Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 4:30
But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
30. passing through the midst of them ] This is rather a mirabile than a miraculum, since no miracle is asserted or necessarily implied. The inherent majesty and dignity of our Lord’s calm ascendency, seem to have been sufficient on several occasions to overawe and cow His enemies; Joh 7:30; Joh 7:46; Joh 8:59; Joh 10:39-40; Joh 18:6 (see Psa 18:29; Psa 37:33).
went his way ] Probably never to return again. Nazareth lies in a secluded valley out of the ordinary route between Gennesareth and Jerusalem. If after thirty sinless years among them they could reject Him, clearly they had not known the day of their visitation. It is the most striking illustration of St John’s sad comment, “He came unto His own possessions ( ) and His own people ( ) received Him not” (Joh 1:11).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Passing through the midst of, them, went his way – This escape was very remarkable. It is remarkable that he should escape out of their hands when their very object was to destroy him, and that he should escape in so peaceful a manner, without violence or conflict. A similar case is recorded in Joh 8:59. There are but two ways of accounting for this:
- That other Nazarenes, who had not been present in the synagogue, heard what was doing and came to rescue him, and in the contest that rose between the two parties Jesus silently escaped.
- More probably that Jesus by divine power, by the force of a word or look, stilled their passions, arrested their purposes, and passed silently through them. That he had such a power over the spirits of people we learn from the occurrence in Gethsemane, when he said, I am he; and they went backward and fell to the ground, Joh 18:6.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 30. Passing through the midst of them] Either he shut their eyes so that they could not see him; or he so overawed them by his power as to leave them no strength to perform their murderous purpose. The man Christ Jesus was immortal till his time came; and all his messengers are immortal till their work is done.
The following relation of a fact presents a scene something similar to what I suppose passed on this occasion: A missionary, who had been sent to a strange land to proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom of God, and who had passed through many hardships, and was often in danger of losing his life, through the persecutions excited against him, came to a place where he had often before, at no small risk, preached Christ crucified. About fifty people, who had received good impressions from the word of God, assembled: he began his discourse; and, after he had preached about thirty minutes, an outrageous mob surrounded the house, armed with different instruments of death, and breathing the most sanguinary purposes. Some that were within shut the door; and the missionary and his flock betook themselves to prayer. The mob assailed the house, and began to hurl stones against the walls, windows, and roof; and in a short time almost every tile was destroyed, and the roof nearly uncovered, and before they quitted the premises scarcely left one square inch of glass in the five windows by which the house was enlightened. While this was going forward, a person came with a pistol to the window opposite to the place where the preacher stood, (who was then exhorting his flock to be steady, to resign themselves to God, and trust in him,) presented it at him, and snapped it; but it only flashed in the pan! As the house was a wooden building, they began with crows and spades to undermine it, and take away its principal supports. The preacher then addressed his little flock to this effect: “These outrageous people seek not you, but me; if I continue in the house, they will soon pull it down, and we shall be all buried in its ruins; I will therefore, in the name of God, go out to them, and you will be safe.” He then went towards the door; the poor people got round him, and entreated him not to venture out, as he might expect to be instantly massacred; he went calmly forward, opened the door, at which a whole volley of stones and dirt was that instant discharged; but he received no damage. The people were in crowds in all the space before the door, and filled the road for a considerable way, so that there was no room to pass or repass. As soon as the preacher made his appearance, the savages became instantly as silent and as still as night: he walked forward; and they divided to the right and to the left, leaving a passage of about four feet wide for himself and a young man who followed him, to walk in. He passed on through the whole crowd, not a soul of whom either lifted a hand, or spoke one word, till he and his companion had gained the uttermost skirts of the mob! The narrator, who was present on the occasion, goes on to say: “This was one of the most affecting spectacles I ever witnessed; an infuriated mob, without any visible cause, (for the preacher spoke not one word,) became in a moment as calm as lambs! They seemed struck with amazement bordering on stupefaction; they stared and stood speechless; and, after they had fallen back to right and left to leave him a free passage, they were as motionless as statues! They assembled with the full purpose to destroy the man who came to show them the way of salvation; but he, passing through the midst of them, went his way. Was not the God of missionaries in this work? The next Lord’s day, the missionary went to the same place, and again proclaimed the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world!”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
30. passing through the midst,&c.evidently in a miraculous way, though perhaps quitenoiselessly, leading them to wonder afterwards what spell could havecome over them, that they allowed Him to escape. (Similar escapes,however, in times of persecution, are not unexampled.)
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But he passing through the midst of them,…. Either in so strong and powerful a manner, and with so much swiftness, that being once out of their hands, they could not lay hold on him again; or else he put on another form, or made himself invisible to them; or he held their eyes that they could not see him, or know him, as in Lu 24:16 however it was, he made use of, and showed his divine power; and which he did, because his time to die was not yet come, nor was he to die such a death: and this also shows, that when he did die, he laid down his life freely and voluntarily, since he could then have exerted his power, and delivered himself out of the hands of his enemies, as now: and
went his way; from Nazareth elsewhere; nor do we read of his returning there any more.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He went his way (). Imperfect tense, he was going on his way.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
JESUS IN CAPERNAUM, CASTS OUT DEMONS V. 30-37
1) “And he passing through the midst of them,” (autos de dielthon dia mesou auton) “Then he eluded, through the midst of them,” the murder bent crowd, in a miraculous manner, with dignified demeanor, as He also did, Joh 8:59; Joh 10:39. He was calm and tranquil in contrast with their anger.
2) “Went his way,” (eporeueto) “And went his way,” on to do what He had told them back in their synagogue that He had been sent and anointed to do, in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy, and His Father’s will, Luk 19:10; Joh 4:34; Joh 6:38.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
30. But he, passing through the midst of them When Luke says, that Jesus passed through the middle of the crowd, and so escaped out of their hands, he means that God rescued him, by an extraordinary miracle, from immediate death. This example teaches us that, though our adversaries may prevail so far, that our life may seem to be placed at their disposal, yet that the power of God will always be victorious to preserve us, so long as he shall be pleased to keep us in the world, either by tying their hands, or by blinding their eyes, or by stupifying their minds and hearts.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(30) He passing through the midst of them.The words do not necessarily involve a directly supernatural deliverance, as though the multitude had been smitten with blindness, or our Lord had become invisible. We have no right to insert miracles in the Gospel records. Calmness, silence, the moral power of self-possessed righteousness have in themselves a power, often proved, to baffle the fury of an angry mob.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
30. Passing through the midst of them Of course the mob was ahead of him. But at the moment in which he chose to escape, wonderful was the ease with which he passed through the crowd, who seem to have parted right and left, as if they meant to escort rather than to murder him. The question is raised whether this critical escape, and other similar instances, were miraculous, (Joh 8:59; Joh 18:6.) That they were not, the parallels of Caius Marius and others are adduced, where the awe of the person assailed has unmanned and defeated the assailants. But, perhaps, the clearest parallel to this present escape may be found in Stevens’s History of Methodism, vol. i, p. 195. Wesley, assailed by a Cornish mob, is nearly thrown to the ground, whence he would never have risen alive. Struck with a blow upon the chest, so that the blood gushes out of his mouth, he yet maintains a composure superior to pain, and perfect as if in the quiet of his study. Amid his utterance of prayer and their clamours for his life, a strange and sudden reaction takes place. A call is made for a fair hearing, and the very leader of the mob, awe-struck, becomes all at once his defender. And then, in language strongly reminding us (though it did not the historian himself) of the present scene, it is added, “The people fell back, as if by common consent, and led on through their open ranks by the champion of the rabble, he safely escaped to his lodgings.” Whether this was miraculous or not may be a question of degree, not of kind. Who can tell at what point the natural awe-inspiring power of great or sacred character rises to a supernatural amount?
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But he passing through the midst of them went his way.’
Their attempt to kill Him failed. We are not told why. Luke wants us to appreciate that God just would not let it happen, and that in this deliverance the words of Psa 91:11-12, quoted by the Devil in the final temptation, had proved true for Jesus because He had been faithful and had resisted the temptation. In a sense what the Devil had said was true. Jesus was here as the Son of God and He was thus untouchable until God gave the word. Perhaps some town authority intervened. Perhaps someone talked a bit of sense into enough of them for them to step in and prevent what their fellow townsfolk were doing, pointing out that they would be called to account for it. Perhaps there was a sudden storm. Perhaps Jesus turned and looked at them, and suddenly they were filled with awe, and gave way before Him (compare Joh 8:59; Joh 18:6). We do not know what happened, but whichever way it was, God had delivered Him. And the result was that He was able to pass through their midst and go on His way.
The story had great significance for Luke. Firstly because it was a declaration of Who Jesus was, the Anointed Prophet of Isaiah, and therefore on the same plain as the Servant of the Lord and the Davidic King. Secondly because it revealed the aim of His ministry and what He had come to do. Thirdly because it was a clear indication that Jesus saw God’s mercy as available to the Gentiles. And fourthly because it bore witness to the fact that Jesus was under divine protection.
It may be noted that there is an interesting parallel here that may or may not have been intentional. Jesus temptations consisted of shortage of food, wrongly used political power and falling from a height to prove God’s faithfulness. The widow in Sidon was short of food, and was fed, the Syrian general Naaman was connected with political power, and was cleansed, and the intention of the crowd was to throw Jesus headlong from a height, but He was delivered. It was an indication that Jesus had made the right choice and that what the temptations had been about would be fulfilled, but it would be in God’s way.
Another interesting fact about this passage is the way that it summarises the life and purpose of Jesus from the point of view of Luke’s writings. It proclaims Him as the Anointed One who has come, it outlines His ministry of proclamation of the Good News and of the deliverance of those held captive, together with the forgiveness of sins, it reveals the growth of opposition, and the intention to put Him to death, from which He escapes in a kind of resurrection, and it reveals that the Good News will finally go to the Gentiles, because Judaism has rejected Him. It is His life in miniature.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Luk 4:30. Passing through the midst, &c. In the midst of the confusion our Lord escaped, probably by making himself invisible: but though we cannot certainly determine, whether the miracle lay in this, or in our Lord’s assuming some other form, or in affecting their eyes and minds in such a manner that they should not know him; it is unquestionable that there was something miraculous in the case; and therefore the Nazarenes could no longer complain that he had wrought no miracle among them. Compare ch. Luk 24:16. Joh 8:59 and 1Ki 6:18-20.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Luk 4:30 . ] But He, on His part , while they thus dealt with Him.
] emphatically: passed through the midst of them . According to Paulus, it was sufficient for this, “that a man of the look and mien of Jesus should turn round with determination in the face of such a mobile vulgus .” Comp. Lange, L. J . II. p. 548: “an effect of His personal majesty;” and III. p. 376: “a mysterious something in His nature.” Comp. Bleek. According to Schenkel, the whole attempt on the person of Jesus is only a later tradition. On the other hand, the old commentators have: , Euthymius Zigabenus; comp. Ambrosius, in addition to which it has been further supposed that He became invisible (Grotius and others). The latter view is altogether inappropriate, if only on account of . But certainly there is implied a restraint of his enemies which was miraculous and dependent on the will of Jesus . It is otherwise in Joh 8:59 ( ). Why Jesus did not surrender Himself is rightly pointed out by Theophylact: , .
] went on , that is to say, towards Capernaum, Luk 4:31 , and therefore not back again to Nazareth as has been harmonistically pretended.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
Ver. 30. But he passing, &c. ] Like a second Samson; his own arm saved him. This might have convinced his adversaries, except they were mad with malice.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Luk 4:30 . , but He , emphatic, suggesting a contrast: they infuriated, He calm and self-possessed. : no miracle intended, but only the marvel of the power always exerted by a tranquil spirit and firm will over human passions.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
passing through. Doubtless the eyes of the people were holden. See Luk 24:16. Compare Joh 8:59; Joh 10:39, Joh 10:40 (compare Psa 18:29 Psa 37:33).
through. Greek. dia. App-104. Luk 4:1.
went His way = went away. Probably never to return.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Luk 4:30. , He went His way) unimpeded as before.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Joh 8:59, Joh 10:39, Joh 18:6, Joh 18:7, Act 12:18
Reciprocal: 1Sa 18:11 – And David 1Sa 19:10 – he slipped Mat 4:13 – leaving Luk 24:31 – vanished out of their sight Joh 5:13 – had Joh 20:14 – and knew
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
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This movement enabled him to go on his way without harming them.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Luk 4:30. But he passing through the midst of them. As the Nazarenes had Him in custody there was something miraculous in this escape. That they were struck blind, or that He became invisible, is not in accordance with the expression, passing through the midst of them. By allowing His personal majesty to appear, He might effect this escape, but it cannot be explained as the result of merely human decision, however potent that has been in disorderly mobs. The view that He, visible to them all, passed through them, making them feel His superhuman power restraining them, showing them their own powerlessness against Him, presents no difficulty to those who believe in miracles, and such a miracle was called for. His time was not yet come, and He would thus protect Himself. Besides, they had demanded a miracle, and now they obtained one,a miracle of judgment on them all, not only in the restraint then put upon them, but in the consequence, namely, that He went his way. We suppose directly to Capernaum, without returning to Nazareth at all.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Chapter 9
A SABBATH IN GALILEE.
WE should naturally expect that our physician-Evangelist would have a peculiar interest in Christs connection with human suffering and disease, and in this we are not mistaken.
It is almost a superfluous task to consider what our Gospels would have been had there been no miracles of healing to record; but we may safely say that such a blank would be inexplicable, if not impossible. Even had prophecy been utterly silent on the subject, should we not look for the Christ to signalize His advent and reign upon earth by manifestations of His Divine power? A Man amongst men, human yet superhuman, how can He manifest the Divinity that is within, except by the flashings forth of His supernatural power? Speech, however eloquent; however true, could not do this. There must be a background of deeds, visible credentials of authority and power, or else the words are weak and vain-but the play of a borealis in the sky, beautiful and bright indeed, but distant, inoperative, and cold. If the prophets of old, who were but acolytes swinging their lamps and singing their songs before the coming Christ, were allowed to attest their commission by occasional endowments of miraculous power, must not the Christ Himself prove His super-humanity by fuller measures and exhibitions of the same power? And where can He manifest this so well as in connection with the worlds suffering, need, and pain? Here is a background prepared, and all dark enough in sooth; where can he write so well that men may read His messages of goodwill, love, and peace? Where can He put His sign manual, His Divine autograph, better than on this firmament of human sorrow, disease, and woe? And so the miracles of healing fall naturally into the story; they are the natural and necessary accompaniments of the Divine life upon earth.
The first miracle that Jesus wrought was in the home at Cana; His first miracle of healing was in the synagogue. He thus placed Himself in the two pivotal centers of our earthly life; for that life, with its heavenward and earthward aspects, revolves about the synagogue and the home. He touches our human life alike on its temporal and its spiritual side. To a nature like that of Jesus, which had an intense love for what was real and true, and as intense a scorn for what was superficial and unreal, it would seem as if a Hebrew synagogue would offer but few attractions. True, it served as the visible symbol of religion; it was the shrine where the Law and the Prophets spoke; what spiritual life there was circled and eddied around its door; while its walls, pointing to Jerusalem, kept the scattered populations in touch with the Temple, that marble dream of Hebraism; but in saying this we say nearly all. The tides of worldliness and formality, which, sweeping through the Temple gates, had left a scum of mire even upon the sacred courts, chilling devotion and almost extinguishing faith, had swept over the threshold of the synagogue. There the scribes had usurped Moses seat, exalting Tradition as a sort of essence of Scripture, and deadening the majestic voices of the law in the jargon of their vain repetitions. But Jesus does not absent Himself from the service of the synagogue because the fires upon its altar are dulled and quenched by the down-draught of the times. To Him it is the house of God, and if others see it not, He sees a ladder of light, with ascending and descending angels. If others hear but the voices of man, all broken and confused, He hears the Diviner voice, still and small; He hears the music of the heavenly host, throwing down their “Glorias” upon earth. The pure in heart can find and see God anywhere. He who worships truly carries His Holy of holies within Him. He who takes his own fire need never complain of the cold, and with wood and fire all prepared, he can find or he can build an altar upon any mount. Happy is the soul that has learned to lean upon God, who can say, amid all the distractions and interventions of man, “My soul, wait thou only upon God.” To such a one, whose soul is athirst for God, the Valley of Baca becomes a well, while the hot rock pours out its streams of blessing. The art of worship avails nothing if the heart of worship is gone; but if that remain, subtle attractions will ever draw it to the place where “His name is recorded, and where His honor dwelleth.”
In his earlier chapters, St. Luke is careful to light his Sabbath lamp, telling that such and such miracles were wrought on that day, because the Sabbath question was one on which Jesus soon came into collision with the Pharisees. By their traditions, and the withes of dry and sharp legalities, they had strangled the Sabbath, until life was well-nigh extinct. They had made rigorous and exacting what God had made bright and restful, fencing it around with negations, and burdening it with penalties. Jesus broke the withes that bound her, let the freer air play upon her face, and then led her back to the sweet liberties of her earlier years. How He does it the sequel will show.
The Sabbath morning finds Jesus repairing to the synagogue at Capernaum, a sanctuary built by a Gentile centurion, and presided over by Jairus, both of whom are yet to be brought into close personal relationship with Christ. From the silence of the narrative we should infer that the courtesy offered at Nazareth was not repeated at Capernaum-that of being invited to read the lesson from the Book of the Prophets. But whether so or not, He was allowed to address the congregation, a privilege which was often accorded to any eminent stranger who might be present. Of the subject of the discourse we know nothing. Possibly it was suggested by some passing scene or incident, as the sculptured pot of manna, in this same synagogue, called forth the remarkable address about the earthly and the heavenly. {Joh 6:31} But if the substance of the discourse is lost to us, its effect is not. It awoke the same feeling of surprise at Capernaum as it had done before among the more rustic minds of Nazareth. There, however, it was the graciousness of His words, their mingled “sweetness and light,” which so caused them to wonder; here at Capernaum it was the “authority” with which He spoke that so astonished them, so different from the speech of the scribes, which, for the most part, was but an iteration of quibbles and trivialities, with just as much of originality as the “old clo” cries of our modern streets. The speech of Jesus came as a breath from the upper air; it was the intense language of One who possessed the truth, and who was Himself possessed by the truth. He dealt in principles, not platitudes; in eternal facts, and not in the fancies of gossamer that tradition so delighted to spin. Others might speak with the hesitancy of doubt; Jesus spoke in “verilies” and verities, the very essences of truth. And so His word fell upon the ears of men with the tones of an oracle; they felt themselves addressed by the unseen Deity who was behind; they had not learned, as we have, that the Deity of their oracle was within. No wonder that they are astonished at His authority-an authority so perfectly free from any assumptions; they will wonder still more when they find that demons, too, recognize this authority, and obey it.
While Jesus was still speaking-the tense of the verb implies an unfinished discourse-suddenly He was interrupted by a loud, wild shout: “Ah, what have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee, who Thou art, the Holy One of God.” It was the cry of a man who, as our Evangelist expresses it, “had a spirit of an unclean devil.” The phrase is a singular one, in fact unique, and savors a little of tautology; for St. Luke uses the words “spirit” and “devil” as synonyms. {Luk 9:39} Later in his Gospel he would simply have said “he had an unclean devil”; why, then, does he here amplify the phrase, and say he had “a spirit of an unclean devil?” We can, of course, only conjecture, but might it not be because to the Gentile mind-to which he is writing-the powers of evil were represented as personifications, having a corporeal existence? And so in his first reference to the demoniacal possession he pauses to explain that these demons are evil “spirits,” with existences altogether separate from the diseased humanity which temporarily they were allowed to inhabit and to rule. Neither can we determine with certainty the meaning of the phrase “an unclean devil,” though probably it was so called because it drove its victim to haunt unclean places, like the Gadarene, who had his dwelling among the tombs.
The whole subject of demonology has been called in question by certain modern critics. They aver that it is simply an after-growth of Paganism, the seeds of worn-out mythologies which had been blown over into the Christian mind; and eliminating from them all that is supernatural, they reduce the so-called “possessions” to the natural effects of purely natural causes, physical and mental. It is confessedly a subject difficult as it is mysterious; but we are not inclined, at the bidding of rationalistic clamor, so to strike out the supernatural. Indeed, we cannot, without impaling ourselves upon this dilemma, that Jesus, knowingly or unknowingly, taught as the truth what was not true. That Jesus lent the weight of His testimony to the popular belief is evident; never once, in all His allusions, does He call it in question, nor hint that He is speaking now only in an accommodated sense, borrowing the accents of current speech. To Him the existence and presence of evil spirits was just as patent and as solemn a fact as was the existence of the arch-spirit, even Satan himself. And granting the existence of evil spirits, who will show us the line of limitation, the “Hitherto, but no farther,” where their influence is stayed? Have we not seen, in mesmerism, cases of real possession, where the weaker human will has been completely overpowered by the stronger will? when the subject was no longer himself, but his thoughts, words, and acts were those of another? And are there not, in the experiences of all medical men, and of ministers of religion, cases of depravity so utterly foul and loathsome that they cannot be explained except by the Jewish taunt, “He hath a devil?” According to the teaching of Scripture, the evil spirit possessed the man in the entirety of his being, commanding his own spirit, ruling both body and mind. Now it touched the tongue with a certain glibness of speech, becoming a “spirit of divination,” and now it touched it with dumbness, putting upon the life the spell of an awful silence. Not that the obscurity of the eclipse was always the same. There were more lucid moments, the penumbras of brightness, when, for a brief interval, the consciousness seemed to awake, and the human will seemed struggling to assert itself; as is seen in the occasional dualism of its speech, when the “I” emerges from the “we,” only, however, to be drawn back again, to have its identity swallowed up as before.
Such is the character who, leaving the graves of the dead for the abodes of the living, now breaks through the ceremonial ban, and enters the synagogue. Rushing wildly within-for we can scarcely suppose him to be a quiet worshipper; the rules of the synagogue would not have allowed that-and approaching Jesus, he abruptly breaks in upon the discourse of Jesus with his cry of mingled fear and passion. Of the cry itself we need not speak, except to notice its question and its confession. “Art thou come to destroy us?” he asks, as if, somehow, the secret of the Redeemers mission had been told to these powers of darkness. Did they know that He had come to “destroy” the works of the devil, and ultimately to destroy, with an everlasting destruction, him who had the power of death, that is, the devil? Possibly they did, for, citizens of two worlds, the visible and the invisible, should not their horizon be wider than our own? At any rate, their knowledge, in some points, was in advance of the nascent faith of the disciples. They knew and confessed the Divinity of Christs mission, and the Divinity of His Person, crying, “I know Thee, who Thou art, the Holy One of God; Thou art the Son of God,” {Luk 4:41} when as yet the faith of the disciples was only a nebula of mist, made up in part of unreal hopes and random guesses. Indeed, we seldom find the demons yielding to the power of Christ, or to the delegated power of His disciples, but they make their confession of superior knowledge as if they possessed a more intimate acquaintance with Christ. “Jesus I know, and Paul I know,” said the demon, which the sons of Sceva could not exorcise, {Act 19:15} while now the demon of Capernaum boasts, “I know Thee, who Thou art, the Holy One of God.” Nor was it a vain boast either, for our Evangelist asserts that Jesus did not suffer the demons to speak, “because they knew that He was the Christ” (Luk 4:41). They knew Jesus, but they feared and hated Him. In a certain sense they believed, but their belief only caused them to tremble, while it left them demons still. Just so is it now: “There are, too, who believe in hell and lie; There are who waste their souls in working out Lifes problem on these sands betwixt two tides, And end, Now give us the beasts part in death.”
Saving faith is thus more than a bare assent of the mind, more than some cold belief, or vain repetition of a creed. A creed may be complete and beautiful, but it is not the Christ; it is only the vesture the Christ wears; and alas, there are many still who will chaffer about, and cast lots for, a creed, who will go directly and crucify the Christ Himself! The faith that saves, besides the assent of the mind, must have the consent of the will and the surrender of the life. It is “with the heart,” and not only with the mind, man “believeth unto righteousness.”
The interruption brought the discourse of Jesus to an abrupt end, but it served to point the discourse with further exclamations of surprise, while it offered space for a new manifestation of Divine authority and power. It did not in the least disconcert the Master, though it had doubtless sent a thrill of excitement through the whole congregation. He did not even rise from His seat (Luk 4:38), but retaining the teaching posture, and not deigning a reply to the questions of the demon, He rebuked the evil spirit, saying, “Hold thy peace, and come out of him,” thus recognizing the dual will, and distinguishing between the possessor and the possessed. The command was obeyed instantly and utterly; though, as if to make one last supreme effort, he throws his victim down upon the floor of the synagogue, like Samson Agonistes, pulling to the ground the temple of his imprisonment. It was, however, a vain attempt, for he did him “no hurt.” The roaring lion had indeed been “muzzled”-which is the primitive meaning of the verb rendered “Hold thy peace”-by the omnipotent word of Jesus.
They were “astonished at His teaching” before, but how much more so now! Then it was a convincing word; now it is a commanding word. They hear the voice of Jesus, sweeping like suppressed thunder over the boundaries of the invisible world, and commanding even devils, driving them forth, just with one rebuke, from the temple of the human soul, as afterwards He drove the traders from His Fathers house with His whip of small cords. No wonder that “amazement came upon all,” or that they asked, “What is this word? For with authority and power He commandeth the unclean spirits; and they come out.”
And so Jesus began His miracles of healing at the outmost marge of human misery. With the finger of His love, with the touch of His omnipotence, He swept the uttermost circle of our human need, writing on that far and low horizon His wonderful name, “Mighty to Save.” And since none are outcasts from His mercy save those who outcast themselves, why should we limit “the Holy One of Israel?” why should we despair of any? Life and hope should be coeval.
Immediately on retiring from the synagogue, Jesus passes out of Capernaum, and along the shore to Bethsaida, and enters, together with James and John, the house of Peter and Andrew. {Joh 1:44} It is a singular coincidence that the Apostle Peter, with whose name the Romish Church takes such liberties, and who is himself the “Rock” on which they rear their huge fabric of priestly assumptions, should be the only Apostle of whose married life we read; for though John afterwards possesses a “home,” its only inmate besides, as far as the records show, is the new “mother” he leads away from the cross. It is true we have not the name of Peters wife, but we find her shadow, as well as that of her husband, thrown across the pages of the New Testament; cleaving to her mother even while she follows another; ministering to Jesus, and for a time finding Him a home; while later we see her sharing the privations and the perils of her husbands wandering life. {1Co 9:5} Verily, Rome has drifted far from the “Rock” of her anchorage, the example of her patron saint; and between the Vatican of the modern Pontiff and the sweet domesticities of Bethsaida is a gulf of divergence which only a powerful imagination can cross.
No sooner, however, has Jesus entered the house than He is told how Peters mother-in-law has been suddenly stricken down by a violent fever, probably a local fever for which that lake shore was notorious, and which was bred from the malaria of the marsh. Our physician-Evangelist does not stay to diagnose the malady, but he speaks of it as “a great fever,” thus giving us an idea of its virulence and consequent danger. “And they besought Him for her”; not that He was at all reluctant to grant their request, for the tense of the verb implies that once asking was sufficient; but evidently there was the “beseeching” look and tone of a mingled love and fear. Jesus responds instantly; for can He come fresh from the healing of a stranger, to allow a dread shadow to darken the home and the hearts of His own? Seeking the sick chamber, He bends over the fever stricken one, and taking her hand in. His, {Mar 1:31} He speaks some word of command, “rebuking the fever,” as St. Luke expresses it. In a moment the fatal fire is quenched, the throbbing heart regains its normal beat, a delicious coolness takes the place of the burning heat, while the fever-flush steals away to make place for the bloom of health. The cure was perfect and instant. The lost strength returned, and “immediately she arose and ministered unto them,” preparing, doubtless, the evening meal.
May we not throw the light of this narrative upon one of the questions of the day? Men speak of the reign of law, and the drift of modern scientific thought is against any interference-even Divine-with the ordinary operations of physical law. As the visible universe is opened up and explored the heavens are crowded back and back, until they seem nothing but a golden mist, some distant dream. Natures laws are seen to be so uniform, so ruthlessly exact, that certain of those who should be teachers of a higher faith are suggesting the impossibility of any interference with their ordinary operations. “You do but waste your breath,” they say, “in asking for any immunities from Natures penalties, or for any deviation from her fixed rules. They are invariable, inviolate. Be content rather to be conformed, mentally and morally, to Gods will.” But is prayer to have so restricted an area? is the physical world to be buried so deep in “law” that it shall give no rest to prayer, not even for the sole of her foot? Entire conformity to Gods will is, indeed, the highest aim and privilege of life, and he who prays the most seeks most for this; but has God no will in the world of physics, in the realm of matter? Shall we push Him back to the narrow ledge of a primal Genesis? or shall we leave Him chained to that frontier coast, another Prometheus bound? It is well to respect and to honor law, but Natures laws are complex, manifold. They can form combinations numberless, working different or opposite results. He who searches for “the springs of life” will
“Reach the law within the law”;
and who can tell whether there is not a law of prayer and faith, thrown by the Unseen Hand across all the warp of created things, binding “the whole round earth” about “the feet of God?” Reason says, “It might be so,” and Scripture says, “It is so.” Was Jesus angry when they told him of the fever-stricken, and they implored His intervention? Did He say, “You mistake My mission. I must not interfere with the course of the fever; it must have its range. If she lives, she lives; and if she dies, she dies; and whether the one or the other, you must be patient, you must be content?” But such were not the words of Jesus, with their latent fatalism. He heard the prayer, and at once granted it, not by annulling Natures laws, nor even suspending them but by introducing a higher law. Even though the fever was the result of natural causes, and though it probably might have been prevented, had they but drained the marsh or planted it with the eucalyptus, yet this does not shut out all interventions of Divine mercy. The divine compassion makes some allowance for our human ignorance, when it is not willful, and for our human impotence.
The fever “left her, and immediately she rose up and ministered unto them.” Yes, and there are fevers of the spirit as well as of the flesh, when the heart is quick and flurried, the brain hot with anxious thought, when the fret and jar of life seem eating our strength away, and our disquiet spirit finds its rest broken by the pressure of some fearful nightmare. And how soon does this soul-fever strike us down! How it unfits us for our ministry of blessing, robbing us of the “heart at leisure from itself,” and filling the soul with sad distressing fears, until our life seems like the helpless, withered leaf, whirled and tossed hither and thither by the wind! For the fever of the body there may not always be relief, but for the fever of the spirit there is a possible and a perfect cure. It is the touch of Jesus. A close personal contact with the living and loving Christ will rebuke the fever of your heart; it will give to your soul a quietness and restfulness that are Divine; and with the touch of His omnipotence upon you, and with all the elation of conscious strength, you too will arise into a nobler life, a life which will find its supremest joy in ministering unto others, and so ministering unto Him.
Such was the Sabbath in Galilee on which Jesus began His miracles of healing. But if it saw the beginning of His miracles, it did not see their end; for soon as the sun had set, and the Sabbath restraint was over, “all that had any sick with divers diseases brought them unto Him, and He laid His hands on every one of them, and healed them.” A marvelous ending of a marvelous day? Jesus throws out by handfuls His largesse of blessing, health, which is the highest wealth, showing that there is no end to His power, as there is no limit to His love; that His will is supreme over all forces and all laws; that He is, and ever will be, the perfect Savior, binding up the broken in heart, assuaging all griefs, and healing all wounds!