and met the difficulty; (3) that so far from considering the testimony of the Evangelists to be weakened by such inaccuracies, I am convinced that it becomes only so much the stronger (see Prolegomena to the Gospels).
These remarks have been occasioned by the relation of this account, Luk 4:14-30 , to the Gospels of Matthew and John. Our Luk 4:14-15 embrace the narrative of Matthew in ch. Luk 4:12-25 . But after that comes an event which belongs to a later period of our Lord’s ministry. A fair comparison of our Luk 4:16-24 with Mat 13:53-58 and Mar 6:1-6 , entered on without bias, and conducted solely from the narratives themselves, surely can hardly fail to convince us of their identity. (1) That two such visits should have happened , is of itself not impossible; though (with the sole exception of Jerusalem for obvious reasons) our Lord did not ordinarily revisit the places where He had been rejected as in our Luk 4:28-29 . (2) That He should have been thus treated at His first visit, and then marvelled at their unbelief on His second, is utterly impossible . (Stier, in the 2nd ed. of his Reden Jesu, says, with reference to the above position of mine, “To this we give a very simple answer: It was at their persistence in unbelief, after their first emotion and confusion, after His continued teaching and working of miracles, that He wondered.” But it may fairly be rejoined, is there any sign of this in the narratives of Matt. and Mark? Is it not a forcing of their spirit to suit a preconceived notion?) (3) That the same question should have been asked on both occasions, and answered by our Lord with the same proverbial expression, is in the highest degree improbable. (4) Besides, this narrative itself bears internal marks of belonging to a later period. The . . . must refer to more than one miracle done there: indeed the whole form of the sentence points to the plain fact, that our Lord had been residing long in Capernaum. Compare too its introduction here without any notification, with its description as . in Luk 4:31 , and the separateness of the two pieces will be apparent: see further remarks in the notes below.
Here however is omitted an important cycle of our Lord’s sayings and doings, both in Galilee and Jerusalem; viz. that contained in Joh 1:29 to Joh 4:54 included. This will be shewn by comparing Mat 4:12 , where it is stated that our Lord’s return to Galilee was after the casting of John into prison , with Joh 3:24 , where, on occasion of the Lord and the disciples baptizing in Juda, it is said, John was not yet cast into prison: see note on Mat 4:12 .
] The report, namely, of His miracles in Capernaum, wrought . . ., and possibly of what He had done and taught at Jerusalem at the feast.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 4:14-15 . Return to Galilee ( cf. Mar 1:14 ; Mar 1:28 ; Mar 1:39 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Luk 4:14 . , as in Luk 4:1 , frequently used by Lk. . ., in the power of the Spirit; still as full of the Spirit as at the baptism. Spiritual power not weakened by temptation, rather strengthened: post victoriam corroboratus , Bengel. (here and in Mat 9:26 ), report, caused by the exercise of the , implying a ministry of which no details are here given (so Schanz, Godet, J. Weiss, etc.). Meyer thinks of the fame of the Man who had been baptised with remarkable accompaniments; Hahn of the altered transfigured appearance of Jesus.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk 4:14-15
14And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. 15And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.
Luk 4:14 “returned to Galilee” Both Matthew and Luke move directly from the temptation experience in Judea into the Galilean ministry which runs from Luk 4:14 to Luk 9:50. Only Joh 1:35 to Joh 4:44 describes the intervening ministry in Judea. Galilee, which in Hebrew means “circle” (BDB 165 II), was interpreted by the rabbis as meaning encircled by the Gentiles. This area was despised by the Orthodox Jews from Judea, however, Jesus’ ministry here was a fulfillment of predictive prophecy (cf. Isa 9:1). Josephus describes this region in Jewish Wars 3.3.1-2.
Mark (Luk 1:14) and Matthew (Luk 4:12) mention that Jesus’ return to Galilee coincided with John the Baptist’s arrest by Herod.
“in the power of the Spirit” Temptation does not cause the loss of the Spirit. Jesus spoke the Father’s words and acted in the Spirit’s power. The fluidity between the ministries of the three persons of the Trinity is evident throughout the NT (cf. Luk 4:18-19). See SPECIAL TOPIC: THE TRINITY at Luk 3:22.
“news about Him spread through all the surrounding district” This is one of Luke’s characteristic statements (cf. Luk 4:37; Luk 5:15; Luk 7:17). He tended to add brief summaries both in his Gospel and Acts.
Luk 4:15 “synagogues” This local Jewish institution developed during the Babylonian Exile to offer the Jews who were estranged from their Temple a place of prayer, worship, study, and ministry. It was probably the single most significant means of the Jews retaining their culture. Even after they returned to Palestine they continued this local institution.
“was praised by all” The Gospels record Jesus’ popularity with the common people in the local Galilean synagogues. But they also record a growing opposition from the religious leaders.
Luke often adds a comment about how people preserved Jesus’ words (cf. Luk 4:22; Luk 8:25; Luk 9:43; Luk 11:27; Luk 13:17; Luk 19:48).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
power. Greek. dunamis. App-172.
there went out a fame, &c. In Luke (as in the other Gospels) only those events are selected which tend to illustrate the special presentation of the Lord and His ministry. Compare the commencing events of each: Mat 4:13. Mar 1:14. Mar 4:14-30, and Joh 1:19-43. For this fourfold ministry, see App-119. Thus this first period commences and its subject, as stated more precisely in verses: Luk 4:43, Luk 4:44.
fame = report. Greek. pheme. Not the same word as in Luk 4:37.
of = concerning. Greek. peri. App-104.
through. Greek. kata. App-104.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
14-32.] CIRCUIT OF GALILEE. TEACHING, AND REJECTION, AT NAZARETH. Peculiar to Luke in this form: but see Mat 4:12-25; Mat 13:53-58 [38] Mark, and note below.
[38] When, in the Gospels, and in the Evangelic statement, 1Co 11:23-25, the sign () occurs in a reference, it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in the other Gospels, which will always be found indicated at the head of the note on the paragraph. When the sign () is qualified, thus, Mk., or Mt. Mk., &c., it is signified that the word occurs in the parallel place in that Gospel or Gospels, but not in the other or others.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 4:14. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee:
Ah, dear brethren, if our Lord Jesus needed the power of the Spirit, how much more do you and I need it! We have no power of our own, but he was the Son of God. He was a divine Teacher, and yet, when he went to his work, it was in the power of the Spirit. Tarry, brother, till you have that power; it is of no use for you to go without it.
Luk 4:14-15. And there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
There was a wondrous power about his teaching: Never man spake like this man. Perhaps his hearers did not understand what the power was; but they glorified the new Teacher who had come into their midst.
Luk 4:16. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up:
It is always a difficult thing for a young man to begin preaching in His own native town. A prophet is not without honour save in his own country, yet Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.
Luk 4:16. And, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
It was the custom to read parts of Holy Writ in the synagogue, and then to say a few words by way of exposition; and this the Saviour did.
Luk 4:17. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah.
And when he had opened the book, that is, unrolled the parchment containing Isaiahs prophecy,
Luk 4:17. He found the place where it was written,
You will find the passage in the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah.
Luk 4:18-19. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
There he stopped; it was all of the passage that then seemed suitable.
Luk 4:20. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down.
In those days, the preacher sat down, and those who listened stood up, I daresay that practice tended to keep the hearers awake, and it was all the easier for the speaker. Well might the Saviour sit down, weighted as he was with a burden of holy instruction that he was about to impart to the people; or, perhaps, sitting down as if himself at rest, he appeared the more ready to give rest to them also.
Luk 4:20. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
The young Nazarene, who had quitted them for a while, and had come home again, was the center of his fellow-townsmens attention.
Luk 4:21. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
He thus declared that he was the anointed Messiah.
Luk 4:22. And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious word which proceeded out of his mouth.
They did not at first cavil at or deny what Jesus said; his doctrine was pleasing and comforting; and they were ready to accept it.
Luk 4:22. And they said, Is not this Josephs son?
Now they began to question: Is not this the son of the carpenter?
Luk 4:23. And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me the proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.
You have been doing great things over yonder at Capernaum, do the same at Nazareth. You should not leave your own native town without working miracles here. Now there was an opportunity for Jesus to ingratiate himself with the people, and win their good word. If he would only perform miracles among them, he should be highly exalted in their esteem.
Luk 4:24-25. And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the day, of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land;
Many husbands died, and many widows in Israel were left desolate in those terrible days of trial.
Luk 4:26. But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow.
This was as much as to say, It is not because I lived here that I shall work miracles in this place. There were many widows round about Elijah, but he was not sent to one of them, he was sent to a widow in Sarepta, a city of Sidon, a heathen woman in another country. Mark the sovereignty of God; he bestows his mercy where he wills, according to his declaration to Moses, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. We dare not ask God why he does this, for he giveth not account of any of his matters. He acts wisely; but he acts according to the good pleasure of his own will.
Luk 4:27. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman; the Syrian.
He, too, was a heathen from a distant country. Healing came unto him, but unto none of the lepers of Israel. God will do as he pleases with his own mercy and grace. The question that he asks is, Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? This doctrine of divine sovereignty was not according to the taste of these people, they did not like it, and some of you, I fear, do not like it. They grew very angry, they began to gnash their teeth, and to say, This young man must be silenced; we will not listen to such doctrine as this from him.
Luk 4:28. And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
They did not mind hearing the first part of his teaching; but now that he exalts the sovereignty of God, and lays the sinner low, he speaks too plainly for them: They were filled with wrath.
Luk 4:29-30. And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong. But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
They could not destroy him at that time. His work was not done, and he was immortal till it was fully accomplished.
Luk 4:31-32. And came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath day. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power.
God grant that his Word may be with power tonight! Amen.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Luk 4:14. , in the power of the Spirit) Being strengthened [the more] after His victory.-, a fame) Men felt [in His speaking] the power of the Spirit: see Luk 4:15 [and this, even before that He exhibited in that region so many miracles as He subsequently performed.-V. g.]
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Luk 4:14-30
SECTION THREE
THE MINISTRY OF JESUS IN GALILEE
Luke 4:14 to 9:50
1. JESUS PREACHING AT NAZARETH
Luke 4:14-30
We cannot determine accurately the length of his ministry in Galilee; it cannot be determined whether it began in summer or late autumn; if the feast of Joh 5:1 was a Passover or there is an unknown Passover, the Galilean ministry lasted at least sixteen months, for it closed when another Passover was near. (Joh 6:4.) Otherwise we should not certainly know that it lasted more than six or eight months. There is no doubt that the two subsequent periods of our Lord’s ministry each lasted six months; but here we have to admit much uncertainty as to the time; after all, a determination of the time employed would be a matter of very little importance with respect to the study of this period. The immense amount of material in this period would seem to favor the idea for a length of time longer than a year. Throughout this ministry in Galilee, and the periods that will follow after, the reader may trace carefully the progress of the history along several lines: (1) the Savior’s progressive self-manifestation; (2) the gradual training of his twelve apostles who were to carry on his teaching and work after his death; (3) the deepening and spreading hostility of the Jewish influential classes and official rulers. By constantly observing these parallel lines of progress, it will be seen that the history and teachings of our Lord exhibit a vital growth, moving on to an end by him foreseen (Luk 12:50), when the hostility of the rulers will culminate as he before the Sanhedrin avows himself to be the Messiah, and his twelve apostles will he almost prepared to succeed him in his work.
14, 15 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit-Several months intervened between the preceding paragraph and this one during the intervening months, Jesus was busy in his ministry in Judea. John (1:15 to 3:36) alone gives an account of this ministry. Luke passes over in silence his ministry in Judea and gives attention to his Galilean ministry. Jesus had left Galilee (Luk 3:21) to be baptized of John; he had made the two returns to Galilee, and Luke here may be understood to make a general statement that includes both of them. So after the marriage feast at Cana (Joh 1:43; Joh 2:1) and after John was cast into prison (Mat 4:12; Joh 4:1-3), Luke begins to relate Jesus’ activities in Galilee after John’s imprisonment (Luk 3:19-20). Jesus “in the power of the Spirit” came into Galilee, under the full influence of the Holy Spirit, which descended upon him at his baptism, attended him in the wilderness of temptation, and continued with him in his ministry.
And he taught in their synagogues,-“Taught” in the original means “he himself taught,” which verifies the favorable report about himself in person. He was not only known by reports of his words and acts, but in his own person and by his teaching. All glorified him because of his teachings. Jesus taught in the synagogues as Jewish teachers or rabbis taught; he expounded the scriptures and instructed the people. “Synagogue” means “assembly, congregation,” and is applied both to a religious gathering having certain judicial powers (Luk 8:41; Luk 12:11; Luk 21:12; Act 9:2), and to the place where the Jews met for their public worship on ordinary occasions (Luk 7:5.) There were many synagogues for the Jews; in all cities and villages where there were at least ten Jews, there was found a synagogue. It is said that there were more than four hundred synagogues in Jerusalem. The Jews met in their synagogues on the Sabbath, feast days, and afterward on the second and fifth days of the week.
16, 17 And he came to Nazareth,–He came to Nazareth, the home of his childhood and youth;here he was with the people who had known him almost from his birth. “Nazareth,” according to some authorities. means “a branch.” which was an appropriate name of the place where the branch should live and grow up. (Isa 11:1; Zec 3:8; Zec 6:12.) Others think that it signifies “the one guarding or guarded” from the hills which surrounded it. New Testament writers always speak of Nazareth as a city and never as a village. According to Josephus the population of Nazareth was above fifteen thousand; it is not mentioned in the Old Testament. It was located in lower Galilee, about seventy miles north of Jerusalem, and nearly halfway from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. “As his custom was,” he went into “the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up to read.” This shows that Jesus attended regularly the services in the synagogue on the Sabbath. This appears to have been the first Sabbath after his return to Nazareth. He “stood up to read.” In the synagogue the law and the prophets were read and expounded by the ruler of the synagogue and others; the scriptures, except Esther, which might be read sitting, were read standing, while sitting was the posture of teaching. (Mat 5:1; Luk 4:20.) When Jesus “stood up to read” he indicated as was the custom in the synagogue his desire to read, and probably the audience stood while he read. According to the custom of the Jews, seven were allowed to read every Sabbath-a priest, two Levites, and four Israelites; the law was read first and then the prophets.
And there was delivered unto him the book-When Jesus stood up in the synagogue, indicating his desire to read, there was brought to him the “book of the prophet Isaiah”; probably the law had already been read that Sabbath, and, according to custom, they were ready for the usual reading of the prophets. Some think that he may have called for this particular hook. The books of the ancients were “rolls” of parchment, papyrus, linen, or other flexible material, which were rolled upon a stick, and upon reading were gradually rolled around another of equal size. “And he opened the hook, and found the place where it was written.” He unrolled the scroll; this was no accident or mere chance that he “found the place” where he wanted to read; he unrolled the volume until he found this Messianic prophecy, yet with no seeming effort or searching for it.
18-20 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,-This passage is quoted from Isa 61:1-2, and the clause, “to set at liberty them that are bruised,” seems to be added from the Septuagint of Isa 58:6. The Jews generally understood this prophecy to refer to the Messiah; it was very appropriate for Jesus to read this passage in the beginning of his teachings in Nazareth; he thus appears before them, not so much as a miracle worker, as a teacher, but as the Messiah of prophecy. “The Spirit of the Lord” means that the Holy Spirit was abiding with him and hence his qualification for teaching and saving the lost. (Joh 3:34.) He was anointed by the Spirit at his baptism “to preach good tidings to the poor.” The time had now come for him to announce that the Messiah had come. It was customary for those who were designated to do public work to be anointed, but Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit, while others were anointed with the “anointing oil.” The “poor” means the spiritually poor; those who are “poor in spirit.” (Mat 5:3.) The Messiah was to release the captives, those who were in the bondage of sin. “Captives” as used here in the original meant those who were “conquered or taken in war”; hence, prisoners of war. On the first day of the year of jubilee, the priests went through the land proclaiming with sound of trumpet the blessings of the opening year. (Lev 25:8-17.) Jesus here proclaims the time of his public ministry and his Messiahship.
And he closed the book,-Luke gives a very vivid picture of the manner of Jesus in the synagogue of his own village calmly and quietly Jesus rolled up the scroll and gave it again to “the attendant” who had brought it to him; then he “sat down.” He now assumed the posture of a teacher the custom was to stand while reading and to sit while teaching. Jesus is now ready to teach. “The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him.” The verb or participle in the original here denotes continuous, steadfast attention. All looked intently and steadily upon him; there was something in his manner, and perhaps tone of voice, which riveted their attention on him and aroused their expectation that he was about to speak.
21 And he began to say unto them,-These words do not necessarily denote his first words, but they do indicate a solemn and weighty opening. “Today hath his scripture been fulfilled in your ears.” Now, at this very time, in their ears they heard the glad tidings which Jesus had announced that he was the Messiah. Since the Jews generally understood this scripture to refer to the Messiah, Jesus declares that he is a fulfillment of it; there can be no doubt but that they understood him;however, they did not believe him.
22-24 And all bare him witness,-All who listened to his discourse gave favorable testimony to the subject and manner of it; there was no false reasoning in it, neither were there any false or unfounded assumptions; no fallacy of argument or erroneous statement could be detected in the whole discourse; hence they “wondered at the words of grace which proceeded out of his mouth.” Their wonder and admiration soon began to yield to a feeling of contempt for his pretensions, and they asked: “Is not this Joseph’s son?” They wondered that their own townsman and one whom they had known as a workman among them should thus speak. Joseph was a man of humble circumstances; his family had occupied no distinguished place; Joseph was supposed to be the father of Jesus. Jesus had received no training from the rabbis; how could he so speak? How could he, whom they had known as a humble workman in their midst, be the Messiah? There was unbelief mingled with their admiration; they wanted more evidence.
And he said unto them,-Jesus knew their thoughts and he may have heard their question; hence he replied both to their thoughts and their question. He said: “Doubtless ye will say unto me this parable, Physician, heal thyself.” This was a common proverb or adage among the Jews, and meant “pursue the course which you would have another pursue, making similar claims; give the evidence, perform the miracles, which you yourself would require of another.” This meaning is reinforced by a further interpretation of their thoughts, as Jesus said they were thinking that he should have done “here in thine own country” “whatsoever we have heard done at Capernaum.” Jesus had healed the nobleman’s son at Capernaum. (Joh 4:46-54.) Capernaum was about sixteen miles from Nazareth; the news could come in a day; Jesus had performed no miracle in Nazareth. At his second rejection he healed a few sick people. (Mar 6:5.)
No prophet is acceptable in his own country.-Jesus here answered the desire of the people of Nazareth in wanting him to work some miracle as he had in Capernaum by giving another proverb. He states a general fact in this proverb; all other things being equal, one who has been familiar to us from early life is treated with less reverence than one who has not been thus familiar; if they honor him less, they must expect less attention. This proverb was repeated with a slight variation on his subsequent visit to Nazareth. (Mat 13:57.) Jesus does not mean that this proverb should become an infallible rule.
25-27 But of a truth I say unto you,-Here Jesus recites some Old Testament examples to show that his conduct was in harmony with that of two of their greatest prophets, who were divinely directed not to act according to the proverb, “Physician, heal thyself,” and whose miraculous power was exerted on strangers, while these prophets performed their miracles on those that had need. There were many “widows in Israel in the days of Elijah,” and Elijah did not visit and bless all of them. There was a famine of “three years and six months’ ” duration, “when there came a great famine over all the land.” (1Ki 18:1; Jas 5:17.) It stated that the third year Elijah was commanded to show himself to Ahab with the promise of rain; during this famine Elijah had sojourned with a woman of Zarephath, in the land of Sidon. In the great famine of Elijah’s time (1Ki 17:1-9) there were hundreds of suffering widows in Israel, but Elijah was sent only to one in the heathen city of Sidon. Also “there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet.” Lepers were in abundance in Israel when Elisha was prophet and performing numerous miracles, but not one of them was healed except Naaman, who was not an Israelite. (2 Kings 5.)
28-30 And they were all filled with wrath in the synagogue,-That Sabbath Jesus showed those assembled in the synagogue their danger, and instead of being warned they were enraged. He could do no miracle because of their unbelief; he would go to other places as their prophets had done. The indignation of the people of Nazareth was general, and they were all filled with wrath, and “they rose up, and cast him forth out of the city.” In their wild excitement, without any reverence for the place, the day, or the occasion, they rushed upon Jesus like mad men, as they did against Stephen. (Act 7:57-58.) By force they “led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built.” “Brow” in the original is the word used in medical language both of eyebrows and of other projections of the body. This is the only place that this word in the original is used in the New Testament. It would naturally occur to a physician, especially since the same epithets were applied to the appearance of the eyebrows in certain diseases as were applied to hills. It should be remembered that Luke was a physician. Jesus was led to this hill “that they might throw him down headlong.” They meant to cast him down and kill him. This was not the usual mode of punishment among the Jews, but they sometimes did rash things. (2Ki 9:33; 2Ch 25:12.) It was contrary to a Jewish canon to inflict punishment on the Sabbath; the people of Nazareth had become at this time a furious mob; they demonstrated the truth that a prophet was not honored among his own people.
But he passing through the midst-Some think that Jesus escaped by his composure and self-control while the confusion reigned among the crowd; others think that the majesty and divinity of Jesus so awed them that they made a way for him to pass; and still others think that he exerted some miraculous influence upon them, such as affecting their sight, rendering himself invisible or restraining them. It is true that Jesus did not work miracles merely for self-preservation, neither did his apostles; yet it seems at times that the divinity within Jesus shown forth with all-producing power. (Joh 8:59; Joh 10:39; Joh 18:6.) He “went his way”; he departed from Nazareth. In this account we have an explanation of Matthew’s brief allusion, “and leaving Nazareth.” (Mat 4:13.) We see why he left Nazareth and made Capernaum his chief place of residence.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
His Own Received Him Not
Luk 4:14-30
A wide gap occurs here, embracing the important transactions of Joh 1:29-51; Joh 2:1-25; Joh 3:1-36; Joh 4:1-54.
What a flutter in Marys heart when she saw her son sitting in the teachers place of His native synagogue! How gratified at the reception given to the opening sentences! What a sword pierced her heart at the sudden revulsion of feeling! They were jealous that He performed only a few private miracles; but He could not do more because of their unbelief. See Mar 6:5.
Note that our Lord here sounded forth the silver trumpet of jubilee. Seizing on the imagery of the gladdest festival of Hebrew life, He likened Himself to a priest proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord. Not yet the day of vengeance! Compare Luk 4:19 with Isa 61:1-2. This is Christs program for the present age.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
“The Acceptable Year Of The Lord” — Luk 4:14-30
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of Him through all the region round about. And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up: and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And He closed the book, and He gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him. And He began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, Is not this Josephs son? And He said unto them. Ye will surely say unto Me this proverb, Physician, heal Thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Thy country. And He said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country. But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when the great famine was throughout all the land; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. And all they in the synogogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust Him out of the city, and led Him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong. But He passing through the midst of them went His way- Luk 4:14-30.
In this portion of Scripture we have the account of the Lords return visit to the city of Nazareth after He laid aside His carpenters apron and His artisans tools, and went forth, first to be baptized by John in the Jordan, to be sealed by the Holy Spirit for His specific work, and then to go through His temptation in the wilderness. After a short stay in Jerusalem, He returned to His own hometown. The people had heard a great deal about Him. They had heard of marvelous signs and wonders following His ministry in other places, and they were in great expectation, hoping to see something remarkable done by Him when He appeared among them. We are told that He entered into the synagogue, as His custom was. There is something about that which might speak to everyone of us. The Lord Jesus grew up in that city of Nazareth. When He dwelt there, as a young man, it was His custom to attend the services in the place where the Word of God was read and expounded, and where the people gathered together for prayer. I fancy there must have been many things about the synagogue service which often offended His spirit. Many of those who participated must have greatly misunderstood the real meaning of the Word of God. But to Him the synagogue represented the authority of God in that city. So it was His custom to wend His way there from sabbath to sabbath.
I think some christian people need to have their consciences exercised more than they are, in regard to gathering together with Gods people, where the Word of God is appreciated and where they come together to sing His praises and to pray. A man said to me once, If I could find a perfect Church I would attend there. I replied; My dear friend, dont. If you find a perfect Church dont join it, because if you did it would be imperfect the moment you got into it. There is no such thing as a perfect Church, but we can thank God for the places where people meet to hear the Word of God, and to join in praise and prayer. We need to remember the words, Not forsaking the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another. We need to do this so much the more as we see the day approaching!
Jesus could always be depended upon, as a Boy and as a Youth, to be in His place in the synagogue, as divine service was being carried on. So the people knew that He would be there on this given sabbath day, and they gathered to hear Him. He was evidently accustomed to participate publicly in the service. As soon as He entered, we read, There was delivered unto Him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me. It would seem as though it was an ordinary thing for Him, when He attended the synagogue service, to take the sacred scroll, and to turn from one passage to another and expound them to the people. So now, as He entered on this particular sabbath-day, the one who had charge of the scrolls turned to Him and inquired what portion of the Scriptures He would like to read. He asked for the Book of the prophet Esaias, and He turned to this particular section and He read, For the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and He closed the Book. There might not be any special significance in that. He reads His text, He rolls up the scroll, and He is now about to expound it. But the remarkable fact is this: He broke off His reading in the middle of a sentence. He stopped at a comma. If you will turn to this passage in Isa 61:1-2, you will find that it reads as follows: To preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God. The Lord Jesus did not read those last words. Why? Because He had not come to proclaim the day of vengeance of our God. He had come to do all that is written of Him in the other part of the passage.
He had come to preach the gospel to the poor. Oh, I like that! It is a striking fact that in every land where the gospel has gone it has been largely the poor who have rejoiced in its message. You remember, it is written, He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away. How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! The trouble is that when men have an abundance of this worlds goods they are so taken up with them that they are not concerned about spiritual riches. But it is the poor, the needy, the struggling, who love to hear the gospel message. When Jesus was here, the common people heard Him gladly. It was the rulers, the self-righteous leaders, who had no sense of their sinfulness, and no realization of their need, and who could not appreciate Jesus. They had no concern about His message. But the poor-they loved to listen to Him. Thank God, though nineteen centuries have gone by since He left this scene, the gospel still is preached to the poor. If the time ever comes when we are not interested in the poor, and do not care for the poor, and draw away from the needy, The Glory is Departed will be written over the doors of the church.
We read of the poor in this world rich in faith. Those who do not have earthly wealth are rich often in spiritual things in a way that others who are in better circumstances are not. You remember that little poem:
In the heart of London city
Midst the dwelling of the poor,
These bright golden words were uttered,
I have Christ, what want I more?
He who heard them ran to fetch her
Something from the worlds great store.
It was needless, died she saying,
I have Christ, what want I more?
Christ is a substitute for everything, but nothing is a substitute for Christ. Jesus was always interested in the poor, and He is interested in the poor today. He came to preach the gospel to the poor, and He says, The Lord has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted. In that He expresses His Deity, for it is God only who can heal broken hearts. No man can do it. The best man you ever knew couldnt heal a broken heart. It would not be of any use to send your broken-hearted friends to the most spiritual ministers of Christ, and saying, These men will be able to make you whole again. We have no ability to heal broken hearts, but we can point people to One who can. How many broken-hearted men there are! Dr. Joseph Parker, one-time minister of the London City Temple, was once addressing young preachers, and he said to them, Young gentlemen, always preach to broken hearts, and you will never lack for an audience. There are so many of them everywhere. Hearts are bleeding and broken all around us. Jesus came to heal the brokenhearted, and if you who read these words are broken-hearted people, let me say to you, you wrong your own souls if you do not bring your burdens to the feet of Jesus. An old chorus says,
Youve carried your burden,
Youve carried it long!
Oh, bring it to Jesus-
Hes loving and strong
Hell take it away
And your sorrows shall cease,
Hell send you rejoicing,
With His heavenly peace.
Then He came to preach deliverance to the captives, not exactly to open all prison doors and let people out of jails and penitentiaries, but to deliver men from the captivity of sin and free those who are bound in chains of habit which they could not break. He is doing that today. He is freeing men from the power of sensuality, from unclean living, from evil tempers and vile dispositions, that bind folks as chains bind men in prison-cells. And He came to give the recovery of sight to the blind. When He was here on earth He touched the blind and His glory shone through their darkened lids, and lighted them forever. Though we may not see Him now by the natural eye, and He is not perhaps working the same kind of miracles which He did when He was here on earth, those who are blind spiritually, those who have had the understanding darkened, and have not been able to comprehend spiritual realities, when they come to Him the scales fall from their eyes, and He gives them light, and they are able to say with that delivered man of old, There are many things I do not know or understand, but one thing I know, that whereas I was blind, now I see. Oh, what a wonderful thing it is when Jesus touches blind eyes!
Then He came to set at liberty those that are bruised. We have been bruised by Satan. The very humanity in which we live has been bruised by the fall, but He came to set at liberty them that are bruised, to enable the lame to walk, and the dead to live and to rejoice in His saving grace.
He closed with the words, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. The acceptable year of the Lord-what is that? It is the time when God is looking in grace upon poor sinners. It is the time when the gospel is going out to lost men and women. He says, Now is the acceptable time. Now is the day of salvation.
Does some one say in his heart, Oh I would like to be a Christian, I would like to know the healing power of Jesus, but Im afraid the time has not come yet. I do not feel the proper moving of the Spirit. I am not certain that I would be welcome. I must await Gods time? That is an illusion of the enemy. Gods time is now. It is He Himself who says it. Now is the accepted time. Come now, and let us reason togetherthough your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. There is no reason why any anxious soul should go on in sin for another hour, because God is waiting to be gracious. This is the acceptable year since Jesus came to reveal the Fathers heart, since He came to die on the cross for our sins. God sent the message out to the world that all may come and find peace in Him. This is still the acceptable time. It will not last forever. It has lasted now for nearly two thousand years, since Jesus came and read this Scripture. He said He came to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. He did not read, And the day of vengeance of our God. Jesus did not read that because the time had not come for the vengeance of our God to begin, and it has not come yet. But listen to me! It may come soon! It may not be long now ere the Lord Jesus will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. Then the day of vengeance of our Lord will begin for this poor world. Then the book of doom will be opened, the trumpets of judgment will be sounded, and then the vials of wrath will be poured out upon this guilty world. This whole dispensation of the grace of God in which we live, the Lord Jesus puts into a comma. That is why He did not read on to the day of vengeance of our God. I plead with you to avail yourselves of the grace of God before He arises in judgment to shake terribly this world and shut the door. Today the door is wide open, and He says, Whosoever will may come.
Our Lord Jesus read this scripture and then He closed the Book. He rolled up the Scroll and gave it again to the minister, and He sat down. He rose up to read the Word and sat down to teach it. And He began to say unto them, This day is the scripture fulfilled. That is, He applied the scripture to Himself. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me- upon Jesus. It was He who had come in actual fulfilment of this Old Testament prophecy. In the Old Testament, in the Book of the prophet Isaiah we have this wonderful prediction of the Messiah who is coming. The Lord Jesus Christ took these same words and read them, and He applied them to Himself, to the amazement of His hearers. To apply them to Himself is one thing and to prove it quite another, but He proved it by what He did. He did the very thing that these words said He would do, and He has been doing it all through the centuries since. Millions have tested Him for themselves. They have come to Him. They have come with their sins. They have come to be delivered from their chains of evil habits, and they have put their trust in Him, and they have found He is able to do what He said He would do.
As He declared, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. We are told that all bare Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. And they said, Is not this Josephs son? They had never heard anything like this before. None of the Scribes ever said anything like this. None of them ever dared to apply such a prophecy to themselves. He was actually the son of the blessed Virgin Mary, but so far as they knew He was the son of Joseph, who had taken His mother under his protective care. So they said, Is not this Josephs son? He knew what they were thinking. And He said unto them, Ye will surely say unto Me this proverb, Physician, heal Thyself; whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Thy country. But He added, No prophet is accepted in his own country. He knew the unbelief that controlled their hearts, so that they had no desire to turn to God in repentance. So He used two illustrations saying, I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; but unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian. Naaman the Syrian was a Gentile, and that stirred them. They did not like His speaking in this way. As though God was just as much interested in needy Gentiles as in Jews! Yes, He is just as much interested in all the needy, for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. He is the same Lord over all.
When Jesus presented these two instances of Gods grace going out to the needy Gentiles they were filled with wrath and they rose up and they thrust Him out of their city.
A few years ago I went along the path they took, and I could visualize the synagogue and the crowd rushing around Jesus and saying, We do not care anything about what You say. Out You go! They crowded Him out unto the cliff at the edge of the city, and their object was to cast Him down headlong! But He, passing through the midst of them, went His way. How did He escape? Was it a miracle? I think it was. He simply passed through and they could not see where He had gone, so they were unable to cast Him over the cliff. His hour had not come. He had come into this world to die on Calvarys cross, and no power of men or of the devil could put Him to death until that hour when He was to yield Himself a ransom for sinners, upon the tree. Till then all their power was in vain.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
III. The Ministry in Galilee — Chapter 4:14-9:50
CHAPTER 4:14-44
1. In the Synagogue of Nazareth (Luk 4:14-21)
2. Unbelief and Rejection of Christ. (Luk 4:22-32)
3. A Demon Cast Out in Capernaum (Luk 4:33-37)
4. Peters Wifes Mother Healed; Many Healed. (Luk 4:38-44.)
Luk 4:14-21
And now the description of the ministry of the Son of Man begins. The beginning is in His own city. How all written here is again in a very human manner. He had been brought up in that city and as His custom was He went into the synagogue, and as He had done, no doubt, before, He stood up to read and like a man finds the place in the scroll which the servant had handed Him. Isa 61:1-2 is read by Him and then applied to Himself. The Spirit of the Lord was indeed upon Him to preach the Gospel to the poor. But He stopped in the middle of a sentence. The acceptable year of the Lord, is the last word He read. In His Person all this had appeared. He came to preach the Gospel, to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised. He did not read the day of vengeance of our God. That too is His work, but not as long as the acceptable year of the Lord lasts.
Luk 4:22-32
Is not this Josephs son? It is the first hint of the coming rejection. Then when He declared that Gods grace is not to be confined to Israel, but that it will, as in days of old, in the case of the widow of Sarepta and Naaman, go out to the Gentiles, they were filled with wrath. They were ready to kill Him. What happened? But He, passing through the midst of them, went His way. Was it a miracle? Is it the same as when He passed through shut doors? It was the result of His own dignity as the perfect Man, which awed the crowds, so that no one dared to touch Him.
Luk 4:33-37
The same incident is reported in Mar 1:21-28. The demons knew him but He had come to spoil the enemy and here He manifested His power.
Luk 4:38-44
Many works of power followed. As the seeker of the lost to preach the good tidings, He went from city to city.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Chapter 23
A Riot In The Synagogue
When a small town boy grows up, goes out and makes a name for himself, and comes back home, all the old men extol him, the women admire him, and the children idolize him. He becomes the talk of the town. The local weekly newspaper runs a front page story about him, with huge pictures. The boy no one knew or gave much attention to has become the town hero, and the town looks for a stage, so that they can show him off to the world. The poorer and more despised the town, the greater the hero.
That is just the picture we have before us in Luk 4:14. The Lord Jesus grew up in Nazareth. The common saying was, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? But here was a home town boy, a native son who had proved everybody wrong, insofar as Nazareth was concerned. Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all (Luk 4:14-15).
In a very brief time the Masters doctrine and preaching had made him a very famous man. His miracles were talked about everywhere. Now he had come home.
Public Worship
Though the Lord Jesus Christ was and is the Object of all true worship, while he lived in this world as a man, as a child of God, our Master faithfully worshipped God in public and in private. Our Saviour set before us an example to follow. In all things he is the pattern we are to copy.
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written (Luk 4:16-17).
Our Lord needed none of the blessings we gain from divine worship. Yet, he was always faithful in public worship. He came to the house of God for the glory of God and for the benefit of others, not for himself. He forsook not the assembly of the saints. At all appointed times the Lord Jesus was found in the house of God, worshipping with the people of God. Luke tells us it was, his custom. May God the Holy Spirit teach us to follow his example (Mat 18:20; Heb 10:23-26).
Reading Scripture
One of the most blessed aspects of public worship is the reading of holy scripture. Even in their most degenerate times, the Jews retained and showed great reverence for the Word of God. Great emphasis was given to the reading of holy scripture.
It is a sad fact that most churches of our day place very little, if any, emphasis upon the public reading of the Word of God. That should not be. No part of the worship service is more important than the reading of the Word of God. When the scriptures are read, we receive direct, verbally inspired instruction from God himself.
I have never conducted a public worship service without giving a special place to the reading of Gods Word, and I never intend to do so. I consider it to be as important as prayer, praise and preaching.
In the synagogue worship of the Jews a prominent place was given to the reading of holy scripture every sabbath day (Luk 4:16; Act 13:15). The apostle Paul told the young pastor, Timothy, to give attendance to reading the scriptures, exhorting the saints and teaching the doctrine of the gospel (1Ti 4:13). That is the way preachers are supposed to conduct the services of public worship. The epistles of the New Testament were written to be read in the churches, and our Lords letters to the churches of Asia (Revelation 2, 3) were to be read to the churches.
The importance of this practice cannot be overstressed. In every local church there are some who either cannot or do not read the Word of God for themselves, and some who read so poorly that they do not read correctly. Reason and common sense should teach us the usefulness of publicly reading the scriptures to them. If men and women are to worship God, they must know what God says in his Word. Gods Word alone, not the preachers comments about it, is inspired and authoritative (2Ti 3:16-17). Therefore, prominence should be given to the reading of holy scripture in every assembly of the church. Hezekiah Harvey wrote
The omission of this would imply that the words of man are of higher moment than the words of God. The scriptures should have a large and reverent use in the pulpit, as the fountain of all instruction and the sole standard of faith and practice.
Primarily, it is the pastors responsibility to read the scriptures to the congregation. When he does, he may choose a passage relating to his message for the hour and give a brief exposition as he reads. But such expositions should always be carefully prepared, so that he does no violence to the text. Spontaneous, unprepared comments are seldom either accurate or helpful and display a terrible lack of reverence for the Word of God.
The pastor may ask one of the men of the church to read the scriptures. If anyone is asked to do so, he must not take the work lightly, for he has the responsibility of reading Gods Word to his people. The portion he chooses to read and the way he reads it will set the tone for the entire worship service. He must seek the direction of Gods Spirit with care. I make the following recommendations to anyone entrusted with this task.
Select a devotional passage, a portion of scripture that will lead the hearts of Gods people to Christ. Select a brief passage. Generally, it is best to select just one passage. And always select a passage by which God has spoken to your own heart.
Familiarize yourself with the passage you plan to read. Read it carefully, prayerfully and studiously at home. Read it several times, noting the punctuation of the text. Be certain that you understand the portion of scripture you read to the church. If you do not understand it, select another portion to read.
Read the passage carefully and distinctly. Remember you are not reading for yourself alone. You are reading to the congregation. Read loudly enough that everyone present can hear you distinctly! If you are not accustomed to reading in public, read the passage aloud at home. It is frustrating to try to follow a reading that cannot be heard.
Read the Word of God without comment. Leave it to the preacher to do the preaching. When the scriptures are read, it is so that Gods people may hear God speak to their hearts by his Word.
Isaiahs Prophecy
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord (Luk 4:18-19).
The portion of scripture our Saviour read on this occasion was Isaiah 61, one of the many passages describing the work of the Messiah and the salvation he would accomplish. Our Lord probably read the entire passage; but Luke simply refers to Luk 4:1-2. This is what God declared the work of his Son would be, when he came to save his people from their sins. This is what Christ came to do. And this is what he has done and is doing.
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn (Isa 61:1-2).
Our Master was, as a man, a preacher anointed for the work by his Father and prepared for the work by the special gift of his Spirit. Preaching, true preaching requires these three things: (1.) the Spirit of God, (2.) the anointing of God and (3.) the message of God. But our Master was more than a preacher. He is our Saviour. We preach what he did. He preached what he himself performed! He preached the gospel, glad tidings and good news, not good advice. Modern preaching is nothing but advice given to sinners, telling dead sinners what they must do. The gospel of Christ is the proclamation of good news, telling poor sinners what Christ has done.
Our Saviour preached the gospel to the poor. Without question, he preached to multitudes who were materially poor; but the word here translated poor refers to the meek, those poor sinners who are broken before God, meek, knowing that they have nothing to offer the holy Lord God, and have no ability to produce anything he might accept from them. They are poor, meek, humbled and broken by the weight of sin and guilt before Gods glorious holiness.
The Lord Jesus Christ heals, binds up, the brokenhearted. He makes blind eyes to see, and gives comfort and liberty to bruised souls. The Son of God opens prison doors and sets the captive free. All this grace he pours out to sinners upon the basis of justice satisfied by blood atonement, proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord, the day Gods righteous vengeance and justice was satisfied at Calvary.
Scripture Fulfilled
And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears (Luk 4:20-21).
Christ is the message of holy scripture! He was the fulfilment of this passage (Isaiah 61); and he was and is the fulfilment of all the Old Testament scriptures. All the law, all the prophets, all the types, all the psalms, all the proverbs and all the history of the Old Testament speak about the Lord Jesus Christ and find their fulfilment in him.
And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself (Luk 24:27).
And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures (Luk 24:44-45).
This is not an invention or conclusion drawn from current theological understanding. The saints of God in ancient times knew that the scriptures spoke of their coming Redeemer. It is a great mistake to underestimate the faith and knowledge of Gods saints in the Old Testament. Gods elect were saved in the Old Testament in exactly the same way we are saved today. God has only one way of saving sinners. That way, as you know, is Christ alone, by grace alone, through faith alone. Christ was the Object of all true faith in the Old Testament, just as he is today.
What amount of knowledge those Old Testament believers had, I cannot tell. It is not clearly revealed. But those earliest saints were not morons, either mentally or spiritually. We know that they understood and believed the gospel.
Eve understood the promise that the Redeemer would be a man of the womans seed (Gen 3:15). Abel knew about blood atonement (Genesis 4). Abraham knew that the Redeemer would be God incarnate (Gen 22:8). David clearly understood that forgiveness is sure through the blood atonement of a crucified Substitute (Psalms 22; Psalms 32, 51). Enoch even spoke plainly about the Lords second advent (Jud 1:14). Even Job, in that which is probably the first book written in the Inspired Volume, describes Christ as our Redeemer and speaks of the resurrection at the last day (Job 19:25-27).
Isaiah understood that the sinners Substitute is both God and man in one person, whose work of redemption and grace must be effectual to the salvation of chosen sinners (Isa 7:14; Isa 9:6-9; Isa 52:13 to Isa 53:12).
Numerous other references could be given. These are truly only a few; and they were randomly selected. Yet, they will suffice to make my point irrefutable. Old Testament saints knew and trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as their effectual, almighty, crucified, risen, reigning Saviour. It is also clear, to even a casual reader of holy scripture, that the saints of the Mosaic era clearly understood and rejoiced in the doctrines of Gods free and sovereign grace in Christ. Divine Sovereignty (Psa 115:3; Psa 135:6; Dan 4:35-37; Isa 46:9-11). Total Depravity (Psalms 14). Unconditional Election (Psa 65:4; 2Sa 23:5). Limited Atonement (Isa 53:8-11). Irresistible Grace (Psa 65:4; Psa 110:3). Perseverance of the Saints (Psa 23:6).
In a word, God gave faith to his chosen in the Old Testament, just as he gives us faith, by supernatural revelation, by revealing Christ to and in chosen sinners. Obviously, the Revelation of God in scripture was not as full in Jobs day as it was in Moses, or in Moses day as it was in Malachis, or in Malachis day as it was in John the Baptists, or in John the Baptists day as it was in Pauls. But the Revelation was clear; and the faith of Gods saints was exemplary (Hebrews 11).
I must personally acknowledge that I have never begun to experience the quality of faith that Noah exhibited in building the ark, Abraham exhibited on Mount Moriah, or Moses exhibited in dealing with Pharaoh and Israel. Those men believed God. They knew, worshipped and trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the Old Testament speaks (Joh 5:39). The Book of God is all about the Son of God and the redemption he accomplished by his blood.
Everyone who heard the Lord Jesus preach was greatly impressed by his preaching. As we shall see, they were not impressed with what he preached, but with the way he preached it. What a danger! And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Josephs son? (Luk 4:22) Take heed therefore how ye hear (Luk 8:18). They heard with pleasure, but not with profit. They nodded their heads, but did not bow their hearts.
These fine, church going, Bible thumping, hymn singing folks were expecting the Son of God to entertain them with his wonders. Read Luk 4:23-24. And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
In Luk 4:25-27 the Lord Jesus declared to these proud Jews that God Almighty is always sovereign in the exercise of his mercy, love and grace. In other words, he said, I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.
But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land; But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.
Synagogue Riot
This message of divine sovereignty was too much for proud, self-righteous men and women to endure!
And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong (Luk 4:28-29).
What did our Master say to enrage these people so? He used no obscenities. He did not ridicule them, belittle them or call them names. All he did was assert that salvation is of the Lord, God is totally sovereign in the affair of salvation, God Almighty is no mans debtor and no one deserves Gods grace! And how did our Master react to the enraged mob? He just went right on about his business as the servant of God. He was not their servant, but Gods. What an example!
But he passing through the midst of them went his way, and came down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath days. And they were astonished at his doctrine: for his word was with power (Luk 4:30-32).
What was the cause of this rage? We must never forget that the gospel we preach is a savour of life to some and of death to others. The Lord Jesus preached that doctrine which always has, always must and always will enrage carnal men, though the Son of God himself be the preacher. The sweet gospel doctrine of divine sovereignty (Mat 11:25-26; Joh 17:2-3; Joh 17:9; Rom 9:6-33) is odious and offensive to lost religionists, to men and women whose hearts are enmity against God. The sovereign God, particularly his sovereignty in the exercise of his saving mercy, stands in glaring opposition to the pride of will-worshipping man and his idolatrous freewill, works religion. The preaching of the gospel always raises bitter resentment instantly among such rebels.
We must not look for or labour for the approval of men. Labour with your eye toward eternity. There is a time to dig and a time to reap, a time to sow the seed and a time to gather the harvest, a time to tear down and a time to build. God alone determines the time! Our business is to serve him, with persevering faithfulness. He requires nothing more and nothing less than faithfulness from his servants. Oh, may he graciously give us that faithfulness, for Christs sake!
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
returned: Mat 4:12, Mar 1:14, Joh 4:43, Act 10:37
in: Luk 4:1
and there: Mat 4:23-25, Mar 1:28
Reciprocal: Mat 4:24 – his fame Luk 4:37 – the fame Luk 23:5 – beginning
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Christ, the Lover of Men
Luk 4:14-22
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
The endeavor in this study will be to seek the heart of the Saviour, discovering His attitude toward different classes of men among whom He lived and moved during His life on earth.
We will seek to discover whether the Lord Jesus was partial to the rich or to the poor. Whether in His choice of followers, He was open toward all.
Did Christ live the life of a shut-in? Did He pull the garments of His holiness and superiority close about Him, and stand aloof from the common rabble? Did the populace feel that He was unapproachable, unresponsive, and unsympathetic to their need?
In answering these questions we should remember that Christ was God manifest in the flesh, that He was the possessor of all things because all things were made by Him, and in Him all things consist. He was Son of God worshiped by angels, the very center of the glories of Heaven. He knew all things; He had all power.
As we approach this theme, we wish to lay two verses before you. The first is in Luk 4:1-44. Christ entered the city of Nazareth where He had been subject unto His parents, and had dwelt as a Child. Now, however, He was a man; He had been baptized, and was entering upon His ministry. On this memorable day, He stood in the synagogue and read from Isaiah, where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (Luk 4:18-19).
This verse proclaims Jesus Christ as a preacher to the poor; as a healer of broken hearts; as a deliverer to captives; as a restorer of sight to the blind, and as setting at liberty the bruised.
Our second Scripture is Act 10:38. It reads: “How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil.”
It is a marvel of marvels to follow the footsteps of the Saviour and to watch His dealings, with men. He might have taken the common attitude, saying:-“What is that to me?” That, however, was farthest from His purpose. He demonstrated for ever the fact that “no man liveth unto himself.” The burden and the pain of the populace were His. He shared their poverty, entered into their distresses. He bore their diseases, and carried their sorrows.
Our Lord was a sympathetic Lord. He was a lover of mankind. Even the little children were not repulsed by Him. He carried the lambs in His bosom. He said, “Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven.”
It will be most interesting to follow the topics as they develop distinct classes of life among whom Christ moved, and observe His attitude toward each.
“Rest of the weary, joy of the sad;
Hope of the dreary, light of the glad;
Home of the stranger, strength to the end,
Refuge from danger, Saviour and Friend.
Pillow where, lying, love rests its head!
Peace of the dying, life of the dead;
Path of the lowly, prize at the end;
Breath of the holy, Saviour and Friend.”
I. CHRIST AND THE POOR (Mar 10:49)
A blind beggar sat by the wayside. That he had nothing to recommend him except his poverty and his rags, we are quite sure. His addition to any company would have added nothing to it by way of honor and dignity. He was a man whom most people passed by; others, would drop into his tin cup, a nickel, and pass on their way. The Lord Jesus came by. He was en route to Jerusalem to die. The burden of a great world of sin lay heavy upon His heart. He was intent on reaching the final issue of His life.
As Christ moved along the way with great crowds thronging Him, a cry was heard, coming to Him over the heads of the populace. The cry was, “Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.” The record says, “And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called.”
As the Lord healed the blind man that day none could say of Him, that His ear was deaf to the cry of penury.
There sat by the highway a beggar. A queen, beautifully attired and riding in her chariot, was en route to her coronation. She gave orders that the blind beggar should be taken out of her pathway. She wanted nothing by the way of sorrow, or of suffering to mar the glory of her enthronement. How different was our Lord. He was on His way to be crowned, and crowned with thorns, and yet, He bade the blind man to be called. It was true, that the poor had the Gospel preached unto them.
Charles H. Spurgeon said, that a little orphan one day sat by his side and hugged up close to him as he was talking to a friend. After a while, Mr. Spurgeon spoke to the lad saying, “What do you want, my boy?” He said, “Mr. Spurgeon, if you were an orphan boy, and on visitor’s day, you did not have any uncle or aunt, or anyone to bring you a present or to come to see you, what would you do? ’cause you see, that’s me.” Charles H. Spurgeon said, that it was the boy’s poverty and need, that appealed to him. He replied, “I will be your friend, your uncle, and your auntie, and when visitor’s day comes around, I’ll come to see you and bring you a present.”
Thank God, for the Christ who loved the poor and came to seek and to save that which was lost.
“Lead us, Heavenly Father, lead us
O’er the world’s tempestuous sea;
Guide us, guard us, keep us, feed us,
For we have no help but Thee;
Yet possessing every blessing,
If our God our Father be.”
II. CHRIST AND THE RICH (Mar 10:21)
In the same chapter where Christ spoke to the poor beggar, He also spoke to a young ruler, who was rich. That Christ loved the poor, we know. There is abundance of proof for this. However, some are continually crying “down the rich.” Swinging their red banner they cry, “Down with the plutocrats.” We need to catch the spirit of Christ toward the rich.
There was a young ruler who came to Christ, saying unto Him, “Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” As Jesus Christ looked on him, He loved him. Christ loved him because he was a man of lofty ideals, and of splendid morals. However, the Lord did not say unto him, because he was rich, “Come, * * and follow Me.” He did say, “One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasures in Heaven; and come, take up thy cross, and follow Me.”
The Lord Jesus loved the rich man, but He was unwilling to let down the bars in order to secure his discipleship.
We need to remember that the rich, from a spiritual viewpoint, are quite as much neglected as the ultra-poor. Many a man who has much of this world’s goods, and is the soul of honor and of integrity, feels absolutely isolated from the things of God.
Wilbur Chapman on one occasion felt constrained to visit a rich man. Through a blizzard he drove ten miles to the man’s residence. The man of large means met him cordially at the door, took him in his library, and when he was seated said, “I suppose, Mr. Chapman, you want my check.” “No,” said Dr. Chapman, “I have simply come to ask you to receive my Lord as your Saviour. I want you to become a Christian.” The rich man went to his window, stood gazing without for ten minutes. Then, with tears in his eyes, he turned and said, “Dr. Chapman, I thought no man cared for my soul.” Let us not neglect the rich.
III. CHRIST AND THE OUTCASTS (Joh 8:11)
All have followed with us thus far as we have spoken of Christ and the poor, and Christ and the rich. We come now, however, to quite a different matter. There are some who are moral derelicts, drifting on the sea, far away from contact with the populace. Some of these are vile outcasts, like this woman who fell at the feet of Jesus. They are social outcasts, because they have broken the laws which govern decent society.
We wonder if the Lord Jesus would receive to His heart of love, a woman whom the people have isolated to hell’s half acre, and have hedged her in as one utterly unworthy of respect.
It was such an one who was dragged before Christ by the Pharisees. With a curl on their lips they said to Christ, “Moses in the Law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest Thou?” This they did to tempt Christ. Stooping down, as if to hide the shame upon His countenance, Christ wrote on the ground as though He heard them not. When they continued asking Him, He quietly raised Himself and said, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” When all had gone, being convicted in their own conscience, Jesus asked the woman, “Where are those thine accusers?” She replied that they had gone. Then said He, “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”
As Christ sat at meat in the home of Simon, a poor woman who was a sinner stood at His feet weeping, and wiping away her tears which fell on His feet. Simon found fault with Christ, but we know how He rebuked Simon, and then He said to the woman, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” Let us love those whom the Lord loves, and seek to save those whom He seeks to save.
“While I hear life’s rugged billows,
Peace, peace is mine!
Why suspend my harp on willows?
Peace, peace is mine!
I may sing, with Christ beside me,
Though a thousand ills betide me;
Safely He hath sworn to guide me:
Peace, peace is mine!
IV. CHRIST AND THE PUBLICAN (Luk 15:1-3)
There was in Jewry a particular class of sinners who were especially despised. They were known as the publicans. They were considered disloyal to the higher ideals of Judaism, and they were frequently national outcasts because they were favorable to Rome, in that, they served the government, which was oppressing Israel.
A publican and a Pharisee stood praying. The Pharisee was parading his piety, and applauding his own good deeds in the sight of God. The publican would not so much as lift his face to Heaven, but, beating upon his breast cried, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” The publican went away justified rather than the other.
In today’s Scripture the publicans and sinners were eating together. Christ came and sat down in their midst and ate with them. This act filled the Pharisees with indignation, and they cried out against Him, saying, “This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.”
Early in the history of the church, it is said that a scoffer named Celsus said to Origen, “The reason I cannot receive your Christ is because He received sinners.” “Yes,” responded Origen, “My Christ receiveth sinners, but He saves them from their sins.”
In justifying himself for eating with publicans and with sinners, Christ told that marvelous parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. It was when the prodigal boy was a great way off, that his father saw him, ran, had compassion, and fell on his neck and kissed him.
May God put into our hearts love for the political refugee. No man can be so far from God, but that he can be saved. “Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow.”
Sinners Jesus will receive;
Sound this word of grace to all
Who the Heavenly pathway leave,
All who linger, all who fall!
Now my heart condemns me not,
Pure before the law I stand;
He who cleansed me from all spot
Satisfied its last demand.
Christ receiveth sinful men,
Even me with all my sin;
Purged from every spot and stain,
Heaven with Him I enter in.
V. CHRIST AND THE POPULACE (Mat 14:14)
We have spoken of Christ and the poor, of Christ and the rich, of Christ and the outcast, and of Christ and the publican. In each case we have considered more individuals as representative of a class. We now consider the great masses as a whole. A world lying in sin and in shame; a world that knew not and owned not God.
It was this great world that God so loved. It was into this world of people that Christ came. Our key verse says, “And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them.”
What was there in the populace that pulled strongly on the heartstrings of Christ. It was their hunger, their thirst, their sickness, and their utter helplessness, To Him they were like sheep without a shepherd.
Christ moved among men as a lover of men. Their sorrows were His sorrows; their heartaches were His.
On one occasion, the great day, the last day of the feast, when the multitudes were thronging Jerusalem, Jesus stood and cried saying, “If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink.”
Once again, the Master beholding the masses borne down with their burdens cried, saying, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
There is a verse in the Old Testament that sums up all of these. It reads, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God.”
After His resurrection, Jesus Christ pronounced His great commission, saying, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” Let us not be satisfied till the last man of our generation has heard the Gospel.
“Ho! all ye heavy-laden, come!
Here’s pardon, comfort, rest and home;
Ye wanderers from a Father’s face,
Return, accept His proffered grace;
Ye tempted ones, there’s refuge nigh.
‘Jesus of Nazareth passeth by.'”
VI. CHRIST AND THE BACKSLIDER (Luk 22:31-32)
One of the hard things we have to bear is the infidelity of supposed faithful friends. It is said that when Brutus, the personal friend of Caesar, approached him, dagger in hand, that the emperor was entirely overcome and vanquished.
With what pathos did Paul write, “All they which are in Asia be turned away from me”! Then he wrote, “Demas hath forsaken me.”
As Christ neared the hour of His passion, He began to be exceeding sorrowful, saying, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me.” Then again Christ said, “All ye shall be offended because of Me this night.” Peter very vehemently said, “Though I should die with thee, yet I will not deny thee.” Likewise so said they all.
We know the sad story. They all forsook Him and fled. Judas betrayed Him with a kiss; Peter followed afar, and the others fled.
What was Christ’s attitude? To Judas he said, “Judas, betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?” Toward Peter, Christ merely turned and looked with an unspeakable pity. Peter had cursed, and said, “I know not this Man of whom ye speak.”
What was the aftermath? When Christ was risen from the dead, He said to Mary, “Go * * tell My disciples and Peter.”
First of all, as our key verse shows, Christ said to Peter, “I have prayed for thee.” Later Christ turned and looked on Peter. Then, afterward the Lord sent a special message to Peter; next Christ appeared to Peter, and finally Christ came unto the eleven as they returned from fishing, and restored unto Peter his work, saying, “Feed My lambs,” “Feed My sheep.”
We would not encourage backsliding, but we thank God, that the Lord remembereth our frame. He knoweth that we are dust. We thank God, again, that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
“Weary wanderer, stop and listen,
Happy news we bring to thee;
Jesus has prepared a banquet;
Come, and welcome thou shalt be.
Make no longer vain excuses,
Jesus calls, and calls thee now;
Come, for everything is ready;
Weary soul, why waitest thou?
Are thy sins a heavy burden?
Come to God, confess them now;
He is willing to forgive thee;
Ask, receive, why waitest thou?
On the loving arms of Jesus
Wouldst thou lean, and trust Him now?
Let Him cleanse thee at the fountain;
Come at once! why waitest thou?”
VII. CHRIST AND THE PHARISEES (Mat 23:37)
We now approach a people who were sinners above any of the others we have mentioned. They were not sinners so much from the moral viewpoint, nor were they sinners because they were irreligious. The scribes and the Pharisees were super-religious. They would compass sea and land to make a proselyte. They delighted in making long prayers in public places. They even paid tithes into the treasury of the synagogue.
The sin of religionists, however, is great, because they carry out a form without a heart; they parade religious rites, but they know nothing of the vital heart love and power of the Lord they profess to follow. The Pharisees were good at binding burdens on other men’s shoulders, which they would not lift with one of their own fingers.
These men kept the Passover but denied the Christ, the Passover Lamb. They set themselves against the Son of God, and went about to entrap Him with subtle questions. They finally paid false witnesses to accuse Him that they might deliver Him to death.
The darkest anathemas in the whole Bible, against any individual or set of individuals, were spoken against these Pharisees. Christ called them a “generation of vipers,” and “whited sepulchres.” Against them He pronounced a series of woes.
It seems now that the merciful Christ had at last found those toward whom He could show no pity,-but not so. To these very leaders of Israel He cried, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not!”
Surely, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should be saved.
“‘Call them in’-the poor, the wretched.
Sin-stained wanderers from the fold;
Peace and pardon freely offer;
Can you weigh their worth with gold?
‘Call them in’-the weak, the weary,
Laden with the doom of sin;
Bid them come and rest in Jesus;
He is waiting-‘Call them in.’
‘Call them in’-the Jew, the Gentile;
Bid the stranger to the feast;
‘Call them in’-the rich, the noble,
From the highest to the least:
Forth the Father runs to meet them,
He hath all their sorrows seen;
Robe, and ring, and royal sandals,
Wait the lost ones-‘Call them in.’
Follow on! the Lamb is leading!
He has conquered-we shall win;
Bring the halt and blind to Jesus;
He will heal them-‘Call them in.’
‘Call them in’-the brokenhearted,
Cowering ‘neath the brand of shame;
Speak Love’s message, low and tender-
‘Twas for sinners Jesus came:
See! the shadows lengthen round us,
Soon the day-dawn will begin;
Can you leave them lost and lonely?
Christ is coming-‘Call them in.'”
AN ILLUSTRATION
THE WONDERFUL JEWELS
A lady who had lost all her health in following the gaieties of the fashionable world was reclining on her bed, longing for the society and pleasure that she once enjoyed. She told her sick-nurse to fetch the box that held her jewels, so that she might amuse herself in recalling to her memory the festive seasons when she had worn them to the admiration of so many. “Now, nurse,” said she, “would you not like to have some of these jewels?”
“No, ma’am, not at all, for I have jewels much finer.”
“How can that be, nurse? Mine are the finest jewels in the land. Where are yours? You never wear them.”
The nurse held up her Bible, saying, “My jewels are in here!”
The lady, thinking that there were some hidden away in the book, said, “Take them out and show them to me.”
“Why, ma’am, my jewels are so precious, I can only show you one at a time.” Then she opened her Bible and read-“I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.” (Php 4:11.)
She told her of the treasure that she had in Heaven; how that, though poor, she had a loving Father, who provided for her, and the great happiness that she had in Him, and how she was patiently waiting for the Kingdom to come.
“Why, nurse, I never heard anything like that; how happy you must be to feel as you do! I wish I could do the same.”
The next day the lady said, “Nurse, I should like to see another of your jewels; the one you showed me was beautiful.”
The nurse again opened her Bible, and read-“This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” (1Ti 1:15.)
From the few words that followed, the lady’s heart was opened to feel that she was a sinner, that Christ Jesus was her Saviour; and she soon found rest, peace, joy, in believing and trusting Christ Jesus as her Saviour.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
4
Power is from DUNAMIS which means might or ability that belongs to an individual as a part of his own personality. Jesus possessed such a faculty which he exercised through the instrumentality of the Spirit. This enabled him to perform many miracles which caused him to become famous throughout all Galilee.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
THESE verses relate events which are only recorded in the Gospel of Luke. They describe the first visit which our Lord paid, after entering on His public ministry, to the city of Nazareth, where He had been brought up. Taken together with the two verses which immediately follow, they furnish an awfully striking proof, that “the carnal mind is enmity against God.” (Rom 8:7.)
We should observe, in these verses, what marked honor our Lord Jesus Christ gave to public means of grace. We are told that “He went into the synagogue of Nazareth on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read” the Scriptures. In the days when our Lord was on earth, the Scribes and Pharisees were the chief teachers of the Jews. We can hardly suppose that a Jewish synagogue enjoyed much of the Spirit’s presence and blessing under such teaching. Yet even then we find our Lord visiting a synagogue, and reading and preaching in it. It was the place where His Father’s day and word were publicly recognized, and, as such, He thought it good to do it honor.
We need not doubt that there is a practical lesson for us in this part of our Lord’s conduct. He would have us know that we are not lightly to forsake any assembly of worshipers, which professes to respect the name, the day, and the book of God. There may be many things in such an assembly which might be done better. There may be a want of fullness, clearness, and distinctness in the doctrine preached. There may be a lack of unction and devoutness in the manner in which the worship is conducted. But so long as no positive error is taught, and there is no choice between worshiping with such an assembly, and having no public worship at all, it becomes a Christian to think much before he stays away. If there be but two or three in the congregation who meet in the name of Jesus, there is a special blessing promised. But there is no like blessing promised to him who tarries at home.
We should observe, for another thing, in these verses, what a striking account our Lord gave to the congregation at Nazareth, of His own office and ministry. We are told that He chose a passage from the book of Isaiah, in which the prophet foretold the nature of the work Messiah was to do when He came into the world. He read how it was foretold that He would “preach the Gospel to the poor,”-how He would be sent to “heal the broken hearted,”-how He would “preach deliverance to the captives, sight to the blind, and liberty to the bruised,”-and how He would “proclaim that a year of jubilee to all the world had come.” And when our Lord had read this prophecy, He told the listening crowd around Him, that He Himself was the Messiah of whom these words were written, and that in Him and in His Gospel the marvelous figures of the passage were about to be fulfilled.
We may well believe that there was a deep meaning in our Lord’s selection of this special passage of Isaiah. He desired to impress on His Jewish hearers, the true character of the Messiah, whom He knew all Israel were then expecting. He well knew that they were looking for a mere temporal king, who would deliver them from Roman dominion, and make them once more, first among the nations. Such expectations, He would have them understand, were premature and wrong. Messiah’s kingdom at His first coming was to be a spiritual kingdom over hearts. His victories were not to be over worldly enemies, but over sin. His redemption was not to be from the power of Rome, but from the power of the devil and the world. It was in this way, and in no other way at present, that they must expect to see the words of Isaiah fulfilled.
Let us take care that we know for ourselves in what light we ought chiefly to regard Christ. It is right and good to reverence Him as very God. It is well to know Him as Head over all things-the mighty Prophet-the Judge of all-the King of kings. But we must not rest here, if we hope to be saved. We must know Jesus as the Friend of the poor in spirit, the Physician of the diseased heart, the deliverer of the soul in bondage. These are the principal offices He came on earth to fulfill. It is in this light we must learn to know Him, and to know Him by inward experience, as well as by the hearing of the ear. Without such knowledge we shall die in our sins.
We should observe, finally, what an instructive example we have in these verses of the manner in which religious teaching is often heard. We are told that when our Lord had finished His sermon at Nazareth, His hearers “bare Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.” They could not find any flaw in the exposition of Scripture they had heard. They could not deny the beauty of the well-chosen language to which they had listened. “Never man spake like this man.” But their hearts were utterly unmoved and unaffected. They were even full of envy and enmity against the Preacher. In short, there seems to have been no effect produced on them, except a little temporary feeling of admiration.
It is vain to conceal from ourselves that there are thousands of persons, in Christian churches, in little better state of mind than our Lord’s hearers at Nazareth. There are thousands who listen regularly to the preaching of the Gospel, and admire it while they listen. They do not dispute the truth of what they hear. They even feel a kind of intellectual pleasure in hearing a good and powerful sermon. But their religion never goes beyond this point. Their sermon-hearing does not prevent them living a life of thoughtlessness, worldliness, and sin.
Let us often examine ourselves on this important point. Let us see what practical effect is produced on our hearts and lives by the preaching which we profess to like. Does it lead us to true repentance towards God, and lively faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ? Does it excite us to weekly efforts to cease from sin, and to resist the devil? These are the fruits which sermons ought to produce, if they are really doing us good. Without such fruit, a mere barren admiration is utterly worthless. It is no proof of grace. It will save no soul.
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Notes-
v14.-[Fame of him.] Here, as in other places, the word “of” is used by our translators in the sense of “about,” or “concerning.”
v16.-[He came to Nazareth.] The date of this visit to Nazareth is not precisely known. There seems strong internal evidence that it did not take place immediately after the temptation. If this had been the case, we should not find the expression, “as his custom was,” or reference to His works at Capernaum. The simple explanation appears to be that Luke, having made a general statement of our Lord’s practice of teaching “in the synagogues,” takes occasion to describe what took place when he taught in the synagogue of Nazareth,-not only as an interesting event in itself, but as an illustration of our Lord’s method of proceeding when He visited a synagogue.
v17.-[Opened the book.] The word “opened” would be more literally translated “unfolded,” or “unrolled.” A book in the times when our Lord was upon earth, was a scroll of parchment rolled up, and in no respect resembled a modern book.
v20.-[Closed the book.] The word “closed” here, would be more literally rendered, “folded up,” or “rolled up.”
[The Minister.] We must not suppose that this word means the preacher, or teacher of the synagogue. It means the officer or attendant appointed to take charge of the sacred writings.
v21.-[He began to say.] It is evident that the full exposition of the passage in Isaiah, which our Lord gave, has been withheld from us. The words which are recorded in this verse are probably the beginning of what our Lord said, and form the key-note of His sermon. The sermon itself is not recorded.
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Luk 4:14. Returned, from Judea. See Mat 4:12; Mar 1:14. The return was after John had been put in prison, and (according to Andrews) after he had been opposed in Judea (see John 5).
In the power of the Spirit. With the victory over Satan new spiritual power is contrasted.
A fame, etc. In consequence of His teaching (Luk 4:15), or His miracles. What had previously occurred at Jerusalem (according to Johns account) would occasion such a fame; indeed the brief narrative implies many things not mentioned here.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Subdivision 1. (Luk 4:14-44; Luk 5:1-39; Luk 6:1-49.)
In sovereign grace, and divine power.
The sovereignty of grace in salvation is the very first thing presented here. God alone could have thought of it: from His heart alone it could have come. Even so, and with all the suitability there is in it to man’s condition, it is naturally distasteful to him, for he believes in himself, and does not willingly own the truth of his condition. Hence God must act for Himself as is implied in new birth: for who was ever born of his own will? And Scripture directly negatives this as to spiritual birth (Joh 1:13).
But thus salvation being of God is effected from first to last in the power of God. How great a comfort for the soul convicted of its own evil, folly and feebleness? God “worketh in you the willing and the doing of His good pleasure” (Php 2:13, Gk.). The work in us is secured by the same grace that has accomplished the work for us, in the value of which we stand unchangeably. All is provided for equally, the covenant of promise being God’s “I will” throughout.
1. (1) This part begins with a foreshadow at Nazareth of what is soon to be fulfilled in Israel’s history. The Lord is seen in the place where He was brought, up and according to His custom He enters the synagogue on the sabbath day. There He stands up to read, and the book of Isaiah being given Him, He opens at the sixty-first chapter, and applies the words of the Man anointed with the Spirit of Jehovah to Himself. It is clear how accordant with the character of Luke the quotation is. It is the “Mediator between God and man; the Man Christ Jesus” (1Ti 2:5), whose voice is heard here; and it is as come up out of Jordan; where He has pledged Himself to a baptism to death far different, that the Spirit has come upon Him for His work. He declares here in the first words of His ministry, as Luke gives it to us, the purport of that anointing. The preaching of glad tidings to the poor comes first, and gives character to all the rest. When man is in the place of need he can receive the gospel. When he is consciously a sinner, captive to the sin which he cannot, when he will, renounce, the gospel brings him release. The blind receive their sight. Those bruised in fetters liberty.* It is in fact “the acceptable year of the Lord”; the jubilee of God; fuller and more blessed than the law ever proclaimed in Israel.
{*This is not in Isa 61:1-11, as the rest is, but inserted from Isa 58:6. It is there found in very different connection, and here is so similar to what we have had already, that it would arouse suspicion as to its being really part of the text; but the copies are in agreement.}
Now in His Person this had come to them. He was the source of all, the spring of grace and salvation. Where the prophet goes on to “the day of vengeance of our God,” the Lord stops short in the middle of the sentence: grace had hastened to anticipate the judgment; although for those who refuse the one there will at last be the other. But judgment lingers with reluctant feet, while those of grace are winged with desire.
(2) They heard and wondered: could not but own that these were gracious words. Would they receive them, then? That is a very different thing. They were not the poor, the captive, blind or fetter-bruised. They were wonderful words indeed of Joseph’s son! How had He learned this wisdom? and how had He the boldness to take such a place as He was taking? After all, the question was of Him and not of them. Who was He? But they had heard of miracles wrought at Capernaum: let the physician heal himself; what they had heard of elsewhere let Him repeat in His own city, to which His wonders naturally belonged, and the fame of the prophet. For it had become a proverb that out of Galilee there arose none; and as to Nazareth it was a question, could any good be expected of it? Well, if He had such power, let Him exercise it there where there was need and the occasion called.
After all, with all the unbelief that might be in it, it seems natural to ask, why the Lord did not take this means of breaking down their unbelief; why, if He were doing miracles elsewhere, why not here?
But He, seeing more deeply, sees He is rejected. Even while they wonder at His gracious words, they have no need of them: and of what use were miracles, save to confirm that of which they had no need?
It was a case, too, coming under a rule which -so alike are men; so inveterate the evil in them -could be deemed invariable. “No prophet is acceptable in his own country.” And this seems as if it were a comment upon their question; “Is not this the son of Joseph?” God acting in a son of Joseph! God speaking with so familiar a voice, and disguising Himself so in nature and common life! That seems impossible; self-contradictory even; startling too by bringing God so near; unwelcome, alas, in the same proportion.
But, however men judge of it, God will be as God, acting sovereignly as He pleases, while in goodness, because goodness is His nature, but not tied to show it according to any of the thoughts of men. What had their history shown as to this? In the awful times of Elijah, when for their sins famine swept through the land for three years and six months; -or in times succeeding, when Elisha was in Elijah’s place: -who were they to whom it pleased God to show mercy? There were many widows in Israel, when Elijah was sent to the Sidonian widow! many lepers in Israel unhealed, when Naaman the Syrian was cleansed! Israel might in those days have said to Elijah, “Do these things in thine own country,” while yet they had shown no desire after God, but had cast Him off; and now grace rejected might go out to others. There were the poor, the blind, the captives of sin elsewhere, -even among the Gentiles: men who had need of Him, if they had none; and who, finding that need met in Him, would realize in Him more than “the son of Joseph.”
But the men of Nazareth are only roused into fury by such words. They seek to kill Him by hurling Him from the brow of the hill on which the city is built; but He passes through the midst of them and goes His way. How plain a foreshadow of the rejection that waited Him at the hands of the people, and of the way in which the death to which they destined Him availed nothing to hinder those purposes for which He stooped even to death also. And so grace went out to the Gentiles.
2. (1) We have had, then, Christ as the Source of blessing, and the character of the blessing which He is come to convey to men. But if blessing be thus prepared for him, the enemy in whose hand he is must be met and despoiled of his prey. This, therefore, is what we find next, the story which we have already had in Mar 1:21-28, of the demoniac in the synagogue at Capernaum. Very significant it is that the demon is not here in the tombs or in the mountains, but parading his victim in the midst of the concourse of men; and even in the synagogue, as if he would make good his title to him in the presence of God Himself. But under the power of the Word, which is the sword of the Spirit to expose and vanquish him, he is made to realize the Holy One of God, and quails as before his destroyer. He is silenced and made to come out, with one last expression of impotent rage, which only manifests the more the power over him; and amazement seizes upon the multitude who behold it, and spread His fame throughout the region round about.
(2) He enters into Simon Peter’s house and the devil’s power meets Him in another form. The mother-in-law of Simon is ill with a great fever. He rebukes it, and it leaves her; and immediately she is restored and able to minister to them.
(3) And now the crowds gather, bringing those sick with all manner of diseases; and the power of God is manifest in healing all without exception. Nothing is too hard for Him. The earth is ready to put on again its paradisaic garb, and the devil to be banished out of it: so at least it well might seem.
There is love also equal to the power displayed. The people, well content to have such an one among them, would fain prevent His leaving them; but it is not enough for Him that seekers should find Him, He must be the Seeker, and seek everywhere the sheep that are astray from their Shepherd. All the cities of Israel must hear the Voice of Him that is come after them. The Kingdom of God must be every where proclaimed. That which men most coveted, the miracles of healing, were but the attendant signs of divine authority once more ready to be openly established over a willing-hearted people. Thus alone could there be healing indeed.
3. Naturally we are led on in this way to the inward deliverance, the spiritual healing by which sanctification to God is attained. This we shall find commonly conveyed to us, as so often in the Gospels, in terms of the outward miracle, the clearest and most concise way, no doubt, in which it could be done in these cases. Figures though they are, the Christian understanding can hardly fail to realize their significance.
(1) The first story here, though from its conclusion surely coincident with the call of the first disciples in the previous Gospels, is yet in the main part peculiar to Luke, as it is surely in fullest harmony with its character. It is the record of a soul brought into the presence of God; at once drawn and searched out by the light of it. There is nothing in the nature of the miracle itself that is in the least calculated to terrify or produce any emotion of fear whatever, but the contrary. They who have toiled all night and caught nothing, find now, upon casting their nets once more at the Lord’s bidding, a multitude of fish which fill their own and their partners, vessels till they are ready to sink with the weight. When Simon sees it he is amazed; and falling down at Jesus, knees, he cries, “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man; O Lord.”
It is the sense of the divine presence, revealed by the miracle, that has stricken through Simon Peter, and brought him to the consciousness of his condition. He cleaves to Him, even while he says, depart. Conscience and heart are at strife within him. But he does not flee: how should he flee from Him who is what he realizes Him to be -who has searched out the paths of the sea and his heart together? Nor does the Lord leave him in doubt as to the grace that can take up the sinful: “Fear not,” He says to Simon; “from henceforth thou shalt catch men.” The grace thus shown is not simply the reception of sinners. Christ thus known in the heart associates the redeemed with Himself in His message of mercy to men.
(2) In the two miracles following, the need that is to be ministered to is more fully exposed. The leper and the paralytic show us the corruption and impotence produced by sin; the former being the well-known type of sin in the Old Testament, in its subtle invasion; its certain spread, its contagion; its breaking up of human relations, its banishment from God (Lev 13:1-59.) Man was powerless in the presence of this malignant scourge. The mere touch of one who had it was defilement. Every leper was known; and had to make himself known to all around him, that none might come in contact with him. Moreover the removal of it was one of the signs by which was proclaimed the God-sent deliverer of Israel from the oppression of the Egyptians.
Nowhere then could there be found a more suitable means for the manifestation of His power than in cleansing the leper; and here was one in that awful state of isolation, “a man full of leprosy.” This is Luke’s description; going beyond the former Gospels: it was not in mere incipiency, but revealing itself in all its terrible reality. But “when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and besought Him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean.”
A sorrowful case when one who confesses the power of Jesus to heal him, can doubt His will; and yet, in the case of sin how common! But the Lord would have none question. He does not merely speak, He goes further, and with a touch at once breaks through the barrier of law, and removes that which the law could only brand, not remedy. “I will: be thou cleansed.” And immediately the leprosy has departed from him. Now the very priest of the law must pronounce him clean; and Jesus sends the healed man to him for that purpose.
Leprosy speaks of the out-break of the flesh, -the nature of the unrenewed man; but which remains in the renewed man also, and may, alas, break out of him. This last is, in fact, what the type in Leviticus directly speaks of, while leprosy in itself may speak of either. Christ is, in either case, the only and all-sufficient remedy. In Joh 13:1-38 He takes our feet into His blessed hands to cleanse them from all the defilements of the way, and this is the touch of Jesus for the Christian. For the sinner also there is the touch of the Samaritan-Saviour, come where he is; of which Luke will tell us much at another time: a story which unites in some sense the leper with the paralytic in him who fell among the thieves. The aspects vary of that which is fundamentally the same: the meeting of divine power and love with human need and guilt. The experience of how many can interpret and apply a history like this.
(3) We pass on to the paralytic, in whom the impotence produced by sin is clearly shown us. The Lord, therefore, first assures him of forgiveness -“Thy sins are forgiven thee,” and makes the power to “rise and walk” the token to others of the reality of what he has received. And this is the spiritual order.
Both this and the previous miracle we have had in the first two Gospels, and in Mark, as here, together. In Matthew they are separated, but with as distinct a purpose as to each. The divine glory of Christ in all this part is fully manifest.
4. We have now what with little variation is common to the three Synoptists, the dispensational change which this open display of divine grace involves. Matthew indeed puts an interval between that which takes place at Levi’s house and the contention as to the Sabbath; while Mark and Luke present them in connection. The call of Matthew (or Levi) seems also historically to have been some time before the feast made by him. Each evangelist uses his material according to his purpose, rather than in mere chronological order. The connection between the Sabbath question and the displacement of the legal ritual which was impending is evident, and so it is that they are brought together here.
(1) The call of Levi to the apostleship must have been startling to a Jew. The tax-gatherer was hated as the symbol of foreign dominion; hated for his often unscrupulous exactions, and hated more than all if (as was here the case) it was a Jew who lent himself to what was considered the oppression of his own people. But “tax-gatherers and sinners,” thus associated in the language of the multitude, followed the Baptist, while Pharisees and Sadducees turned away from him; and so was it now in the Lord’s case. Levi follows Him with unhesitating promptitude, leaving all he had. And the feast that he makes Him is furnished with guests which show how fully he has entered into his Master’s mind.
But the scribes and Pharisees as naturally murmur: why eat and drink, they ask, with such as these? The Lord’s answer is as simple as can be, and as sufficient. He is a physician looking for the sick; and not, therefore, as disregarding the need men had of repentance, but to bring them to it. It is the goodness of God known that brings men to it.
(2) Then they raise a question about fasting. John’s disciples fasted; as, with the message that he brought the people, well was there need. The Pharisees too had not been wrong in this, if only they had penetrated the true meaning of the law, which John had but emphasized. The voice in the wilderness had announced however the coming of One who would be the Bridegroom of His people (Joh 3:29): how unsuitable would be the voice of mourning then!
But of this the dead ritualism of the Pharisee knew nothing. Fasting was meritorious in itself according to their thought, and Christ in the truth of what He was had no place in them. Thus Israel’s Bridegroom, already in their midst, would, as rejected, be taken from them; and then indeed would the sons of the bride-chamber fast.*
{*There is no thought of Christianity proper, or the Church, in all this. The Church is the heavenly bride, but of this the Baptist had no knowledge; nor did it form part of the Lord’s teaching in the Gospels, but remained for the Spirit to bring out after His coming (Joh 16:12-13). The Lord’s words and those of the Baptist are in the line of Old Testament thought.}
But there was another thing, for the old covenant points beyond itself, and that which was peculiar to it was therefore destined to pass away and be replaced by the new. So opposite were these that the two could not agree. The garment of human righteousness according to the law, however incompetent it might be, could not be patched with the “righteousness which is of God through faith” (Php 3:9). The old wine-skins of the Jewish institutions could not confine the free expansive spirit of the new covenant which was already showing itself. But the opposition to it showed also that with man naturally the law was more to his taste: he who was still drinking of the old wine would not immediately desire the new.
(3) The two incidents which raise the question of the Sabbath are given in almost precisely the same way in the three Gospels. In Matthew they are in different connections from those in which they are found in Mark and Luke; but in all their purport is the same: Christ the Lord of the Sabbath being rejected, they can claim no Sabbath; just as when; David the anointed king of Israel being a fugitive from the wrath of Saul, the show-bread became common food. Alas, Israel in a little while would keep their Sabbath with the Lord of it, crucified at their hands, lying in His guarded grave!
And at all times had mere ritualism lost the spirit of the law while retaining the form of it. The love to man which the seventh day rest breathed had passed into a rigid exaction which rather slew than saved. In the story of the withered hand this is fully manifest, and in the miracle which is wrought, the Lord brings in the power of God to bear witness against it. But the Pharisees and scribes are only the more roused to madness, and commune one with another what they might do to Jesus.
5. Thus He is more distinctly than before rejected of Israel in the persons of their leaders, and takes His place as such. In answer to their attitude He gathers His disciples round Him, and chooses from them twelve as His “apostles,” or “sent ones,” to be the witnesses and heralds of the new Kingdom coming in. In their presence and that of a great multitude as well of His disciples as of those from all the country round about attracted by His power and grace, He declares the blessedness, responsibilities, and recompense of those that cleave to Him, the heirs of the Kingdom. They are in a scene characterized by His rejection, and sufferers for His sake, only thus the more blessed, not the less. The end would declare it.
What we have here is, no doubt, “the sermon on the mount,” but with abridgment as well as additions, according to Luke’s purpose. The remnant character of those that are with Him is very strongly emphasized.
(1) Christ is here the source of authority and the centre of power. As He had already told the people of Nazareth, grace will not be stopped in its outflow by the opposition of men. “The Man Christ Jesus,” Himself the expression of eternal counsels, in the sweet dependence of perfect humanity, and the perfect intimacy of the Son with the Father, goes up to God upon the mountain; and continues there all night in prayer to God. It is the anticipation of the place He has now taken, and all that follows is the fruit of that intercession. But thus the wisdom of God which is in it appears in the form of human weakness. He names the twelve, and among them is a traitor. The rest are fishermen and what not; not a sign among them of what naturally we should take for power; and the three most prominent, frequently made so, as it would seem, by their lack of apprehension of His mind and fellowship with Him. We see plainly that without Him they can do nothing. He is all of wisdom to them, all of power. They, like the crowd that swarm to Him from the regions round, are joined to Him by their absolute need of Him, their entire dependence on Him. A Judas even must serve Him. How we see the Christianity that is to spring out of this! The whole of Christianity is Christ: “Christ is all and in all” (Col 3:11).
(2) We see this strikingly in what follows here, in which His disciples are separated from all the world about them by this fact, that they are His. The world is in opposition to Him and to His. It hates them, separates them from it, casts out their name as evil for the Son of man’s sake. Thus for them it has nothing. They are the “poor,” the hungry, the weepers, the afflicted in it. Yet well may they rejoice: for their reward is great in heaven; on earth they but continue the line of the prophets rejected by the world from of old.
On the other hand, and for the same reason, those who are satisfied with it, and the world with them, have their part in the woes that are coming on the world. And He cannot leave this to inference, for He is the Saviour of sinners and His heart goes after them: in its very denunciations grace overflows. But this changes nothing as to the final end: rather does it assure us how fixed and unalterable that end must be.
(3) But the Lord goes on to speak of what the conduct of His disciples is to be in the midst of a world in opposition to them. To those whose ears are open to His words He says, “Love your enemies; do good to those that hate you; bless those that curse you; pray for those that despitefully use you.” This rule of returning good for evil is that which He has so bountifully illustrated in His own person; and of which the Cross is the supreme example. The precept of non-resistance which follows it we have already remarked upon in going through Matthew. The bountiful spirit which becomes those who owe their all to the free gift of God is enforced in the words, “Give to every one that asketh thee,” -words which surely require the wisdom inspired by divine love to guide in their application. This part closes with the general principle that “as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.”
(4) The way of the world is put in contrast with this, the world being quite capable of returning love for love, of doing good to those who do good to them, of lending with the hope of getting back as much. But to love and do good and lend without hope of return: this would be conduct suited to the sons of the Most High; because He is kind to the unthankful and the evil.
(5) Thus we are to be imitators of God as dear children; and under a Father’s holy government also, according to which the measure meted will be measured out; and this as what both suits the nature of God, and the truest interests of His people also. It is evident, therefore, that rewards are not intended to be denied, nor yet disregarded: for that which God gives it cannot but be of God that it should have place in our thoughts and in our hearts. Seeing what we are, this needs and receives careful guarding. We find it so again and again: -guarded, but maintained in this very way (Mat 19:27-30, Mat 20:20-28, notes). He gains who for Christ’s sake loses; but not for gain’s sake.
(6) The “blind” are primarily, no doubt, the Jewish leaders; but the follower will not escape the ditch by being simply a follower: for the truth speaks for itself to him who has ears to hear. He who gives himself up to another’s leadership absolutely, has his conscience not before God, but before man; and even the Lord bases His title to be heard upon the truth of what He spoke: “If I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?” (Joh 8:46.) That to which a man yields himself necessarily moulds him. If then he surrenders himself to the teacher of error, he will not be above his teacher, but, if he is perfect, be only like him.
On the other hand, if evil be detected in another’s eye -in his way of regarding things (and here the teacher of error seems still primarily pointed at) -one must take care that there be no lack of self-judgment as to one’s own. Evil must first be judged within before it can be judged outside; and this will give tenderness and compassion; as well as clear sightedness. Judging without self-judgment is but hypocrisy.
And this self-judgment is always of the “beam” as compared with the “mote” in others. For what can we know of others compared with what we may and should know of ourselves? And then the evil fruit we find is but the sign of an evil tree: thorns grow no figs, nor brambles grapes. Thus true self-judgment sets aside self altogether. We do not judge to establish our own righteousness, nor as rejoicing in the evil, but as rejoicing with the good: we learn to “take forth the precious from the vile,” because the good is “precious.”
(7) Useless indeed is the profession of the lips, -the saying, “Lord, Lord,” except the life confirm it. Not that the best life will justify before God, or save in the day when all that can be will be shaken. But it is evidence, nevertheless, that Christ is the foundation of the soul, -of a house built secure against all the storms that can assail it. Faith in Christ must, of course, be real; but the more real the faith in other things, the more complete is the delusion, the surer and more fatal the ruin that awaits one. “The ruin of that house is great.”
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
Our blessed Saviour being thus fitted and prepared by his baptism and temptation for the execution of his ministerial office, he now enters upon the great work of preaching the gospel, and St. Luke here declares the first place he preached at, namely, Nazareth; and the first text he preached upon, Isa 61:1
Observe 1. The place where our Saviour preached at; he bestowed his first sermon upon Nazareth, the place of his conception and education. For though Christ was born at Bethlehem, yet he was bred and brought up at Nazareth; there he had his poor, but painful education, working on his father’s trade, that of a carpenter. This prejudiced the Jews against him, who looked for a sceptre, not an axe, in the hand of him that was born King of the Jews. Our Saviour’s short and secret abode at Bethlehem, and his long and public living at Nazareth, occasioned him to be called Jesus of Nazareth; yet some conceived it was a nick-name, fastened by the devil upon our Saviour, that he might disguise the place of Christ’s nativity, and leave the Jews at a greater loss concerning their Messiah. Sure it is, that this name, Jesus of Nazareth, stuck upon our Saviour all his life; and at his death was fixed by Pilate on his cross. Yea, after his ascension, such as believed on were called, The sect of the Nazarenes, or the followers of Jesus of Nazareth.
Observe, 2. The text which our Saviour preached upon at Nazareth: he takes it out of the prophet Esaias, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. Luk 4:18 That is, God the Father hath poured forth his Holy Spirit without measure upon me, in all the gifts and graces of it, to fit and furnish me for the work of a mediator; and particularly, to preach the gospel to the poor in spirit, and to such as are poor in outward condition also, if meekened and humbled with the sight and sense of their sins. To bind up the broken-hearted; that is, to comfort them with the glad tidings of the gospel. To preach deliverance to the captives: to let such sinners know, who were slaves to sin and Satan, that a Deliverer is come, if they be willing to be delivered by him. To preach the acceptable year of the Lord: or to proclaim a spiritual jubilee in which God proffers pardon of sin and reconciliation with himself upon the terms of the gospel.
Learn hence, 1. That God stirreth up none to take upon them the office of the ministry, whom he hath not fitted and furnished with gifts for the regular discharge of it.
2. That Christ himself did not undertake the office of a mediator, but by the ordination of God the Holy Spirit: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he hath sent me to preach the gospel.
3. That no creature, angel or man, could perform the office of a mediator, but only Christ, who was consecrated to that office by an anointing from the Holy Spirit without measure: The Spirit of the Lord hath anointed me.
4. That the preaching of the gospel is the great ordinance which Christ himself made use of, and recommended to his apostles and ministers, for enlightening blind sinners, for comforting broken hearts, and for delivering captive souls from the slavery and dominion of sin and Satan: He hath sent me to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to publish deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind. What enemies than are they to the souls of men who have low and mean thoughts of this high and honourable ordinance of God, the preaching of the everlasting gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation?
Observe, 3. The behavior of our Saviour’s auditors, the men of Nazareth, under his preaching: their eyes were fixed, and their minds intent, upon him, and upon what was spoken by him: The eyes of all that were in the synagogue were fastened upon him: not closed with sleep, nor gazing about upon others; but fixed upon Christ the preacher.
Fixing of the eye is a great help to the attention of the ear, and the intention of the mind; a fastened eye is a mean to help us to a fixed heart; as a wandering eye is both a sign and cause of a wandering heart. O that our hearers would imitate our Saviour’s hearers under the word! They fastened their eyes upon him, as if they meant to hear with their eyes as well as with their ears: and yet we have cause to expect tht curiosity rather than piety caused this their attention; seeing, as you will find, Luk 4:29 that these very persons, who out of novelty were ready to eat his words, soon after out of cruelty were ready to devour the speaker: For they thrust him out of the city, led him to the brow of the hill, and would have cast him down headlong.
O blessed Saviour, what wonder is it that the persons of thy ministers are despised, and their doctrine neglected, when thou thyself, the first preacher of the gospel, and for thy first sermon at Nazareth, wert thus ignominiously treated!
Observe, lastly, how Christ conforms to the ceremonies of the Jewish doctrine, who, in honor of the law and the prophets, stood up when they read them, and according to custom, sat down when they explained them. And although the synagogual worship was then loaden with rules and ceremonies of human invention, and also the lives and manners both of priests and people were much corrupted, yet both our Saviour and his disciples went to the synsgogue, as members of the church of Nazareth, every sabbath-day, joining with them in the public worship.
From whence we may reasonably infer, that such Christians as do quietly and peaceably comply with the practice of the church in whose communion they live, in the observation of such indifferent rites as are used by her, act most agreeable to our Saviour’s practice and example.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Luk 4:14-16. Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee Being more abundantly strengthened after his conflict; and prepared to exercise his ministry with success, and to confirm his doctrine by miracles. And there went out a fame of him through all the region Now that he was come, the fame of the miracles which he had performed in Jerusalem at the passover, and in Judea during the course of his ministry there, spread the more through Galilee: for at this time he had done only one miracle there, namely, the turning of water into wine. And he taught in their synagogues He spent a considerable time in Galilee preaching, for the most part in their synagogues, particularly on the sabbath days, when there was the greatest concourse of people. Being glorified of all The effect of this first exercise of his ministry in Galilee was, that the excellence of the doctrines which he taught, and the greatness of the miracles which he wrought, caused all the people to admire and applaud him exceedingly. But neither their approbation, nor the outward calm which he enjoyed, continued long. And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up That by his example, says Theophylact, he might teach us especially to instruct and do good to those of our own family and place of abode. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue, &c. That the synagogue was then loaded with ceremonies of human invention, and that the manners of those who met there were much corrupted, no man, who is acquainted with the Scriptures and the Jewish history, can doubt; and yet Christ, with his disciples, went customarily to these synagogues, as members of the Jewish Church, every sabbath day. And stood up Showing, by so doing, that he had a desire to read the Scriptures to the congregation, on which the book was given to him. The reading of the Scriptures made an essential part of the Jewish public worship. But this office was not confined to those who were properly the ministers of religion. The rulers of the synagogue assigned it to such persons in the congregation as they knew were capable of it. Nay, they sometimes conferred the honour upon strangers, and incited them to give the people an exhortation on such subjects as were suggested by the passage read; see Act 13:15; wherefore, their now assigning it to Jesus was not contrary to the regulations of their worship. Perhaps the rulers, knowing the reports which went abroad of his miracles, and having heard of the Baptists testimony concerning him, were curious to hear him read and expound the Scriptures; and the rather, because it was well known in Nazareth that he had not had the advantage of a learned education. And, as the Hebrew was now a dead language, and Jesus had not been taught to read, his actually reading, and with such facility, the original Hebrew Scriptures, as well as his expounding them, was a clear proof of his divine inspiration, and must have greatly astonished every intelligent and considerate person present.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
THIRD PART: THE MINISTRY OF JESUS IN GALILEE, Luk 4:14 to Luk 9:50.
The three Synoptics all connect the narrative of the Galilaean ministry with the account of the temptation. But the narrations of Matthew and Mark have this peculiarity, that, according to them, the motive for the return of Jesus to Galilee must have been the imprisonment of John the Baptist: Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, He departed into Galilee (Mat 4:12); Now, after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee (Mar 1:14). As the temptation does not appear to have been coincident with the apprehension of John, the question arises, Where did Jesus spend the more or less lengthened time that intervened between these two events, and what was He doing during the interval? This is the first difficulty. There is another: How could the apprehension of John the Baptist have induced Jesus to return to Galilee, to the dominions of this very Herod who was keeping John in prison? Luke throws no light whatever on these two questions which arise out of the narrative of the Syn., because he makes no mention in this place of the imprisonment of John, but simply connects the commencement of the ministry of Jesus with the victory He had just achieved in the desert. It is John who gives the solution of these difficulties. According to him, there were two returns of Jesus to Galilee, which his narrative distinguishes with the greatest care. The first took place immediately after the baptism and the temptation (Luk 1:44). It was then that He called some young Galilaeans to follow Him who were attached to the forerunner, and shared his expectation of the Messiah. The second is related in chap. Luk 4:1; John connects it with the Pharisees jealousy of John the Baptist, which explains the account of the first two Syn. It appears, in fact, according to him, that some of the Pharisees were party to the blow which had struck John, and therefore we can well understand that Jesus would be more distrustful of them than even of Herod. That the Pharisees had a hand in John’s imprisonment, is confirmed by the expression delivered, which Matthew and Mark employ. It was they who had caused him to be seized and delivered up to Herod.
The two returns mentioned by John were separated by quite a number of events: the transfer of Jesus’ place of residence from Nazareth to Capernaum; His first journey to Jerusalem to attend the Passover; the interview with Nicodemus; and a period of prolonged activity in Judaea, simultaneous with that of John the Baptist, who was still enjoying his liberty (Joh 2:12 to Joh 4:43). The second return to Galilee, which terminated this long ministry in Judaea, did not take place, according to Luk 4:35, until the month of December in this same year, so that at least twelve months elapsed between it and the former. The Syn., relating only a single return, must have blended the two into one. Only there is this difference between them, that in Matthew and Mark it is rather the idea of the second which seems to predominate, since they connect it with John’s imprisonment; whilst Luke brings out more the idea of the first, for he associates it with the temptation exclusively. The mingling of these two analogous factsreally, however, separated by almost a yearmust have taken place previously in the oral tradition, since it passed, though not without some variations, into our three Synoptics. The narrative of John was expressly designed to re-establish this lost distinction (comp. Joh 2:11; Joh 3:24; Joh 4:54). In this way in the Syn. the interval between these two returns to Galilee disappeared, and the two residences in Galilee, which were separated from each other by this ministry in Judaea, form in them one continuous whole. Further, it is difficult to determine in which of the two to place the several facts which the Syn. relate at the commencement of the Galilaean ministry.
We must not forget that the apostolic preaching, and the popular teaching given in the churches, were directed not by any historical interest, but with a view to the foundation and confirmation of faith. Facts of a similar nature were therefore grouped together in this teaching until they became completely inseparable. We shall see, in the same way, the different journeys to Jerusalem, fused by tradition into a single pilgrimage, placed at the end of Jesus’ ministry. Thus the great contrast which prevails in the synoptical narrative between Galilee and Jerusalem is explained. It was only when John, not depending on tradition, but drawing from his own personal recollections, restored to this history its various phases and natural connections, that the complete picture of the ministry of Jesus appeared before the eyes of the Church.
But why did not Jesus commence His activity in Galilee, as, according to the Syn., He would seem to have done? The answer to this question is to be found in Joh 4:43-45. In that country, where He spent His youth, Jesus would necessarily expect to meet, more than anywhere else, with certain prejudices opposed to the recognition of His Messianic dignity. A prophet hath no honour in his own country (Joh 4:44). This is why He would not undertake His work among His Galilaean fellow-countrymen until after He had achieved some success elsewhere. The reputation which preceded His return would serve to prepare His way amongst them (Joh 4:45). He had therefore Galilee in view even during this early activity in Judaea. He foresaw that this province would be the cradle of His Church; for the yoke of pharisaical and sacerdotal despotism did not press so heavily on it as on the capital and its neighbourhood. The chords of human feeling, paralyzed in Judaea by false devotion, still vibrated in the hearts of these mountaineers to frank and stirring appeals, and their ignorance appeared to Him a medium more easily penetrable by light from above than the perverted enlightenment of rabbinical science. Comp. the remarkable passage, Luk 10:21.
It is not easy to make out the plan of this part, for it describes a continuous progress without any marked breaks it is a picture of the inward and outward progress of the work of Jesus in Galilee. Ritschl is of opinion that the progress of the story is determined by the growing hostility of the adversaries of Jesus; and accordingly he adopts this division: Luk 4:16 to Luk 6:11, absence of conflict; Luk 6:12 to Luk 11:54, the hostile attitude assumed by the two adversaries towards each other. But, 1 st, the first symptoms of hostility break out before Luk 6:12; Luke 2 d, the passage Luk 9:51, which is passed over by the division of Ritschl, is evidently, in the view of the author, one of the principal connecting links in the narrative; 3 d, the growing hatred of the adversaries of Jesus is only an accident of His work, and in no way the governing motive of its development. It is not there, therefore, that we must seek the principle of the division. The author appears to us to have marked out a route for himself by a series of facts, in which there is a gradation easily perceived. At first Jesus preaches without any following of regular disciples; soon He calls about Him some of the most attentive of His hearers, to make them His permanent disciples; after a certain time, when these disciples had become very numerous, He raises twelve of them to the rank of apostles; lastly, He entrusts these twelve with their first mission, and makes them His evangelists. This gradation in the position of His helpers naturally corresponds, 1 st, with the internal progress of His teaching; 2 d, with the local extension of His work; 3 d, with the increasing hostility of the Jews, with whom Jesus breaks more and more, in proportion as He gives organic form to His own work. It therefore furnishes a measure of the entire movement.
We are guided by it to the following division:
First Cycle, Luk 4:14-44, extending to the call of the first disciples.
Second Cycle,Luk 5:1 to Luk 6:11, to the nomination of the twelve.
Third Cycle, Luk 6:12 to Luk 8:56, to their first mission.
Fourth Cycle, Luk 9:1-50, to the departure of Jesus for Jerusalem.
At this point the work of Jesus in Galilee comes to an end; He bids adieu to this field of labour, and, setting His face towards Jerusalem, He carries with Him into Judaea the result of His previous labours, His Galilaean Church.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
XXVI.
JESUS SETS OUT FROM JUDA FOR GALILEE.
Subdivision C.
ARRIVAL IN GALILEE.
cLUKE IV. 14; dJOHN IV. 43-45.
d43 And after the two days [the two days spent among the Samaritans at Sychar] he went forth from thence [from Samaria] into Galilee. c14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee [Power of the Spirit here means its manifest use to perform miracles, rather than its presence, influence or direction. Jesus was always under the influence and direction of the Spirit, but did not previously perform miracles]: d44 For Jesus himself testified, that a prophet hath no honor in his own country. [Galilee was Jesus’ “own country” ( Joh 1:46, Joh 2:1, Joh 7:3, Joh 7:41, Joh 7:52, Luk 23:5-7). In Juda he had begun to receive so much honor as to bring him into danger at the hands of the Pharisees: he would receive less in Galilee. Joh 4:43 resumes the itinerary of Joh 4:1, Joh 4:2, after the interlude which tells of the woman at Sychar.] 45 So when he came into Galilee, the Galilans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast: for they also went unto the feast. [The works which Jesus had done in Jerusalem were for the most part fruitless as to its inhabitants, but they bore the fruit of faith in far-off Galilee. Of “the many who believed on him” in Jerusalem ( Joh 2:23), it is highly probable that a large number were Galilan pilgrims who were then there attending the passover.] [154]
[FFG 154]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
JESUS GOES TO GALILEE
Mat 4:12; Mar 1:14; & Luk 4:14. And after that John was cast into prison, Jesus came unto Galilee. Having entered upon His official Messiahship by purifying the temple at the Passover, and preached to the multitudes gathered on the Temple Campus during the great national feast; delivered that wonderful discourse to Nicodemus at night, the Apostle John bearing witness; and having wrought many miracles of which we have no specification; after the Passover, going out into the country north of the metropolis, He continues to preach and work miracles, His disciples baptizing the people, John the Baptist preaching in Enon near by, so that intercommunication between the audiences springs up, all observing that while Jesus is rapidly rising and magnetizing the multitudes, John is waning, a crisis supervenes, resulting from the arrest of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, and king of Galilee and Perea. Immediately after this, Jesus leaves Judea, and goes away to Galilee, apparently because of Johns arrest and imprisonment lest a similar fate shall overtake Him, and thus interfere with the work which He came to do. We see many judicious precautions adopted by Him at different times in order to prevent the interruption of His ministry till His work is done,
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Luk 4:14-30. Jesus in Nazareth (Mar 1:14 f.*, Mat 4:12-17*, Mar 6:1-6*, Mat 13:53-58*).Lk. brings Jesus to Galilee, but, anxious to make the mission begin in His own town, departs from Mk.s order (though it leads him into difficulty, see Luk 4:23), and puts the rejection at Nazareth (Mark 6) at the beginning of the ministry. The episode is prophetic of the later and larger rejection. And the activity which Jesus is said to have displayed outside Nazareth (Luk 4:23) is prophetic of the spread of the Gospel outside Israel, a point illustrated by the cases of the widow of Sarepta and Naaman (Luk 4:26 f.). The whole incident is a summary of Lk.s two books. Luk 4:17-21 is found only in Lk. Jesus goes to the synagogue in the usual way. and is asked to read. We should follow Syr. Sin., which transfers he stood up to read from the end of Luk 4:16 to the middle of Luk 4:17. He carefully chooses a passage (Isaiah 61), and proclaims Himself as its fulfilment. According to Lk. He is no warrior-king (Luk 17:9*), but the Servant of God bringing the blessings of spiritual light and liberty to the poor and afflicted. The pronouncement at Nazareth corresponds to the Sermon on the Mount as a programme prefaced to the narrative of the ministry. Luk 4:21 is only a summary of the preachers exposition. In Luk 4:22 f. Lk. returns to Mk., but with considerable freedom The hearers are at first pleased as well as astonished. But almost at once they remember that He is one of themselves, and so not worth much. He is Josephs son; Lk. omits mentioning the other members of the family, perhaps because of the honour in which they came to be held by his day. The people of Nazareth invite Jesus to secure their belief and adherence by a sign (contrast Mar 6:5); to Lk.s mind they typify Israel in general. Luk 4:25-30 is peculiar to Lk.; as in the days of the prophets, so in the days of the Gospel, Jews are rejected, Gentiles are chosen. Contrast Mat 10:5 f. Such sayings enrage the Nazareth folk; they eject the Preacher, and would fain murder Him. But He suffers no harmeither His mysterious majesty or the Divine protection enables Him to pass unharmed through their midst.
Luk 4:19. the acceptable year of the Lord.This may point to a one-year ministry, cf. p. 653.
Luk 4:26. a widow: Wellhausen acutely reads an Araman or Syrian; the two Aramaic words only differ by one letter, hence the Gr. error. [Dalman rejects this (Words of Jesus, p. 64). Wellhausen replies in the note on the passage in his commentary. It should be added that he takes Araman not in its strict sense, but as a general term for heathen, just as Greek (Hellen) is often used for Gentile. He thinks that the reference to the fact that she was a widow is superfluous, as it would be understood.A. S. P.]
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
IV. JESUS’ MINISTRY IN AND AROUND GALILEE 4:14-9:50
Luke commenced his account of Jesus’ public ministry with His return to Galilee following His temptation. This section of his Gospel ends with Jesus’ decision to leave Galilee for Jerusalem and the Cross (Luk 9:51). Luke did not give as much information about Jesus’ Galilean ministry as the other synoptic writers did (cf. Mat 4:12 to Mat 16:12; Mar 1:14 to Mar 8:26). He chose, rather, to emphasize Jesus’ ministry as He traveled from Galilee to Jerusalem (Luk 9:51 to Luk 19:27), which the other synoptic evangelists did not highlight as much.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
1. An introduction to Jesus’ Galilean ministry 4:14-15 (cf. Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:14-15)
Luke again drew his readers’ attention to the fact that Jesus was under the control of the Holy Spirit as He began His public ministry (cf. Luk 1:35; Luk 3:22; Luk 4:1). The Spirit empowered and enabled Jesus in His words and deeds. Luke would stress His teaching ministry. Luke attributed Jesus’ success to His orientation to the Spirit, not His essential deity. Consequently He was a model that all believers can and should copy. Luke continued to stress the Holy Spirit’s ministry in Acts.
Everyone who had contact with Jesus praised Him, not just the Jews. This was the initial popular response to Him, and it is the normal initial response that Spirit-directed believers experience.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
A. Jesus’ teaching ministry 4:14-5:11
This section of the third Gospel records some of Jesus’ initial preaching and various responses to it. Much of the material appears only in Luke. Interspersed are instances of Jesus performing mighty works. Luke, as the other evangelists, stressed the essential message that Jesus proclaimed.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 8
THE GOSPEL OF THE JUBILEE.
IMMEDIATELY after the Temptation Jesus returned “in the power of the Spirit,” and with all the added strength of His recent victories, to Galilee. Into what parts of Galilee He came, our Evangelist does not say; but omitting the visit to Cana, and dismissing the first Galilean tour with a sentence-how “He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all”-St. Luke goes on to record in detail the visit of Jesus to Nazareth, and His rejection by His townsmen. In putting this narrative in the forefront of his Gospel is St. Luke committing a chronological error? or is he, as some suppose, purposely antedating the Nazareth story, that it may stand as a frontispiece to his Gospel, or that it may serve as a key for the after-music? This is the view held by most of our expositors and harmonists, but, as it appears to us, on insufficient grounds; the balance of probability is against it. It is true that St. Matthew and St. Mark record a visit to Nazareth which evidently occurred at a later period of His ministry. It is true also that between their narratives and this of St. Luke there are some striking resemblances, such as the teaching in the synagogue, the astonishment of His hearers, their reference to His parentage, and then the reply of Jesus as to a prophet receiving scant honor in his own country-resemblances which would seem to indicate that the two narratives were in reality one. But still it is possible to push these resemblances too far, reading out from them what we have first read into them. Let us for the moment suppose that Jesus made two visits to Nazareth; and is not such a supposition both reasonable and natural? It is not necessary that the first rejection should be a final rejection, for did not the Jews seek again and again to kill Him, before the cross saw their dire purpose realized? Remaining for so long in Galilee, would it not be a most natural wish on the part of Jesus to see the home of His boyhood once again, and to give to His townspeople one parting word before taking His farewell of Galilee? And suppose He did, what then? Would He not naturally go to the synagogue as was His custom in every place-and speak? And would they not listen with the same astonishment, and then harp on the very same questions as to His parentage and brotherhood-questions that would have their readiest and fittest answer in the same familiar proverb? Instead, then, of these resemblances identifying the two narratives, and proving that St. Lukes story is but an amplification of the narratives of the other Synoptists, the resemblances themselves are what we might naturally expect in our supposition of a second visit. But if there are certain coincidences between the two narratives, there are marked differences, which make it extremely improbable that the Synoptists are recording one event. In the visit recorded by St. Luke there were no miracles wrought; while St. Matthew and St. Mark tell us that He could not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief, but that He “laid His hands on a few sick folk, and healed them.” In the narrative by St. Mark we read that His disciples were with Him, while St. Luke makes no mention of His disciples; but St. Luke does mention the tragic ending of the visit, the attempt of the men of Nazareth to hurl Him down from a lofty cliff, an incident St. Matthew and St. Mark omit altogether. But can we suppose the men of Nazareth would have attempted this, had the strong body-guard of disciples been with Jesus? Would they be likely to stand by, timidly acquiescent? Would not Peters sword have flashed instantly from its scabbard, in defense of Him whom he served and dearly loved? That St. Matthew and St. Mark should make no reference to this scene of violence, had it occurred at the visit they record, is strange and unaccountable; and the omission is certainly an indication, if not a proof, that the Synoptists are describing two separate visits to Nazareth-the one, as narrated by St. Luke, at the commencement of His ministry; and the other at a later date, probably towards its close. And with this view the substance of the Nazareth address perfectly accords. The whole address has the ring of an inaugural message; it is the voice of an opening spring, and not of a waning summer. “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears” is the blast of the silver trumpet announcing the beginning of the Messianic year, the year of a truer, wider Jubilee.
It seems to us, therefore, that the chronology of St. Luke is perfectly correct, as he places in the forefront of his Gospel the earlier visit to Nazareth, and the violent treatment Jesus there received. At the second visit there was still a widespread unbelief, which caused Jesus to marvel; but there was no attempt at violence, for His disciples were with Him now, while the report of His Judaean ministry, which had gone before Him, and the miracles He wrought in their presence, had softened down even Nazareth prejudices and asperities. The events of the first Galilean tour were probably in the following order. Jesus, with His five disciples, goes to Cana, invited guests at the marriage, and here He opens His miraculous commission, by turning the water into wine. From Cana they proceed to Capernaum, where they remain for a short time, Jesus preaching in their synagogue, and probably continuing His miraculous works. Leaving His disciples behind at Capernaum-for between the preliminary call by the Jordan and the final call by the lake the fisher-disciples get back to their old occupations for a while-Jesus goes up to Nazareth, with His mother and His brethren. Thence, after His violent rejection, He returns to Capernaum, where He calls His disciples from their boats and receipt of custom, probably completing the sacred number before setting out on His journey southward to Jerusalem. If this harmony be correct-and the weight of probability seems to be in its favor-then the address at Nazareth, which is the subject for our consideration now, would be the first recorded utterance of Jesus; for thus far Cana gives us one startling miracle, while in Capernaum we find the report of His acts, rather than the echoes of His words. And that St. Luke alone should give us this incident, recording it in such a graphic manner, would almost imply that he had received the account from an eye-witness, probably-if we may gather anything from the Nazarene tone of St. Lukes earlier pages-from some member of the Holy Family.
Jesus has now fairly embarked upon His Messianic mission, and He begins that mission, as prophecy had long foretold He should, in Galilee of the Gentiles. The rumor of His wonderful deeds at Cana and Capernaum had already preceded Him thither, when Jesus came once again to the home of His childhood and youth. Going, as had been His custom from boyhood, into the synagogue on the Sabbath day (St. Luke is writing for Gentiles who are unversed in Jewish customs), Jesus stood up to read. “The Megilloth,” or Book of the Prophets, having been handed to Him, He unrolled the book, and read the passage in Isaiah {Isa 61:1} to which His mind had been Divinely directed, or which He had purposely chosen:-
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor, He hath sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised, To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Then closing, or rolling up, the book, and handing it back to the attendant, Jesus sat down, and began His discourse. The Evangelist does not record any of the former part of the discourse, but simply gives us the effect produced, in the riveted gaze and the rising astonishment of His auditors, as they caught up eagerly His sweet and gracious words. Doubtless, He would explain the words of the prophet, first in their literal, and then in their prophetic sense; and so far He carried the hearts of His hearers with Him, for who could speak of their Messianic hopes without awakening sweet music in the Hebrew heart? But directly Jesus applies the passage to Himself, and says, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears,” the fashion of their countenance alters; the Divine emphasis He puts upon the ME curdles in their heart, turning their pleasure and wonder into incredulity, envy, and a perfect frenzy of rage. The primary reference of the prophecy seems to have been to the return of Israel from captivity. It was a political Jubilee he proclaimed, when Zion should have a “garland for ashes,” when the captive should be free, and aliens should be their servants. But the flowers of Scripture are mostly double; its pictures and parables have often a nearer meaning, and another more remote, or a spiritual, involved in the literal sense. That it was so here is evident, for Jesus takes this Scripture-which we might call a Babylonish garment, woven out of the Exile-and wraps it around Himself, as if it belonged to Himself alone, and were so intended from the very first. His touch thus invests it with a new significance; and making this Scripture a vestment for Himself, Jesus, so to speak, shakes out its narrower folds, and gives it a wider, an eternal meaning. But why should Jesus select this passage above all others? Were not the Old Testament Scriptures full of types, and shadows, and prophecies which testified of him, any one of which He might have appropriated now? Yes, but no other passage so completely answered His design, no other was so clearly and fully declarative of His earthly mission. And so Jesus selected this picture of Isaiah, which was at once a prophecy and an epitome of His own Gospel, as His inaugural message, His manifesto.
The Mosaic Code, in its play upon the temporal octaves, had made provision, not only for a weekly Sabbath, and for a Sabbath year, but it completed its cycle of festivals by setting apart each fiftieth year as a year of special grace and gladness. It was the year of redemption and restoration, when all debts were remitted, when the family inheritance, which by the pressure of the times had been alienated, reverted to its original owner, and when those who had mortgaged their personal liberty regained their freedom. The “Jubilee” year, as they called it-putting into its name the play of the priestly trumpets which ushered it in-was thus the Divine safeguard against monopolies, a Divine provision for a periodic redistribution of the wealth and privileges of the theocracy; while at the same time it served to keep intact the separate threads of family life, running its lines of lineage down through the centuries, and across into the New Testament. Seizing upon this, the gladdest festival of Hebrew life, Jesus likens Himself to one of the priests, who with trumpet of silver proclaims “the acceptable year of the Lord.” He finds in that Jubilee a type of His Messianic year, a year that shall bring, not to one chosen race alone, but to a world of debtors and captives, remissions and manumissions without number, ushering in an era of liberty and gladness. And so in these words, adapted and adopted from Isaiah, Jesus announces Himself as the Worlds Evangelist, and Healer, and Emancipator; or separating the general message into its prismatic colors, we have the three characteristics of Christs Gospel-
(1) as the Gospel of Love;
(2) the Gospel of Light; and
(3) the Gospel of Liberty.
1. The Gospel of Jesus was the Gospel of Love. “He anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor.” That there is a Gospel even in the Old Testament no one will attempt to deny, and able writers have delighted in tracing out the evangelism that, like hidden veins of gold, runs here and there, now embedded deep in historical strata, and now cropping out in the current of prophetical speech. Still, an ear but little trained to harmonies can detect a marvelous difference between the tone of the Old and the tone of the New Dispensation. “Evangelists” is scarcely the name we should give to the prophets and preachers of the Old Testament, if we except that prophet of the dawn, Isaiah. They came, not as the bearers of glad tidings, but with the pressure, the burden of a terrible “woe” upon them. With a voice of threat and doom they call Israel back to the days of fidelity and purity, and with the caustic of biting words they seek to burn out the cancer of national corruption. They were no doves, those old-time prophets, building their nests in the blossoming olives, in soft accents telling of a winter past and a summer near; they were storm-birds rather, beating with swift, sad wings on the crest of sullen waves, or whirling about among the torn shrouds. Even the eremite Baptist brought no evangel. He was a sad man, with a sad message, telling, not of the right which men should do, but of the wrong they should not do, his ministry, like that of the law, being a ministry of condemnation. Jesus, however, announces Himself as the Worlds Evangelist. He declares that He is anointed and commissioned to be the bearer of good, glad tidings to man. At once the Morning Star and Sun, He comes to herald a new day; nay, He comes to make that day. And so it was. We cannot listen to the words of Jesus without noticing the high and heavenly pitch to which their music is set. Beginning with the Beatitudes, they move on in the higher spaces, striking the notes of courage, hope, and faith, and at last, in the guest-chamber, dropping down to their key-note, as they close with an eirenicon and a benediction. How little Jesus played upon mens fears! How, instead, He sought to inspire them with new hopes, telling of the possibilities of goodness, the perfections which were within reach of even the human endeavor! How seldom yon catch the tone of despondency in His words! As He summons men to a life of purity, unselfishness, and faith, His are not the voice and mien of one who commands to a forlorn hope. There is the ring of courage, conviction, certainty about His tone, a hopefulness that was itself half a victory. Jesus was no Pessimist, reading over the grave of departed glories His “ashes to ashes”; He who knew our human nature best had most hopes of it, for He saw the Deity that was back of it and within it.
And just here we touch what we may call the fundamental chord in the Gospel of Jesus, the Fatherhood of God; for though we can detect other strains running through the music of the Gospel, such as the Love of God, the Grace of God, and the Kingdom of God, yet these are but the consonant notes-completing the harmonic scale, or the variations that play about the Divine Fatherhood. To the Hebrew conception of God this was an element altogether new. To their mind Jehovah is the Lord of hosts, an invisible, absolute Power, inhabiting the thick darkness, and speaking in the fire. Sinai thus throws its shadow across the Old Testament Scriptures, and men inhale an atmosphere of law rather than of love.
But what a transformation was wrought in the worlds thought and life as Jesus unfolded the Divine Fatherhood! It altered the whole aspect of mans relation to God, with a change as marked and glorious as when our earth turns its face more directly to the sun, to find its summer. The Great King, whose will commanded all forces, became the Great Father, in whose compassionate heart the toiling children of men might find refuge and rest. The “Everlasting Arms” were nonetheless strong and omnipotent; but as Jesus uncovered them they seemed less distant, less rigid; they became so near and so gentle, the weakest child of earth might not fear to lay its tired heart upon them. Law was nonetheless mighty, nonetheless majestic, but it was now a transfigured law, all lighted up and suffused with love. No longer was life one round of servile tasks, demanded by an inexorable, invisible Pharaoh; no longer was it a trampled playground, Where all the flowers are crushed, as Fate and Chance take their alternate innings. No; life was ennobled, adorned with new and rare beauties; and when Jesus opened the gate of the Divine Fatherhood the light that was beyond, and that “never was on sea or land,” shone through, putting a heavenliness upon the earthly, and a divineness upon the human life. What better, gladder tidings could the poor (whether in spirit or in life) hear than this-that heaven was no longer a distant dream, but a present and most precious reality, touching at every point, and enfolding their little lives; that God was no longer hostile, or even indifferent to them, but that He cared for them with an infinite care, and loved them with an infinite love? Thus did Jesus proclaim the “good tidings”; for love, grace, redemption, and heaven itself are all found within the compass of the Fatherhood. And He who gave to His disciples, in the “Paternoster,” a golden key for heavens audience-chamber, speaks that sacred name “Father” even amid the agonies of the cross, putting the silver trumpet to His parched and quivering lips, so that earth may hear once again the music of its new and more glorious Jubilee.
2. The Gospel of Jesus was a Gospel of Light. “And recovering of sight to the blind,” which is the Septuagint rendering of the Hebrew passage in Isaiah, “the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” At first sight this appears to be a break in the Jubilee idea; for physical cures, such as the healing of the blind, did not come within the scope of Jubilatic mercies. The original expression, however, contains a blending of figures, which together preserve the unity of the prophetic picture. Literally it reads, “The opening of the eyes to them that are bound”; the figure being that of a captive, whose long captivity in the darkness has filmed his vision, and who now passes through the opened door of his prison into the light of day.
In what way shall we interpret these words? Are they to be taken literally, or spiritually? Or are both methods equally legitimate? Evidently they are both intended, for Jesus was the Light-bringer in more senses than one. That the Messiah should signalize His advent by performing wonders and signs, and by working physical cures, was certainly the teaching of prophecy, as it was a fixed and prominent hope in the expectation of the Jews. And so, when the despondent Baptist sent two of his disciples to ask “Art Thou He that should come?” Jesus gave no direct answer, but turning from His questioners to the multitude of sick who pressed around Him, He healed their sick, and gave sight to many that were blind. Then returning to the surprised strangers, He bids them carry back to their master these visible proofs of His Messiahship-how that “lepers are cleansed, and the blind receive their sight.” Jesus Himself had a wonderful power of vision. His eyes were Divinely bright, for they carried their own light. Not only had He the gift of prescience, the forward-looking eye; He had what for want of a word we may call the gift of prescience, the eye that looked within, that saw the heart and soul of things. What a strange fascination there was in His very look! How it flashed like a subtle lightning, striking and scathing with its holy indignation the half-veiled meanness and hypocrisy! And how again, like a beam of light, it fell upon Peters soul, thawing the chilled heart, and opening the closed fountain of his tears, as an Alpine summer falls on the rigid glacier, and sends it rippling and singing through the lower vales. And had not Jesus an especial sympathy for cases of ophthalmic distress, paying to the blind a peculiar attention? How quickly He responded to Bartimaeus-“What is it that I shall do for thee?”-as if Bartimaeus were conferring the benefit by making his request. Where on the pages of the four Gospels do we find a picture more full of beauty and sublimity than when we read of Jesus taking the blind man by the hand, and leading him out of the town? What moral grandeur and what touching pathos are there! And how that stoop of gentleness makes Him great! No other case is there of such prolonged and tender sympathy, where He not only opens the gates of day for the benighted, but leads the benighted one up to the gates. And why does Jesus make this difference in His miracles, that while other cures are wrought instantly, even the raising of the dead, with nothing more than a look, a word, or a touch, in healing the blind He should work the cure, as it were, in parts, or by using such intermediaries as clay, saliva, or the water of Siloams pool? Must it not have been intentional? It would seem so, though what the purpose might be we can only guess. Was it so gradual an inletting of the light, because a glare too bright and sudden would only confuse and blind? Or did Jesus linger over the cure with the pleasure of one who loves to watch the dawn, as it paints the east with vermilion and gold? Or did Jesus make use of the saliva and clay, that like crystal lenses, they might magnify His power, and show how His will was supreme, that He had a thousand ways of restoring sight, and that He had only to command even unlikely things, and light, or rather sight, should be? We do not know the purpose, but we do know that physical sight was somehow a favorite gift of the Lord Jesus, one that He handed to men carefully and tenderly. Nay, He Himself said that the man of Jerusalem had been born blind “that the works of God should be manifest in him”; that is, his firmament had been for forty years darkened that his age, and all coming ages, might see shining within it the constellations of Divine Pity and Divine Power.
But while Jesus knew well the anatomy of the natural eye, and could and did heal it of its disorders, putting within the sunken socket the rounded ball, or restoring to the Optic nerve its lost powers, this was not the only sight He brought. To the companion clauses of this prophecy, where Jesus proclaims deliverance to the captives, and sets at liberty them that are bruised, we are compelled to give a spiritual interpretation; and so “the recovering of sight to the blind” demands a far wider horizon than the literalistic sense offers. It speaks of the true Light which lighteth every man, that spiritual photosphere that environs and enswathes the soul, and of the opening and adjusting of the spiritual sense; for as sight without light is darkness, so light without sight is darkness still. The two facts are thus related, each useless apart from the other, but together producing what we call vision. The recovering of sight to the blind is thus the universal miracle. It is the “Let light be” of the new Genesis, or, as we prefer to call it, the “regeneration.” It is the dawn, which, breaking over the soul, broadens unto the perfect day, the heavenly, the eternal noon. Jesus Himself recognizes this binoculism, this double vision. He says, {Joh 16:16} “A little while, and ye behold Me no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see Me,” using two altogether different words-the one speaking of the vision of the sense, the other of the deeper vision of the soul. And it was so. The disciples vision of the Christ, at least so long as the bodily presence was with them, was the earthly, physical vision. The spiritual Christ was, in a sense, lost, masked in the corporeal. The veil of His flesh hung dense and heavy before their eyes, and not until it was uplifted on the cross, not until it was rent in twain, did they see the mysterious Holy Presence that dwelt within the veil. Nor was the clearer vision given them even now. The dust of the sepulcher was in their eyes, blurring, and for a time half-blinding them-the anointing with the clay. The emptied grave, the Resurrection, was their “pool of Siloam,” washing away the blinding clay, the dust of their gross, materialistic thoughts. Henceforth they saw Christ, not, as before, ever coming and going, but as the ever-present, the abiding One. In the fuller light of the Pentecostal flames the unseen Christ became more near and more real than the seen Christ ever was. Seeing Him as visible, their minds were holden, somewhat perplexed; they could neither accomplish much nor endure much; but seeing Him who had become invisible, they were a company of invincibles. They could do and they could endure anything; for was not the I AM with them always?
Now, even in the physical vision there is a wonderful correspondence between the sight and the soul, the prospect and introspect. As men read the outward world they see pretty much the shadow of themselves, their thoughts, feelings, and ideas. In the German fable the traveled stork had nothing to say about the beauty of the fields and wonders of the cities over which it passed, but it could discourse at length about the delicious frogs it had found in a certain ditch. Exactly the same law rules up in the higher vision. Men see what they themselves love and are; the sight is but a sort of projection of the soul. As St. Paul says, “The natural man receiveth not the things of God”; the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him are “things which eye saw not, and ear heard not.” And so Jesus gives sight by renewing the soul; He creates around us a new heaven and a new earth, by creating a new, a clean heart within us. Within every soul there are the possibilities of a Paradise, but these possibilities are dormant. The natural heart is a chaos of confusion and darkness, until it turns towards Jesus as its Savior and its Sun, and henceforth revolves around Him in its ever-narrowing circles.
3. The Gospel of Jesus was a Gospel of Liberty. “He hath sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,” “to set at liberty them that are bruised.” The latter clause is not in the original prophecy, but is a rough adaptation of another passage in Isaiah. {Isa 58:6} Probably it was quoted by Jesus in His address, and so was inserted by the Evangelist with the passages read; for in the New Testament the quotations from the Old are grouped together by affinities of spirit, rather than by the law of textual continuity. The two passages are one in their proclamation and promise of liberty, but they by no means cover the same ground. The former speaks of the liberation of captives, those whom the exigencies of war or some change of fortune have thrown into prison; the latter speaks of deliverance to the oppressed, those whose personal liberties may not be impawned, but whose lives are made hard and bitter under severe exactions, and whose spirits are broken, crushed beneath a weight of accumulated ills. Speaking generally, we should call the one an amnesty, and the other an enfranchisement; for one is the offer of freedom to the captive, the other of freedom to the slave; while together they form an act of emancipation for humanity, enfranchising and ennobling each individual son of man, and giving to him, even the poorest, the freedom of Gods world.
In what sense, then, is Jesus the great Emancipator? It would be easy to show that Jesus, personally, was a lover of freedom. He could not brook restraints. Antiquity, conventionalism, had no charms for Him. Keenly in touch with the present, He did not care to take the cold, clammy hand of a dead Past, or allow it to prescribe His actions. Between the right and the wrong, the good and the evil, He put a wall of adamant, Gods eternal “No”; but within the sphere of the right, the good, He left room for the largest liberties. He observed forms-occasionally, at least-but formalism He could not endure. And so Jesus was constantly coming into collision with the Pharisaic school of thought, the school of routinists, casuists, whose religion was a glossary of terms, a volume of formulas and negations. To the Pharisee religion was a cold, dead thing, a mummy, all enswathed in the cerecloths of tradition; to Jesus it was a living soul within a living form, an angel of grace and beauty, whose wings would bear her aloft to higher, heavenlier spheres, and whose feet and hands fitted her just as well for the common walks of life, in a beautiful, every-day ministry of blessing. And how Jesus loved to give personal liberty to man into remove the restrictions disease had put around their activities, and to leave them physically, mentally free! And what were His miracles of healing but proclamations of liberty, in the lowest sense of that word? He found the human body enfeebled, enslaved; here it was an arm, there an eye, so held in the grip of disease that it was as if dead. But Jesus said to Disease, “Loose that half-strangled life and let it go,” and in an instant it was free to act and feel, finding its lesser jubilee. Jesus saw the human mind led into captivity. Reason was dethroned and immured in the dungeon, while the feet of lawless passions were trampling overhead. But when Jesus healed the demoniac, the imbecile, the lunatic, what was it but a mental jubilee, as He gives peace to a distracted soul, and leads banished Reason back to her Jerusalem?
But these deliverances and liberties, glorious as they are, are but figures of the true, which is the enfranchisement of the soul. The disciples were perplexed and sorely disappointed that Jesus should die without having wrought any “redemption” for Israel. This was their one dream, that the Messiah should break in pieces the hated Roman yoke, and effect a political deliverance. But they see Him moving steadily to His goal, taking no note of their aspirations, or noticing them only to rebuke them, and scarce giving a passing glance to these Roman eagles, which darken the sky, and east their Ominous shadows over the homes and fields of Israel. But Jesus had not come into the world to effect any local, political redemption; another Moses could have done that. He had come to lead captive the captivity of Sin, as Zacharias had foretold, “that being delivered out of the hand of our (spiritual) enemies, we might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life.” The sphere of His mission was-where His kingdom should be, in the great interior of the heart. A Prophet like unto Moses, but infinitely greater than he, He too leaves the palace of the Eternal, laying aside, not the robes of a prospective royalty, but the glories He possessed with the Father; He too assumes the dress, the speech, nay, the very nature, of the race He has come to redeem. And when no other ransom was sufficient He “offered Himself without spot to God,” “our Passover, sacrificed for us,” so sprinkling the doorway of the new Exodus with His own blood. But here we stand on the threshold of a great mystery; for if angels bend over the mercy-seat, desiring, but in vain, to read the secret of redemption, how can our finite minds grasp the great thought and purpose of God? We do know this, however, for it is the oft-repeated truth of Scripture, that the life, or, as St. Peter puts it, “the precious blood of Christ,” was, in a certain sense, our ransom, the price of our redemption. We say, “in a certain sense,” for the figure breaks down if we press it unduly, as if Heaven had held a parley with the power that had enslaved man, and, at a stipulated price, had bought him off. That certainly was no part of the Divine purpose and fact of redemption. But an atonement was needed in order to make salvation possible; for how could God, infinitely holy and just, remit the penalty due to sin with no expression of His abhorrence of sin, without destroying the dignity of law, and reducing justice to a mere name? But the obedience and death of Christ were a satisfaction of infinite worth. They upheld the majesty of law, and at the same time made way for the interventions of Divine Love. The cross of Jesus was thus the place where Mercy and Truth met together, and Righteousness and Peace kissed each other. It was at once the visible expression of Gods deep hatred of sin, and of His deep love to the sinner. And so, not virtually simply, in some far-off sense, but in truest reality, Jesus “died for our sins,” Himself tasting death that we might have life, even the life “more abundant,” the life everlasting; suffering Himself to be led captive by the powers of sin, bound to the cross and imprisoned in a grave, that men might be free in all the glorious liberty of the children of God.
But this deliverance from sin, the pardon for past offences, is but one part of the salvation Jesus provides and proclaims. Heavens angel may light up the dungeon of the imprisoned soul; he may strike off its fetters, and lead it forth into light and liberty; but if Satan can reverse all this, and fling back the soul into captivity, what is that but a partial, intermittent salvation, so unlike Him whose name is Wonderful? The angel said, “He shall save His people,” not from the effects of their sin, from its guilt and condemnation alone, but “from their sins.” That is He shall give to the pardoned soul power over sin; it shall no longer have dominion over him; captivity itself shall be led captive; for
“His grace, His love, His care Are wider than our utmost need, And higher than our prayer.”
Yes, verily; and the life that is hid with Christ in God, that, with no side-glances at self, is set apart utterly to do the Divine will, that abandons itself to the perfect keeping of the perfect Savior, will find on earth the “acceptable year of the Lord,” its years, henceforth, years of liberty and victory, a prolonged Jubilee.