Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 7:1
Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.
Luk 7:1-10 . Healing of the Centurion’s Servant.
1. in the audience ] i.e. in the hearing.
he entered into Capernauni
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In the audience of the people – In the hearing of the people.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Luk 7:1-10
And a certain centurions servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die
The centurion and his servant
A Roman soldier, a stern, unbending man, accustomed to be obeyed absolutely; accustomed to oppress a downtrodden, conquered race, no one daring to raise a murmur; a heathen, too, a man whose religion was odious and contemptible, a man, therefore, without real power over his actions, the creature of caprice: such, at least by instinct and education, must the good centurion have been.
Yet the grace of God is well-nigh irresistible, it triumphs against desperate odds. At first he has nothing but contempt for a religion which, good in itself, was made almost insufferable by its priests and professors. As he looks deeper down; as he begins to think; takes the trouble to examine this old creed, at first it may be with a sort of antiquarian interest, then with growing curiosity, then with an honest desire to learn; God teaches him, the Holy Spirit enlightens his heart, and he begins to love the nation whom he had been sent to trample upon rather than to rule. So between this rough soldier and his neighbour there sprang up mutual confidence, even love; at last, so drawn was he towards the people of God, that with boundless generosity he built the men of Capernaum a synagogue. Nor was this soldiers love only to the inhabitants of Capernaum; his servant, a poor slave, a youth stolen from home and friends, expecting only cruelty and stripes, was dear unto him, and he lay at home sick and ready to die.
1. The wisdom of accepting Gods plan of life as the one by which we can most glorify Him. Who does not often wish that his place in life had been quite differently cast? If we only had had more money, leisure, scope for talents, friends, what could we not have done for God, what might not God have accomplished in us? See the correction of this foolishness in the saintly centurions history. A heathen soldier mixing with men whose actions, however brave they might be, were always cruel and hard, living amongst companions coarse and low, where passion was unbridled, pity unknown; a man sent to serve m despised Galilee, amongst a nation utterly degraded, hopelessly vile; his headquarters one of the most corrupt cities of that land of darkness; how could circumstances be apparently more against him? Yet what seemed hindrances, he turned into helps. If he had not been in the Roman army he had never seen Capernaum; if he had not been quartered near Capernaum, he had never built a synagogue; but for his sorrow he would never have had personal intercourse with the Lord of Life; but for his great need he would never have won so gracious a benediction from Gods Son. So is it with every one born of woman. Where our lot is cast, what our circumstances may be–all this is Gods plan. Therefore it follows, they are the best circumstances conceivable, by which we may mount to Him. Shun discontent. Ourselves, not our circumstances, are our hindrances.
2. There is another line of thought suggested by the relationship which existed between this master and those whom God had placed in his home–his servant was dear unto him. It is difficult for us to realize thestrangeness of the situation. Christianity has taught men pity, tenderness, sympathy for weakness and suffering, yet this centurion was not even a Jew. Somehow the tender heart of this valiant soldier, illuminated by the light of conscience, taught him that his slave lad was brought into his home, in order that he might lift him out of the lower depths of degradation, succour and help him in his need. How clear the lesson to a Christian, to a soldier of the cross. Are we not taught the strange responsibility which is placed on each as, in turn, he becomes a master or a messenger, as parents or teachers–immediately, that is, God gives us any authority? Home, the centre of Christian influence, home, the place where servants, children, guests, are all brought together for this end alone, that by love those in authority may win those over whom they are set, and so God may win them too; this, indeed, is the lesson of the good centurions action. (T. B. Dover, M. A.)
The centurions faith
Notice some of the lessons, naturally lessons touching faith, which this passage is designed to teach.
I. We learn that GREAT SPIRITUAL ADVANTAGES ARE NOT ALWAYS NECESSARY TO GREAT FAITH. Let us never despair of truth-sowing, in waste and unlikely places. The so-called rose of Jericho drops its dried-up germ on the parched desert sand. But Gods mind does not leave it to perish. Swept hither and thither, it finds at last its oasis, some hidden spot of moisture, and there it abides and sprouts, and becomes again a thing of life and beauty. A drifting cocoa-nut, cast by the surf ashore upon some barren limestone reef, seems in itself the very image of failure and utter loss. But see I this apparent waif, under the watchful eye of Providence, becomes the beginning of an earthly paradise. It is faith in sowing that brings the harvest of faith (Ecc 11:6).
II. It is more than hinted, further, that GREAT FAITH IS MOST LIKELY TO BE FOUND IN CONNECTION WITH A NOBLE NATURE. Equity, generosity, sympathy, humility, such traits were prominent here, and they made room for tile working of great faith in Christ. Faith is something that has to do with ideas, and hence holds mere things cheap. It is not so much what they achieve as what they believe in and strive for that makes men noble and great. What I admire, said Turgot, in Christopher Columbus, is not that he discovered the New World, but that he went to look for it on the faith of an idea.
III. Again, GREAT FAITH HERE, AS ALWAYS, IS ACCOMPANIED BY A SENSE OF GREAT NEED.
IV. Further, it follows also from what has just been said, that GREAT FAITH IS ACCOMPANIED ALSO BY GREAT HUMILITY. Its sublimest flights, like those of the birds, are always preceded by a settling low down. There are some beautiful plants whose leaves grow even smaller as the plant grows higher.
V. Still again, THE GREAT FAITH OF THE CENTURION WAS NO UNREASONING FAITH. A great deal is said about believing blindly. And there are times when a simple trust is all that is left us; but generally speaking, we may reason from the seen to the unseen, front ourselves and our finite circumstances to God and His unlimited might. Faith is not blind, except to trifles. It sees! It sees more, not less. It sees with new light and new powers. This earth of ours is but a simple birthplace, a nest of sticks and mud on the swinging bough. It is the point of departure, not the place of rest, and the man of faith has realized this in some degree. He has looked over its borders into the unsounded depths. He has gazed on the immeasurable vault. He has the evidence of things unseen. He knows that though the steps of faith fall on a seeming void, they find the Rock beneath.
VI. It is interesting to notice, in the next place, THE KIND OF MORAL TRAINING THAT SEEMS TO FIT ONE FOR THE EXERCISE OF GREAT FAITH.
1. Obedience. Our centurion, as a soldier, had learned to submit his will, to obey. But it is still better to learn obedience in the family than in the army.
A loving, filial obedience towards Christian parents is of all earthly things the nearest to that service which our heavenly Father claims from us.
2. Liberality. Our centurion was a generous giver, too. There is a really potent moral discipline in giving. Just as the largest ships only venture into the deepest harbours, so it is safe to expect that the Divine blessing–especially an all-conquering faith, one of the greatest–will only there come richest and fullest where the sluices are held widest open, through a noble, perpetual outgush of kindly feeling and generous doing towards ones fellow-men.
VII. GREAT FAITH DOES NOT LIFT ONE OUT OF THE BEACH OF INTERCESSORY PRAYER ON THE PART OF THOSE HAVING LESS.
VIII. GREAT FAITH IS ABLE TO BEAR WITHOUT PERIL GREAT BLESSINGS. Ships that are well ballasted you may load high, and they will not careen or refuse to mind the rudder.
IX. WHETHER FAITH BE GREAT OR SMALL, IT IS THE SAME THING IN ESSENCE, AND INEXPRESSIBLY WELL-PLEASING TO OUR LORD. The principal thing is to have some faith, though it be little. It is that which brings us into the blessed circle of the beneficiaries of Jesus, while the want of it shuts us wholly out. Men have had it who had little else that was good, who had, in fact, much else that was bad, and yet, because they had it, were enrolled among the heroes of Gods shining host. (Edwin C. Bissell.)
Kindness to inferiors
Xenocrates, though a heathen, was pitiful to a poor sparrow, which, being pursued by a hawk, fled to him for succour. He sheltered her until the enemy had flown off, and then, letting her go, said that he had not betrayed his poor suppliant. A Christian should have more pity for a distressed Christian than a heathen has for a bird. A master should be a physician to his servants; as careful to preserve their health and prevent their death, as to provide them work. Another heathen told his wife that it was part of her office, and the most grateful part of it, in case a servant fell sick, to tend him and promote his recovery. This centurion, though a soldier (and their hearts usually are more obdurate and less compassionate than others), was earnest and diligent for the help of his sick servant. (G. Swinnock.)
The increase of faith
I. FAITH IS THE CONDITION OF THE EXERCISE OF GODS POWER UPON US–a condition, let it ever be borne in mind, of Gods own making, and springing wholly out of Gods own wisdom and love to us. For, I ask, What is faith? and I reply that, speaking generally, faith is sympathy with God–it is the receptive attitude of the soul–it is the laying open of the whole being to the influence of God. If I would keep the tender flower from the frost, I must cover it up and wrap it round to shut out the icy touch that would freeze up its life. But would I quicken it with the sun I must take away all barriers and let its blessed rays stream in. Unbelief covers up and closes the soul: faith opens it to the sunshine.
II. FAITH IS THE MEASURE OF GODS GIFTS TO US. The gifts are proportioned to our fitness and our power to receive them. There are partial gifts for partial faith; fuller gifts for fuller faith. To recur to my former illustration, the measure in which the sun streams into a chamber depends on the degree in which all impediments are removed from its entrance. The limit is not in the glorious orb, but in that which receives it. It will enter wherever it can, though it be but through a broken link. Throw wide open the broad shutters, and how it will stream in, till every object becomes beautiful in its rays! If we would have more faith, we must cultivate it; and I will tell you how.
1. There must be conscious desire in your minds for more faith–not a general wish for more grace in a vague and unmeaning way, but a deep sense of your need of a fuller trust in God and an earnest desire for it.
2. Try to exercise faith. The gift, indeed, is all of God; but He works through the human effort. Not the listless idle soul, that folds its hands and takes its ease in Zion, will ever get close to God, but the soul that presses on and up, and, in our Lords vivid language, takes heaven by violence.
3. To assist you in this effort, endeavour to watch and study the dealings of God with you, like one who expects to see God everywhere. Be not like the man who saunters along the road, not caring or thinking whom he shall meet; but like one who is looking out for a friend, and watches on every side to see him. Think of God as a real being, and both in the answers to your prayers and in the details of your life, try to trace His providence.
4. Let us dwell much upon the promises; let us live in them and on them, making them the habitual atmosphere of our religious life. (E. Garbett, M. A.)
The centurion of Capernaum
I. There are three aspects in which this centurion of Capernaum commands our attention; as a MAN, as an OFFICIAL, and as a PROSELYTE. His attraction is thus PERSONAL, POLITICAL, and RELIGIOUS.
1. The personal interest that attaches to him.
2. His political interest, or official significance. As an officer of Rome, the representative of Roman power at a Jewish Court, he draws our notice to himself. The Jew is the worlds representative Religionist; the Greek its representative Thinker; but the Roman its representative Ruler. He is the typical warrior and administrator. Her own greatest poet put into the prophetic mouth of Anchises in the nether world this description of her mission:–Others, I grant, shall with more delicacy mould the breathing brass; from marble draw the features to the life; describe with the rod the courses of the rising stars. To rule the nations with imperial sway, be your care, O Romans; these shall be thine arts–to impose terms of peace, to spare the humble, and to crush the proud. When the Word of God became Incarnate He entered into a world politically prepared for His Advent after a fashion not less perfect for the purpose designed than strange because of the means by which it had been wrought. Of this preparation Rome was the instrument; and of Rome her officer at Capernaum is a representative. Is there not, then, about him, as an official, a deep political significance and interest?
3. His interest as a Proselyte, This term, Proselyte, leads me to call attention to a function of the Jewish Prophets in Messianic preparation, not always adequately measured by us in our estimate of them as divinely ordained to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Joel thrills him; Jeremiah melts him; Ezekiel elevates him; Isaiah entrances him. The Greek Philosophy, which formed the polite study of every educated Roman, had taught him to look beneath the surface and to gather the truths unseen by the vulgar eye, to see substance under shadow, reality under form, and the truth typified under the typifying symbol. He is thus prepared to pierce beneath the rites and sacrifices to that to which they pointed and which they forecasted.
II. His action, in circumstances which to many men in his station would have been trivial, reveals a new beauty in his character, and demands from us a new admiration. His servant–dear to him in a personal way, as one bound to him by personal links, and not merely, as were his soldiers, by official relations–was sick and ready to die. The manifestation of a noble nature was grateful to the Son of Man. His Divine Humanity rejoiced as the flower of faith blossomed in the hearts of those He loved. (G. M. Grout, B. D.)
The centurion; or, an exhortation to the virtuous
This centurion certainly had a high reputation. Two features of character blend in him which do not often meet in such graceful harmony. He won the high opinion of others, and yet he held a low estimation of himself.
I. To begin, then, here is a HIGH CHARACTER; let us thoroughly appreciate it, and give it a full measure of commendation. This centurion must have been a man of sterling worth. He was not merely quiet and inoffensive like some men who are as insipid as they are harmless. It would appear, too, that his private temperament, as well as his public spirit, contributed to the estimation in which he was held. Next to this, you will observe his generosity. It is not by occasional deeds of showy lustre, but by the habitual practice of comely virtues, that a worthy character is built up. A thousand kindnesses may be nestling beneath the soil, like the many-fibred root of a gigantic tree, when it is said, He loveth our nation; and then the conspicuous fruit appears in its season–He hath built us a synagogue. But, remember, and here I close this point, however good your character, or however excellent your repute, not one word of this is ever to be mentioned before the throne of the Most High.
II. Secondly, in the centurion we see coupled with this high and noble repute, DEEP HUMILIATION OF SOUL–I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my root. Humility, then, it appears, may exist in any condition. There are some men who are too mean to be humble. They are too crouching, crawling, sneakish, and abject to be humble. It certainly is not for the least vermin that creep the earth to talk about humility. But a man to be humble, needs to have a soul; to stoop, you must have some elevation to stoop from; you must have some real excellence within you before you can really understand what it is to renounce merit. We have heard of a certain monk, who, professing to be humble, said he had broken all Gods commandments; he was the greatest sinner in the world; he was as bad as Judas. Somebody said, Why tell us that? we have all of us thought that a long time! Straightway the holy man grew red in the face, and smote the accuser, and asked him what he had ever done to deserve such a speech.
III. The main thing I am aiming at, because, after all, the most practical, lies in my third point. However deep our humility, however conscious we may be of our own undeservingness, WE SHOULD NEVER DIMINISH OUR FAITH IN GOD. Observe the confession–I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof. What then will be the inference?–I fear, therefore, my servant will not be healed? No, no; but–Say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. It is all a mistake that great faith implies pride. Beloved, the greater faith, the deeper humility. The more the glories of God strike your eyes, the humbler you will lie in conscious abasement, but yet the higher you will rise in importunate prayer. But now just imagine what your own case is, and the case of others, and let us apply this principle to it: we are utterly unworthy to obtain the temporal or spiritual mercy which, it may be, we are now seeking: we may feel this, but in asking anything for ourselves, we must still ask in faith in God, in His promise, and in His grace; and we shall prevail. Whatever thy desire may be, only believe, and it shall be granted unto thee if it be a desire in accordance with His will, and in accordance with the promises of His Word; or else Gods Word is not true. Be humble about it, but do not be doubtful about it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The centurions faith and humility
The greatest light may enter into the darkest places. We may find the choicest flowers blooming where we least expected them. Here was a Gentile, a Roman, a soldier–a soldier clothed with absolute power–and yet a tender master, a considerate citizen, a lover of God! The best of pearls have been found in the darkest caves of ocean. Let no man think that because of his position in society he cannot excel in virtue. It is not the place which is to blame, but the man.
I. THE HUMILITY OF THE CENTURION WAS NOT AT ALL INJURIOUS TO THE STRENGTH OF HIS FAITH. You may have noticed in the biography of some eminent men how badly they speak of themselves. Southey, in his Life of Bunyan, seems at a difficulty to understand how Bunyan could have used such depreciating language concerning his own character. For it is true, according to all we know of his biography, that he was not, except in the case of profane swearing, at all so bad as the most of the villagers. Indeed, there were some virtues in the man which were worthy of all commendation. Southey attributes it to a morbid state of mind, but we rather ascribe it to a return of spiritual health. Had the excellent poet seen himself in the same heavenly light as that in which Bunyan saw himself, he would have discovered that Bunyan did not exaggerate, but was simply stating as far as he could a truth which utterly surpassed his powers of utterance. The great light which shone around Saul of Tarsus was the outward type of that inner light above the brightness of the sun which flashes into a regenerate soul, and reveals the horrible character of the sin which dwells within. Believe me, when you hear Christians making abject confessions, it is not that they are worse than others, but that they see themselves in clearer light than others; and this centurions unworthiness was not because he had been more vicious than other men–on the contrary, he had evidently been much more virtuous than the common run of mankind–but because he saw what others did not see, and felt what others had not felt. Deep as was this mans contrition, overwhelming as was his sense of utter worthlessness, he did not doubt for a moment either the power or the willingness of Christ.
II. I shall want you for s moment to attend while we shift the text to the other quarter. THE CENTURIONS GREAT FAITH WAS NOT AT ALL HOSTILE TO HIS HUMILITY. His faith was extraordinary. It ought not to be extraordinary. We ought all of us to believe as well in Christ as this soldier did. In his heart he enthroned the Lord Jesus as a Captain over all the forces of the world, as the generalissimo of heaven and earth; as, in fact, the Caesar, the imperial Governor of all the forces of the universe. Twas graciously thought, twas poetically embodied, twas nobly spoken, twas gloriously believed; but it was the truth and nothing more than the truth, for universal dominion is really in the power of Jesus to-day. Here is one point to which I recall you; this mans faith did not for a moment interfere with his thorough personal humiliation. Because Christ was so great, he felt himself to be unworthy either to meet Him or entertain Him. The application shall be to three sorts of people.
1. First, we speak to distressed minds deeply conscious of their unworthiness. You feel that you cannot repent, but cannot Jesus make thee repent by His Spirit? Do you hesitate about that question? See the world a few months ago hard bound with frost, but how daffodil, and crocus, and snowdrop, have come up above that once frozen soil, how snow and ice have gone, and the genial sun shines out? God does it readily, with the soft breath of the south wind and the kind sunbeams, and he can do the same in the spiritual world for thee. But, perhaps, it is some bad habit which gives you trouble. You cannot get rid of it. Ah! I know your dreads and despairs; but, man, I ask thee, cannot Jesus deliver? He whose every act is wonderful, can surely do what He will within this little world of thy soul, since in the great world outside He rules as He pleases. Believe in His power, and ask Him to prove it. He has but to say in a word, and this matter of present distress shall be taken away.
2. A second application of our subject shall be made to the patient workers who are ready to faint. The last application I shall make is the same as the second, only on a wider scale.
3. There are many who are like watchers who have grown weary. When He saith, Do it shall be done, and His name shall be praised. O for more faith and more self-abasement. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Motives of humility
I. THE FRUITS OF HUMILITY.
1. Humility keeps us from many sins.
2. Humility preserves the other virtues.
3. Humility attracts Divine grace (Jam 4:6).
4. Humility inflames the heart with Divine charity.
5. Humility exalts us to the height of heaven (Luk 1:52; Luk 18:14; 1Pe 5:6).
II. THE TEACHING AND EXAMPLE OF JESUS CHRIST. Jesus has enjoined on us this duty–
1. By words (Mat 11:29).
2. By example.
(1) In His birth.
(2) In His circumcision.
(3) In washing the disciples feet.
(4) In His death on the cross.
III. OUR OWN MISERY.
1. We find motives in the outer world.
(1) If you look at the earth, you behold your grave.
(2) Beneath the earth, you find hell.
(3) In heaven is God, and the gate of heaven is low.
2. Motives within ourselves.
(1) Concerning our body.
(2) Concerning our soul. (Laselve.)
Of humility
He that would build lastingly must lay his foundation low. The proud man, like the early shoots of a new-felled coppice, thrusts out full of sap, green in leaves, and fresh in colour; but bruises and breaks with every wind, is nipped with every little cold, and being top-heavy, is wholly unfit for use. Whereas the humble man retains it in the root, can abide the winters killing blast, the ruffling concussions of the wind, and can endure far more than that which appears so flourishing. Like the pyramid, he has a large foundation, whereby his height may be more eminent; and the higher he is, the less does he draw at the top; as if the nearer heaven, the smaller he must appear. And indeed, the higher man approaches to celestials, and the more he considers God, the more he sees to make himself vile in his own esteem. He who values himself least shall by others be prized most. Nature swells when she meets a check; but submission in us to others begets submission in others to us. Give me the man that is humble out of judgment, and I shall find him full of parts. Charles
V. appears as great in holding the candle to his departing visitors, as when he was surrounded by his victorious officers. Moses, who was the first and greatest divine, statesman, historian, philosopher, and poet; who as a valiant general led Israel out of Egypt; who was renowned for his miracles, and could roll up the waves to pass his men, and tumble them down again upon his enemies; who was a type of Christ, and styled a friend of God; was nevertheless meek above all that were upon the face of the earth and lest our proud dust should think it a disparagement to be humble, we are assured by our Saviour Himself, that to be so will be rest to our souls. No man ever lost the esteem of a wise man by stooping to an honest lowness when there was occasion for it. I have known a great duke to fetch in wood to his inferiors fire; and a general of nations descend to a footmans office in lifting up the boot of a coach; yet neither thought it a degradation to their dignity. (Owen Felltham.)
A full sail
The full sail oversets the vessel, which drawn in, may make the voyage prosperous. (Owen Felltham.)
To children
If I had seen this centurion only when he was dressed for battle I should not have thought of him as gentle. I should have seen him carrying a sword to kill men with, and a shield to defend himself from being killed by others. And as he had other soldiers under him, I might have heard him speaking to them in a loud commanding way, and telling them to do hard and cruel things. But, as we see him in the Gospels, his sword and shield are hanging on the wall, and he is sitting beside a little bed in his room in the soldiers barracks. After one of his dreadful battles he had got for his share of the spoil a little boy who had been taken captive–a poor little boy, torn away from father and mother, and forced to be aslave. He was the slave of this soldier; he cooked his food, he tidied his room, he polished his armour, he went his errands. Then the rough soldier was as tender as a mother could be. He sat by his bed; he watched over him day and night. One day, as the big soldier was sitting by the little bed, somebody came in and said, A great prophet has come to the town. Jesus of Nazareth has come. Jesus of Nazareth? the soldier said; the Healer of sickness? Oh that He would heal my boy! But then this thought came into his mind, I am a soldier of the nation that is ill-treating the Jews. I am not worthy that a Jew so good as He should do anything for me. Then other thoughts came, and in his great love for the boy, and knowing that Jesus could heal him, he at last ventured to send this humble message: Oh, my Lord, my servant is near to die, and Thou art able to save from dying. I am not worthy that Thou shouldest visit my house. But only speak the word, and he shall live. Now when Jesus received that message, a great joy came into His heart; and He said to health, Go to that soldiers little servant, and make him well, for I have not found a heart so gentle as his masters–no, not in all Israel. And He had no sooner spoken, out on the street, than the thing He commanded was done. Health came back to the sick boy in the soldiers house. And the gentle heart of the master swelled up in thankful joy, as he stooped down and kissed the child whom Jesus had made well again. (A. Macleod, D. D.)
Cues to character
There are three separate spectators of every mans life–himself, his neighbours, and his God. Let us consider concerning this man–
I. WHAT HIS NEIGHBOURS THOUGHT OF HIM–that he was worthy.
1. They formed their opinion of his character from his conduct–He loveth, &c. They judged of his worth, not by his words but by his works.
2. Their estimate of his character was singularly just.
II. WHAT HE THOUGHT OF HIMSELF–I am not worthy. Doubtless this feeling of unworthiness which prompted him to procure the services of the Jewish elders, instead of going direct to Christ himself.
1. A truly good man has a higher standard of moral excellence than other men.
2. A truly good man is conscious of numerous imperfections which other men do not perceive.
III. WHAT THE SAVIOUR THOUGHT OF HIM–I have not found so great faith, &c.
1. Christ estimates a mans character according to the amount of his faith.
2. All true faith prompts to corresponding activity in doing good. Morality without faith is heathenism, and faith without morality is antinomianism. (W. Kirkman.)
The threefold influence of faith
I. THE INFLUENCE OF FAITH UPON SOCIETY–He is worthy.
1. Faith influencing society through the lowest natural means. Stones and mortar. He hath built us a synagogue.
2. Faith influencing society through the highest human means. Philanthropy. He loveth our nation.
3. Faith continuing to influence society independently of the means by which it manifested itself. Every heart says till this day, He is worthy.
II. THE INFLUENCE OF FAITH UPON THE MAN HIMSELF.
1. It gives man a right estimate of himself–I am not worthy.
2. It gives him the right estimate of what he has–Under my roof.
3. It gives man right ideas of God–Speak the word only. He believed
(a) that Christ has authority to speak;
(b) in His willingness to speak;
(c) in His power to accomplish–And my servant shall be healed.
4. It gives to the soul the right idea of duty. Loving the nation and caring for the welfare of his domestics.
5. It gives to the soul the right religious impulse–He hath built us a synagogue.
6. It converts the soul into a most Christ-like aspect. Disinterestedness pervades all the centurions acts. All for others.
III. THE INFLUENCE OF FAITH UPON THE SAVIOUR–I have not found so great faith, &c.
1. The uniqueness of the faith. It took the Saviour by surprise.
2. The clear conception which his faith had of the person of the Saviour.
3. The estimate which his faith had formed of the Saviours feelings. Believed there were sympathy and tenderness in the Saviours heart.
4. The estimate which he had formed of the resources at the Saviours command.
5. His implicit confidence in the Saviour in His absence.
6. The Saviours unreserved compliance with the centurions request, and the desired blessing bestowed. (W. A. Edwards.)
The lessons of the narrative
1. The true Church in the world in all ages is wider than the visible Church.
2. There are in all ages lost characters within the pale of the visible Church. They are not all Israel which are of Israel.
3. True piety always insures membership of the invisible Church.
4. We are led into circumstances at times in which our religious sympathies ought to transcend all the narrow sectional lines of our creeds.
5. True faith presents itself to Christ and the world in very different aspects.
6. True faith never fails to enlist Christs sympathy and help.
7. Devotion to the welfare of others is a safe path to personal happiness and heavens approval. (W. A. Edwards.)
Another treatment
1. Truth may prosper when the Church is not aware of it.
2. Truth prospers at times beyond the expectation of the Church.
3. Truth prospers often where we least expect it.
4. Contact with Christ reveals the true condition of the soul:
(a) Faith in the heart of the centurion;
(b) Unbelief in that of the Jews.
5. The noble influence of religion, conquering the bigotry of the Jew, and inspiring the heart of a Gentile to build synagogues to the service of the living God.
6. Privileges enhance responsibility, and neglect of them involves the saddest consequences.
7. Mans work is ever in proportion to his faith.
8. Mans influence upon society is ever in proportion to the amount of his faith.
9. Mans influence with Heaven is ever in proportion to the strength of his faith. (W. A. Edwards.)
A soldiers training
This centurion was a Roman, a captain in the army, who had risen from the ranks by good conduct. Before he got his vine-stock, which was the mark of his authority over a hundred men, he had, no doubt, marched many a weary mile under a heavy load, and fought, probably, many a bloody battle in foreign parts. That had been his education–discipline and hard work. And because he had learned to obey, he was fit to rule. He was helping now to keep in order those treacherous, unruly Jews, and their worthless puppet-kings like Herod; much as our soldiers in India are keeping in order the Hindoos, and their worthless puppet-kings. This was the great and true thought which had filled this good mans mind–duty, order, and obedience. The message which he sent to Jesus means this: There is a word of command among us soldiers. Has God no word of command likewise? The word of my superiors is enough for me. I say to those under me, Go, and they go. And if I can work by a word, cannot this Jesus work by a word likewise? By some such thoughts as these, I suppose, had this good soldier gained his great faith; his faith that all Gods creatures were in a divine and wonderful order obedient to the wilt of God who made them; and that Jesus Christ was Gods viceroy and lieutenant (I speak so, because I suppose that is what he, as a soldier, would have thought), to carry out Gods commands on earth. This is the character which makes a good soldier, and a good Christian likewise. (Charles Kingsley.)
Paradoxes in the character of the centurion
He was–
1. A soldier accustomed to scenes of bloodshed, yet preserving, amid all the hardening tendencies of his profession, a tender heart.
2. A slave-owner, yet solicitous for the welfare of his slave.
3. A representative of the usurping power, yet one who had secured the respect and affection of the leaders of the subjugated people among whom he lived.
4. A proselyte to the religion of Israel, yet more truly religious than the people whose religion he had adopted.
5. A Pagan by birth, a Jew by conversion, a Christian by faith. The first heathen man of whom we read, that he acknowledged Christ. Learn that a true religious faith is able to overcome in the man who possesses it the untoward influences of
(a) birth;
(b) training:
(c) calling;
(d) circumstances. (J. R. Bailey.)
Faith of the centurion
I. THE FAITH WHICH WAS COMMENDED.
1. First evidence of its existence–His tenderness to his servants. Of course this good act might have existed separate from religion. But we arc forbidden to view it so, when we remember that he was a proselyte.
2. Second proof: His humility.
3. Third: His belief in an invisible living will.
II. THE CAUSES OF CHRISTS ASTONISHMENT.
1. The centurion was a Gentile, and therefore unlikely to know revealed truth.
2. A soldier, and therefore exposed to a recklessness, and idleness, and sensuality, which are the temptations of that profession. But he turned his loss to glorious gain.
III. THE SAVIOURS COMMENT CONTAINED THE ADVANTAGE OF DISADVANTAGES, AND THE DISADVANTAGE OF ADVANTAGES. The former, Many shall come from the east and the west, &c. The latter, The children of the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness (Mat 8:11-12).
IV. THIS INCIDENT TESTIFIES TO THE PERFECT HUMANITY OF CHRIST. The Saviour marvelled. It was a real genuine wonder. (F. W. Robertson.)
I. THIS FAITH IN ITS AWAKENING IN THE MANS LIFE.
II. THIS FAITH IN ITS EXPRESSION IN THE MANS LIFE. (J. Ogmore Davies.)
Marvellous faith
The faith of the centurion reveals itself.
I. As A POWER OF CONCEIVING GREAT THOUGHTS. His idea is, that just as the hundred men under his command are at his beck to come and go, and do as he pleases, so all the powers of nature arc ready to do the bidding of Christ. Was it not a great original idea? Observe, it was an idea, the credit of which belonged to the centurions faith. To conceive it required more than a clever brain, even the daring spirit of which faith alone is capable. Unbelief cannot entertain such grand ideas of Divine power.
II. AS A POWER OF DWARFING INTO INSIGNIFICANCE MOUNTAINS OF DIFFICULTY. Weak faith makes difficulties, but strong faith annihilates them. (A. B. Bruce, D. D.)
Masters and servants
The centurion was
(1) a man of faith.
(2) He was also a man of liberality.
(3) His charity began at home.
There are many faults noticeable in rulers of families.
1. Injustice in the assignment of duties.
2. Unreasonableness in the expectation of perfection.
3. Negligence in the consideration of religious interests.
(Dean Vaughan.)
He loveth our nation
I. THE PRINCIPLE ON WHICH THE CENTURION ACTED.
II. THE ACTION ITSELF. He hath built us, &c. We estimate love by the service that it renders, and the cost that service occasions. (J. C.Galloway.)
The candour and liberality of the centurion recommended
I. THE SUPERIORITY TO PREJUDICE WHICH HIS LOVE FOR THE JEWISH NATION IMPLIES.
II. THE SOLID GROUNDS ON WHICH HIS ATTACHMENT TO THE JEWISH NATION RESTED. It was such an attachment as it was next to impossible for a good man not to feel. To love the Jewish nation is still a natural dictate of piety.
III. THE MANNER IN WHICH HIS ATTACHMENTS TO THE PEOPLE OF GOD WAS EVINCED. It was not an empty profession, productive of no fruit.
IV. THE HIGHLY PRAISEWORTHY AND EXEMPLARY CHARACTER OF HIS CONDUCT. To assist in the erection of places of worship, providing it proceeds from right motives, is unquestionably an acceptable service to the Most High. (R. Hall, M. A.)
Christ marvelling
I do not know that we ever feel the immense interval between ourselves and the Son of Man more keenly than when we compare that which astonishes us with that which astonishes Him. To us, as a rule, the word miracles denotes mere physical wonders; and these are so wonderful to us as to be well-nigh incredible. But in Him they awake no astonishment. He never speaks of them with the faintest accent of surprise. He set so little store by them that He often seemed reluctant to work them, and openly expressed His wish that those on or for whom they had been wrought would tell no man of them. What does astonish Him is not these outward wonders so surprising to us, but that inward wonder, the mystery of mans soul, the miraculous power which we often exercise without a thought of surprise, the power of opening and shutting that door or window of the soul which looks heavenward, and through which alone the glories of the spiritual world can stream in upon us. Only twice are we told that He marvelled to whom all the secrets of Nature and Life lay open; once at the unbelief of men, and once at their faith. When He came to His own, and they received Him not, He was driven from His wonted calm by an immeasurable surprise: He marvelled at their unbelief (Mar 6:6); and, again, when He came to those to whom He was a Stranger, and they took Him in, He was beyond all measure astonished; He marvelled at their prompt and vigorous faith. (S. Cox, D. D.)
Faith and reason
We are told that this mans faith excited the wonder of the Son of God, and, therefore, everything that belongs to that faith must be interesting to us.
1. Already, then, this man was recognized for his devotedness of character.
2. Since our Lord knew that the character of this centurion was that of a devout, unselfish believer in God, we can easily understand that His expectations must have been large.
3. And yet we are told that His expectations were exceeded. Expecting much, He found more.
4. Some people have thought that the humility of this centurion was so extreme as to be exaggerated, and even unnatural. Yet remember
(1) that he had been taught that the position of a Gentile was that of a profane and unclean person;
(2) that his humility was founded, doubtless, upon moral as well as ceremonial reasons. He realized the greatness of the Lord Jesus.
5. How did he reason with himself? In a way which shows that the basis of true faith is always humility. (Bishop Moorhouse.)
The centurions faith
Faith and humility, my brethren, may be described as two sister virtues, so closely are they connected together, that the one cannot flourish without the other. We are taught that we may possibly have something like a vague hope that, through Gods mercy, our sin may, ultimately, be forgiven, and our souls rescued from ruin: but for a man to say that he knows that salvation is his, that he is in a state of acceptance, that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ has been applied to his soul, and that now he is the child of God, is presumption, and that no real, humble-minded Christian will speak in this way. Thus we find, that while, on the one hand, faith is, by one class of persons represented as presumption, on the other hand, it is exaggerated into presumption just because people fail to exercise the virtue of humility. There is no humility in my doubting the Word of God. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Let us take the narrative as it stands, and learn a few practical lessons from it.
I. The first thing I notice about this centurion is, that although he was a man in a considerable social position, HE WAS ALTOGETHER FREE FROM THAT PETTY FORM OF CONVENTIONAL PRIDE, WHICH IS IN TOO MANY INSTANCES THE CURSE OF MODERN SOCIETY. Here is a very practical lesson with respect to humility. My friends, I do not believe much in the humility of man towards his God where his conduct is characterized by pride towards his fellow men. Yet, again, the centurion was free from that miserable form of pride which exhibits itself in national prejudice. The man that really wants to get a blessing from the Lord Jesus Christ must be content to take the lowest place, to think everybody better than himself, to see himself as God sees him, and to be willing to accept from any man whatever reasonable help that man seems likely to offer to him.
II. Well, listen to THE WORDS OF COMMENDATION OF THE MASTER. When Jesus heard it, He marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith: no, not in Israel. I want to ask you, before concluding my sermon this morning, Are you prepared to receive a blessing, dear friends, on those terms? If the Lord Jesus Christ were to stand in this pulpit, looking every one of you in the face, and were to say, Go thy way; as thou hast believed, so be it unto thee, would you reply by a fervent exclamation of grateful joy? Should we be able to say so? or should we not, in common honesty, have to look up, and say. Not so, Lord; I have net believed, or trusted my case into Thy hand; on the contrary, I feel in my own heart, that I have been constantly taking it out of Thy hand, and transferring it from Thee to myself? I have had my own feelings and thoughts; I have been reasoning about possibilities; and, so far as I have been taking it out of Thy hand, I cannot claim Thy blessing. Oh, dear friends, remember that God cannot alter His conditions. They are fixed in the very nature of things. (W. H. Aitken, M. A.)
The centurion at Capernaum
I. HIS PIETY WAS MARKED BY ZEAL AND LIBERALITY. The true secret of this soldiers love for the Jewish nation is thus explained. It was a love founded upon religion, and it expressed itself in religious acts. The conversion of this Roman soldier gives an interesting and instructive view of the power of Divine truth. In scarcely any period of its history was there a more sad declension of genuine piety in the Jewish Church, than in the age to which the text refers. Scepticism, formality, hypocrisy, and sin, seemed to pervade all ranks. Yet, amidst all this degeneracy, the truth remained embodied in the sacred Scriptures, the purity of which was most sedulously guarded; and by means of that truth, however it might be dishonoured by its professors, this heathen soldier was effectually turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. How wonderful are the dispensations of Providence! The Roman army conquered the Jews in battle, and rendered their nation tributary; but the Jews, in their turn, armed with the power of revealed truth, effected a greater victory. They overcame the understandings and the hearts of many of their conquerors, and laid the hardy soldiers of heathen Rome prostrate in prayer before the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. In connection with this part of our subject I wish particularly to invite your attention to the liberal and generous character of true religion. A good man cannot live to himself. His property, his influence, his person, are freely placed upon Gods altar, and offered in sacrifice to the Lord of all. But the piety of the centurion mentioned in our text was not only characterized by zeal and liberality; it was equally marked–
II. BY KINDNESS AND HUMANITY. He had a servant that was dear to him; and when that servant was sick, and ready to die, the tenderest sympathies of the master were awakened. We are here reminded of that diversity of rank which has prevailed in the world from the earliest ages. While poverty remains, servitude must also continue. This diversity of rank, in consequence of the depravity of human nature, has often given birth to feelings and acts alike dishonourable to God and man. True religion effectually corrects all these evils. It produces a spirit of justice, equity, and love; and it inspires the mind with the fear of God, and a supreme regard for His authority. It renders the rich man the guardian and benefactor of the poor; and it makes the poor cheerful, contented, and honest. And let no one suppose that this spiritual equality and affection is subversive of order and of just authority. The most perfect of all government is the government of holy love. This remark will apply both to families and the Church. His piety and kindness, so far from impairing his authority, seem to have even increased it; and the probability is, that a master more respected, or an officer more efficient, did not then exist. The obedience which he received was remarkable for its promptitude and cheerfulness; so far was his pious kindness from rendering his domestic servants insolent, or his soldiers careless and remiss.
III. THE CENTURIONS DEEP AND UNAFFECTED HUMILITY, Humility consists in lowliness of mind. It is a disposition which becomes creatures of even the highest order. Angels never affect independence. Humility especially becomes fallen man. Humility so profound as this is rarely met with, and argues an extraordinary degree of self-knowledge. The centurion was now converted from the error of his way; bat his conversion was effected by the grace of God, and therefore conferred upon him no proper merit, or worthiness, before the Lord. It was not self-righteous pride, but the want of better knowledge, that led him, under the mingled influence of shame and fear, to shun the presence of his Saviour. Increasing light would discover to him that his own unworthiness constituted the grand reason why he should come to Christ, and entrust all his concerns with Him. Tim simplicity and ingenuousness with which the centurion had already received the truth would prepare him for those further discoveries of the Divine mind and plan which the doctrine of Christ and His apostles was about to present to the world. The spiritual benefits resulting from humility are numerous and great. This temper is especially pleasing in the sight of the Lord. The piety of the centurion was particularly marked–
IV. BY STRONG FAITH. The faith of the centurion was not a blind and presumptuous confidence.
1. The subjects which I have brought before you on this occasion, I fear suggest to many of us matter of shame and humiliation before God. What an example of practical godliness have we in this centurion! and yet how great were the disadvantages under which he laboured!
2. But there is another view to be taken of this subject; and it is one which is full of encouragement. The argument which we have just urged may be changed, and proposed thus: If this heathen soldier, in whose mind there was so much error and prejudice to be overcome, and whose means of instruction and spiritual improvement were so vastly inferior to those which we enjoy, attained to all this religious eminence; what may not we attain to, with all our helps and advantages? (T. Jackson.)
The centurions faith
Now, that we may profit by this example, let us consider these three things–
1. What was his faith, and wherein the greatness of it lay.
2. How this faith was bred and begotten in him.
3. The effects and fruits of it, or how it discovered itself.
I. THE NATURE OF HIS FAITH. It was a firm persuasion that all power and authority was eminently in Christ, and that He could do what He pleased.
1. You must distinguish of the times. In that age there was no human reason to believe this truth. Antiquity was against it, and therefore, when Paul preached Jesus, they said, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange Act 17:18). Authority was against it: Which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1Co 2:8). The universal consent of the habitable world was against it; Only a small handful of contemptible people owned Him: Fear not, little flock (Luk 12:32). At that time it was the critical point, the hated truth, that the carpenters Son should be owned as the Son of God. Those bleak winds that blow in our backs, and thrust us onward to believe, blew in their faces, and drove them from it; those very reasons which move us to own Christ moved them to reject Him. For many ages the name of Christ bath been in request and honour, but then it was a despised way. At His first appearance a certain persuasion, impressed upon the soul by the Spirit of God, of the Divine power and all-sufficiency of Christ, so as to repair to I-lira for help, was faith and great faith; when the veil of His human nature and infirmities did not keep the eye of faith from seeing Him to have a Divine power, though they could not unriddle all the mysteries about His Person and office, this was accepted for saving faith.
2. The speculative belief of this truth was not sufficient then, no more than it is now, but the practical improvement. Grant that truth, that Jesus is the Son of God, and other things will follow, as that we must obey His laws, and depend upon His promises, and make use of His power, and trust ourselves in His hands; otherwise the bare acknowledgment was not sufficient.
II. How was THIS FAITH WROUGHT AND BRED IN HIM? I answer–The groundwork was laid in his knowledge of the omnipotency and power of God, and his acquaintance with the Scriptures of the Old Testament, though he were not a professed Jew. This prepared for his faith in Christ; the report or hearing was the ground of faith: Who hath believed our report? (Isa 53:1.) He had heard by fame of His excellent doctrine: That He taught as one having authority, and not as the scribes Mat 7:29). And he had heard the rumour of His miracles, more particularly the late instance of curing the leper, which was notorious and public; for Christ biddeth him show himself to the priests (Mat 8:4); and also the miracle in recovering the rulers son, an instance near, which was done in time before this: And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum; end he heard that Jesus was come out
of Judaea into Galilee, and he went unto Him, and besought Him that He would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death Joh 4:46-47). By all which he was moved to ascribe the omnipotency of God, which he knew before, to Jesus Christ. Thus the Spirit of God blessed the knowledge of this centurion, and the rumours that were brought to him of Christs doctrine and miracles.
III. THE EFFECTS OR FRUITS OF IT, OR NOW IT DISCOVERED ITSELF.
1. In that he applieth himself to Christ. They that believe in Christ will come to Him, and put Him upon work, whilst others prize His name but neglect His office. A gracious heart will find occasions and opportunities of acquaintance with Christ, if not for themselves yet for others; for when they have heard of Him, they cannot keep from Him.
2. That He accounteth misery an object proper enough for mercy to work upon. The centurion came to Him, saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented (verse 6), that is, grievously affected with the disease. Alas! what can we bring to Christ but sins and sicknesses?
3. When Christ offereth to come and heal him, I will come and heal him (verse 7), (which was the great condescension of the Son of God to a poor servant), see how the centurion taketh it, He answered, and said, Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof (verse 8). Humility is a fruit of faith. Why are true and sound believers so ready to profess their unworthiness? They have a deeper sense of Gods majesty and greatness than others have, and also a more broken-hearted sense of their own vileness by reason of sin. They have a more affective light and sight of things; God is another thing to them than before, so is sin and self.
4. He is content with Christs word without His bodily presence: Speak but the word, and my servant shall be healed. Gods word is enough to a believer.
5. Here is Christs power and dominion over all events, and events that concern us and ours, fully acknowledged, and that is a great point gained: He is Lord both of the dead and living (Rom 14:9). Health and sickness are at His command. I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I, the Lord, do all these things (Isa 45:7).
6. He reasoneth from the strict discipline observed in the Roman armies, where there was no disputing of commands or questioning why and wherefore: I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth. Reasoning for God and His promises is a great advantage. We are naturally acute in reasoning against faith, but when the understanding is quick and ready to invent arguments to encourage faith, it is a good sign. Use. Go you and do likewise. From the example of the centurion let me encourage you–
(1) To readiness of believing (Jam 3:17).
(2) To represent our necessity to Christ, and refer the event to Him, to commit and submit all to Him.
(3) To be humble. In all our commerce with Christ, faith must produce a real humility. Faith is most high when the heart is most low (Luk 18:11-14).
(4) To meditate often on the sovereign dominion of Christ, and His power over all things that fall out in the world. (T. Manton.)
Sickness the servant of the Saviour
I. LET US LOOK AT THE PROOFS OF THE STATEMENT.
1. In Christs world-wide love we have the proof of it. Christs love to men is the assurance that He reserves to Himself the entire control of whatever makes them suffer.
2. Then the fact that suffering is the servant of the Saviour is shown in Christs universal sovereignty. He is Lord of all; all authority is given unto Me in heaven and earth. He is therefore Lord of Providence.
3. And we may add that in His miraculous works we have a token of this. When He stood before sickness on earth He could do with it what He liked, it recognized His voice and bowed submissive to His Word.
II. If then, this suggestion of the centurion is an established Scripture truth, let us pass on to see WHAT IT INVOLVES WITH REGARD TO SICKNESS. Our Lord is to sickness what the Roman captain was to the soldiers under him.
1. Then we may say that sickness only comes at His building. Compact, motionless in their ranks, stand all possible pains and sicknesses before Him, until He singles one out and bids it hasten here or there.
2. And this truth implies also that sickness is restrained by His will. Like the centurion to his servant, so says Christ to sickness, Do this, and it doeth it. It can only do what Christ permits.
3. And if sickness is Christs servant, then sickness is sent to do His work. His servant! Then it has some message to bring, some gift to leave behind, some mission to fulfil for its Master; there is a distinct purpose in it. And the sooner that purpose is fulfilled by our discovery and acceptance of it the sooner will the sickness be withdrawn. That invests sickness with great solemnity.
III. These are THREE CLOSING LESSONS.
1. This should teach us the sacred blessedness of sickness.
2. And this should call us to reverential service for the sick.
3. And this should show us the possibility of redemption, to those who are sick. (C. New.)
An endeared servant
She was a special Providence to me, wrote the late Earl of Shaftesbury concerning his fathers housekeeper, Maria Millas. He explains his meaning by stating that this good woman had almost the entire care of him until he was seven years old, when she died. Yet such was the impression she made upon him in those few years, that towards the close of his truly noble life this good man said: I must trace, under God, very much, perhaps all, of the duties of my later life to her precepts and her prayers. What a striking testimony is this confession to the fidelity of an obscure Christian woman! And what a grand result it wrought! Lord Shaftesburys nobility of birth, represented by his earls coronet, when placed beside the moral grandeur of his character, was but as a glowworm to a star. Through his long life his supreme devotion to works of benevolence gave him an undisputed right to say–
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.
His deeds gave light, hope, comfort, and elevation to many thousands who were born heirs to an inheritance of poverty and woe. And those deeds were the precious fruit of the influence of a servant in his fathers household.
Importance of servants in a household
A worldly man began to taunt a celebrated preacher, and, among other things, told him it was true his congregation was large, but it was chiefly made up of servants and low people. I know it is, said the sagacious divine. My Church is composed of such converts as Jesus Christ and His apostles gained; and as for servants, I had rather be instrumental in converting them than their employers. Why so? inquired the man. Because, observed the minister, they have the care of all the children. (Baxendale.)
Humility always seasonable
I think it was Bernard, or one of the preachers of the Middle Ages, who said, There is one thing to be said for humility, that it never can by any possibility do one harm. For if a man goes through a door, and he has the habit of stooping his head, it may be the door is so high there is no need for stooping, but the stooping is no injury to him; whereas if the door should happen to be a low one, and he has the habit of holding up his head, he may come into sharp contact with the top of the door. True humility is a flower which will adorn any garden. This is a sauce with which you may season every dish of life, and you will find an improvement in every case. Whether it be prayer or praise, whether it be work or suffering, the salt of humility cannot be used in excess. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Humility does not lessen dignity
A person of great sanctity once paid a visit to the Caliph Haroun. The Caliph rose to receive him, and with every mark of reverence conducted him to his own seat; and when he took his leave the Caliph rose again, and accompanied him a little way. Some of the nobles afterwards observed that such condescension would lessen his dignity, and diminish the awe that belongs to a prince. The Caliph replied, The dignity that is lessened by humility is not worth maintaining; and the awe that is diminished by paying reverence to piety should be got rid of as soon as possible.
Military obedience
The story is told of a young general in the ninth century who, with five hundred men, came against a king with twenty thousand. The king sent word that it was the height of folly in so small an army to resist his legions. In reply the general called one of his men and said, Take that sword and drive it to your heart. The man did so, and fell dead. To another he said, Leap into yon chasm, and the man instantly obeyed. Go, he said to the messenger, and tell your king we have five hundred such men. We will die, but never surrender. The messenger returned with his message–a message that struck terror into the heart of the whole army of the king. (Baxendale.)
Ready to obey
The Duke of Wellington was an eminently magnanimous man, bribes could not buy him, threats could not annoy him. When a lower place was offered him, he said, Give me your orders, and you shall be obeyed.
Great faith
The discovery of the New World, as the continent of America and its islands are called, was not, like many discoveries, an accident; it was the reward of faith–the reward of Christopher Columbuss faith. He found fruits on the shores of Western Europe, cast up by the Atlantic waves, and brought there, as we now know, by the Gulf Stream, perfectly diverse from any that the temperate, fiery, or frozen zones of the Old World produced. So one day, let me say, strolling by the sea-shore, he saw a nut. He takes it in his hand, and looks at it; he takes it into his capacious mind, and out of that little seed springs his faith in another world beyond that watery horizon, where, as he believed, and events proved, the sea had pearls, and the veins of the earth were filled with silver, and the rivers that flowed through spicy groves ran over sands of gold. They thought him mad to leave his sweet bays, and his land, and his pleasant home, to launch on a sea which keel had never ploughed, in search of a land man had never seen. I tell that infidel that I know in whom I have believed; I can give a reason for the faith that is in me; and so he could. And so he launched his bark on the deep, and with strange stars above him and strange seas around him, storms without and mutinies within, no man of all the crew hoping but himself, with a courage nothing could daunt, and a perseverance nothing could exhaust, that remarkable man stood by the helm, and kept the prow of his bark onward and westward till lights gleamed on San Salvadors shore, and as the day broke, the joyful cry Land! rang from the mast-head; and faith was crowned with success, and patience had her perfect work. Now I look on that man, and the world has looked on him, as one of the finest types of a believer; but I cannot read his story without feeling that it puts our faith to the blush, and, as it were, hearing the echo from heaven of that voice that said, I have not found such great faith; no, not in Israel. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
For he loveth our nation, and hath built us a synagogue
The usefulness of good men
I. LET US CONSIDER WHAT IT IS TO SEEK THE GENERAL GOOD OF SOCIETY.
1. That to seek the general good of society, men must sincerely desire that good as an ultimate object. The worst member of society may desire the general good of society, when he apprehends it will have a favourable aspect upon himself; and he may seek the general good in that view of it.
2. Mens seeking the general good of society, implies their seeking that good in preference to their own.
3. That mens seeking the general good of society farther implies their actually using all the proper means in their power to promote it.
II. THAT IT BECOMES ALL MEN TO SEEK THE GENERAL GOOD OF SOCIETY. This will appear from a variety of considerations.
1. Men were formed for society. It is one important end for which they were created rational beings. No man was made solely for himself; and no man is capable of living in the world totally independent of society.
2. It becomes men to seek the general good of society, because this is the great and valuable end of entering into society. Every body of men, which deserves the name of society, unite together for some valuable and desirable purpose.
3. It becomes men to seek the general good of society, by obeying the general laws of society. Societies are not formed by mere accident.
4. Every society needs the assistance or co-operation of all its members, to promote its general prosperity and happiness.
5. It becomes all men to seek the general good of society, in return for the benefits they receive from it.
6. There is something so amiable and beautiful in seeking the general good, that it commands universal approbation and esteem. For this the Roman centurion was so highly esteemed and applauded by the Jewish nation.
7. It becomes all men to obey the will of their Creator; and it is expressly His will that they should seek the general good. He says to every man, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The apostle requires the same things under different forms of expression. By love serve one another.
IMPROVEMENT
1. If it becomes men to seek the general good of society, then it becomes them to be truly religious. There is a natural, and even necessary connection between their being religious, and being good members of society.
2. In the view of this subject, parents may learn how much it becomes and concerns them to educate their children in the best manner to qualify them to promote not only their own good, but the general good of society.
3. It appears, in view of this discourse, that all men are morally bound to promote the general good of society, in proportion to the various abilities they possess. Knowledge gives men ability to promote their own good, and the general good. Wealth gives men ability to do good. Men in authority have peculiar ability to promote the general good of society.
4. Since it becomes all men to promote the general good of society, it is unbecoming men to pursue any courses which are either directly or indirectly injurious to the public good. Not only idlers, but all profane swearers, Sabbath-breakers, neglecters and despisers of all religion, act a part highly detrimental to human society.
5. It appears from what has been said, that those who are truly pious are the best men in the world. They are the only men who have true love to God and man.
6. We learn the goodness of God in prolonging the lives of His pious and faithful servants. He is good to His cordial friends in carrying them in His arms, and guiding and guarding their lives, even to old age. He has promised this as a mark of His favour to the godly man. (N. Emmons, D. D.)
The centurions love for Gods house; an example of Christian duty
I. THE POWERFUL FAITH DISPLAYED BY THIS CENTURION.
II. THIS CENTURIONS EXAMPLE OF GREAT LOVE FOR THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD. We here find his true piety shown in his liberality in building a house of God for public worship. When he knew Divine truth, he loved the people among whom it shone, and he then erected a synagogue for Gods honour.
III. IS IT NOT, THEREFORE, OUR PLAIN DUTY AS CHRISTIANS TO SUPPORT PUBLIC WORSHIP IN THE CHURCH OF GOD AMONG US?
IV. THE WANTS OF THE PEOPLE, WITH THE WISHES OF OUR CHURCH BUILDING SOCIETIES, SHOULD WARMLY EXCITE OUR CHRISTIAN LIBERALITY. (J. G.Angley, M. A.)
Religion essentially included in the love of our country
These remarks may be sufficient to illustrate the general principle. We will now attend to its operations.
1. If we love our country, we shall be affected with her dangers and calamities. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, says the Psalmist; let my right hand forget her cunning.
2. This principle will restrain us from injuring, and prompt us to serve our country. Love works no ill. By love we serve one another.
3. A lover of his country has an affection for the Church of God, and a concern to promote its credit and interest.
4. Love to our country will express itself in prayers for her prosperity. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, says the Psalmist, they prosper that love thee. I have illustrated the nature and operations of love to our country.
I now ask your attention to some reflections which result from the subject.
1. True patriotism is a nobler attainment than some seem to imagine. It includes compassion for the unhappy, hatred of sin, love of virtue, disinterestedness, self-denial, industry, prudence, piety and devotion; yea, everything that is excellent and amiable.
2. There is a great difference between talking warmly in our countrys favour, and really loving it. A man may say much in the praise of his country, its constitution, trade, soil, and climate, and give it the preference to all other countries; he may plead for its rights with great earnestness, and do much to support its credit and respectability; and yet not be a real lover of it not have any pure benevolence, any piety to God, or regard to virtue; but be influenced wholly by ambition and avarice.
3. It appears from our subject, that a people who enjoy, who profess to believe, Divine revelation, ought to make some stated provision for maintaining and preserving the social worship of the Deity. This is a plain dictate of reason, as well as Scripture.
4. If we ought to regard the interest of our country at large, we ought, for the same reasons, to consult the peace and happiness of the smaller societies of which we are members.
5. We see how careful we should be, that no selfish or unworthy motive influence our social or religious conduct. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER VII.
Christ heals the servant of a centurion, who is commended
for his faith, 1-10.
Raises a widow’s son to life at Nain, 11-17.
John Baptist hears of his fame, and sends two of his disciples
to inquire whether he was the Christ, 18-23.
Christ’s character of John, 24-30.
The obstinate blindness and capriciousness of the Jews, 31-35.
A Pharisee invites him to his house, where a woman anoints his
head with oil, and washes his feet with her tears, 36-38.
The Pharisee is offended 39.
Our Lord reproves him by a parable, and vindicates the woman,
40-46;
and pronounces her sins forgiven, 47-50.
NOTES ON CHAP. VII.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
See Poole on “Mat 8:5“, and following verses to Mat 8:13, where we have considered all the differences between Matthews and Lukes relation of this miracle. We have in it remarkable,
1. The humanity of the centurion to his servant, to teach us Christians to do the like.
2. The profitableness of good works: the centurions love to the Jews in building them a synagogue gains their applications to Christ for him.
3. The humility of the centurion: he did not think himself worthy to appear in Christs presence, nor to receive Christ into his house.
4. His faith in Christs Divine power and goodness. It doth not appear that he believed that Christ was the eternal Son of God, but he did at least believe that he was clothed with a Divine power, or had a Divine power communicated to him from God, by which he was able, at a distance, and by no more than a word, without application of human rational means, to command off the distemper of his servant.
5. The power of faith in God, and its acceptableness to him. Christ doth not only effect the cure, but predicate his faith to be greater than he had found amongst the generality of the Jewish nation, who went for the only people of God at that day, and had much more light, and means to discern that Christ was sent of God for the good of men, than this Roman captain had.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Now when he had ended all his sayings,…. That is, when Jesus, as the Persic version expresses it, had finished all the above sayings, doctrines, and instructions; not all that he had to say, for he said many things after this:
in the audience of the people; of the common people, the multitude besides the disciples; and that openly, and publicly, and with a loud and clear voice, that all might hear:
he entered into Capernaum; Jesus entered, as the Syriac version reads, into his own city, and where he had been before, and wrought miracles.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Healing of the Centurion’s Servant. |
| |
1 Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. 2 And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die. 3 And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: 5 For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. 6 Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: 7 Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. 8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 9 When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 10 And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.
Some difference there is between this story of the cure of the centurion’s servant as it is related here and as we had it in Matt. viii. 5, c. There it was said that the centurion came to Christ here it is said that he sent to him first some of the elders of the Jews (v. 3), and afterwards some other friends, v. 6. But it is a rule that we are said to do that which we do by another–Quod facimus per alium, id ipsum facere judicamur. The centurion might be said to do that which he did by his proxies; as a man takes possession by his attorney. But it is probable that the centurion himself came at last, when Christ said to him (Matt. viii. 13), As thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee.
This miracle is here said to have been wrought by our Lord Jesus when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, v. 1. What Christ said he said publicly; whoever would might come and hear him: In secret have I said nothing, John xviii. 20. Now, to give an undeniable proof of the authority of his preaching word, he here gives an incontestable proof of the power and efficacy of his healing word. He that had such a commanding empire in the kingdom of nature as that he could command away diseases, no doubt has such a sovereignty in the kingdom of grace as to enjoin duties displeasing to flesh and blood, and bind, under the highest penalties, to the observance of them. This miracle was wrought in Capernaum, where most of Christ’s mighty works were done, Matt. xi. 23. Now observe,
I. The centurion’s servant that was sick was dear to his master, v. 2. It was the praise of the servant that by his diligence and faithfulness, and a manifest concern for his master and his interest, as for himself and for his own, he recommended himself to his master’s esteem and love. Servants should study to endear themselves to their masters. It was likewise the praise of the master that, when he had a good servant, he knew how to value him. Many masters, that are haughty and imperious, think it favour enough to the best servants they have not to rate them, and beat them, and be cruel to them, whereas they ought to be kind to them, and tender of them, and solicitous for their welfare and comfort.
II. The master, when he heard of Jesus, was for making application to him, v. 3. Masters ought to take particular care of their servants when they are sick, and not to neglect them then. This centurion begged that Christ would come and heal his servant. We may now, by faithful and fervent prayer, apply ourselves to Christ in heaven, and ought to do so, when sickness is in our families; for Christ is still the great Physician.
III. He sent some of the elders of the Jews to Christ, to represent the case, and solicit for him, thinking that a greater piece of respect to Christ than if he had come himself, because he was an uncircumcised Gentile, whom he thought Christ, being a prophet, would not care for conversing with. For that reason he sent Jews, whom he acknowledged to be favourites of Heaven, and not ordinary Jews neither, but elders of the Jews, persons in authority, that the dignity of the messengers might give honour to him to whom they were sent. Balak sent princes to Balaam.
IV. The elders of the Jews were hearty intercessors for the centurion: They besought him instantly (v. 4), were very urgent with him, pleading for the centurion that which he would never have pleaded for himself, that he was worthy for whom he should do this. If any Gentile was qualified to receive such a favour, surely he was. The centurion said, I am not so much as worthy of a visit (Matt. viii. 8), but the elders of the Jews thought him worthy of the cure; thus honour shall uphold the humble in spirit. Let another man praise thee, and not thy own mouth. But that which they insisted upon in particular was, that, though he was a Gentile, yet he was a hearty well-wisher to the Jewish nation and religion, v. 5. They thought there needed as much with Christ as there did with them to remove the prejudices against him as a Gentile, a Roman, and an officer of the army, and therefore mention this, 1. That he was well-affected to the people of the Jews: He loveth our nation (which few of the Gentile did). Probably he had read the Old Testament, whence it was easy to advance to a very high esteem of the Jewish nation, as favoured by Heaven above all people. Note, Even conquerors, and those in power, ought to keep up an affection for the conquered, and those they have power over. 2. That he was well-affected to their worship: He built them a new synagogue at Capernaum, finding that what they had was either gone to decay or not large enough to contain the people, and that the inhabitants were not of ability to build one for themselves. Hereby he testified his veneration for the God of Israel, his belief of his being the one only living and true God, and his desire, like that of Darius, to have an interest in the prayers of God’s Israel, Ezra vi. 10. This centurion built a synagogue at his own proper costs and charges, and probably employed his soldiers that were in garrison there in the building, to keep them from idleness. Note, Building places of meeting for religious worship is a very good work, is an instance of love to God and his people; and those who do good works of that kind are worthy of double honour.
V. Jesus Christ was very ready to show kindness to the centurion. He presently went with them (v. 6), though he was a Gentile; for is he the Saviour of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, Rom. iii. 29. The centurion did not think himself worthy to visit Christ (v. 7), yet Christ thought him worthy to be visited by him; for those that humble themselves shall be exalted.
VI. The centurion, when he heard that Christ was doing him the honour to come to his house, gave further proofs both of his humility and of his faith. Thus the graces of the saints are quickened by Christ’s approaches towards them. When he was now not far from the house, and the centurion had notice of it, instead of setting his house in order for his reception, he sends friends to meet him with fresh expressions, 1. Of his humility: “Lord, trouble not thyself, for I am unworthy of such an honour, because I am a Gentile.” This bespeaks not only his low thoughts of himself notwithstanding the greatness of his figure; but his high thoughts of Christ, notwithstanding the meanness of his figure in the world. He knew how to honour a prophet of God, though he was despised and rejected of men. 2. Of his faith: “Lord, trouble not thyself, for I know there is no occasion; thou canst cure my servant without coming under my roof, by that almighty power from which no thought can be withholden. Say, in a word, and my servant shall be healed:” so far was this centurion from Namaan’s fancy, that he should come to him, and stand, and strike his hand over the patient, and so recover him, 2 Kings v. 11. He illustrates this faith of his by a comparison taken from his own profession, and is confident that Christ can as easily command away the distemper as he can command any of his soldiers, can as easily send an angel with commission to cure this servant of his as he can send a soldier on an errand, v. 8. Christ has a sovereign power over all the creatures and all their actions, and can change the course of nature as he pleases, can rectify its disorders and repair its decays in human bodies; for all power is given to him.
VII. Our Lord Jesus was wonderfully well pleased with the faith of the centurion, and the more surprised at it because he was a Gentile; and, the centurion’s faith having thus honoured Christ, see how he honoured it (v. 9): He turned him about, as one amazed, and said to the people that followed him, I have not found so great faith, no not in Israel. Note, Christ will have those that follow him to observe and take notice of the great examples of faith that are sometimes set before them–especially when any such are found among those that do not follow Christ so closely as they do in profession–that we may be shamed by the strength of their faith out of the weakness and waverings of ours.
VIII. The cure was presently and perfectly wrought (v. 10). They that were sent knew they had their errand, and therefore went back, and found the servant well, and under no remains at all of his distemper. Christ will take cognizance of the distressed case of poor servants, and be ready to relieve them; for there is no respect of persons with him. Nor are the Gentiles excluded from the benefit of his grace; nay, this was a specimen of that much greater faith which would be found among the Gentiles, when the gospel should be published, than among the Jews.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
After (, ). This conjunction was written in Homer and is simple with the intensive added and even once in N.T. (Lu 1:1). This is the only instance of the temporal use of in the N.T. The causal sense occurs only in Luke and Paul, for is the correct text in Mt 21:46.
Had ended (). First aorist active indicative. There is here a reference to the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, but with nothing concerning the impression produced by the discourse such as is seen in Mt 7:28. This verse really belongs as the conclusion of Chapter 6, not as the beginning of Chapter 7.
In the ears of the people ( ). from , to hear, is used of the sense of hearing (1Co 12:17), the ear with which one hears (Mark 7:35; Heb 5:11), the thing heard or the report (Rom 10:16) or oral instruction (Gal 3:2; Gal 3:5). Both Matt 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10 locate the healing of the centurion’s servant in Capernaum where Jesus was after the Sermon on the Mount.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Sayings [] . See on ch. Luk 1:37.
In the ears [ ] . Lit., into the ears. See on ears, Luk 4:37.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
SERVANT OF THE CENTURION HEALED V. 1-10
1) “Now when he had ended all his sayings,” (epeide eplerosen panta ta hermata autou) “When he had completed his address,” following the ordination of the twelve apostles at which time he spoke the Beatitudes to them, Luk 6:12-13; Luk 6:20, and the church disciples.
2) “In the audience of the people,” (en tas akoas tou laou) “In the ears (hearing range) of the people,” in the open air, where He had been speaking to His disciples and a great multitude of people, Luk 6:17.
3) “He entered into Capernaum.” (eiselthen eis Kapharnaum) “He went into Capernaum,” the town where He resided through most of His ministry in Galilee, Mat 4:13-17.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES
Luk. 7:1. In the audience.Lit. in the ears of the people (R.V.).
Luk. 7:2. Servant.I.e. slave. Who was dear unto him.Or, who was in much esteem with him. This is peculiar to St. Luke. Sick,Sick of the palsy, grievously tormented (Mat. 8:6). Ready to die.Rather, at the point of death (R.V.).
Luk. 7:3. He sent unto Him the elders of the Jews.Omit the (R.V.). St. Matthew represents the centurion as coming to Jesus; the discrepancy may be accounted for on the principle qui facit per alium, facit per se. The mission of the elders (elders, no doubt, of the synagogue built by the centurion) is peculiar to St. Luke.
Luk. 7:4. Instantly.I.e. urgently, earnestly (R.V.).
Luk. 7:5. Built us a synagogue.Not necessarily the only synagogue in the town, but the synagogue to which the speakers belonged. In the ruins of Tel Hum, which is perhaps to be identified with Capernaum, the remains of two synagogues are to be seen, one of them apparently belonging to the time of Herod. Generosity of this kind is frequently mentioned by Josephus. It is almost certain from this verse and from Mat. 8:11-12 that this centurion, though favourably disposed towards the Jewish people and their religion, was not a proselyte. The existence at this time of the persons who are called in Rabbinical writings Proselytes of the Gate is very doubtful (Speakers Commentary).
Luk. 7:7. Say in a word.It is interesting to notice that Jesus had already wrought a miracle of this kind; by His word, spoken at a distance, the son of the nobleman (or courtier) at Capernaum had been healed (Joh. 4:46-54). The two miracles are quite distinct events, though some critics have endeavoured to prove that they are one and the same.
Luk. 7:8. For I also, etc.Being myself under authority, I know what it is to obey; having soldiers under me, I know how they obey my commands. I know, then, from my own experience, that the powers of disease which are under Thy command will obey Thy word (Speakers Commentary).
Luk. 7:9. Marvelled.The only other time when Jesus is said to have been astonished is in Mar. 6:6, when He marvelled because of unbelief.
Luk. 7:10. That had been sick.Omitted from the best MSS.; omitted in R.V.
Luk. 7:11. The day after.A better reading, followed by the R.V., is soon afterwards. There is just the difference of a single letter between the two phrases in the original. Nain.This is the only place in the Bible where the village is mentioned. It has been identified with the small village of Nein, at the foot of the Lesser Hermon. The name means lovely. It is twenty-five miles distant from Capernaum.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Luk. 7:1-11
The Faith of the Centurion.That upon which the Son of God fastened as worthy of admiration was not the centurions benevolence, nor his perseverance, but his faith. And so speaks the whole New Testament, giving a special dignity to faith. By faith we are justified. By faith man removes mountains of difficulty. As the divinest attribute in the heart of God is love, so the mightiest, because the most human, principle in the breast of man is faith: love is heaven, faith is that which appropriates heaven. Faith is that which, when probabilities are equal, ventures on Gods side, and on the side of right, on the guarantee of a something within which makes the thing seem true because loved.
I. The faith which was commended.
1. First evidence of its existencehis tenderness to his servant. Of course this good act might have existed separate from religion. But we are forbidden to view it so, when we remember that he was a spiritually-minded man. Morality is not religion, but it is ennobled and made more delicate by religion. Instinct may make a man kind to his servant as to his horse or dog. But the moment faith comes, dealing as it does with things infinite, it throws something of its own infinitude on the persons loved by the man of faith; it raises them. Consequently you find the centurion building a synagogue, caring for our (i.e. the Jewish) nation, as the repository of the truthtending his servants. And this last approximated his moral goodness to the Christian standard; for therein does Christianity differ from mere religiousness, that it is not a worship of the high, but a lifting up of the lownot hero-worship, but Divine condescension.
2. His humility. Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof. Christ calls this faith. How is humility the result of, or rather identical with, faith? Faith is trust. Trust is dependence on another; the spirit which is opposite to independence or trust in self. Hence where the spirit of proud independence is, faith is not. There was no servility in this, but true freedom. The centurion chose his master. He was not fawning on the emperor at Rome, nor courting the immoral ruler at Csarea, who had titles and places to give away; but he bent in lowliest homage of heart before the Holy One. His freedom was the freedom of uncoerced and voluntary dependence, the freedom and humility of faith.
3. His belief in an invisible living will. Say in a word. He asked not the presence of Christ, but simply an exertion of His will. He looked not like a physician to the operation of unerring laws, or the result of the contact of matter with matter. He believed in Him who is the Life indeed. He felt that the Cause of causes is a person. Hence he could trust the living Will out of sight. This is the highest form of faith. Through his own profession he had reached this truth. Trained in obedience to military law, accustomed to render prompt submission to those above him, and to exact it from those below him, he read law everywhere; and law to him meant nothing unless it meant the expression of a personal will.
II. The causes of Christs astonishment.
1. The centurion was a Gentile; therefore unlikely to know revealed truth.
2. A soldier, and therefore exposed to a recklessness, idleness, and sensuality which are the temptations of that profession. But he turned his loss to glorious gain. There are spirits which are crushed by difficulties: others would gain strength from them. The greatest men have been those who have cut their way to success through difficulties. And such have been the greatest triumphs of art and science; such, too, of religion. Moses, Elijah, Abraham, the Baptist, the giants of both Testaments, were not men nurtured in the hothouse of religious advantages. Many a man would have done good if he had not had a superabundance of the means of doing it. Religious privileges are necessary especially for the feeble, as crutches are necessary; but, like crutches, they often enfeeble the strong. For every advantage which facilitates performance, and supersedes toil, a corresponding price is paid in loss. The place of religious might is not the place of religious privileges. But where amid manifold disadvantages the soul is thrown upon itself, a few kindred spirits, and God, there grow up those heroes of faith like the centurion, whose firm conviction wins admiration even from the Son of God Himself.
III. This incident testifies to the perfect humanity of Christ.The Saviour marvelled: that wonder was no fictitious semblance of admiration. It was genuine wonder. He had not expected to find such faith. The Son of God increased in wisdom as in stature. He knew more at thirty than at twenty. In all matters of eternal truth His knowledge was absolute. But it would seem that in matters of earthly fact, which are modified by time and space, His knowledge was like ours, more or less dependent on experience. Now we forget thiswe are shocked at the thought of the partial ignorance of Christ, as if it were irreverence to think it: we shrink from believing that He really felt the force of temptation; or that the forsakenness on the cross and the momentary doubt have parallels in our human life. In other words, we make that Divine life a mere mimic representation of griefs that were not real, and surprises that were feigned, and sorrows that were theatrical. But thus we lose the Saviour. For if we lose Him as a brother, we cannot feel Him as a Saviour.Robertson.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk. 7:1-16
Luk. 7:1-10. The Centurion of Great Faith.The character of the man comes out in his affection for his slave, his reverence for such religious light as he had already attained, his modesty and reticence. Jesus marvelled at his faith. It delighted the heart of the Son of man with a rare joy. He gave it the palm over all such faith as He had already met with, and responded to it even beyond the soldiers expectation. Wherein consisted the greatness of the faith so signally praised?
I. It was great when we consider the man in whom it was found.How favourably he contrasts with those who saw many miracles, and yet did not believe. This strangers faith was based on the report of others. He had not been present at any of the healings done in the city.
II. It was great in its view of Christs power.His argument is one from less to more. Though it be not all the truth, it goes to the heart of the truth about the power of Christ. It puts the crown of the universe on His head, and the sceptre of universal dominion into His hand. In so thinking and speaking faith acts just as it ought.
III. It was great in its sole dependence upon Christ and His will.It needed no help from sight or sense. It made nothing of difficulty or distance. In this it was unparalleled in the experience of Jesus.
IV. It was great in its self-forgetting humbleness.There was not a vestige of desire for honour to himself. Indeed, there was the fullest expression of the opposite. Most striking humility! Men said, He is worthy. He says, I am unworthy. He would have the Lord get all the honour, and the thing be so done as to keep himself out of sight altogether. How hard it is to be simple, unconscious, and humble in our faith! But this is faiths true mark: None but Christ!Laidlaw.
Strong Faith rewarded.
I. The centurion of Capernaum.a. A good man. b. A good master.
II. The centurions humility.
III. The centurions faith.
IV. The centurions reward.Watson.
Luk. 7:1-16. Power and Compassion.Why are these two incidents recorded? The first, because of the centurions faith; the second, because of the Saviours pity.
I. Where was the faith?It was in the obedience. Obedience is faith. The centurion knewfelt that Jesus was a captain who had but to issue the word, and be obeyed. There is no faith that is not surrender, no faith that does not say, Bid me do this, Lord, and I will do it.
II. The meeting of the Prince of life and of the victim of death.Jesus and His followers stood aside to let the procession pass. But when He saw the twice-bereaved woman, He had compassion on her. He said, Weep not. He restored the young man to life, and to his mother. It is a little anecdote. It has its moral. I am the resurrection and the life. Natural death is not the worst calamity. To be dead in sins is worse. And Christ has power over spiritual death as well. His power over physical death is only an illustration of His greater power.Hastings.
Healing the Sick: Raising the Dead.
I. The dying slave healed.
1. The good soldier.
2. The soldiers slave.
3. The soldiers friends.
4. The soldiers faith.
5. The soldiers reward.
II. The dead son raised.
1. The dead Song of Solomon 2. The weeping mother.
3. The loving Saviour.W. Taylor.
Luk. 7:1. Entered into Capernaum.The miracle recorded in this section was one of those mighty works done in Capernaum (Mat. 11:23) which failed to produce repentance. The unbelief of the inhabitants of that city, as Christ solemnly declared, rendered them more guilty than the people of Sodom. Three lessons may be drawn from this:
1. That it is foolishness to think that faith would necessarily have been excited in us, or would be stronger than it is, if we had been witnesses of Christs life and miracles.
2. That we may shudder at the sins of others and at the punishment they may have incurred, and yet be far more guilty ourselves.
(3) According to the measure of light against which we have sinned will be our punishment.
Luk. 7:2. Servant who was dear unto him.Luke thus anticipates a doubt which might have arisen in the mind of the reader; for we know that slaves were not held in such estimation as to make their masters so solicitous about their life, unless by extraordinary industry, or fidelity, or some other virtue, they had secured their favour. By this statement Luke means that this was not a low or ordinary slave, but a faithful servant, distinguished by many excellencies, and very highly esteemed by his master; and that this was the reason why he was so anxious about his life, and recommended him so earnestly.Calvin.
Master and Slave.This mutual affection of master and slave is very touching, especially when we consider the brutality that so often marked the slavery of the ancients. We may safely conclude that the piety, love, faith, and humility that were so prominent in the character of the centurion had been a good influence upon one who had been for long in daily intercourse with him, and had called forth all the better qualities of the slave. Surely the same holy influence should produce like effects in our own society more frequently than it appears to do.
Master and Man.The whole mass of men may be classed in two divisions:
(1) we are employers of others, or
(2) we are employed by others. The first may learn
I. To exercise considerateness and kindliness to those who work for them.
II. The employed may learn to earn respect and attachment by faithful serviceno eye-service, no slipshod workto be loyal, faithful, and true. The employer is not to regard his workman as a mere machine, to be used up and tossed aside; the employed is not to regard his master as a bloodsucker, to be watched and guarded against, lest he should suck blood too freely. Let us adorn our stations, remembering our common origin, our common salvation, our common responsibility.Hiley.
Luk. 7:3. Sent the elders of the Jews.The respect manifested by the centurion towards Jesus is emphatically marked.
1. He chose the most honourable persons, and those whom he was accustomed to reverence, to convey his message to the Lord.
2. He sent a second deputation composed of his own personal friends (Luk. 7:6). A false humility often leads a man to be guilty of real disrespect: true humility is punctilious in the matter of doing honour to the superior.
Luk. 7:4. Besought Him instantly (i.e. earnestly).The duty of making intercession for others is commended to us by what is here told of the earnestness with which these elders besought Christ to grant the boon desired by the centurion.
Imperfect Faith effectual.These elders, although they were not without faith, had, nevertheless, less faith than he who sent them (Luk. 7:9). Yet do they not entreat in vain for him.Gerlach.
Luk. 7:5. He loveth our nation.Before Christ healed his servant the centurion had been healed by the Lord. This was itself a miracle. One who belonged to the military profession, and who had crossed the sea with a band of soldiers, for the purpose of accustoming the Jews to endure the yoke of Roman tyranny, submits willingly, and yields obedience to the God of Israel.Calvin.
Blessings won by the Centurion.The centurion was attracted by the Jewish religion. The religion of heathen Rome had failed (as well it might!) to supply the wants of such a spirit as his. He had been guided to embrace the purest system of all which existed in his day; and the Father of mercies and God of all comfort left him not without further light, but first guided him to the knowledge, and now brought him into the very presence of Him who is the Light itself.Burgon.
Luk. 7:6. Then Jesus went with them.It is noticeable that on another occasion Jesus had a similar request offered to him. A certain nobleman besought him to come and heal his son who was at the point of death (Joh. 4:46-47). Jesus did not go, but spoke the word by which the child was healed. His action in abstaining to go to the bedside of the noblemans son, and in acceding to the request to come to heal the centurions slave, may have some special significance in it. The greater faith of the centurion may explain our Lords procedure. In the case of the nobleman His course of action was calculated to strengthen weak faith.
Trouble not Thyself.See note on Luk. 8:49. The phrase here used might be translated, Dont worry yourself, and is closely akin to that kind of colloquial expressions which we describe as slang. In the two cases where we find it in this Gospel, it is used by plain, ordinary people, by the servants of Jairus, and by the centurion, a man who possibly had risen from the ranks. To say that such a slang use of the word is unworthy of the New Testament is only to say that the evangelists were bound to polish up the diction of servants and soldiers, instead of reporting it in the most lifelike way possible.R. Winterbotham.
Not worthy.As one who not only contrasted his own sinfulness with the perfect holiness of Jesus, and who regarded Jesus as a superior being, but who remembered that he was himself somewhat of an alien to the race to which Jesus belonged, and to whom He so largely confined Himself.
Yet counted worthy.Counting himself unworthy that Christ should enter into his doors, he was counted worthy that Christ should enter into his heart.Augustine.
Luk. 7:7. Say in a word.If the Lord Jesus had been a mere creature, could He have suffered such views of Himself to pass uncorrected? But instead of thisas on every other occasionthe more exalted were mens views of Him, ever the more grateful it war to His spirit.Brown.
Two Reasons why Christ need not Come.The centurion gave two reasons why Christ need not take the trouble of entering his house: the first was based upon his own unworthiness to receive so great a guest; the second was based upon the power which he believed that Christ possessedit was needless for Him to come in person, He had but to speak the word and the servant would be healed.
Luk. 7:8. I also am a man set under authority.The faith of the centurion was childlike in its character, but essentially true in the spiritual insight it manifested. He argues from the less to the greater. Though I am only a subordinate officer, with limited powers (set under authority), I can yet give commands to servants and be obeyed. Much more art Thou able to send an angel to heal my servant, or to bid the disease depart. He had learned from his own life as a soldier a true idea of the Divine government of the world, and saw in the power entrusted to him as an officer an emblem of the power which God exercises over the world. As truly as he could execute his will, did God, as he believed, who is the source of all power, carry into effect beneficent purposes towards mankind.
Do this, etc.Oh that I could be but such a servant to mine heavenly Master! Alas! every one of His commands says, Do this, and I do it not: every one of His inhibitions says, Do it not, and I do it. He says, Go from the world, and I run to it: He says, Come to Me, and I run from Him. Woe to me! this is not service, but enmity. How can I look for favour while I return rebellion?Hall.
Luk. 7:9. The Nature of Faith.This is the first time that faith is mentioned in this Gospel; and it is in accordance with the purpose of St. Luke to lay special emphasis upon the manifestation of this virtue by one who was outside the circle of the chosen peopleit was an earnest of the acceptance of the Saviour by the nations of the world. Faith is to be distinguished from sight or knowledge: it is a moral quality rather than an intellectual facultya laying hold of that which is unseena venturing to believe upon evidence which satisfies the heart rather than convinces the reason. It is produced by love, and not by argument.
Spontaneous and Intense Faith.This was the greatest exhibition of faith which had as yet come under the observation of Christ. Two things distinguish it and give it special value.
I. Its spontaneousness.It had sprung up without special cultivation: Gods dealings with the Jewish people had been of such a marked character that it was comparatively easy for one of that nation to have faith in Him, but the centurion had been born and brought up in heathen society.
II. Its intensity.The centurion did not, as the Jews so often did, demand a sign to convince him of Christs power: he was fully persuaded that Jesus could with a word perform this mighty deed, whether He chose to exercise His power or not.
In Israel.The name is a significant one (He who striveth with God):it was given to the patriarch Jacob in memorial of the faith which gave him power over the angel and enabled him to prevail. With the prevailing unbelief of the Jewish people the strong faith of their great ancestor is, therefore, tacitly contrasted. By a heathen, and not by a son of Abraham, is faith shown in all its strength and beauty. Christ found in the oleaster what He had not found in the olive Augustine).
Humility pleasing to God.As haughtiness is an abomination unto the Lord, so humility is pleasing to Him. Though the Lord be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly: but the proud He knoweth afar off (Psa. 138:6).
Roman Soldiers mentioned in the New Testament.Everything connected with the centurion is remarkablefor a master to have such love to his slave, for a Roman to show such humility, for a heathen to show such reverence to the religion of an alien and subject people. It is interesting to notice that in the New Testament we have various other instances of piety and goodness in the cases of Roman soldiers. There was the centurion at the cross, who confessed that Jesus was the Son of God (Mar. 15:39); Cornelius, distinguished by his prayers and alms-giving (Act. 10:1-2); and Julius, who treated Paul courteously and interfered to preserve his life (Act. 27:3; Act. 27:42-43). Probably, it has been remarked, these cases prove that, in the general decay of morals at this time, the Roman army, by its order and discipline, tended to foster some of the primitive virtues which had distinguished the nation at an earlier period.
Luk. 7:10. They that were sent.From a comparison of the various narratives of this miracle, it would appear that, after sending two deputations, one of Jewish elders and one of his own friends, the centurion himself came and deprecated any further trouble being taken by Jesus than His merely speaking the word. If this be the case, this verse would imply that he remained with Jesus: they that were sent returned to the house, and found the servant whole. This perhaps gives us another indication of the centurions faith.
Intercession.If the prayers of an earthly master prevailed so much with the Son of God for the recovery of a servant, how shall the intercession of the Son of God prevail with His Father in heaven for us that are His impotent children and servants upon earth!Hall.
The Power of Christ.The power of Christ to heal bodily sickness by a word may well be taken as a pledge of His power to heal the soul. So also He rebukes the diseases of the soul, and they are gone. Oh, if we did but believe this, and put Him to it! For faith doth, in a manner, command Himas He doth all other things (Leighton).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Butlers Comments
SECTION 1
The Sick (Luk. 7:1-10)
7 After he had ended all his sayings in the hearing of the people he entered Capernaum. 2Now a centurion had a slave who was dear to him, who was sick and at the point of death. 3 When he heard of Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his slave. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they besought him earnestly, saying, He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5for he loves our nation, and he built us our synagogue. 6And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying to him, Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; 7therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. 8For I am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my slave, Do this, and he does it. 9When Jesus heard this he marveled at him, and turned and said to the multitude that followed him, I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith. 10And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave well.
Luk. 7:1-5 A Benevolent Conqueror: After the Sermon on the Mount, somewhere in Galilee, Jesus entered the city of Capernaum on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. A Roman army commander (a centurion, commanding 100 men) lived there and he had a servant who was dear to him; the Greek word is entimos and literally means, very valuable. Polybius, an ancient historian, says that the best man in the army held the position of centurion. Every centurion mentioned in the New Testament appears to be a good man (cf. Mat. 27:54 ff; Luk. 23:47 ff; Act. 10:1 ff; Act. 27:43; etc.). Most Romans were contemptuous of those they conquered and exploited the vanquished unmercifully. But this centurion was extraordinarily upstanding and good.
He had a slave (Gr. doulos) who was at the point of death (Gr. lit. reads, emellen teleutan, or about finished.). The word entimos might signify the slave was considered simply a valuable piece of property, but the complete picture of the centurions character shows a relationship to the slave much more humane and compassionate than that of property-owner. When the centurion heard of Jesus presence in Capernaum, he sent Jewish elders to find Him. (Mat. 8:5 says the centurion came for Jesus; this is no contradiction since the elders were his personal emissaries and it could understandably be said he came to Jesus). The centurion must have heard of Jesus healing power at some earlier date. Perhaps the centurion had first hand knowledge of the healing Jesus had done in the synagogue built by the centurion himself! The Jewish elders acclaimed the centurion worthy of Jesus help for they said he had built them a synagogue. The Greek idiom read, . . . the synagogue he, even he, built for us . . . This may indicate that the centurion paid for its building. The centurion loved Gr. agape) their nation. He was not merely friendly and brotherly (phileo), but he had the concern of the Jewish people on his heart and mind. He willingly cared for them. This was even more unusuala Roman concerned about the whole Jewish nation!
Luk. 7:6-10 A Believing Commander: More of the excellency of this centurions character is now exhibited. He was a humble man. When Jesus started for his home, he sent messengers saying, . . . do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; and the very reason I did not come to you personally was that I did not consider myself worthy. Humility such as this was unheard of among Romans! He was a man of reason. He had testimony or evidence from some source that Jesus had healed sick people. He used his reasoning powers to decide what he had heard was true. Thus he believed Jesus could heal his dying slave without even coming into his home. Alexander Campbell once said, Reason deciding that the testimony is true, is believing; reason deciding that the testimony is false, is disbelieving; reason unable to decide, is skepticism. Faith or belief is built by the use of reasoning processes. Faith comes in this order: Fact-Testimony-Faith-Feeling. Many people try to reverse that order and build their faith from feeling, but feeling is the result of faith, not the foundation of faith. Facts testified to and believed on the basis of reasonable verification of the testimony is Biblical faith. Faith is only as good as its Object; the Object is only as trustworthy as it evinces itself to be. Christian faith is in an objective PersonJesus Christ. He has demonstrated His trustworthiness through historical facts which have been testified to by trustworthy historians. When our reason accepts the testimony, we then have evidence to believe Jesus is who these historians say He is. This is the same process of reasoning the centurion used to call upon Jesus for help in this life and death situation. The centurion was also a man who understood that faith and obedience are inseparable. He knew that trusting someone meant you committed your life to that person in obedience. He himself was a man who obeyed his superiors because he trusted them and he expected trustful obedience from those committed to his leadership. He was convinced of Jesus authority so he believed that whatever Jesus said should and would be obeyed.
Jesus marvelled at him (Gr. ethaumasen). Only twice in the gospel records is Jesus said to have marvelledonce at unbelief (Mar. 6:6) and once, here, at belief (Luk. 7:9; Mat. 8:10). Jesus marvelled not because He was unaware that such a faith could exist, but because He was aware of how vibrant and alive the centurions faith was. Compare this Gentiles faith with that of most of the Jews Jesus spoke to and you will see why He marvelled. The Jews had centuries of divine revelation and providence to prepare them to believe the Messiah when He came, but most of them rejected Him. This Gentile had no oracles of God (cf. Rom. 3:1-2; Rom. 9:1-5) such as the Jews had and no centuries of preparation, yet he believed. Faith is measurable, but the Lord measures by quality, not by quantity. The statement of Jesus about faith as a grain of mustard seed has nothing to do with quantity; it refers to the vitality or life-force that is in the seed. Faith is not a question of how much, but what kind. This centurion had no quantitative measurement of faith but what little he knew of Jesus gave him a powerful faith because it was active, alive and obedient. Jesus was thrilled by it! Jesus was also pleased by the character of the man. Normally, when a slave was unable to work, he was thrown out to die by his Roman lord. Normally, Romans hated Jews and considered them filthy, ignorant and untrustworthy. But this Roman was different! He was compassionate, benevolent and loved the Jews. He may have been a Jewish proselyte although the text does not say so.
Matthew records (Luk. 8:11-12) that Jesus gave a glorious prediction of the salvation of many of the Gentiles as well as a chilling prediction of the doom of the unbelieving Jews. Isaiah, the prophet, had made similar predictions in connection with the coming of the Messiah. Jesus honors living, obedient faith wherever it is found. There are no racial, cultural, social or economic prerequisites required by Jesus.
Matthew also records the tender words of Jesus, Go; be it done for you as you have believed. And the servant was healed in that very moment. Luke records that the elders and friends first sent by the centurion became witnesses to the fact that the miracle had taken place. It is interesting to note that Jesus did not go to the centurions home, did not lay hands on the slave, did not even meet the centurion himself; and there is no record that the slave had any faith in Jesus. This healing greatly contrasts to the requirements of the pseudo faith-healers of modern times.
We should learn from this incident:
a.
Do not be hasty to classify men. We usually think of all Romans as in the same category with the Caesars or Pilates of that day. But here is a Roman very much different! There may have been many more.
b.
Obedience is the only reasonable and proper response of a confession of faith. Faith and obedience are inseparable. When the authority of Jesus is recognized and acknowledged, just a word from Him should be sufficient to produce action from us.
c.
Jesus is Savior of all men. There are no special people for Him. Wherever He finds faith, He honors it. He expects to find faith in all men. Those who do not believe in Him are doomed to an eternity of torments.
d.
We can demonstrate the quality of our faith in Jesus by helping others. The Son of Man is willing and able to visit the sick through those who have an obedient, living faith like the centurions.
Appleburys Comments
Healing The Centurions Servant
Scripture
Luk. 7:1-10 After he had ended all his sayings in the ears of the people, he entered into Capernaum.
2 And a certain centurions servant, who was dear unto him, was sick and at the point of death. 3 And when he heard concerning Jesus, he sent unto him elders of the Jews, asking him that he would come and save his servant. 4 And they, when they came to Jesus, besought him earnestly, saying, He is worthy that thou shouldest do this for him; 5 for he loveth our nation, and himself built us our synagogue. 6 And Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself; for I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: 7 wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say the word, and my servant shall be healed. 8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under myself soldiers: and I say to this one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. 9 And when Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned and said unto the multitude that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. 10 And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole.
Comments
After he had ended all his sayings.that is, after the lesson recorded in chapter six. The incidents that follow, emphasize the healing ministry of Jesus. The place is Capernaum. See also Mat. 8:5-13.
a certain centurions servant.Theophilus, a Gentile, would be interested in this. Of course, by the time Luke was writing the account, the gospel had been preached to much of the Gentile world, The ministry of Jesus was largely to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but there were some Gentiles who shared in the blessings of the Son of God. Such incidents as this gave Gentiles as well as Jews grounds to hope in Him. See Mat. 12:21; Luk. 2:32.
This Roman soldiers servant was dear to him; this helps us to see what kind of a man he was. The cruel business of war often tends to harden the hearts of men; some officers have little regard for their men. But the centurions concern for his servant commended him to Jesus.
sick and at the point of death.The servant was in critical condition. The centurions request was urgent. Nothing but a miracle could save him.
he heard concerning Jesus.The people of the whole area had heard about the miracles of Jesus. See Luk. 4:37; Luk. 6:17-19. The news traveled fast, and the distressed people were eager to bring their sick for Him to heal. He never turned one away who called on Him for help.
he sent unto him elders of the Jews.Matthew says that the centurion came to Jesus and told Him about the sick servant. In the light of Lukes statement, we assume that he did it through his agents, the elders of the Jews.
Not all leaders of the Jews were opposed to Jesus. These elders were respected men who, the centurion thought, would have influence with Jesus.
besought him earnestly.The elders were evidently sincere in their desire to help the centurion. They presented a strong case: He is worthy of this thing he asks you to do. He loves the Jewish nation; he built our synagogue.
This is not the only Roman soldier to be commended in Lukes writings. Cornelius was a devout man and one who worshiped God with all his house. See Act. 10:1-8.
Gentiles were attracted to the nation of Israel because God had given them the revelation of His will in the Old Covenant (Deu. 4:7-8; Deu. 5:2-3). He had promised them the Messiah who would reign as king and deal wisely, and execute justice and righteousness in the land (Jer. 23:5). Hope was kindled in the hearts of many who heard about Him. Gentiles who were without God and who had no hope in this world (Eph. 2:12) were strangely drawn to the people of God and the hope of all the world which is Christ. See Rom. 9:4-5.
But many Jews conducted themselves in such a manner as to cause Gentiles to blaspheme the name of God (Rom. 2:24). What a warning to Christians!
And Jesus went with them.The Physician answered the call for help. The fact that a Gentile had turned to Him in his distress was not the point. Soon His gospel would be proclaimed in all the world with the message of salvation for all peoples.
the centurion sent his friends.The genuine humility of the man made him realize that he was not worthy to have the Prophet enter his home. He sent his friends to ask Jesus to speak the word that his servant might livesuch faith is the complement of such humility. Who were these friends? Jews or Gentiles? All we know is that they were friends. But his greatest Friend was the one whom some had called the friend of sinners (Luk. 7:34).
say the word and my servant shall be healed.John records a similar incident which should not be confused with this one (Joh. 4:46-54). In both cases, however, Jesus spoke the word that brought healing to the sick without being in the immediate presence of the person to be healed. He was not limited either by time or by space, for He is God.
I also am a man set under authority.As an officer of the Roman army, he knew what it meant to take orders as well as give orders. He knew what it meant to be obeyed when he spoke. Perhaps no one ought to give orders who does not know how to obey orders.
He believed that Jesus authority extended to the realm of disease. He could give the order, and the centurions servant would live. The soldier expected a miracle to take place.
when Jesus heard these things, he marveled.He marveled because of the nature of the centurions faith and because a Gentile had such faith in contrast to the lack of it in Israel. Jesus marveled also because of the unbelief of the people of His own town (Mar. 6:6).
found the servant.Jesus spoke the word; the centurions servant was healed, and his faith in Jesus was justified. The friends found the servant in good health when they returned to the house.
Luke describes this amazing miracle in such simple terms, but we should remember that it was the work of God.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
VII.
(1) In the audience of the people.Better, in the hearing, or, in the ears, the older sense of audience having become obsolete.
He entered into Capernaum.The sequence of events is the same as that in Mat. 8:5-13; and, as far as it goes, this is an element of evidence against the conclusion that the Sermon on the Mountain and that on the Plain were altogether independent. Looking, however, at the manifest dislocation of facts in one or both of the Gospels, St. Matthew placing between the Sermon on the Mount and the healing of the centurions servant, the healing of the leper, which St. Luke gives in Luk. 5:12-16, the agreement in this instance can hardly be looked at as more than accidental.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 7
A SOLDIER’S FAITH ( Luk 7:1-10 ) 7:1-10 When Jesus had completed all his words in the hearing of the people, he went into Capernaum. The servant of a certain centurion was so ill that he was going to die, and he was very dear to him. When he heard about Jesus he sent some Jewish elders to him and asked him to come and save his servant’s life. They came to Jesus and strenuously urged him to come. “He is,” they said, “a man who deserves that you should do this for him, for he loves our nation and has himself built us our synagogue.” So Jesus went with them. When he was now quite near the house the centurion sent friends to him. “Sir,” he said, “do not trouble yourself. I am not worthy that you should come under my roof; nor do I count myself fit to come to you; but just speak a word and my servant will be cured. For I myself am a man under orders, and I have soldiers under me, and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him. He turned to the crowd who were following him and said, “I tell you I have not found such great faith not even in Israel.” And those who had been sent returned to the house and found the servant completely cured.
The central character is a Roman centurion; and he was no ordinary man.
(i) The mere fact that he was a centurion meant he was no ordinary man. A centurion was the equivalent of a regimental sergeant-major; and the centurions were the backbone of the Roman army. Wherever they are spoken of in the New Testament they are spoken of well (compare Luk 23:1-56; Lk 47 ; Act 10:22; Act 22:26; Act 23:17; Act 23:23-24; Act 24:23; Act 27:43). Polybius, the historian, describes their qualifications. They must be not so much “seekers after danger as men who can command, steady in action, and reliable; they ought not to be over anxious to rush into the fight; but when hard pressed they must be ready to hold their ground and die at their posts.” The centurion must have been a man amongst men or he would never have held the post which was his.
(ii) He had a completely unusual attitude to his slave. He loved this slave and would go to any trouble to save him. In Roman law a slave was defined as a living tool; he had no rights; a master could ill-treat him and even kill him if he chose. A Roman writer on estate management recommends the farmer to examine his implements every year and to throw out those which are old and broken, and to do the same with his slaves. Normally when a slave was past his work he was thrown out to die. The attitude of this centurion to his slave was quite unusual.
(iii) He was clearly a deeply religious man. A man needs to be more than superficially interested before he will go the length of building a synagogue. It is true that the Romans encouraged religion from the cynical motive that it kept people in order. They regarded it as the opiate of the people. Augustus recommended the building of synagogues for that very reason. As Gibbon said in a famous sentence, “The various modes of religion which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful.” But this centurion was no administrative cynic; he was a sincerely religious man.
(iv) He had an extremely unusual attitude to the Jews. If the Jews despised the gentiles, the gentiles hated the Jews. Anti-semitism is not a new thing. The Romans called the Jews a filthy race; they spoke of Judaism as a barbarous superstition; they spoke of the Jewish hatred of mankind; they accused the Jews of worshipping an ass’s head and annually sacrificing a gentile stranger to their God. True, many of the gentiles, weary of the many gods and loose morals of paganism, had accepted the Jewish doctrine of the one God and the austere Jewish ethic. But the whole atmosphere of this story implies a close bond of friendship between this centurion and the Jews.
(v) He was a humble man. He knew quite well that a strict Jew was forbidden by the law to enter the house of a gentile ( Act 10:28); just as he was forbidden to allow a gentile into his house or have any communication with him. He would not even come to Jesus himself. He persuaded his Jewish friends to approach him. This man who was accustomed to command had an amazing humility in the presence of true greatness.
(vi) He was a man of faith. His faith is based on the soundest argument. He argued from the here and now to the there and then. He argued from his own experience to God. If his authority produced the results it did, how much more must that of Jesus? He came with that perfect confidence which looks up and says, “Lord, I know you can do this.” If only we had a faith like that, for us too the miracle would happen and life become new.
THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST ( Luk 7:11-17 ) 7:11-17 Next, after that, Jesus was on his way to a town called Nain; and his disciples and a great crowd accompanied him on the journey. When he came near the gate of the town–look you–a man who had died was being carried out to burial. He was his mother’s only son, and she was a widow. There was a great crowd of towns-people with her. When the Lord saw her he was moved to the depths of his heart for her and said to her, “Don’t go on weeping!” He went up and touched the bier. Those who were carrying it stood still. “Young man,” he said, “I tell you, rise!” And the dead man sat up and began to speak. And he gave him back to his mother. And awe gripped them all. They glorified God saying, “A great prophet has been raised up amongst us,” and, “God has graciously visited his people.” This story about him went out in all Judaea and all the surrounding countryside.
In this passage, as in the one immediately preceding, once again Luke the doctor speaks. In Luk 7:10 the word we translated completely cured is the technical medical term for sound in wind and limb. In Luk 7:15 the word used for sitting up is the technical term for a patient sitting up in bed.
Nain was a day’s journey from Capernaum and lay between Endor and Shunem, where Elisha, as the old story runs, raised another mother’s son ( 2Ki 4:18-37). To this day, ten minutes’ walk from Nain on the road to Endor there is a cemetery of rock tombs in which the dead are laid.
In many ways this is the loveliest story in all the gospels.
(i) It tells of the pathos and the poignancy of human life. The funeral procession would be headed by the band of professional mourners with their flutes and their cymbals, uttering in a kind of frenzy their shrill cries of grief. There is all the ageless sorrow of the world in the austere and simple sentence, “He was his mother’s only son and she was a widow.”
“Never morning wore to evening
But some heart did break.”
In Shelley’s Adonais, his lament for Keats, he writes,
“As long as skies are blue, and fields are green,
Evening must usher night, night urge the morrow,
Month follow month with woe, and year wake year to sorrow.”
Virgil, the Roman poet, in an immortal phrase spoke about “The tears of things”–sunt lacrimae rerum. In the nature of things we live in a world of broken hearts.
(ii) To the pathos of human life, Luke adds the compassion of Christ. Jesus was moved to the depths of his heart. There is no stronger word in the Greek language for sympathy and again and again in the gospel story it is used of Jesus ( Mat 14:14; Mat 15:32; Mat 20:34; Mar 1:41; Mar 8:2).
To the ancient world this must have been a staggering thing. The noblest faith in antiquity was Stoicism. The Stoics believed that the primary characteristic of God was apathy, incapability of feeling. This was their argument. If someone can make another sad or sorry, glad or joyful, it means that, at least for the moment, he can influence that other person. If he can influence him that means that, at least for the moment, he is greater than he. Now, no one can be greater than God; therefore, no one can influence God; therefore, in the nature of things, God must be incapable of feeling.
Here men were presented with the amazing conception of one who was the Son of God being moved to the depths of his being.
“In ev’ry pang that rends the heart.
The Man of sorrows has a part.”
For many that is the most precious thing about the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(iii) To the compassion of Jesus, Luke adds the power of Jesus. He went up and touched the bier. It was not a coffin, for coffins were not used in the east. Very often long wicker-work baskets were used for carrying the body to the grave. It was a dramatic moment. As one great commentator says, “Jesus claimed as his own what death had seized as his prey.”
It may well be that here we have a miracle of diagnosis; that Jesus with those keen eyes of his saw that the lad was in a cataleptic trance and saved him from being buried alive, as so many were in Palestine. It does not matter; the fact remains that Jesus claimed for life a lad who had been marked for death. Jesus is not only the Lord of life; he is the Lord of death who himself triumphed over the grave and who has promised that, because he lives, we shall live also ( Joh 14:19).
THE FINAL PROOF ( Luk 7:18-29 )
7:18-29 John’s disciples told him about all these things; so John called two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord saying, “Are you he who is to come, or, are we to look for another?” When they arrived, the men said to him, “John, the Baptizer, has sent us to you. Are you the One who is to come,” he asks, “or are we to look for another?” At that time he cured many of their diseases and afflictions and of evil spirits, and to many blind people he gave the gift of sight. “Go,” he answered them, “and tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind recover their sight; the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed; the deaf hear; the dead are raised up; the poor have the Good News told to them; and blessed is he who does not find a stumbling-block in me.”
When John’s messengers had gone away, Jesus began to say to the crowds concerning John, “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man dressed in soft clothes? Look you–those who wear expensive clothes and live in luxury are in royal palaces. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and something more than a prophet. This is he of whom it stands written–‘Look you, I send my messenger before you to prepare your way before you.’ I tell you there is no one greater amongst those born of women than John. But he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” When the people and the tax-collectors heard this they called God righteous for they had been baptized with John’s baptism.
John sent emissaries to Jesus to ask if he really was the Messiah or if they must look for someone else.
(i) This incident has worried many because they have been surprised at the apparent doubt in the mind of John. Various explanations have been advanced.
(a) It is suggested that John took this step, not for his own sake, but for the sake of his disciples. He was sure enough; but they had their qualms and he desired that they should be confronted with proof unanswerable.
(b) It is suggested that John wished to hurry Jesus on because he thought it was time Jesus moved towards decisive action.
(c) The simplest explanation is the best. Think what was happening to John. John, the child of the desert and of the wide-open spaces, was confined in a dungeon cell in the castle of Machaerus. Once, one of the Macdonalds, a highland chieftain, was confined in a little cell in Carlisle Castle. In his cell was one little window. To this day you may see in the sandstone the marks of the feet and hands of the highlander as he lifted himself up and clung to the window ledge day by day to gaze with infinite longing upon the border hills and valleys he would never walk again. Shut in his cell, choked by the narrow walls, John asked his question because his cruel captivity had put tremors in his heart.
(ii) Note the proof that Jesus offered. He pointed at the facts. The sick and the suffering and the humble poor were experiencing the power and hearing the word of the Good News. Here is a point which is seldom realized–this is not the answer John expected. If Jesus was God’s anointed one, John would have expected him to say, “My armies are massing. Caesarea, the headquarters of the Roman government, is about to fall. The sinners are being obliterated. And judgment has begun.” He would have expected Jesus to say, “The wrath of God is on the march.” but Jesus said, “The mercy of God is here.” Let us remember that where pain is soothed and sorrow turned to joy, where suffering and death are vanquished, there is the kingdom of God. Jesus’ answer was, “Go back and tell John that the love of God is here.”
(iii) After John’s emissaries had gone, Jesus paid his own tribute to him. People had crowded out into the desert to see and hear John and they had not gone to see a reed shaken by the wind. That may mean one of two things.
(a) Nothing was commoner by Jordan’s banks than a reed shaken by the wind. It was in fact a proverbial phrase for the commonest of sights. It may then mean that the crowds went out to see no ordinary sight.
(b) It may stand for fickleness. It was no vacillating, swaying character men went out to see like a swaying reed, but a man immovable as a mighty tree.
They had not gone out to see some soft effeminate soul, like the silk-clad courtiers of the royal palace.
What then had they gone to see?
(a) First, Jesus pays John a great tribute. All men expected that before God’s anointed king arrived upon the earth, Elijah would return to prepare the way and act as his herald ( Mal 4:5). John was the herald of the Highest.
(b) Second, Jesus states quite clearly the limitations of John. The least in the kingdom of heaven was greater than he. Why? Some have said that it was because John had wavered, if but for a moment, in his faith. It was not that. It was because John marked a dividing line in history. Since John’s proclamation had been made, Jesus had come; eternity had invaded time; heaven had invaded earth; God had arrived in Jesus; life could never be the same again. We date all time as before Christ and after Christ–B.C. and A.D. Jesus is the dividing line. Therefore, all who come after him and who receive him are of necessity granted a greater blessing than all who went before. The entry of Jesus into the world divided all time into two; and it divided all life in two. If any man be in Christ he is a new creation ( 2Co 5:17).
As Bilney, the martyr said, “When I read that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, it was as if day suddenly broke on a dark night.”
THE PERVERSITY OF MEN ( Luk 7:30-35 ) 7:30-35 But the Pharisees and the scribes frustrated God’s purpose for themselves because they were not baptized by him. “To whom,” asked Jesus, “will I compare the men of this generation? And to whom are they like? They are like children seated in the market place who call to one another, ‘We have piped to you, and you did not dance. We have sung you a dirge and you did not weep.’ John the Baptizer came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say,’ He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you say, ‘Look! a gluttonous man and a wine-drinker, the friend of tax-collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is justified by her children.”
This passage has two great warnings in it.
(i) It tells of the perils of free-will. The scribes and the Pharisees had succeeded in frustrating God’s purpose for themselves. The tremendous truth of Christianity is that the coercion of God is not of force but of love. It is precisely there that we can glimpse the sorrow of God. It is always love’s greatest tragedy to look upon some loved one who has taken the wrong way and to see what might have been, what could have been and what was meant to have been. That is life’s greatest heartbreak.
Sir William Watson has a poem called Lux Perdita, the “Lost Light.”
“These were the weak, slight hands
That might have taken this strong soul, and bent
Its stubborn substance to thy soft intent,
And bound it unresisting with such bands
As not the arm of envious heaven had rent.
These were the calming eyes
That round my pinnace could have stilled the sea,
And drawn thy voyager home, and bid him be
Pure with their pureness, with their wisdom wise,
Merged in their light, and greatly lost in thee.
But thou–thou passedst on,
With whiteness clothed of dedicated days,
Cold, like a star; and me in alien ways
Thou leftest, following life’s chance lure, where shone
The wandering gleam that beckons and betrays.”
It is true that,
“Of all sad words of tongue and pen
The saddest are those, ‘It might have been.'”
God’s tragedy, too, is the might have been of life. As G. K. Chesterton said, “God had written not so much a poem, but rather a play; a play he had planned as perfect, but which had necessarily been left to human actors and stage managers, who had since made a great mess of it.” God save us from making shipwreck of life and bringing heartbreak to himself by using our freewill to frustrate his purposes.
(ii) It tells of the perversity of men. John had come, living with a hermit’s austerity, and the scribes and Pharisees had said that he was a mad eccentric and that some demon had taken his wits away. Jesus had come, living the life of men and entering into all their activities, and they had taunted him with loving earth’s pleasures far too much. We all know the days when a child will grin at anything and the moods when nothing will please us. The human heart can be lost in a perversity in which any appeal God may make will be met with wilful and childish discontent.
(iii) But there are the few who answer; and God’s wisdom is in the end justified by those who are his children. Men may misuse their freewill to frustrate God’s purposes; men in their perversity may be blind and deaf to all his appeal. Had God used the force of coercion and laid on man the iron bonds of a will that could not be denied, there would have been a world of automata and a world without trouble. But God chose the dangerous way of love, and love in the end will triumph.
A SINNER’S LOVE ( Luk 7:36-50 ) 7:36-50 One of the Pharisees invited Jesus to eat with him. He went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table; and–look you–there was a woman in the town, a bad woman. She knew that he was at table in the Pharisee’s house, so she took an alabaster phial of perfume and stood behind him, beside his feet, weeping. She began to wash his feet with tears, and she wiped them with the hairs of her head; and she kept kissing his feet and anointing them with the perfume. When the Pharisee, who had invited him, saw this, he said to himself, “If this fellow was a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of a person this woman is who keeps touching him, for she is a bad woman.” Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” He said, “Master, say it.” Jesus said, “There were two men who were in debt to a certain lender. The one owed him 20 pounds, the other 2 pounds. Since they were unable to pay he cancelled the debt to both. Who then will love him the more?” Simon answered, “I presume, he to whom the greater favour was shown.” He said to him, “Your judgment is correct.” He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I came into your house–you gave me no water for my feet. She has washed my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. You did not give me any kiss. But she, from the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. You did not anoint my head with oil. She has anointed my feet with perfume. Wherefore, I tell you, her sins–her many sins–are forgiven for she loved much. He to whom little is forgiven loves little.” He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” Those who were at table with him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who forgives even sins?” He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”
This story is so vivid that it makes one believe that Luke may well have been an artist.
(i) The scene is the courtyard of the house of Simon the Pharisee. The houses of well-to-do people were built round an open courtyard in the form of a hollow square. Often in the courtyard there would be a garden and a fountain; and there in the warm weather meals were eaten. It was the custom that when a Rabbi was at a meal in such a house, all kinds of people came in–they were quite free to do so–to listen to the pearls of wisdom which fell from his lips. That explains the presence of the woman.
When a guest entered such a house three things were always done. The host placed his hand on the guest’s shoulder and gave him the kiss of peace. That was a mark of respect which was never omitted in the case of a distinguished Rabbi. The roads were only dust tracks, and shoes were merely soles held in place by straps across the foot. So always cool water was poured over the guest’s feet to cleanse and comfort them. Either a pinch of sweet-smelling incense was burned or a drop of attar of roses was placed on the guest’s head. These things good manners demanded, and in this case not one of them was done.
In the east the guests did not sit, but reclined, at table. They lay on low couches, resting on the left elbow, leaving the right arm free, with the feet stretched out behind; and during the meal the sandals were taken off. That explains how the woman was standing beside Jesus’ feet.
(ii) Simon was a Pharisee, one of the separated ones. Why should such a man invite Jesus to his house at all? There are three possible reasons.
(a) It is just possible that he was an admirer and a sympathizer, for not all the Pharisees were Jesus’ enemies (compare Luk 13:31). But the whole atmosphere of discourtesy makes that unlikely.
(b) It could be that Simon had invited Jesus with the deliberate intention of enticing him into some word or action which might have been made the basis of a charge against him. Simon may have been an agent provocateur. Again it is not likely, because in Luk 7:40 Simon gives Jesus the title, Rabbi.
(c) Most likely, Simon was a collector of celebrities; and with a half-patronising contempt he had invited this startling young Galilaean to have a meal with him. That would best explain the strange combination of a certain respect with the omission of the usual courtesies. Simon was a man who tried to patronize Jesus.
(iii) The woman was a bad woman, and a notoriously bad woman, a prostitute. No doubt she had listened to Jesus speak from the edge of the crowd and had glimpsed in him the hand which could lift her from the mire of her ways. Round her neck she wore, like all Jewish women, a little phial of concentrated perfume; they were called alabasters; and they were very costly. She wished to pour it on his feet, for it was all she had to offer. But as she saw him the tears came and fell upon his feet. For a Jewish woman to appear with hair unbound was an act of the gravest immodesty. On her wedding day a girl bound up her hair and never would she appear with it unbound again. The fact that this woman loosed her long hair in public showed how she had forgotten everyone except Jesus.
The story demonstrates a contrast between two attitudes of mind and heart.
(i) Simon was conscious of no need and therefore felt no love, and so received no forgiveness. Simon’s impression of himself was that he was a good man in the sight of men and of God.
(ii) The woman was conscious of nothing else than a clamant need, and therefore was overwhelmed with love for him who could supply it, and so received forgiveness.
The one thing which shuts a man off from God is self-sufficiency. And the strange thing is that the better a man is the more he feels his sin. Paul could speak of sinners “of whom I am foremost” ( 1Ti 1:15). Francis of Assisi could say, “There is nowhere a more wretched and a more miserable sinner than I.” It is true to say that the greatest of sins is to be conscious of no sin; but a sense of need will open the door to the forgiveness of God, because God is love, and love’s greatest glory is to be needed.
-Barclay’s Daily Study Bible (NT)
Fuente: Barclay Daily Study Bible
37. SERVANT OF THE CENTURION’S HEALED, Luk 7:1-10 .
Mat 8:5-13
From the mount of Hattin to the valley of Capernaum; from the sermon to the miracle. The doctrines of the sermon assert their own intuitive truth; but it is the miracles of the Preacher that attest that it is with a true divine mission that he utters them.
The following narrative is a striking instance of variation in word where there is no contradictions in purpose or thought. In Matthew’s account the centurion came unto him, saying. In the present account he sent the elders of Israel. Matthew makes our Lord say, I will come. Luke says, Jesus went with them. Now these variations are, we think, fairly reconciled, on the principle “that what a man does by another he does by himself.” The act of an agent is the act of the principal. So in Exo 18:6, Jethro being himself not present, as appears by the following verse, is made to say, by his messenger, “I, thy father-in-law, Jethro, am come,” etc. In Mat 11:2-3, John sent to Jesus and said. That is, John said by a messenger. In Joh 4:1, Jesus is said to have baptized, though he did it only by disciples. Comparing Mar 10:35, with Mat 20:20, we have it that Zebedee’s children spoke to Jesus, but spoke by their mother. We have no hesitation to say that the king conquers a country, or that Solomon built the temple, though both were done entirely through their subjects. Matthew then gives the briefer substance; Luke gives the details. But Matthew, reading Luke, would not for a moment have supposed himself to be contradicted. He would only have seen the story more explicitly given and some interesting points added.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘After he had ended all his sayings in the ears of the people, he entered into Capernaum.’
Having completed the giving of the new Law Jesus now returned to Capernaum.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
2). THE FOUNDING OF THE NEW ISRAEL UNDER THE KINGLY RULE OF GOD (6:20-8:18)
In this second part of the section Luk 5:1 to Luk 9:50, Jesus now reveals Himself as the founder of the new Israel under the Kingly Rule of God:
a He proclaims the new Law of the Kingly Rule of God (Luk 6:20-49).
b He sends out His power to the Gentiles, to those who are seen as unclean, but who have believed. They too are to benefit from His Kingly Rule (Luk 7:1-10).
c He raises the dead, a foretaste of the resurrection, revealing Him as ‘the Lord’. The Kingly Rule of God is here (Luk 7:11-17).
d John’s disciples come to ‘the Lord’ enquiring on behalf of John, and He points to His signs and wonders as evidence that He is the promised One. The King is present to heal and proclaim the Good News of the Kingly Rule of God (Luk 7:18-23).
c He exalts, yet also sets in his rightful place, John the Baptiser as the greatest of the prophets and points beyond him to the new Kingly Rule of God, emphasising again that the Kingly Rule of God is here (Luk 7:24-35).
b He is greeted by the transformed prostitute, who has believed, a picture of restored Israel (Eze 16:59-63) and of the fact that the Kingly Rule of God is available to all Who seek Him and hear Him.
a He proclaims the parables of the Kingly Rule of God (Luk 8:1-18).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jesus Heals the Centurion’s Servant ( Mat 8:5-13 , Joh 4:43-54 ) Luk 7:1-10 records the story of Jesus healing the centurion’s servant. This story reveals that Jesus’ divine authority of His Word to redeem mankind. He came to the centurion as the Saviour of the world, crossing social boundaries.
God Blesses Those Who Bless Israel – Why did Jesus bless this Gentile when there were many needy Gentiles in the land of Israel during Jesus’ earthly ministry? The same question is raised in Acts 10 when God chooses Cornelius as the first Gentile to hear the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We find both Gentiles were blessing the Jewish people. The centurion loved the Jews and built them a synagogue. Cornelius had given much alms to the Jews and his prayers were to bless the children of Israel. God will bless those who bless the people of Israel. This was a promise that God made to Abraham when the Jewish nation was born, and it is still valid today.
Gen 12:3, “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”
Luk 7:1 Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.
Luk 7:1
Mat 7:28-29, “And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine: For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”
Luk 7:5 Comments One way that the Roman centurion showed his love to God was in his financial giving, for he built a synagogue for the Jews.
Luk 7:4-5 Comments God’s Blessings Upon Those Who Bless the Jews – In Gen 12:3 God told Abraham, “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” History records many accounts where God blesses those who bless the Jews, and curses those who curse he Jews. For example, God judged the Pharaoh of Egypt for persecuting the children of Israel. Just as he commanded the Jewish male children to be drown in the river, so was his entire army drowned in the Red Sea. In addition, the firstborn males were killed, and the nation destroyed. Laban acknowledged that his blessings had come through Jacob (Gen 30:27). Jesus healed the Roman centurion’s servant, who has blessed the Jews (Luk 7:4-5). God sent Peter to preach the Gospel to the house of Cornelius, a man that blessed the Jews (Act 10:22). God promised to reward the heathen according to what they had done to the Jews (Oba 1:15). Jesus makes a similar statement about rewarding those who has done good to His “brethren,” which certainly includes the Jews, as well as the Church (Mat 25:40).
Gen 30:27, “And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake.”
Oba 1:15, “For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.”
Mat 25:40, “And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Luk 7:4-5, “And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.”
Act 10:22, “And they said, Cornelius the centurion, a just man, and one that feareth God, and of good report among all the nation of the Jews, was warned from God by an holy angel to send for thee into his house, and to hear words of thee.”
Luk 7:9 Comments There are only two people recorded in the four Gospels that were told by Jesus that they had great faith, and neither were Israelites: this Roman centurion and the Syro-Phenician woman in Mat 15:12-28.
Characteristics of a great man of faith from the healing of the centurion’s servant (Luk 7:1-10 and Mat 8:5-13):
1. Humility (:6) – “I am not worthy” He was a high-ranking Roman soldier going to a Jew. This virtue is brought out in Luk 17:10, “We are unprofitable (or unworthy) servants.” He esteemed Jesus more highly than he esteemed himself.
Php 2:3, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”
2. Boldness – A Roman soldier dares to ask the man of God from Israel for help. Jesus told the Syro-Phenician that He was only sent to lost sheep of the house of Israel.
3. Generous heart – He built a synagogue for the Jews (vs. 5).
4. Full of love (vs. 5) – The faith that God is pleased with and that profits a man’s life is a faith that is motivated by love.
Gal 5:6, “For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.”
5. Friendly – He had friends. There is only one way to get true friends.
Pro 18:24, “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
6. Compassion ( Mat 8:6 ) – This servant was horribly tormented and near death.
Mat 8:6, “And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.”
Luk 7:2, “And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Narrative: Jesus Demonstrates His Doctrine (Capernaum) In Luk 7:1-50 Jesus demonstrates the authority and power of God’s Word.
Outline: Here is a proposed outline:
1. Heals the Centurion’s Servant (Body) Luk 7:1-10
2. Jesus Raises the Widow’s Son (Body) Luk 7:11-17
3. Jesus Testifies of His Justification (Mind) Luk 7:18-35
4.) Jesus Demonstrates Forgiveness (Heart) Luk 7:36-50
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Witnesses of Jesus Justifying Him as the Saviour of the World (God the Father’s Justification of Jesus) Luk 4:31 to Luk 21:38 contains the testimony of Jesus’ public ministry, as He justifies Himself as the Saviour of the world. In this major section Jesus demonstrates His divine authority over man, over the Law, and over creation itself, until finally He reveals Himself to His three close disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration as God manifested in the flesh. Jesus is the Saviour over every area of man’s life and over creation itself, a role that can only be identified with God Himself. This was the revelation that Peter had when he said that Jesus was Christ, the Son of the Living God. Luk 4:14 to Luk 9:50 begins with His rejection in His hometown of Nazareth and this section culminates in Luk 9:50 with Peter’s confession and testimony of Jesus as the Anointed One sent from God. In summary, this section of material is a collection of narratives that testifies to Jesus’ authority over every aspect of humanity to be called the Christ, or the Saviour of the world.
Luke presents Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the world that was presently under the authority of Roman rule. He was writing to a Roman official who was able to exercise his authority over men. Thus, Luke was able to contrast Jesus’ divine authority and power to that of the Roman rule. Jesus rightfully held the title as the Saviour of the world because of the fact that He had authority over mankind as well as the rest of God’s creation. Someone who saves and delivers a person does it because he has the authority and power over that which oppresses the person.
In a similar way, Matthew portrays Jesus Christ as the Messiah who fulfilled Old Testament prophecy. Matthew’s presentation of Jesus as the King of the Jews supports His claim as the Messiah. John gives us the testimony of God the Father, who says that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. John uses the additional testimonies of John the Baptist, of His miracles, of the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies and of Jesus Himself to support this claim. Mark testifies of the many miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ by emphasizing the preaching of the Gospel as the way in which these miracles take place.
This major section of the public ministry of Jesus Christ can be subdivided into His prophetic testimonies. In Luk 4:31 to Luk 6:49 Jesus testifies of true justification in the Kingdom of God. In Luk 7:1 to Luk 8:21 Jesus testifies of His doctrine. In Luk 8:22 to Luk 10:37 Jesus testifies of divine service in the Kingdom of God as He sets His face towards Jerusalem. In Luk 10:38 to Luk 17:10 Jesus testifies of perseverance in the Kingdom of God as He travels towards Jerusalem. Finally, in Luk 17:11 to Luk 21:38 Jesus teaches on glorification in the Kingdom of God.
The Two-Fold Structure in Luke of Doing/Teaching As Reflected in the Prologue to the Book of Acts – The prologue to the book of Acts serves as a brief summary and outline of the Gospel of Luke. In Act 1:1 the writer makes a clear reference to the Gospel of Luke, as a companion book to the book of Acts, by telling us that this “former treatise” was about “all that Jesus began to do and to teach.” If we examine the Gospel of Luke we can find two major divisions in the narrative material of Jesus’ earthly ministry leading up to His Passion. In Luk 4:14 to Luk 9:50 we have the testimony of His Galilean Ministry in which Jesus did many wonderful miracles to reveal His divine authority as the Christ, the Son of God. This passage emphasized the works that Jesus did to testify of Himself as the Saviour of the world. The emphasis then shifts beginning in Luk 9:51 to Luk 21:38 as it focuses upon Jesus teaching and preparing His disciples to do the work of the Kingdom of God. Thus, Luk 4:14 to Luk 21:38 can be divided into this two-fold emphasis of Jesus’ works and His teachings. [186]
[186] We can also see this two-fold aspect of doing and teaching in the Gospel of Matthew, as Jesus always demonstrated the work of the ministry before teaching it in one of His five major discourses. The narrative material preceding his discourses serves as a demonstration of what He then taught. For example, in Matthew 8:1 to 9:38, Jesus performed nine miracles before teaching His disciples in Matthew 10:1-42 and sending them out to perform these same types of miracles. In Matthew 11:1 to 12:50 this Gospel records examples of how people reacted to the preaching of the Gospel before Jesus teaches on this same subject in the parables of Matthew 13:1-52. We see examples of how Jesus handled offences in Matthew 13:53 to 17:27 before He teaches on this subject in Matthew 18:1-35. Jesus also prepares for His departure in Matthew 19:1 to 25:46 before teaching on His second coming in Matthew 24-25.
Jesus’ Public Ministry One observation that can be made about Jesus’ Galilean ministry and his lengthy travel narrative to Jerusalem is that He attempts to visit every city and village in Israel that will receive Him. He even sends out His disciples in order to reach them all. But why is such an effort made to preach the Gospel to all of Israel during Jesus’ earthly ministry? Part of the answer lies in the fact that Jesus wanted everyone to have the opportunity to hear and believe. For those who rejected Him, they now will stand before God on the great Judgment Day without an excuse for their sinful lifestyles. Jesus wanted everyone to have the opportunity to believe and be saved. This seemed to be His passion throughout His Public Ministry. Another aspect of the answer is the impending outpouring of the Holy Ghost and the sending out of the Twelve to the uttermost parts of the earth. Jesus understood the necessity to first preach the Gospel to all of Israel before sending out the apostles to other cities and nations.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Indoctrination: Jesus Testifies of His Word In Luk 7:1 to Luk 8:21 Jesus testifies about His Word. He first demonstrates the power of His Word to heal the centurion’s servant (Luk 7:1-10), to raise the dead son of the widow of Nain (Luk 7:11-17), to work miracles (Luk 7:18-35), and to forgive sins (Luk 7:36-50). He then teaches a discourse on the Parable of the Sower in order to explain how the preaching of the Gospel affects the hearts of men (Luk 8:1-21).
Outline: Here is a proposed outline:
1. Narrative: Jesus Demonstrates His Doctrine (Capernaum) Luk 7:1-50
2. Discourse: Jesus Teaches on Obeying His Word (Galilee) Luk 8:1-21
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Centurion of Capernaum. The prayer of the centurion:
v. 1. Now when He had ended all His sayings in the audience of the people, He entered into Capernaum.
v. 2. And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.
v. 3. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto Him the elders of the Jews, beseeching Him that He would come and heal his servant.
v. 4. And when they came to Jesus, they besought Him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom He should do this;
v. 5. for he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. Jesus brought His long discourse to a close. It was addressed to the hearing of the people; they were not merely to listen inattentively and forget all the precepts within a few minutes, but their hearing, their understanding, was to take hold of the great truths, in order that they might become the property of the mind, and be received into the heart. Sometime afterward, Jesus entered into Capernaum. In this city there lived a certain centurion, officer of a Roman garrison stationed there, probably on account of the great highway that led through here from Damascus to the Mediterranean Sea. This Roman officer had become acquainted with books of the Jews and with the hopes of the Messiah, of whom they were always speaking. He had also come to the conclusion that Jesus, by whose hand such great miracles were being performed throughout Galilee, must be the promised Messiah. This centurion had a servant who, though a slave, was very dear to him, for he was a humane master. This servant had been taken ill and was at the point of death. Since the reports concerning Christ’s activity, which reached the officer from time to time, had given him the conviction that here was the great promised prophet of the Jews, he sent a delegation to Jesus at this time. The men whom he sent were carrying out his embassy, speaking in his name; he spoke through them, Mat 8:5. They were elders of the people, probably officers of the synagogue, for not all Jewish leaders joined in the campaign of hate against Jesus. These men carried out the centurion’s wishes in a very able manner. They not only stated the earnest prayer that the Lord would come and restore to full health the servant, but they also added some reasons why Jesus ought to grant the request. They declared the centurion to be worthy of help, since he was not one of the proud Romans that vexed and oppressed the Jews upon every occasion, but rather loved the nation. He had lived among them for so long that he had conceived a genuine liking for their doctrine and for their religious institutions. This affection had taken the form of building a synagogue for the Jews as a token of regard. “The Deutsche Orient gesellschaft, which was carrying on excavations in Egypt, Babylonia, and Assyria, undertook the investigation of the remains of ancient synagogues in Galilee and the Jaulan. Among these they excavated the ruins of the synagogue at Tell Hum on the Sea of Galilee, the probable site of Capernaum. Here they found the remains of a once beautiful synagogue which was probably built in the fourth century A. D. Beneath this is the floor of a still older building. The last is probably the synagogue in which so many of the incidents of the ministry of Christ in Capernaum took place, the one built by a Roman centurion.”
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Luk 7:1-10
The servant (or slave) of the centurion of Capernaum is healed.
Luk 7:1
Now when he had ended all his sayings. This clearly refers to the sermon on the mount. That great discourse evidently occupied a position of its own in the public ministry of the Lord. Its great length, its definite announcement of the kind of reign he was inaugurating over the hearts of men, its stern rebuke of the dominant religious teaching of the day, its grave prophetic onlooks,all marked it out as the great manifesto of the new Master, and as such it seems to have been generally received. He entered into Capernaum. The residence of Jesus, as we have before pointed out, during the greater part of his public life. It was, as it were, his head-quarters. After each missionary tour he returned to the populous, favoured lake-city which he had chosen as his temporary home.
Luk 7:2
And a certain centurion’s servant; literally, slave. The difference is important, as we shall see in the picture presented to us of the centurion’s character. A centurion was an officer in the Roman army: the grade answers to the modem European captainGerman, hauptmann; the command included a hundred soldiers. Scholars are not agreed respecting the special service of this particular officer. Some consider he was a Greek or Syrian holding a commission under the prince of the country, the tetrach Herod Antipas; others, that he was in the service of the empire, with a small detachment of the garrison of Caesarea, doing duty at the important lake-city, probably in connection with the revenue. It is clear that Roman garrisons at this period were dotted about the various centres of population in these semi-dependent states. At Jerusalem we know a considerable Roman force was stationed, professedly to keep order in the turbulent capital, but really, no doubt, to overawe the national party. Was sick, and ready to die. St. Matthew calls the disease paralysis, and adds that the sufferer was in extreme pain. The disorder was probably some dangerous form of rheumatic fever, which not unfrequently attacks the region of the heart, and is accompanied with severe pain, and proves in many instances fatal. The ordinary, paralysis would scarcely be accompanied with the acute pain mentioned by St. Matthew.
Luk 7:3
And when he heard of Jesus; better rendered, having heard about Jesus. His fame as a good Physician, such as never had arisen before, coupled with his reputation as a Teacher, had now travelled far and wide. The devout centurion probably had watched with extreme interest the career of the strange and remarkable Teacher-Prophet who had risen up among the people, and had apparently (see note on Luk 7:7) made up his mind that this Jesus was no mortal man. He sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant; better rendered elders without the article; that is, some of the official elders connected with his own synagogue. These would be able, with more grace than himself, to plead his cause with the Master, telling him how well the centurion had deserved any assistance which a Jewish physician could afford him.
Luk 7:4, Luk 7:5
He was worthy for whom he should do this: for he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. There are several mentions of these Roman military officers in the Gospels and Acts, and in every instance the mention is a favourable one. Still more notable instances occur in the case of Corneliusto whom Peter was specially sent (Act 10:1-48., 11.)of the centurion who was on guard at the execution on Calvary, and of the centurion who conveyed Paul to Rome (Act 27:1-3). On these Gentile soldiers “the faith and life of Judaism had made a deep impression: he found a purity, reverence, simplicity, and nobleness of life which he had not found elsewhere, and so he loved the nation, and built a new one of the synagogues of the town” (Dean Plumptre). The centurion was apparently one of those foreigners whowithout submitting to circumcision and other burdensome ceremonial rites which were incompatible with the exercise of his professionhad accepted the faith of Israel, and worshipped with the people in the position of one who, in another age, would have been termed a “proselyte of the gate.” He was evidently one of those true-hearted men who translated a beautiful creed into acts, for it was specially urged by the elders, in their petition to Jesus, that he loved the people, no doubt emphasizing his generous almsgivings, and, as a crowning act of his kindness, had built a synagogue Capernaum. Modern travellers tell us that among the ruins of this city of Jesus are the remains of a white marble synagogue of the time of the Herods. This may have been the Roman soldier’s noble gift to Israel. The whole character of this nameless officer seems to have been singularly noble. In those selfish days of undreamed-of luxury, cruelty, and heartlessness, for a master to care for, much less to love, a slave was, comparatively speaking, rare. From his message to Jesus (verse 7) it would seem as though he had a clearer conception who the poor Galilaean Teacher was than any one else at that period of the public ministry, not excluding the inner circle of disciples.
Luk 7:6
Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof. Augustine’s comment on these remarkable words is good: “By saying that he was unworthy, he showed himself worthy of Christ’s entering, not within his walls, but within his heart.”
Luk 7:7
But say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. The Gentile soldier’s faith was really great. He had risen above the need of an outward sign, such as a touch or even the sound of a living voice. He needed no contact with the fringe of the Master’s garment, asked for no handkerchief or apron that had touched his person (Act 19:12). The word the Master would speak would be enough; the result he willed would assuredly follow. “Do not come hither where my servant is, but only speak here where thou art.” The centurion had a just notion of Christ’s power. And our Lord greatly commended him, whereas Martha, who said, “I know whatsoever thou shalt ask of God he will give it thee” (Joh 11:22) was reproved as having spoken amiss; and Christ thus teaches that he is the Source of blessings, which he could not be unless he were God (compare Bishop Wordsworth, in part quoting from St. Chrysostom).
Luk 7:8
For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. What the soldier really thought of Jesus is evident when we read between the lines of this saying of his: “If I, who am under many a superiorthe chiliarch of my thousand, the tribunes of my legion, my emperor who commands at Romeyet receive a ready and willing obedience from my soldiers, and have but to say to one, ‘ Go,’ and he goeth, to another, ‘Come,’ and he cometh; how much more thou, who hast no one above thee, no superior, when thou commandest disease, one of thy ministers, will it not at once obey?” The same thought was in Archdeacon Farrar’s mind when he wrote how the centurion inferred that Jesus, who had the power of healing at a distance, had at his command thousands of the “heavenly army” (Luk 2:13; Mat 26:53), who would
“At his bidding speed
“And post o’er land and ocean without rest.”
(Milton.)
Luk 7:9
When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him. Augustine strikingly comments here on the expression , he marvelled: “Who had inspired that faith but he who now admires it?” In marvelling at it he intimated that we ought to admire. He admires for our good, that we may imitate the centurion’s faith; such movements in Christ are not signs of perturbation of mind, but are exemplary and hortatory to us. I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. St. Augustine remarks here that “the Lord had found in the oleaster what he had not found in the olive.”
Luk 7:10
Returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick. Farrar suggests “convalescent” as a more accurate rendering than “whole.” The Greek equivalent is one of the medical words we find in this Gospel of St. Luke. The words, “that had been sick,” do not occur in the other authorities. They are omitted in the Revised Version.
Luk 7:11-17
The Master raises from the dead the only son of the widow of Nain.
Luk 7:11
And it came to pass the day after. The Greek expression here, in the majority of the more ancient authorities, is vague as a note of time. The Revised Version renders it “soon afterwards.” The incident that follows the raising from the dead of the widow’s son is only mentioned by St. Luke. It is generally assumed that our Lord only raised three persons from the deadthis young man of Nain. the little daughter of Jairus the ruler, and Lazarus of Bethany. But such an assumption is purely arbitrary. We have before called attention to the vast number of miracles worked by Jesus during the two years and a half of the public ministry not reported by the evangelists at all, or only glanced at in passing. There were, most probably, among these unreported miracles several instances of men, women, and children raised from the dead. St. Augustine, in one of his sermons (98.), specially calls attention to this in his words, “of the numerous persons raised to life by Christ, three only are mentioned as specimens in the Gospels.” Each evangelist specially chooses one of the various examples, no doubt known to himthat peculiar instance or instances best suited to the especial teaching of his Gospel. St. John alone recounts the raising of Lazarus. St. Luke is the solitary reporter of the miracle performed on the dead son of the widow of Nain. We may reasonably infer, says Dean Plumptre, that this miracle, from its circumstances, had specially fixed itself in the memories of the “devout women” of Luk 8:1, and that it was from them that St. Luke obtained his accurate and detailed knowledge of this, as well as of many other of the incidents which he alone relates in his Gospel. He went into a city called Nain. From the Hebrew , naim fair, probably so called from its striking situation on a steep hill. It is on the slope of Little Hermon, near Endor, some twenty or more miles from Capernaum. The name Nein is still given to a small poor village on the same site. It is approached by a narrow, steep ascent, and on either side of the road are sepulchral caves. It was in one of these that the dead man was about to have been laid when the Master met the little mourning procession winding down the steep road as he and his crowd of followers were toiling up the ascent nearing the gate of the city.
Luk 7:13
And when the Lord saw her. It is rare in the Gospels to find the expression, “the Lord,” used by itself, “Jesus” being the usual term. It agrees with the unanimous tradition in the Church respecting the authorship of this Gospelneither Luke nor Paul had been with Jesus. These had always looked on Jesus, thought of him, as the Lord risen from the dead, enthroned in heaven. At the period when St. Luke wrote, not earlier than a.d. 60, this title had probably become the usual term by which the Redeemer was known among his own. He had compassion on her. In this instance, as in so many others, our Lord’s miracles were worked, not from a distinct purpose to offer credentials of his mission, but proceeded rather from his intense compassion with and his Divine pity for human sufferings.
Luk 7:14
And he came and touched the bier. The young man was about to be buried in the Jewish manner, which differed from the Egyptian custom. The corpse was not laid in a coffin or mummy-case, but simply on an open bier, on which the dead lay wrapped in folds of linen; so Lazarus was buried at Bethany, and our Lord in his rock-tomb in Joseph of Arimathaea’s garden. A napkin, or sudarium, was lightly laid over the face. It was pollution for the living to touch the bier on which a corpse was lying. The bearers, in their amazement that one so generally respected and admired as was Jesus, the Teacher of Nazareth, at this period of his career, should commit so strange an act, would naturally at once stand still to see what next would happen. Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. The Lord of life performed his miracle over death in a very different fashion to those great ones who, in some respects, had anticipated or followed him in these strange deeds of wonder. Before they recalled the dead to life, Elijah mourned long over the sea of the widow of Sarepta, Elisha repeatedly stretched himself as he agonized in prayer upon the lifeless corpse of the Shunammite boy, Peter prayed very earnestly over the body of Dorcas at Lydda. The Master, with one solitary word, brings the spirit from its mysterious habitation back to its old earthly tenement”Km!” “Arise!” St. Augustine has a beautiful comment on the three miracles of raising the dead related in the Gospels. He has been saying that all our Lord’s works of mercy to the body have a spiritual reference to the soul; he then proceeds to consider them “as illustrations of Christ’s Divine power and love in raising the soul, dead in trespasses and sins, from every kind of spiritual death, whether the soul be dead, but not yet carried out, like the daughter of Jairus; or dead and carried out, but not buried, like the widow’s son; or dead, carried, and buried, like Lazarus. He who raised himself from the dead can raise all from the death of sin. Therefore let no one despair”. Godet has a curious and interesting note on what he calls a difficulty peculiar to the miracle, owing to the absence of all moral receptivity in the subject of it. “Lazarus was a believer. In the case of the daughter of Jairus, the faith of the parents to a certain extent supplied the place of her personal faith. But here there is nothing of the kind. The only receptive element that can be imagined is the ardent desire of life with which this young man, the only sea of a widowed mother, had doubtless yielded his last breath; and this indeed is sufficient, for it follows from this that Jesus did not dispose of him arbitrarily.”
Luk 7:16
And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited his people. With the exception of two or three like the centurion, whose sick servant was healed, this was the general conception which the people had of Jesusa fear is mentioned in this placethe natural result of the marvellous works, especially those worked in the case of the already dead, but nothing more. The sublime humility of the great Wonder-worker failed to persuade the bulk of men and women with whom he came in contact. They could not look on this quiet Rabbi-Physician, who gently put all state and pomp and glory aside, as the Divine Messiah; but that in Jesus Israel possessed a great Prophet the people were persuadedthey recognized that at last, after four long centuries of absence, God again had visited his people. There had arisen in the coasts of Israel no prophet of the Highest since the far-back days of Malachi, some four hundred years before the days of the Lord and his forerunner John.
Luk 7:18-35
John the Baptist sends messengers to ask a question of Jesus. The reply of the Master.
Luk 7:18
And the disciples of John showed him of all these things. St. Luke, unlike St. Matthew, in the corresponding passage in his Gospel, does not specially mention that John was in prison; he evidently took it for granted that this would be known to his readers from the account of the Baptist’s arrest and imprisonment by Herod Antipas given in Joh 3:19, Joh 3:20. In the course of John’s imprisonment, it is probable that very many of his disciples became hearers of Jesus. During the early period, at all events, of the Baptist’s captivity it is clear that his friends and disciples had free access to his prison. There is no doubt but that, in reply to the anxious inquiries of John, his disciples told him of all the miracles they had witnessed, and the words they had heard, especially, no doubt, recounting to him much of the sermon on the mount which Jesus had lately delivered as the exposition of his doctrine. We can well imagine these faithful but impatient disciples, after detailing these marvels which they had seen, and the strange new words of winning power which they had heard, saying to their imprisoned master, “We have seen and heard these wondrous things, but the great Teacher gets no further; we hear nothing of the standard of King Messiah being raised, nothing of the high hope of the people being encouraged; he seems to pay no attention to the imperious rule of the foreigner, or the degrading tyranny of men like Antipas, the Herod who has wrongfully shut you up. He rather withdraws himself, and when the people, fired by his winning words and mighty acts, begin to grow enthusiastic, then this strange Man hides himself away. Can he be Messiah, as you once said?”
Luk 7:19
And John calling unto him two of his disciples, sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another? What, now, was in John the Baptist’s mind, when from his prison he sent his disciples to ask Jesus this anxious question? Disappointed in the career of Jesus, possibly himself partly forgotten, accustomed to the wild freedom of a desert-life, suffering from the hopeless imprisonment,had his faith begun to waver? or was the question put with a view of reassuring his own disciples, with the intention of giving these faithful followers of his an opportunity of convincing themselves of the power and real glory of Jesus? In other words, was it for his own sake or for his disciples‘ sakes that he sent to ask the question? Generally speaking, the second of these two conclusionsthat which ascribed the question to a desire on the part of John to help his disciples (which we will call B)was adopted by the expositors of the early Church. A good example of this school of interpretation is the following quotation from St. Jerome: “John does not put this question from ignorance, for he himself had proclaimed Christ to be ‘the Lamb of God.’ But as our Lord asked concerning the body of Lazarus, ‘Where have ye laid him?’ (Joh 11:34), in order that they who answered the question might, by their own answer, be led to faith, so John, now about to be slain by Herod, sends his disciples to Jesus, in order that, by this occasion, they who were jealous of the fame of Jesus (Luk 9:14; Joh 3:26) might see his mighty works and believe in him, and that, while their master asked the question by them, they might hear the truth for themselves” (St. Jerome, quoted by Wordsworth). To the same effect wrote SS. Ambrose, Hilary, Chrysostom, Theophylact. Among the Reformers, Calvin, Beza, and Melancthon contended for this opinion respecting the Baptist’s message to Christ, and in our days Stier and Bishop Wordsworth. On the other hand, Tertullian among the Fathers, and nearly all the modern expositors, believe that the question of John was prompted by his own wavering faitha faltering no doubt shared in by his own disciples. This conclusion (which we will term A) is adopted, with slightly varying modifications, by Meyer, Ewald, Neander, Godet, Plumptre, Farrar, and Morrison. This way(A) generally adopted by the modern school of expositorsof understanding the Baptist’s question to Jesus, is evidently the conclusion which would suggest itself to all minds who went to the story without any preconceived desire to purge the character of a great saint from what they imagine to be a blot; and we shall presently see that our Lord, in his answer to the question, where a rebuke is exquisitely veiled in a beatitude, evidently understood the forerunner’s question in this sense. It is thus ever the practice of Holy Scripture; while it tenderly and lovingly handles the characters of its heroes, it never flinches from the truth. We see God’s noblest saints, such as Moses and Elijah (John’s own prototype) in the Old Testament, Peter and Paul in the New Testament, depicted in this book of truth with all their faults; nothing is hid. Only one flawless character appears in its storied pagesit is only the Master of Peter and Paul who never turns aside from the path of right.
Luk 7:21
And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. “He knew as God what John’s design was in sending to him, and he put it into his heart to send at that very time when he himself was working many miracles which were the true answer to the question” (Cyril, quoted by Wordsworth).
Luk 7:22
Tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised. These miracles which the messengers witnessed that day, striking though they were, were no novel ones in the work of our Lord. They were, too, precisely similar to those which had already been reported to him in his prison (verse 18). But Jesus, pointing to these signs, bade the friends of the Baptist return and tell their master what they had seen in these words. The great Messianic prophet, whose writings were so well known to John, had said that Messiah’s advent would be heralded by these very acts. John would in a moment catch the meaning of the reply. The passages in question are Isa 29:18 and Isa 35:4, Isa 35:6. Wordsworth, on these works wrought by the great Physician, very beautifully writes, “One of the most consolatory reflections produced by these mighty and merciful works of Christ on earth is the assurance they give that at the great day of resurrection he will remove all infirmities and blemishes from the bodies of his servants, and clothe them in immortal health, beauty, and glory, so as to be like his own glorious body, once marred on the cross, but raised by himself from the dead, and now reigning for ever in glory” (Bishop Wordsworth). To the poor the gospel is preached. John would be able to draw his inference, too, from this feature in Jesus’ work. His messengers would have heard the Teacher’s words, and would have marked from what class especially his hearers were drawn. It was a new experience in the world’s story, this tender care for the poor. No heathen teacher of Rome or Athens, of Alexandria or the far East, had ever cared to make this vast class of unprofitable hearers the objects of their teaching. The rabbis of Israel cared nothing for them. In the Talmud we often find them spoken of with contempt. But John knew that this speaking to and consorting with the poor would be one of the marked characteristics of Messiah when he came.
Luk 7:23
And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. Our Lord here shows that he understood that this question came from the Baptist himself. Dean Plumptre calls attention to the tender way in which our Lord dealt with the impatience which John’s question implied. “A warning was needed, but it was given in the form of a beatitude, which it was still open to him to claim and make his own. Not to find a stumbling-block in the manner in which Christ had actually come, there was this condition of entering fully into the blessedness of his kingdom.”
Luk 7:24
And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John. When the messengers of John were departed, the Lord, fearful lest the people who had been standing by and listening to the question which the Baptist had put, and his answer, should entertain any disparaging thought of a great and sorely tried saint of God, spoke the following noble testimony concerning that true, faithful witness. It has been termed the funeral oration of John; for not long after it had been spoken he was put to death by Herod Antipas. What went ye out into the wilderness for to see a reed shaken with the wind? The imagery was taken from the scenery in the midst of which John the Baptist had principally exercised his ministrythe reedy banks of Jordan. It was surely to see an everyday sighta weak vacillating man blown to and fro with every wind. John, though his faith failed him for a moment perhaps, was no wavering reed.
Luk 7:25
But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they which are gorgeously apparelled, and live delicately, are in kings’ courts. Was it, again, to see one of earth’s so-called great onesa favourite of the reigning monarch, a courtier of the magnificent Herod? John was no court favourite, no powerful or princely noble. Dean Plumptre thinks that here a reference is made to the fact that, in the early days of Herod the Great, a section of the scribes had attached themselves to his policy and party, and in doing so had laid aside the sombre raiment of their order, and had appeared in the gorgeous raiment worn by Herod’s other courtiers. “We may trace,” adds the dean, “with very little hesitation, a vindictive retaliation for these very words in the ‘gorgeous robe’ with which Herod arrayed him in mockery, when the tetrarch and Christ stood for one brief hour face to face with each other” (Luk 23:4).
Luk 7:26
But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet. The great Teacher proceeds in his discourse. From the scene and the surroundingsthe reeds of the banks of Jordanhe went on to speak of the great Jordan preacher, so unlike, in spite of this one weak wavering hour, the reeds in the midst of which he preached. Jesus thus painted the grave, austere man, first in his stern enmity to the seductive magnificence of a court-life, then in his severe austerity as regards himself. Who, then, was hethis preacher to whom the people had resorted in such crowds to see and hear? Was he a prophet? was he one more of those men who in past ages had been the salt which preserved Israel from decay? Yes; that is what he was, that true great onea prophet in the deepest, truest sense of the word. Ah! higher still, went on the Teacher, John was much more than a prophet. What then? and the by-standers marvelled; what more could he be? Was he, peradventure, the Messiah?
Luk 7:27
This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. He quietly answers the question surging up in the listeners’ hearts. No; not Messiah, but his forerunner. Centuries ago the mission of this John was foretold, and exactly described by one of the well-known and honoured prophet line. They who were listening, many of them, knew the words well, as the Teacher quoted from the great Malachi. The old ring of the famous prediction was unchanged; perhaps few of the by-standers noticed the slight alteration which was made by Jesus as he quoted. But in after-days the deep significance of the seemingly trifling change, we may well imagine, was the subject of many a deep solemn hour of meditation among the twelve and the early leaders of the faith. The words in Mal 3:1-18.1 stand thus: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me.” Our Lord so changes the text that, instead of “before me,” it reads with this slight difference, “Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.” The Lord who speaks by the prophets in Malachi announces himself as the coming angel of the covenant: “my messenger shall prepare the way before me;” but this, the Lord who is come as the Son of man, may not as yet openly declare; it is enough that by the thrice-repeated (“thy face,” “thy way,” “before thee”), he signifies that he is marked out and referred to by the Father. See how, without directly uttering it, he nevertheless announces his (“I am he”) in his sublime humility (so Stier, ‘Words of the Lord Jesus’). Godet presents the same thought from another point of view: “In the prophet’s eyes he who was sending, and he before whom the way was to be prepared, were one and the same Person, Jehovah. Hence the ‘ before me’ of Malachi. But for Jesus, who is speaking of himself, and never confounds himself with the Father, a distinction became necessary. It is not Jehovah speaking of himself but Jehovah speaking to Jesus; hence the form ‘before thee.'”
Luk 7:28
For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. These striking words close the Master’s splendid testimony to the great pioneer. The usual explanation adopted by most if not all modern theologians of the last clause of the verse is, that, great as John was, yet he that is least among Christians who have been born of God and have accepted as an article of their faith the crucifixion and ascension of the Son of God, is greater than that great prophet; or, in other words, the humblest child of the new kingdom is superior to the greatest prophet of the old. But many of the wisest and best of the Fathers of the Churchamongst others Chrysostom, Augustine, Hilary, and Theophylactfind grave difficulty in accepting this too sweeping and facile explanation of a hard saying. They suggest what seems to the writer of this Exposition a more reverential meaning to the Lord’s words here. By “the least” we prefer, then, with Chrysostom and other ancient Fathers, to understand Jesus himself. The literal meaning of the Greek is “the lesser,” not “least”. By “lesser” or “little” Chrysostom supposes that the Saviour refers to himself as less than John in age and according to the opinions of many. “Thus, then, among the sons of men no prophet greater than John the Baptist has arisen; yet there is one among you lesser in age and perhaps in public estimation,in the kingdom of God, though, greater than he.” Wordsworth strengthens the above interpretation by his comment on the words, “among those that are born of women.” “No one among those born of human parents had appeared greater than this John the Baptist; but do not suppose that he is greater than I. I am not , but , and though after him in the gospel because he is my precursor, yet I am greater than he.” This great expositor, while on the whole preferring the usual interpretation, yet considers that the explanation which refers “he that is least” to Christ, is not lightly to be set aside. If this interpretation be adopted, the usual punctuation of the passage must be slightly altered thus: “He that is lesser, in the kingdom of God is greater than he.”
Luk 7:29
And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God. This is not, as many expositors have assumed, a statement of St. Luke’s own as to the effect of John’s preaching on varied classes of his hearers, but the words are still the words of Jesus; it is a continuation of his eulogy of the Baptist. He says here that the people, “the folk,” listened gladly to him; they were persuaded in great numbers of the necessity of a changed life, and were in consequence baptized by him. The meaning of the term, “justified God,” is that these, the common folk, by their actions and ready acceptance of the great reformer-preacher, thus publicly declared that they acknowledged the wisdom and goodness of God in this his work through the Baptist; but, as is stated in the next verse
Luk 7:30
But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him. The ruling classes and the highly cultured in Israel, turned a deaf ear to the fervent preaching of the gospel; as a class, they came not to his baptism. The result of the refusal of these powerful and learned men to hear the reformer’s voice was that John’s mission failed to bring about a national reformation. Rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him. The English Version here is not happy, and might lead to a false conception of the words of the original. The Greek would be better and more accurately rendered, “rejected for themselves the counsel of God.”
Luk 7:31
And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? The Master evidently paused a moment here. He sought for some homely, popular simile which would drive home to the listeners’ hearts his sad and solemn judgment of the conduct of the ruling Jews of this time. The generation he was then addressing had been singularly blessed with two great Divine messagesthe one delivered by that eminent servant of God, John, about whom he had been speaking in such glowing, earnest terms; the other message was his own. He chose for his purpose one of those everyday scenes from the people’s life, a scene which they had witnessed often, and in which, no doubt, in past days many of the by-standers themselves had taken a partone of those child-games which the little ones in his day were wont to play in the summer evenings, and in which, likely enough, he in his boyish years had often shared in, as he played in the little market-place of Nazareth. He likened the wayward men of that generation to a group of children of the people in some open space of the city, now playing at rejoicings, such as take place at wedding festivities, now at wailings, which in Eastern countries accompany funerals; that is to say, the little group would divide itself into two companies, and one would say to the other, “Come, now we will play at a wedding; here are the pipers and the singers, do you come and dance and make merry;” but the others would not. Then the little company of would-be merrymakers would beat their breasts and cry with pretended sorrow; but the others still declined to join in the game of mourningwould not play “at a funeral,” just as they refused to join in the game of “rejoicing at a wedding.” To such a band of imperious little ones, who were angry if the others did not at once comply with their demands, Jesus compared the wayward and evil generation in which he and John lived. Had they not found bitter fault with John because he had declined to have anything to do with their wicked self-indulgent feasting and luxury? How often had Pharisee and scribe railed with bitter railings against Jesus because he would have nothing to do with their false and hypocritical fastings, with their pretended shrinking from what they deemed unclean and unworthy of them! Dr. Morrison puts it rightly, and forcibly: “They were dissatisfied with John, and would have nothing to do with him.” If we are to have reformers, commend us to such as come near us, and visit our houses, and sit at our tables, and are sociable like ourselves.’ They pretended, on the other hand, to scorn Jesus, who, while making so lofty a profession, yet went about eating and drinking in people’s houses, and even in the homes of publicans and sinners. ‘He should have gone into the desert and lived an abstemious life … Commend us to ascetic men for our reformers.'” The line of interpretation which seems to us simpler and fitted to the framework of the little parable is in the main thus adopted by Meyer, Dr. W. Bleek, Bishop Wordsworth, and Dean Plumptre. “You men of this generation,” writes Bishop Wordsworth, “are like a troop of wayward children, who go on with their own game, at one time gay, at another grave, and give heed to no one else, and expect that every one should conform to them. You were angry with John because he would not dance to your piping, and with me because 1 will not weep to your dirge; John censured your licentiousness, I rebuke your hypocrisy; you vilify both, and reject the good counsel of God, who has devised a variety of means for your salvation.”
Luk 7:33
For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine. Referring to his austere life spent in the desert, apart from the ordinary joys and pleasures of men, not even sharing in what are usually termed the necessities of life. He was, in addition, a perpetual Nazarite, and as such no wine or fermented drink ever passed his lips. And ye say, He hath a devil. Another way for expressing their conviction that the great desert-preacher was insane, and assigning a demoniacal possession as the cause of madness. Not very long after this incident the curtain of death fell on the earthly scene of John’s life. “We fools accounted his life madness, and his end to be without honour: how is he numbered among the children of God, and his lot is among the saints!” (Wis. 5:4, 5). We. may be quite sure that “in the fiery furnace God walked with his servant, so that his spirit was not harmed, and having thus annealed his nature to the utmost that this earth can do, he took him hastily away and placed him among the glorified in heaven” (Irving, quoted by Farrar).
Luk 7:34
The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! The reproach belonged to the general way of our Lord’s way of living, consorting as he did with men and women in the common everyday life of man, sharing in their joys as in their sorrows, in their festivity as in their mourning. But the words specially refer to his taking part in such scenes as the feast in the house of Matthew the publican.
Luk 7:35
But wisdom is justified of all her children. One of those bright, wise sayings of the Son of mail which belong not to the society of Capernaum and Jerusalem, but which are the heritage of all ages. The words find their fulfilment in all those holy and humble men of heartrich as well as poorwho rejoice in goodness and purity, in self-denying love and bright faith, whether it be preached or advocated by a Fenelon or a Wesley.
Luk 7:36-50
The nameless woman who was a sinner, and Simon the-Pharisee. As regards the incident about to be told, some commentators have believed that the anointing was identical with that related by St. John as having taken place at Bethany very shortly before the Crucifixion. Without detailing the several points of difference in the two recitals, it will be sufficient surely to call attention to the character of the Bethany family, Lazarus and his sisters, the intimate friends of Jesus, to show how monstrous it would be to attempt to connect the poor soul who followed the Master to Simon’s house with the sweet Mary of Bethany. A widely spread and, in the Western Church, a very generally received tradition identifies this woman with Mary of Magdalathe Mary Magdalene mentioned in Luk 9:2, and again after the Crucifixion, in company with the band of holy women (Luk 24:10). Out of Mary Magdalene, we learn, had been cast seven devils. This, however, gives us no clue to identify the two; rather the contrary. It is scarcely likely that the apparently well-known courtesan of the touching story was a demoniac.
The earliest writers say nothing respecting the identity of the two. Gregory the Great, however, stamped the theory with his direct assertion, and that the Western Church generally accepted the identification of the two is clear from the selection of this narrative of St. Luke as the portion of Scripture appointed for the Gospel for the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene.
It is impossible to decide the question positively. One modern commentator of distinction quaintly pleads for Gregory the Great’s rather arbitrary theory, by suggesting that there is no sufficient reason to disturb the ancient Christian belief which has been consecrated in so many glorious works of art; but, in spite of this, the opinion which considers “the woman which was a sinner” the same person as “the Magdalene,” is really based on Little else than on a mediaeval tradition.
St. Luke alone relates this touching story. We can conceive the joy of Paul when this “memory of the Master” came across him. It so admirably illustrates what this great teacher felt was his Master’s mind on the all-important subjectthe freeness and universality of salvation.
It seems likely enough that Dean Plumptre’s interesting conjecture respecting this scene in the Pharisee Simon’s house is correct. “Occurring, as the narrative does, in St. Luke only, it is probable enough that the ‘woman which was a sinner’ became known to the company of devout women named in the following chapter (Luk 8:1-3), and that the evangelist derived his knowledge of the fact from them. His reticenceprobably their reticenceas to the name was, under the circumstances, at once natural and considerate.” No special note of time or of the locality is appended. If this sinner was one and the same with the Magdalene, then the city implied is certainly Magdala, the modern mud village of El-Mejdel, but at that time a populous wealthy town on the Lake of Galilee. If, as we believe, the two were not identical, the city is most probably Capernaum, the usual residence of our Lord.
Luk 7:36
And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house. Up to this period the relations between our Lord and the dominant parties in the capital had not reached a state of positive hostility. The Pharisees, as the chief among these parties in the state, had taken the initiative, and were sharply watching One whose influence among the people they more than suspected was hostile to them. But they had not as yet declared him a public enemy and blasphemer. This wealthy Pharisee, Simon, was evidently, like others of his sect at this time, Wavering in his estimate of Jesus. On the one hand, he was naturally influenced by the hostile views entertained at head-quarters concerning the Galilaean Teacher; on the other, personal intercourse with the Master, the acts he had witnessed, and the words he had heard, disposed him to a reverential admiration. Simon evidently (Luk 7:39) had not made up his mind whether or not Jesus was a Prophet. His soul, toothis we gather from Luk 7:42had received some great spiritual good from his intercourse with the Master. But though he invited him to be a guest at his house, and evidently loved him (Luk 7:47) a little, still he received his Divine Guest with but a chilling and coldly courteous reception. Not unlikely Simon the Pharisee knew lie was watched that day, and that among his guests were men who would report every action of his on that occasion to the leaders of his party in Jerusalem. His cold courtesy, almost lack of courtesy, towards the Master was thus probably the result of his fear of man and of man’s judgment. And sat down to meat; literally, reclined. The Jews at that time followed in their repasts the Greek (or Roman) custom of reclining on couches; the guest lay with his elbows on the table, and his feet, unsandalled, stretched out on the couch.
Luk 7:37
And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house. The text in the older authorities is more forcible: “a woman which was a sinner in that city.” Her miserable way of life would thus be well known to Simon and other of the guests. This sad detail would serve to bring out the contrast in more vivid colours. In these Oriental feasts the houses were often left open, and uninvited strangers frequently passed in through the open courtyard into the guest-chamber, and looked on. She had heard Jesus already, perhaps often, and had drunk in his pleading words, begging sinners to turn and to come to him for peace. Perhaps what had decided her to take this step of boldly seeking out the Master were words apparently spoken about this time (in St. Matthew’s Gospel they follow directly after the discourse respecting the Baptist just related), “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” etc. (Mat 11:28-30). It was a bold step for one like her to press uninvited, in broad daylight, into the house of a rigid purist like Simon; but the knowledge that Jesus (though personally, as she thought, she was unknown to him) was there, gave her courage; she felt no one would dare to thrust her out of the presence of the strange loving Master, who so earnestly had bidden the sin-weary come to him, and he would give them rest! Brought an alabaster box of ointment. Pliny mentions alabaster as the best material for pots or vessels intended for these precious ointments. It was softer than marble, and easily scooped into pots or bottles. These costly unguents and cosmetics were much used by the wealthy Roman ladies. The precious ointment poured over the Redeemer’s feet had probably been originally procured for a very different purpose. The word , translated “ointment,” was used for any kind of sweet-smelling vegetable essence, especially that of the myrtle.
Luk 7:38
And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. It had been, no doubt, with her a settled purpose for days, this presenting herself to the pitiful Master. She had been one of his listeners, without doubt, for some time previously, and that morning probably she made up her mind to approach him. He was a great public Teacher, and his movements would be well known in the city. She heard he was to be present at a feast in the house of the rich Pharisee Simon. It would be easier, she thought, to get close to him there than in the crowd in the marketplace or in the synagogue; so taking with her a flask of perfumed ointment, she passed into the courtyard with others, and so made her way unnoticed into the guest-chamber. As she stood behind him, and the sweet words of forgiveness and reconciliation, the pleading invitation to all heavy-laden, sin-burdened ones to come to him for peace, which she in the past days bad listened to so eagerly, came into her mind, unbidden tears rose into her eyes and fell on the Master’s feet as he lay on his couch; and, after the manner of slaves with their masters, she wiped the tear-wet feet with her long hair, which she evidently loosed for this loving purpose, and then quietly poured the fragrant ointment on the feet where her tears had fallen. It was the perfume of the ointment which called the host’s attention to this scene of sorrow and heartfelt penitence.
Luk 7:39
Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This Man, if he were a Prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him. It is clear that it was no mere curiosity which prompted his asking the Master to be his Guest. Respect and love for the Galilaean Teacher alternated with dread of what the Pharisee order to which he belonged would think of his conduct. As we have said, he compromised the matter with his heart, by inviting Jesus publicly, but then only receiving him with the coldest formality. He seems half-glad of this incident, for it seemed in some measure to excuse his haughty unfriendly reception of One from whom he had undoubtedly received rich spiritual benefit, as we shall see further on. “Hardly a great Prophet, then, after all, else he would have known all about her.” This was what at once occurred to Simon. For she is a sinner. Yes, in Simon’s mind, and in the world’s estimation, but before the throne of God she was differently viewed. She had heard the Master’s loving call to repentance, and a new life and a change had taken place in her whole being since she had listened to his voice.
Luk 7:40
And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. How accurately did the Master read Simon’s heart. Not a real Prophet because he was in ignorance of the character and life of the woman whom he suffered without rebuke to pour the fragrant ointment over him! We almost see the half-sad smile flickering on the Teacher’s lips as he turned and spoke to his host. Such a parable-story as Jesus was about to give utterance to was no uncommon form of teaching on such an occasion when a well-known Rabbi like Jesus was Guest at a festal gathering.
Luk 7:41, Luk 7:42
There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. The illustration was from the everyday life of the people. This lending and borrowing was ever a prominent feature in the common life of the Jews. Pointed warnings against greed and covetousness, and the habit of usury, and the love of perpetual trafficking, we find in all the Old Testament books, notably in Deuteronomy, and then centuries later in the Proverbs, besides repeated instances in the prophetic writings and historical books. The character of the Jews in this respect has never changed from the days of their nomad lifefrom the times of their slavery under the Pharaohs to our own day. In this particular instance the two debtors were of the common folk, the sums in question being comparatively small; but in both cases the debtors could never hope to pay their creditors. They were alike hopelessly insolvent, both helplessly bankrupt. The larger sum, considering’ the relative value of money, has been computed only to have represented about 50 of our currency. And the two received from their creditor a free, generous acquittance of the debt which would have hopelessly ruined them. In the mind of Jesus the larger debt pictured the terrible catalogue of sins which the penitent woman acknowledged she had committed; the smaller, the few transgressions which even the Pharisee confessed to having been guilty of. They were both sinners before God, both equally insolvent in his eyes; whether the debt was much or little was to the almighty Creditor a matter of comparative, indifferencehe frankly forgave them both (better, “freely,” the Greek word signifies “forgave of his generous bounty”). The Revisers simply translate “he forgave,” but something more is needed to reproduce the beautiful word in the original. “Frankly,” in the sense of “freely,” is used by Shakespeare
“I do beseech your grace
… now to forgive me frankly.”
(‘Henry VIII.,’ act 2. sc. 1.)
Luk 7:43
Thou hast rightly judged. “Come, now, I will show thee what I meant by my little story, in thine answer. Thou hast judged thyself. Thou art the man with the little debt of sin, as thou thinkest, and the little love given in return for the cancelled debt; for see how thou hast treated me thy Guest, and how she has made up for thy lack of friendship and courtesy.” The following contrasts are adduced by the Master: “Thou didst not provide me with that which is so usual to offer guestsI entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet” (in those hot dusty countries, after walking, water to wash the feet was scarcely a luxury, it was rather a necessity); “in thy house the only water which has touched my feet was the warm rain of this sad woman’s tears.”
Luk 7:45
Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. “Thou gavest me no kiss of respect on entering, to which as a Rabbi I was surely entitled; she hath repeatedly kissed my feet.”
Luk 7:46
My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. “It never entered thy thoughts to pay me the homageand yet I had helped thee, too, a littleof pouring oil on my head”; “but she hath anointed, not my head, she shrank, poor soul! from doing this; but my feet. And, too, it was no common oil which she used, but precious, fragrant ointment. A cold, loveless welcome, indeed, my Pharisee friend, was thine! Thou thinkest it honour enough the mere admitting the carpenter’s Son to thy table; no need of these special tokens of friendship for thy Guestthe water for the feet, the kiss for the face, the oil for the head. It were a pity, surely, for the great world at Jerusalem to look on thee as the friend of the Nazareth Teacher, as on the one Pharisee who loved to honour the Galilaean Reformer.”
Luk 7:47
Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven. Again, as in the synagogue, and no doubt on many other occasions, when these words were uttered, a thrill would run through the company present. Who was this, then, one would ask the other, who with this voice and mien dared to utter such things? Only One could forgive sins! Was, then, the Nazareth Rabbi, the great Physician, the Worker of awful miracleswas he the One whose Name was lost, but the echo of whose voice still lingered, they hoped, in that desecrated Holy Land? For she loved much. Are we, then, to understand by this that her love for Jesus was the cause of forgiveness? Many Roman and some Protestant expositors have believed this is the meaning of the Lord’s words. But at once a contradiction is given to this interpretation by a reference to Luk 7:42, where, after the remission of the two debtsthe great and the littleJesus asks, “Which of these will love him most?” But had love been the cause of a forgiveness of either or both of the debts, the question should have run, “Which of the two loved him most?” not “will love him most.” In addition to which the Master guards against any view of this kind being entertained, by his concluding words (Luk 7:50), “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.” The principle on which forgiveness was granted to the woman was faith, not love. Stier, in his comment here, writes that the expression of the Lord, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much,” is an argumentum, non a causa, sed ab effectu; in other words, “I say unto thee, Her many sins are forgiven, and thou must infer from this that she loved much, or, she loves much, for (that is, because) her sins are forgiven.” Stier gives another example of the meaning of “for” () in this place: “The sun is risen [it must have risen], for it is day” (Stier, ‘Words of the Lord Jesus:’ Luk 7:47). Some may askWhat great amount of sin is necessary in order to loving much? Godet well answers, “We need add nothing to what each of us already has, for the sum of the whole matter isto the noblest and purest of us, what is wanting in order to love much, is not sin, but the knowledge of it. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. This saying refers to Simon the Pharisee; the first saying (in the former part of the verse) which we have been considering refers to the woman. The same principle exactly is presented as in the first instance, and viewed from the other sidethe less forgiveness, the less love results. Our Lord is very tender in all this to Simon and men like Simon. This Pharisee had evidently tried to live up to his light, though his life was disfigured with censoriousness, narrowness, harshness, and pridethe many faults of his class. He too had heard Jesus, and had been moved and struck by his words, and, after a fashion, loved him; only the worldhis worldcame between him and his love, so that it was only a poor, pale reflection of the real feeling after all. But our Lord gives him full credit for that little love. He even excuses its poverty by saying that he, Simon, had only received a little forgiveness, and there fore only a little love was the result. Though the Lord implies in his sad irony that the little forgiveness which he had received was Simon’s own fault, for he did not think, in his self-righteousness, that he had any need to be forgiven. “O Pharisaee, parum diligis, quia parum tibi dimitti suspicaris; non quia parum dimittitur, sed quia parum putas quod dimittitur”. Godet has a deep reflection on this state of Simon’s. He asks, “May forgiveness be only partial? Then there would be men half-saved, half-lost The real forgiveness of the least sin certainly contains in germ a complete salvation, but only in germ. If faith is maintained and grows, this forgiveness will gradually extend to all the sins of a man’s life, just as they will then become more thoroughly known and acknowledged. The first forgiveness is the pledge of all the rest. In the contrary case, the forgiveness already granted will be withdrawn, just as represented in the parable of the wicked debtor (Mat 18:1-35.); and the work of grace, instead of becoming complete, will prove abortive.”
Luk 7:48
And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. Then, turning again to the woman, in her deep penitence, and at the same time in her deep joyjoy springing from her newly found peacehe formally renews to her the assurance of that pardon which she already was conscious of; but in renewing it the Lord mentioned no more “her many sins,” as in the first place (Luk 7:47), but simply, “thy sins,” thus reducing, as Stier remarks, at last both her and Simon to a common level.
Luk 7:50
And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace. Then, with just one solemn word reminding the people assembled in that guest-chamber of faith, that firm trust in the goodness and mercy of God upon which her forgiveness rested, he dismissed the woman, rousing her at once from her dreamy ecstasy, sending her from his presence back again into the ordinary life of the busy world, but bearing along with her now his mighty priceless gift of a peace which passeth understanding.
HOMILETICS
Luk 7:1-10
The centurion.
He is a Roman, whose inclinations were naturally’ opposed to all that seemed Jewish. He is a heathen by birth, whose early education was wholly removed from the worship of the Father. He is a soldier with a charge in the garrison of Capernaum, tempted, therefore, to indulgence in a domineering spirit, and to the following of that voice which whispers, “Take thy fill ere death; indulge thee and rejoice.” What is the portrait presented? A man deeply in earnest about religious things, seeking a fuller satisfaction for his need than heathenism can furnish; and on an occasion when human feelings are stirred, showing such kindliness, such gentleness, such deference along with his trust in Jesus, that, having regard to these qualities, the testimony is given, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” Notice some of the features of this great faith.
I. ITS HUMILITY. He does not himself go to Jesus. He is only a Gentile. He will not so far presume as personally to make a request. He sends the elders of the Jews. Nay, further still, as the time of Jesus’ approach draws near, another feeling arises. Is it not too great an honour that the Son of the Highest should come to his house? Other messengers are despatched, begging the Master not to trouble himself; it is too much to ask him to come under the roof of one who is not worthy to come to him. “Say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.” Great faith sees the greatness of its object. This heathen soldier has seen the hidden glory of Jesus. The disciples saw power; he saw, felt, holiness; and herein he is our teacher. On the very day of the preaching of the sermon, he is the illustration of its first Beatitude. What is the response of Christ? He entered under the roof of the Pharisee and sat at his table, but this to the Pharisee was condemnation. We do not know whether he entered the house of the centurion, but he came into his soul. As St. Augustine says, “In counting himself unworthy that Christ should enter into his door, he was counted worthy that Christ should enter into his heart.” “To this man will I look even to him that is humble and contrite in spirit.”
II. ITS SIMPLICITY. “Say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.” Observe how far he is in advance of the faith even of those who knew Christ best. The sisters of Bethany, e.g., “If thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.” His soldier experience and habits have come to his aid. Is not Christ the true King of Israel? Are not legions of angels at his bidding? Reasoning from himself, with soldiers under him, he arguesA sentence will suffice. The faith lies in his discernment of Jesus’ real character, and his ready, implicit trust. Note two features in his word. Law: “I am under authority.” Will: “I have under me soldiers, and I say to this one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh.” These features are transferred to the conception of Jesus. Grand for its simplicity is this inner apprehension of Jesus’ Person. The value of faith is that it opens the mind to the Lord. It is a poor, empty hand, but it lays hold of the law and the will. It is the “Amen” in which the soul appropriates the health of God’s countenance.
III. ITS INFLUENCE. See the directions along which it wrought.
1. Zeal for the worship of God. “He loveth our nation.” This of itself is sufficiently strange. But “he hath bulk us a synagogue.” There was a spiritual want in his neighbourhood. What excuses he might have offered! “Help these Jews? I don’t belong to their nation. I am here only for a time,” etc. But he loved the God of the Jews; and the grace of God had educated the conviction that wherever the opportunity of usefulness opens there is the door of service. Faith is always evidenced by a similar zeal, by a desire to give as we have received, to witness for him to whom we owe ourselves. Andrew finds Simon. The woman of Samaria hastens to the city to preach Christ. The centurion builds the synagogue. “I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart: I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy loving-kindness and thy truth from the great congregation.”
2. An affectionate interest in the slave. “Dear to him.” Cicero apologized in one of his noblest orations for being concerned about a slave. This soldier’s heart is bound up in the menial who waits on him. May not this menial have been the instrument of the centurion’s enlightenment? In the first Christian centuries the slaves were often thus blessed. If so, no wonder that he was grateful. Be this as it may, a true faith is a new bond of union with men. It gives a higher grace and character to every relation, because it invests the human life with a new sacredness, and reminds us of the equality of all in the love of God. In receiving God we receive one another. How does St. Paul write of the slave Onesimus? “A servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved.” The sketch in the gospel is interesting, as a picture of both the good master and the good servant. “Dear to him,” remarks Bengel, pointing to Luk 7:8, “because of his obedience.” The master’s interests are the servant’s care. And to the master the dependent is more than “a hand.” A nobler tenderness elevates the connection, and secures a place in the sympathies of the heart. Is there no homily in this touch of sanctified nature for our time?
Luk 7:11-16
The widow’s son.
We are indebted to St. Luke for the touching incidents recorded in these verses. Observe
I. THE SPRING OF THE ACTION. “When the Lord saw her, he had compassion.” Some of Christ’s most notable words and works were associated with, grew out of, circumstances which presented themselves in the course of his journeyings. There was no attempt at miracle. There was neither show nor effort. What was done was so spontaneous that it seemed as if he could not help doing it. Here a sad procession meets his eye. There are specialities in it which touch the fountains alike of Divine power and of brotherly sympathy. He is “moved with compassion.” A beautiful phrase, which bids us not merely into but behind the humanityinto the light of such a sentence as “God so loved the world.” What is redemption but the activity of Divine emotion? At Nain the compassion of Christ fulfilled itself by sparing an only son. The great love wherewith God has loved us has fulfilled itself by not sparing the only begotten Son. The compassion of Christ, as he approached the gate of the city, gave one son back to a mother. God’s great love has, through the sacrifice of the cross, brought back many sons to the outstretched arms of a waiting Father. It is our faith in this infinite compassion that is the source of all our hopes for men. It cannot be a matter of indifference to the Father that one of even his little ones perish. There are problems, as bearing on this, which the facts we observe and some intimations of the meekest and lowliest himself suggestproblems so painful and awful that, in respect of them, we must hold our peace. But, against them, trust in a living God makes it almost a necessity to cling to thisthat, in all possible states, God’s compassion has a way towards the souls he has made. As regards this particular instance, the appeal to the compassion is threefold: a mother weeps behind the bier of an only son; a widow bewails the loss of her only comforter, the support and solace of her desolate heart; it is a son, a young man, with all the possibilities of use in this world cut off, who is being carried out. In response to this appeal, he is moved; and has he not, in thus yielding to a pure human impulse, left us an example? It is right to hold all impulses in obedience to reason. We must hold compassion with a firm rein; yet it is not to be restrained by irksome bit and bridle. The best teacher in all benevolences is the heart, like that of Jesus,
“… at leisure from itself
To soothe and sympathize.”
II. THE MANNER OF THE ACTION. Interesting, with regard, first, to the event related. Note:
1. The whisper straight from the heart of the God-Man to the heart of the sufferer: “Weep not!”
2. The touch of the open coffin, causing ceremonial defilement, but expressive of the attitude of him who is the “Resurrection and the Life:” “He came and touched the bier.”
3. Then, as the pall-bearers stand still, the word with power; “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise!” What a change is wrought in that moment, and by that word! “Death is swallowed up in victory.” Suggestive and eloquent when accepted as a symbol of Saviour love and work.
Behold in the action a picture and a prophecy.
1. Hearken to the voice of God, “Weep not!” “Cure sin,” it has been said, “and you cure sorrow.” He who was made sin for us, of whom the forerunner had testified, “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!” could alone effectually wipe away the tear. The comfort of others plays on the surface; his comfort reaches into the hidden place, the hidden cause of all troubleit is the cure of sin. Are there now only faint echoesechoes becoming fainter and fainter as the ages roll onof the sentence uttered at Nain? Nay; this sentence, now that he has ascended and is the Prince and Saviour, giving repentance and forgiveness of sins, is fuller in its volume and mightier in its force. All that can give strength, that can inspire with hope, is confirmed and sealed for evermore. “Weep not!” O bruised, broken heart, there is in the “strong Son of God, immortal love,” an oil of joy for all your mourning, a garment of praise for every spirit of heaviness.
2. But the dead is there, with Christ; and the word for the dead is, “Arise!” Let us not think only of the physical death. The spiritual and the physical are always associated in the thought of Christ; and the work at Nain is a symbol of both. As special Christ-words conjoin “Weep not!” and “Arise!” “He saith,” writes St. Paul, quoting no particular saying of God, but the substance of all God’s sayings, “awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light!”
III. A SPECIAL APPLICATION OF THE SCENE AND ACTION. “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise!” This is the key-note of sermons and addresses to young men. Brother, too often asleep to the higher meanings of thine own existenceasleep and unconscious of the presence of him who loves thee, self-indulgent, dead in the death of the self-seeking worldly mind, the Lord is touching thy bier; the Lord is calling,” Arise!” start from thy sad indifference. Give those who love thee the joy of the morning without clouds, the new, better life in God. Hear the voice of the Son of God, and thou too shalt live.
Luk 7:18-35
The message of John Baptist, and the discourse occasioned by it.
Various answers, not now to be discussed, have been given to the questionWhy did John send the two followers with the message recorded? The message does seem to imply that the confidence of the Baptist had become overcast by the sorrow of the passing hour. Would it have been strange if, hearing of Jesus in the flood-tide of popular enthusiasm, working and speaking in the power of the Lord, a moment’s feeling of weariness stole over the ardent spirit? “He there, and I here, within the dismal walls of the prison! He, thinking of all else, and no thought apparently of me! He increasing more and more, like the sun advancing to the perfect day; I decreasing more and more, my sun setting in the thick darkness! Can it be all a reality? Has my witness been wholly true? What if? what if? Jesus of Nazareth, say, ‘Art thou really he? Tell me, so soon to pass from this earthly scene, that I have followed no illusionthat verily there is none else to be looked for.'” Other thoughts may have filled the mind, other motives for the mission may have influenced; but it brings the passage very near to us when we trace in it the faltering of faith. For there are moments of faltering in the history of faith. The sky of our spiritual life is not always cloudless. All the while the soul may be thirsting for the living God, but it cannot see him; from within there come voices demanding, “Where is thy God?” If a tormenting scepticism visited the honest heart of John, we can understand it, and feel the more our kinship with him. The wonderful thing would have been if misgiving had never ruffled the face of his heart; if no such film had gathered over his eye as that signified in the question, “Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?”
I. THE QUESTION HAS NOT YET RUN ITS COURSE. It expresses the attitude of the piety of the people, in the roll of whose greatest stands the Baptist’s name. It is sad that so much of the culture of Israel has separated from Israel’s hope, has declared its contentment with a mere barren pantheism; that so much of its piety is busied with the effort to explain away the obvious meaning of the old prophecies, or to deny their reference to the Anointed One. But the Jew still lives, and the land of the Jew still waits. Pray for the conversion and restoration of Israel, when the people that sit in darkness shall see the problem solved which has for so long been the stumbling-stone and rock of offence, “Jesus of Nazareth, art thou he who was promised to come, or must we continue to look for another?”
II. NOW, OBSERVE THE LORD‘S ANSWER. It is:
1. A word to John. The reply to the inquiry is given “in that hour.” The messengers are charged to return and tell (verses 22, 23) what things they saw and heard. The works of Christ are the credentials of his mission, not because they are miraculous, but because they are the kind of works appropriate to the Sent of God. Recognizing the supernatural efficacy of Christ’s kingdom, the witness for him is chiefly what he does, what Christianity effects wherever it is truly received. We see it breathing a new life, inspiring with a new hope, awaking new powers, putting to flight the armies of the aliensa power of God to salvation. E.g. Lady Barker, in her charming letters from South Africa, says, “I feel it incumbent on me to bear testimony, not only in this instance and in this colony, to the enormous amount of real, tangible, common-sense good accomplished among the black races all over the world by Wesleyan, Methodist, and Baptist missionaries.” So, universally, it is the kind of life which Christ’s teaching produces; it is the wondrous changes in man himself, and therefore in man’s world, which the spirit of his life accomplishes, which, to all earnest inquirers, settles the issue, “Art thou he that should come?” “Blessed”with gentle authority the Master adds”blessed is he whosoever shall find none occasion of stumbling in me.”
2. A word concerning John after the messengers have departed. “A word,” says Farrar, “of rhythmic and perfect loveliness” (verses 24-28). Mark the conclusion, howeverGreater prophet than he now immured in Herod’s gloomy prison never was born of woman. Yet this must be added, he who is real]y within the kingdom, who has really received the kingdom in receiving Jesus as the King, however inferior to him in gifts and force, is a partaker of fuller blessing and privilege than he. “With all my imperfections,” said Bunsen, on his dying bed, “I have ever striven after the best. But the best and noblest is to have known Jesus Christ.”
3. A word to the unsympathetic and opposing Pharisees and lawyers. The people endorse the eulogy passed on John; but the Pharisees and lawyers frown. It is with reference to their unreasonable petulance that the sentences verses 31-35 are spoken. What could satisfy such carpers? Verily, their successors are to be found in our day. The mind that is enmity against God will make faults, will twist any evidence, will imitate the children who will not be pleased, no matter what is done to evoke their response. Poor pedants! “they must stay in the dark until they are tired of it.” Very different from such are the children of the true wisdom. They recognize and honour her under different types and forms. Wherever they see the prints of her shoes, there they love to put their feet also. “Wisdom is justified of all her children.”
Luk 7:36-50
The woman who was a sinner.
It is a truly lovely story which the evangelist tellsone of those passages in the life of Christ which we are never tired of reading, and as full of meaning as it is full of beauty. We may regard it from many points, and present its didactic force in many ways. Perhaps we shall best ensure the reception of its various lights by studying the portraiture of character which it gives.
I. THERE IS SIMON THE PHARISEEJesus’ host on the afternoon of the day whose earlier part had been signalized by the mighty work at Nain. The notable thing about this Simon is that he meets our view as the type of that anonymous, yet most powerful, influence which we call society. He is one of the priests of that goddess which society, everywhere and in every time, worshipsRespectability. A Pharisee! that is as it should be. The Herodians were a base, courtly party, fawning on the Herodian dynasty, and therefore outside religious society. The Sadducees were latitudinarians. Some of them were clever, and had much to do with the intellectual life of the nation; but, on the whole, they were a cold-blooded sect which could not command the vote of society. The correct course was to be the Pharisee. That secured the social place, put one right with the Church and the world, for this life and the next. The odour of sanctity clung to the profession; it intimated a certain aristocratic positiona position among the elect of the heavenly kingdom. Simon the Pharisee is in society. And the desire that Jesus should eat with him, the entertainment which he offered Jesus, is in behalf of society. That must have its lion. It takes up one to-day and dismisses him to-morrow, but a lion it must have. Sometimes the lion is a religious person; a great preacher or a great author becomes, for the time, the fashion. Jesus of Nazareth was the hero of the hour. Everybody spoke of him, of what he did, said, was. This priest of society must give him a dinner. We need not suppose secret hostility. Simon seems to have been willing to know more of Jesus than he did know, to study him as a phenomenon with at least a measure of interest. But he is the patron. The courtesies which would have been extended to the privileged few are omitted. Is not this Jesus only a Peasant-Preacher? Further still, the conduct of the Pharisee is representative of the separatist side of society, not only toward Jesus, but toward the sinner. It is without generosity of feeling; it is narrow, bitter when its canons are broken. That horrid creature to come to his table and touch his guest!is it not monstrous? He a Prophet? That he should let her go near him, that she should bestow her caresses on himthis is sufficient to dispose of the claim. He could not imagine any purpose of the visit except an evil one; and such a visit was a disgrace to his house. For Respectability, hard in its judgment, is always selfish, always thinking how a thing will look, what is becoming or proper, how it can be protected and preserved. Holiness seeks the sinner; it will give itself for him. Respectability bids the sinner away. Ah! this Simon is a figure most conspicuous in our life! Respectability is the Juggernaut-car which rolls through our midst; and, as it rolls, multitudes rush forward and lay themselves prostrate before it. It has a place for Jesus; it will patronize him. Jesus has a word for it, a terribly scathing word. “Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.”
II. THERE IS THE WOMAN. Who she was we know not. There is really nothing to confirm the old tradition which identifies her with that Mary called Magdalene, referred to in the following chapter, out of whom seven devils were cast. Whoever she was, she is known by only one featureshe was a sinner, an abandoned woman of the city. Perhaps she had heard some word of the gentle Prophet as he passed through the street. In some way “the Dayspring from on high” had visited her. Andnot so difficult a matter in an Eastern houseshe forced her way to his presence. Poor, weary one, for whom, for many and many a day there had been no sunshinea mere plaything of coarse and wicked men! Observe her action as recorded in Luk 7:37, Luk 7:38. It is to her that the Lord turns; he has glances and words for her which he has not for the priests of Respectability. From her heart proceed the welcomes which the Pharisee had denied him (Luk 7:44-46): Yes, in the social outcast there is often a preparation for Christ, a power of self-abandoning, simple trust, which is wanting in the Pharisees of society, with their forms and phylacteries, the pomp and pride and circumstance of the be-worshipped Respectability.
III. THE DEALING OF JESUS is “a precious history, the sweet kernel of which poor sinners will never exhaust.” Consider his words about the woman, and his words to the woman.
1. The word in the forty-seventh verselet us see that we rightly apprehend it. The meaning is not, as might hastily be gathered, “forgiven because of her much love,” as if the love were the reason of the forgiveness. That would be equal to putting the rill before the spring. There are two kinds of “for “the “for” causal and the “for” inferential. It is the for inferential which we find in Jesus’ saying. “From the love which moved this sinner to me, which constrained her to lavish on me the signs of respect which thou, Simon, didst omit, thou canst infer that her sins, which are many, are forgiven. Even as the tree is known by its fruit, so her forgiveness is proved by the presence of its appropriate fruitlove.” This is the view borne out by the short parable which was the something that Jesus had to say to Simon (Luk 7:41-43). Suppose that we insist on an interpretation of this parable which the terms employed in it might warrant, we are met by serious difficulties. For instance, it might seem to teach that the more, in amount, the debt remitted, the more will be the love realized; that the more of a sinner one has been, the more of a saint, after conversion, one will be. But we know that this could not be the meaning of Christ; and it was not. It is not the quantity of sins, but the conscience of sin, the sense of its sinfulness and bitterness and tyranny, which determines the question of the larger or smaller debtor. In the case before us, one steeped in iniquity represents the larger, the Pharisee the smaller. But, to prove that the consciousness of owing a great debtthe being, in one’s own judgment, the five-hundred-pence debtor, yea, the chief of sinnersdoes not involve a wicked course of life, recollect the Apostle Paul, who had been zealous towards God above his equals. When he thinks of his “exceeding madness” against Jesus, he confesses, “I have nothing to pay. No debt could have been greater than mine, wretched man that I am.” The much love is measured by the sense of there having been much forgiven. The love is as the knowledge of sin. If you think there is little to forgive, you will love only little.
2. There are two words to the woman herself (Luk 7:50). “He said to her, Thy sins are forgiven.” An absolution, accepted by all who heard it, as full and authoritative. They are amazed: “Who is this that even forgives the sins?” Oh! who is he? Hartley Coleridge finely says
“All the blame
And the poor malice of the worldly shame
To her were past, extinct, and out of date;
Only the sin remained, the leprous state.”
It was to this leprous state that the word went down. With the voice of a declared pardon, there was felt the power of a new purity. “Daughter, thy sins are sent away from between thy God and thee. They are blotted out, no more to be remembered. And lo! as thou art justified, thou art washed throughly from thine iniquity, and cleansed from thy sin. Thy faith hath saved thee” (Luk 7:50). The Lord gave no heed to the murmurs of those reclining at table. He answers these murmurs by not answering, or rather, by this additional word to the woman. The salvation was the entrance of forgiving love; and it was the trust in him that drew her to the Pharisee’s house, which had opened her soul to his healing power. The power is only, is wholly, in him, but the faith is the condition and the means of the deliverance. “Saved, rejoicing sinner, go in peace.” Wondrous, glorious gospel! his, hers, who wills to have it as the poor woman willed! Sinners of modern Christendom, you must be stripped of all the soft complacencies of Pharisaic righteousness; consciously poor and needysinners, and nothing else, you must get to the Christ of God. Until thus you have reached him, there is only a “something to say to you.” The frank forgiveness, the fulness of the eternal life, is when he looks into the clinging soul, when he says, “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON
Luk 7:1-10
Faith in its fulness.
The greatness of the centurion’s faith is attested by our Lord himself; he declared that it was superior to anything he had “found in Israel.” We see evidence of its fulness in that
I. IT TRIUMPHED OVER NATIONAL PREJUDICE. Here is a Roman exercising the most perfect confidence in a Jewputting one in whom he was closely and deeply interested into the hands of an Israelite. We must remember all the pride of the Romans as such, and all their hatred as well as contempt of the Jews, to realize the fulness of this triumph.
II. IT WAS BASED ON COMPARATIVELY SLENDER EVIDENCE. “When he heard of Jesus, he sent.” Clearly, then, he had not seen him, had not witnessed his works, had not listened to his wisdom; he was without the larger part of the evidence which was before the people of that neighbourhood. He had but “heard of” him, and yet he believed in him.
III. IT WAS CHERISHED IN SPITE OF CONSCIOUS UNWORTHINESS. He took a very humble view of himself. This we gather from his action in sending the elders of the Jews to intercede on his behalf (verse 3), and from his language in stating that he was not worthy that Christ should “enter under his roof” (verse 6). Yet had he such an assurance of our Lord’s kindness of heart that he was persuaded he would pity and help him, notwithstanding this undeservedness on his part.
IV. IT ASSUMED THAT CHRIST WOULD RESPOND TO A RESPECTFUL AND EARNEST PLEA.
V. IT SHOWED A WONDERFUL CONFIDENCE IN HIS ABILITY TO HEAL. The sending of the deputation, in the first instance, showed the confidence of the centurion in the power of Christ. But the fulness of his faith in this direction was manifested in the sending of the second deputationin charging them with that most striking message (verses 6-8). It is interesting to notice how the soldierly profession, which might well seem to be most unlikely to help a man to discipleship to the Prince of peace, did, in fact, serve him in good stead. It enabled him to grasp fully the idea of Divine authority. He was, he said, a man who knew well what was meant by command and obedience. He was accustomed to obey implicitly those who were over him in position, and he was also in the habit of receiving the full and immediate obedience of those who were under him. To them he said, “Come,” and they came; “Go,” and they went. Whatever forces of nature this Divine Healer might wish to employ, he had only to do the like; he had but to command, and they would instantly obey. Thus his military training helped him to a faith in the authority and power of Christ which distinguished him above others, and which brought down the blessing he sought (verse 10). We learn:
1. That unbelief in Jesus Christ is wholly inexcusable in us Consider how, in contrast with this centurion, we have no prejudice to overcome, but have been baptized into (or brought up in) the faith of Jesus Christ. Consider also how, in contrast with this man, we have had constant access to the Saviour, and are the children of privilege in the fullest sense of the word. And consider also what evidence we have had before us of Christ’s willingness and power to save in all that we have heard, read, and seen.
2. The validity of any sincere belief, weak or strong. It may be that something in our spiritual constitution or in our religious training may make us incapable, at the beginning, of exercising so strong a faith as that here illus trated. This need not, and must not, keep us from making an appeal to the Saviour. Not all that sought his aid had faith like this; yet he healed them also. We must come as we are and as we can. He is One that “does not break the bruised reed.” A faith that is feeble, but sincere, will not go home unblessed.C.
Luk 7:5
Patriotism and piety.
The mutual respect shown here by Jew and Roman is very pleasing, and the more so that it was so rare. Disdain rather than regard, hatred rather than affection, characterized both peoples; and it is a very agreeable change to find so different a state of mind. Here the Roman loves the Jewish nation, and the elders of the Jews come out to serve the Roman. The plea which they present to Christ, that out of attachment to their nation he had built them a synagogue, was very forcible, and it did not fail. The conjunction of the two clauses of the text suggests the close connection between piety and patriotism.
I. OUR INDEBTEDNESS TO THE RELIGION OF OUR NATIVE LAND, The centurion loved the nation, and why? The Jew had one thing to give the Roman, and that was a very great thing. Civilization, military science, and law, were of the Roman; but “salvation was of the Jews” (Joh 4:22). This Roman, who probably saw many things in Galilee that he pitied, found something that first surprised, then convinced, then satisfied and ennobled himhe found a true theology and a pure morality. With this he found rest of soul, domestic purity, health and sweetness of life; he became another man, and lived another life. He was indebted to the religion of this country of his adoption. What do we owe to the religion of the land in which we were born? How much more do we owe to the Christianity we have learned in England than the centurion (of the text) owed to the Judaism he learned in Galilee! Our holy faith, taught us in childhood and impressed upon us through all our days, has brought into our view a heavenly Father, a Divine Saviour and Friend, a Holy Spirit and Comforter, a blessed service, a godly brotherhood, a noble life, a glorious hope of immortal blessedness. What shall we render to the country of our birth which has trained us in such truths as these?
II. OUR BEST ACKNOWLEDGMENT. This man “loved the nation and built them a synagogue.” What better thing could he do than this? What kindlier or truer service could he render them? Those synogogues had been the homes of devotion and the sources of sacred instruction for four hundred years, and they had rendered inestimable service to the nation. The influences which radiated from them had kept the people loyal to their faith, and had preserved in them all the better qualities they possessed. And what can we do to serve the country which has nourished us in the faith of Christ? We can do all that lies in our power to promote its material prosperity, to secure its freedom, to extend its knowledge and intelligence. But, these not being left undone, there is one thing more which is greater than thesewe can promote its piety. By so doing we shall serve it in the highest sphere; we shall be doing that which will gain for it the favour of Almighty God; we shall be indirectly serving it in all other ways, for the children of God will be the best citizens of their country in any and every department of human action. And how shall we best promote the piety of our land?
1. By living a devout and upright life in our own humble sphere.
2. By making known, in all open ways, the distinctive truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
3. By supporting the institutions which are closely connected with itits edifices, its societies, its homes.C.
Luk 7:13-16
Christ visiting and abiding.
We cannot wonder that the people exclaimed as they did, “God hath visited his people,” when they witnessed such a miracle as this. It was clear enough that One from the heavenly world was with them, manifesting Divine power and pity. We have here
I. A TOUCHING PICTURE OF THE EXTREMES OF HUMAN JOY AND SORROW. The great darkness of death had overshadowed a human home; death had come to a young man, one who had passed through the perils of early life, and had qualified himself for the larger duties and weightier obligations of manhood; one, therefore, to whom life was peculiarly dear and precious. This young man was an only son, in whom all his mother’s love had centred, on whom she leaned as her one support; and she was a widow, most needing the solace of affection, least able to dispense with the prop that was left her. A supreme sorrow was hers. Then came a sudden revulsion of feeling. Just at the very hour when grief was at its very depth, as the young man was being carried to his grave, he is restored to her. The inanimate form is quickened to a new life; there is “a light upon the brows” which is not “the daylight only,” but the light of consciousness; the stilled tongue speaks again; the pallor of death gives place to the hue of health. Her son is hers again; her home is home again; she takes back her life with his. A more complete rebound from uttermost sorrow to intensest peace and joy can never have been known.
II. CHRIST‘S CROWNING ACT OF AUTHENTICATION. When our Lord sent back his reply to John we are not surprised that he mentions, as the crowning instance of his power, that “the dead are raised” (verse 22). Much as it was to give sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf and activity to the lame, much as it was to cleanse the lepers of their foul and terrible disease, it was very much more to restore the dead to life. That was the supreme and sovereign act, proving that Jesus did come forth from God, and was what he claimed to be. That was a power beyond all the skill of human science, beyond all the arts of necromancy; it bespoke the near presence of the Divine. Surely God was visiting his people.
III. A PROPHECY OF THE PRESENT AND THE LASTING MISSION OF THE DIVINE RESTORER. What Jesus Christ visited this world to do for the bodies of men he now lives and reigns to do for their soulsto restore them to newness of life. He is with us always, here on earth, “not to sojourn, but to abide” with us, exercising a far more glorious power than that he put forth at the gates of the city of Nain. That young man had another lease of life; to the days that he had spent on earth there were added a certain number more. Then he sickened again, and died; and death and the grave claimed their own. But when Jesus Christ, our Divine Saviour, now confers spiritual life, he awakens us to an existence
(1) which is far higher than the mortal life we are living here, and
(2) which is not limited by a few years. The great work of restoration which the risen Saviour is now accomplishing is that of which his work below was but the preparation and the promise.
1. The death to which this man succumbed was the type of the spiritual death which is the sad consequence of sin.
2. To those thus lost to God and man he speaks with sovereign voice, “Arise!” he bids them realize their guilt and danger; he summons them to repentance; he invites them to a whole-hearted trust in himself, the Almighty Saviour; he bids them walk thenceforth in the way of his commandments.
3. He restores them to their friends as those who, under his gracious hand, will be henceforth what they have never been before.
4. He calls forth deepest gratitude and reverence from all that witness the exercise of his power and grace.C.
Luk 7:19-22
Human goodness and the permanency of the gospel.
We have here
I. A CONSTANT CHARACTERISTIC OF HUMAN GOODNESS. HOW came John to send this message? Was he really doubtfulhe who had prepared the way of the Lord, who had baptized him, who had recognized in him the Lamb of God? Even so. Many ingenious theories account for it in some other way, but they do not satisfy. After all, was it surprising that John should begin to doubt? He had been lying in that lonely fortress by the Red Sea for some months; constitutionally active and energetic, he had been doomed to enforced idleness, and had had nothing to do but to form judgments of other peoplea very perilous position; what he heard about Jesus may very well have seemed strange and unsatisfactory to him. Our Lord’s method was very different from his own. He was living, as John had not done, in the very midst of the people; he was not drawing great crowds whom he excited to tempestuous feeling, but acting, with calm and deep wisdom, on smaller numbers; he was not living an ascetic life; he was not making any very great way according to ordinary human measurement; and John, writhing in captivity, and longing to be out and about in active work, allowed his mind to be affected, his belief to be disturbed, by what he heard and by what he did not hear. Nothing could be more natural, more human. This is human goodness all the world over. Nobility of spirit, self-sacrifice, devoutness, zeal, and infirmity, the partial subsidence of his faith. Who that knows the history of human goodness can be surprised at this? We must take this into the account in our estimate of good men. Infirmity is a constant element of human character. Perfection among the angels of God; perfection for ourselves further on among the glorified; meantime we may bestow our heartiest affection and our unstinted admiration upon those who are aspiring and endeavouring after the highest, but who sometimes fail to be all that they and we could wish that they were.
II. THE BEST PROOFS OF THE DIVINE POWER AND VIRTUE. Christ adduced two powerful proofs that he was indeed the “One that should come.”
1. The exercise of benignant power. In that same hour he healed many that came to be cured, and he said to John’s disciples, “Go and show your master what benignant power I am exercising; not smiting my enemies with blindness, but making the blind to see; not punishing the liar with leprosy, but pitying the poor leper and making him clean; not raining down fire from heaven on the obdurate, but calling back to life those who had entered the dark region of the dead; visiting the homes of men with health and life and joy.”
2. Love for the lowly. “Go and tell John that I am caring much for those for whom men have not cared at all, instructing in heavenly wisdom those whom other teachers have left untaught, lifting up those whom other reformers have been content to leave upon the ground, making heirs of the outcast, making rich for ever the penniless and hopelesssay that ‘the blind receive their sight, and the deaf hear,’ etc., and forget not to add that ‘to the poor the gospel is preached.'”
As these disciples came to our Master, so do some approach us now: they come with serious, earnest questioning. “Is the Christian system which we preach the system for our age? is it still the word we want? Or is not the world awaiting another doctrine, another method, another kingdom? Is Jesus Christ the Teacher for us, or do we look for another?” What is our reply?
1. Look at the benignant power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Follow the broad, deep river of beneficence which took its rise at Bethlehem; see what it has been effecting through all these ages; consider what it has done, not only for the physical suffererfor the blind, for the lame, for the leper, for the lunaticbut what it has done for the poor, for the slave, for the prisoner, for the savage, for the ignorant, for the little child, for woman; consider what it has done for the sorrowful, and for those laden and crushed with a sense of guilt; what it has done for the dying; consider how it has been enlightening and uplifting and transforming the minds and the lives of men; what a blessed beneficent power it has been exerting and is as capable as ever of exerting.
2. Look at the care which the gospel takes of the lowly. Consider the fact that wherever the truth of Christ has been preached in its purity and its integrity, man as man has been approached; all human souls have been treated as of equal and incalculable worth, the poor as well as the rich, the slave as well as his master, the illiterate as well as the learned, the unknown and untitled as well as the illustrious. The gospel has gone among the people, it has made its appeal to the multitude; it is “the common salvation; “it does not content itself with imposing a faith and a cultus upon the nation; it does not rest until it has permeated the entire people with the knowledge and the love of God, and wrought in them the practice of its own pure and lofty principles. Surely this is not a system for Galilee or Syria; this is not a doctrine for one age of the world; it is the ever-living truth of God. Christ is our Teacher, our Saviour, our Lord; we do not look for another.C.
Luk 7:22
The leprosy of sin.
Why specify the fact that the lepers were cleansed? Why single out this disease from others that might have been named? Because it was peculiarly desirable that, when the Messiah came and gave credentials of his heavenly origin, he should exercise his power in this direction. For leprosy was the chosen type of sin. All disease is pictorial of sin; it is to our bodily frame what sin is to the soulit is inward disorder showing itself in outward manifestation. But leprosy was that peculiar form of sickness which the Divine Lawgiver selected as the type of sin. And surely it was perfectly fitted to be so regarded. We look at
I. ITS LOATHSOMENESS. Why was the leper so rigidly excluded from society? We have no convincing evidence that this was a dangerous, contagious disorder. But the extreme loathsomeness of the leper’s appearance fully accounted for the decree. It was not fitting that anything so terribly repulsive and shocking should be seen in the homes and in the streets. Sin is the most odious of all things; it is “that abominable thing which God hates.” God “cannot look” upon it. In its fouler forms it is infinitely offensive to the pure of heart.
II. ITS DIFFUSIVENESS. Leprosy was eminently diffusive. It was communicated from parent to child; it spread from limb to limb, from organ to organ, until it covered the entire body. Sin is a thing which spreads. It, too, is communicable by heredity, and it also spreads from faculty to faculty. Sin leads to sin. “There’s not a crime but takes its change out still in crime.” Theft leads to violence, drunkenness to falsehood, impurity to deceit. Sin also spreads from man to man, from child to child, from friend to friend. You cannot circumscribe it; it passes all bounds that may be set up.
III. ITS PITIFULNESS. Who could regard the leper, doomed to a long, perhaps a lifelong separation from his family and his business and all favourite pursuits, without heartfelt pity? Life was worth nothing to him. Sin is condemnable enough; but it is pitiable also. Blame the erring, reproach the faulty, remonstrate with the foolish, but do not fail to pity those whom sin is shutting out from all that is best below, and from all that is bright above. Pity these with a profound compassion, and help them with an uplifting hand.
IV. ITS SEPARATING INFLUENCE. As the leper was exiled from mankind and banished to a severe isolation, so does sin come in as a separating power.
1. It separates a man from God, opening the wide, deep gulf of conscious guilt.
2. It separates man from man. It is not high walls, or broad acres, or unmeasured seas, that divide man from man: it is folly, hatred, malice, jealousy, sin.
V. ITS DEATHFULNESS. In the leper the springs of health were poisoned; there was a process of dissolution going on; it was death in life. Sin is death. “She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth,” wrote Paul. And our Lord’s words imply the same: “Whoso believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” A man living apart from God and. in rebellion against him is so far from answering the end of human life that he may be rightly regarded as dead while he lives.
VI. ITS INCURABLENESS BY MAN. The Jews did not bring the leper to the physician; they regarded him as incurable by the art of man. Sin is incurable by human methods. Regulations for conduct, vows of abstinence, parliamentary statutes, legal penalties, do not cure. They may be very valuable as accessories, but they will not heal. Only the Divine hand can accomplish that for the human heart. One there is who offers himself as the Divine Physician; he who sent back to John in prison the convincing message, “The lepers are cleansed.” In him is all-forgiving grace and all-cleansing power. A living faith in him will lead to pardon and to purity. Instead of loathsomeness, there will be spiritual beauty; instead of isolation, communion; instead of a living death, eternal life.C.
Luk 7:23
Christ as an offence.
“Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.” It was simply inevitable that our Lord, if he laid himself out to do the very best and greatest that could be done, should be an offence to many. “Not to send peace, but a sword,” was a purely incidental, but it was a necessary result of such faithfulness as he showed.
I. THE OFFENCE TO BE FOUND IN CHRIST.
1. The offence of the Messiahship. Our Lord offended John the Baptist (see preceding homily) by the quietness of his method and the slowness of his results. He offended Peter by foretelling the sorrows and the shame to which he was moving on (Mat 16:22). He offended Nicodemus by the profundity of his teaching (Joh 3:1-36.). He offended the leaders of religion of his time by denouncing their formality and insincerity. He offended the people by preaching a doctrine too broad for their narrow-mindedness (Luk 4:28), too deep for their shallow-mindedness (Joh 6:52-66), too elevated for their earthly mindedness.
2. The offence of the cross.
(1) The memory of a crucified Nazarene was a stumbling-block to the Jew, who expected something very different from this dishonour (1Co 1:23).
(2) The story of a crucified Jew was foolishness to the Greek. With his venerable mythology, his honoured philosophy, his pride of patriotism, he was not prepared to put his trust in a malefactor executed in Judaea.
3. The offence of the kingdom. In one sense, “the offence of the cross” has ceased. It has become the symbol of all that is beautiful in art, refined in culture, strong in civilization. Yet is there everywhere, yet will there always be, something in Christ that will offend the human soul. For he requires of us that
(1) we empty our minds of preconceived ideas, and approach him with the docility of children (Mat 18:3);
(2) we surrender every evil habit, however dear or valuable it may seem to us (Mat 5:29);
(3) we give the first place in our thought and our affections to himself, making even our nearest and dearest human kindred occupy the second place (Luk 14:26);
(4) we find our recompense for faithful service in the spiritual and the eternal, rather than in the material and the temporal;
(5) we accept his Divine favour and enter his service as those who claim nothing and accept everything at his hand. Many are they who live in our land, who read our Christian literature, who sit in our sanctuaries, and who, for one of these reasons, are offended in Christ.
II. THE BLESSEDNESS or THOSE WHO DO NOT FIND IT; who come to learn of him in all docility of spirit; who cheerfully part with all that he condemns that they may follow him; who offer to him their undivided heart; who accept his service that they may receive a spiritual and a heavenly recompense. Blessed, indeed, are they; for:
1. Their hearts will be the home of a heavenly peace, and a joy which no man taketh from them.
2. Their life will rise to a noble height of sanctity, of beauty, of usefulness.
3. On their checkered course will fall the sunshine of their Master’s blessinghis consecration of their joy, his overruling of their sorrow.
4. Their life will end in a calm and peaceful hope, which will pass into glorious fruition. Blessed, indeed, is he whosoever is not offended in Christ, but cordially accepts him as the Saviour of his spirit and the rightful Lord of his life.C.
Luk 7:24-28
Christ’s estimate of John; character and privilege.
It is pleasant to think that, immediately after John had intimated his doubt respecting the Christ, our Lord spoke in terms of unmeasured confidence concerning John. His language is strong and somewhat paradoxical, but it admits of a simple explanation. His-first reference to John affirms
I. HIS SUPERIORITY IN RESPECT OF CHARACTER. The nobility of John’s character has already been illustrated (see Joh 3:1-36.). Its most marked features were:
1. His cheerful acceptance of privation; living on in the wilderness with nothing to gratify taste, and barely sufficient to sustain life, though his popularity as a teacher and prophet would have enabled him to make a very different provision for himself,
2. His incorruptible fidelity to the work committed to his charge (Luk 3:15, Luk 3:16)
3. His fearless, holy couragea courage which was based on a sense of God’s nearness to him and his Divine faithfulness toward him; a courage manifested in public (Luk 3:7-9), and, what is more and what is worthier, shown in private also in an interview with one strong man who held his earthly destiny in his hand (Luk 3:19).
4. His rare magnanimity. Not merely accepting without resentment the fact that he was to be supplanted by another, but going beyond that point in spiritual excellence, and positively rejoicing in the elevation of that other Teacher; stepping down and giving place gladly to one younger but greater than himself (Joh 3:29). We are not surprised that he “who knew what was in man,” who knew the strength and the weakness of our human nature, said concerning John, “Among those that are born of women,” etc. (verse 28).
II. HIS INFERIORITY IN RESPECT OF PRIVILEGE. “But he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” We must take the word “greater” as signifying more privileged: it will not bear any other meaning. Most assuredly Jesus did not mean to say that the man who, being within his kingdom, was lowest in moral worth, stood higher in the favour of God than John. Such a sentiment is quite inconceivable, perfectly incredible. But our Lord may very well have meant that any one, however humble his position in the kingdom of grace, who yet stands within that kingdom, of which John stood outside, has a distinct advantage over the great prophet. To know what we, with all our obscurity and incapacity, do know; to understand and enter into, as we may do, the glorious purpose of God in Jesus Christ; to comprehend that, by that death of shame upon the cross, the Redeemer of the world is drawing all men unto him; and not only to understand all this, but to enter into it by a personal, living sympathy and co-operation ;this is to stand on a height to which even John, though he came in sight of it (Joh 1:36), did not attain.
1. We are the children of privilege; we are “the heirs of all the ages” of thought, of revealed truth. If we will read reverently, and inquire diligently and devoutly, we may know the mind of God concerning us as the greatest of all the prophets did not know it.
2. Let us take care that we are the children of God; returned from the far country of estrangement and indifference; dwelling in the home of the Father’s favour; walking with God daily; finding a filial joy in doing and bearing his holy will; entering by sympathy and effort into his holy purpose.C.
Luk 7:31-34
Christian abstinence and participation.
These “children sitting in the market-place” very well illustrate the perverse and contradictory of all generations. Many are they, here and everywhere, who will neither dance at the wedding nor mourn at the funeral, who will work neither along one line nor yet along its opposite, to whom all ways are objectionable because their own spirit is out of tune with everything. But the special folly which these children are brought forward to condemn is that of objecting to John because he was abstemious, and to Jesus because he participated in the good gifts of God. The right course to take is not that of objecting to both, but rather that of accepting and honouring both. We shall find, if we care to look for it
I. CHRISTIAN ABSTEMIOUSNESS. John came “neither eating nor drinking.” He acted, no doubt, under Divine direction in so doing. But John was not our exemplar. We are not called to follow John, but Christ; and Christ came eating and drinking. Is abstinence, then, a Christian course? It is so; it is justified by the language of our Lord and by that of his apostles. He said that there were some celibates “for the kingdom of heaven’s sake” (Mat 19:12). And he urged upon men that they should pluck out their right eye, or cut off their right hand, rather than perish in iniquity (Mat 5:29, Mat 5:30). His apostle wrote that men should neither eat meat nor drink wine, if by so doing they put a stumbling-block in the way of another (Rom 14:21). And it is certain that we are acting in a strictly and, indeed, an emphatically Christian spirit when we:
1. Abstain because indulgence would be perilous to ourselves. This may relate to food or drink, or to any kind of amusement or occupation, to anything of any kind in which we find ourselves under a strong temptation to excess if we once begin.
2. Abstain because our abstinence will make the path of virtue or piety more accessible to others. Anything we can do, any privation we may accept, any habit we may form, by which we help men upwards and Godwards, must be an essentially and radically Christian thing.
II. CHRISTIAN PARTICIPATION. “The Son of man came eating and drinking.” He was no ascetic; he was present at the festivity; he accepted the invitation to the rich man’s board; he did not choose the coarser garment because it was coarser, or the severer lodging because it was severer; he did not habitually and conscientiously decline the gifts of God in nature. He knew how to decline them when occasion called for it (see Luk 6:12; Luk 9:58), but he did not do so regularly and as a sacred duty. Surely it was well for the world that he acted thus; for, had he sanctioned asceticism, we should have been continually oscillating, or everywhere divided, between an unamiable severity on the one hand and a degrading self-indulgence on the other hand. The wise and the true course is that of a Christian participation; this is a partaking of the gifts of God and of the sweets and enjoyments of earth, which is:
1. Sanctified by devout gratitude; by a continual and wholesome mindfulness that every good gilt is from above, and calls for a grateful and reverent spirit.
2. Controlled by a wise moderation; so that nothing is indulged in which is in the smallest degree excessive; so that no injury of any kind is done to the spiritual nature.
3. Beautified by benevolence; the participation by ourselves being very closely and constantly accompanied by the remembrance of the wants of others. “Eat the fat and drink the sweet,” but be careful to “send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared.”C.
Luk 7:35
Our treatment of wisdom.
Whatever might have been expected to be the case, the fact is that wisdom has received but poor and sad treatment from the children of men. We perceive, without any search for it
I. ITS REJECTION BY THE WORLD.
1. Up to the time of the coming of our Lord. The Eternal Wisdom uttered its voice by the constitution and course of nature, by the human reason and conscience, by occasional revelation. But that voice was unheard or unheeded. Few, indeed, in every age and land recognized and obeyed it in comparison with the vast multitudes that remained in ignorance and folly. The heavens declared the glory of God, but men knew not the hand Divine that moved the stars in their course. “The candle of the Lord” was kindled, and it shone within the soul, but men hid it under the bushel of their unholy habits and their perverting prejudices. Through those long, dark ages Wisdom spake, and (it might be almost said that) “no man regarded.”
2. The coming of Christ. He who was the very “Wisdom of God” himself, he who was “the Truth,” dwelt amongst us; and “he was despised and rejected of men.” Those who should have been the first to appreciate and to welcome him were the first to dislike and to denounce him. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”
3. From that time to our own day. Divine Wisdom, speaking in the gospel of Christ, has been summoning men to reconciliation with God, to peace, to virtue, to sacred joy, to immortal blessedness; and the world, upon the whole, has turned to it a deaf ear, has gone on its own way of folly, has refused to walk in its light, and to receive its benediction. If.
ITS RECOGNITION BY ITS OWN SONS.
1. There were some in the dark days before Christ who heard and heeded the voice of God. These may have been more numerous than we have supposed. “In every nation he that feared God and wrought righteousness was accepted of him.” There may have beenwe may rightly hope that there weregreat numbers of the “children of wisdom” who recognized its voice and obeyed its teaching.
2. When our Saviour came there were those who recognized his voice and responded to it. Many of these were women, many of them “little ones,” despised by the authorities of their day. They did not think him “possessed,” nor charge him with self-indulgence (Luk 7:33 34); they perceived in him a Divine Teacher, a true Friend, a gracious Saviour, and they “rose and followed him;” then, indeed, was “Wisdom justified of all her children.”
3. Throughout these Christian ages the same truth has held. The psalmist prays, “Do good unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts” (Psa 125:4). And while it is true that men of the most perverse and froward spirit may be so mightily affected by Divine power and grace that the truth of God breaks through the thickest armour of opposition, yet is it generally true that it is only they who have the spirit of wisdom in them”the children of wisdom”who enter the kingdom of truth and righteousness. “Only the good discern the good,” writes one of our truest poets and deepest thinkers. It is only they who are sincere seekers after the truth who reach the goal. It is “to the upright that there ariseth light in the darkness;” it is to the pure and the upright and the merciful that God shows himself to be such, and by them is seen to be such (Psa 112:4; Psa 18:25, Psa 18:26). We cannot see the wisdom, the faithfulness, the kindness, the mercy of God, while our hearts are wrong with him. But when we ourselves are right with God, and we have so much of the spirit of goodness in us that we may be called the children of wisdom, then God’s dealings with our race, with our Church, with our family, with ourselves, are recognized as the just and kind and faithful things they are, and in our experience “Wisdom is justified of all her children.”
(1) We need not be surprised if God’s manifestations of himself in his Son or in his providence are misinterpreted. That is to be expected in the case of the children of error.
(2) If we are pining and complaining under the hand of God, and are supposing ourselves ill treated, we may be sure that what is needed by us is not something done for us, but a change wrought within us. For that we must seek in humility and in prayer.C.
Luk 7:36-50
Loving and forgiving.
The peculiarity of Oriental customs, together with the earnestness and eagerness of this penitent, will account for her effecting an entrance into the house of this Pharisee, and gaining access to the feet of our Lord. The lessons we gain from this most touching incident are
I. THAT THERE IS FREE AND FULL FORGIVENESS FOR THE WORST. It is somewhat striking that, although Old Testament Scripture abounds in passages which attest the greatness of God’s mercy to the repentant, the Jews of our Lord’s time had no place for such in their system or their practice. This could not be from unfamiliarity with the sacred record; it rather arose from ignorance of themselves. They did not acknowledge any sin in their own souls, any shortcoming in their own lives. Simon probably thought that Jesus was putting the debt which represented his obligation (fifty pence) at a high figure. And, thus mistaking themselves, it is not to be wondered at that they took a false view of their neighbours; that they looked upon those who were outwardly bad as hopelessly irrecoverable. But not so the Saviour. By action as much as by language he made it clear that the guiltiest of men and the worst of women might come in penitence and be restored. That is the valuable and lasting significance of his attitude on this occasion. His treatment of this woman, together with his gracious words to her (Luk 7:48), are to us, as they ever will be, the strong assurance that those whom we most unsparingly condemn and most scrupulously exclude may find mercy at his feet.
II. THAT NOT HER LOVE BUT HER PENITENCE WAS THE GROUND OF HER FORGIVENESS. When Christ said, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much,” he did not, could not, mean that her love was the ground, but that it was the consequence of her forgiveness. He meant to say, “You can see that she has been forgiven, for you see how she loves, and it is only they who have been forgiven what she has been forgiven that love as she loves. The fulness of her love is therefore the proof (not the ground) of her forgiveness.” What led to her forgiveness was her penitence. Those bitter tears she shed (Luk 7:38) were the tears of a true contrition; they meant a holy hatred of her past sin, and a sincere determination to lead another life; and not being repelled, but accepted, by this Holy and Merciful One, deep and strong gratitude arose in her; and penitence, love, and a new and blessed hope surged and strove together in uncontrollable emotion within her heart. When God shows us our fault, we go at once to the merciful Saviour; trusting in him, we are received and restored; then a pure, deep, lasting love arises in our souls; it is the simple, natural, beautiful outgrowth of penitence and faith.
III. THAT THE SENSE OF GOD‘S GRACE TO US WILL DETERMINE THE FULNESS OF OUR AFFECTION TOWARD HIM. “To whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.” If we have a very imperfect sense of our guilt, and therefore of God’s mercy to us, our response in gratitude and love will be far below what it should be. It is, therefore, of the gravest importance that we should know and feel our own faultiness in the sight of God. For clearly it is not the magnitude of our past sin, but the fulness of our sense of guilt, which determines the measure of our feeling in the matter of gratitude and love.
1. It is for this that we must look. We shall find it as we dwell on the greatness of God’s goodness toward us in his providence and his grace; in the poverty and feebleness of our filial return to him for all his love and care and kindness toward us; in the fact that he has been requiring purity of thought and rectitude of soul and sincerity of motive, as well as propriety of word and integrity of deed.
2. For this also we must pray; asking for that enlightening Spirit who will show us our true selves, and fill us with a due sense of our great unworthiness and our manifold transgressions.C.
Luk 7:40
Christ and Simon: the correcting word.
There were some good points about Simon.
1. He was an eminently respectable man; he was so in the true sense of the word, for as a virtuous man he could respect himself, and his neighbours could rightly respect him; he conformed his conduct to a high standard of morality.
2. He was an open-handed, hospitable man.
3. He was an open-minded man. It was not every Pharisee that would have invited Jesus Christ to supper, or would have given him such freedom to speak his mind without resentment. But he was a much-mistaken man. He was quite wrong in three important points.
I. HIS ESTIMATE OF JESUS CHRIST. When he found that Jesus did not resent the attention of “this woman,” he came to the conclusion that he could not be a prophet, or he would have known that she was a sinner, and, knowing that, he would have repelled her. Here he was wrong in his conclusion; and he was also wrong in his reasoning. His argument was this: a man as holy as a prophet would be certain to repel such guilt as is present here; when the Holy Prophet comes, the Messiah, ha will be more scrupulously separate from sin and from sinners than any other has been. Here he was completely mistaken. The Holy One came to be the Merciful One; to say to guilty men and women, “Your fellows may despair of you and abandon you. I despair of none, I abandon nobody. I see in all the possibilities of recovery; I summon you all to repentance and to life. Touch me, if you will, with the hand of your faith; I will lay my hand of help and healing upon you.”
II. HIS VIEW OF THAT WOMAN.. A sinner she had been; but she was more, and indeed other than a sinner now. That word did not faithfully describe her state before God. She was a penitent. And what is a penitent? A penitent soul is one who hates the sin that had been cherished, who has cast out the evil spirit from him, in whom is the living germ of righteousness, who is on the upward line that leads to heavenly wisdom and Divine worth, on whom God is looking down with tender grace and deep satisfaction, in whom Jesus Christ beholds a servant, a friend, an heir of his holy kingdom. This is not one to turn away from in scorn, but to draw nigh unto in kindness and encouragement.
III. HIS ESTIMATE OF HIMSELF.
1. He thought himself a very long way on in the kingdom of God as compared with that poor woman; he did not know that, she being poor in spirit and he being proud in spirit, she was much nearer to its entrance-gates than he.
2. He thought himself in a position to patronize Jesus Christ, and consequently withheld some of the usual courtesies from his Guest; he did not know that it was on himself the distinction was conferred.
3. He supposed himself to be possessed of all the cardinal virtues: he did not know that he lacked that which is the crowning excellence of alllove, the love that can pity, that can stoop to save.
We draw two main lessons.
1. That Christ makes much of love. Dwelling on the various manifestations of this woman’s feeling, he declares they are the signs of her love, and he then traces her love to her deep sense of forgiven sin. God wants our love, as we want the love of our children and of our friends, and cannot accept anything, however valuable, in its stead: so Christ wants the pure, deep, lasting affection of our souls. No ceremonies, or services, or even sacrifices, will compensate for its absence (see 1Co 13:1-13.). And the measure of our love will depend on the depth of our sense of God’s forgiving love toward us. Hence it is of the first importance that we
(1) should understand how much God has forgiven us, how great and serious our guilt has been (see preceding homily);
(2) should recognize how great and full is the Divine forgiveness, how much it includeshow much in the sense of overlooking the past, and in the way of granting us present favour and of promising us future blessedness. Our wisdom and our duty, therefore, is to dwell on the greatness of God’s mercy to us in Jesus Christ, to rejoice much in it, to let our souls bathe in the thought of it, be filled continually with a sense of it. For they who are (consciously) forgiven much will love much; and they who love much will be much beloved of God (Joh 14:23).
2. That we should be ready to receive Christ‘s correcting word. Simon was wholly wrong in his estimate of men and of things; but he was not unwilling to hear Christ’s correcting word. “Master, say on,” he replied, when the great Teacher said, “I have somewhat to say unto thee.” Let us see to it that this is our attitude. Our Lord may have something very serious to say to us, as he had to those seven Churches in Asia Minor, which he addressed from his heavenly throne (Rev 2:1-29., 3.). When, through his Word, his ministry, his providence, he does thus correct us, calling us to a renewed humility, faith, love, zeal, consecration, are we ready to receive his message, to bow our head, to open our heart, and say, “Speak, Lord; thy servants hear! Master, say on”?C.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR
Luk 7:1-17
The Saviour of sick and dead.
On returning to Capernaum after the sermon on the mount, the Saviour is confronted with a deputation from a centurion about his sick servant. To the miracle of healing in Luk 7:2-10 we turn first; and then we shall consider the miracle of resurrection (Luk 7:11-17), by which it is followed.
I. THE SAVIOUR OF THE SICK. (Verses1-10.)
1. Let us observe the self-abasement of the centurion. And in this connection we must notice the devotedness he had shown to the Jewish religion. As a proselyte, he had not only espoused Judaism, but built a synagogue to accommodate his fellow-worshippers. Hence he had an excellent reputation with the ecclesiastical authorities. But all this did not lead to any boasting on his part or exaltation of spirit. He remains the humble man before God after all his liberality. Hence he organizes no less than two deputations to Jesus Christ rather than obtrude himself upon him. And
(1) he sends a deputation of Jewish elders, to ask from Jesus the cure of his sick servant. He esteems these ecclesiastical rulers as better than himself; he values them as highly almost as they do themselves! In reality he was spiritually far ahead of them; but he was unconscious of this, and conscious only of his great personal unworthiness. The elders come, and in their self-righteous spirit speak of his worthiness to Jesus. He was worthy, they declared, and had proved his worthiness by building the synagogue. They thought more of the centurion, and more of themselves, than the centurion did. Yet Jesus recognizes the humility which dictated the sending of the deputation, and responds to their entreaty by going with them towards the centurion’s house.
(2) He sends a second deputation of friends to entreat Jesus not to give himself so much trouble in the matter, seeing he was utterly unworthy of a visit from Jesus. His idea was that, as Christ could heal his servant without the trouble of coming to see him, could heal at any distance, then he ought to take things as easy as he could. So strong is his conviction on this subject, that he gives a military illustration in proof of it. “Evidently,” says Robertson, “he looked upon this universe with a soldier’s eye; he could not look otherwise. To him this world was a mighty camp of living forces, in which authority was paramount. Trained in obedience to military law, accustomed to render prompt submission to those above him, and to exact it from those below him, he read law everywhere; and law to him meant nothing unless it meant the expression of a personal will. It was this training through which faith took its form.” Christ was, therefore, to the soldier’s eye, the centurion of all diseases, and they obeyed him, so that he might have sent the disease of the servant away by a simple word of command, and so have saved himself all the trouble. Now, it is important to remember that our Lord did not take the easiest way always. He preferred to show his sympathy and thorough devotedness by taking sometimes the most irksome way. His idea was not to save himself trouble; “he spared not himself.” He will not use his power to save himself trouble.
2. Let us notice Christ‘s admiration of the centurion‘s faith. We have seen how great humility is accompanied by great faith. The graces grow proportionally. There are no monstrosities in the spiritual world. And we have to notice what an eye Jesus has for faith. It is the most lovely product in this vale of tears. Hence he is wrapt in admiration of it. He recognizes it as greater in this Gentile than it has yet been in any Jew. The house of Israel had given him as yet no such believer as he had now found in the simple soldier. Clearly faith is not always in proportion to opportunity and advantages. How weak the faith of many who have been all their lives long in the enjoyment of the means of grace!
3. Christ responds to strong faith by a word of power. Had he continued to press himself upon the centurion’s attention and household, it might have led the humble believer to suspect the power of Jesus to save at a distance, In other words, if Jesus had advanced, it might have hurt the centurion’s faith, instead of ministering to him any additional sense of sympathy. Hence he spoke, and the disease of the servant departed instantly. Now, this miracle is designed to show the beauty of Christian sympathy, the power of intercession, and the tender grace of the Saviour as he responds to the appeals of his servants. Let us take a similar interest in those who serve us, or are in anywise related to us; let us bring their case before the Lord, and he will help them for our sake, and for his own Name’s sake too!
II. THE SAVIOUR OF THE DEAD. (Luk 7:11-17.) We next turn to the raising of the widow‘s son at Nain (Luk 7:11-17). And here let us notice:
1. The terrible sorrow which presented itself to Jesus. (Luk 7:12.) It was the death of a widow’s only son. She stood before Jesus in all her lonelinessmore lonely through the proximity of the crowd. Now, it is to a social Saviour she has come, One who lay in the bosom of the Father, a member of the “social Trinity,” who enjoyed fellowship from all eternity. Hence her case did not appeal to him in vain. He does not need any intercession. His sympathetic heart takes up the case. Hence we have:
2. The consolatory word our Saviour spoke. “Weep not!” Sometimes, as Gerok has remarked, this word is spoken in a well-meant, yet unchristian sense, by many children of the world, as if weeping and mourning ought to be put away as out of place; in other cases, the word is spoken with a good Christian intention, but without much human tenderness; but Jesus shows us here when it ought to be spoken. He wants the widow not to weep, for he can put all her sorrow away. Truly it is he who can wipe away the tears from off all faces (Rev 7:17). If we have such consolation to offer, welt may we say, “Weep not.” But if we only repeat the words, without offering any consolation, they are not likely to be of much avail. It is a striking contrast, our Lord’s conduct on this occasion, and on the occasion of Lazarus’s resurrection, where he wept himself, instead of commanding others not to weep (Joh 11:35).
3. The mighty word which backed up his consolation. (Luk 7:14.) This was, “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise!” He does so as the Prince of life. The result is that he that was dead first sat up, and then began to speak. Life was thus restored to him, and intercourse with others followed. Jesus thus demonstrated that he was “the Resurrection and the Life.”
4. The restoration of the young man to his mother. (Luk 7:15.) The purpose of the resurrection was the restoration of those relationships which death had so rudely severed. The bereaved mother is enabled to rejoice in her son again, and to see her home-circle restored. The great truth of recognition and restoration through resurrection is thus set before us.
5. The effect of the miracle upon the people. (Luk 7:16, Luk 7:17.) They feared, because the miracle demonstrated that God was awfully near. Yet the fear inspired them to glorify God for the advent of such a Prophet, and the gracious visitation which he brought. They felt that the miracle was eminently worthy of God. An eminent scientific man, who doubts revealed religion, yet accepts spiritualism, has said, “Few, if any, reputed miracles are at all worthy of a God.” But in face of such a tender and touching work of grace as this at Nain, no such declaration could be made by an impartial mind. It was worthy of God, and tended to his glory.
6. Consider, lastly, the type and promise it affords of what Christ will do in the world at last. For, as a poet has suggested, this earth is the “bier whereon our race is ]aid,” and to it will Christ at last come, and, arresting the long procession of the dead, will say, “Arise!” when lo! a race shall wake from clay, “young, deathless, freed from every stain.” And the “Weep not I” shall also be heard then, for from his people’s faces every tear shall be wiped away. The miracle thus throws a clear and steady light upon those last things which perplex so many people now.R.M.E.
Luk 7:18-35
The deputation from John.
Jesus pursued a policy of mercy and of salvation. He healed all who asked for healing or were brought to him; he raised the dead; he was a Philanthropist rather than a Judge. The fame of his miracles was spread abroad, and made its way to the castle and its keep, where John the Baptist was now Herod’s prisoner. The result is a deputation of two disciples sent by the illustrious prisoner to Jesus. We are to study the interview and the subsequent panegyric on John.
I. CONSIDER JOHN‘S DIFFICULTY. John had preached about a coming One, according to such prophecies as that of Malachi. He had preached that Jesus was coming to judgment. His fan was to be in his hand; he was throughly to purge his floor; he was to gather the wheat into his garner; and he was to burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire (Luk 3:17). And in the spirit of the Old Testament, which was largely a dispensation of judgment, John looked for Messiah to be mainly a Messiah of judgment. The kingdom of Messiah was to be set up, John thought, like all world-kingdoms, by “the thunder of the captains and the shouting,” by some remarkable series of judgments; but now that Jesus is devoting himself to philanthropy pure and simple, John thinks that perhaps another messenger is to be looked for, who will make judgment his role. John’s difficulty is what we all experience when we imagine that a more impressive and decisive method of advancing God’s cause might be adopted. Human nature has great faith in blows!
II. OUR LORD‘S RESPONSE. (Verses 21-23.) This consisted of:
1. Miracles of mercy. All that needed healing in the crowd received it in presence of John’s disciples. He cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and many blind ones received their sight. The Healer was there; philanthropy was in full swing.
2. He preached the gospel to the poor. He backed up the miracles by a message; he made his mercies to the body the texts from which he preached deliverance to the souls of men.
3. He directed the disciples to report to John what they had seem and heard, with the additional warning, “Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.” His policy was one of love, of disinterestedness; and John was to study it more thoroughly and come to a better conclusion. We thus learn that the best defence of a suspected work is the patient performance of it. It will vindicate itself in due season, if it be good and genuine. Christ came not to wade through seas of blood to a temporal throne, but by persevering love to win men’s hearts and rule over their lives from within!
III. HIS PANEGYRIC UPON JOHN. (Verses 24-28.) It was after the deputation had departed that Jesus pronounced John’s panegyric. Most people would have pronounced it in their hearing, that they might carry it to John; but Jesus says the good and noble things behind John’s back, having given all the warning he needed before, so to speak, his face. It partakes, as Godet remarks, of the nature of a funeral oration. Like Jesus himself, John is anointed with considerate praise before his burial. And here we have to notice the order of the panegyric.
1. Christ describes John negatively. Borrowing his simile from the desert, where the reeds bow before the breeze and do not break, he insists that John was not like one of these. In other words, he was a man of unflinching integrity, who would break rather than bend before the breeze of opposition. He preferred to be Herod’s prisoner in the dungeon rather than his fawning sycophant in the palace. Nor, again, was John a courtier gaily and silkenly clad. The Camel’s hair garment was a perpetual protest in the castle, before he was thrust down into the dungeon, against the effeminacy of the court. If he had come to be “court preacher” to Herod, he had come to be one in earnest.
2. He describes John positively. He was a “prophet.” Great honour was it to be recipients and communicators of revelations. John was charged, like other Old Testament prophets, with messages from God. But he was morehe was the forerunner of Messiah. In applying to John the prophecy in Malachi, Jesus was asserting his own Messiahship and Divinity. This was a great honour for John to be the immediate predecessor of the Lord. Still further, our Lord asserts that of woman-born there has not been a greater prophet than the Baptist. This is unstinted praise. And it is just. When we consider all John attempted and the means he had at hand, when we consider that he attempted the regeneration of his country and asked no miraculous power to accomplish it,then he comes before us in moral grandeur exceeding that of the first Elias.
3. He describes him candidly. The panegyric is judicious. Our Lord declares that, great though John undoubtedly is, he is surpassed by “the least in the kingdom of God.” This may mean that the least Christian has greater insight into the nature of the kingdom than John. Or it may, perhaps, rather mean that he who is consciously the least in the kingdom of God, by whom we must understand the most advanced spiritually, is greater than John. The insight of a Paul, for instance, who felt himself to be less than the least of all saints, was greater than that of John, climax though he was of Old Testament prophecy. Or, final]y, may it not mean Jesus himself, who was the meekest and lowliest in the Kingdom of God.
IV. THE CHARACTER OF JOHN‘S SUCCESS WAS LIKE THAT OF JESUS. (Verses 29, 30.) The evangelist seems to add the significant words that it was among the common people, the publicans and the poor, not among the Pharisees and lawyers, that he secured his penitents. So that John’s revival was really among the humbler classes, where the work of Jesus was being now wisely prosecuted. The self-righteous rejected John’s appeal for repentance; the common people and the publicans embraced it, and “justified God” by repenting before him. For we must acknowledge God’s perfect justice in condemning us for our sins, before we can appreciate his justice and mercy in forgiving us for his Son’s sake. Luke’s observation, then, makes Christ’s panegyric a perfect picture.
V. THE TWO ASPECTS OF TRUTH, AND THE GENERAL REJECTION OF BOTH, (Verses 31-35.) Jesus, in these verses, contrasts John’s ministry with his own. Little children at play sometimes find their fellows utterly intractable. Tried by a funeral, they will not join in the mournful procession; tried by a marriage, they will not join in the bridal party. They are too ill-natured to take part in either. Nothing pleases them. So was it with the Pharisees in their attitude to the preaching of John and to the preaching of Jesus. John presented the truth in its severe and mournful aspects. He was unsocial, to lead men to a sense of sin and to repent of it. But the Pharisees would not believe the self-denying preacher from the desert. Jesus presented the truth in all its winsomeness and attractiveness; but they found as much fault with Jesus as they did with John. John had a devil, and Jesus was a glutton and a wine-bibber. Neither could please these prim, self-satisfied ones. But the vindication of wisdom was on its way. The penitents of John and the joyful disciples of Jesus would yet justify the truth which John and Jesus preached. The Pharisees might reject both missions, but the common people who received them justified the truth in both by lives and conversations becoming the gospel. We may in the same way leave our work with confidence to the verdict of the future, if we feel that it is true. Opposition from a self-righteous party is itself a vindication of the truth which we have embodied or declared.R.M.E.
Luk 7:36-50
Love the proof of pardon.
The generation to which Jesus had come with his social gospel thought him too “free and easy” with sinners. The Pharisees thought he had no right to associate with publicans and sinners, although he did so to save them. But the wisdom of his policy would be justified by the conduct of his converts, and here we have a justification ready to hand. One of the Pharisees invited him to eat with him. He accepts the invitation, and is reclining at his table, when, lo! a poor woman “off the streets” comes in behind him, and in her penitence and gratitude prepares to anoint with spikenard his blessed feet. She had heard him preach, she had received pardon for all her sins, she could not resist this exhibition of gratitude for it. But as she is about to anoint his feet, her pent-up grief refuses further restraint, and bathes them with copious tears, and, having no towel with her or offered to her, she unties her flowing hair, content to wipe with it the beautiful feet of him who had brought her glad tidings. Having thus washed and wiped them clean, she proceeds to anoint them with the ointment. To this conduct the Pharisee secretly objects, and takes it as proof positive that Jesus is not the discerning Prophet he professes to be Our Lord’s parable soon corrects the error and reveals the truth, and the poor sinner, so penitent and so grateful, is dismissed in peace.
I. GREAT SIN SHOULD NOT HINDER ANY OF US FROM COMING TO JESUS FOR PARDON. This is one of the difficulties which men make for themselvesthey fancy that great sin may keep sinners from pardon. Now Jesus made it very plain that great sinners might receive pardon just as well as little sinners. The psalmist once prayed, “Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great” (Psa 25:7), and some of the most notorious sinners ever seen have become monuments of mercy and joyful through pardon. This case before us is one in point. Jesus had so presented his message of salvation that this woman from the town embraced it and rejoiced in the thought of forgiveness. While, therefore, no one would recommend a sinner to sin in order to intensify his sense of guilt and qualify himself for receiving Christ’s salvation, we would recommend every sinner to believe that the very enormity of his sins will move Christ’s pity, and, when purged and pardoned, illustrate his saving power. Suppose a patient is brought to a hospital a mass of disease or of wounds and bruises: will not the very magnitude of his distress constitute such an appeal to pity as will secure his immediate admission? In the same way, great sin is an argument with the Saviour in favour of mercy, rather than any obstacle to it. Besides, we should always remember that our sense of sin is always vastly below the reality, and that we in most penitent mood have really a better opinion of ourselves than the circumstances warrant.
II. WE OUGHT COURAGEOUSLY TO PROFESS CHRIST BEFORE MEN. This poor woman needed courage to profess Christ in Simon’s house. Simon and his guests belonging to the Pharisaic party loathed her. It was a place where she was certain to be scorned and perhaps expelled. But her sense of obligation to Jesus and her love for his Person were so great that she could not forego her desire to make her way to his feet. And so she steals in and gets behind her Master, and proceeds to lavish her attention on his feet. So courageous is she, that she leisurely and most carefully washes his feet and wipes them with her hair and anoints them with the ointment; so that she actually, as Godet remarks, did the honours of the house, which Simon had neglected. We need similarly to add to our faith courage (2Pe 1:4). We ought to give our hearts free play in their loyalty to Jesus. We must profess him before men, at whatever cost.
III. JESUS WILL ALWAYS TAKE OUR PART AGAINST THOSE WHO MISTAKE OUR MOTIVES OR DESPISE US. Jesus will acknowledge our profession of him in the next world, and even in this. In the case before us we see him taking the Pharisee to task for his mistake about the woman. Simon made several mistakes.
1. About the woman being unpardonable and unpardoned: she was neither.
2. About Jesus as being undiscerning and so ignorant of the woman’s state: he was more thoroughly acquainted with her than she or Simon could be.
3. About himself, as nearer God’s kingdom than she was: he was really further from Christ than she. And Jesus consequently takes up the woman’s cause and vindicates her character as a changed woman now and pardoned. This he does in parabolic language. The two debtors who are both forgiven have not the same sense of gratitude. Their gratitude is in proportion to their forgiveness. Hence the poor woman, feeling how much she has been forgiven, is proportionately grateful. The defence was triumphant. And in the same way will Jesus defend us if we are courageous in following him.
IV. LOVE IS THE PROOF OF PARDON. We are not pardoned because we love our Saviour, but we love him because he has pardoned us. Hence the stronger the love, the stronger must be our sense of the amount of sin we have been forgiven. Our love will grow just in proportion to our appreciation of our pardon, Hence the man who comes to believe, with Paul, that he is “the chief of sinners,” will love the Lord accordingly. He will feel constrained through his sense of obligation to love God with all his being.
V. CHRIST‘S ASSURANCE OF PARDON SECURES PEACE. The poor sinner’s peace was threatened through the contempt of the Pharisees. But Jesus gives her special assurance, and sends her off in peace. So will it be in our own experience if we sincerely trust him.R.M.E.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Luk 7:1-10 . See on Mat 8:5-13 . In the present form of Mark’s Gospel the section must have been lost at the same time with the Sermon on the Mount, Luk 3:19 (Ewald, Holtzmann); both are supposed to have existed in the primitive Mark. Comp. on Mar 3:19 .
] cum absolvisset , so that nothing more of them was wanting, and was left behind. Comp. 1Ma 4:19 (cod. A); Eusebius, H. E . iv. 15 : . Comp. , Mat 7:28 .
] as Mar 7:35 .
The healing of the leper, which Matthew introduces before the healing of the servant, Luke has inserted already at Luk 5:12 ff.
Luk 7:3 . ] as usually: elders of the people , who also on their part were sufficiently interested in respect of the circumstance mentioned at Luk 7:5 . Hence not: chiefs of the synagogue; , Act 13:15 ; Act 18:8 ; Act 18:17 .
, ] equivalent to , . See Khner, 802. 4; Buttmann, Neut. Gr . p. 198 [E. T. 229].
] Subsequently, in Luk 7:6 , he changed his mind; his confidence rose to a higher pitch , so that he is convinced that he needs not to suggest to Him the coming at all.
Luk 7:4 . ] The Recepta , as the second person, is not found anywhere; for and (Winer, p. 70 [E. T. 89]) are forms sanctioned by usage , to which also is to be added ; but other verbs are found only in Aristophanes and the tragic writers (Matthaei, p. 462; Reisig, ad Soph. Oed. C . p. xxii. f.). If were genuine, it would be the third person of the future active (min.: ), and the words would contain the utterance of the petitioners among themselves .
Luk 7:5-6 . ] ipse , namely, of his own means. [106] The Gentile builder did not prejudice the sanctity of the building, because that came by means of the consecration . See Lightfoot, p. 775.
] as Luk 15:6 ; Act 10:24 , kinsfolk , relatives; see Ngelsbach, Anm. z. Ilias , Exo 3 , p. 374.
Luk 7:7 . ] on account of my unworthiness.
] not at all .
] in reference to those who had been sent , who were to represent him , Luk 7:3 .
] equivalent to , Luk 7:2 . According to Baur, it is an unmerited accusation against Luke that he erroneously interpreted the of his original source, and nevertheless by oversight allowed it to remain in this place (Holtzmann).
Luk 7:8 . . ] an expression of military subordination: one who is placed under orders . Luke might also have written , but the present depicts in a more lively manner the concrete relation as it constantly occurs in the service .
Luk 7:10 . . ] the sick slave well (not: recovering ). , present participle, spoken from the point of view of the , Luk 7:6 . , Plat. Gorg . p. 495 E. As an explanation of this miraculous healing from a distance, Schenkel can here suggest only the “extraordinary spiritual excitement” of the sick person.
[106] He was such a friend of Judaism, and dwelt in the Jewish land. This was a sufficient reason for Jesus treating him quite differently from the way in which He afterwards treated the Syrophoenician woman. Hilgenfeld persists in tracing Mat 8:5 ff. to the supposed universalistic retouching of Matthew. See his Zeitschr . 1865, p. 48 ff.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
3. The First Return to Capernaum. The First-fruits of the Believing Gentiles (Luk 7:1-10)
(Parallel: Mat 8:5-13.)
1Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.2And a certain centurions servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.3And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the [om., the] elders of the Jews,beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. 4And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly [urgently], saying, That he was worthy for5whom he should do this [to have this done for him]: For [said they] he loveth our nation,and he hath built us a synagogue [and our synagogue he himself built]. 6Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself; for I am not worthythat thou shouldest enter under my roof: 7Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed [let my servant be healed, V. O.1].8For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant,Do this, and he doeth it. 9When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel [not even in Israel have I found so great a faith].10And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole [well] that had been sick.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Luk 7:1. He entered into Capernaum.Comp. Mat 8:1-13, and Lange on the passage. The healing of the Leper, which Matthew places immediately before the recovery of the sick servant, had, according to the more exact account (Luk 5:12-16), preceded the Sermon on the Mount.
Luk 7:2. Servant.That we are here not to understand the son, but the servant ( here=, , Act 3:26), appears not only from the statement of Luke, that this sick person was very dear to the centurion, which in the other case would have been superfluous, but also from that of Matthew that he was sick in the house of the centurion, which certainly would have needed no mention if it had been his son. The cause why he so highly valued particularly this servant, apparently his only one, see Luk 7:8 b.[To refer the centurions concern to the mere fear of losing a valuable servant, appears an exceedingly frigid interpretation of the phrase was dear unto him.C. C. S.]
Luk 7:3. .Not necessarily (Act 13:15), but elders of the people in the ordinary sense of the word. It need not surprise us to see such come to the Saviour with an entreaty for help; for why should all adherents of the sacerdotal party at that period have been alike hostile to the Saviour? Even if they did not themselves share his expectation and his faith, yet they must have been afraid of turning their friend and protector, by the refusal of his request, into an enemy, since he, moreover,as Jewish selfishness would easily calculateif his servant should recover, would not feel himself indebted alone to Jesus, but also under personal obligation to them. They, therefore, bring his request to Jesus, adding commendation and urgent entreaty thereto, assuring Him: He is worthy that thou shouldest do this for him. And the Saviour, who had refused the weakly believing at Capernaum (Joh 4:46-54) to make him a visit, refuses this not to the afflicted centurion, and counts him worthy of this honor, not because he had built the synagogue, but because he had shown the heroic courage of faith.
Luk 7:5. And our synagogue he himself built.There are several examples on record of individuals who had founded Jewish synagogues, see Lightfoot ad loc. Even the founding of one by a heathen suggests no difficulty, since the sanctity of the place did not depend upon the founder, but on the religious consecration. So did Herod also renew the temple. Moreover this centurion was, in all probability, a proselyte of the gate, like Cornelius (Acts 10) and so many others besides.
Luk 7:6. Sent friends.This second sending is related by Luke alone, whose account supplements that of Matthew, without being in conflict with it. Now, when once the centurion believes that Jesus is on his way to his dwelling, he holds himself bound not only to await the Lord, but also to go to meet Him ( , Luk 7:7), and it is just this that makes him diffident. Yet now he sends in his placea very delicate and thoroughly natural touchno intercessors, for these he needed no longer, but intimate friends of his family, who can in some measure take his place in greeting the highly honored Guest. It is much more probable that the Saviour addressed to the friends of the centurion the praise bestowed upon his great faith, which Matthew and Luke give account of, than that He should have uttered it to his face. Even though he did address himself by others to Jesus, Matthew could very well declare of the centurion, that he came to Jesus and entreated Him, according to the well-known rule: Quod quis per alium facit, ipse fecisse putatur, in the same manner in which it is said of Noah and of Solomon: He built the Ark, or the Temple.
Luk 7:7. Say in a word.Even his affliction about his sick servant redounds to the honor of the heathen centurion, since commonly slaves were hardly treated by the Romans as persons, but rather as things. Still more to his honor is his humility, and most of all his vigorous faith, even though this was not free from heathen superstition. Without doubt he has already heard about Jesus, and represented the matter thus to himself, that the good Genii of health appeared, the evil fled before Jesus like troops at the will of the general. How mighty to him must the help of such a ruler of spirits have appeared. He asks nothing more than the word of command, before which the paralysis shall give way. From the power of his own words he concludes as to the might of the words of Jesus. As to the rest, that this centurion was no other than Chuza, Herods steward (Luk 8:3), is a supposition (Sepp) that is entirely without proof.
Luk 7:10. The servant well that had been sick.There is just as little reason (Lachm., Tischend.) to expunge the phrase , as (Paulus, a. o.) to understand only in the sense of recovering. Much better Bengel: Non modo sanum, sed sanitate utentem.According to Matthew as well as Luke, therefore, the healing took place at a distance, as in Joh 4:46-54. This is, however, no good reason for considering these two accounts as different relations of the same miracle. The distinct character of the Synoptical narrative, the humble power of faith of the stranger in Israel and its deep impression upon Christ, this anti-Judaistic feature, pregnant of the future, if it was once extant in the tradition of the church, could not possibly have been so obliterated by the fourth Evangelist, considering his own character, and have been perverted almost into the opposite (Hase).How much attraction, moreover, this miracle must have had for Luke, not only as physician, but also as Paulinist, needs no suggestion. The prophetic declaration of the bringing in of the Gentiles, which the Saviour, according to Mat 8:11-12, uttered on this occasion, Luke gives in another connection, Luk 13:28-29.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. For the first time we find here in the Gospel of Luke witnesses of a miracle at a distance. An example of something of the kind we find in the life of Elisha (2 Kings 5), without, however, discovering a warrant in this agreement for finding here a mythical or legendary narrative in the gospels (Strauss), or for supposing the basis of both narratives to be a parable (Weisse). The point of attachment for the miraculous activity of the Saviour was undoubtedly given in the faith of the centurion and in the sympathy of his friends: An invisible highway, we may say, for the victorious and saving eagles of the great Imperator. Lange, Life of Christ, ii. p. 648. But the last ground of all must, however, be sought in the entirely unique personality of the Saviour. If He was really the one whom He affirmed Himself to be, distance in space could not then hinder His holy will, united with that of the Father, from working where He held it needful. What was possible to the prophet with the heathen Naaman certainly could not be impossible to the Son with the heathen centurion. By this very fact He exhibits to us the image of the working of the Father (Joh 5:17; Joh 14:9), which is impeded as little by time as by space. At the same time, we behold here as in a mirror, how He in heaven, exalted above all limits of the material world, can work directly even to the extreme limits of the earth. Much that is beautiful and striking respecting this and other miracles of the Saviour is found in the Notes on the Miracles of our Lord, by Archbishop Trench.
2. Only twice do we read in the Gospel that the Saviour marvelled; He who at other times exercised the nil mirari in Divine perfection; once at the unbelief of His fellow citizens at Nazareth (Mar 6:6), once at the faith of this heathen. And at this His wondering, we need not wonder; it is a proof the more for His true humanity. The whole history of the world may be called a continuous history of faith and unbelief, and by these two is the infallible judgment of the Lord respecting men and sinners determined. The praise which He bestows on this heathen is the more remarkable, because it evidently shows that the Saviour can praise and crown a great faith even where it is yet mingled with erroneous conceptions of the understanding.
3. A strong apologetical value lies in the impression which the report of the miraculous power of the Saviour had made upon a heathen, and in the expectation that a word at a distance would be sufficient to fulfil his wish. Respecting the Christ of the negative criticism, we understand just as little how He could give occasion to such a report as how He could excite so bold a hope in the heart of a heathen.
4. This whole history is a striking proof of the indispensable necessity of faith as a conditio sine qua non, as well of desiring anything of the Lord as also of receiving much from Him. At the same time the character of true humility, in opposition to the counterfeit, is here made evident. False humility suffers itself to be kept back from coming to Jesus by the sense of personal unworthiness; true humility confesses: I count myself not worthy, butcomes. Very beautifully Augustine says: Dicendo se indignum prstitit dignum, non in cujus parietes, sed in cujus cor Christus intraret.
5. While the Saviour concedes to the heathen centurion such a benefit, He is not unfaithful to His own principle. (Mat 15:24) More than by his building of the synagogue and the intercession of the elders for him was this centurion by his faith received into the Israel according to the Spirit, and made partaker of the (Rom 2:29), which is the real requirement in the kingdom of God.
6. The manifestation of faith in a heathen in contrast with the unbelief of the Jews has a strong symbolic side; comp. Mat 8:11-12; Joh 1:11-13.For a doctrine of prayer also the intercession of the elders and friends has a great significance, as a striking argument for the necessity and blessing of this service of love. Comp. Jam 5:16. These elders, although they were not without faith, had nevertheless less faith than he who sent them (Luk 7:9). Yet do they entreat not in vain for him. Thus can often less favored ones profit others that are farther advanced more than they do themselves. Even so also the friends (Luk 7:6). (Gerlach.)
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The first heathen who experiences the miraculous power of the Saviour.Great faith: 1. Courageous in entreaty; 2. humble in approach; 3. joyful in receiving the benefit of the Lord.The entreaty of the Jews for a heathen considered from its singular, touching, and successful side.No greater love for Israel than the care for its highest interests.Jesus ready to go wherever need and faith call Him. Urgent intercession the best service of friendship.Prayer and faith most intimately connected together: 1. How true humility leads to faith; 2. how true faith never forgets humility.Christ the true Ruler over sin and sickness.Heathen precede the Jews into the kingdom of heaven.There is more faith on earth than we know of.Great faith, by Jesus 1 Remarked; 2. praised; 3. crowned; 4. held up for imitation.The centurion of Capernaum before a threefold forum: 1. The judgment of man, Luk 7:4 (a): He is worthy, &c.; 2. the judgment of conscience, Luk 7:6 : I am not worthy, &c.; 3. the judgment of the Saviour, Luk 7:9 : Such faith, &c.The great faith of the master of the house a blessing for all his household.How distress drives to Jesus and how Jesus comes to the distressed.Great faith a singularity: 1. This is not otherwise, 2. this cannot be otherwise, 3. this will not be otherwise.The good which we remark in others, we ought to praise with cordiality.Time and space no barriers to the helpful love of the Lord.In order to be highly praised by the Lord, one must be humbled most deeply before Him.A School of Love: 1. Of a heathen towards Jews; 2. of Jews towards a heathen; 3. of the Saviour towards both together; a, in the deed, b, in the word of His love.
Starke:God is no respecter of persons. Act 10:34-35.Nova Bibl. Tub.:Christian governors ought duly to acknowledge the faithfulness and obedience of their subjects, take their necessities upon them, not leave them in their spiritual and bodily distress.For their benefits men willingly entreat God and men.Outward works are by men, on account of their own profit, most praised, but Jesus looks at the heart, and praises faith.Hedinger:Become nothing, that thou mayst be something in Christ, 1Co 15:9-10; 1Pe 5:5Who has, to him shall be given, that he may have abundance. The true grace of God is ever in growth and increase.To the hero in war a heroic faith is well beseeming.God has, even in the military profession, without doubt, His own.Our best way to become worthy of the grace of Christ, is to count ourselves unworthy of it.Majus:The better a man knows God and himself, the humbler will he be.Canstein:Weak faith God does not despise, but a stronger faith nevertheless is more acceptable to Him.
Lisco:Strong faith, 1. As to its nature; 2. as to its reward.Coming to Jesus: 1. From what it springs: a. from believing confidence, b. from love to the brethren; 2. how manifested: a. with hearty humility, b. with unreserved confidence; 3. how rich in blessings it is: a. it procures us the applause of Jesus, b. it is salutary for others.Palmer:What is the faith which is well pleasing to the Lord, but which He does not find in Israel? 1. It is faith which springs from humility; 2. which is joined with love; 3. which aims after what is highest, and strives to appropriate it.An entirely original application of Luk 7:8 in Cassianus Collat. Luk 7:5 : One must even so bring his thoughts under military command, summon the good, to the evil at once give their discharge.Fuchs:Concerning Christian faith: 1. Its source; 2. its expression; 3. its blessing.Ranke:Blessed he who seeks help of Christ, 1. For His love there is no man too mean; 2. for His power there is no wretchedness too great; 3. the condition of His help is for no one too hard.Thym.The sick servant at Capernaum: 1. The lord of the servant, 2. the sick man, 3. the Physician.Bengel:Faith: 1. Kind and test; 2. profit and praise.
Footnotes:
[1]Luk 7:7.Tischendorf, after B., L., , instead of the Rec. . The former appears more agreeable to the humble tone of the suppliant. [And the latter more expressive of his strong faith. This is supported by the other MSS. and by Cod. Sin.C. C. S.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
We have here the Cure of the Centurion’s Servant: the raising of the Widow’s Son; Christ’s Answer to the Messengers of John the Baptist; and Mary anointing Christ’s Feet.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
(1) Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. (2) And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die. (3) And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. (4) And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: (5) For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. (6) Then Jesus went with them; and when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof; (7) Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed, (8) For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. (9) When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. (10) And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.
Capernaum was much frequented by Christ, indeed it is called his own city. Hence the condemnation, Mat 11:23 . The account here given of this centurion, differs in some points from the relation given by Matthew: but both are correct. Matthew doth not notice the elders of the Jews first coming to Christ in his behalf: but it should seem that the centurion sent them first, and then hearing that Jesus was coming to him, he hastened towards Christ, as is here described, to testify his unworthiness of the Lord’s condescension. I have somewhat largely made observations on this gracious act of Christ, in Mat 8:5 , etc. to which I refer.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Three Estimates of One Character
Luk 7:4
I. In the first place, we have the estimate formed of this man by his neighbours, ‘Saying that he was worthy’. Now in regard to this testimonial, two or three remarks may be made. (1) For one thing, it must, I think, he conceded that these elders had enjoyed the best opportunities for forming a judgment regarding him. He lived in the midst of them. (2) But these elders had another advantage in coming to a knowledge of this centurion’s character. He had been long enough among them to give them opportunity of testing him. (3) Nay, more, they saw that as he dwelt among them, he became an inquirer into their religion, and a student of their Scriptures, so that by and by he gave up his idolatry, and then after a time became a believer in Jehovah. Tell me what those who are closest to a man think of him after their experience of him for a course of years, or how the members of a community regard a man who has been continuously before them for half a generation, and you tell me with approximate accuracy what the man really is.
II. But in the second place let us look at this centurion’s estimate of himself. ‘I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof.’ His was a genuine feeling of unworthiness, just like that which is characteristic in greater or less degree of every truly good man among ourselves. Now it becomes an interesting question, why it is that the good man’s estimate of himself should thus differ from that formed of him by his neighbours and friends. And in answer to that two things may be advanced: (1) It is owing, doubtless, in some measure to the fact that he knows more about himself than others do. (2) The discrepancy between the good man’s estimate of himself and that formed of him by others may be explained by the fact that the better a man is the loftier does his ideal become. His standard rises with his very excellence. (a) We see this illustrated intellectually in the matter of knowledge. The more a man learns, the more he learns of his own ignorance. (b) But it is quite similar with holiness. The liker I become to Christ, the more I see in Christ that I have yet to imitate.
III. But we come now to the third estimate of this man’s character; that, namely, of the Lord Jesus Himself, who said regarding him, ‘I have not found so great faith, no! not in Israel’. This testimony to his faith is virtually also a testimony to his character; for faith is not cherished except by a certain character. Faith is thus a moral test. Then again the faith which is thus rooted in character reacts upon character. As a man believes, so he becomes. Such, then, are the three estimates here given of the character of this one man. But the last is the main one after all, carrying all that is valuable in the other two within itself.
References. VII. 4, 6, 7. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Luke, p. 137. VII. 4-9. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x. No. 600.
The Good Centurion
Luk 7:5
There are many striking features about the character of this Roman soldier; he is one of the most attractive, noble, and lovable men in the pages of the New Testament. There are mainly three points in his character to be carefully marked.
I. His susceptibility to all that is good. He had come to Capernaum probably without any definite faith, with many a story in his mind about the fanaticism and stubborn pride of the people in whose country he had come to keep order, and he must have set himself at once to study the people and their religion, with the result that he saw the good in both. We could still do with more of the spirit that detects and rejoices in good in others, other nations, other religious communities. The chief feature, however, of this man’s susceptibility, is that it is most tender towards that which is highest. I see in this centurion a man who is willing to be led by the Spirit of God and of truth, who dares at the bidding of the Spirit to be original, to do what is unusual and unfashionable, singular and strange, at the call of conscience, and this is the kind of man needed today.
II. His lowliness. ‘I am not worthy,’ is his estimate of himself. You know the world’s idea; you must assert your own worth, and insist on your rights being recognised and your efforts being properly acknowledged. If modesty is at a discount in the markets of the world, it should be at a premium in the Church of Christ. Let a Roman centurion teach us ‘I am not worthy,’ that is the language for all of us, for some more than others, but for us all. Not lip language, not affectation; there is no more degraded and disgusting character in fiction than Uriah Heap. But the real thing oh, that we had more of it! Lowliness of mind is the sure sign of saintliness; every true saint is lowly.
III. His faith. A faith which surprises our Lord. It is a part of the susceptibility to the Divine which dwelt in him. It is to be feared that there are many people professing the Christian faith who would be put to shame by the simple and complete confidence in Christ’s power displayed by the centurion. Lowliness and faith go together. The proud and self-sufficient temper will make its own power and wisdom the gauge and standard of what God can do, and will probably refuse to believe in anything that it cannot understand. The man who truly sees God will be stricken through with a sense of his own unworthiness; but he will believe at the same time in the illimitable power of God. I do not want to be put to shame by the faith of this Roman soldier. I observe that our Lord acclaimed it and declared that it was the greatest He had found.
Charles Brown, The Baptist Times and Freeman, vol. li. p. 251.
Patriotism in Religion
Luk 7:5
There are two great ideas in these few words: patriotism ‘He loveth our nation’; and religion ‘He hath built us a synagogue’. Because he loves the nation, says the text, he has built a religious house. The implication is that wise patriotism concerns itself with the religious welfare of the nation, and that the maintenance of religious sanctuaries is a proof of the noblest patriotism. Can that strange position be maintained? If we test it we shall find that it can.
I. For the nation is indebted to the sanctuary for the best elements in its life. The differences that make our national civilisation more desirable than the ancient civilisations of Greece and Rome are to be attributed to the quiet but potent influence of the Christian sanctuary, which, unknown in those states, ists in multiplied forms in modern England. The f distinction between those old civilisations and ours lies in the complete absence from them of what we know as humanitarianism.
II. The nation is indebted to the sanctuary for the indispensable conditions of its progress. What is it that actually gives birth to reforms? The moral sentiment of the community. And what inspires the community with an ever-heightening moral sentiment? The spiritual forces of the country. And whence do they proceed but from the sanctuary? (1) It is the Churches that supply ideals; and ideals are far more necessary to national progress than Acts of Parliament. (2) They are supplied, also, by that elevation of character which the sanctuary produces.
III. The nation is indebted to the sanctuary for the supply of its best citizens. Further, it is the purest form of public-spiritedness which the sanctuary fosters. Ancient Sparta was unwalled, and when a visitor wondered at the fact, the king showed him a muster of strong men and said, with a proud wave of his hand, ‘These are the walls of Sparta’. And it is not the wooden walls of her ships that protect England, it is not her navy that is Britain’s best defence, it is her true citizens, such as are moulded in the sanctuary of God standing in her midst.
B. J. Gibbon, Visionaries, p. 42.
References. VII. 6. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 274; VII. 6-8. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv. No. 800.
Luk 7:8
These words, better than any other, define Bossuet. Above him was God, represented in things spiritual by the Catholic Church, in things temporal by the French monarchy; below him were the faithful committed to his charge, and those who would lead the faithful astray from the path of obedience and tradition.
Professor Dowden, in A History of French Literature, p. 219.
References. VII. 8. H. W. Webb-Peploe, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv. p. 200. VII. 8, 9. Ibid. vol. liii. p. 414.
Luk 7:9
A colonel in the Royal Artillery wrote thus to Mrs. Kingsley about her husband’s influence over the soldiers he met: ‘It is not hard to find a creed for a soldier to die with, it seems to me at least I have seen Mahomet’s answer well. A creed to live by is a different thing. The only alternative to the beautiful evangelical Christianity of such happy soldiers as Hedley Vicars (Havelock was a Puritan out of bis age), the extreme evangelical doctrine to which most men are constitutionally averse, was the slavish Roman, or what seemed an unpractical emasculate sthetic imitation. The average soldier found no rest, no place in modern Christianity until our apostle (your husband) tore off the shreds and patches with which for ages the Divine figure of the God-man had been obscured He who found no such faith in Israel as that of the centurion.’
References. VII. 9. J. Baines, Twenty Sermons, p. 297. S. Cox, Expositions, p. 199. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vii. p. 322. VII. 10. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in a Religious House, vol. i. p. 7. VII. 11-15. Expository Sermons on the New Testament, p. 72. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 297. VII. 11-17. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxiv. No. 2003. Expositor (6th Series), vol. ii. p. 70. VII. 11, 12. R. W. Hiley, A Year’s Sermons, vol. ii. p. 150. Bishop Forrest-Browne, Christian World Pulpit, vol. Hi. p. 280. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 43. VII. 13-15. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scriptures St. Luke, p. 146. VII. 14. W. H. Evans, Sermons for the Church’s Year, p. 203. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ii. p. 450. VII. 14, 15. J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. i. p. 175. VII. 16. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year (2nd Series), vol. ii. p. 133. Expositor (5th Series), vol. x. p. 335. VII. 17. W. E. Barton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 12. VII. 18-28. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 149. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scriptures St. Luke, p. 156. VII. 18-30. Ibid. vol. iii. p. 357.
The Baptist’s Message to Jesus
Luk 7:19
Probably the Baptist himself would judge that we waste too much emotion on his comfortless life, his early selfsacrifice, his magnanimity. The tragic character of his death, the despondent doubt which darkened his spirit while in prison, the severity of his whole life, all tend to make us oblivious of the fact that his life was filled and crowned with a deep and solid and unique joy. And after all, it not being possible to him to be the Christ, it was no small glory to be the friend, the next, to the Christ. Few men see much lasting fruit of what they have spent their life to attain. But John, to whom it was given to stir and awaken men’s minds to appreciate their true King, to whom it was given to use his own figure to negotiate the marriage between Christ and men, had the perfect satisfaction of seeing men flocking to their true Lord, and of hearing His voice of welcome and of deep satisfaction. No wonder that this should eclipse all the apparent and superficial bareness of his life. No wonder that when he saw that he had been the chief instrument in finding for Christ and for God entrance into men’s hearts, when he apprehended that to him had been entrusted the initiation of the greatest movement in the history of man, and possibly in the history of God, he should have been filled with humble and exultant satisfaction, and have said, ‘This my joy is fulfilled’. No wonder that Christ should have declared that among those born of women none was greater than the Baptist.
I. In common with all his countrymen John had to rise to new conceptions of the kingdom of God and its King. He had to discard the fancy that a great conqueror would arise to throw off the Roman yoke. Happily he took now as always the straightforward course and appealed to Jesus Himself. The authorities had mistaken the Baptist himself for the Christ; Jesus, he knew, would make no mistake.
Jesus at once apprehended the state of mind of His friend, and anticipates and explodes the idea which He knew the crowd would cherish, that the personal misfortunes of the Baptist were clouding his faith. You hear the pleasure with which Jesus defends and applauds him ringing through His words. It would almost seem as if Jesus were taking revenge on Himself for uttering what might appear to be the harsh saying, ‘Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me’. He turns on the people as if they had in their hearts been calumniating John, and at once defends his friend. ‘Do not,’ He says, ‘let yourselves for one moment suppose that John has fallen from his high estate. You yourselves, when you saw him in the wilderness independent of public opinion and of criticism, knew that he was no reed bowing to every change of circumstance, moved by every passing breeze, never for two days in one mind. You saw a man untouched by luxurious living, content with a camel’s skin and such food as uncultivated nature could afford. Do you suppose that such a man is much disturbed or daunted by prison-fare, or that the gloom of the dungeon has damped his optimism and blotted out the coming kingdom?’
Here Jesus shows in what spirit He meets honest, serious-minded doubt. He knows that beneath that question of John’s which so shocked the bystanders, there lay a heart more capable of loyalty to Him than was to be found in any of those who gave their easy assent to claims they scarcely understood. That question, sceptical as it seemed, was of more value to Him than the unreasoning hosannas of thoughtless followers, for through it He saw a man in deadly earnest to whom the answer meant life or despair. It is when a man takes the Messiahship of Jesus seriously; it is when he proposes to make the mind of Christ rule all that he himself is connected with, that he necessarily begins to question whether Christ’s claim is well founded and whether His rule is right. It is through such doubt and perplexity that ultimate faith and lasting allegiance are reached.
II. John’s doubt hovers over each generation and has to be solved by every man. ‘Art Thou He that should come, or look we for another?’ Do we find in this person God, righteousness and eternity? And this doubt is nourished and strengthened much as John’s was. Men are always tempted to resent Christ’s method. His work seems so slow: one is tempted to say, so inefficient, so unmarked by urgency; in so many ways it disappoints the expectations of practical men fitted rather for some other world than for this actual order of things.
It is precisely John’s difficulty which is today preventing many earnest men in the working classes from believing in Christ. His methods bring no immediate relief, no revolution, no upturning of the social order, no instant setting right of all that is wrong. He claims to be King, and to have a special regard for the oppressed, yet generation after generation of the oppressed pass away and He gives no sign. It is this which prompts so many to turn from Him in disappointment and bitterness and to look for ‘another,’ generally some hasty demagogue who offers a panacea which is to cure all the world’s ills in a fortnight.
III. The answer Jesus sends to John is, ‘Go and tell John what I am doing’. Virtually that was to say, ‘I have deliberately chosen My method, and I do not mean to change it. My kingdom is spiritual. Hence I must work through the individual. Only by regenerating the individual do I expect to regenerate the world.’
Jesus never answers the question thus put to Him with a categorical ‘Yes, I am the Christ’. He may for the present leave doubts and difficulties in the inquiring mind, because He will win no man by compulsion. It must be by the free movement of our own intelligence, by the home-grown convictions reached by the individual that He wins His way to universal empire. As one of our greatest statesmen once said, ‘No more in the inner world than in the outer has Christ come among us as a conqueror, making his appeal by force’.
IV. ‘Wisdom,’ says our Lord, ‘is justified of all her children.’ We need men of the type of John and also men of the type of Jesus. We need men like John, trained to endure hardness, independent of all that society can offer, living a free life according to conscience, tied by no social or professional bonds, neither prophets nor the sons of prophets, owning no allegiance to tradition or conventions of any kind, men resolute to see iniquities suppressed and righteousness everywhere reigning.
Even more do we need men of the type of Jesus, for though among those that are born of women there is not a greater than John, the least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. For Jesus knows and uses a power John never knew, the power of God’s Fatherly love.
Marcus Dods, Christ and Man, p. 85.
The Coming Man
Luk 7:19
There is a phrase we hear today. It is ‘the coming man’. We say of some genius in literature, or some orator in politics, or some successful man in business, ‘He is a coming man’. He is likely to come to great things in his own line. He will be very distinguished. And when, after the years, we find our prophecy fulfilled, we say, ‘Yes, he has come to his own at last. For a while, perhaps, he seemed slow in doing it, but now there is no doubt whatever. He has arrived.’
I. What are the qualities that go to make the world’s ‘coming man’. I dare say if you were to ask a sufficiently large number of intelligent judges, they would generally unite on the word originality as the secret of the ‘coming man’. The world is crying out for freshness. It is very old. There is nothing very new under the sun. Therefore, when a man strikes out a new and fresh note the world always listens. We have not heard this before, it says, and straightway it falls down to worship its ‘coming man’.
But if you were to dig deeper and ask what are the things that go to make ‘originality,’ I dare say you would not find such a consensus of opinion. Some of you, I daresay, would be surprised and inclined to ridicule my judgment, were I to tell you that I believe one of the strongest ingredients in originality is just hard work.
Then another secret of ‘originality’ is courage, courage of action, and, what is less common, courage of thinking. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman was once asked the secret of success in politics. With a flash in his eye, he replied: ‘The open sesame of politics is courage.’ The courageous man is the pioneer, the man of enterprise. He can take his life in his hands. And a man who has never taken his life in his hands will never take the world by the heart.
II. God has a ‘coming man’ as well as the world. He takes longer in coming perhaps. But when He comes, He comes securely. He comes into a kingdom ‘that shall never be moved’.
See one of these the greatest of all in our text. ‘Art Thou He,’ says John to Jesus, ‘that should come, or look we for another?’ The words ‘that should come’ form one word in the Greek. They mean ‘the coming One’.
Jesus was the true coming One; though His coming seemed at first sight a wild dream of a poor enthusiast. ‘We trusted it would have been He that should have redeemed Israel, and behold this is the third day since all these things were done!’ It is all over. The tragedy is closed. Christ and His hopes have come to naught. He is already a thing of the past. ‘This is the third day since these things were done!’ And, lo! all the time He was coming, coming in the Cross, coming in the grave, coming in loyal hearts and true; until in Pentecost He burst forth on an astonished world to begin that grand triumphal march as the world’s true ‘coming man’!
There is a striking Italian picture which I once saw. It is entitled, ‘The Passing of the Obscure’. It represents the great mixed multitude life’s ‘common men’ as they are driven remorselessly forward by the hand of death into the dark flood of annihilation, in which they are to perish for ever. You can see them as they drift upward to the shore. The old, the middle-aged, the young are there; but they have all one common expression on their faces. It is the expression of disappointment. Life has been so poor, so unsatisfactory. They had hoped to do great things in it. And now it is ended, and they have come to nothing. As you look at the picture you think not of ‘the coming man ‘but of ‘the going man’. ‘The passage of the obscure’ yes, it is a touching thought; and yet, as I looked into the picture, I felt that if the artist had been a Christian artist, he would have given a different horizon to his canvas. Instead of that grey sea of annihilation ending in a dull, cheerless, darkening sky, he would have painted a distant gleam of light in the horizon, and that light would have spread a pathway of gold across the dark waters and lit up, at least, some of the faces in that crowd with hope and triumph.
For that is the lesson which Christ as ‘the Coming Man’ would leave with you and me. ‘Because I live, ye shall live also.’ Christ came to His own through the dark waters of death, and so is it with God’s ‘coming men’. They may not come to their own here; but they shall come hereafter. They shall come in God’s glorious kingdom of immortality, when all that was noble and promising in their life here shall reach its fruition yonder in the land of the truly ‘coming man’.
W. Mackintosh Mackay, Bible Types of Modern Men, p. 314.
References. VII. 19. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 3. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons (2nd Series), p. 48. VII. 19-23. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 298. VII. 20. E. Cornwall Jones, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. p. 148. Expositor (6th Series), vol. v. p. 248.
Luk 7:22
He would appear to me to have adopted the best as well as the most benevolent mode of diffusing truth, who, uniting the zeal of the methodist with the views of the philosopher, should be personally among the poor, and teach them their duties in order that he may render them susceptible of their rights…. ‘Go, preach the Gospel to the poor.’ By its simplicity it will meet their comprehension, by its benevolence soften their affections, by its precepts it will direct their conduct, by the vastness of its motives ensure their obedience. The situation of the poor is perilous; they are indeed both
From within and from without
Unarmed to all temptations.
Prudential reasonings will in general be powerless with them. For the incitements of this world are weak in proportion as we are wretched
The world is not my friend, nor the world’s law,
The world has got no law to make me rich.
… In a man so circumstanced the tyranny of the present can be overpowered only by the tenfold mightiness of the future. Religion will cheer his gloom with her promises.
Coleridge, in The Friend.
References. VII. 23. Expositor (5th Series), vol. viii. p. 344 VII. 27. Ibid. vol. iii. p. 365.
A Great Man
Luk 7:28
The Bible is a book of biographies. All genuine biography is worthy of our careful study. The life of John the Baptist is specially profitable and specially instructive, perplexing and mysterious though it be Let us consider the practical side of the prophet’s life, and let us see how it will help you and me to be better men, and to be truer to our convictions and our God.
I. In the first place, I want you to consider the Baptist as a man. I want you to notice three characteristics of the prophet which seem to me to set him forth as a great man. (1) His spirit was fearless, brave, courageous. It does not require much courage nor much bravery to denounce sin, in general and vague terms, in the congregation or in the assembly, but it does require courage to speak face to face honestly and truthfully to those who are in our own position, and above all, to those who are set in authority over us. Now, John the Baptist not only rebuked sin amongst the poor and the degraded, amongst the publicans and the profligates, but he rebuked sin upon the throne itself. (2) But this man was great not only because of his fearless courage, but because of his transparent truthfulness. It is sincerity and truthfulness that give power to all men’s works and words and lives. You may be as eloquent as Cicero, as great an orator as Demosthenes, but unless men believe in your sincerity and truthfulness, all that you say to them is of no avail it is tainted with self, with conceit, with the things of earth, and it is not the truth of God. I once heard a young man say at a public meeting, ‘Not by man’s preaching, but by my mother’s “practising,” was I won from atheism to God’. (3) And, then, his moral greatness was not only seen in his bravery and sincerity, but also in his humility. Of his own greatness he was utterly unconscious.
II. In the second place, I want you to look at the preacher. The great theme of his preaching was this; that reality lies at the root of all religion. So he preceded the great Builder and Founder of the Church, that he might hew down with his axe all the rottenness and insincerity of that Jewish Church, and his appeal was, ‘Bring forth fruits’ i.e. show that your repentance is genuine. And is there no necessity today for this proclamation? Ah, how men and women will talk in a sentimental way of their sins!
III. Then think of John as a martyr. It is one thing to be brave for the truth when it is popular and pleasant, but it is another thing to be true to your convictions when it means disgrace and death. Your truthfulness is genuine just as far as you are prepared to suffer for it; to suffer for it in this life, that you may attain the life of God hereafter.
T. J. Madden, Addresses to All Sorts and Conditions of Men, p. 95.
References. VII. 28. W. H. Simcox, The Cessation of Prophecy, p. 108. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Luke, p. 161. VII. 30. Ibid. p. 170. VII. 31-34. D. Fraser, Metaphors in the Gospels, p. 127.
Luk 7:31-32
You will behave just like children, who play now at wrestling, now at being gladiators, now at blowing trumpets, now at acting tragedies, after they have seen and admired such things. You are like that You are now an athlete, now a gladiator, now a philosopher, now a rhetorician. But you are nothing with all your soul.
Epictetus.
Reference. VII. 31-35. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 16.
Luk 7:32
The doings of grown folk are only interesting as the raw material for play. Not Theophile Gautier, not Flaubert, can look more callously upon life, or rate the reproduction more highly over the reality; and they will parody an execution, a death-bed, or the funeral of the young man of Nain with all the cheerfulness in the world.
R. L. Stevenson, Child’s Play.
References. VII. 32. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 171. VII. 34. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlii. No. 2484. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Luke, p. 178. Expositor (7th Series), vol. x. p. 90. VII. 35. W. L. Alexander, Sermons, p. 46. H. P. Liddon, Sermons on Some Words of Christ, p. 147. VII. 36. Expositor (5th Series), vol. iv. p. 272. VII. 36-50. Ibid, vol. iii. p. 335. VII. 37. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. vii. p. 333. W. H. Evans, Sermons for the Church’s Year, p. 83. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. 1. p. 145. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv. No. 801.
The Tears of Love
Luk 7:38
I. Here is love built upon pardon. Christian love is no irrational emotion which cannot give an account of itself. (1) It rests upon a distinct fact: the assurance of forgiveness through Christ. (2) For love there must precede the conviction of Christ’s love to me. (3) There must also precede it the consciousness of my sin.
II. Here is sorrow blending with love. The consciousness of pardon brings tears; breaks up the fountains of the great deep. The more we grow in Christian character the deeper should be our sorrow for sin.
III. Here is thankful service built on both. Her service was very natural. What was it good for? (1) It was an expression of her love. (2) It meant entire abandonment to Him.
A. Maclaren.
At His Feet
Luk 7:38
Behold, saith the Holy Ghost, a sinner at His feet! It is a blessed place for the weeping sinner. May we take the same attitude with her, and learn lessons from her.
I. First, it is a place for all who are in distress.
II. But the feet of Jesus is also the place for worship; in fact, it is the only place where true worship is possible. For what is worship? Worship is self-prostration and self-surrender, and you must be at the feet of Jesus for worship. Worship is the realisation of a presence which sinks you to the very dust.
III. And as it is the place for worship, so it must be also the place for service, because worship must show itself in action.
IV. It is the place for learning, for the Christian life consists not merely in active service; there must be also the time when the Christian takes Mary’s place, and sits at His feet to hear His Word. It is those who are willing to take the learner’s place that will become the learned. In one of the ancient academies they had a three years’ course, and the first year the students were called the wise men, and in the second year they were called the philosophers (those who wished to be wise men), and in the third year they were called the disciples (learners). And so the more progress we make in the Christian school, the more shall we be willing to take our place at His feet, and learn of Him.
E. A. Stuart, The Communion of the Holy Ghost and other Sermons, vol. x. p. 145.
Reference. VII. 38. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxv. No. 2066.
The Blindness of the Pharisee
Luk 7:39
I. We notice here the entire ignorance of what sin is.
II. He has no notion that such a sinful past can be obliterated.
III. He has no notion that the highest purity comes closest to the repentant sinner.
IV. The cynical contempt for religious emotion.
A. Maclaren.
References. VII. 39. J. M. Neale, Sermons for Some Feast Days in the Christian Year, p. 348. R. C. Trench, Sermons New and Old, p. 23. Expositor (5th Series), vol. iv. p. 225. VII. 40. John Watson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 281. VII. 40-43. A. Ainger, Sermons Preached in the Temple Church, p. 115. VII. 41. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlviii. No. 2768. VII. 41, 42. Ibid. vol. lii. No. 3015. VII. 41-43. Ibid. vol. 1. No. 2873. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture St Luke, p. 188.
When They Had Nothing to Pay
Luk 7:42
If any of you have ever known the shame or the misery of debt you will be able to understand the metaphor better. We are debtors to God in this respect, that we are the creatures of God’s creation. ‘It is He that hath made us and not we ourselves.’ Everything we have comes from God our existence, our friends, our blessings, our pleasures, our faculties and powers, all come from the same hand, and have been poured plenteously upon us by our God.
I. If God has Bestowed all these Things upon us, has He not a Right to expect that they shall be spent in His service? Has not a master a right to the services of his servant; has not our King a right to the services of his subjects? So God, Who undeniably is our Creator and the Author of our life, also the Giver of all we have, has a right to all our services; and if those services are not His, then we are debtors to Him for them all. Our state of indebtedness to God being very great, and since we can make no atonement, since it is impossible to plead any extenuating circumstances, there remains but one thing to do, and that is to cast ourselves on the mercy of God and to cry, ‘God be merciful to me the sinner’. ‘And when they had nothing to pay, he freely forgave them both.’
II. Till the Sinner Realises his Sinfulness, there can be no Forgiveness.
III. Every Person is either Forgiven or Unforgiven.
References. VII. 42. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix. No. 1739. VII. 42, 43. Ibid. vol. xxxvi. No. 2127.
Contrasts in Virtue
Luk 7:44
What a striking and pathetic little drama this incident presents to us. Consider the three characters and what they stand for. They are thoroughly representative of three great facts in life.
I. We have in the Pharisee loveless virtue, blind both to the elements of hope in those beneath it and to the superior goodness of those above it. What is loveless virtue? It is lifeless virtue; virtue on the one hand which has in it no upward tendency, no Godward movement, no desire to be better, and which, on the other hand, has no downward tendency, no manward movement, no passion to help and redeem. Such a man can neither understand sin nor goodness.
II. We have in the woman nascent virtue. There was in her no acquired good, but the struggle for it had begun, the new life was born. The Pharisee did not see the woman, he only saw the sinner.
III. We have in Christ virtuous love. It was the virtuous love in Christ that had brought into its present activity the goodness of the woman. We have a right to generalise from this, since Christ showed us the Father, and to say that this is God’s attitude towards the sinner.
J. Wright, The Guarded Gate, p. 21.
References. VII. 44-50. A. Ainger, Sermons Preached in the Temple Church, p. 130. VII. 45. R. Higinbotham, Sermons, p. 178. VII. 46. W. P. Balfern, Glimpses of Jesus, p. 161.
Penitence
Luk 7:47
I. Is penitence unreal? When we look at it, and ask on what true penitence is founded, we find that so far from it being connected with unreality, the whole object of penitence is to grasp facts. The man who thinks that his life is perfectly smooth, perfectly complete, the man who thinks that his faults are nothing, he himself is living under the most utter delusion in which a man can live. Penitence is founded on reality.
II. Is it necessary. And there comes back in answer to that question the voice of every spiritual teacher who has ever taught the world. ‘Repent,’ says John the Baptist, ‘for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand’. ‘Repent,’ says Jesus Christ; ‘except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish’. ‘Arise, and be baptised, and wash away thy sins,’ echo the Apostles.
III. If penitence is necessary, and penitence is real, is it true that penitence is morbid? It is not penitence that creates depression. Want of faith, want of courage, anything you will, but not penitence. Penitence is like a narrow valley that leads the way up to sunlit heights; penitence is the valley of Achor, but it is also the door of hope. Happy is the man this is the experience of the ages whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is pardoned. Miserable is the man whose iniquity is not forgiven because it is unconfessed, and whose sins still cry to heaven.
IV. What, then that comes to be the question are we to do, if penitence is a constituent part of the Christian character? (1) And the first thing is to get alone by ourselves and ask two questions: First, What do I think of God? And, secondly still more awful question What does God think of me? (2) At the foot of the Cross I must confess my sin to God. (3) I must do it with restitution and amendment. (4) Then, having confessed with restitution and amendment, go back a forgiven sinner, with the image of Jesus Christ crucified in your heart.
Bishop Winnington-Ingram, Banners of the Christian Faith, p. 48.
Little Forgiveness, Little Love
Luk 7:47
That lovely little parable addressed by our Lord to Simon laid down two principles: that forgiveness precedes and is the cause of love; and that the measure of forgiveness is the measure of love.
I. Here we have the acknowledgment of little sins. Our Lord fully recognises the real distinction between the respectable Simon and the profligate woman. There are great and there are little sins. (1) ‘Little’ here applies not only to the distinction between the magnitude of the transgressions, considered in themselves, but also to the difference between men’s estimates of the magnitude of their own transgressions. (2) The measure of a sin is by no means determined by taking its superficial dimensions. (3) There is another thing to be remembered, which limits the distinction in my text, in so far as it is taken to apply to the actual magnitude of the deed in itself. It is that, properly speaking, there are no small sins, inasmuch as nothing which affects wrongly our relation to God can be regarded as a little thing. And so we come to this, that, whilst the distinction between sins as in themselves great and small can only be sustained with much limitation and with many explanations, the fancy that many of us have that our sins are small is utterly incapable of being sustained at all.
II. We have here the principle if little sin then little forgiveness. Whether we get that pardon, which we all need, in scanty drops or in a full flood depends upon ourselves, and is settled by the measure of our recognition of our own sinfulness and the measure of our true repentance.
III. If little forgiveness then little love. (1) Love comes from pardon, and in its perfection comes from nothing else. (2) The measure of forgiveness experienced is the measure of love returned. Clean, dry sand bears no weeds, but it will not bear any flowers. A bed of fertile soil, untilled and uncultivated, will be abundant in weeds, but it will be abundant in wheat crops, too. Though we must be careful as to how far we push the principle, I think the principle is a true one, that the greatest sinners, judged from the external point of view, often make the most fervent saints. (3) But however we may think that to be questionable, the other aspect of this principle is unquestionable. And that is that the measure of a man’s sense of forgiveness is the measure of his love. That is the key to the impotence and tepidity of all the forms of Christianity which make light of sin and do not give a prominent place to Christ’s work of redemption. Here, too, you get the explanation of the coldness of many nominal Christians. Enthusiasm should be the work of every Christian soul. And the only way to get it is to realise my own guilt, and Christ’s great redemption.
A. Maclaren, Triumphant Certainties, p. 210.
Luk 7:47
‘Mary’s sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much,’ and her sins were many, first because she loved much too much. It is usually the same gift which damns or saves us, according as it is ill or well used.
Father Tyrrell, Nova et Vetera, p. 95.
References. VII. 47. Bishop Bethell, Sermons, vol. i. p. 404. A. B. Bruce, The Galilean Gospel, p. 91. W. P. S. Bingham, Sermons on Easter Subjects, p. 162. H. M. Butler, Harrow School Sermons (2nd Series), p. 190. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon Sketches (2nd Series), p. 275. Bishop Winnington-Ingram, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 140. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Luke, p. 198. VII. 47-50. Expositor (5th Series), vol. iv. p. 286. VII. 48. J. W. Houchin, The Vision of God, p. 99. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons (2nd Series), p. 151. J. Bolton, Selected Sermons (2nd Series), p. 264. W. J. Knox-Little, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. p. 200. VII. 48-50. Expositor (5th Series), vol. iv. p. 449. VII. 50. A. B. Bruce, The Galilean Gospel, p. 146. F. B. Cowl, Preacher’s Magazine, vol. xvii. p. 189. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx. No. 1162; vol. xxxvii. No. 2183, and vol. xlviii. No. 2770. A. Maclaren, After the Resurrection, p. 249. Ibid. Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Luke, p. 210. VIII. 2. J. Farquhar, The Schools and Schoolmasters of Christ, p. 130. VIII. 2, 3. G. Clarke, Christian World Pulpit, vol. 1. p. 104. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture St. Luke, p. 217.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
A Conspectus of Christ’s Miracles
Luk 7
My purpose is to show the congruity of Christ’s miracles; to point out with what beauty and precision they accommodate themselves to one another; to indicate the family likeness of the miracles; how much soever they may seem to differ from one another, yet there is a central and all-uniting line bringing them into perfect congruity, and showing how possible it is in the midst of great diversity to have real spiritual unity.
Observe what is in the chapter. Here is a servant cured who was ready to die; a dead man raised to life whilst he was being carried out to be buried; an hour crowded with wonders, such an hour as probably never occurred before even in the history of Jesus Christ; and, lastly, a sinner forgiven, in connection with which a human heart was revealed to itself. Let us suppose all these miracles occurring just as they are found in this chapter: our immediate purpose is not to find precise dates, or to rectify chronologies if needful, but to look at the chapter as it is written for us in our English Bibles; and looking at it so to find out the congruousness, the moral unity, the benevolent and beneficent solidarity of the whole work of Jesus Christ. Note how we come into this gallery of miracles: by what door did we enter? If we knew it, we should find that the door itself is greater than any miracle it opens upon. The door is indicated in the first verse of the chapter “Now when he had ended all his sayings.” The speech was the great miracle; how it welled up out of the heart; how it brought a taste of eternity with it; how it sounded unlike all other music, and put all mere philosophy, speculation, and intellectual adventure to shame! How simple the sayings, but how profound! A child thinks he can carry them all; yet an angel cannot see the depth of their wisdom, or measure all the scope of their meaning. When we come to judge by right standards, we shall find that words are the greatest miracles when they are employed to reveal infinite wisdom, when they are set up as sanctuaries in which God himself is enshrined, when they are used sacrificially for religious purposes; for all words must be slain by the very deity they would convey, if they attempt to represent God. Truly we drag our eloquence to the altar to slay it and burn it by the message which we would convey through its tones. We do not, however, judge spiritually; we are still victims of our senses: to see the brilliant sight, to hear the startling sound, to observe the new phenomenon, to these base uses do we drag ourselves. The time will come when we shall rather say, Blessed is he who is revealed in these words which constitute our mother tongue; wonderful is the might of God, that in words so familiar to us he can show us all the surprises of his love.
Notice the motive or line of reason which runs through the whole of this narrative. Jesus marvelled at the faith of the centurion, saying, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” It was more than amazement, it was gratitude; there were tears in his voice as he expressed this astonishment. He loves faith; he will do anything for faith. Believest thou that I am able to do this? Yea, Lord. Then take it all! said he. Christ withholds nothing from faith. That is the miracle he looks for. We cannot surprise him by genius, by brilliance, by boldness of intellectual conjecture and speculation, but we can surprise him by trust, faith, confidence. He looks for spiritual miracles. We can amaze him by our love. If we kiss his feet, he thrills with an infinite sensation of delight. When he praises, what does he commend? If we read the history of Christ aright, we shall be struck with the fewness of the instances in which he uttered commendation; but when we bring them together we shall see that they are all of the same quality. He praised a prayer: what was it? The Pharisee’s pompous self-defence? No. The publican’s self-abasement “God be merciful to me a sinner.” That prayer pleased the Son of God: it sounded like prayer; it was all prayer; it startled him into the utterance of eulogium. He praised a donation: what was it? The widow’s two mites: he saw so much in them, a whole fortune, an absolute devotion, a miracle of wealth. He praised a servant: in what terms did he commend him? In moral terms “Good and faithful.” Christ’s commendations are all on the same line, all directed to the same point, all rich with the same quality; and his commendation runs upon a line on which all men may stand. This is not a tribute to gigantic stature, to phenomenal genius, to occasional brilliance, to eccentric gift; it is a benediction pronounced upon actions which children can commit, which the common people can execute. When he saw the widow following her dead, “he had compassion on her.” He is easily touched with the feeling of our infirmities; he could have looked upon all the Pharisees in the universe, and passed by them with an infinite disdain; but when we need him most, and cannot see him for our tears, he will move all heaven to help us. He was condescending to the weakness of his forerunner. When John sent a doubt to him he sent back a gospel; he said, I will perform a thousand miracles to heal this heart of doubt. In that hour such was the lustrous focal point of the omnipotence of Christ “In that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight.” What a day of festival! What an amnesty was proclaimed that day! Not only that the men may be healed who were ailing in body, but that a man might be healed who was sick at heart, saying, in his imprisonment and darkness, After all, I wonder if this is the Son of God?
Then, finally, came his response to love. When did he say no to true affection? He gave the woman all she wanted a new girlhood, a new morning, a new heart, a new conception of God. Observe that all these feelings are of the same quality wonder, compassion, condescension, and recognition of love. Jesus never worked a miracle for the sake of working it. They were but miracles to the observers; they were no miracles to him. If “miracle” means surprise, alteration, unexpectedness, incalculableness, it would be impossible for Christ to work a miracle to himself; all the ministry of Christ is but miraculous on its human side, on the aspects which it bears to observers. Christ was no specialist. Observe what he did: “Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised.” The whole circuit of miracles is swept. There are men who are strong at points; they are men who rejoice in the name of “specialists,” that is to say, they have made particular studies of particular diseases, and in the treatment of those diseases they have earned a very just reputation; but Jesus Christ was not a specialist, so we have infinite variety in his miracles “blind,” “lame,” “lepers,” “deaf,” “dead.” Jesus Christ did not treat symptoms, nor did he ever merely lessen human suffering, saying, Now the burden is not quite so heavy as it was; you are considerably relieved after this mitigatory treatment to which I have subjected you; you will be able to return home with more ease than you came from it. Jesus Christ never performed half a miracle; all his wonders are associated with the most perfect ease of action. He commanded, and it was done; his word was the miracle. He said, Let there be! and there was, so quick the change of tense and reality, of time and space and fact of every kind. Why? Because he penetrated to the heart of things. He said, The disease is at the centre; other men are looking at symptomatic changes, and are inferring from those changes what they can of the nature of the disease: the deadly disease is here, in the very heart, at the very core. So he touched that, and in the cheek there flamed red health, and in the voice there sang new energy and consciousness of power.
We ourselves can supply the conditions of the miracle. What were those conditions in this chapter? need, faith, sorrow, love. Observe, there is a line of co-operation in all this action. So in nature we do something. Why rip up the ground? why sow the seed? why close the furrows? what are you expecting? We have buried this seed, say you, in sure and certain hope of a glorious resurrection. That we can also do in the Church. We can be working as if we expected a miracle, Jesus will never disappoint that expectation. He will say to us, What do ye here, building an altar, filling the trench with water, laying the wood, supplying the offering what mean ye by all these things? And the answer is, We are expecting the descent of God: we know we shall realise it; nothing shall be wanting on our part; if this fail, the blame be God’s. When the Church speaks so, the Church will not be disappointed when we leave the onus with God, when we can truly stand up and say, Nothing has been wanting on our part; we have prepared for a miracle, we have prayed for a miracle, we have been expecting a miracle, we have pledged God to a miracle, and all the jibing crowd is come to see whether God will answer prayer. Could we conduct the process in that spirit, in that high tone of reverence, with that sublimity of expectation, God would not be wanting on his part.
There is another line running through the narrative which in the blaze of glory may be entirely concealed; so to say, there is a deity higher than we have yet seen in these gathering wonders. What if the compassion was greater than the healing? What if the moral was grander than the miracles? We are surprised at miracles, as we have said, and Christ is surprised at faith. Is it nothing that the first miracle was done at a distance? Jesus never saw the first man who was to be healed; Jesus Christ did not go near the man, did not observe him with the eyes of his body; and yet the man was healed. Distance is nothing to Christ; with God there is no distance. We ourselves are beginning to talk of annihilating distance, annihilating time and space: thus we grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ; thus science brings us to the altar; thus we are trained to know the meaning of words which once were but symbolic, algebraic, charged with spiritual possibilities which we could not compass, slowly, gradually, we are being brought round by all manner of lower education to be able to grasp in some degree great spiritual significations. Is it nothing that the second miracle was not asked for? Did the widow pray Jesus to help her? Poor sufferer, she could not: her heart was full, her throat was choked, her eyes were dim with the waters of sorrow; she never spake a word to Christ about the matter, and yet the miracle was done. There is mute prayer an awful, silent, looking supplication. Sometimes we get beyond the region of words, and Jesus Christ looks at our attitude, listens to our breathing, numbers our tears, and says, Poor soul I he would ask me to-day for seven miracles if he could, but not a word will come to his dry lips; I will go to him, for he cannot come to me. The greatest miracle of all was not asked for. We get greater things for not asking than we ever get by supplication. The Son of God came to earth, not in answer to prayer, but in realisation of divine purpose and divine love.
The coming of the Saviour is the supreme miracle of the universe, and that was brought about by no man’s prayer. How much we get that we do not ask for! Who asks for sunrise, who asks for summer, in the broadest significations of these terms? Who asks for all the great benisons that are sent down from heaven for the warmth and comfort and culture of this little cold earth? Is it nothing that by the healing of others we are healed ourselves? To heal John’s doubt, Christ cured other men’s bodies. He sent John a whole galaxy of miracles, a gathering-up, a summation of phases of almightiness; not one miracle only, for that might have been misconstrued, but miracles at every point of the circle blind, deaf, dumb, lame, widowed, palsied, dead; they could not forget that message; they might have confused one incident, but when a whole encyclopdia of miracle was wrought it would be impossible wholly to miss the point and accent of that great gospel. The same evidence is open to us. When we ourselves doubt, in some prison of darkness, go abroad into the world, and see the miracles Christ is working every day, and let the miracles done for others be miracles of healing in our own heart of fear, or hopelessness, or doubt. Thus the miracle is twice wrought: first, wrought upon those who need bodily release; and, secondly, wrought upon those who need spiritual light and comfort. Is it nothing that Christ notices the neglects of our life and worship the simple omissions with which we are chargeable? Hear how Jesus speaks to Simon: “Thou gavest me no water…. Thou gavest me no kiss…. My head with oil thou didst not anoint.” He went to be the guest of the Pharisee: did he notice what the Pharisee did for him? Everything; he knew everything that was on the table; he recognised it if he did not eat it. He does not like to be treated as if he were no one of particular dignity or consequence. He does not consume the feast, but he notices every little device of love. Thus he noticed what the woman did: “She hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head…. This woman… hath not ceased to kiss my feet…. This woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.” Jesus knows all we do. When we go out on errands for him in the snowy night, in the cold winter, in calculated secrecy so that nobody may know what we are about, when we open our hand to give as if we were not opening it, but looking at something beyond, he puts it all down in his register; and specially does he notice neglect on the part of those whose neglect is not due to poverty. We may not insult Christ; alas, we may neglect him. It is not enough not to have blasphemed: our silence may be blasphemy; we may have omitted to sing, to praise God with a loud voice, to laud and magnify him with fearlessness of worship. Christ thus notices the negative aspects of our character; and herein he works a miracle as great as any of the wonders which startled us in the earlier parts of the chapter. He read the Pharisee’s heart; the Pharisee thought he was reading Christ’s spirit, and detecting in him inability to penetrate the character of another, when in a moment he turned upon him all the lightnings of creation, and Simon was revealed to himself. Notice the tender delicacies of love, the little attentions. The Pharisee gave Christ meat, but he omitted the water, the kiss, the ointment the little things that finish with grace what was begun with large hospitality. It is in the detail that we discover our characters. The cabinet maker cannot furnish a house; he may put down all his mahogany and walnut, and the house is quite cold and bare; we must have little touches of colour, artistic devices, not necessarily representing wealth and great affluence of resources, but the woman’s touch, the gentle, simple thing, the new turning which only a skilled hand can give to a common object or article; all these things that give fascination to home are done not with great broad rough hands, but with genuinely delicate fingers delicate because the heart is charged with the courtesy of love. It is not enough that now and then the son has done some great thing for his mother plunged his hand into his pocket and produced a handful of gold, and said with some roughness, Take that, and never charge me again with being unkind to you. The son was never unkinder than when he made that speech. The mother wants a thousand other things beside, or perhaps instead of, that glaring gold: a little sympathy, a little attention, a little consideration; a hundred things done for her without her attention being called to them, so that when she comes she finds that some one has been there to anticipate the wish, to be before her, to have all things ready for her. O thou generous Giver of all good, dost thou not set thy sun in the heavens before we awake? and is not thy glory standing there when we open our eyes? Thou preventest me. Thou goest before me with thy goodness.
Here, then, we have healed suffering, healed heartache, healed sin, and the healed sin is the greatest miracle of all. My friend, is thy sin healed? If the answer is, “Yes, by the grace of God,” then be not ashamed of him who forgave it, but publish that sweet gospel everywhere: through the miracle wrought in thee another miracle may be wrought in some listening observer. Thus all the miracles of Christ fall into beauteous rhythmic congruity. In reality there was but one miracle, and that one miracle was himself.
Prayer
As the hart panteth after the waterbrooks, so panteth our soul after thee, O God living, good, and wise evermore, gentler than all motherhood, and more majestic than all kingliness. Verily thou hast all things in thyself; thou commandest, and it is done; thou utterest the word, and behold what thou callest for is there, present in all its reality, to do thy bidding. Thou dost turn water into wine, thou dost turn common bread into sacramental food, and thou dost make all things new, yea, even new heavens and a new earth. But there is one renewal above all others we long to know, and that is a renewal of our own spirit. If any man be in Christ Jesus he is a new creature: old things have passed away; all things have become new. This is the newness we want to experience; then we shall see it with our eyes that are within, and feel it in all the outgoing and purpose of life. Thus thou dost deliver us from the power of monotony; thou art making new heavens and a new earth every day, did we but see the mighty creation as we ought to see it; and thou art renewing the inward man day by day by subtle ministries of spiritual assistance, did we but yield ourselves to the working of thy compassion. Thou dost work in many ways: the chariots of God are twenty thousand in number yea, thousands of thousands; and thou comest into the heart as thou wilt, by many a door we know not of; thou hast access to our life in ten thousand ways: come by any one of them, only come; even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly! through our imagination, or our judgment, or our pain, or our contrition, or our expectation, choose thine own way, only hear the sighing of the heart as it says, Lord Jesus, come! When thou comest the heart-house will be made beautiful by thy presence, and there shall be great hospitality, for thou wilt spread the table as with thy blood, and minister unto us of the wine of thy grace. Lord Jesus, come; come by healing our diseases, by satisfying our mouth with good things, by renewing our youth as the eagle’s, by giving unto us assurance of pardon whilst we tarry at the Cross; in thine own way do thou hasten to us, only hear us when we say, Lord Jesus, come! Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
XXIX
OUR LORD’S GREAT MINISTRY IN GALILEE
Part IV The Centurion’s Servant Healed, the Widow’s Son Raised, The Sin Against the Holy Spirit
Harmony -pages 52-59 and Mat 8:1
When Jesus, who spoke with authority, had finished the Sermon on the Mount, he returned to Capernaum where he acted with authority in performing some noted miracles. Here he was met by a deputation from a centurion, a heathen, beseeching him to heal his servant who was at the point of death. This Jewish deputation entered the plea for the centurion that he had favored the Jews greatly and had built for them a synagogue. Jesus set out at once to go to the house of the centurion, but was met by a second deputation, saying to Jesus that he not trouble himself but just speak the word and the work would be done. The centurion referred in this message to his own authority over his soldiers, reasoning that Christ’s authority was greater and therefore he could speak the word and his servant should be healed. This called forth from our Lord the highest commendation of his faith. No Jew up to this time had manifested such faith as this Roman centurion. Then our Lord draws the picture of the Gentiles coming from the east, west, north, and south to feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven while the Jews, the sons of the kingdom, were cast out. Jesus then granted the petition of the centurion according to his faith.
The second great miracle of Jesus in this region was the raising of the widow’s son at Nain, which was a great blessing to the widow and caused very much comment upon the work of our Lord, so that his fame spread over all Judea and the region roundabout. His fame as a miracle worker and “a great prophet, “ reached John the Baptist and brought forth his message of inquiry.
This inquiry of John, which reflects the state of discouragement, and also the testimony of Jesus concerning John, is discussed in Joh 10 of this volume (which see), but there are some points in this incident not brought out in that discussion which also need to be emphasized. First, what is the meaning of “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence” (Mat 11:12 )? The image is not precisely that of taking a city by storm, but of an eager, invading host, each trying to be first, pressing and jostling each other, as when gold was discovered in California, or at the settlement of the Oklahoma strip. It means impassioned earnestness and indomitable resolution in the entrance upon and pursuit of a Christian life, making religion the chief concern and salvation the foremost thing as expressed in the precepts: “Seek first the kingdom, etc.,” “Agonize to enter in at the strait gate.” It rightly expresses the absorbing interest and enthusiasm of a revival. “Thus Christianity was born in a revival and all its mighty advances have come from revivals which are yet the hope of the world.” This thought is illustrated in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, pp. 47-49. Following this is the contrast between the publicans and scribes, the one justifying God and the other rejecting for themselves the counsel of God. Then he likens them unto children in the market, playing funeral. One side piped but the other side did not dance; then they wailed but the others did not weep. So, John was an ascetic and that did not suit them; Jesus ate and drank and that did not suit them. So it has ever been with the faultfinders. But in spite of that, wisdom is justified of her works (or children), i.e., wisdom is evidenced by her children, whether in the conduct of John or Jesus. But this statement does not justify the liquor business as the defendants of it claim.
There is no evidence that Jesus either made or drank intoxicating wine
Then began Jesus to upbraid the cities wherein were done these mighty works, including Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, because they had not repented. This shows that light brings with it the obligation to repent, and that this will be the governing principle of the judgment. Men shall be judged according to the light they have. Then follows the announcement of a great principle of revelation. God makes it to babes rather than to the worldly-wise man, and that Jesus himself is the medium of the revelation from God to man, but only the humble in spirit and contrite in heart can receive it. Because he is the medium of the blessing, the God-man, his compassion here finds expression in this great, broad invitation: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for am I meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Note the two kinds of rest here: First, the given rest, which is accepted by grace, and second, the found rest, which is attained in service.
The next incident is the anointing of our Saviour’s feet by a woman who was a sinner. This incident occurred in Galilee just where I do not know possibly, but not probably, in Nain. It is recorded by Luke alone, who, following a custom of the historians of mentioning only one incident of a special kind, omits the narrative of a later anointing.
Two preceding things seem to be implied by the story: (a) That the host had been a beneficiary in some way of Christ’s healing power over the body; (b) That the woman had been a beneficiary” of his saving power. It is quite probable that her weary and sin-burdened soul had heard and accepted the gracious invitation: “Come unto me, etc.,” just given by the Saviour. At any rate her case is an incarnate illustration of the power of that text and is a living exposition of it. It is far more beautiful and impressive in the Greek than any translation can make it. Several customs prevalent then but obsolete now, constitute the setting of the story, and must be understood in order to appreciate its full meaning.
(1) The Oriental courtesies of hospitality usually extended to an honored guest. The footwear of the times open sandals and the dust of travel in so dry a country, necessitated the washing of the feet of an incoming guest the first act of hospitality. See Abraham’s example (Gen 18:4 ) and Lot’s (Gen 19:2 ) and Laban’s (Gen 24:32 ) and the old Benjaminite (Jdg 19:20-21 ) and Abigail (1Sa 25:41 ). See as later instances (Joh 13 ) our Lord’s washing the feet of his disciples and the Christian customs (1Ti 5:10 ). This office was usually performed by servants, but was a mark of great respect and honor to a guest if performed by the host himself.
(2) The custom of saluting a guest with a kiss. See case of Moses (Exo 18:7 ) and of David (2Sa 19:39 ). To observe this mode of showing affectionate respect is frequently enjoined in the New Testament epistles. As employed by Absalom for purposes of demagogy (2Sa 15:5 ), and as employed toward Amasa by Joab when murder was in his heart (2Sa 20:9-10 ), and by Judas to our Lord when treachery was in his heart, rendered their crimes the more heinous. To this Patrick Henry refers: “Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss.”
(3) The custom of anointing the head at meals (Ecc 9:7-8 ; Psa 23:5 ). Hence for the Pharisee to omit these marks of courteous hospitality was to show his light esteem for his guest. It proves that the invitation was not very hearty.
(4) The custom of reclining at meals (Amo 6:4-6 ). This explains “sat at meat” and “behind at his feet.”
With these items of background we are prepared to understand and appreciate that wonderful story of the compassion of Jesus. His lesson on forgiveness and proportionate love as illustrated in the case of this wicked woman has been the sweet consolation of thousands. The announcement to the woman that her faith had saved her throws light on the question, “What must I do to be saved?” There are here also the usual contrasts where the work of salvation is going on. The woman was overflowing with love and praise while others were questioning in their hearts and abounding in hate and censure. This scene has been re-enacted many a time since, as Christianity has held out the hand of compassion to the outcasts and Satan has questioned and jeered at her beautiful offers of mercy.
In Section 47 (Luk 8:1-3 ) of the Harmony we have a further account of our Lord’s ministry in Galilee with the twelve, and certain women who had been the beneficiaries of his ministry, who also ministered to him of their substance. This is the first Ladies’ Aid Society of which we have any record and they were of the right sort.
We now take up the discussion of the sin against -the Holy Spirit found in Section 48 (Mat 12:22-37 ; Mar 3:19-30 ). Before opening the discussion of it, allow me to group certain passages of both Testaments bearing on this question: Psa 19:13 : “Innocent of the great transgression.” Mar 3:29 : “Guilty of an eternal sin.” Num 15:28-31 : “If any soul sin through ignorance, the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before the Lord, to make an atonement for him and it shall be forgiven him. But the soul that doeth presumptuously, born in the land of a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he hath despised the word of the Lord, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall be utterly cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.” Heb 10:26-29 : “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fierceness of fire which shall devour the adversaries. A man that hath set at naught Moses’ law, dieth without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who has trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?” Jer 15:1 : “Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.” 1Jn 5:16 : “If any man see his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask, and God will give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: not concerning this do I say that he should make request.” Eze 14:13-14 : “Son of man, when a land sinneth against me, by committing a trespass, and I stretch out mine hand upon it, and break the staff of the bread thereof, and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast; though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, saith the Lord God.”
The scriptures just cited have excited profound interest in every age of the world since they were recorded. In all the intervening centuries they have so stirred the hearts of those affected by them as to strip life of enjoyment. They have driven many to despair. In every community there are guilty and awakened consciences as spellbound by these scriptures as was Belshazzar when with pallid lips and shaking knees he confronted the mysterious handwriting on the wall, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. In almost every community we can find some troubled soul, tortured with the apprehension that he has committed the unpardonable sin. Sympathetic and kindly-disposed expositors in every age have tried in vain to break the natural force or soften in some way the prima facie import of these divine utterances. Some have denied that there ever was, or ever could be an unpardonable sin. Others conceded that such sin might have been committed in the days of Christ’s earthly ministry, but the hazard passed away with the cessation of miracles. All the power of great scholarship has been brought to bear with microscopic inspection of words and phrases to establish one or the other of these propositions. And, indeed, if great names could avail in such cases, this slough of despond would have been safely bridged. But no such explanation ever satisfies a guilty conscience or removes from the hearts of the masses of plain people, the solemn conviction that the Bible teaches two things:
First, that in every age of the past, men were liable to commit the unpardonable sin and that as a matter of fact, some did commit it.
Second, that there is now not only the same liability, but that some do now actually commit it. There is something in man which tells him that these scriptures possess for him an awful admonition whose truth is eternal.
Whether all the scriptures just cited admit of one classification matters nothing, so far as the prevalent conviction is concerned. Where one of the group may be successfully detached by exegesis another rises up to take its place. The interest in the doctrine founded on them is a never-dying interest. Because of this interest, it is purposed now to examine somewhat carefully, the principal passages bearing on this momentous theme. Most humbly, self-distrustingly and reverently will the awful subject be approached.
It is deemed best to approach it by considering specially the case recorded by Matthew and Mark. The words are spoken by our Lord himself. The antecedent facts which occasioned their utterance may be briefly stated thus:
(1) Jesus had just delivered a miserable demoniac by casting out the demon who possessed him.
(2) It was a daylight affair, a public transaction, all the circumstances so open and visible, and the fact so incontrovertible and stupendous that many recognized the divine power and presence.
(3) But certain Pharisees who had been pursuing him with hostile intent, who had been obstructing his work in every possible way, finding themselves unable to dispute the fact of the miracle, sought to break its force by attributing its origin to Beelzebub, the prince of demons, charging Jesus with collusion with Satan.
(4) The issue raised was specific. This issue rested on three indisputable facts conceded by all parties. It is important to note these facts carefully and to impress our minds with the thought that as conceded facts, they underlie the issue. The facts are, first, that an evil and unwilling demon had been forcibly ejected from his much desired stronghold and dispossessed of his ill-gotten spoils. It was no good spirit. It was no willing spirit. It was a violent ejectment. It was a despoiling ejectment. Second, the one who so summarily ejected the demon and despoiled him was Jesus of Nazareth. Third fact, the ejectment was by supernatural miraculous power by some spirit mightier than the outcast demon. Evidently Jesus had, by some spirit, wrought a notable miracle. He claimed that he did it by the Holy Spirit of God resting on him and dwelling in him. The Pharisees alleged that he did it by an unclean spirit, even Satan himself. The contrast is between “unclean-spirit” and “Holy Spirit.” An awful sin was committed by one or the other. Somebody was guilty of blasphemy. If Jesus was in collusion with Satan if he attributed the devil’s work by him to the Holy Spirit, he was guilty of blasphemy. If the Pharisees, on the other hand, attributed the work of the Holy Spirit to an unclean spirit, this was slandering God. They were guilty of blasphemy.
(5) Jesus answers the charge against himself by three arguments: First, as the demon cast out belonged to Satan’s kingdom and was doing Satan’s work, evidently he was not cast out by Satan’s power, for a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand, and none could justly accuse Satan of the folly of undermining his own kingdom. Second, the demon could not have been despoiled and cast out unless first overpowered by some stronger spirit than himself, who, if not Satan, must be the Holy Spirit, Satan’s antagonist and master. Third, as the Pharisees themselves claimed to be exorcists of demons, it became them to consider how their argument against Jesus might be applied to their own exorcisms.
Then he in turn became the accuser. In grief and indignation he said, “Therefore I say unto you, every sin and blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him, but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in that which is to come.”
Or as Mark expresses it, “Verily I say unto you, All their sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and their blasphemies wherewith soever they shall blaspheme: but whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin; because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.” Having the case now before us, let us next define or explain certain terms expressed or implied in the record.
Unpardonable. Pardonable means not that which is or must be pardoned, but which may be pardoned on compliance with proper conditions that while any sin unrepented of, leads ultimately to death, yet as long as the sinner lives, a way of escape is offered to him. But an unpardonable sin is one which from the moment of its committal is forever without a possible remedy. Though such a sinner may be permitted to live many years, yet the very door of hope is closed against him. It is an eternal sin. It hath never forgiveness. Sermons, prayers, songs, and exhortations avail nothing in his case. The next expression needing explanation is, “Neither in this world, nor in the world to come.” Construed by itself this language might imply one of two things:
First, that God will pardon some sins in the next world, i.e., there may be for many, though not all, a probation after death. So Romanists teach. On such interpretation is purgatory founded.
Second, or it may imply that God puts away some sins so far as the next world is concerned, but yet does not remit chastisement for them in this world.
Where the meaning of a given passage is doubtful, then we apply the analogy of the faith. That is, we compare the doubtful with the certain. The application of this rule necessitates discarding the first possible meaning assigned. It is utterly repugnant to the tenor of the Scriptures. Men are judged and their destiny decided by the deeds done in the body, not out of it. If they die unjust they are raised unjust. There is no probation after death. It remains to inquire if the second possible implication agrees with the tenor of the Scriptures. Here we find no difficulty whatever. The general Bible teaching is in harmony with the second meaning. The Scriptures abundantly show three things:
First, some sins are remitted both for time and eternity. That is, when they are pardoned for eternity, even chastisement on earth is also remitted.
Second, much graver sins are, on repentance, put away as to eternity, but very sore chastisement is inflicted in time. As when God said to David after Nathan visited him: “The Lord hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.” The Lord also announced to him that “the sword should never depart from his house” because he had caused the death of Uriah (see 2Sa 12:7-14 ). Here is one unmistakable case out of many that could be cited where sin was forgiven as to the next world, but not as to this world.
The thought is that God, in fatherly discipline, chastises all Christians in this world. To be without chastisement in this world proves we are not God’s children. An awful token of utter alienation from God is to be deprived of correction here, when we sin. To be sinners and yet to prosper. To die sinners and yet have no “bands in our death.” So that the expression “hath never forgiveness, neither in this world nor in the world to come,” implies nothing about a probation after death, but refers to God’s method of withholding correction in this world, from some sinners, but never withholding punishment of this class in the next, and to his method of correcting Christians in this world, but never punishing them in the next world.
Third, the expression teaches that in the case of those who sin against the Holy Spirit, God’s method of dealing is different from both the foregoing methods. In the case of the unpardonable sin, punishment commences now and continues forever. There is no remission of either temporal or eternal penalties. They have the pleasures of neither world. To illustrate: Lazarus had the next world, but not this; Dives had this world, but not the next. But the man who commits the unpardonable sin has neither world, as Judas Iscariot, Ananias, and others.
To further illustrate, by earthly things, we might say that Benedict Arnold committed the unpardonable sin as to nations. He lost the United States and did not gain England. Hated here; despised yonder. The price of his treason could not be enjoyed. He had never forgiveness, neither on this side the ocean nor on the other side. Another term needing explanation is the word,
Blasphemy. This is strictly a compound Greek word Anglicized. It is transferred bodily to our language. In Greek literature it is quite familiar and often used. Its meaning is thoroughly established. According to strict etymology, it is an offense of speech, i.e., of spoken words. Literally, as a verb, it means to speak ill or injuriously of any one, to revile or defame. As a noun, it means detraction or slander. I say it means to defame any one whether man or God. Even in the Bible usage of both the Septuagint and the Greek New Testament, the word is generally applied to both man and God.
When Paul says he was “slanderously reported,” as saying a certain thing, and when Peter says “speak evil of no man,” they both correctly employ the Greek word “blaspheme.” Even this passage refers to other blasphemies than those against God, “all manner of blasphemies except the blasphemies against the Holy Spirit.” In both English and American law, blasphemy has ever been an indictable offense, whether against man or God. Later usages, however, restrict the term “blasphemy” to an offense against God, while the term “slander” is applied to the same offense against men. According to strict derivation, it is an offense of spoken words. To this our Saviour refers in the context when he says, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” But one is quite mistaken who limits the meaning of the term to strict etymology. In both human and divine law, the offense of “blasphemy” may be committed by writing the words, or publishing them, as well as by speaking them. We may blaspheme by either printing, painting, or pantomime. Any overt, provable action which intentionally conveys a false and injurious impression against any one comes within the scope of the offense. Under the more spiritual, divine law, the offense may be committed in the mind, whether ever spoken aloud. Our context says, “Jesus knowing their thoughts.” Indeed, the very essence of the offense is in the heart the intent the idea. Words are matters of judgment, solely because they are signs of ideas and expressions of the heart. This our context abundantly shows. Our Saviour says, “Either make the tree good and its fruit good; or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by its fruit. Ye offspring of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. The good man out of his good treasure, bringeth forth good things: and the evil man out of his evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.”
From this exhibition of the meaning of the word “blasphemy,” we can easily see that either Jesus or the Pharisees were guilty of the offense. Both could not be innocent. If Jesus, while claiming to act by the Holy Spirit, was but the organ of “an unclean spirit,” then he blasphemed or slandered the Holy Spirit. If his work was wrought by the Holy Spirit, then the Pharisees, by attributing that work to an “unclean spirit,” blasphemed the Holy Spirit.
Having clearly before us the meaning of “blasphemy,” let us advance to another explanation. The character of any code or government is revealed by its capital offenses; the grade of any nation’s civilization is registered by its penal code. If capital punishment, or the extreme limit of punishment is inflicted for many and slight offenses, the government is called barbarian. If for only a few extraordinary and very heinous crimes, the government is called civilized. For instance, under the English law of long ago, a man might be legally put to death for snaring a bird or rabbit. The extreme limit of punishment was visited upon many who now would be pronounced guilty of only misdemeanors or petit larceny. It was a bloody code. The enlightened mind intuitively revolts against undue severity. Modern civilization has reduced capital offense to a minimum. Even in these few cases three things at least must always be proved:
(1) That the offender had arrived at the age of discretion, and possessed a sound mind. A mere child, a lunatic or idiot cannot commit a capital offense.
(2) Premeditation. The crime must be deliberately committed.
(3) Malice. The evil intent must be proved.
The higher benevolence of the divine law will appear from the fact that there is but one unpardonable offense, and that even more must be proved against one accused of this offense than the age of discretion, a sound mind, premeditation, and malice. Indeed, the sin against the Holy Spirit must outrank all others in intrinsic heinousness. This will abundantly appear when we reach the Bible definition and analysis of the sin against the Holy Spirit. We are not ready even yet, however, to enter upon the discussion of the sin itself. Two other preliminary explanations are needed.
Why must the one unpardonable sin be necessarily against the Holy Spirit? What is the philosophy or rationale of this necessity? This question and the answer to it cannot be understood unless we give due weight, both separately and collectively, to the following correlated proposition: There is one law giver, God. His law is the one supreme standard which defines right and wrong prescribing the right, proscribing the wrong. God himself is the sole, authoritative interpreter of his law. The scope of its obligations cannot be limited by finite knowledge, or human conscience. Any failure whatever at conformity thereto, or any deflection therefrom, to the right or left, however slight, and from whatever cause, is unrighteousness. All unrighteousness is sin. The wages of sin is death. All men are sinners by nature and practice.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law can no man be justified in the sight of God. The law condemns every man. It also follows: First, that any possible salvation must flow from God’s free grace. Second, that not even grace can provide a way of escape for the condemned inconsistent with God’s Justice and holiness. That is, any possible scheme of salvation for sinners must both satisfy the law penalty, thereby appeasing justice, and provide for the personal holiness of the forgiven sinner.
To put it in yet other words, the plan of salvation, to be feasible, must secure for every sinner to be saved, three things at least: (a) justification, (b) regeneration, (c) sanctification, which are equivalent to deliverance from the law penalty, a new nature, and personal holiness. I say that these three things are absolutely requisite. I cite just now only three scriptural proofs, one under each head:
Rom 3:23-26 declares that a propitiation must be made for sin in order that God might be just in justifying the sinner. Joh 3:3-7 sets forth the absolute necessity of the new birth the imparting of a new nature.
Heb 12:14 declares that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.”
To admit into heaven even one unjustified man, one man in his carnal nature, one unholy man, would necessarily dethrone God, while inflicting worse than the tortures of hell on the one so admitted.
No fish out of water, no wolf or owl in the daylight, could be so unutterably wretched as such a man. He would be utterly out of harmony with his surroundings. I think he would prefer hell. The gates of the holy city stand open day and night, which means that no saint would go out, and no sinner would go in. After the judgment as well as now, the sinner loves darkness rather than light. It therefore naturally, philosophically and necessarily follows that salvation must have limitations. A careful study of these limitations will disclose to us the rationale of the unpardonable sin. What, then, are these limitations?
(1) Outside of grace, no salvation.
(2) Outside of Christ, no grace.
(3) Outside of the Spirit, no Christ.
In other words, Christ alone reveals the Father, and the Spirit alone reveals Christ; or no man can reach the Father except through Christ Christ is the door and no man can find that door except through the Spirit. It necessarily follows that an unpardonable sin is a sin against the Spirit. This would necessarily follow from the order of the manifestations of the Godhead: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. From the order of the dispensations: First, the Father’s dispensation of law; second, the Son’s dispensation of atonement; third, the Spirit’s dispensation of applying the atonement. The Spirit is heaven’s ultimatum heaven’s last overture. If we sin against the Father directly, the Son remains. We may reach him through the Son. If we sin directly against the Son, the Spirit remains. We may reach him through the Spirit. If we sin against the Spirit, nothing remains. Therefore that sin is without remedy. So argues our Saviour: “Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in that which is to come. He is guilty of an eternal sin.”
Our last preliminary explanation answers this question: Are men now liable to commit this sin? If not liable, the reasons for discussing the matter at all are much reduced. If liable, the reasons for discussion are infinitely enhanced. It is of infinitely greater moment to point out to the unwary of a possible immediate danger, than to relieve the mind from the fear of an unreal danger, however great and torturing may be that fear. It is claimed by many intelligent expositors that this sin cannot be committed apart from an age of miracles, nor apart from the specific miracle of casting out demons, nor apart from attributing the supernatural, miraculous power of the Holy Spirit in said miracle to Beelzebub, the prince of demons.
Very deep love have I for the great and good men who take this position, as, I believe, led away by sentiment, sympathy, and amiability on the one hand, and horrified on the other hand with the recklessness which characterizes many sensational discussions of this grave matter by tyros, unlearned, and immature expositors. Very deep love have I for the men, but far less respect for their argument. I submit, just now, only a few out of many grave reasons for rejecting this interpretation.
(1) Such restriction of meaning is too narrow and mechanical. The Bible could not be to us a book of principles, if the exact circumstances must be duplicated in order to obtain a law. From the study of every historical incident in the Bible we deduce principles of action.
(2) The Scriptures clearly grade miracles wrought by the Spirit below other works of the Spirit. This is evident from many passages and connections. Writing the names of the saved in the book of life was greater than casting out devils (Luk 10:20 ). Fourth only in the gifts of the Spirit does miracle-working power rank (1Co 12:28 ). Far inferior are any of these gifts to the abiding graces of the Spirit (1Co 13:1-13 ; 1Co 14:1-33 ). How, then, in reason and common sense, can it be a more heinous blasphemy to attribute an inferior work of the Spirit to the devil than a superior work? Will any man seriously maintain that this is so, because a miracle is more demonstrable its proof more vivid and cognizable by the natural senses? This would be to affirm the contrary of scriptural teaching on many points. We may know more things about spirit than we can know about matter. This knowledge is more vivid and impressive than the other. Spiritual demonstration to the inner man is always a profounder demonstration than any whatever to the outer man.
(3) Such a restriction of meaning to the days of Christ in the flesh is out of harmony with Old Testament teaching on the same subject.
(4) It fails to harmonize with many other passages in later New Testament time, which will not admit of a different classification without contradicting the text itself, since thereby more than one kind of unpardonable sins would be established.
(5) The utter failure of this exposition to convince the judgment of plain people everywhere, and its greater failure to relieve troubled consciences everywhere, is a strong presumptive argument against its soundness.
Because, therefore, I believe that the sin against the Holy Spirit may now be committed because I believe that some men in nearly every Christian community have committed it because I believe that the liability is imminent and the penalty, when incurred, utterly without remedy, and because I feel pressed in spirit to warn the imperiled of so great condemnation, therefore I preach on the subject preach earnestly preach in tears preach with melted heart.
QUESTIONS
1. How did Jesus vindicate his authority apart from his claims and teaching?
2. What are the details in the incident of healing the centurions servant, how do you reconcile the accounts of Matthew and Luke, and what the lessons of this incident?
3. Describe the incident of the raising of the widow’s son at Nain and its lesson.
4. What inquiry from John the Baptist brought forth by this fame of Jesus and what was Jesus’ reply?
5. What is the meaning of “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence?
6. What reproof of the Pharisees by our Lord called forth by this?
7. What cities here upbraided by our Lord and what principle enunciated in this connection?
8. What principle of revelation announced here also?
9. What great invitation here announced by our Lord and what is its great teaching?
10. Relate the story of the anointing of the feet of Jesus by the wicked woman.
11. What two things seem to be implied by the story?
12. What Oriental customs constitute the setting of this story and what is the explanation of each?
13. What are the lessons and contrasts of this incident?
14. Give an account of the first Ladies’ Aid Society.
15. What scriptures of both Testaments bearing on the sin against the Holy Spirit?
16. What can you say of the impression made by these scriptures?
17. What efforts of sympathetic expositors to soften the import of these scriptures?
18. What two solemn convictions yet remain?
19. What were the antecedent facts which occasioned the statements of our Lord in Section 48 of the Harmony?
20. What is the meaning of “unpardonable”?
21. What is the meaning of “neither in this world, nor in the world to come”?
22. What is the meaning of “blasphemy”?
23. Show that either Jesus or the Pharisees were guilty of blasphemy on this occasion.
24. How is the character of a code of laws determined? Illustrate.
25. What three things must be proved in the case of capital offenses against our laws?
26. How does the higher benevolence of the divine law appear?
27. What correlated proposition must be duly considered in order to understand the sin against the Holy Spirit?
28. What two things also follow from this?
29. What three things must the plan of salvation secure for every sinner who shall be saved, and what the proof?
30. What are the limitations which determine the rationale of the sin against the Holy Spirit? Explain.
31. What are the claims of some expositors with respect to this sin and what the reasons for rejecting them?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
1 Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.
Ver. 1. See Mat 8:5 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
1 10. ] HEALING OF THE CENTURION’S SERVANT. Mat 8:5-13 . In Matt. also placed after the Sermon on the Mount, but with the healing of the leper in our ch. Luk 5:12 ff. interposed. Our narrative is fuller than that in Matt. in the beginning of the miracle, not so full at the end. See notes on Matt.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1. ] . . for . This, though there is no art. after , is better than to connect with .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Luk 7:1-10 . The Centurion of Capernaum (Mat 8:5-13 ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Luk 7:1 . , into the ears = in Sept [73] (Gen 20:8 ; Gen 50:4 , Exo 10:2 ). To show that it is not a Hebraism, Kypke cites from Dion. Hal.: . , entered, not returned to, Capernaum.
[73] Septuagint.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Luke Chapter 7
Luk 7:1-10
Mat 8:5-13
We have already had the leper in Luk 5 , which Matthew displaces, in order to put it along with the centurion’s servant, which opens our chapter; the one being used to show the dealings of the Lord Jesus and the character of His ministry among the Jews, and the other to bear witness to the great change which was about to take place in the going forth of mercy to the Gentiles on the rejection of Israel. Luke, as we have seen, was inspired by the Spirit of God to use it for a wholly different purpose. The leper was put with the paralytic man, not with the centurion, in order to bring out the different moral effects of sin, not the change of dispensation. Here, then, we find that the Lord has fully separated the godly remnant of His disciples and shown out the qualities of God’s Kingdom as realised, and Christ’s own character as looked for in them: this would extend to the Gentiles also when they were called.
Now He gives us, in the case of the centurion’s servant, a manifestation of His power and goodness which carries out the truth still further. There are certain points of difference here, worthy of all note, as compared with Matthew, which we might not expect at first sight. The manner of its relation by Luke brings in two things, one of insertion and the other of omission, both very different from Matthew.tid=52#bkm160- First, the embassy of the elders is mentioned here, not in Matthew: “A certain centurion’s bondman who was dear to him was ill and about to die; and having heard of Jesus he sent to him elders”‘ of the Jews, begging him that he would come and save his bondman.” This brings before us, not only the officer’s affection for his servant, but his employment of the elders of the Jews. “But they, being come to Jesus, besought him diligently, saying, He is worthy to whom thou shouldest grant* this, for he loves our nation, and himself has built us the synagogue.tid=52#bkm162- And Jesus went with them.” Then we have a second embassy: “But already when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent to him friends, saying to him, lord, do not trouble thyself; for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof.” Second thoughts are not always best among men. They constantly mar the simplicity of the first impression, which is apt to be direct from the heart or the conscience. But the mind which sees the consequences continually affects to correct these early impulses, and not seldom for the worse. Simplicity of purpose is ruined by secondary and prudential considerations. But it is not so with real faith, which makes us grow; as it is said, “Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (2Pe 3:18 .) In this case we have what is beautifully characteristic of our Evangelist, both in the first embassy and in the second. The first is his reverence for God’s dealings with the Jews shown in his employment of the elders, of those who were the leaders of Israel, to send to Jesus. But next also we see his employment of friends, who more spoke of his own heart. Matthew mentions the case, but far more succinctly. We should not even learn from the first Evangelist but that he came himself: “A centurion came to him, beseeching him.” Whereas it is clear there was the intervention of both elders and friends. The clue to it is that old maxim of law or equity, that what one does by another one does by oneself. The second occasion brought out more fully the reconsideration in his soul of the glory of Jesus. It was natural that in sending the Jews he should ask for His presence. For not a Jew only, but a faith that leaned upon Israel, that laid hold, as it were, of the skirt of a Jew, was always bound up with the personal presence of the Messiah; but when he spoke out his own proper feeling, and when friends consequently were the medium of his second mission, he says, “Lord, trouble not thyself; for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof.” This brings out two things – the deep sense of the Lord’s glory, and a corresponding sense of his own nothingness. “Wherefore neither did I count myself worthy to come to thee.” This is left out in Matthew entirely; because Matthew, summing it all up, simply speaks of the centurion. If we had had this alone, then we might have thought that the centurion actually came, and that there was only one message to Jesus. But it was not so. Here as we have the embassies mentioned, it is added by the Spirit of God, “Wherefore neither did I count myself worthy to come to thee.”
*”Is worthy . . . thou shouldest g”: so Edd. after ABCD, etc., with twenty-one cursives. “Was worthy … he should g (T.R.) follows G and most cursives.
And that was just his state. It looked the saddest case. He was not worthy that the Lord should come: and neither did he think himself worthy that he should go to the Lord. How could mercy flow? Faith finds in each extremity the opportunity for grace worthy of God, and for the glory of such an One as Jesus. “But say by a word, and my servant shall be* healed.” Thus the “word,” as we habitually find in Luke, has its paramount place. The turning-point is not the bodily presence even of Messiah, but the word. Jesus was man, but He was the vessel of Divine power; therefore He had only to say in a word, and his servant should be healed. His coming to the spot was in no way necessary – His word was enough. “For I also am a man placed under authority, having under myself soldiers: and I say to one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my bondman, Do this, and he does [it].” That is, his faith owned that Jesus had the very same power, and indeed more; for he was only a man under authority: Jesus, the perfectly dependent and obedient Man, could command all, ever to the glory of God the Father. Even he, under authority as he was, nevertheless had authority himself to order this one and that one, especially his own servant. All things were but servants to Jesus – all subserved God’s glory by Him. He had only to speak the word: disease itself must obey. “Say by a word, and my servant shall be healed.” “And Jesus hearing this, wondered “‘ at him, and turning to the crowd following him said, I say unto you, not even in Israel have I found so great faith.”
*”My servant shall be”: so ACD, etc., with cursives and Syrsin. Edd. adopt “let m. s. be,” after BL (T.R. regarded as correction from Matt.).
But, there is an omission – and this was the second point of difference I wished to mark – an omission of what Matthew adds: “But I say unto you, That many shall come from [the] rising and setting [sun], and shall lie down at table with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens. But the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into the outer darkness; there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.” At first sight one might have expected this, particularly in Luke; but a closer inspection will show that its proper place is not here. The Lord does bring it in elsewhere in Luke, namely, in Luk 13 , when the time was come for distinctly indicating the chance; and this on moral considerations, and not on dispensational ones only. Whereas Matthew, being intent on the impending change for Israel and the Gentiles, is led of the Spirit to introduce it in this place and time, where no doubt it was uttered. But with equal wisdom Luke reserves it for another connection. I do not doubt that the moral reason for that reservation was this, that while the Lord did acknowledge, if I may so say, the simplicity of the faith of the Gentile – and simplicity in faith is power – while He exceedingly valued that faith which saw much more than a Messiah in Him, which saw God in Him (man though He really was) – saw His power over sickness, even though at a distance from it, which is so effectual a bar to all human resources, but which only displaced One Who was man, but far more than man. Such was to be the faith of the Gentile, in due time, when Jesus should be actually absent from this world, but when all the virtue of Jesus should be as, Or even more, conspicuous in some important respects. Such is Christianity; and the Gentile centurion was an illustrious type of the character of this faith. Nevertheless Christianity being brought out, specially among the Gentiles, as Rom 11 shows us, the continual danger is for the. Gentile to account that the Jew has been cut off that he might be grafted in. Hence there was the wisdom of God in not introducing that solemn judgment upon Israel, as well as the strong expression of the substitution of the Gentile for him in this place. It was evidently to correct Gentile conceit. It is true the Jews were to be judged – in fact, were already under judgment; but that sentence was to be executed still more stringently when the Gentiles were to be gathered in. But the Lord waits a more fitting season for announcing it. Thus the Gentile is taught by this scene the proper feeling towards a Jew. Faith would not despise them. It may go beyond Jewish intervention, but it should honour the Jews in their own place. At the same time, his own danger of presumption, as if he were the exclusive object of God’s purpose, is guarded against by the omission of any such sentence here.tid=52#bkm164-
It is needless to say that they that were sent, returning to the house, found the bondman whole who had been ill.tid=52#bkm165-
Luk 7:11-17 .
But there follows, the day after, another scene of great interest, carrying out the picture of our Lord’s power more completely; and it is a scene peculiar to Luke. “It came to pass afterwards,* that he went into a citytid=52#bkm166- called Nain; and many of his disciples and a great crowd went with him. And as he drew near to the gate of the city, behold, a dead man was carried out, the only sontid=52#bkm167- of his mother, and she a widow.” Two touches very characteristic of our Evangelist, as indeed the whole scene is peculiar to him: he was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. It is the heart of a man touched by the circumstances of desolation, and open to the affections that suited such a case. The Lord of glory deigned to feel, and to bring out by the Holy Ghost these circumstances. “A very considerable crowd [was] with her.” Even man showed his sympathy. What did the Lord? “And the Lordtid=52#bkm168- seeing her, was moved with compassion for her, and said to her, Weep not.”tid=52#bkm169- He came to banish the tears which sin and misery had brought into the world. I do not say that He came not to weep Himself; for, in banishing it, He must weep as none other wept. But to her He would say in His gracious power, “Weep not; and coming up he touched the bier,tid=52#bkm170- and the bearers stopped. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Wake up.” Vain words had they not been His words, or from any other mouth! What a difference it is who says it! That is what men forget when they think of Christ, or speak of Scripture. They forget it is God’s Word, they overlook God in man and by man, the Man Christ Jesus. “And the dead sat up and began to speak. And he gave him to his mother.”
*”Afterwards”: so W. H., Blass, as AB, Syrsin. “The day after”: so Tisch. after CDKM. Nearly all cursives, most Syrr. and other versions.
“Many of”: so Tisch. with ACX, most cursives, Goth. Other Edd. omit, after BDL and some versions, as Syrsin and Old Lat.
[“Was”]: so Edd. after BL, 33, 69, Syrsin Memph. AE, etc., Latt., other Syrr., and Goth. omit.
God was there; God was with that Man in His own power: for what is more characteristic of God than raising the dead? It was even more wondrous than creation. That God should create is, so to speak, natural. That God should raise the dead to life again, after that which is created is fallen into. ruin, that He should show his all-compassing power of retrieving to the uttermost, supposes indeed man’s weakness and evil, and the enemy’s temporary success, but God superior to all circumstances of hostile power in the creature, and His own just judgment of sin. And this is true most evidently in the Gospel. It is viewed as the quickening voice of the Son of God, and this in view of sin and of eternity. But the Lord shows it in matters of time here. “And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Wake up.” And our Evangelist closes with words in keeping with all his spirit: “And he gave him to his mother.” If he was a man acquainted with grief, He was a man acquainted with the power of sympathy. He knew how to minister to the heart that was bereaved.tid=52#bkm171- “And fear seized on all and they glorified God, saying, A great prophet has been raised up* amongst us; and God has visited his people.” He had the power of life in the midst of death. He was a prophet, and more than a prophet. God had anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power, Who went about indeed doing good.172 “And this report went out in all Judeatid=52#bkm172- concerning him, and in all the surrounding country.”tid=52#bkm174-
*”Has been raised up so Edd. after ABC, 1, 33. ERX, 69, Syrsin have “is risen up.”
Luk 7:18-35 .
Mat 11:2-19 .
Up to the end of Luk 6 , the Lord is still within the precincts of Israel, though undoubtedly there are principles of grace which intimate much more – the outgoing of Divine mercy towards every soul of man. Yet until the end of that chapter the Lord does not actually go beyond the godly Jews now associated with Himself, and in mission too, as the apostles. If He gathers, He sends out from Himself to gather unto Himself: and their moral traits, which distinguished them from the nation, are laid down with great emphasis and direct personal application to the close of that chapter. Then we have a Gentile’s faith, who owns Christ’s Divine supremacy over all things, whether even disease or distance here below. Nothing could be too great for Him. Jesus, the day after, proves His power over death. Most truly man, He is nevertheless above nature, so to speak, and that which sin had brought in as God’s judgment on the race. Clearly therefore in all this we have what goes beyond Israel as such, and expressly so in the case of the Gentile centurion’s servant.
This, accordingly, brings in deeper things. John’s disciples reported all these things to their master, who calls two of his disciples and sends them to Jesus,* questioning whether he were “he that is coming, or are we to wait for another?” The Lord, in the same hour that they stated their errand, cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits, and unto many that were blind He gave sight. And then He “answering said to them, Go, bring back word to John what ye have seen and heard: that blind see, lame walk, lepers are cleansed, deaf hear, dead are raised, the poor are evangelised; and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.” It was a solemn answer, and should have been a very touching reproof to John. Here was One Who sought not His own glory, yet He could not but point to that which God was doing, for God was with Him. He “went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” (Act 10:38 .) God meant this for a witness. But was it not sad and humbling that he who was raised up specially to render witness to Jesus should require witness from Jesus?tid=52#bkm175- And Jesus, in the overflowing of His grace, gives witness, not only to what God was doing by Himself, but to John also. Thus no flesh glories in His presence. He that glories must glory in the Lord. John himself failed completely in the object for which he had been sent, at least at this crisis. None can bear utter rejection but the Spirit of Christ; nothing else can go through it undimmed, unstained. Christ is not only the great doer, but greatest sufferer; and John did not look for this. He had known what fidelity of witness was in an evil world: but the testifying of the Messiah that He should be a sufferer, and consequently his own share of it as His herald in prison, seem to have been too much for his faith or that of his disciples. He needed at the very least to be confirmed; he needed to have proof positive that Jesus was the predicted Messiah, for himself or for others.tid=52#bkm175A- We have seen the answer given him by our Lord.
*”Jesus”: so AD, later uncials, most cursives, Syrr. Old Lat. Memph. Edd. adopt “the Lord,” after BRL 33,69, Amiat., etc.
*”In that”: so Edd. after BL 1, 69, Memph. AD, 33, Syrr. Amiat. Goth. Arm. have “in the same.”
*”Hour”: so Edd. following corrBL, 1, 69, Memph. pmL, 69, have “day.”
Observe here that there was no point more remarkable in the ordinary ministry of Jesus than His care for the poor. To the poor the gospel was preached. His concern about them was the very reverse of all that was found among men before. If others had cared for the poor, it was but an evidence of the working of His Spirit in them, and nothing characteristic; in Jesus’ case it was opening out His heart, if possible, with greater care to them than to any others, the bright hopes that the gospel announces, the display of that which is eternal for the eyes of believers in the midst of present need among those who were most liable to be overwhelmed by it.tid=52#bkm176- “And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.” There we find a rebuke, couched certainly in the gentlest terms; nevertheless, it was that which was intended, no doubt, to deal with the conscience. John seems to have been stumbled; but blessed was he whosoever was not offended in Jesus. There was nothing that so grated upon every natural thought of a Jew its the rejection and shame accompanying the Messiah, or those that bore witness of Him. Man was wholly unprepared for it. They had been waiting for long and weary years for the Messiah to bring in deliverance. Now that He was come, that evil should fall with apparent impunity on His servants, and even upon Himself – that they, and He too, should be despised of men – was too much for their faith. They were “offended” in Him.tid=52#bkm177-
Christianity, let me say, has given immense range to the display of all this. Indeed, it is the glory and blessing of the Christian. He is not stumbled at the rejection of Christ. He sees the Cross in the light of heaven, not of the earth; he knows its bearing on eternal things. Present things are not the question. God has brought in the unseen things, and the Christian is familiar with them even now. He accordingly rejoices in the Cross of Christ, and boasts in that which is the overthrow of all the natural thoughts of men, and the judgment of the world, but which is really, by the grace of God, the judgment of sin, and the vindication of His own moral glory. Therefore the Christian triumphs in it. Besides, it is that which gave occasion to the infinite grace of the Lord Jesus, and in all these things he delights. He therefore has the blessing fully; and is strengthened, not offended, by the Cross.
When the messengers of John go away, the Lord can speak in vindication of His servant. After all, viewed, not in connection with what was coming, but according to that which had been and was, who was found among men worthy of such honour? He was no reed shaken with the wind: this they might see any day in the wilderness. Neither was he a man clothed in soft raiment: they must look to kings’ courts to find men gorgeously apparelled and living delicately. There is no moral grandeur in any of these things. A prophet then he was, and much more than a prophet. Such is the witness of Jesus: “This is he concerning whom it is written, Behold, I* send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.” (Mal 3:1 .) tid=52#bkm178- He was the immediate forerunner of the Messiah. God put singular honour on him. There were many prophets; there was but one John, but one who could be the messenger before His face. Consequently our Lord adds, “Among those that are born of women,tid=52#bkm179- there is not a greater [prophet] than John [the Baptist].”
*”I” () is found in AEX, 33, Syrr.; but Edd. omit after BDL, 1, Old Lat. Memph.
[“Prophet”]: inserted in AEGH, later uncials, most cursives, Syrr. Goth. Edd. omit, after BKLM and most Old Lat.
[“The Baptist”]: AD, etc., most cursives (33), Syrr. and Old Lat. insert. Edd. reject, after BL, 1, Memph.
Yet this, be it noted, brings out so much the more the superior blessing of those who were to be in the new state of things, when prophecy or unfulfilled promise should be no longer, but the basis of the kingdom should be laid on the work of Christ. That new order was coming in, first to faith, then in power; and Luke gives great force to that which was revealed to faith, because it is known through the Word of God and the power of the Holy Ghost. It is not yet the visible manifestation of the Kingdom, but none the less God’s Kingdom, which was to come in through a rejected Son of man. Redemption may be the basis of better and still more glorious things, but it is the basis of the Kingdom of God: and in that Kingdom the least was greater than the greatest before – greater even than John. The least in that Kingdom would rest on redemption already accomplished; the least would know what it is to be brought to God, sin put away, and the conscience purged. John the Baptist could only look onward to these things. The Christian knows them to be actually come, and by faith his own portion. He is not waiting for them; he has them. Thus he that is least in the Kingdom of God is greater than John.
At the same time, we are told that “all the people” that heard John the Baptist, “and the publicans” too – that is, the mass, even the despised tax-gatherers – “justified God,tid=52#bkm180- being baptized with the baptism of John.” They were right so far. It was a witness of what was coming: it was a confession of their own sin. Thus far they justified God. But the prudent and wise, the religious, learned, and great, “the Pharisees and lawyers,” rejected and “frustrated the counsel of God against themselves,” because they refused even the preparatory work of John the Baptist. Having refused the lesser testimony, they never passed into the greater things – the reality from God. Having refused that which their own consciences ought to have proved to be true, they were not prepared to receive the gift of His grace. Christ can only in the conscience be received to salvation. Feeling and understanding will never do alone. There must be conscience. Those whose slumbering consciences had been aroused Godward concerning their sins were only too glad to receive Christ. Those whose consciences slept, or were roused but for a moment, were never brought to God savingly. When Christ is received by faith, the conscience is active toward God, the mind and heart rejoice as they enter into and appropriate the blessing, but not otherwise. Where there is no work in the conscience, all is given up speedily. They are “offended” by this or that. Thus, the men of that generationtid=52#bkm181- were like captious children, “sitting in the market-place, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped to you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned [to you],* and ye have not wept.” Whatever God called to was offensive. If God brought in joy, they would not dance: if God brought in a call to mourn, they would not weep. Thus, when John the Baptist came, neither eating bread nor drinking wine, the expression of no communion, because sin was in question (and how could God send one to have communion with sin?), they said he had a demon. “The Son of man is come eating and drinking.” Now there could be communion: the rejected Christ is the foundation of all true fellowship with God. But they said, “Behold, an eater and a wine-drinker, a friend of tax-gatherers and sinners!” Man, thinking well of himself, counts the grace of God to be allowance of sin. When God calls to righteousness, it is too severe for man: when He calls to grace, it is too loose for him. Every way man likes not God: he shrinks in presence of law, and he despises in presence of grace. “And wisdom is justifiedtid=52#bkm182- of all her children.” And the incident that follows is a striking proof of it in both its parts – the witness of it, not only in her who was a sinner but is now a child of wisdom, but also in him who could not appreciate the One Who is the wisdom of God.
*”To you” (second time): so AP, Syrr. (including sin.), Aeth.; but, omitted by Edd. after BDL, Amiat. Memph. Arm.
Luk 7:36-50 .
As illustrating wisdom justified of all her children, as well as the superiority of the new system of grace, the kingdom of God as it was about to come in, the Spirit leads Luke to give the story of the woman who followed Jesus into the house of the Pharisee (it would seem in His train). All was arranged to bring out the truth and the grace of God with great precision. “One of the Phariseestid=52#bkm183- I begged him that he would eat with him.” The Lord goes into the house and takes His place at table. “A woman in the city, a sinner,” evidently of notorious character,tid=52#bkm184- “when she knew that he was sitting at meat in the Pharisee’s house, took an alabaster box of myrrh, and standing at his feet behind [him] weeping, began to wash his feet with tears, and she wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed [them] with the myrrh.”tid=52#bkm184a-
Faith makes a soul very bold; at the same time, it gives great propriety. But its boldness is inspired by the attractive power of the Object looked to. It is from no qualities of our own. What, for instance, could be more beautifully in season, what more modest and right in feeling and act than the conduct of this hitherto abandoned woman? Now, at least, so much the more glory to the Object of her faith Who brought about this immense change. When she knew that Jesus was invited there, she went too. It was the last place where she would otherwise have ventured. It was Jesus Who emboldened her to go there without invitation. But when she found herself there, she did not ask Peter or James or John or any of them, as the Greeks asked Philip, to see Jesus. She went at once: not merely her own deep sense of need, but her sense of His ineffable grace – the grace of Jesus – gave the entre at once, and introduced her without further form or ceremony. Completely absorbed in an object, which she may not have defined to her mind to be a Divine Person, but which proved itself to be none the less Divine by its all-overcoming power over her soul, she must have instinctively shrunk from the Pharisee’s house under any other circumstances. Ordinarily there was everything to repel, nothing to attract her, in that house. Yet she made no apology for the intrusion; she knew without being told that Jesus made her free to draw near; and there she was found, standing at His feet behind Him, weeping.
Remark, too, how every way, every act, every feature of the case was perfectly suited to express without a word the real truth of her past” well as present, and of His goodness. She began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet and anointed them with the ointment. Mary did it another day – did that, which was so similar, that some have even fancied this to be Mary.”‘ But that is a profound mistake. We hear nothing at all of her tears. We do hear of her anointing the feet of Jesus, as well as His head, and wiping them with the hair; so that the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. In both it was an act of devotedness to Jesus; and devotedness does not imitate, but like devotedness to the same object, produces similar effects, though each with its own peculiarity. But besides devotedness, there was in this woman confession of her own self-abasement, of her horror at her sins, of her repentance towards God, and her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That was not the question with Mary. Mary was filled with a sense of the danger that impended over Jesus. She had a vague but true consciousness of His approaching death, so that the Lord counted it an anointing for His burial, gave it Divine value, and expressed what her heart had not uttered even to Himself, but nevertheless what she could not but feel, though she could not articulate it. But in this woman’s case it was the unaffected pouring out of a burdened heart, which felt its only relief in thus washing his feet with tears and wiping them with the hairs of her head. Thus, a sense of grace produces effects very similar to a deep sense of His glory. They are both Divine, both of the Spirit of God. A sense of His grace, shaded by the sense of her own sinfulness, was the predominant feeling in this poor woman’s mind; as a sense of His glory, shaded by the feeling of approaching danger, was of Mary’s.
All this was lost upon the Pharisee; or rather, it stirred up the unbelief of his heart. “When the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner.” His thought was that the being a sinner would unfit for Jesus. Yet he had no adequate notion of the glory of Jesus, nor of His holiness, nor, of course, of His grace: he would not even allow Him to be a prophet. Had He been so, as he thought, He must have seen through the woman who touched Him. Simon knew that the woman was a sinner. It was known commonly in the place. If Jesus had only known her character, it was inconceivable to Simon that He would have allowed her to take such a liberty with His person. But Jesus thoroughly knew her as well as Simon; and if she was a sinner He was a Saviour. Alas! the Pharisee neither felt the sin nor saw the Saviour according to God. Phariseeism is an attempt to take a middle ground between a sinner and a Saviour, and this ignores both the misery of the one and the grace of the other. All worldly religion avoids a real, deep confession, as of sin so of a Saviour. It contents itself with generalities and forms. It admits sin, and it acknowledges a Saviour, after a sort: but the golden mean which in the world’s things is so valuable is fatal in what is Divine. This is what Christianity was intended to bring people out of. It is what the faith of God’s good news disproves and banishes: for the gospel of salvation stands expressly on the ground of total ruin through sin. Now man, religious man, dislikes all extremes, likes moderate views; but by this moderation of view the depths of sin are unfelt and the Saviour is unhonoured. The Pharisee shows it out in contrast with the woman. He was not a child of wisdom: “wisdom is justified of all, her children.” He found ignorance where she found perfect grace; and she was wise. She was a child of wisdom. Wisdom was not justified by him. It was unseen and denied. “This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner.” He did not know: such was the Pharisee’s account of Jesus.
But Jesus answered what he did not utter. – “Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee;tid=52#bkm185a- and he saith, Teacher, say [it].” And the Lord then tells him the parable of the creditor. “There were two debtors of a certain creditor: one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty” – one a comparatively large and the other a small sum; but neither could pay, and hetid=52#bkm186- “forgave both of them [their debt].” Who would love him most? The Pharisee would answer on human ground with correctness, “I suppose he to whom he forgave the most.” The Lord owned that he had rightly judged, and then He at once applies it. “Seest thou this woman? I entered into thy house; thou gavest me no water for my feet.”
After all, the entertainment that even a Pharisee – a religious man – provides for Jesus is very short. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks: the poor reception betrayed how little his heart welcomed Jesus. Yet he thought to patronise Jesus. This is what natural religion always does. He thought he was doing honour to Him, but instead of that he was nourishing himself, and proved the low conception he had of Jesus by the measured scale of that which he provided for Jesus. “I entered into thy house; thou gavest me no water for my feet” – that was an ordinary thing in these countries – “but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair.* Thou gavest me no kiss” – in these lands no strange reception – “but she, from the time I came in, hath not ceased kissing my feet; my head with oil thou didst not anoint”tid=52#bkm187- – but here again how entirely she went beyond “but she hath anointed my feet with myrrh.” Not even a king was so entertained. “For which cause I say unto thee, Her many sins are forgiven, for she loved much; but he to whom little is forgiven loveth little.”tid=52#bkm188-
*”Her hair”: so Edd. after ABDL, Syrrpesch hcl. Old Lat. Memph. “The hair of her head” is in ED, etc., most cursives (33, 69), Syrrsin cu.
It was evidently not the woman’s first sense of the grace of Christ. What she had done was because with her heart she did believe in Him. She believed before she came. Her faith had brought her, but she did not know that her faith saved her. She loved before she came, and all that she did was the fruit of her love; yet not her love, but her faith saved her.”tid=52#bkm189- She loved much, because she was forgiven much; and she felt it. Thus she was led to this love by the deep sense of her sin, and of the attractive grace of the Saviour; and so she must hear how truly she was forgiven. The Lord says to her, “Thy sins are forgiven.” This drew out the inward question of those around, and not Simon’s only: “They began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgives sins also?”
Here, again, also, it was not the first time. The Lord had said publicly to the palsied man, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” But there was a difference., and a weighty one, between that forgiveness and this. There it was within the bounds of Israel, and it was specially in reference to this world. I do not mean to say that the man may not have been forgiven eternally; but that it was emphatically the forgiveness of sins – proved by the healing of his body, and both in connection with the earth. Thus it was what may be and has been called governmental forgiveness, and after this sort I suppose it will be that God will act in the millennium. It may or may not be eternal. The millennial reign of Christ will be accompanied by the banishing of diseases and the forgiveness of sins. There will be nothing but blessing everywhere. But whether it be eternal or not will depend, no doubt, on the reality of the work of God in the soul (i.e., on faith).tid=52#bkm189a-
In the case before us the forgiveness has nothing to do with the present life. It is absolute, unconditional, and eternal; and assuredly this will be found by and by in the kingdom of God, as it is now brought out in the power of the Holy Ghost. It was what ought to be in Christianity – a kind of little anticipation or example of what was to be proclaimed in the Gospel; and it is peculiar to Luke. He said to the woman in answer to these doubts, “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace”tid=52#bkm190- – words nowhere said to the palsied man. It was not her love that saved her, but her faith. Love is the exercise of that which is within us – of that new nature which the Holy Ghost imparts, and of which He is Himself the strength. But faith, although of the Spirit of God, nevertheless finds all in its object, in another. Love is more what people call a subjective thing; whereas the essence of faith is that, though in man, it is nevertheless exercised on what is outside him. The whole of that which it depends on is in its object – even Christ. “Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.” Thus there is present salvation, and this in such power that the Lord can bid her “go in peace.” This is precisely what the Gospel now announces freely, and unfolds fully, according to the value of an inestimable, exhaustless Christ and His work.”‘
NOTES ON THE SEVENTH CHAPTER.
160 This chapter exhibits no link whatever with the Gospel of Mark.
161 Luk 7:3 . – “Sent.” Abbott (“Encyclopaedia Biblica,” col. 1774) remarks Matthew and Luke differ irreconcilably. Matthew says that the man did come to Jesus. And so, as the present writer has been informed by a member of the Burmese Commission, would a Burmese say not taught otherwise by Western magistrates. An Eastern calls himself the principal when acting only as agent. “Elders” are called “rulers” in Mar 5:22 . Cf. “overseers” in Act 20:28 , 1Pe 5:2 ; and “guides” in Heb 13:7 .
162 Luk 7:5 . – “The synagogue.” Remains of this still extant may be found described in various books.
163 Luk 7:9 . – For wonder attributed to the Lord, cf. Mar 6:6 ; there at unbelief; here at belief.
164 Luk 7:6-9 . – The wording of these verses is compared with that of Mat 8:8-10 by Harnack, “Luke the Physician,” p. 94 f.
“I also,” implying that he acknowledged the Power behind the Lord, at his appreciation of which Christ marvelled (Morison on Mat 8:9 ).
165 Luk 7:10 . – This section should not be confounded – as by some moderns – with Joh 4:46 ff., which is entirely distinct.
166 Luk 7:11 . – How paltry some of the criticism that is bestowed on the Evangelist’s geography or topography, finds illustration in Hausrath’s objecting to the description of Nain as a city. See “New Testament Times,” iii. 410, and Hahn ad loc. What, for example, did Hausrath know of Nazareth as it was then in the days of Christ?
Scripture speaks similarly of “streets” in Jerusalem, etc., but these are not what we so call: any visitor to the old part of Jerusalem could confirm this: there you have only open spaces.
167 Luk 7:12 . – “Only son.” For another case, see Luk 9:38 , and see note 48, above.
168 Luk 7:13 . – “The Lord” ( ). See again in Luk 10:1 [Edd., 39, 41], Luk 11:39 , Luk 12:42 , Luk 13:15 , Luk 17:5 f., Luk 18:6 , Luk 19:8 , Luk 22:31 , Luk 24:3 (before “Jesus”) and 34, all in this Gospel of the “Son of Man.” In John’s Gospel it occurs only four times: Joh 4:1 , Joh 6:23 , Joh 11:2 , and Joh 20:20 . It is not found in either Matthew or Mark.
169 “Weep not” or “do not go on weeping,” the continuous present, as in Joh 20:17 , “do not go on clinging.”
170 Luk 7:14 . – “Bier”: as to Jewish manner of burial, see Joseph. “Antiqq.,” xvii. 197f., Life, 323, or Edersheim, “Sketches of Jewish Social Life,” p. 109 ff.
171 Luk 7:15 . – Cf. 1Ki 17:23 .
172 Luk 7:16 . – “Visited.” Cf. i. 68 and 19: 44, where also it is merciful visitation (). The word for “visitation” in the sense of vengeance is , as in Luk 21:22 .
173 Luk 7:17 . – “Judea.” Meyer, Ewald, Weiss and H. Holtzmann take this of the whole land (cf. note 114); Hahn, who holds that it is nowhere in the New Testament so used, observes that the Lord’s opponents were chiefly in the South (so Plummer on the present passage).
174 This incident of raising the dead is intermediate between that of Jairus’s daughter, not carried out for burial, and the raising of Lazarus when already buried. Difference in the significance of the three cases as typical of stages the process of conversion was suggested already by Augustine, Sermon XCVIII., whom Wordsworth follows.
The publicity of this case, which is not recorded by Mark, might supply such critics with food for reflection as attach greater historical value to our second Gospel. Cf. O. Holtzmann, p. 274, for candid recognition of the circumstances of this miracle; also Wellhausen’s note ad loc. (“before many witnesses”).
175 Luk 7:19 . – As to the Jewish idea that there are two Messiahs, one the “son of David,” the other the “son of Joseph,” see Lightfoot, “Horae Hebr.” The Baptist would at least know that JESUS was the suffering one.
The Expositor’s view of John’s state of mind is that taken by Tertullian, Neander, Meyer, De Wette, Olshausen and Godet: the Baptist had real (not, as Stier, simulated) doubt, and that increasing, not (as some moderns) declining. See further Godet ad loc., as to the Baptist’s state of mind being characteristic of the old dispensation.
175a Augustine, Hilary, Chrysostom, Calvin, Wordsworth, and Ryle suppose that the mission of John’s disciples was meant by him to aid their faith.
176 Luk 7:22 . – We have here a summary of Messiah’s work: “Poor evangelized.” Wesley offers a characteristic comment: “The greatest mercy and the greatest miracle of all.”
177 Luk 7:23 . – Observe that nowhere in the Gospels are the Scribes and Pharisees represented as challenging the Lord as to miracles: this alone might show that they were actually performed. The Talmud adds confirmation by the very explanation that it offers (cf. note 107 above).
178 Luk 7:27 . – This quotation (as in Mat 11:10 ; Mar 1:2 ), from neither the Hebrew nor the LXX., illustrates the belief of the late Adolf Neubauer, that Aramaic paraphrases lie behind quotations in the Gospels from the Old Testament.
179 Luk 7:28 . – “Born of women.” Chrysostom, whom Sadler follows, explains that our Lord excluded Himself from the number of those so described. It is noticeable that the word is , not, as in Gal 4:4 (cf. Phi 2:7 ), (“come”). In verses 23, 29 of the same chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians the Apostle uses, of Isaac and Ishmael, verb forms cognate to .
“Little.” Bishop Basil Jones: “less,” explaining it as, “than John in gifts and power.” Augustine and Chrysostom, although happily followed by very few (as Spence), take this of the Lord Himself.
Farrar: “The smallest diamond is made of more precious substance than the largest flint.”
The last words of the Lord here about John are, of course, very offensive to the Mandaeans, or modern disciples of the Baptist, settled to the south of Bagdad (Reinach, p. 107).
180 Luk 7:29 f. – Syrsin here has “justified themselves to God.” These verses are taken by the Expositor as parenthetical; that is, as Luke’s own comment. So Field and Adeney; whilst Meyer, Bishop Basil Jones, B. Weiss, Spence, and Plummer regard the words as proceeding from the Lord. But, as Norris says, the tenses used indicate that it is the Evangelist who speaks. Besides a parenthesis is in his manner: see Luk 13:7 , and Act 1:18 f. Compare, further, Mat 21:32 .
181 Luk 7:31 . – “This generation.” Meyer, Hofmann and Hahn understand by this, the Pharisees.
182 Luk 7:35 . – “Is justified” (). Burton ( 43) calls this a “gnomic aorist,” to which effect was given by the English version, retained by the Revv.; whilst Winer (Moulton’s ed., p. 346) held that this does not occur in the New Testament. Cf. like use of in Joh 15:6 , and note there.
Dorner finds here germs of our Lord’s pre-existence (Luk 1:1 , Luk 1:61 ). Cf. Luk 10:23 f., Luk 11:49 .
“Children.” The reading of , “works,” may have come from Mat 11:19 . “All” is omitted in corr D, Syrcu.
183 Luk 7:36 . – “One of the Pharisees.” Not the same as Simon the leper (Mar 14:3 ).
As to the better side of Pharisaisrn, see Murray’s “Handbook of Christian Ethics,” p. 67.
Venn preached from this passage (Sermons, p. 217), as Augustine long ago (Library of the Fathers, vol. i. of “Sermons on the New Testament,” p. 387).
184 Luk 7:37 . – “A woman . . . a sinner.” The chapter-heading of Bibles still in use and the “Pilgrim’s Progress” have given currency to the idea of Latin Fathers (Augustine, etc.) that she was the same as Mary of Magdala: to this Farrar was inclined to adhere on the sentimental ground of its associations in sacred art! But see B. Weiss and Norris.
184a Luk 7:38 . – “Kissed,” i.e., covered with kisses ().
“Behind.” The Lord at the time was recumbent, His head forward, with His feet backward.
185 Gregory “the Great” (“Works,” i. p. 1582), whose view was definitely accepted by the Church of Rome, supposed that she was identical with Mary of Bethany; as Grotius, Schleiermacher and H. Holtzmann also have done. But, to say little more, Bethany is described as a (Luk 10:38 ); this place, a . Cf. the wording of Luk 8:1 , and note 192, s. init. On the Romish muddle here, see Stock, p. 126.
The Greek Fathers rightly distinguished all three cases. Schanz, although a Roman, regards the incident entirely from the Lucan standpoint.
185a Montefiore remarks (on Luk 6:27 , Luk 6:35 etc.) that JESUS, had He carried out His own teaching, could not have called His enemies (Pharisees) “vipers” (Mat 12:34 ), and exultingly have consigned them to Gehenna. Note, however, the words of F. W. Robertson: “He blighted Pharisaism, with irony and terrible invective. But to the actual living Pharisee, how tenderly did He express Himself! Simon I have somewhat to say unto thee. . . . So far as he is a man, he is an object of infinite pity and tenderness” (“Lectures on Corinthians,” p. 72). Our Lord could not have used smooth words towards the system which Mr. Montefiore endeavours to defend. The Apostle Paul tells us that love is to be “without hypocrisy” (Rom 12:9 ).
186 Luk 7:42 . – “Forgave” () is one of the Greek words that Luke shares with Paul (Rom 3:24 ; Eph 2:8 f.).
See Spurgeon’s Sermons, 1739 and 2127. Gregory “the Great” said that as often as he read this narrative, he felt that he could better weep than preach.
187 Luk 7:46 . – For head “anointed with oil,” see Psa 23:5 , and cf. Amo 6:6 .
188 Farrar works out the rhythmic parallelism noticeable in these verses. Cf. Mat 2:7-10 .
189 Luk 7:47 . – Her faith wrought by love: Gal 5:6 . For the love accompanying faith which works manwards, see Mat 5:43 ff. Cf. Gore, “The Creed of the Christian,” p. 53. As to Lucan Paulinism, see note 100 above.
189a Luk 7:48-50 . – Dr. Alexander Maclaren has preached from these verses. (Third Series of Sermons: “Love and Forgiveness.”)
190 Luk 7:50 . – For “Go in () peace,” cf. Mar 5:34 , , Plummer: marks the subsequent life (lasting condition); (as in Act 16:36 ; Jas 2:16 ), the moment of departure. Cf. Carr ad loc. Farrar in his Excursus gives quotations from the Moed Qaton. Maclaren, “His Word is like a living creature and fulfils itself” (vol. i., p. 214).
191 Frennsen has made use of this narrative in his “Holy Land,” p. 376.
The views of some critics that it is a “doublet” of Mar 14:37 , which Luke omits, is rejected by J. Weiss. The parable of the two debtors, as Bruce observes, is an original element (“Apologetics,” p. 462).
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Luk 7:1-10
1When He had completed all His discourse in the hearing of the people, He went to Capernaum. 2And a centurion’s slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die. 3When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders asking Him to come and save the life of his slave. 4When they came to Jesus, they earnestly implored Him, saying, “He is worthy for You to grant this to him; 5for he loves our nation and it was he who built us our synagogue.” 6Now Jesus started on His way with them; and when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to Him, “Lord, do not trouble Yourself further, for I am not worthy for You to come under my roof; 7for this reason I did not even consider myself worthy to come to You, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 8For I also am a man placed under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” 9Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, “I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.” 10When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.
Luk 7:1 “When He had completed all His discourse in the hearing of the people” This refers to the sermon recorded in Luk 6:20-49.
“Capernaum” This was Jesus’ local headquarters in Galilee. See note at Luk 4:23.
Luk 7:2 “a centurion” A centurion was a Roman (or Gentile conscript) and part of an army of occupation. He seems to have been a God-fearer, much like Cornelius in Acts 10. Every mention of Centurions in the NT is positive. These non-commissioned soldiers were the heart of the Roman army.
“slave” The Matthew parallel (Mat 8:5-13) has the term “boy.”
“who was highly regarded by him” This term was common and in the Septuagint, where it is used
1. of God’s name, cf. Deu 28:58
2. of the Messiah, cf. Isa 28:16 and NT in 1Pe 2:4; 1Pe 2:6
3. of honorable men, cf. Num 22:15; and NT in Php 2:29
The best parallel to this NT usage is 1Sa 26:21 and Isa 13:12, where a person’s life is precious.
Luk 7:3 “he sent some Jewish elders asking Him to come” The parallel account is in Mat 8:5-13, but not in Mark. From Luk 7:5 we see why the Jewish elders (local synagogue leaders) were willing to be intermediaries.
“save” The Greek term soz is used often in the NT for spiritual salvation (ex. Jas 1:21; Jas 2:14; Jas 4:12), but here it is used in its OT sense of physical deliverance (ex. Jas 5:20; Mat 9:22; Mar 6:56). The term literally means “to make whole” (physically and/or spiritually).
Luk 7:6 “Lord” This is the vocative form of the Greek term kurios, which can be
1. a title of respect like “sir”
2. a title for a superior like “master”
3. a theological affirmation of Jesus as God’s Messiah (cf. Luk 7:13)
In this context (like John 4) it is option #1. Also note the ambiguity of its use in Luk 7:19.
“do not trouble Yourself” This is a Present middle imperative (Zerwick and Grosvenor, A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament, p. 199 and A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures, p.99), while Barbara, Tim Friberg, Analytical Greek New Testament, p. 199 and Harold K. Moulton, The Analytical Greek Lexicon Revised, p. 370, call it a present passive imperative.
“I am not worthy for You to come under my roof” Obviously this Roman army officer knew the Jewish attitude toward Gentile homes. There is an obvious contrast between Luk 7:5 (the message of the elders) and this man’s own sense of his unworthiness (cf. Luk 7:7).
Luk 7:7 “but just say the word” Jesus’ physical presence was not demanded. This man was used to delegating authority (cf. Luk 7:8). This gesture shows this Gentile’s great faith in the power of Jesus. It also gives a precedent for trusting Jesus’ words, not His presence, for one’s salvation (physical here, but for the Gentile readers, spiritual also). Luke chooses the accounts he will record to reach Gentiles!
There is an ancient Greek manuscript variant connected with this verse. Luke has the aorist passive imperative, iatht (cf. P75, B, L, and some Coptic translations, the UBS4 gives this one a B rating), but other ancient texts have iathsetai (future passive indicative), which occurs in Mat 8:8 (cf. MSS , A, C, D, W, and the Vulgate and Armenian translations). Which one does not change the meaning of the text, but this does show how easily these scribal corrections or alterations occurred (between A.D. 200-400).
Luk 7:9 “He marveled” See note at Luk 1:63.
“not even in Israel have I found such great faith” This is an extremely significant theological assertion. Remember that Luke is writing to Gentiles. In this context Jesus commends a Gentile military officer for his faith, heals a widow’s child (like Elijah, cf. Luk 4:25-26), and is willing to help a sinful woman and even commend her faith (cf. Luk 7:50). It is obvious that faith, not national origin or privileged standing, is the key to the new age inaugurated by Jesus.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
ended = completed, or finished.
sayings. Greek. p1. of rhema. Not the same word as in Luk 6:47. See note on Mar 9:32.
in = into. Greek. eis. App-104.
audience = hearing. Greek. “ears”. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Adjunct), App-6, for hearing.
into. Greek. eis. App-104.
Capernaum. See App-169.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
1-10.] HEALING OF THE CENTURIONS SERVANT. Mat 8:5-13. In Matt. also placed after the Sermon on the Mount, but with the healing of the leper in our ch. Luk 5:12 ff. interposed. Our narrative is fuller than that in Matt. in the beginning of the miracle, not so full at the end. See notes on Matt.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Let’s turn now in our Bibles to Luke’s gospel, chapter 7. At this point in Luke’s gospel he is going to give us series of events, miracles that transpired in the life of Jesus.
When he ended these sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: For he loves our nation, and he has build us a synagogue ( Luk 7:1-5 ).
The Roman centurions were special men. They are mentioned several times in the scriptures, and always in a favorable light. They were always, it seems, outstanding men. We remember the Roman centurion Cornelius in Caesarea. It was while he was in prayer that the Lord spoke to him, and commanded that he should send his servants to Joppa in order to get Peter to come down and teach them the way of the Lord more completely. And so it was in the Roman centurion’s house in Caesarea that the gospel was first preached to the Gentiles, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon his house, and those that were with him. As God began His work among the Gentiles, actually in the house of a Roman centurion. So they are mentioned several times in the scriptures, always in a kind and favorable light.
This centurion in Capernaum was declared to be a worthy person by the Jewish leaders, who came to Jesus on his behalf. They said that he was worthy for whom He should do this. This is interesting to me, because the Jewish people, even to the present day, and I am certain that it doesn’t have it’s roots in the New Testament, but to the present day they have awards that they give to worthy people. And it is a phrase that they yet use today. In fact, I’ve been awarded a worthy person by the Jewish community, whatever that might mean. And I haven’t found out yet, but I don’t know that I fully want to. But I think it’s good, because they were smiling when they awarded me. But it’s a title that they still give today for a person who has, and I suppose it is a person outside of the Jewish faith, who has shown kindness and consideration to the Jews would be my estimation of this title. And such was the case with the Roman centurion. He has build a synagogue for them, and he loved their nation. And so having this as his credential, the Jewish leaders came and besought Jesus to do the favor for him by healing his servant.
It was unusual for a master to have a close relationship with his servant. The servants in the Roman Empire really had no rights whatsoever. And there was a Roman writer who said that every year a man should take stock of his possessions, and should hold on to that which is still producing and beneficial, and should get rid of that which was no longer productive. And included in that getting rid of that which was no longer productive was a slave who was no longer capable of putting out a day’s work. And so when he got to that place, he would just be put out, and left to die. For he had no other recourse. The slave was so much a part of, just a possession of his master, that in the Roman Empire a master could put his slave to death and not face any charges for it. After all, you’re just destroying your own property. So for him to have this attitude towards a slave was unusual in itself. And it does show that he is one of those men above the ordinary. He loved this slave very much, and was concerned because he was almost dead.
Then Jesus went with them. And when he was not far from the house, then centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, do not trouble yourself; for I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof: Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed ( Luk 7:6-7 ).
Now the commendation that the Jewish leaders had given to Jesus is, this man is worthy. As he answers or responds when he finds out that Jesus is getting close to his house, sending other friends, he said, “I am not worthy that You should come under my roof.” He used a different word for worthy. But then he did say, using the same word for worthy, “neither did I think myself worthy to come to Thee.”
In that culture it was unlawful for a Jew to enter the home of a Gentile. He knew for Jesus to come into his house would be putting a strain upon Jesus. When Peter entered the house of Cornelius, he apologized for doing so. He had taken some Jewish friends with him from Joppa. And he apologized for doing so. He said, “You know it isn’t lawful for me to assemble with you fellows, to come to this house, but the Lord told me not to ask any questions, so I am here, what do you want?” But he was apologizing for entering into the house of a Gentile, because that was forbidden to the Jew.
So he is saying to Jesus, “I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. I didn’t even feel I was worthy to come to You.”
It is interesting when we remember when the woman from the area of Sidon came to Jesus concerning her daughter, who she said was vexed with a devil, and Jesus didn’t answer. The disciples said, “Lord, do something for her, she is bugging us; she is driving us crazy.” And Jesus said, “It isn’t right to give the children’s bread to the dogs.” Now, Jesus was declaring that these benefits that He was bringing were for the Jews. This centurion did not feel worthy to come to Jesus and ask that Jesus would even come. And was sort of embarrassed that Jesus was coming. But then he made a remarkable statement. He said, “Just say the word. You don’t have to come; I am not worthy that you should come. Just say the word and my servant will be healed. For I understand authority.”
For I also [recognizing that Jesus had authority, I also] am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers ( Luk 7:8 ),
“I am a man who is under authority, and I have under me soldiers. I understand what authority is about. I submit to an authority, but I also have authority. And I understand how authority works. I also,” recognizing now that Jesus had this authority, “I also am a man under authority, having under me men, or men set under authority, having under me men.”
And I can say unto one, Go, and he goes; and to another I say, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he will do it. When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and he turned about to the people that were following him, and he said unto them, I say unto you, I have not found so great a faith, no, not in Israel ( Luk 7:8-9 ).
Among the Jews, to whom He came, He did not see as much faith as this centurion.
So they that were sent, when they got home, found the servant that had been so sick, [nearly dead] was alive and well. So it came to pass the day after ( Luk 7:10-11 ),
Now this is at Capernaum.
he went into a city called Nain ( Luk 7:11 );
Nain is about twenty-five miles from Capernaum.
and many of his disciples went with him, and a lot of people. Now when he came near to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man being carried out, and he was the only son of a mother, who was a widow: and many people of the city were with her. And when the [Jesus or the] Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not ( Luk 7:11-13 ).
The picture could not be more pathetic. A woman who was a widow, following the procession, as her only son is being carried out for burial.
Now, in those days they did not have caskets. They usually carried them in baskets and put them in a sarcophagus. The word sarcophagus from the Latin means flesh eater. They have these lime stone sarcophaguses there in Israel. In fact, you can see them just in excavations where they dug for a highway. They uncover them, and they just leave them set there on the sides, and you can find them all over. There is something about the limestone that eats away the flesh very rapidly. In fact, within a month or so, and thus, the name sarcophagus, the flesh eater. And so they would usually place them in the sarcophagus until the flesh was eaten away, and then they would later bury the bones.
And so he was being carried, probably in a basket, to the place of burial, either a cave, or sarcophagus. And the mother with the crowd, the sad pathetic scene. And they didn’t just weep, they wailed. And Jesus had compassion on her. In the Greek there is no word that is more expressive of feeling sympathy than the word used here, translated compassion. And it is used many times of Jesus. It’s the strongest Greek word that expresses the deepest kind of feeling towards a person. Jesus had compassion on her, and said unto her, “Weep not.”
And he came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And he said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak. And Jesus delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear upon all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God has visited his people ( Luk 7:14-16 ).
This term, “God has visited His people,” if you go back to the first chapter at the birth of John the Baptist when God opened the mouth of Zacharias, his father, he began to prophesy, and some of the first words of that prophesy back there in chapter 1, where, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited His people.” And so here the people are declaring, “God has visited His people.” The fulfillment of this prophesy of Zacharias.
And this story of him went forth throughout all of Judea ( Luk 7:17 ),
Now Judea is unto the south sixty-seventy miles. So this story really spread concerning this young man who was dead, brought back to life by Jesus.
and throughout all of the regions there around about the Galilee region. And the disciples of John were telling John about all of these things. And John called him two of his disciples and he sent them to Jesus, saying, Are you the one that is to come? or should we look for another? And when the men were come unto him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us unto thee, saying, Are thou he that should come? or should we look for another? ( Luk 7:17-20 )
Now in John’s gospel, he tells us that when John saw the Spirit of God descending upon Jesus, that he knew that He was the Messiah. For the Lord told him that upon whomever you see the Spirit descend, He is the one. And so John, in referring to Jesus, said to his own disciples, “Behold, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.” And he pointed men to Jesus Christ.
Now John has been in the dungeon for a while, Herod’s prisoner. He does not like confined quarters, for he is a man of the outdoors. He grew up in the wilderness. He was a man of the woods, sort of speak. And this confinement, no doubt, was very irritating to him. And would imagine that John, like the other disciples of Jesus, was anticipating the immediate establishing of the kingdom of God. And he was probably wondering, “How long am I going to sit in this prison?” And the question, “Are you the Messiah?” was not so much a question, as was sort of an urging, “Let’s get things going; let’s get moving.” It could be that the fact that Jesus did not immediately establish the kingdom, overthrow Herod, and the Romans, that John did have second thoughts. Whatever be the case, the response of Jesus is quite interesting.
In that very same hour he cured many of their infirmities and of their plagues, and of the evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. And Jesus answering said unto him, Go your way, and tell John the things which you have seen and heard; how the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and to the poor the gospel is preached. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me ( Luk 7:21-23 ).
Now Jesus said to His disciples, “Believe Me, or else believe Me for My works’ sake.” Again He said, “The works that I do, they do testify of Me.” Jesus pointed to His works as a testimony to His identity who He was. “My works bear witness, they do testify of Me. And if you don’t believe Me,” He said, “believe Me for My works’ sake.” So He called upon His works as the witness as to His authority and to His identity. And they form a very strong witness as to His identity and His authority. Because no man can do these things, except the Lord be with him.
The works that He was doing were the works that were prophesied of the kingdom age. And, of course, that’s what John was concerned about, the kingdom. “Are you the One? Why haven’t You set up the kingdom? Are You the One, or shall we look for another?” And the works that He was doing were works that were the fulfillment of the kingdom age. Where the lame would leap as the deer, the blind would behold the glory of the Lord, and the dumb would sing praises unto Him. And unto the poor the gospel would be preached.
He just said, “Go back and tell John.” He knew that John knew the scriptures. He knew the scriptures well enough that when they come back and tell John the things that they saw, the things that they heard, that John would know the scriptures well enough to know, that, yes, He was indeed the promised one.
So when the messengers from John departed, Jesus began to speak to the people concerning John, and he said, What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaking in the wind? ( Luk 7:24 )
Now the area where John was baptizing, the Jordan River, was surrounded by these reeds. They were a very, very common sight. And obviously they didn’t go down to the Jordan River just to see reeds blowing in the wind. “What did you go out to see, reeds blowing in the wind?” No!
What did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? ( Luk 7:25 )
That is, a man who was robed in beautiful robes. And then in a bit of satire, Jesus said:
Behold, they which are gorgeously appareled, and live delicately, are in kings’ courts ( Luk 7:25 ).
They’re not in the kings’ dungeons.
But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say unto you, much more than a prophet. This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist ( Luk 7:26-28 ):
And so Jesus puts John at the top of the list of those prophets that had been sent by God to the Jewish people. Of all of the men born of women, not a greater than John the Baptist. But then an extremely remarkable statement.
but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he ( Luk 7:28 ).
The privileges that you have as a child of God living in this age are superior to the highest position under the old dispensation, where God related to man in a legal way, through the law. Now those who related to God from that legalistic background, the greatest of all was John the Baptist. And yet, he who is least in the kingdom of God has greater privileges, a deeper relationship with God through the Holy Spirit, than the highest of that prior dispensation. For we have not a legal, but a loving relationship with God.
And all the people that heard Him, and the publicans [that is, the tax collectors], justified God ( Luk 7:29 ),
They declared, “Yes, that ‘s right.”
because they had been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, because they were not baptized by him ( Luk 7:29-30 ).
Jesus used this later on when they were asking Him a bunch of questions that He didn’t want to answer at that moment. He said, “I’ll ask you a question. If you answer My question, I’ll answer yours. John’s baptism, was it of God, or was it of man?” And they knew that if they said it was of man, then all the people would turn against them, because they all believed John was a prophet. But if they said it’s of God, then Jesus say, “Then why weren’t you baptized by John?” So they said, “Well, we can’t answer You that question.” Jesus said, “Well, I don’t answer you yours either.”
But He used this. Here was the division, it was marked, the opinions concerning John. He was officially rejected by the religious leaders, but widely accepted by the people.
And so the Lord said, What shall I liken this generation to? What are they like? They are like children who sit in the marketplace, and calling to each other, they say, We’ve played our pipes, and you have not danced; and we’ve mourned with you, but you’ve not wept. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and you say, He has a devil. But the Son of man is come eating and drinking; and you say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of the tax collectors and sinners! But wisdom is justified of all of her children ( Luk 7:31-35 ).
In other words, “What do you want? You are in a position that nothing satisfies you. John came living in a sedic life, and you say he has a devil. I came mixing with people, eating with the publicans and all, and you say, ‘Hey, He is a winebibber; He is a gluttonous man.’ What do you want?”
One of the Pharisees desired that he would eat with him. And Jesus went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat [that is to eat dinner]. And, behold, there was a woman in the city, which was a sinner, and when she knew that Jesus was sitting in the Pharisee’s house for dinner, she brought an alabaster box of ointment, and she stood at his feet behind him weeping, and she began to wash his feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and she kissed his feet, and anointed them with ointment. Now when the Pharisees which had bidden him saw it, within himself he thought, If this man were a prophet, and if he had known what kind of a woman this is that is touching him: [He wouldn’t allow her to do that] because she is a terrible sinner. And Jesus said unto him, Simon, I have something to ask you. He said, Go head and ask it, Lord. And Jesus said, There was a certain creditor who had two debtors: the one owed him five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he completely forgave both their debts. Tell me therefore, which of them loves him the more? And Simon answered and said, Oh, I suppose that he, whom he forgave the most. And Jesus said unto him, That’s right. And He turned to the woman, and he said unto Simon, You see this woman? I entered into your house, and you gave me no water for my feet. But she has washed my feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. You did not give me a kiss: but this woman since the time I came in has not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil you did not anoint: but this woman has anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little ( Luk 7:36-47 ).
Simon was a rude host. And in that culture hospitality was something that was treasured highly. When you invited guests to your home, they would leave their sandals at the door, but immediately there would be a servant there with a towel and with a basin of water, and the host would provide that servant to wash your feet in order that you might come into the house to dine. Of course, they wore open sandals; they had dirt pathways that they walked on, and it was just a common, accepted courtesy that the guests that were invited would have their feet washed by the servant when they entered the door of the house. And then it was customary to greet your friends with a kiss. Usually it was a kiss on each cheek. This was just common. And, in fact, in some of those areas it is still practiced today. Italy, the men in the church when they come up and greet you, kiss you on both cheeks. And it’s a sort of a beautiful, loving thing. But it was common in that culture. And then also it was common to anoint with oil. To pour oil on the head of the guest. Which was a symbol of the joy that you’d hoped to share together that evening. And they would then serve you your first cup of coffee, no sugar, strong Turkish type coffee, bitter. The idea being that you are washing away now all of the bitter experiences that you’ve had. The second cup they offer you is very sweet. Symbolic of that sweet time that we can now share together, that all of the bitterness was taken away.
Simon was a poor host. He did not show to Jesus any of these common courtesies. He did not wash Jesus’ feet. He did not anoint His head with oil. Nor did he kiss Him when He entered the house. But this woman washed His feet with her tears, dried them with her hair, kissed His feet continually, and anointed His feet with ointment. And here is Simon the Pharisee sitting there in his pompous, self-righteous attitudes and all, and, “If He were really a prophet, He wouldn’t allow this to go on. He’d know what kind of a woman she was. And He wouldn’t allow her to touch Him.” You see, Simon wouldn’t touch that woman. Because if you touched her, you’d be considered unclean; she was a sinner. “Don’t let that woman touch me.”
I am glad that Jesus is touchable, even by sinners. I appreciate that so much. I can reach out and touch the Lord, no matter how badly I feel. He is always within reach.
And so Jesus gave to Simon this little parable about the fellow who had two debtors. One owed him five hundred pence, and the other fifty pence. He forgave both their debts. Which one loves him the more? The one forgiven the most. And so Jesus said, “Yes, that’s right. And this woman, because her sins are many and are forgiven, loves Me the most.”
And so He said to the woman, and I am sure this is just to get Simon’s goat,
He said to the woman, Your sins are forgiven ( Luk 7:48 ).
And it had the reaction, I am sure, He was expecting.
And they that were sitting at dinner with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins? And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee ( Luk 7:49-50 );
Oh, oh, isn’t this interesting. Jesus is bringing to men a whole new relationship to God. A relationship that is based on faith, and salvation through faith. And here this woman’s faith puts her a step ahead, and already into that new dispensation of God’s grace.
Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace ( Luk 7:50 ).
Always the result for having our sins forgiven.
“
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Luk 7:1-10
11. THE CENTURION AT CAPERNAUM
Luk 7:1-10
1 After he had ended all his sayings-Having ended his sermon, Luke proceeds to narrate other events. A parallel of this account is found in Mat 8:5-13. Luke’s account is fuller at the beginning, but Matthew’s record is fuller at the close; Matthew records some things that Luke omits, and Luke records some that Matthew does not. The context here shows that this discourse which has just been narrated was delivered at one time, and not a mere collection of sayings or detached parts of different discourses. Jesus had ended all of these sayings “in the ears of the people”; the discourse recorded in chapter 6 was for the instruction of the people as well as his disciples. “He entered into Capernaum.” The language implies that he was not far from Capernaum when he delivered this discourse; Capernaum was the center of his operations, and to it he frequently returned from his preaching tours.
2, 3 And a certain centurion’s servant,-A “centurion” was a Roman officer commanding a hundred men. This one was probably in the service of Herod Antipas, and stationed at Capernaum as an important provincial town and a place of considerable traffic on the Sea of Galilee, to preserve order there and in the adjacent country. Matthew tells us that he was a gentile (Mat 8:10), but he seems to have been very strongly attached to the Jewish nation. He may have been a proselyte to the Jewish faith; he would be called a “proselyte of the gate,” one who lived among the Jewish people and conformed to what were called the seven precepts of Noah, which prohibited blasphemy, idolatry, murder, robbery, rebellion, and eating of blood and things strangled. Those who submitted to circumcision and became naturalized Jews were termed “proselytes of righteousness.” The New Testament mentions three other centurions, and all of them are favorably mentioned. (Luk 23:47; Act 10:1; Act 27:1; Act 27:3; Act 27:43.) . His servant was sick and “at the point of death.” This servant was very dear to the centurion. Matthew reports the servant as being grievously tormented.
And when he heard concerning Jesus,-He heard of the miraculous power of Jesus and “sent unto him elders of the Jews.” They were persons who were elders or magistrates of the city; they may have been officers of the synagogue which this centurion had built. The term “elder” was first applied to men of age (Gen 24:2; Gen 50:7);and as persons of right age and experience would naturally be called to the management of public affairs (Jos 24:31), it afterwards became an official title (Exo 3:16; Exo 4:29; Exo 19:7; Exo 24:1; Exo 24:9). The office grew out of the patriarchal system. Matthew makes no mention of the elders of the Jews coming to Jesus. It may be that the centurion followed the elders, or what he did through his representatives may be said of himself as doing.
4, 5 And they, when they came to Jesus,-The elders were very urgent in their request that Jesus go as quickly as possible to the centurion’s house. They give as their reason that he was “worthy” that Jesus should do this for him. The Jews pleaded the worthiness of the centurion, but the centurion declared his own unworthiness; truly greatness and humility go together. The elders of the Jews wanted to repay him for what he had done in building a synagogue for them. This centurion had built a synagogue at his own expense. Every town where there were Jews had its synagogue.
6, 7 And Jesus went with them.-Messengers were sent in succession to an important person of whom a favor was desired, making the request in varied form with many expressions of humility in the East. Even when it was known that the request would be granted, it was customary to send again, urging the great one not to put himself to trouble, and offering apologies and expression of unworthiness. So the centurion followed this custom; he sent his friends to Jesus, saying: “Lord, trouble not thyself for I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof.”
8-10 For I also am a man set under authority,-Being a centurion this man would be under the authority of higher officials, as the centurion had command of only one hundred soldiers however, he could say to those under him: “Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh.” He could command his servants to do anything that he wished done, and they would do it. This centurion appears to have regarded the sickness of his servant either as due to some peculiar state of body or to demons, which were under the authority of Jesus, precisely as the centurion’s soldiers were subject to his order. It is remarkable that while Matthew calls the disease “palsy,” Luke, a physician, does not name the disease.
I have not found so great faith,-When Jesus heard what the centurion had said about commanding and having it done, he turned to the multitude that was following him and said: “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” These words were spoken to the Jews who followed Jesus. The centurion, a Gentile and a military man, Jesus commended as having greater faith than anyone he had found among God’s chosen people. This is the first recorded instance of faith in Christ’s power to heal at a distance; this great faith was not found in some favored Israelite, but in one far less privileged and favored, a Gentile. When those who had been sent to Jesus returned, they “found the servant whole.” Jesus had healed or restored to health the servant as the centurion had requested.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Here our Lord passed over the national boundary to bring blessing to the household of a Roman centurion. Of that man the elders said, “He is worthy.” The man said, “I am not worthy.” Jesus Said, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” It certainly is a wonderful story, showing that the principle of faith is supreme over all privileges of race and birth.
Two crowds are seen meeting outside the city of Nain, one, the Master, His disciples, and a great multitude, approaching the gates; the other, a dead son, his mother, and many people of the city, issuing forth from the gates. As they met, life triumphed over death, sorrow was turned into joy.
Luke now tells of how John sent an inquiry to Jesus which unquestionably was born of his perplexity over the methods of our Lord. Jesus’ reply was first that of continuing the work that He was doing, then of speaking of the greatness of John, and finally of seeking from him faith, even though intellectually he might be perplexed.
The scene in the house of Simon the Pharisee is very full of beauty as it reveals our Lord dealing with two entirely different personalities- Simon, cold, dispassionate, satisfied with his own integrity; the woman, conscious of her sinful past, rejoicing in her forgiveness and pouring on Jesus the evidences of her love. Our Lord Himself contrasts the two in the most striking way, revealing the value of moral cleansing as leading to the victory of love.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
7:1. The division of the chapters is misleading. This verse forms the conclusion of the preceding narrative quite in Lks manner. Comp. 4:30, 37, 44, 5:11, 26, 6:11, etc. It is not the introduction to what follows, for Jesus must have been in Capernaum some time before the centurion heard about Him. Lk. says nothint. about the impression which the discourse made upon the people (Mat 7:28), or about their following Him (Mat 8:1).
. This is the only place in N.T. in which is used in the temporal sense of after that, when now. Hence is found in many texts. K has , while D has . In the causal sense of since, seeing that, occurs only in Lk. and Paul (11:6; Act 13:46, Act 13:14:12, Act 13:15:24; 1Co 1:21, 1Co 1:22, 1Co 1:14:16, 1Co 1:15:21). See Ellicott on Php 2:26. For , completed, so that no more remained to be said, comp. Act 12:25, Act 13:25, Act 14:26, Act 19:21.
The marks the direction of what was said: comp. 1:44, 4:44; Act 11:22, Act 17:20. Both in bibl. Grk. and in class. Grk. has three senses. 1. The The thing heard, report (1Sa 2:24; 1Ki 2:28; Joh 12:38; Rom 10:16). 2. The sense of hearing (2Sa 22:45; Job 42:5; 1Co 12:17; 2Pe 2:8). 3. The ear (Mar 7:35; Heb 5:11; Heb_2 Mac. 15:39).
2-10. The healing of the Centurions Servant at Capernaum. Mat 8:5-13. Mt. places the healing of the leper (Luk 5:12-14) between the Sermon on the Mount and the healing of the centurions slave. This centurion was a heathen by birth (ver. 9), and was probably in the service of Antipas. He had become in some degree attracted to Judaism (ver. 5), and was an illustration of the great truth which Lk. delights to exhibit, that Gentile and Jew alike share in the blessings of the kingdom. The anima naturaliter Christiana of the man is seen in his affection for his slave.
2. Was on the point of dying, and would have done so but for this intervention (Act 12:6, Act 16:27, etc.). Burton., 73. For held in honour, held dear, comp. 14:8; Php 2:29; 1Pe 2:4, 1Pe 2:6; Isa 28:16. The fact explains why this deputation of elders came.
3. These elders ( no article) would be leading citizens; but they need not be identifi with the (8:49, 13:14; Act 13:15, Act 13:18:8, Act 13:17), as Godet formerly advocated. The compound , to bring safe through, is almost peculiar to Lk. in N. T. (Act 23:24, Act 23:27:43, 44, Act 23:28:1, Act 23:4; Mat 14:36; 1Pe 3:20).
4. A favourite verb (ver. 20, 8:19, 11:6, 12:51, 14:21; 19:16, 22:52; and about twenty times in Acts): elsewhere in N.T. eight or nine times, but very freq. in LXX.
He is worthy that Thou shouldest de this for him; 2 sing. fut. mid. The reading (G ) Isa_3 sing. fut. act. and must not be taken as analogous to the exceptional forms , , and . But beyond doubt ( A B C D R etc.) is the correct reading.
5. This would hardly be said of one who was actually a proselyte. He had learned to admire and respect the pure worship of the Jews and to feel affection for the people who practised it. This would be all the more likely if he were in the service of the Herods rather than that of heathen Rome. See Hastings, D.B. 1. p. 366.
At his own expense he built us our synagogue, the one which we have; not a synagogue (AV.). Had Capernaurn only one synagogue?
If Tell Hm represents Capernamn, and if the ruins of the synagogue there are from a building of this date, they show with what liberality this centurion had carried out his pious work. But it is doubtful whether the excellent work exhibited in these ruins is quite so early as the first century. The centurions appear in a favourable light in N.T. (23:47; Act 10:22, Act 10:22:26, Act 10:23:17, Act 10:23, Act 10:24, Act 10:24:23, Act 10:27:43). Roman organization produced, and was maintained by, excellent individuals, who were a blessing to others and themselves. As Philo says after praising Petronius the governor of Syria, (Leg. ad Caium, p. 1027, ed. Gelen.). Augustus had recognized the value of synagogues in maintaining order and morality. Hastings, D.C.G. art. Capernaum..
6. Comp. Act 17:27. The expression is peculiar to Lk., who is fond of with an adj. or adv. to express his meaning. Comp. (15:13; Act 1:5), (Act 27:14), (Act 12:18, Act 12:14:28, Act 12:15:2, Act 12:17:4, Act 12:12, Act 12:19:23, Act 12:24, 27, Act 12:20), (Act 19:11, Act 28:2), (Act 21:39), (Act 20:12).
Comp. 15:6, Act 10:24. Mt. says nothings about either of these deputations, but puts the message of both into the mouth of the centurion himself, who comes in person. In Lk. the mans humility and faith prevail over his anxiety as soon as he sees that the first deputation has succeeded, and that the great Rabbi and Prophet is really coming to him. Therefore he sends the second deputation to say that he is not worthy of a visit, and that e visit is not necessary.
, Lord, cease to trouble Thyself. The verb is a marked instance of the tendency of words to become weaker in meaning: ( 11:22) Isa_1. flay; 2. mangle; 3. vex, annoy (8:49; Mar 5:35; Mat 9:36). See Expositor, 1st series, 1876, 4. pp. 30, 31. What follows seems to show that the centurion was not a proselyte. The house of a Gentile was polluting to a Jew; and therefore , …, is quite in point if he was still a heathen. But it is rather strong language if he had ceased to be a heathen. For after see Burton., 216.
7. , . Lit. Say with a word, and let my servant be healed. The word is to be the instrument with which the healing is to take place, instead of Jesus coming in person: comp. Act 2:40 and Gal 6:11. There is no doubt that means my servant. This use is found in N.T. (12:45, 15:26; Mat 8:6, Mat 8:8, Mat 8:13), and is very freq. in LXX and in class. Grk.
It has been contended that in Mat 8:6, Mat 8:8, Mat 8:13 must mean son, because be centurion calls his servant in ver. 9: as if it were improbable the a person in be same conversation should speak sometimes of his servant and sometimes of his boy. In both narratives and are used as synonyms; and it is gratuitous to suppose that in using Lk. has misinterpreted the in the source which he employed. Comp. 15:22, 26. Here is more affectionate than would have been.
8. . The must not be united with and made the equivalent of : is adjectival. Thus, For I am a man who is habitually (pres. part.) placed under authority But, For I an an ordinary person () and a person in a dependent position is rather an exaggeration of the Greek. Comp. (2 Mal 3:6). The shows the intimate connexion with what precedes, : see on 6:32, I know from personal experience What a word from one in authority can do. A word from my superiors secures my obedience, and a word from me secures the obedience of my subordinates. Thou, who art under no man, and hast authority over unseen powers, hast only to say a word and the sickness is healed. Perhaps hints that Jesus is superhuman. Evidently means that, if an inferior can give effective orders, much more can a superior do so. It is the awminty of the result without personal presence that is the point.
9. This is stated in both narratives, Comp. Mar 6:6. Those who are unwilling to admit any limitations in Christs knowledge have to explain how wonder is compatible with omniscience. One limitation is clearly told us by Himself (Mar 13:32); so that the only question is how far such limitations extend. See on 2:46, 52, and 17:14. Note the solemn , and comp. ver. 28, 10:12, 24, 11:8, 9, 51, etc.
. This again points to the centurion being still a heathen. Nowhere among the Jews had He found any one willing to believe that He could heal without being present. It is natural that Lk. should express this preference for a Antile more strongly than Mt., who has Lk. here omits the remarkable passage Mat 8:11, Mat 8:12; but he gives it in quite a different connexion 13:28, 29. Such teaching, so necessary and so unwelcome to the Jews, may easily have been repeated.
10. . See on 1:56 and 4:14. Lk.s is stronger than the of Mt. The servant was not only cured, but in good health. Non modo sanum, sed sanitate utentem (Beng.) Hobart remarks that Lk. is the only N.T. writer who uses in this its primary sense, to be in sound health, with the exception of S. John, 3 Eph_2. For this meaning it is the regular word in the medical writers (p. 10). See on 5:31 and comp. 15:27. Here and 5:31 Vulg. has sanus; in 15:27, salvus.
The identification of this miracle with that of the healing of the son of the royal official () in Joh_4. is not probable: it involves an amount of misinformation or carelessness on one side or the other which would be very startling. Irenus seems to be in favour of it; but centurion with him may be a slip of memory or a misinterpretation of . Origen and Chrysostom contend against the identification. Is there any difficulty in supposing that on more than one occasion Jesus healed without being present? The difficulty is to explain one such instance, without admitting the possession of supernatural powers: this Strauss has shown, and the efforts of Keim and Schenkel to explain it by a combination of moral and psychical causes are not satisfying. There is no parallel to it in O.T., for (as Keim points out) the healing of Naaman is not really analogous.
11-17. The Raising of the Widows Son at Nain. Because Lk. alone records it, its historical character has been questioned. But there were multitudes of miracles wrought by Christ which have never been recorded in detail at all (4:23, 40, 41, 6:18, 19; Joh 2:23, Joh 4:45, Joh 7:31, Joh 12:37, Joh 20:30, Joh 21:25), and among these, as ver. 22 shows, were cases of raising the dead. We must not attribute to the Evangelists the modern way of regarding the raising of the dead as a miracle so amazing, because so difficult to perform, that every real instance would necessarily become widely known, and would certainly be recorded by every writer who had knowledge of it. To a Jew it would be hardly more marvellous than the healing of a leper; and to one who believes in miracles at all, distinctions as to difficulty are unmeaning. It is not unreasonable to suppose, either that this event never came to the knowledge of the other Evangelists, or that, although they knew of it, they did not see the necessity for recording it. It is worth noting that nearly all recorded instances of raising the dead were performed for women (1Ki 17:23; 2Ki 4:36; Joh 11:22, Joh 11:32; Act 9:41; Heb 11:35).
11. It is not easy to decide between the reading , sc. (A B R), and , sc. ( C D). On the one hand, Lk. elsewhere, when he writes , has (8:1); on the other, when he writes he does not prefix (9:37; Act 21:1, Act 25:17, Act 27:18). The less definite would be more likely to be changed to the more definite than vice vers. Thus the balance both of external and internal evidence is in favour of , and we must not limit the interval between the miracles to a single day. In N.T. is peculiar to Lk. (9:37; Act 21:1, Act 24:17, Act 27:18). So also is (v. 12, 15:25, 19:20, 41).
. The place is not mentioned elsewhere in Scripture; and the village of that name in Josephus (B. J. iv. 9. 4) is on the other side of the Jordan, and cannot be the same. D. C. G. art. Nain.
A hamlet called Nein was found by Robinson about two miles west of Endor, on the north slope of Little Hermon, which is where Eusebius and Jerome place it; and it would be about a days journey from Capernaum. One entrance alone it could have had, that which opens on the rough hillside in its downward slope to the plain (Stanley, Sin. & Pal. p. 357); so that the very path on which the two companies met can be identified. About ten minutes walk on the road to Endor is a burying-place which is still used, and there are many tombs cut in the rock. Robinson, Psa_3. p. 469; Bibl. Res. 2:361; Thomson, Land & Book, p. 445; Tristram, Land of Israel, p. 127. The expression, , looks as if Lk. were writing for those who were not familiar with the country; comp. 1:26, 39, 4:31. See on 6:15.
. Including more than the Twelve; 6:13. See on 11:29.
12. . Behold there was being carried out a dead man. Or, there was being carried out dead the only son, etc. The introduces the apodosis of , and must be omitted in translation: then would be too strong. See on 5:12. The compound verb occurs here only in N. T. and nowhere in LXX. It is equivalent to (Act 5:6, Act 5:9, Act 5:10) and efferre, and is used of carrying out to burial, Polyb. 35:6, 2; Plut. Agis, 21.; Cic. 42. In later Gk. is used for of burial. With comp. Joh 11:44.
. Comp. 8:42, 9:38; Heb 11:17; Jdg 11:34; Tobit 3:15, 8:17. Only in Jn. is used of the Divine Sonship (1:14, 18, 3:16, 18; 1Jn 4:9).
. The may safely be pronounced to be certainly genuine ( B C L S V , and most Versions). For some editnors write , and a few authorities have . The mourning of a widow for an only eon b typical for the extremity of grief: orba cum Flet unicum mater (Catull. 39:5). Comp. Jer 6:26; Amo 8:10; Zec 12:10; Pro 4:3.
. Some of this multitude would be hired mourners, and musicians with flutes and cymbals. The mother would walk in front of the bier, and Jesus would naturally address her before touching it. This use of for enough and to spare, much, is specially freq. in Lk. (8:27, 32, 20:9, 22:38, 23:8, 9; Act 8:2, Act 8:9:23, 43, Act 8:11:24, Act 8:26, etc.). It is possibly colloquial: it occurs in Aristoph. Pax 354. See Kennedy, Sources of N.T. Grk. P. 79. D here has .
13. . The introduction of has special point here: it is the Lord of Life meeting sorrow and death. The expression is characteristic of Lk. Comp. 24:34, and see on 5:17. Compassion is elsewhere mentioned as a moving cause in Christs miracles (Mat 14:14, Mat 14:15:32, Mat 14:20:34; Mar 1:41, Mar 8:2). The verb is peculiar to the Synoptists; and, excepting in parables (Luk 10:33, Luk 10:15:20; Mat 18:27), is used of no one but Christ. It is followed, as here, by c. dat. Mat 14:14; and by c. gen. Mat 9:36; but generally by c. acc. (Mat 15:32; Mar 6:34, Mar 8:2, Mar 9:22).
. Do not go on weeping, cease to weep: comp. ver. 6. He is absolutely sure of the result; otherwise the command would have been unnatural. Quis matrem, nisi mentis inops, in funere nati Flere vetat?
14. , . Lk. Clearly intimates that the purpose of the touching was to make the bearers stand still. At such solemn times words are avoided, and this Wet sign sufficed. Perhaps it also meant that Jesus claimed as His own what Death had seized as his prey. Lk. equally clearly intimates that the resurrection was caused by Christs command. This is the case in all three instances of raising the dead (8:54; Joh 11:43). The may be either the bier on which the body as carried, or the open coffin (probably wicker) in which it was laid (Gen 50:26; Hdt. 1:68, 3, 2:78, 1).
It is worth noting that , which occurs twenty-seven times in N.T. (10:4. 11:27, 14:27, 22:10, etc.), is found only thrice in LXX.
. To thee I say, Arise. To the mother He had said, Weep not. The is emphatic. For this use of , almost in the sense of I command, comp. 11:9, 12:4, 16:9.
15. . The verb occurs only hers and Act 9:40 in N. T.; in both cases of persons restored to life and sitting up. Not in LXX. In this intrans. sense it is rare, excepting in medical writers, who often use it of sick persons sitting up in bed (Hobart, p. 11). The speaking proved complete restoration.
To suggest that the young man was in a trance does not get rid of the miracle. How did Jesus know that he was in a trance, and know exactly how to rouse him? And can we suppose that this happened on three different occasions, even if we could reconcile Christs action with a character for truthfulness? Here and in the case of Jairus daughter it is the Evangelist who tells us that the person was dead; but Jesus Himself declared that Lazarus was dead (Joh 11:14). We are told that the symmetry of the three instances is suspicious, raised from the death-bed, raised from the bier, raised from the tomb. But no Evangelist gives us the triplet. Lk. is the only writer who records more than one and the two which he records he places in unsymmetrical order, the raising from the bier coming before the raising from the death-bed. Strauss has shown how unsatisfactory the trance theory is (Leben Jesu, ed. 1864, p. 469).
. The sudden change of nominative causes no obscurity. Comp. 14:5, 15:15, 17:2, 19:4; Act 6:6, Act 10:4. Jesus might have claimed the life which He has restored, nam juvenis jam desierat esse matris su; but compassion for the mother again influences Him. Comp. 8:55; Act 9:41; Act_1 Mac. 10:9; 1Ki 17:23; 2Ki 4:36.
16. . It is natural that this should be the first feeling on seeing a corpse reanimated. But a writer of fiction would rather have given us the frantic joy of the mother and of those who sympathized with her. Comp. 1:65, 5:8, 26, 8:37; Act 2:43, Act 19:17. See on 1:12, and also Schanz, ad loc.
. It is very forced to make in both cases argumentative: Saying, (We praise God) because and because. It is possible to take the second in this way; but the common method of making both to be recitative is preferable. Both, therefore, are to be omitted in translation, the words quoted being in the oratio recta (Tyn. Cran. Cov. RV.). Cases in which may be taken either way are freq. in N.T. (1:45, 2:11, 4:36, 7:39, 9:22, 10:21, 11:38, 22:70; 1Jn 2:12-14, etc.).
. Comp. 1:68, 78; Act 15:14; Heb 2:6. The verb was specially used of the visits of a physician. Comp. Mat 25:36, Mat 25:43; Jam 1:27; Act 6:3, Act 7:23, Act 15:36, the only other passages in N.T. in which the word occurs. In the sense of visiting with judgment or punishment it is never used in N.T. and but seldom in LXX (Ps. 88:33; Jer 9:9, Jer 9:25, Jer 9:11:22, 51:29). After the weary centuries during which no Prophet had appeared, it was indeed a proof of Jehovahs visiting His people that one who excelled the greatest Prophets was among them. No one in O. T. raised the dead with a word.
17. . The is the one just mentioned,-that God had visited His people in sending a mighty Prophet. The statement does not imply that Lk. supposed Nain to be in Juda. here probably means Palestine: see on 4:44 and 23:5. But even if we take it in the narrower sense of Juda as distinct from Galilee, Samaria, and Pera, there is no need to attribute to Lk. any geographical inaccuracy. This saying went forth (from Nain and circulated) in Juda; i.e. it reached the headquarters of Christs opponents. For comp. 5:15. Syr-Sin. omits
This pregnant use of a prep. of rest after a verb of motion is perhaps found only in late Grk., for in Thuc. 4:42, 3 and Xen. Hellen. vii. 5, 10 the readings vary between and . Comp. 8:7, and see Win. i. 4. a, p. 514; Blass, Gr. p. 127.
. Note the position of this clause, which is added after with augmented force: and (what is more) in all the region round about; i.e. round about , not Nain. Comp. Act 14:6. The verse prepares the way for the next incident by showing how the Baptists disciples came to hear about all these things.
The evidence that Jesus raised the dead is that of all four Gospels and of primitive tradition. The fact seems to have been universally believed in the early Church (Justin, Apol. i. ii, 48; Try. 69; Orig. c. Cels. ii. 48). Quadratus, one of the earliest apologists, who addressed a defence of Christianity to Hadrian a.d. 125, says in the only fragment of it which is extant, But the works of our Saviour were always present, for they were true; those that were healed and those that were raised from the dead, who were seen not only when they were healed and when they were raised, but were also always present; and not merely while the Saviour was on earth, but also after His departure, they were there for a considerable time, so that some of them lived even to our own times (Eus. H. E. iv. 3, 2). This does not mean that Quadratus had seen any of them, but that there was abundance of opportunity, long after the event, to inquire into the reality of these miracles. S. Paul uses the same kind of argument respecting the resurrectis on of Christ (1Co 15:5-8). Weiss points out how unsatisfactory are all the attempts to explain the evidence on any other hypothesis than the historical fact that Jesus raised the dead (Leben Jesu, 1. pp. 557-565, Eng. tr. 2:178-186). He concludes thus: In no other miracle did the grace of God, which appeared in His Messiah, manifest itself so gloriously, by overcoming the consequences of sin and thereby giving a pledge for the highest consummation of salvation. See Aug. In Joh. Trac. 69:2.
18-35. The message from the Baptist to the Christ. Peculiar to Lk. and Mt., who place it in different connexions, but assign to it the same occasion, viz. that John had heard in his prison the works of the Christ (Mat 11:2). Lk.s narrative, as usual, is the more full. He does not mention that John is in prison, having already stated the fact by anticipation (3:20). The shows that the works reported to the Baptist include the healing of the centurions servant and the raising of the widows son
. This is probably the true reading (B L R X, a ft2 Vulg.) rather than ( A X , b c f). See on ver. 13.
19. ; Art Thou (in emphatic contrast to ) He that cometh, i.e. whose coming is a matter of quite notorious certainty (3:16, 13:35, 19:38; Heb 10:37).
; Or must we look for another, different in kind? whereas might be another of the same kind (Lft. on Gal 1:6, Gal 1:7). The reading ( B L R X ) is right, and is of taken from Mt. It is (A D) that is the corruption. For the delib. subj. comp. 3:10, 12, 14. See on 3:15.
The meaning of the question thus sent to Christ has been much discussed. 1. Chrysostom and other Fathers have suggested that the question was asked for the sake of Johns disciples, who needed strengthening or correcting in their beliefs. See Oxford Library of the Fathers, 10. p. 267, note e. Luther, Calvin, Beza, Grotius, Bengel, and others adopt this view. But the whole context is against it. Christs reply is addressed to John, not to the disciples; and it is not clear that the disciples even understood the message which they carried. 2. Weiss and other critics follow Tertullian (Marcion. iv. 18) in contending that Johns own faith was failing, because the career of Jesus did not seem to correspond with what he and the people had expected, and with what he had foretold (3:17). There is nothing incredible in this view; but the Baptist had had such a long and stern preparation for his work, and had received such convincing evidence that Jesus was the Messiah, that a failure in his faith is surprising. 3. Hase and others suggest that he was not failing in faith, but in patience. John was disappointed that Jesus did not make more progress, and he wished to urge Him on to take a more prominent and indisputable position. If Thou do these things, manifest Thyself unto the world. Perhaps John was also perplexed by the fact that one who could work such miracles did not set His forerunner free, nor cleanse His threshing-floor of such refuse as Antipas and Herodias. This view suits the context better than the second. Johns sending to Jesus is strong evidence that he was not seriously in doubt as to His Messiahship. For a false Christ would not have confessed that he was false; and what proof could the true Christ give more convincing than the voice from heaven and the visible descent of the Spirit? 4. The view of Strauss, that John had just begun to conjecture that Jesus is the Messiah, and that therefore this narrative is fatal to the story of his having baptiz Jesus and proclaimed Him as the Messiah, is answered by Hase (Gesch. Jesu, 39, p. 388, ed. 1891). See also Hahn, 1. p. 475.
21. . See on 5:15: it is peculiar to Lk.
. Distressing bodily diseases; Mar 3:10, Mar 3:5:29, Mar 3:34. In LXX it is used of any grievous trouble, but not specially of disease: Psa 35:15, 88:32 ; Ecclus. 40:9?; 2 Mac. 7:37: comp. Hom. Il. xii. 37, xiii. 812.; Aesch. Sept. 607; Ag. 642 The notion that troubles are Divine chastisements is implied in the word. It is used literally Act 22:24 and Heb 11:36.
. He graciously bestowed, made a free present of; magnificum verbum (Beng.) ; Comp. 2 Mac. 3:31.
22. . See on 8:20. The answer is expressly sent to John: there is no intimation that it is for the instruction of his disciples, who are sent back, like the messenger from Gabii to Sextus Tarquinius, to relate a symbolical narrative, which their master is to interpret. That they can understand it is it her stated nor implied.
, … There is probably a direct reference to Isa 35:5, Isa 35:6, 61:1. It is clear, not only that Lk. and Mt. understand Jesus to refer to bodily and not spiritual healings, but that they are right in doing so. Johns messengers had not seen and heard Christ healing the spiritually blind and the morally leprous. Moreover, what need to add , if all that precedes refers to the preaching of the good tidings? It is unnatural to express the same fact, first by a series of metaphors, and then literally. All the clauses should be taken literally. They seem to be arranged in two groups, which are connected by , and in each group there is a climax, the strongest item of evidence being placed last.
. This was the clearest sign of His being the Cbrist (Isa 61:1), as He Himself had declared at Nazareth (4:18-21). His miracles need not mean more than that He was a great Prophet; moreover, the Baptist had already heard of them. But it was a new thing that the poor, whom the Greek despised and the Roman trampled on, and whom the priest and the Levite left on one side, should be invited into the Kingdom of God (6:20).For the passive sense of comp. Heb 4:2, Heb 4:6, and see Win. xxxix. 1. a, p. 326, and Fritzsche on Mat 6:4. For see on Rom 1:1.
23. . Not , as it would have been if the direct reference were to the disciples of John. It implies that Baptist had in some way found an occasion of stumbling in Jesus (i.e. he had been wanting in faith, or in trust, or in patience); and it also encourages him to overcome this temptation.
. Only here and 17:2 in Lk., but frequent in Mt. and Mk. The verb combines the notions of trip up and entrap, and in N. T. is always used in the figurative sense of causing to sin. See on 17:1. This record of a rebuke to the Baptist is one of many instances of the candour of the Evangelists. For see Greg. Proleg. p. 96, and Win. lxi. 6, p. 390; this use of for is common in LXX and N.T. (17:33?; Mat 5:19, Mat 5:32, Mat 5:12:32, Mat 5:18:5; Jam 4:4).
24. . This is further evidence that the question and ewer just recorded concerned John himself. The people had heard Jesus send a rebuke to the Baptist. But He forthwith guards them from supposing that John has ceased to be worthy of reverence. He waits till his disciples are gone; because if they had heard and reported Christs praise of John to their master, it might have cancelled the effect of the rebuke. This panegyric is almost the funeral oration of the Baptist; for soon after this he was put to death. For see on 4:21.
. In each of the three questions it is possible to put the note of interrogation before the infinitive, and render, Why went ye out? to behold? etc. But the order of the words favours me usual punctuation. Perhaps implies behold with wonder and admiration.
. The literal meaning makes excellent sense: Did you go out into the wilderness to admire what you would certainly find there, but which would have no interest or attraction? Or did you go out to see what would no doubt have been interesting and attractive, but which you were not likely to find there? But it also makes good sense to interpret, Had John been a weak and fickle person, you would not have made a pilgrimage to see him.
25. . Such a person would not be found in the wilderness; although he might have attracted them. This seems to show that the is not metaphorical, for this is obviously literal. Hastings, D.C.G. art. Reed.
Those who live in gorgeous apparel and luxury. The word is of late origin, and is seldom used excepting of costly vesture (9:29; Act 20:33; Joh 19:24; 1Ti 2:9; 24:53; Exo 3:22, Exo 3:12:35; 1Ki 10:5). See Trench, Syn. l. For comp. 13:17, and for see on 8:41. In N.T. occurs only here and 2Pe 2:13; in LXX only as v.l. Lam 4:5. But it is freq. in class. Grk. It means an enervating mode of life (, I am broken up and enfeebled).
26 This completes the Climax : , , , . In we have a late equivalent of . It may be masc. or neut., but is probably neut., like in 11:32. Comp. 12:4, 20:47. They went out to see something more than a Prophet, and they did see it.
27. This quotation from Malachi (3:1) is given by Mk. at the opening of his Gospel coupled with , …, and attributed as a whole to Isaiah. Neither Heb. nor LXX has , which Mt. Mk. and Lk. all insert in the first dause. See on 9:52. Moreover, they all three have and instead of the and of LXX. See on 4:18. The passage was one of the common-places of Messianic prophecy, and had been stereotyped in an independent Greek form before the Evangelists made use of it.
28. . A solemn periphrasis for the whole human race; that it implies weakness and frailty is not evident: in Job 14:1 these qualities are expressed. It is human generation as distinct from heavenly regeneration that is meant. Johns superiority lay, not in his personal character, but in his office and mission: the glory of being the immediate forerunner of the Messiah was unique. He was a Prophet, like Moses and Elijah; yet he not only prophesied, but saw and pointed out to others Him of whom he prophesied. Lk. omits the Hebrew .
The word is an interpolation. The external evidence against it is immense ( B K L M X and most Versions), and it is improbable that the possibility of Prophets outside Israel would be indicated.
. There is no need to make this a superlative, as AV. alone among English Versions: better, he that is inferior, i.e. less than other members of the Kingdom, less than any among the more insignificant. It is most unnatural to explain of Christ. Chrysostom says, (Hom. xxxvii. p. 417), and above he explains as (p. 416). Much the same view is taken by Hilary, Theophylact, Erasmus, Luther, Fritzsche, and others. In that case must be taken after , which is awkward; and we can hardly suppose that Jesus would have so perplexed the people as to affirm that He was inferior to the Baptist, who in all his teaching had enthusiastically maintained the contrary (3:16; Mat 3:11; Mar 1:7 ; Joh 1:15, Joh 1:20, Joh 1:27, Joh 1:30, 3:Joh 1:28-30). By his office John belonged to the old dispensation; he was its last and highest product (major prophet, quia finis prophetarum), but he belonged to the era of preparation. In spiritual privileges, in grace, and in knowledge any even of the humbler members of the Kingdom are superior to him. He is a servant, they are sons; he is the friend of the Bridegroom, they are His spouse. It is possible to understand after , but it is unnecessary: more probably the comparative refers to others in the Kingdom. The paradox, He that is less than John is greater than John, is capable of interpretation; but the principle that the lower members of a higher class are above the highest member of a lower class is simpler. The superlative of does not occur in N.T.
29, 30 Many have supposed that these two verses are a parenthetical remark of the Evangelist. But a comment inserted in the middle of Christs words, and with no indication that it is a comment, is without a parallel and improbable. Joh 3:16-21 and 31-36 are not parallel. There the question is whether comment is added. In both passages it is probable that there is no comment. But, assuming that the Evangelist is in both cases commenting, he appends his comment: he does not insert it into the utterances of others. Here vv. 29 and 30 are part of Christs address, who contrasts the effect which Johns preaching had upon the people and upon the hierarchy (see Schanz). The connexion between ver. 30 and ver. 31 is close, as is shown by the .
29. . All the people, when they heard the preaching of the Baptist. Note the , and see small print on 1:66.
, . Admitted the righteousness of God (in making these claims upon them and granting them these opportunities) by being baptized. Their accepting baptism was an acknowledgment of His justice. See on ver. 35 and the detached note on the word and its cognates, Rom 1:17.
30. . Lk. often uses this expression instead of , which might be misleading to Gentile readers (10:25, 11:45, 46, 52, 14:3). Elsewhere in N.T. the word occurs only Mat 22:35; Tit 3:9, Tit 3:13. Comp. 4 Mac. 5:4; Corp. Inscr. 2787, 8. Hastings, D.C.G. art. Lawyer.
. They frustrated the counsel of God concerning themselves: comp. in 1Th 5:18. The rendering, for themselves, so far as they were concerned, they rendered the counsel of God effectless, would require . The verb is a strong one: render , placeless, inefficacious (Gal 2:21, Gal 2:3:15; Joh 12:48; Luk 10:16). Free will enables each man to annul Gods purpose for his salvation. The phrase is peculiar to Lk. in N.T. (Act 13:36, Act 13:20:27; Comp. 2:23, 4:28). It occurs Wisd. 6:4; comp. Psa 32:11, 106:11; Pro 19:21. With comp. the case of Nicodemus (Joh 3:4, Joh 3:5).
31. The spurious reading was interpolated at the beginning of this verse to mark vv. 29, 30 as a parenthetical remark of the Evangelist. Owing to the influence of the Vulgate the interpolation was followed by all English Versions prior to RV. Almost all MSS. and ancient versions omit the words. But their Spuriousness must not be quoted as evidence against the view which they support. Many false readings are correct glosses upon the true text, although that it probably not the case here.
. The would not be very intelligible if vv. 29, 30 were omitted; but after ver. 30 it is quite in place. Seeing that the rulers and teachers have rejected the Divine invitation given by John, and that Ye (, ver. 34) follow them in refusing to follow Me, to what, then, shall I liken the people of this generation? so comprehensive a phrase as may include the Baptist and the Christ: and to assume that it does include them frees the true interpretation of the parable from seeming to be somewhat at variance with the opening words. With the double question comp. 13:18; Mar 4:30.
32. There are two parties of children. This is more clearly marked by in Mt. than by here. Which of the two groups is blamed? It has been taken both ways. (1) The children who invite the second group to play, first at dances and then at dirges, represent Jesus and the Baptist with their respective followers. The children who waywardly refuse to join in any kind of game are the Jews as represented by the hierarchy and the majority of the people. These rejected both the asceticism of John and the joyous freedom of the Gospel. Godet infers from that the two groups of children change sides and take turns in proposing the form of play. But it is not necessary to give so much meaning to . Yet such a change would not be difficult to interpret. The Jews may have proposed to the Baptist to become less stern. They certainly tried to force fasting on Jesus. And hence (2) the possibility of the other interpretation, which is preferred by Euthymius, Stier, and Afford, and is ably defended by Trench (Studies in the Gospels, pp. 150-153) The children sitting in the market-place and finding fault with their fellows are the Jews. John comes to them in his severity, and they want him to play at festivals. When he retains his strict mode of life, they complain and say, We piped to you, and you did not dance. Then Christ comes to them as the bringer of joy, and they want Him to play at funerals. When He retains His own methods, they say, We wailed, and you did not weep. This interpretation has two advantages. It makes the men of this generation, viz. the Jews, to be like the children who cry, We piped, etc. And it gives the two complaints a chronological order. We piped, etc., is a complaint against the Baptist, who came first; We wailed, etc., is a complaint against the Christ, who came afterwards.
With comp. 5:27; with , Mar 6:56; with Act 22:2; with 1Co 14:7; with 2Sa 6:21; with Joh 16:20. Of these is a favourite word: see on 6:13. Both and refer to the outward manifestation of grief as distinct from the feeling; and here the outward expression only is needed.
33. . Without eating bread or drinking wine; spoken from the point of view of those who objected to John. He did not take the ordinary food of mankind; and so Mt. says, neither eating nor drinking, For the poetic form see on 10:7. Syr-Sin. omits and
. They afterwards said the same of Jesus (Joh 7:20, Joh 8:48, Joh 10:20); and shows that is acc. and not nom. Renan compares the Arabic Medjnoun ent as showing that Orientals consider all madness to be possession by a demon (V. de J. p. 263). See on 4:33. One regrets that the American Revisers did not carry their point in getting demon substituted for devil as the rendering of . Tyn. Cov. and Cran. make great confusion by translating hath the devil. Wic. is better with hath a fende. The in vv. 33 and 34 shows that some of those censured are present. Comp. 11:15, where Jesus is accused of casting out demons with the help of Beelzebub.
34. Like , this is a subst. and therefore paroxytone: which L. and S. give, would be an adj. See Chandler, Greek Accentuation, 215. Latin Versions vary between devorator (Vulg.), vorator (q), vorax (c e), manducator (d). English Versions vary between devourer (Wic.) glutton (Tyn. Cov.), gurmander (Rhem.), and gluttonous man (Cran. AV. RV.). The ref. is to 5:33 and similar occasions. For see 5:27, 29, 30.
35. . And yet wisdom was justified. In N. T. often introduces a contrast, which is placed side by side with that with which it is contrasted: and (instead of what might be expected), and yet. This is specially common in Jn. (1:5, 10, 3:11, 32, 5:39, 40, 6:36, 43, 70, 7:28, etc.). Atque sometimes has the same tam; Cic. De Off. iii. II. 48. Although the Jews as a nation rejected the methods both of John and of Christ, yet there were some who could believe that in both these methods the Divine wisdom was doing what was right.
. This looks back to in ver. 29, and looks back to in ver. 30. Here, as in Rom 3:4 (Psa 51:6), means Show or pronounce to be righteous, declare or admit to be just. The analogy of verbs in – is often wrongly urged. An important distinction is sometimes overlooked. In the case of external qualities, such verbs do mean to make or render, whatever the noun from which they are derived signifies (, , , …).But in the case of moral qualities this is scarcely possible, and it may be doubted whether there is a passage in which clearly means I make righteous. Similarly, never means I make worthy, but I consider worthy, treat as worthy. In the case of words which might apply to either external or moral qualities both meanings are possible acc. to the context: thus may mean either make like, e.g. make an image like a man (Eur. Hel. 33, comp. Act 14:11; Rom 9:29), or consider like, compare (ver. 31, 13:18, 20).
In we perhaps have an example of what is sometimes the ornic aorist. Comp. Joh 15:6; Jam 1:2, Jam 1:24; 1Pe 1:24. Burton., 43. But see Win. 11. b. 1, p. 346, where the existence of this aorist in N.T. is denied.
. At the hands of all her children: the justification comes from them. It is certainly incorrect to interpret as implying rescuing or protecting from the attacks of all her children, viz. from the Jews. The children of the Divine Wisdom are the faithful minority who have welcomed the Baptist and the Christ, not the unbelieving majority who rejected them. In Mat 11:19 there is no , and D L M X omit A here. But it is certainly genuine: see on 6:30. In A P is placed last with emphasis: there are no exceptions. But the order of B is to be preferred. Mt. has for , and has here. For the personification of the Wisdom of God comp. Pro 8:9.; Ecclus. 24.; Wisd. 6:22-9:18.
36-50. The Anointing by the Woman that was a Sinner. Without note of time or express connexion. The connexion apparently is that she is an illustration of ver. 35. The proposal to identify this anointing with that by Mary of Bethany just before the Passion (Mat 26:6; Mar 14:3; Joh 12:3) is ancient, for Origen on Mat 26:6 contends against it; and it still has supporters Thus Holtzmann is of opinion that the act of a clean person in the house of an unclean (Simon the leper) has been changed by Lk. into the act of an unclean person in the house of a clean (Simon the Pharisee), in order to exhibit the way in which Christ welcomed outcasts, a subject which Lk. often makes prominent. But the confusion of Mary of Bethany with a notorious by Lk., who knows the character of Mary (10:39, 42), is scarcely credible. And there is nothing improbable in two such incidents. Indeed the first might easily suggest the second. Simon is one of the commonest of names (there are ten or eleven Simons in N. T. and about twenty in Josephus), and therefore the identity of name proves nothing. Moreover, there are differences of detail, which, if not conclusive, are against the identification. The chief objection is the irreconcilable difference between Mary of Bethany and the . Strauss and Baur suggest a confusion with the woman taken in adultery. But the narrative betrays no confusion: everything is clear and harmonious. The conduct both of Jesus and of the woman is unlike either fiction or clumsily distorted fact. His gentle severity towards Simon and tender reception of the sinner, are as much beyond the reach of invention as the eloquence of her speechless affection.
On the traditional, but baseless, identification of the woman with Mary of Magdala see on 8:2. The identification of this woman with both Mary of Magdala and Mary of Bethany is advocated by Hengstenberg. His elaborate argument is considered a tour de force, but it has not carried conviction with it. The potest non eadem esse of Ambrose is altogether an understatement. It is probably from considerations of delicacy that Luke does not name her: or his source may have omitted to do so. The leading thought in the narrative is the contrast between Pharisees and sinners in their behaviour to Christ.
36. . There is nothing to show that the Pharisee had any sinister motive in asking Him, although he was evidently not very friendly. As the Pharisees were generally hostile to Christ, it may have been a courageous thing. He is inclined to believe that Jesus may be a Prophet (ver. 39); and Jesus rebukes him as one who loved little, not as asecret enemy. But; like Herod Antipas, he may simply have been curious. Lk. records two other instances of Christ being the guest of a Pharisee (11:37, 14:1). For see on 4:3, and comp. 6:31, 7:6; and for ( B D L X ) see on 4:14.
37. . The opening words imply that her presence created surprise. The is stronger than and has point here: who was of such a character as to be: comp. 8:3. This is the right order, and follows, not precedes, ( B L and most Versions). The exact meaning is not quite clear: either, which was a sinner in the city, i.e. was known as such in the place itself; or possibly, which was in the city, a sinner. The city is probably Capernaum.
. A person of notoriously bad character, and probably a prostitute: comp. Mat 21:32. For instances of this use of see Wetst. To the Jews all Gentiles were in a special sense (6:32, 33, 24:7 ; Gal 2:15; Gal_1 Mac. 2:44 );but something more than this is evidently meant here. The need not be pressed to mean, She was even up to this time (Alf.); nor does accessit ad Dominum immunda, ut rediret munda (Aug.) imply this. The expresses her public character: . She had repented (perhaps quite recently, and in consequence of Christs teaching); but the general opinion of her remained unchanged. Her venturing to enter a Pharisees house in spite of this shows great courage. In the East at the present day the intrusion of uninvited persons is not uncommon (Trench, Parables, p. 302 n.; Tristram, Eastern Customs in Bible Lands, p. 36). Mary of Bethany was not an intruder. Note the idiomatic pres. : just equivalent to our He is dining with me to-day, meaning that he will do so.
. Unguent-boxes or phials were called even when not made of alabaster. But unguenta optime servantur in alabastris (Plin. N. H. xiii. 3, xxxvi. 12; comp. Hdt. iii. 20, 1). See Wetst. on Mat 26:6.
The word is of all three genders in different writers; but in class Grk the sing. is , either masc. or fem. The origin of is unknown, , , being conjectures. In N.T. certainly, and probably in LXX also, , ointment, is distinguished from , oil. Trench, Syn. xxxviii.
38. . The sandals were removed at meals, and people reclined with their feet behind them ; she could therefore easily approach the feet. While Lk. writes (8:35, 41, 10:39?, 17:16, Act 4:35, Act 4:37, Act 4:5:2, Act 4:7:58, Act 4:22:3), Mk. has (5:22, 7:25), and Jn. (11:32). Mt. has (15:30).
, … This was no part of her original plan. She came to anoint His feet, and was overcome by her feelings; hence the . The led to the , which was also unpremeditated. Among the Jews it was a shameful thing for a woman to let down her hair in public; but she makes this sacrifice. For comp. Psa 6:7: it is probably a vernacular word (Kennedy, Sources of N.T. Grk. p. 39).
. Note the compound verb and the change of tense: She continued to kiss affectionately. The word is used of the kiss of the traitor (Mat 26:49; Mar 14:45), which was demonstrative, of the prodigals father (Luk 15:20), and of the Ephesian elders in their last farewell (Act 20:37), and nowhere else in N.T. Comp. Xen. Mem. ii. 6, 33. Kissing the feet was a common mark of deep reverence, especially to leading Rabbis (Xen. Cyr. vii. 5. 32; Polyb. xv. I. 7; Aristoph. Vesp. 608).
39. . Referring to the popular estimate of Jesus (vv. 16, 17). The is contemptuous. No true Prophet would knowingly allow himself to be rendered unclean by contact with such a person. The reading (B ) would mean the great Prophet of Deu 18:15 (comp. Joh 1:25, Joh 7:40), or possibly the Prophet that He professes to be. The art. is accepted by Weiss, bracketed by WH., put in the margin by Treg., and rejected by Tisch.
. Who and of what character is the woman who is clinging to Him. She was notorious both in person and in life. See on 1:29. The implies more than mere touching, and is the pres. of continued action. Trench, Syn. xvii.; Lft. on Col 2:21. Imo si tu, Simon, scires, qualis hc jam esset femina, aliter judicares (Beng.). The comes after : that she is, not because she is. See on ver. 16, and comp. Isa 65:5.
40. . Audivit Pharisaeum cogitantem (Aug. Serm. xcix.). Jesus not only answered but confuted his doubts. Simon questioned the mission of Jesus because He seemed to be unable to read the womans character. Jesus shows Simon that He can read his inmost thoughts: He knows . For see on 12:4. Christ asks permission of His host to speak. As Godet remarks, there is a tone of Socratic irony in the address. The historic present () is very rare in Lk
41. . For the orthography of the two substantives see WH. ii. App. p. 154; Greg. Proleg. p. 89. In N.T. occurs only here and 16:5; in LXX Job 31:37; Pro 29:13. The word is of late origin. All English Versions, except Rhein. and AV., rightly have lender and not creditor for : Vulg. fnerator, Luth. Wucherer. In weight of silver the denarius was considerably less than a shilling ; in purchasing power it was above two shillings, the wage of a daylabourer (Mat 20:2) and of a Roman soldier (Tac. Ann. i. 17, 8, where see Furneaux). The two debts were about 50 and 5.
42. . Because they had not where with to pay non habentibus illis unde redderent (Vulg.). Comp. 12:4, 14:14; Act 4:14. Others render in these passages to be able, like habeo quod with the subjunctive. In , he made them a present of what they owed, we trace the Pauline doctrine of free grace and salvation for all. Comp. ver. 21.
; This is the point of the parable, and perhaps the only point. The love and gratitude of those who have had debts remitted to them depends upon their estimate of the amount which has been remitted to them rather than upon the actual amount.
43. . I suppose, I presume, with an air of supercilious indifference. Comp. Act 2:15; Job 25:3; Tobit 6:18 ; Wisd. 17:2. It is very improbable that here means I reply, as in 10:30; Job 2:4, Job 4:1, Job 9:1, Job 25:1. In N.T. it is almost peculiar to Lk. The may be compared with the of Socrates, when he has led the disputant into an admission which is fatal. In N.T. occurs only here, 10:28, 20:21; Mar 7:35. Freq. in LXX. Comp. (Wisd. 6:4).
44. . She was behind Him. His turning to her while He spoke to Simon was in itself half a rebuke.Up to this He seems to have treated her as He treated the Syrophenician woman, as if paying no attention. The series of contrasts produces a parallelism akin to Hebrew poetry, and in translating a rhythm comes almost spontaneously.
; This is probably a question: Simon had ignored her presence. The being placed before gives point to the rebuke, but it hardly makes the emphatic. An enclitic cannot be emphatic, and here is enclitic. The meaning is not I entered into thine house, in preference to others; but rather, I came to thee in thy house, and not merely in the public street; I was thy invited guest.
. Comp. Gen 18:4; Jdg 19:21; 1Sa 25:41; Joh 13:5 ; 1Ti 5:10. The reading is somewhat uncertain, and there are many variations between ftot and , and , and and also of order: ( L ) may be right.
45. . Comp. 33:4; Exo 18:7; 2Sa 15:5, 2Sa 19:39, 2Sa 20:9. The traitors choosing it as a sign seems to mark it as usual.
. The reading (L1 Vulg.) is an attempt to avoid the apparent exaggeration in since the time I came in. But there need be no exaggeration, or difference of meaning, between the two readings. The woman very likely entered with Christ and His disciples in order to escape expulsion. Fear of it would make her begin to execute her errand directly the guests were placed. The compound makes the contrast with more marked, and makes it still more so. The would have been on the cheek, or possibly (if Simon had wished to be very respectful) on the hand.
46. . Very cheap in Palestine, where olives abound, and very commonly used (Psa 23:5, 141:5; Mat 6:17). The would be more valuable, and possibly very costly (Joh 12:3, Joh 12:5). This woman, whom Simon so despised in his heart, had really done the honours of the house to his guest. This fact would be all the more prominent if she entered close after Jesus, and thus at once supplied Simons lack of courtesy. See Hastings, D. B.1 1. p. 101.
47. This is a verse which has been the subject of much controversy. What is the meaning of the first half of it? We have to choose between two possible interpretations. 1. For which reason, I say to thee, her many sins have been forgiven, because she loved much; i.e. anticipates , and is parenthetical. Her sins have been forgiven for the reason that her love was great; or her love won forgiveness. This is the interpretation of Roman Catholic commentators (see Schanz), and the doctrine of contritio caritate formata is built upon it. But it is quite at variance (a) with the parable which precedes; (b) with the second half of the verse, which ought in that case to run, but he who loveth little, wins little forgiveness; (c) with ver. 50, which states that it was faith, not love, which had been the means of salvation; a doctrine which runs through the whole of the N.T. This cannot be correct. 2. For which reason I say to thee, her many sins have been forgiven (and I say this to thee), because she loved much; i.e. is not parenthetical, but is the main sentence. This statement, that her many sins have been forgiven, is rightly made to Simon, because he knew of her great sinfulness, he had witnessed her loving reverence, and he had admitted the principle that the forgiveness of much produces much love. This interpretation is quite in harmony with the parable, with the second half of the verse, and with 50. There were two things evident,-the past sin and the present love,-both of them great. A third might be known, because (according to the principle just admitted) it explained how great love could follow great sin,-the forgiveness of the sin. Remissio peccatorum, Simoni non cogitata, probata a fructu, qui est evidens, quum illa sit occulta (Beng).
. The second art. refers to 5:39: The many sins of which than thinkest. Her sins, yes (according to thy estimate), her many sins.
. But he to whom little is forgiven, i.e. who thinks that he has committed little which could need forgiveness.It is said with evident reference to Simon. O Pharise, parum diligis, quia parum tibi dimitti suspicaris; non quia parum dimittitur, sed quia parum putas quod dimittitur (Aug. Serm. xcix.). For this use of the dat. comp. Soph. Ant. 904.
48. . What He had to say to Simon (ver. 40) is finished: it is His true entertainer (44-46) who now occupies His attention.
. Have been and remain forgiven: see on 5:20. There is nothing either in the word or in the context to show that her sins were no forgiven until this moment: the context implies the opposite, and this is confirmed by the use of the perf. Augustines accessit ad Dominum immunda, ut rediret munda is in this respect misleading. The teaching of Christ had brought her to repentance and to assurance of forgiveness, and this assurance had inspired her with love and gratitude. Jesus now confirms her assurance and publicly declares her forgiveness. He thus lends His authority to rehabilitate her with society.
49. . To say within themselves rather than among themselves; so that Jesus answered their thoughts, as He had already answered Simons. The is slightly contemptuous, as often (5:21; Mat 13:55; Joh 6:42, Joh 6:52, etc.). The in is even rather than also. But also might mean besides other outrages.
50. . But He said unto the woman. He ignored their objection, and yet indirectly answered it, by telling her that it was her faith that had delivered her from her sins.
. Depart into peace, i.e. into a lasting condition of peace: a Hebrew formula of blessing and of goodwill, with special fulness of meaning. Comp. 8:48; Mar 5:34; 1Sa 1:17, 1Sa 20:42. In Act 16:36 and Jam 2:16 we have , which is less strong, the peace being joined to the moment of departure rather than to the subsequent life: comp. Jdg 18:6. In Act 15:33 we have
Among the various points which distinguish this anointing from that by Mary of Bethany should be noted that here we have no grumbling at the waste of the ointment and no prediction of Christs death, while there no absolution is pronounced and Mary is not addressed. See Hase, Gesch. J. 91, p. 651, ed. 1891; also Schanz, p. 250, at the end of this section.
D D. Cod. Bezae, sc. vi. Given by Beza to the University Library at Cambridge 1581. Greek and Latin. Contains the whole Gospel.
Burton. Burton, N.T. Moods and Tenses.
G G. Cod. Harleianus, sc. ix. In the British Museum. Contains considerable portions.
Cod. Sinaiticus, sc. iv. Brought by Tischendorf from the Convent of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai; now at St. Petersburg. Contains the whole Gospel complete.
A A. Cod. Alexandrinus, sc. v. Once in the Patriarchal Library at Alexandria; sent by Cyril Lucar as a present to Charles 1. in 1628, and now in the British Museum. Complete.
B B. Cod. Vaticanus, sc. 4. In the Vatican Library certainly since 15331 (Batiffol, La Vaticane de Paul 3, etc., p. 86).
C
C. Cod. Ephraemi Rescriptus, sc. 5. In the National Library at Paris. Contains the following portions of the Gospel: 1:2-2:5, 2:42-3:21, 4:25-6:4, 6:37-7:16, or 17, 8:28-12:3, 19:42-20:27, 21:21-22:19, 23:25-24:7, 24:46-53.
These four MSS. are parts of what were once complete Bibles, and are designated by the same letter throughout the LXX and N.T.
R R. Cod. Nitriensis Rescriptus, sc. 8. Brought from a convent in the Nitrian desert about 1847, and now in the British Museum. Contains 1:1-13, 1:69-2:4, 16-27, 4:38-5:5, 5:25-6:8, 18-36, 39, 6:49-7:22, 44, 46, 47, 8:5-15, 8:25-9:1, 12-43, 10:3-16, 11:5-27, 12:4-15, 40-52, 13:26-14:1, 14:12-15:1, 15:13-16:16, 17:21-18:10, 18:22-20:20, 20:33-47, 21:12-22:15, 42-56, 22:71-23:11, 38-51. By a second hand 15:19-21.
. Cod. Zacynthius Rescriptus, sc. viii. In the Library of the Brit. and For. Bible Soc. in London. Contains 1:1-9, 19-23, 27, 28, 30-32, 36-66, 1:77-2:19, 21, 22, 33-39, 3:5-8, 11-20, 4:1, 2, 6-20, 32-43, 5:17-36, 6:21-7:6, 11-37, 39-47, 8:4-21, 25-35, 43-50, 9:1-28, 32, 33, 35, 9:41-10:18, 21-40, 11:1, 2, 3, 4, 24-30, 31, 32, 33.
AV. Authorized Version.
Beng. Bengel.
Vulg. Vulgate.
Found in Luke alone.
L L. Cod. Regius Parisiensis, sc. viii. National Library at Paris. Contains the whole Gospel.
S S. Cod. Vaticanus, sc. x. In the Vatican. The earliest dated MS. of the Greek Testament. Contains the whole Gospel.
Tyn. Tyndale.
Cov. Coverdale.
RV. Revised Version.
Syr Syriac.
Sin. Sinaitic.
Win. Winer, Grammar of N.T. Greek (the page refers to Moultons edition).
Orig. Origen.
Eus. Eusebius of Csarea
Aug. Augustine.
X X. Cod. Monacensis, sc. ix. In the University Library at Munich. Contains 1:1-37, 2:19-3:38, 4:21-10:37, 11:1-18:43, 20:46-24:53.
Greg. Gregory, Prolegomena ad Tischendorfii ed. N. T.
Trench, Trench, New Testament Synonyms.
K K. Cod. Cyprius, sc. ix. In the National Library at Paris. Contains the whole Gospel.
M M. Cod. Campianus, sc. ix. In the National Library at Paris. Contains the whole Gospel.
V. Vie de Jsus.
Wic. Wiclif.
Rhem. Rheims (or Douay).
Wetst. Wetstein.
Alf. Alford.
WH. Westcott and Hort.
Treg. Tregelles.
Tisch. Tischendorf.
Luth. Luther.
D. B. Smiths Dictionary of the Bible, 1st edition.
Fuente: International Critical Commentary New Testament
an Aliens Surprising Faith
Luk 7:1-10
It is interesting to find these wild flowers of natural faith, humility and love growing outside the carefully cultured garden of the Hebrew religion. God has never been without witnesses among the nations. We recall Cyrus in the Old Testament, Isa 45:1-7; and Cornelius in the New, Act 10:1-8. In every nation. See Act 10:35. But of course the propitiation of Christ underpins the salvation of all men, Rom 3:25.
Because the centurion was under the authority of Rome and was loyally obedient to it, he was able to exercise authority; and since he was so sure that Christ was obedient and loyal to God, he felt that he, too, was able to exert authority over all other forces, especially those which were injuring and torturing human lives. Let us seek to be such obedient servants that Christ may be able to say to us also, with the absolute certainty that we shall obey, Go and Come and especially Do this.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Two Notable Miracles — Luk 7:1-18
Now when He had ended all His sayings in the audience of the people, He entered into Capernaum. And a certain centurions servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die, and when he heard of Jesus he sent unto Him the elders of the Jews, beseeching Him that He would come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they besought Him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom He should do this: for he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them. And when He was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying unto Him, Lord, trouble Thou not Thyself: for I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under my roof: wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto Thee, but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth: and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus heard these things He marvelled at him and turned Him about, and said unto the people that followed Him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick. And it came to pass the day after, that He went into a city called Nain; and many of His disciples went with Him, and much people. Now when He came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, the only son of his mother and she was a widow; and much people of the city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not. And He came and touched the bier: and they that bare him stood still. And He said, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. And he that was dead sat up and began to speak. And He delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us; and, That God hath visited His people. And this rumor of Him went forth throughout all Judaea, and throughout all the region round about. And the disciples of John showed him of all these things- Luk 7:1-18.
In this wonderfully precious seventh chapter of Luke we have four very striking illustrations of the grace of God in Christ overleaping all boundaries and flowing out to meet the needs of troubled hearts. The centurion was a Roman, not one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel, to whom Christ was sent (Mat 15:24). The widows son was already dead and the body was being carried to the burial-place. Only divine power could avail. All human hope was gone. The bewildered disciples of John were troubled because the Kingdom did not immediately appear. In grace Jesus showed them the signs of the Kingdom so as to confirm their faith and that of their teacher, now in prison. Last of all, the poor woman who found forgiveness at His feet was a sinner of the streets, despised by the self-righteous, but just the one for Jesus, who had come, not to seek out the righteous, but to seek and to save that which was lost (Luk 19:10). It is abounding grace throughout-grace that delights to give, and asks nothing in return, but which produces gratitude and loving service on the part of the recipient. Jesus never wrought miracles to gratify curiosity or to compel the amazement and admiration of carnal worldlings. Every putting forth of His power was with the distinct objects in view of glorifying God and ministering to human need. His heart of compassion went out to men in their sorrows and distresses, and it was His joy to speak the word of healing and to deliver the troubled soul. He could not be indifferent to what sin had wrought, and so He came to destroy, or undo, the works of the Devil (1Jn 3:8). He did not come to destroy mens lives, but to save them (Luk 9:56), that men might be at their very best for God.
When we speak of anything as miraculous, we mean that it is beyond the power and ability of the natural man. A miracle is the putting forth of supernatural power, and as found in Scripture, is always to alleviate human sorrow or distress and as a manifestation of divine authority. Jesus was accredited as the Son of God and the Messiah of Israel by the mighty works which He performed.
In the present portion we have, first, the healing of a Roman centurions servant (Luk 7:1-10); and then the raising up from death of the son of the widow of Nain (Luk 7:11-18). We shall consider these in their order as here set forth.
We are told that as Jesus entered into Capernaum, after preaching the great sermon, a portion of which is preserved for us in the previous chapter, and a fuller record given in Matthew 5 to 7, He was met by a deputation of Jewish elders, who came to Him on behalf of a military officer, a centurion, whose servant (to whom he was greatly attached), was seriously ill. Matthew tells us the centurion himself came (Mat 8:5), but we can readily understand that the elders presented his case to the Lord, as representing him. The discrepancy exists only in the minds of men who seek for some fancied evidence that Scripture is not wholly inspired by God. The case was urgent. The young man was already in a dying condition.
The elders pressed the claim of the centurion by declaring He was worthy for whom He should do this: for he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. It is significant that in recent years a synagogue of evident Roman construction but with distinctly Jewish ornamentation has been uncovered among the ruins of Capernaum. It is a thrilling sensation to stand on the dais in that ancient building and reflect that possibly ones feet are resting on the very stones where the holy Saviours feet once stood! This was my privilege some years ago.
A centurion was a captain of one hundred men, in the Roman army. This officer had a servant, a bondsman, whom he loved and who was at the point of death. It is evident that this centurion was a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He had heard of Him through his friends and, probably, had listened eagerly to His gracious messages. He had witnessed His works of power and he was convinced that Jesus was more than man. Though himself of a more exalted station in life than Jesus, he nevertheless recognized Christs superiority, and so he sent messengers pleading for mercy and help, not arrogantly demanding attention. His faith was a cup of joy pressed to the lips of the blessed One who was despised and rejected by so many whom He sought in love to save.
Jesus immediately started for the centurions home, but on the way was met by other messengers, who, speaking on behalf of their soldier friend, said, Lord trouble not Thyself; for I am not worthy that Thou shouldest enter my house. Note the difference. The elders said: He is worthy. He himself insisted: I am not worthy! He was one who had taken his due place of repentance as an unworthy sinner before God. Realizing something of the true nature and character of Jesus he said, Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto Thee; but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed. As a military man he explained that he could speak with authority and his soldiers would be obedient. Surely Jesus could speak in the same way and rebuke the disease that threatened the life of his servant!
Such an expression of trustful confidence gladdened the heart of our Lord. He marvelled at the mans simple faith-a faith such as He had not found in Israel. Nothing glorifies God like confidence in His Word. In response to the centurions faith, the apparently dying man was instantly restored. This was faith indeed! He did not feel that the personal presence and touch of Jesus was needed to heal the dying servant. He recognized the fact that where the word of a king is, there is power (Ecc 8:4), and he was sure that Jesus had that authority, and that a word from Him would bring health to the one who was so ill.
Faiths reward is sure. When the messengers returned to the house, they found the servant well, and inquiry proved that the change for the better had come at the very time when Jesus spoke the word (Mat 8:13).
But a greater evidence of His power was soon to be given. On the following day Jesus went with His disciples to the nearby city of Nain, the ruins of which are still to be found in Galilee. A large throng followed them, doubtless stirred by what had taken place the day before, and hoping to see some other great wonder wrought by Jesus; nor were they disappointed. As the crowd drew near the village, they saw a funeral procession wending its way to the cemetery. They soon realized it was the funeral of a young man, whose widowed mother was the chief mourner. As Jesus drew near, His tender heart was filled with compassion as He beheld the evidences of her grief. He bade her cease weeping; then touching the bier on which the corpse lay, He said with authority, Young man, I say unto thee, Arise! Immediately, in response to that voice which shall one day awaken all the dead, the young man opened his eyes. Life returned to that cold body. To the amazement of all, he sat up and began to speak. How graphically Luke describes it all, and what a stirring of heart there must have been in the breasts of the many on-lookers as Jesus delivered him to his mother. Who can dry tears like Jesus? Some day He will wipe away all tears from the eyes of His redeemed (Rev 21:4), for He is God as well as Man. When He bade the widow dry her tears, He did not merely seek to soothe, but He was about to work a miracle that would fill her heart with unexpected joy.
It was such a demonstration of divine power as they had never known before and they glorified God, declaring that a great prophet had risen up among them.
The news of this mighty miracle went abroad through all Galilee and Judaea, even coming to the ears of John the Baptist, who was pining in prison because of his faithfulness in rebuking King Herods wickedness.
Thus God had borne witness to the claims of His Son, who in grace had come into the world to be the Saviour of sinners.
It has pleased God to honor our faith, because faith is that which honors Him. Faith takes Him at His word, and counts the things which are not as though they were (Rom 4:17). But it is not faith that does the work. It is but the means which God uses to unloose His unlimited power. Faith is the hand which lays hold of Omnipotence. As Man on earth, our Lord was the pattern Man of faith and He taught faith to others. He chose, in this scene of His humiliation, to live in daily dependence upon the living Father (Joh 6:57). Thus the works of power He wrought were those which the Father gave Him to do (Joh 14:10). In rebuking disease and death, and in saving from sin those who sought His grace, He was manifesting the heart of God toward a needy world. His concern for the life and health of mankind was but the expressed desire of God the Father, that all men who believe in Him might be at last delivered from the effects, of sin. It is not always His will to grant perfect; health now, but faith can firmly trust Him in every circumstance.
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Luk 7:13
I. It were vain to inquire why human nature requires sympathy; we can only appeal to experience, and we find it to be so. And let the compassionate see in the conduct of their Lord, and in the perfect example of compassion which He sets before us, how they ought always to act in their compassion for a friend. Though full of the deepest feeling, how calm the blessed Jesus stands before the bier of the young man, the only son of a widowed mother. What we require in a friend is not the mere verbal expression of sympathy, or what the cold world, in complimentary language, calls condolence; but with the sympathy we look also for the advice and suggestions of which we are conscious, our minds being paralysed the while with grief, that we stand so greatly in need.
II. Grief is not sin. The sin consists only in the excess of grief; and grief is excessive when it incapacitates us for the duties of our station, or leads us to distrust of our God. This in truth is the struggle of human nature, during the threescore years and ten of its trial-to bring the human will into subjection to the Divine. The question is not as to the amount of pain and grief which it may cost us to obey; but whether, notwithstanding the pain and grief, we are ready to submit, and from our trust in God’s goodness, through faith to acquiesce with thankfulness in the dispensations of Providence, however painful they may prove to be. When God takes away the friend of our bosom, or the child of our affection, He does not call upon us to rejoice; but He simply requires us to be resigned-that is, submissively to yield what God requires of us under the conviction suggested by faith, that it is best that so it should be. There is no sin in praying, “Father, let this cup pass from me,” for so prayed our sinless Lord; but there would be sin in failing to say, “Father, not my will but Thine be done,” when the will of the Father that the cup should not pass from us, is declared.
W. F. Hook, Sermons on the Miracles, vol. i., p. 174.
References: Luk 7:13.-J. Oswald Dykes, Sermons, p. 340. Luk 7:13, Luk 7:14.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iv., p. 177. Luk 7:13-15.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. v., p. 32. Luk 7:14.-J. E. Vaux, Sermon Notes, 2nd series, p. 32; R. W. Evans, Parochial Sermons, vol. i., p. 41; J. Thain Davidson, Forewarned-Forearmed, p. 275; W. H. Cooper, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 195. Luk 7:14, Luk 7:15.-R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 1st series, p. 278; J. Vaughan, Sermons, 14th series, p. 37.
Luk 7:15
I. Note the mournful occasion which called forth this miracle: a widowed mother following the corpse of her only son.
II. Observe the sympathy which was shown for the widow’s affliction. “Much people of the city was with her.”
III. Our Saviour addressed the broken-hearted mother in words of comfort.
IV. The same Divine Lord who wrought this miracle shall hereafter awaken not one but all the dead, and restore all who have fallen asleep in Him to the beloved who have mourned their loss.
J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 405.
Luk 7:15
“He delivered him to his mother.” That is the Saviour’s one comment in act on His miracle. Life has many purposes. Death has many secrets. Here was a soul, one among the very few that have recrossed the great gulf, have been in the world of substance, and come back to the world of shadows. What would we give to ask questions of it! But we cannot. “Something sealed the lips” of all concerned in the story. We know not if that momentary glimpse of another life faded as a dream fades when we wake and seem to remember vividly for a moment, and then all vanishes and cannot be recalled. Did life look changed to him? Had temptation lost its power? We might have thought that such a recall from eternity to time would have been the prelude to some great demand on faith and resolution, some great renewal of spirit and life. But our Lord does not say, “You know now what in life is worth anything; sell all that thou hast, and come, follow Me.” “He delivered him to his mother.” That was the aspect of the young man’s life most in the Saviour’s thoughts. The son’s place was by his mother’s side-his place of duty, his place of safety. If his life was to be lived again, the first note of its renewal would be truer filial devotion, more complete filial service. Note-
I. A mother’s love. What else is like it? in its tenderness, its unselfishness, its inexhaustible patience; the love that finds no tasks too humble or too exacting; the love that waits for us, unchanged, even deepened, by the sorrows which strike deepest, by fears, by wrong.
II. A mother’s claim. It is a claim which grows more urgent as her need grows sorer; when her burdens are no longer divided; when the greatest desolation that life can bring has fallen upon her; but it is a claim that belongs to her from the first, resting on nature, on God’s primal law.
III. A mother’s sorrow. Death is not the only one, not perhaps the saddest. Death, the death of the dearest, is not to us, if we are Christians, what it was even to the widow of Nain in that hour of desolation. There is to us light and love behind the veil. But a mother may lose a boy in another way, and one in which it is harder to gain trust and peace. Her son is going a way that she cannot follow him, a way that never meets again the way he has left.
E. C. Wickham, Wellington College Sermons, p. 181.
References: Luk 7:15.-R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 2nd series, p. 205. Luk 7:17, Luk 7:18.-C. C. Bartholomew, Sermons Chiefly Practical, p. 89. Luk 7:17-19.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 293; Luk 7:18-23.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. xii., p. 286; Ibid., vol. xiv., p. 305. Luk 7:18-24.-E. de Pressens, The Mystery of Suffering, p. 191. Luk 7:19.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 107. Luk 7:19-28.-Ibid. vol. i., pp. 128, 211.
Luk 7:22
The description of His own work which Jesus returned for the instruction and encouragement of the Baptist presents these three features: (1) it is a ministry of abundant charity to the temporal needs of needy men; (2) it is a ministry of Divine promise and help-“the poor receive glad tidings;” (3) these two are blended naturally and simply together.
I. On part of this ground we are at one; it is that of desire to minister to the good and increase the happiness of our fellowmen. To ask in what good and happiness consist might seem pedantic and abrupt. But on the way in which these things may be increased men feel that they have learned something. We have two results of present teaching: (1) that happiness is a harmony between man and his surroundings; (2) the rule or method of charity, making charity to consist in giving our personal help and service, and in bringing to the needy those things which, for ourselves, have given brightness and interest and worth to life. Can we bring the two into relation with one another, and then with Christ’s type of ministry as suggested in the text?
II. Turn back your thoughts upon the history of human happiness, and think of its earlier stages. Under simple and primitive conditions, nature seems to provide man with a stock of happiness, or of material for happiness; he gains happiness from his harmony with his surroundings, as proved in the pleasures of the bodily instincts or functions, in the glad response of vital energy, in muscle and limb, to moderate demands for exertion, in the earliest forms of human intercourse in family or clan, and by degrees in the exercise of skill or resource, and in the power to appreciate beauty or grandeur in nature around him. In proportion as consciousness becomes articulate, and reflection awakes, man must, by the very nature of his mind, grasp all that is outside himself into a whole. He must look before and after and above. What then if there comes a time when the world’s face is darkened? Civilisation has developed, but man seems to be no gainer. The effect of increased wealth and knowledge seemed to have only sapped old-fashioned simplicities and virtues, and substituted the power of money for the power of loyalty and right. What can we do to minister to men’s needs. The answer has been forming in men’s minds, even when they have not realised all its meaning. Make it possible for men to believe in happiness; make it possible for them to believe in love. Give them the things which will brighten their life, glimpses of the beauty of nature or art or intellect; recover for them the simple pleasures of the poorest and humblest thing that can be called a home. Make impossible regions of human life visited by no light of human sympathy, or lightened by no hope of human succour. Open to them possibilities of aspiration. Restore in this way gently a sense of harmony with the order of things into which they have been born. Soothe the dumb exasperation which comes of having to live in a world that means nothing but darkness and want and fear. And then give yourself, your personal help; use your freedom of time, your money if you have it, your acquirements of understanding, knowledge, still to convince them that there is such a thing as unselfish and compassionate love. And leave the inference to them. The very poverty and misery which have once blossomed for them with the miraculous fruit of a true charity will never seem the same again. You have gone among them to carry as far as in you lies whatever of bright and beautiful, of good and pure, of loving and tender, could bear witness that life carries hope with it. And thereby you have given them an alphabet by which to read the witness of the beauty, the greatness, the tenderness of Christ. You can speak to them of Christ, not only as a witness of what may be or what shall be, but as a present Giver of all precious gifts. Or, more truly, of one gift which implies the rest-the gift of God’s love certainly known, and with a joyful confidence of faith actually received and welcomed into their souls.
E. S. Talbot, Oxford and Cambridge Journal, Jan. 31st, 1884.
References: Luk 7:22.-Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 316. Luk 7:23.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 135. Luk 7:24.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. i., p. 39.
Luk 7:28
What can these words mean? Well, let us consider what constituted the highest, that is, the spiritual greatness of the prophets, and try to discover whether in relation to all these things it is not true that the very least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the greatest of the prophets.
I. They were inspired men. Some of them had great natural genius. All of them received the supernatural illumination of the Holy Ghost. They had revealed to them the eternal principles of righteousness by which God governs the world. But your knowledge and view of the Divine character and will is far larger than theirs was. The very least knows what they did not know-the story of the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh.
II. But the prophets, you may say, were illustrious for their sanctity. How can the very least in the kingdom of heaven be greater than they were? Here again we must distinguish between what may be called the natural force of moral character and supernatural holiness. There is a genius in some men for heroic forms of goodness, as there is genius in others for poetry, music, eloquence, and art. The magnificent energy of Elijah, the chivalry of David’s better days, the stately dignity of Abraham-these may not be ours; but the very least in the kingdom of heaven has an element and a spring of holiness which did not belong to any of them. In the sense in which we are in Christ they could not be; and in the sense in which we are regenerate they were not. The Spirit that Christ possessed is granted now to us. We have possibilities of holiness higher and greater far than belonged to the saints of the old dispensation.
III. The third element in the greatness of the prophets consists, no doubt, in the intimacy of their relations to God. They were God’s chosen servants; they were trusted by God with great duties: some of them were called God’s friends, but a nobler title belongs to the very least in the kingdom of heaven than belonged to the very greatest of them. We belong to the race that has sprung from the Second Adam, and the very least of those who have sprung from the Second Adam must be greater than the greatest of those that sprang from the first.
IV. They had close access to God. This was an element of greatness in the old prophets, and yet remember that their access to God was access to God under the conditions of the old economy. It was to be had, not as we may have it now, by the immediate approach of our soul to the eternal Father, through Christ Jesus our Lord, but it was to be had through the ministry of the priests, and through the efficacy of sacrifice. Now we are greater in all this than the prophets were, for God is nearer now to the least in the kingdom of heaven than He was to the greatest in the old days.
R. W. Dale, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 394.
References: Luk 7:24-28.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 208. Luk 7:28.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 89. Luk 7:29.-Ibid., vol. x., p. 99. Luk 7:29-35.-W. Hay Aitken, Mission Sermons, vol. ii., p. 183. Luk 7:31-34.-D. Fraser, Metaphors of the Gospels, p. 127. Luk 7:31-35.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. xiv., p. 91; R. Lorimer, Bible Studies in Life and Truth, p. 293. Luk 7:33-35.-G. Calthrop, Pulpit Recollections, pp. 57, 69.
Luk 7:35
Wisdom is justified, i.e. approved, of all her children.
I. None but the children of Wisdom can justify her. What a really unread page is the whole page of nature; what a riddle is providence; what an inscrutable mystery is the method of Divine grace in saving a sinner; what an unreality is the inner life of a spiritual man to anyone in whom there has not yet taken place a certain inward transformation-a teaching, purifying, assimilating process. Hence every heart, in its natural state, is always mistaking God, always misjudging Him in everything God says and everything God does. And the misconstruction is always deepening, just in proportion as the subject rises. In the outer circle of God’s works there is ignorance, and in the inner circle of His glorious Gospel utter blindness and universal distortion. Just like the children in the market-place, in the music of God’s love they see nothing but melancholy; and in the solemn denunciations of His wrath they find no fear.
II. In God’s great universe-the house of creation-all are either servants or children. Everything serves Him. Some of His servants serve as His children. Here is the difference. The servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; the child does. Wisdom, all wisdom, is justified, vindicated, honoured, loved, understood, of all her children. Therefore, be one of Wisdom’s children, and sooner or later the blessed consequence must follow. The dark place in the experience of life, the hard passage of Scripture, the difficulty in the character of that Christian, the offensive doctrine, will all be cleared up. Be the enigma and the difficulty what they may, the declaration is that they shall all be justified in Christ. And the justifying process will go on and on, more and more, till that very wisdom shall come again in His unveiled beauty. At that moment the series will be consummated, when no longer shall He be justified only but glorified in His saints, and admired in all them that believe.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 2nd series, p. 303.
Luk 7:36-50
I. The narrative encourages sinners of every name and degree to go at once to Christ. He will in nowise cast them out. There are no more touching stories in the Gospels than those which tell how Jesus dealt with the most degraded class of sinners. Recall His conversation with the woman of Samaria, at the well of Sychar. Bring up before you once again that scene in the Temple, where the scribes and Pharisees dragged in before Him the woman who had been taken in the very act of sin. Then read anew this narrative, and say if the prophecy regarding Him was not true, “A bruised reed shall He not break; the smoking flax shall He not quench.” Where man perceived no promise of success, and would have been tempted to give up the individual as hopeless, He would labour on until the reed which had given forth a note jangled and out of tune was restored to its original condition, and gave its own quota to the harmony of Jehovah’s praise.
II. If we would be successful in raising the fallen and reclaiming the abandoned, we must be willing to touch them and be touched by them. In other words, we must come into warm, loving, personal contact with them. What an uplift Christ gave to the soul of this poor woman, when He, the pure and holy, let her thus approach Him. When the Lord wished to save the human race, He touched it by taking on Him our nature, without our nature’s pollution. So we must take the nature of the degraded, without its impurity, if we would help Him.
III. If we wish to love God much, we must think much of what we owe to Him. Low views of sin lead to a light estimate of the blessing of pardon, and a light estimate of the blessing of pardon will lead to but a little love of God.
W. M. Taylor, The Parables of Our Saviour, p. 210.
References: Luk 7:36-50.-Phillips Brooks, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxi., p. 342; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 75; A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 28; W. Hanna, Our Lord’s Life on Earth, p. 184; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 214; Expositor, 1st series, vol. vi., p. 214. Luk 7:37, Luk 7:38.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 129; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 801; Christian World Pulpit, vol. iii., p. 312; E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, vol. ii., p. 153. Luk 7:38.-Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts, p. 90.
Luk 7:39
Christ in Simon’s House; the Pharisee’s Mistake.
I. As it regarded Christ. (1) He could not read Christ’s nature, and undervalued it; (2) he mistook also Christ’s way of rescuing from sin.
II. As it regarded the woman. (1) The Pharisee thought that as a sinner she was to be despised; (2) he did not see that into her heart a new life had entered.
III. As it regarded himself. (1) The Pharisee showed that he did not know his own heart; (2) he did not see that in condemning this woman he was rejecting the salvation of Christ. (a) Those who profess religion should be careful how they give a false view of it, by uncharitable judgments and by assumptions of superiority. (b) We must remind those who profess to be seeking religion, that they are bound to form their judgment of it from its Author.
J. Ker, Sermons, p. 16.
Reference: Luk 7:39.-J. Armstrong, Parochial Sermons, p. 323.
Luk 7:40-43
A State of Sin a State of Debt.
I. We are all debtors to God. Having failed to discharge the debt of obligation, we now owe a debt of punishment.
II. We are debtors in different degrees.
III. We are unable to pay our debts. Not only debtors, but bankrupts.
IV. God is willing, for Christ’s sake, freely to forgive us all.
V. Our love to God should be proportioned to the amount of the debt which He has forgiven.
G. Brooks, Five Hundred Outlines, p. 55.
The Forgiveness of Sins the Remission of a Debt.
I. Sin is a debt-that is the primary idea of this parable. But I can well understand a thoughtful person saying, “I can see the beauty and truth of this illustration. There is a burden which each man bears-the burden of the sense of sin, from which he yearns to be delivered. But there are other aspects of sin which the parable of a money-debt does not seem to me to include or to cover, because such an obligation lies altogether outside the sphere of morals. A debtor need not be a sinner; the creditor may have no cause for anger against him. Moreover, if the money were paid, the obligation would be at an end. I want to know how far offences of another kind, moral derelictions of man against man, are analogous in nature and in remedy to our sins against a just and righteous God?”
II. We are all debtors. We owe to God that which we can never pay for ourselves. What we need, therefore, is a remission of the debt. If we bear this well in mind, we shall look upon sin and death with truer eyes. Exemption from any penalty, supposed to be incurred by non-payment of the debt, could not benefit us. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Here the word debtors is clearly used for all who have failed to pay us our due, whether that due be money or the commoner obligations of everyday life. Every time an offence is committed against us, it is a debt that is incurred. Our friend owes us something which he has not paid. The language of the Lord’s Prayer, as recorded by St. Matthew, strictly accords with that of the parable of the two debtors. A friend does us a wrong. It is for us either to retain or remit the debt he has incurred. We are willing to remit his debt, if he is willing that it should be remitted. It is impossible to forgive where forgiveness is not desired. I cannot remit the debt of sin which my brother has incurred unless he is willing that it should be remitted. His debt is love, and no suffering or penalty could restore that broken link. Reconciliation is a bond of righteousness. The offender cannot be forgiven without penitence on his side. If it pleased God to save us from hell-fire, still He could not save us from an avenging conscience. It is idle, and worse than idle, for us to murmur against a revelation of hell. If there is a heaven, there must be a hell. If the pure in heart see God, the vision of the impure must be sin and Satan.
A. Ainger, Sermons in the Temple Church, p. 115.
Reference: Luk 7:41-44.-W. Hay Aitken, Mission Sermons, vol. iii., p. 218.
Luk 7:42
Our State of Debtorship before God.
I. What does the Saviour mean by representing sin as a debt? We can well understand in the abstract what a debt is. In looking at our state of debtorship towards God, we should take the simplest and the most meaning view of the subject first. We look simply at ourselves as being creatures of God’s creation. “It was He that made us, and not we ourselves.” Everything that we have comes from God-our existence, our friends, our blessings, our indulgences, our faculties, our powers; everything that we have has come from the same hand, poured plenteously upon us by our God. And if all this be so, we have a foundation here of obligation. Let the relationship be admitted and the consequence follows, that we are placed in a state of subserviency to God, and that God has a simple right to our services.
II. Look next at man’s state of utter insolvency. You will see at once that the parable is constructed according to the usages of the courts of law. There is a certain charge for a debt incurred lying against the debtor, and a demand that that debt should be paid. When we look to the question of the liquidation or the removal or satisfaction of crime, there are four ways in which it may be done: (1) we may traverse the indictment altogether; (2) we may plead palliation; (3) we may propose to offer an atonement; and (4) failing these three, we may throw ourselves on the mercy of the court. In none of these ways is it possible that man can be cleared of his offences. God can only afford to be merciful through Christ Jesus. There must be a compensation given to offended justice, otherwise God cannot be just and the Justifier of those who believe. When the Saviour came into the world and took our transgressions upon Himself, when He looked upon the mountain of iniquity that was crushing us down, and shed His own precious blood as an atonement, then justice was satisfied, and mercy was open to plead along with justice. It is in this way that the Gospel makes clear to us the only method by which any sinner can expect mercy.
A. Boyd, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 121.
References: Luk 7:42.-Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Gospels and Acts, p. 93; Ibid., Sermons, vol. xxix., No. 1,730.
Luk 7:44-50
The Forgiveness of Sin the Remission of a Debt.
I. There are a peculiar tenderness and quiet pathos about this narrative which have commended it to many, even of those who have no taste for dogmatic religion. It is one of those incidents which, like the sickness and death of Lazarus, can be separated from the general Gospel narrative; little idylls, if the expression be allowable, of human sorrow, and the aspirations which arise out of it. We know nothing of this woman save that she lived a profligate life in the city: she had been a sinner; she is now a penitent; and that is all we know. There had been something which was a part of this woman, and which had kept her distant from God; and this was sin. It was not that she was on earth and God in heaven-this was not the gulf between them; nor that He was a powerful despot and she a weak slave; but that He was holy and she unholy. And now her old waywardness and pollution, which had hung like a millstone about her neck, had dropped off. She had become sorry and ashamed of self, through companionship with a holy life, and through being admitted to share a love which was the love of God. The debt which she had not paid He could pay and was paying.
II. A question about a simple Greek conjunction, that which in the English version is rendered “for”-“her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much”-has introduced doubt into the meaning of a passage which is otherwise quite free from difficulty. The whole drift of the story, and the parable introduced to interpret it, point to the true meaning. The love is the fruit of the discovery that reconciliation is possible. For it is impossible to separate forgiveness from reconciliation. If forgiveness were the remission of a penalty, it would be possible to be forgiven and yet to be unreconciled. For the exemption of a soul from penal suffering does not and cannot unite a soul with God. In the case before us, forgiveness was only valued by the woman, as it was the beginning of a new life. Till she had met Christ, sin seemed no sin to her; but it rested with unutterable bitterness upon Him. She had not grieved for herself, but He had grieved for her, and for every sinner who was living in exile from God. Surely He had borne the griefs and carried the sorrows of the world, and was bearing them; and as she awoke to feel this, she was abased with shame which showed itself in tears, but filled also with the surest sign of humility, the gratitude which brought Him of her costliest and best.
A. Ainger, Sermons in the Temple Church, p. 130.
Luk 7:47
We learn from this story that such love as the Magdalene showed to our blessed Lord is the point of forgiveness, of forbearance, and of service. “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much.”
I. Now it is this which differences the Gospel from all other systems of religion, that it promises reconciliation only to the loving. One code of morals declares that obedience is the only avenue to pardon; but this may be merely deistic. Another code of morals asserts that repentance is the only road to forgiveness; but that may be merely Jewish. Jesus Christ proclaims that absolution is only pronounced upon the affectionate. Now there is in this no confusion between right and wrong, no pretence that guilt is as beautiful as grace; but since all men sin, and since all need pardon, they gain the richest, the blessedest gift of forgiveness, whose hearts are warmest of love for the Saviour.
II. Love is the fountain of reverence. This woman was conspicuous for the earnest, devout, uncalculating veneration which she paid to the Redeemer. The Pharisee had his notion of the proprieties which belong to reverence; but they were very unlike the unaffected, the passionate, worship of the Magdalene. The fastidious Pharisee would have been quite shocked to start aside, even by a hair’s breadth, from religious decorum and etiquette; but the woman’s heart was all aglow with the gifts and the sense of pardon; and with the vision of a higher life she can only tell her veneration in the accents of reverence which were too real to be restrained. Like her, we must go boldly to the throne of grace, blending confidence with worship, respect with affection, and reverence with rapture.
III. Love is the fountain of service. The Pharisee had his idea of this service. He had coldly and carefully regulated all his obligations. He paid tithe of mint and anise and cummin. He could set down in order his notions of duty, and formulate them into a code of morals; but all this obedience was as a cold light shining upon his intellect and not in his heart. But one single feature in his character attracted the notice of Christ-he had no heart filled and overflowing with love. It was not an enormity; it was a lacking. But this woman, who is only known to us by her contrition and her reverence, won the Saviour’s heart by the simplicity and the beauty of her service. Only the heart of a woman could have conceived a service or a gift so full of tender pathos, so fragrant, so exquisite. It was her best-it was her all; for it is the instinct of love to give not only largely, but also sweetly. Her generosity had no stint, and her method had no rudeness.
H. White, Penny Pulpit, new series, No. 964.
The point to which we specially direct our attention is the self-accusing spirit of this woman; its necessity and its blessedness.
I. For, first of all, it may be said, that the kingdom of Christ is founded upon those who accuse themselves of their sins. It has both an exterior and an interior foundation, an outer and an inner court. On His part it is a perpetual ministry of absolution; on our part, a perpetual confession. In. the midst of the visible Church, Christ numbers, by direct intention, the fellowship of true penitents. In them He dwells, and to them He listens. He has no communion with those who do not know their need of His absolving pity. The law of repentance is laid on all, even on the greatest saints; it often seems to press more heavily on them than on others; for as they have more of sanctity, they have more of love; and as they have more of love, they have more of sorrow. As the light rises upon them, they see more clearly their own deformities. It is the greatest light of sanctity that reveals the least motes of evil; as things imperceptible in the common light of day float visible in the sunbeam.
II. Self-accusation is the test which separates between true and false repentance. Under all the manifold appearances of religion and of repentance, there are at last two, and only two, states or postures of mind; the one is self-accusation, the other self-defence.
III. The true source of the self-accusing spirit is love. A heart once touched with the love of Christ no longer strives to hide its sin, or to make it out to be little. To excuse, palliate, or lighten the guilt even of a little sin grates upon the whole inward sense of sorrow and self-abasement. So long as we defend ourselves, and God accuses us, we go heavily all the day long, our hearts glowing and smouldering within; so soon as we accuse ourselves at His feet, God and all the powers of His kingdom shelter and defend us. This is our true solace and relief. Now there are two signs by which we shall know whether our confessions are the self-accusations of penitent and loving hearts. (1) The first is, that our confessions be humble; (2) the other is, that it be an honest self-accusing. Where these two signs are, we may be strong in hope that the grace of a loving and penitent heart has been bestowed by the Spirit of God.
H. E. Manning, Sermons, vol. iv., p. 135.
I. From the doctrine that God is personal, and as personal the object of love, flows out the unique character of the Christian as against other forms of penitence. For other moral systems tell us that the only true repentance consists simply and entirely in amendment of life for the future, and that all the energy which, instead, is spent in sorrow for the past, is merely a waste of labour that might be otherwise employed. “The only true repentance,” says a great philosopher, “is moral amendment.” But still, the Christian Church, in her age-long ministry to the souls of men, has gained a deeper, truer insight into the springs of human action than is possible to speculative thinkers or to average men of the world. And as the result of her thinking, she proclaims repentance based on sorrow as not only far truer, but far more fruitful in noble practice, because born of the great desire to atone for wounded love.
II. The problem of the life of penitence is how contrition may be gained. God, men say, though we believe in Him, seems very far away from us, and the sufferings of the Cross are past and over long ago. There is no present object to help me realise that I have wounded the love of God. Go back to the history recorded in my text, and see what kind of love it was which there merited forgiveness. This poor woman in her misery did not know that she was worshipping the everlasting Son of the Father, very God of very God. But she felt, as she looked and listened, that there was a presence in humanity, on which her life of sin had been an outrage and a shame; and in the rock-like shelter of that presence, overshadowing the weary world, the faded instincts of her true womanhood revived and blossomed into action; and her sins, which were many, were forgiven her; for she loved much. We are not bold enough in realising how true it is that the knowledge of God must be learned inductively from His presence among men.
III. Though contrition is only the first part of penitence, it is one of those halves that contains in itself the whole. For real contrition must express itself first in word and then in deed; and so it leads us onward to confession and satisfaction.
J. R. Illingworth, Sermons in a College Chapel, p. 90.
I. We have Christ here standing as a manifestation of the Divine love coming forth among sinners. (1) He, as bringing to us the love of God, shows it to us, as not at all dependent upon our merits or deserts. “He frankly forgave them both” are the deep words in which He would point us to the source and the ground of all the love of God. God, and God alone, is the cause and reason, the motive and the end, of His own love to our world. (2) Whilst the love of God is not caused by us, but comes from the nature of God, it is not turned away by our sins. He knew what this woman was, and therefore He let her come close to Him with the touch of her polluted hand, and pour out the gains of her lawless life and the adornments of her former corruption upon His most blessed and most holy feet. (3) Christ teaches us here that this Divine love, when it comes forth among sinners, necessarily manifests itself first in the form of forgiveness. (4) Here we see the love of God demanding service. God’s love, when it comes to men, comes that it may evoke an answering echo in the human heart, and “though it might be much bold to enjoin, yet for love’s sake it rather beseeches us to give unto Him who has given all unto us.”
II. Look next at “the woman” as the representative of a class of character-the penitent lovingly recognising the Divine love. All true love to God is preceded in the heart by these two things: a sense of sin and an assurance of pardon. There is no love possible-real, deep, genuine, worthy of being called love of God-which does not start with the belief of my own transgression, and with the thankful reception of forgiveness in Christ. (1) Love is the gate of all knowledge. (2) Love is the source of all obedience.
III. A third character stands here-the unloving and self-righteous man, all ignorant of the love of Christ. He is the antithesis of the woman and her character. Respectable in life, rigid in morality, unquestionable in orthodoxy; no sound of suspicion having ever come near his belief in all the traditions of the elders; intelligent and learned, high up among the ranks of Israel! What was it that made this man’s morality a piece of dead nothingness? This was the thing: there was no love in it. The Pharisee was contented with himself, and so there was no sense of sin in him; therefore there was no penitent recognition of Christ as forgiving and loving him, therefore there was no love to Christ.
A. Maclaren, Sermons Preached in Manchester, p. 28.
Note:-
I. That gratitude in a living heart rises with the occasion.
II. Gratitude cannot be the same in two individuals of equal spiritual sensitiveness, but of different conditions.
III. Strong gratitude is very free in its utterance. It breaks the laws of propriety which a formalist would recognise.
S. Martin, Westminster Chapel Pulpit, 2nd series, p. 147.
References: Luk 7:47.-J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1874, p. 256; E. Bickersteth, Church of England Pulpit, vol. v., p. 149; J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 1881, p. 37; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xv., p. 288; J. M. Neale, Sermons in a Religious House, vol. ii., p. 535. Luk 7:50.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. 111., p. 283; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xx., No. 1162; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xii., p. 321. Luke 7-F. D. Maurice, The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven, p. 126; Parker, Christian Commonwealth, vol. vii., p. 89. Luk 8:1.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. xiv., p. 297. Luk 8:1-3.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 230. Luk 8:1-4.-G. Macdonald, The Miracles of Our Lord, p. 87. Luk 8:2.-Preacher’s Monthly, vol. vii., p. 56. Luk 8:2, Luk 8:3.-A. Maclaren, Christian World Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 273. Luk 8:3.-J. Baines, Sermons, p. 214. Luk 8:4-H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, The Life of Duty, vol. i., p. 114. Luk 8:4, Luk 8:5.-C. Girdlestone, A Course of Sermons, vol. i., p 227. Luk 8:4-8.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi., No. 308; H. R. Haweis, Church of England Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 132. Luk 8:4-15.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 55; Ibid., vol. xvi., p. 107; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 84; A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 40. Luk 8:5.-J. B. Mozley, Sermons Parochial and Occasional, p. 141; J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College, vol. iv., p. 72. Luk 8:5-8.-Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., p. 50. Luk 8:7.-H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 44. Luk 8:8.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iv., p. 89; Homilist, new series, vol. iv., p. 233. Luk 8:10.-Homiletic Magazine, vol. x., p. 77.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 7
1. The Centurions Servant Healed. (Luk 7:1-10.)
2. The Widows Son Raised from the Dead. (Luk 7:11-17)
3. Johns Questions and the Answer. (Luk 7:18-23)
4. The Testimony Concerning John. (Luk 7:24-29)
5. The Unreasonableness of Unbelief. (Luk 7:30-35.)
6. The Woman With the Alabaster Box. (Luk 7:36-40)
7. The Parable of the Two Debtors. (Luk 7:41-50.)
Luk 7:1-10
In Matthew the healing of the Centurions servant comes after the healing of the leper. It teaches there the dispensational lesson, that the Gentiles would enter the Kingdom and the children of the Kingdom would be cast out into the outer darkness. As Luke writes for another purpose he omits Mat 8:11-12. Luke tells us that the Centurion sent the Jewish Elders first; when on the road to the Centurions house, the friends of the Centurion with the message of unworthiness, met the Lord. Some have tried to explain these differences by making the two accounts, two different miracles. This is not the case at all. The account given by Matthew is more fully explained by Luke. The Centurion first sent messengers to our Lord, and afterwards he came to speak to Him in person. Matthew relates the personal interview and Luke the message. Speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed, is a marvelous utterance of faith. The Centurion owned Him as Lord of all, with power over all. To him He is the Creator with omnipotent power. And the Lord marvelled at him. It is an evidence of His true humanity. Twice He marvelled; here at faith and in Mar 6:6 at unbelief.
Luk 7:11-17
The account of the raising of the widows son is peculiar to Luke. The story brings out the deep compassion of the Son of Man and that is why it is exclusively reported in the third Gospel. The only son of a widow had died. Here is human sorrow in the fullest sense. A widow losing her only son, her only support. He had compassion on her. How human and filled with sympathy were His words Weep not. And the second Word He spoke in touching the bier was Arise. And when the young man came back to life, He delivered him to his mother. Weep not! the word of His sympathy; Arise the word of His power. No wonder that the people declared, God hath visited His people. Elijah raised the son of a widow, but he had to humble himself and had to cry to the Lord. Elisha also raised the son of the Shunamite, but only after having stretched himself over the child. But the Lord commands and death has to release its prey at the one word. The Second Man has power to deal with sin and death and mans need is fully met.
Luk 7:18-35
John, perplexed with doubt, sends to Him two of his disciples. Honest doubt never stays away from Christ, but comes to Him for solution. The disciples beheld the miracles the Lord did at that time. Then when John had evidently made shipwreck of his witness bearing, the Lord bears witness to him. He declares the greatness of his person. (Luk 7:27-28). All this is recorded in Mat 11:2-15; but Luke gives an interesting addition. Two classes of people stood there. The people who had heard John, accepted his message of repentance and who had been baptized. They and the tax-gatherers justified God. The leaders of the nation rejected the counsels of God against them, they had testified to that by not being baptized by John.
Luk 7:36-50
The balance of this chapter is again peculiar to Luke. He is seen as the friend of sinners, who had come to seek and save that which is lost. Beautiful sight this woman so sinful, standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, so that she wet His feet with her tears! This incident must not be confounded with the similar one reported by Matthew, Mark and John; nor was the woman Mary Magdalene. She seeks shelter with her burdened soul at the feet of Him, whom the proud Pharisees called a friend of publicans and sinners. How great must have been His compassion, how marvelous His lovingkindness, that a woman could come thus in His presence. The loveliness and attractiveness of the perfect Man as the friend of sinners is here fully seen. And the proud host, the Pharisee Simon, doubts that He is a prophet, for would He then not know what kind of a woman she is! The Son of Man at once gives him the evidence of His omniscience. Not alone does He know who the woman is, but He also knows the unspoken thoughts of Simon. The parable the Lord gives to Simon explains the great love of the woman, much had been forgiven her. The consciousness of that forgiveness had produced these blessed actions of the woman. And once more she hears from the lips of the Friend of Sinners, what countless thousands have heard spoken to their hearts by His Spirit; Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Chapter 37
A Certain Centurion
Here, the Holy Spirit gives us the account of a certain centurion, his remarkable character, his great faith, and the healing of his sick servant, by the mere will of the Lord Jesus Christ. This Roman soldier said to the Lord Jesus, I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof Neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
No Discrepancy
If you read Matthews abbreviated account of this same great miracle, you will see that Matthew described the event as a conversation, which took place between the centurion and the Lord Jesus personally. Here, in Lukes narrative the Holy Spirit tells us plainly that the conversation was between the centurions friends and the Master, not between the centurion and the Master.
There is no discrepancy, or contradiction between Matthew and Luke. Perhaps, Matthew simply makes the words of the centurions representatives to be the centurions own words, which is altogether appropriate (since a representatives words are really the words of the one he represents); or it may be that the centurion first sent messengers to the Master and, afterwards, came to the Lord Jesus himself. Whatever the case may be, both Matthew and Luke wrote their narratives as honest eye witnesses, exactly as God the Holy Spirit directed them.
The Centurions Servant
Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum (Luk 7:1). When Luke tells us the Lord had ended his sayings, he is referring to the sermon he had just finished preaching (Luk 6:20-49). In that sermon our Masters message had four main points. He taught us three great truths we will be wise to learn and remember.
Those who are privileged to suffer for the gospels sake, those who suffer in this world for Christs sake are blessed (Luk 6:20-26).
Faith in Christ causes men and women to walk in love, love that is kind, generous, and forgiving (Luk 6:27-38).
Nothing in all the world is so dangerous to our souls as false religion (Luk 6:39-49). If we follow blind men in spiritual matters, we will perish with them.
The primary concern in all things spiritual is the heart. If the tree is corrupt, the fruit is corrupt, no matter how good it may look to men. If the tree is good, the fruit is good, no matter how corrupt it may appear to men. Our souls must be built upon that Foundation which God himself has laid (the Lord Jesus Christ), or our house is sure to fall.
When our Lord had finished preaching this sermon, he entered into Capernaum. He had spoken with authority. Now, he comes to Capernaum to display the efficacy of his grace.
Capernaum was exalted, elevated, and blessed above all other places (Mat 11:23), by virtue of the fact that the Lord Jesus performed more of his miraculous works in Capernaum than anywhere else. He had already healed the noblemans son there (John 4). In all probability, the centurion had heard about that great work. Perhaps he had witnessed it.
And a certain centurions servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die (Luk 7:2). Here is a centurion, a Roman soldier, who had the command of a hundred men under his authority. He was a Gentile. He was a soldier. And he was a believer. As John Bunyan put it, A Roman soldier was the first fruit of the Gentile world. Here, the Holy Spirit tells us three things about this centurions servant.
This servant was dear (held in great honour and precious) to his master. Blessed is the servant who has such a master! Words can never speak so powerfully as the experience of this centurions servant does of the great advantage and blessed privilege of living in the home of one who believes God, walks with Christ, and seeks your souls everlasting good.
This mans servant was sick, very sick. What multitudes there are in the same condition spiritually as this man was in physically. There is a plague, a death plague in the heart of man. There is a spiritual palsy in the soul (Isa 1:5-6; 1Ki 8:38).
The centurions servant was ready to die, at the very point of death. An immortal soul at the point of death, what a sobering sight! Each time we see one who is sick, or visit one who is dying we ought to be reminded of our own frailty, and ask God to give us the wisdom and grace to set our hearts upon Christ and eternity (Psa 90:12-16; Col 3:1-3).
He Heard Of Jesus
And when he heard of Jesus … (Luk 7:3) We are not told how, but somehow this centurion heard of Jesus! Perhaps he had been present to hear the sermon recorded in chapter 6. Maybe he had heard the report of the gospel from someone else. How he heard is unimportant. What is important is this. He heard of Jesus!
God sent his Word to him. God the Holy Spirit had given him hearing ears, seeing eyes and a believing heart. We have no way of knowing how much knowledge the man had. That is altogether insignificant. The thing that is significant is who he knew. He knew the Lord Jesus Christ, and he knew the one true and living God in him (Joh 17:3).
In other words, he was born of God. The only way any sinner can ever have eternal life is by knowing God (Joh 17:3). The only way we can know God is in Christ (Mat 11:27). And the only way any sinner can know Christ and believe on him unto life everlasting is by the preaching of the gospel (Rom 1:16; Rom 10:17).
The Centurion
And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue (Luk 7:3-5).
This centurion was a man of remarkable character. He was a gracious, kind, generous man. His faith was that true faith which only God can give. It was faith that worketh by love. He was a man of blameless reputation. He was a man of such magnanimous goodness in the eyes of men that the Jews did not hesitate to declare (though it betrayed their own ignorance) that he was worthy for the Son of God to give him what he asked.
He loved his servant. Many came to the Lord Jesus seeking mercy for others. One came for a son, another for a daughter, and once four for a friend; but we are told of none but this centurion who came to the Son of God seeking mercy for a servant. Not only did he love his servant, he loved his neighbours, too. He loveth our nation. And this centurion was devoted to the worship and service of God. He built a synagogue, a house of worship at Capernaum. When these Jewish leaders said, he hath built for us a synagogue, they were saying: this man has, at his own expense, by himself, built a church building and given us a place to worship the Lord our God! This mans faith was more than creeds, confessions, and rituals. He did not merely say he believed God. He lived as one who believed God. His love was not lip love, but deed love.
Kindness is something all people recognize and appreciate. Kindness adorns and commends the doctrine of God our Saviour. Kindness reflects the character of Christ. Kindness is one way to spread a little happiness in this world. Even these wretched Jewish elders (who would soon plot the murder of the Son of God) were moved by this mans kindness. Had his servant died of his sickness, he would have enjoyed the privilege of dying in the home and under the tender care of a kind friend. Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour (Eph 4:32 to Eph 5:2).
Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed (Luk 7:6-7).
This centurion was a truly humble man. Humbled by grace, he sent messengers to the Lord Jesus, saying, I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof! All who are born of God, all true believers know their unworthiness before God and confess it. Others may look at the child of God and applaud him for his deeds; but he sees himself in another light.
Here is a remarkable expression of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Say in a word, and my servant shall be healed! He acknowledged what very few understood in his day and few understand in any day: that Jesus of Nazareth is himself God Almighty in human flesh. None but God himself can heal by the mere word of his power (Psa 33:6; Psa 33:9; Psa 148:5). But there was much more to his faith than the bare acknowledgment of Christs eternal deity.
For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it (Luk 7:8). This centurion asked for no sign or wonder. He simply believed God. He here declares his implicit confidence in Christ as God and confesses his faith in him as that One in whose hands all things are but clay, the mighty King of the universe, whose command rules in heaven, earth and hell, the Monarch of all things, before whom all things (including sickness and health, life and death) are but obedient servants. He confidently bowed to the Lord Jesus, confessing his omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence as God. He believed that Man who stood on the sands of Capernaum to be the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth!
Jesus Marvelled
When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel (Luk 7:9). Only twice do we see the Lord Jesus marvelling at something. In Mar 6:6 we are told that our Saviour marvelled at the unbelief of his kinsmen. Here, he marvels at the faith of a Roman centurion. What can be more marvellous than the fact that the Son of God marvelled?
In Mar 6:6 the word marvelled implies astonishing sorrow. Here, the same word implies great admiration. Let us learn to place admiration where our Lord did, not upon the gaieties of the world sought by men, but upon the grace of God in men. Our Lord Jesus was never impressed by a persons possessions, position or power, land, learning or living, fortune, fame or family. But he admired faith. What grace this shows in him! He gives faith, and then admires the man who exercises what he has given!
And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick (Luk 7:10). A greater miracle of healing than this is nowhere recorded in holy scripture. Without even seeing this centurions servant, without so much as the touch of his hand or the look of his eye, our Lord restored the full vigour of health to a dying man! He willed it, and the disease departed!
May God give us grace, like this centurion, to believe him, to love others, to do them good, to seek the grace and mercy of God in Christ for their souls. May the Lord give us grace, like this centurion, to walk humbly before him, knowing and acknowledging to him our utter unworthiness of the very least of his favours.
Luk 7:11-17
Chapter 38
A Blessed Intrusion
On three separate occasions our Lord Jesus raised people from the dead, by his great omnipotence and grace. In John 11 he raised Lazarus from the dead, one who had been dead for four days. In the eighth chapter of Lukes gospel our Saviour raised the rulers daughter to life. But the first display of our Saviours power over death is found here in Luk 7:11-17.
We have before us a scene of great sorrow. As our Lord Jesus, his disciples, and the crowds following him came to the city of Nain, they ran into a funeral procession. A widow was taking her only son to the cemetery. When our Lord Jesus came upon this scene of woe, he stepped into the life of this widow at the time of her greatest sorrow. He intruded when no stranger ought to intrude. He stopped what no one ought to stop. He interrupted a funeral.
Oh, how I thank the Son of God for making such intrusions of grace as are portrayed in this passage! Multitudes are carried swiftly to their graves by the gaieties, glamour and glitter of the world, totally unaware of their lost and ruined condition, without feeling, without life, without hope, until the Lord Jesus Christ steps into their lives, stops their funeral processions and raises the dead by the power of his omnipotent grace! And whenever the Son of God intrudes into the lives of men and women in this world, those who experience his intrusion, bow before him in reverent fear and glorify God.
Without question, our Lords miracles display the fact of his eternal Godhead and omnipotent power; but they are intended to do much more than that. They are all designed to be pictures of his grace and salvation freely bestowed upon and wrought in chosen sinners by his omnipotent grace. This story of the funeral in Nain is designed to display:
The Consequences Of Sin
First, the scene before us displays most vividly the consequences of our sin. The wages of sin is death; and everything preceding death in this world is but the forerunner of it. All funerals are sad; but here is a picture of sadness without any mixture of pleasure. Here is a widow, burying her young son, who is her only son. Everything in the picture, until the Lord Jesus steps in, is misery, sorrow, grief and woe.
That is exactly the case with us. The corruption, depravity and sin of race are evident because ours is a race of sick, dying, sorrowful men. We live in a world of sickness and sorrow, drudgery and death, wickedness and woe, misery and mortality, because we live in a world of sin. Sin is the root and fountain of all this sorrow. Were it not for sin, the world would be free of tears and cares. Were it not for sin, there would be no sickness, no doctors, no hospitals, no courts, no prisons, no broken homes, no shattered lives, no morticians, no funerals, no cemeteries. But all these woes portray the present state of things all over the world. What a thief, what a nuisance, what a great murderer sin is (Rom 5:12); but, blessed be God, things change when Christ comes! When the Lord Jesus steps into a sinners world of woe, all that was misery before is seen to be mercy. And when he comes again, he will make all things new, and remove from his creation all the evil consequences of sin (Rev 21:1-7).
The Compassion Of Our Saviour
Second, God the Spirit here gives us a beautiful display of our Saviours compassion. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not (Luk 7:13). Oh, how deep is the compassion of our Saviours heart! None of us has yet begun to imagine how tender and compassionate our Lord Jesus is. He truly is touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He who wept with Martha and Mary at their brothers tomb is still touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
Here our Lord Jesus meets the mournful procession. As he observes what has happened and is happening, his heart is moved toward this poor woman. He does not wait for someone to ask for help. He just steps in, in sovereign mercy, and says to the woman, Weep not!
There is no friend or comforter to be compared with Christ. Perhaps those two words sounded strange to this woman, perhaps even cruel. Certainly, no one in the procession understood them; but, when the Lord Jesus says, Weep not, he takes away the cause of weeping! In all our days of darkness he is our Light. He is yet the Sun of Righteousness. And the Son of God never changes (Heb 13:8). He cannot fail. He cannot disappoint. He cannot change.
Child of God, your dear Redeemer, who made the mourning widows heart leap for joy, will yet turn your sorrow into laughter and your mourning into a song. He is a Friend who sticks closer than a brother. He lives to heal broken hearts, to mend broken lives, and wipe away all tears from our eyes; and he will do it.
The Character Of Our Sovereign
Third, this story sets before us the character of our Sovereign. Our Lord Jesus stepped in and took over. O blessed intrusion! There are those who say, God is a gentleman. He never comes in uninvited. But those who talk such nonsense are as ignorant as they are blasphemous. Thank God, he never waits for permission to intervene. He never waits for an invitation to be gracious. When God comes to save, he comes in sovereign mercy. Our sovereign God always takes the initiative in salvation. He declares, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me (Rom 10:20; Eze 16:6-8).
And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live; yea, I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, Live. I have caused thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen great, and thou art come to excellent ornaments: thy breasts are fashioned, and thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine (Eze 16:6-8).
The Conditions Of Salvation
Fourth, this event was brought to pass by Gods wise, adorable and good providence specifically to show us the conditions of our salvation. The Word of God specifically identifies certain conditions that must be met before any sinner can enter into heavenly glory in everlasting salvation.
1. The Will of God: no sinner will ever be saved except God wills it. Mans will is totally insignificant. Only the will of God matters (Joh 1:11-13; Rom 9:11-18; Joh 5:21).
2. The Word of God has ordained the salvation of his elect by the preaching of the gospel. As this young man was made to live by the word of Christ, so faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Rom 10:17; Jas 1:18; 1Pe 1:23-25).
3. The Work of God: salvation is a supernatural, irresistible work of Gods free and sovereign grace involving three mighty works of omnipotent, effectual mercy, by which the complete redemption (deliverance) of Gods elect is accomplished (1Co 1:30-31).
All who obtain Gods salvation must be ransomed from the curse of the law. That is what the Lord Jesus did for us by the sacrifice of himself at Calvary (Gal 3:13-14; 1Pe 1:18-20). But blood atonement alone takes no one to heaven. Every ransomed sinner must be delivered from the prison and grave of sin by the power of God the Holy Spirit in regeneration (Joh 5:25). None will ever be saved except Christ be formed in them, except they be made new creatures in Christ, except they be born again (Joh 3:5-7). No one has any hope of glory until he is made a partaker of the divine nature. Yet, there is another work just as necessary as the ransom of our souls by the blood of Christ and just as necessary as the new birth. Every chosen, blood-bought, heaven-born soul must be transformed in resurrection glory into the very likeness of his Saviour (Joh 5:28-29; 1Co 15:18-58; 1Th 4:13-18).
Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible
when: Mat 7:28, Mat 7:29
he entered: Mat 8:5-13
Reciprocal: Luk 10:15 – Capernaum
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
LUKE HAS JUST recorded the choice by the Lord of the twelve Apostles and also the instructions He gave them, particularly as to the gracious spirit that was to characterize them, and the reality that was to mark them. We find that He did not immediately dispatch them on their mission but retained them in His company, that they might further learn of Himself both by His words and His actions. The sending out to serve does not come till the beginning of the ninth chapter.
We have already noticed how this Gospel is characterized by the unfolding of grace. This chapter, we see, carries on this theme by showing very strikingly the extent to which grace reaches. The blessing goes out to the Gentile, to the dead, to the degraded. Moreover the way in which grace is received comes very clearly to light-by repentance and faith.
The first case recorded is that of the Gentile. The centurion showed that he accepted his place among the aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise (Eph 2:12), by sending the Jewish elders to intercede for him. The elders, true to their upbringing under the law, would have utterly spoiled grace by representing the centurion as worthy. His worthiness, according to them, consisted in his kindly attitude and acts towards themselves! This was quite typical of the Jewish mind. Instead of seeing how their own law condemned them, they treated it as a distinction conferred upon them, they became self-centred; they made themselves, and the treatment accorded to themselves, the criterion of others. Judged by their standards this Gentile was a worthy man.
The centurion himself, however, was under no illusion on the point. He confessed himself to be unworthy, and thus manifested the spirit of repentance. At the same time he manifested remarkable faith in the grace and power of the Lord. He held a minor position of authority in the military organization of Rome, yet his power was absolute in his own small circle. He discerned in the Lord One who wielded authority in a vastly greater domain, and he was confident that a word from Him would effect all that was needed. Our language should be similar to his. It is enough that He should say in a word, and we need nothing beside. The faith that simply takes Him at His word, without reasonings, feelings or experiences, is great faith according to our Lord. We see moreover how intimately faith and repentance are connected. They go hand in hand.
From this case we pass to that of the dead man, being carried out of Nain to the grave. Here faith is not visible at all: His compassions and His action fill the scene. Grace and authority are equally and harmoniously displayed. Divine compassion shone forth in the words, Weep not, uttered to the sorrowing mother. His authority was displayed, in that the moment He touched the bier the whole funeral procession came to a standstill. Then His word of power brought the young man back to life.
Here is One who speaks, and the dead obey Him. I say unto thee, Arise. Who is this I? We may well ask this question. The people evidently asked it, and they decided that God had raised up a great prophet in their midst, and tidings of these things reached as far as to John the Baptist in his prison. Now a question, as to who He was after all, was at that time uppermost in Johns mind, so this incident as to Johns messengers comes in very appropriately at this juncture.
Verses Luk 7:19-35 seem to be a kind of parenthesis in which we are shown that the display of power exercised in grace, and not in outward pomp, is the proof of the presence of the Messiah. The messengers of John were permitted to see ample proofs of that gracious power. They saw Him doing what Isa 61:1 had said He would do. That was ample proof of who He was.
Then, turning to the people when Johns messengers were gone, He pointed out that John himself, His forerunner, had not been a mere nonentity, nor had he come in pomp and luxury. His whole mission had been strictly in keeping with the character of the One whom he announced, who was infinitely great and yet come in lowly grace. He designated John as a prophet so great that there was none greater than he. This of course at once showed that when the people spoke of Christ Himself as a great prophet they were falling far short of the truth concerning Him.
As far as John was concerned, though so great, the one that should be least in the coming kingdom of God would be greater than he-not morally, but in the position that would be his. Morally John was very great indeed, and his testimony of such importance that mens destiny was determined by their attitude towards it. The publicans and sinners accepted it, and, thus justifying God, were led ultimately to Christ. The Pharisees and lawyers rejected it, and in due course they rejected Christ. Verse Luk 7:28 can only be understood as we distinguish between that moral greatness, which depends upon a mans character, and the greatness which springs from the position into which God may be pleased to call us, which varies in different dispensations.
The Lord now gives in a striking little parable the character of the unbelieving generation that surrounded Him. They were like petulant children who were agreeable to nothing; neither the gay nor the grave would they accept. So the Jews would not bow to the searching testimony of John, nor would they rejoice in the gracious ministry of Jesus. They denounced the one as being possessed by a demon, and falsely criticised the Other. Still there were those who discerned the Divine wisdom in both testimonies, and these were the true children of wisdom.
In the incident which closes this chapter we have all this most strikingly exemplified. Simon, the Pharisee, was amongst the critics, whom nothing pleased, though he invited Jesus to a meal in his house. The poor woman of the city was one of those who justified Jesus, and thereby she proved herself to be a true child of wisdom, and also she herself was justified.
The sorrow and contrition of the woman was nothing to the proud Pharisee. Satisfied with himself he was critical of Jesus, imputing to Him the feelings which he would have entertained toward such a person. As a result he felt sure that Jesus was no prophet at all. Verse Luk 7:16 has shown us that the common people at least thought that He was a prophet, and a great one; Simon had not got as far as that. They had a glimmer of light; he was totally blind, for false religion is the most blinding thing on earth. However, the Lord quickly gave Simon a sample of the mighty prophetic powers that He possessed.
Simon only spake within himself. He thought that Jesus had no discernment as to the woman. The Lord at once showed him that He knew his hypocrisy, and read his secret thoughts, by propounding to him the parable of the two debtors. One debtor was involved in liabilities ten times mater than the other; yet, since neither had any assets, both were equally bankrupt. And the creditor treated them alike; there was forgiving mercy for both. This parable was intended to bring home to Simon that though his sins might be fewer than the womans, he too was utterly insolvent and he needed forgiving mercy just as she did.
Now debtors do not usually love their creditors, yet a sense of the grace that forgives does provoke love, and even Simon could judge rightly as to this. But then, the application was easy. Simon had studiously refrained from offering the Lord the most ordinary courtesies according to the customs of those days. Neither the water for His feet, nor the kiss of welcome, nor the oil for the head had been forthcoming. He had received the Lord in a way that amounted to offering Him an insult; yet the poor woman had made up for it all in abundant measure. He had no sense of guilt, and no love for the One who came in the grace of forgiveness: she had a true and deep repentance, coupled with faith in Jesus, and a fervent love for Him.
So we see how grace flows out to the degraded, and again we see how repentance and faith go hand in hand: they are like the obverse and reverse of a single coin. The grace that flowed out to this woman is the more striking inasmuch as it reached her in a purely spiritual way. She did not come with bodily ills and distresses to be cured; her ills were spiritual; her burden was that of her sins. Grace bestowed upon her an abundant forgiveness, and Simon was plainly told that such was the case.
But the Lord did not only speak of her forgiveness to the Pharisee, He also dealt with her personally as to it. What balm for her weary spirit must have been those four words, Thy sins are forgiven. The saints of earlier days brought the appropriate sacrifice for each trespass or sin, and then knew that the particular sin was forgiven; they hardly knew such a complete absolution as the words of Jesus gave to her. The onlookers might well ask, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? God was here in the fulness of grace in the humbled Saviour.
Not only did He forgive, He gave the woman the assurance of salvation, and also declared that her faith had been the means of it. Apart from this word, she might have imagined that it had been procured by her sorrow or her tears. But no: faith it is that establishes the all-essential contact with the Saviour which brings salvation. She could indeed Go in peace, for she not only had forgiveness, which covered all her past, but salvation, which meant a deliverance from the evil that had enslaved her. This is what grace accomplishes.
Fuente: F. B. Hole’s Old and New Testaments Commentary
1
His sayings refers to the ones in the preceding chapter. Caper-naum was the city that Jesus adopted as his residence after leaving Nazareth (Mat 4:13).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
THESE verses describe the miraculous cure of a sick man. A centurion, or officer in the Roman army, applies to our Lord on behalf of his servant, and obtains what he requests. A greater miracle of healing than this, is nowhere recorded in the Gospels. Without even seeing the sufferer, without touch of hand or look of eye, our Lord restores health to a dying man by a single word. He speaks, and the sick man is cured. He commands, and the disease departs. We read of no prophet or apostle, who wrought miracles in this manner. We see here the finger of God!
We should notice in these verses the kindness of the centurion. It is a part of his character which appears in three ways. We see it in his treatment of his servant. He cares for him tenderly when sick, and takes pains to have him restored to health. We see it again in his feeling towards the Jewish people. He did not despise them as other Gentiles commonly did. The elders of the Jews bear this strong testimony, “He loveth our nation.”-We see it lastly in his liberal support of the Jewish place of worship at Capernaum. He did not love Israel “in word and tongue only, but in deed.” The messengers he sent to our Lord supported their petition by saying, “He hath built us a synagogue.”
Now where did the centurion learn this kindness? How can we account for one who was a heathen by birth, and a soldier by profession, showing such a spirit as this? Habits of mind like these were not likely to be gathered from heathen teaching, or promoted by the society of a Roman camp. Greek and Latin philosophy would not recommend them. Tribunes, consuls, prefects and emperors would not encourage them.-There is but one account of the matter. The centurion was what he was “by the grace of God.” The Spirit had opened the eyes of his understanding, and put a new heart within him. His knowledge of divine things no doubt was very dim. His religious views were probably built on a very imperfect acquaintance with the Old Testament Scriptures. But whatever light from above he had, it influenced his life, and one result of it was the kindness which is recorded in this passage.
Let us learn a lesson from the centurion’s example. Let us, like him, show kindness to everyone with whom we have to do. Let us strive to have an eye ready to see, and a hand ready to help, and a heart ready to feel, and a will ready to do good to all. Let us be ready to weep with them that weep, and rejoice with them that rejoice. This is one way to recommend our religion, and make it beautiful before men. Kindness is a grace that all can understand.-This is one way to be like our blessed Savior. If there is one feature in His character more notable than another, it is His unwearied kindness and love.-This is one way to be happy in the world, and see good days. Kindness always brings its own reward. The kind person will seldom be without friends.
We should notice, secondly, in this passage, the humility of the centurion. It appears in his remarkable message to our Lord when He was not far from his house: “I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:-neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee.”-Such expressions are a striking contrast to the language used by the elders of the Jews. “He is worthy,” said they, “for whom thou shouldest do this.”-“I am not worthy,” says the good centurion, “that thou shouldest enter under my roof.”
Humility like this is one of the strongest evidences of the indwelling of the Spirit of God. We know nothing of it by nature, for we are all born proud. To convince us of sin, to show us our own vileness and corruption, to put us in our right place, to make us lowly and self-abased,-these are among the principal works which the Holy Ghost works in the soul of man. Few of our Lord’s sayings are so often repeated as the one which closes the parable of the Pharisee and Publican: “Every one that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” (Luk 18:14.) To have great gifts, and do great works for God, is not given to all believers. But all believers ought to strive to be clothed with humility.
We should notice, thirdly, in this passage, the centurion’s faith. We have a beautiful example of it in the request that he made to our Lord: “Say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.” He thinks it needless for our Lord to come to the place where his servant lay dying. He regards our Lord as one possessing authority over diseases, as complete as his own authority over his soldiers, or a Roman Emperor’s authority over himself. He believes that a word of command from Jesus is sufficient to send sickness away. He asks to see no sign or wonder. He declares his confidence that Jesus is an almighty Master and King, and that diseases, like obedient servants, will at once depart at His orders.
Faith like this was indeed rare when the Lord Jesus was upon earth. “Show us a sign from heaven,” was the demand of the sneering Pharisees. To see something wonderful was the great desire of the multitudes who crowded after our Lord. No wonder that we read the remarkable words, “Jesus marveled at him,” and said unto the people, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” None ought to have been so believing as the children of those who were led through the wilderness, and brought into the promised land. But the last was first and the first last. The faith of a Roman soldier proved stronger than that of the Jews.
Let us not forget to walk in the steps of this blessed spirit of faith which the centurion here exhibited. Our eyes do not yet behold the book of life. We see not our Savior pleading for us at God’s right hand. But have we the word of Christ’s promises? Then let us rest on it and fear nothing. Let us not doubt that every word that Christ has spoken shall be made good. The word of Christ is a sure foundation. He that leans upon it shall never be confounded. Believers shall all be found pardoned, justified, and glorified at the last day. “Jesus says so,” and therefore it shall be done.
We should notice, finally, in these verses, the advantage of being connected with godly families. We need no clearer proof of this than the case of the centurion’s servant. We see him cared for in sickness. We see him restored to health through his master’s intercession. We see him brought under Christ’s notice through his master’s faith. Who can tell but the issue of the whole history, was the conversion and salvation of the man’s soul? It was a happy day for that servant, when he first took service in such a household!
Well would it be for the Church, if the benefits of connection with the “household of faith,” were more frequently remembered by professing Christians. Often, far too often, a Christian parent will hastily place his son in a position where his soul can get no good, for the sake of mere worldly advantage. Often, far too often, a Christian servant will seek a new place where religion is not valued, for the sake of a little more wages. These things ought not so to be. In all our moves, our first thought should be the interest of our souls. In all our settlements, our chief desire should be to be connected with godly people. In all our scheming and planning, for ourselves or our children, one question should ever be uppermost in our minds: “What shall it profit to gain the whole world, and lose our own souls?” Good situations, as they are called, are often godless situations, and ruin to all eternity those who take them.
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Notes-
v1.-[Into Capernaum.] Let it be remembered that a remarkable miracle of healing had already been worked at Capernaum in the cure of the ruler’s son, described at the end of the fourth chapter of John. This cure was distinct from that described here. The Centurion had in all probability heard of it. Few places, let it be noted, witnessed more of our Lord’s miracles than Capernaum. This circumstance probably throws light on our Lord’s expression, “Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven.” (Mat 11:23.)
v2.-[A certain Centurion’s servant.] Some things in the history of this miracle call for remarks, which, for convenience sake, may be made here.
The Centurion spoken of, was evidently a Gentile by birth. This is manifest from our Lord’s expression, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”
In a Roman soldier such faith and love as we see here described, were very extraordinary. “A Roman soldier,” says Bunyan, “was the first fruit of the-Gentile world.”-“Even the bloody trade of war,” says Bishop Hall, “yielded worthy clients to Christ. This Roman captain had learned to believe in that Jesus whom many Jews despised. No nation, no trade, can shut out a good heart from God. If he was a foreigner in birth, yet he was a domestic in heart.” It is worthy of remark, that neither here, nor in the case of soldiers who came to John the Baptist, nor in the case of Cornelius in the Acts, do we find the slightest hint that the profession of a soldier is unlawful in the sight of God. On the contrary, both here and in the history of such men as Colonel Gardiner and General Havelock, we see proof that God can give much grace to soldiers, and put much honour on them.
The Centurion’s conduct towards his servant, is very noteworthy. When we remember the position of servants in Gentile households, his care and kindness towards this servant are a strong evidence of the grace which he possessed.
v3.-[He sent unto him the elders.] Bishop Hall observes here: “Great variety of visitors resorted to Christ. One comes to Him for a son; another for a daughter; a third for himself. I see none come to Him for his servant but this one Centurion. Neither was he a better man than a master. His servant is sick: he doth not drive him out of doors, but lays him at home; neither doth he stand gazing by his bedside, but seeks forth; he seeks forth not to physicians but to Christ. Had the master been sick the faithfullest servant could have done no more. He is unworthy to be well served that will not sometimes wait upon his followers.”
v5.-[He hath built us a synagogue.] The English version here can hardly be said to give the full sense of the Greek. The meaning is, “He hath himself built us a synagogue;” that is, at his own expense and charges.
v6.-[Sent friends to him.] In the parallel passage in Matthew, both here and in the beginning of the narrative, the centurion is represented as coming to our Lord in person, and not by the intervention of messengers or friends. This variation in the two accounts has induced some to think that Matthew and Luke are describing two different miracles. This view is ingeniously defended by Flacius Illyricus. But there seems no sufficient ground for it. Matthew’s account of the miracle is evidently shorter, and more abridged than that of Luke, and he may perhaps speak of the Centurion as doing some things himself which a more full and complete narrative shows that he did by others. “This,” says Trench, “is an exchange of persons, of which all historical narrations, and all the language of common life, is full.”-It is highly probable, however, that the narratives of both the Gospels are literally accurate, and do not require the explanation just given. In all probability the Centurion first sent messengers to our Lord, and afterwards went to speak to Him in person. Matthew relates the personal interview, and Luke the message. On this view both accounts are true, and do not clash with one another.
Apparent discrepancies between the Gospel narratives, be it noted, are often explainable in this way. Common fairness should make us remember that two men in daily life may describe the same event, and both speak the truth, and yet their accounts may not be precisely the same. And the reason of it is simply this. One man dwells on one circumstance of the story and the other on another. Each brings out his own point more fully than the other. Yet each speaks truth.
The slightly varying accounts which two faithful historians give of the same public events, and the slightly varying evidence which two honest witnesses will often give in a court of justice about the same facts, are striking illustrations of what I mean. In short, an entire sameness in the stories told by two separate witnesses is sometimes in itself suspicious, because it looks like concert, collusion, and an attempt to deceive.
[Trouble not thyself.] The Greek word so translated is only used three times in the New Testament: here, and at Mar 5:35, and Luk 8:49; and each time in the same sense, as descriptive of persons giving unnecessary trouble and fatigue to our Lord.
v7.-[Say in a word.] The Portuguese Commentator, Barradius, has some striking remarks on this expression of the Centurion’s. He says, “This is a peculiar attribute of God’s, to be able to do all things by a word and a command. ‘He spake and they were made;’ ‘He commanded and they were created.’ (Psa 148:5.) Read the book of Genesis. You will see the world created by the word of God: ‘God said, Let there be light, and there was light.’ ‘God said, Let there be a firmament,’ and a firmament was made,” &c. He then shows by a quotation from Augustine, how all the created beings in existence, whether kings, or angels, or seraphims, cannot create so much as an ant. But when God says, “Let the world be made,” at once it is made by a word. And he concludes, “Well therefore does the Centurion say, ‘say in a word only, and my servant shall be healed.’ “
v9.-[He marvelled at him.] There are two occasions where it is recorded that our Lord Jesus Christ “marvelled,” once in this history, and once in Mar 6:6. It is remarkable that in one case He is described as marvelling at “faith,” and in the other as marvelling at “unbelief.” Bishop Hall, and Burkitt after him, both observe, “What can be more wonderful than to see Christ wonder?”
The expression is one of those which show the reality of our Lord’s human nature. He was made like unto us in all things, sin only excepted. As man He grew in wisdom and stature. As man He hungered, thirsted, was weary, ate, drank, slept, wept, sorrowed, rejoiced, groaned, agonized, bled, suffered and died. And so also as man He wondered. Yet all this time He was very and eternal God, one with the Father, and the Saviour of the world. This is a great mystery,, and one which we cannot fathom. The union of two natures in one Person, is a thing passing our weak comprehension. We must believe and admire, without attempting to define or explain.
In the case in Mark the marvelling is evidently a marvelling of sorrow. In the case before us it is a marvelling of admiration. Burkitt remarks, “Let it teach us to place our admiration where Christ placed His. Let us be more affected with the least measure of grace in a good man, than with all the gaieties and glories of a great man.” Our Lord, be it remembered, did not marvel at the gorgeous and beautiful buildings of the Jewish temple. But he did marvel at faith.
Fuente: Ryle’s Expository Thoughts on the Gospels
Luk 7:1-10. THE HEALING OP THE CENTURIONS SERVANT. See on Mat 8:5-13. Lukes account is fuller and more accurate as regards the messengers of the centurion, but Matthew gives at length the language of our Lord occasioned by the centurions faith.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Subdivision 2. (Luk 7:1-50; Luk 8:1-21.)
The Word as the Ministry of Salvation.
We have now the Word as that by which the ministry of salvation is effected; the language being still often; as that of the synoptic Gospels so much is, symbolic, and the healing of the body illustrative of that deeper spiritual healing which it is so well qualified to picture to us, and which is so in the mind of the Spirit to keep before us. This fuller blessing, without which there is none, comes moreover continually into more open view, and its features are revealed with growing fulness.
1. The two narratives with which this part opens show us in the most striking way the power of the divine Word as Christ utters it. The first is the story of the centurion in whom the Lord finds greater faith than He had found in Israel: a faith which owns the Lord’s supremacy, whether present or absent, over all the powers of nature which are obedient to His will. The second is that of the raising of the widow’s son at Nain, which shows that giving way to His word which is the stamp upon the fallen creature; the removal of which is the significant pledge of power come in able to deliver from the condition itself of which it is the stamp. Here then; is indeed a “word living and powerful,” as the epistle to the Hebrews calls it (Heb 4:12), and ready as well as competent to meet man’s need.
(1) Matthew gives us the healing of the centurion’s servant, but in another connection; and with certain differences, which have occasioned question. For Luke represents not only the elders of the Jews as first sent with prayer that Jesus would come and heal the sick man, but that, while He is upon the road, the friends of the centurion are sent with a second message, which excuses his not coming in person by his felt unworthiness. In Matthew we are told the centurion came; but his words are to the same effect as those of his friends in Luke. It seems, therefore, that the account in the former is to be explained by the latter: the Gentile Gospel taking care to show fully the humble place that the Gentile took, both in making use of the Jewish elders, and in not actually coming to the Lord Himself. The faith at which the Lord wonders is related in both; while the Jewish writer it is who gives, and in fullest accord with the dispensational character of his book, the warning to the Jews of the rejection of children of the Kingdom, while those of the nations should come in from every quarter to partake in its blessings with the patriarchs of Israel.
The Roman soldier sees everywhere in the world the law and order which Rome so emphasized. But he sees it to draw an argument from it for the absolute authority of Him whom his faith owns as having supreme power over all the powers of nature. He himself, only a man under authority, could speak and be obeyed; it needed not, then; the presence of Jesus -He needed not to put His own hand to the work, when all things served Him. We have only to compare the wonder of His disciples when He calmed the the sea of Galilee, to realize how indeed the faith of the Gentile surpassed that of the Lord’s nearest and chosen followers.
(2) The story of Nain is found in Luke only. Nain means “pleasant,” what the world was as God made it; what it is still naturally to the natural man. But at the gate of it, carried out, is a dead man, death being still the way out of the world, as it is the shadow over it. The widowed mother, whose only son he is, and the sympathetic crowd that follows, show in how many ways death affects the survivors. The consequences of it, which lie in another world, are not introduced into this picture, but man’s conscience will not allow him to forget them: “the sting of death is sin,” which threatens the soul with judgment.
Thus the pleasant world is become the “valley of death-shade,” and as such Christ has come to it in His infinite compassion; as He comes here to Nain. To the sorrowing mother He says, “Weep not,” and His is no fruitless sympathy. He touches the bier, as touch it Himself He must, by His death to give His word power over it. Then the word is spoken which abolishes it, and the dead man rises. He “sat up and began to speak; and He gave him to his mother.”
Here, then, is man’s need fully met, the judgment which is upon him, all that sin and death imply, has found a remedy. The people fear, and glorify God; and the word goes out throughout all Judea that a great prophet is risen up, and God hath visited His people: a testimony true indeed, but quite below the wondrous truth as to His Person who was there.
2. The twofold testimony of God which man needs and which God has provided is now shown us in John and the Lord: John the preacher of repentance, the witness to man’s condition; the summing up of the Old Testament controversy with man; while pointing forward, as the Old Testament did, to Him who was to come; Christ the Bringer of salvation; the New Testament Voice, the Manifester of God to men; and who opens the way to God for men.
Repentance and faith are the double answer to this double testimony, though neither of these can exist without the other. They are the backward and forward glances of the soul, and which are at the same time its downward and upward ones. Or, conversion being the “turning round” of man, repentance is the back turned upon self, as faith is the face turned toward God in Christ. Repentance is as inseparable, therefore, from faith, as faith is from repentance.
The testimony of John and of Christ come in; then; in this place with perfect naturalness; and in the contrast between them their accord is manifest. In both, divine wisdom will be justified by her children; and the refusal of the one will be seen; as in Israel’s case, to be the refusal of the other.
(1) But first we have to see the Baptist in his prison perplexed with doubt, as to which he sends two of his disciples to Christ, that He may satisfy it. “Art Thou the One that is coming?” is his question; “or wait we for another?” Honest doubt never stays away from Christ, but comes to Him for solution. The Lord points him to the works which at that very time He was doing, the power of God being manifested in various goodness, while the gospel-tidings were being given to the poor. Not wonders alone were evidence, but wonders that were “signs” -significant of the nature and power of Him from whom they proceeded. While all the time the sweet gospel invitation addressed itself to the needy, most Godlike in coming lowest down.
The Lord adds one gentle word for the conscience of His fore-runner: “And blessed is he who shall not be stumbled by Me.” (See pp. 122, 123, notes.)
(2) The messengers departed with this, and now, when John may seem to have failed entirely in his witness, the Lord bears witness to him. Be it that he had failed, was it in vain that crowds had gone out into the wilderness after him? Was he then but a reed shaken with the wind? Was he a courtier of men; clothed in soft raiment? did they look for such in the wilderness, rather than in the courts of kings? Certainly, his whole life proved him far other than these. But what was it, then; that drew men after him? Was he a prophet? Yea, says the Lord, and more than a prophet: he was one of whom the prophet had spoken; as the messenger of God before Messiah’s face, to prepare His way before Him.
Such then was John, the prepares for the Kingdom of God; as great in this position as any of women born; yet the one comparatively little, actually in the Kingdom thus announced, would be greater than he. (See pp. 123, 124, notes.)
But in fact John’s message had been rejected by the leaders of the nation; the Pharisees and lawyers, while only those classed by these as “sinners” had heard and been baptized by him. These owned the righteousness of God in pressing upon them through John their need of repentance; but the others rejected for themselves the counsel of God, and were not baptized of him. Thus a remnant only of the people, and these the outcasts, were ready for the grace which now addressed itself to them. As to that generation at large, they could only be compared to children sitting in the market-place, triflers who would have had John dance to their piping, and the Lord and His disciples weep when they mourned. They understood not, for they were too careless to understand, either the one or the other. To them John was but a demoniac; Christ a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, to be judged according to the company He kept. The children of wisdom alone justified wisdom’s ways: and who, then; were these children of wisdom? The answer to this is given us in what immediately follows now.
3. That which follows is one of those stories peculiar to Luke and characterizing it, the story of the woman in the Pharisee’s house: the woman a “sinner;” the Pharisee one of those “ninety and nine just persons” of whom the Lord afterwards speaks, and whom He puts there in contrast with the “lost.” Here it is the Pharisee who invites the contrast.
They had called Him the “Friend of sinners.” We see here how truly He was that, and in what manner: what sinners gained from that wondrous friendship. We see a spiritual transformation wrought, and wisdom justified in a child of wisdom, a sinner transformed. We see how sanctification comes from salvation, or, indeed, is the internal part of it; and that there is nothing holier than the gospel grace.
Asked by a Pharisee to eat with him, Jesus enters the house and takes His place at table. And there it is -strange place for such a meeting -a woman in the city who is a sinner, having heard that He is in the house, draws near and stands behind Him weeping, her tears falling upon His feet. With the hairs of her head she wipes them off, and kissing His feet, anoints them with the ointment which she has brought with her.
Sinner she is, yet the knowledge of it does not keep her back; rather it gives her boldness to be there where of all places, perhaps, she would find the most unsparing judgment. But His shield shall be over her -the Friend of sinners: how differently does that sound to her, and to the Pharisee whose house she has entered!
Indeed he is already astir, his mind drawing its conclusion against One who can permit the familiarity that a woman like this is showing. But even He, he reasons, must be ignorant of her character. A prophet would have known; but a prophet could not have permitted defilement such as this. The Lord answers his unspoken thoughts and makes him judge of himself as compared with this woman whom he condemns; a sinner, truly, but a forgiven sinner. Surely, he too could not deny himself to be a sinner! and if so, did he not know for himself the sweet sanctifying power of forgiveness, -the outflow of heart to God who has forgiven? Perhaps, indeed, he had not sinned as she: could God then forgive the debt of fifty pence, but not the five hundred? And if to her the larger debt had been remitted, could he not recognize in these tears, this abandonment of ecstatic emotion, in contrast with his own cold treatment of the Guest he had invited, the sense of that larger debt which made her in a Pharisee’s eyes a sinner indeed?
But remitted! Yes, it was the consciousness of that remission which had wrought in her after this manner. Even he should understand -could understand in the case of a common debtor; though himself having been forgiven little, he loved but little.
Thus the Pharisee is set in the light of God, and his inmost heart searched out, while He who reveals Himself in doing this, openly takes the place which the woman’s faith before had given Him, and confirms to her that which she in her simplicity had appropriated already. “And He said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.” If they murmur at His words, only the more positively does He reiterate them: “And He said unto the woman; Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.”
4. (1) We have seen; then, the power of the Word in the soul of one that receives it; all the more that, as we saw her first, she had as yet bad no word distinctly addressed to herself to assure her of the blessing which she grasps with such effect. We now go on to see how the fruits produced characterize the reception of it, -how the seed tests the soil. This is shown in that familiar parable of the Sower, which we have had already in the two previous Gospels, here given a slightly abbreviated form, and without the parables which accompany it in them. As an introduction to it, however, we are shown as fruit of the Word the company of disciples who now follow the Lord, and some of whom minister to Him of their substance. It is here first we find those faithful women who follow Him to the cross itself, and at the sepulchre greet Him first in resurrection. Their own deliverance has attached them to Him, and He on His part receives their services, emancipating them from the harsh restrictions of Rabbinism, which put the woman into a not merely inferior but a degraded place. The twelve are also with Him, and throughout all Galilee, with the testimony of word and work, goes also that of the new communion of faith and love which Christianity was fully and universally to establish.
(2, 3) People gather together to Him out of every city around; and in the midst of such a multitude it is that the Lord searches out the heart (as so commonly He does where the crowds follow Him) by the parable of the Sower.
No fruit is to be got from man for God, except as the word of God produces it; but with the same seed and the same Sower, how different are the results! The devil, the flesh, and the world are in triple league against God and His word, and man is traitor to himself in listening to them. All this, however, has been already dwelt upon. The closing verses are substantially as in Mark (4: 22-25).
(4) The following verses are also in both the other Synoptists, though here somewhat briefer and in different connection. They complete, in the place in which they stand in Luke, G the view of the relation of the word of God to salvation and fruitfulness for God, and carry us on in principle to Christianity, which develops and manifests this.
Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary
HIS FAME SPREADING
THE CENTURIONS SERVANT (Luk 7:1-10)
Matthew describes the centurion as personally entreating our Lord (Mat 8:5-13), but Luke tells how he first approached him through the Jewish elders and then through other friends.
THE WIDOW OF NAIN (Luk 7:11-17)
THE WIDOW OF NAIN (Luk 7:11-17) is a story original with Luke. Note that no appeal was made to our Lord in this case, but that His compassion was awakened by the sight itself. This was probably the first occasion when He raised the dead, which accounts for the effect and testimony in Luk 7:16-17.
CHRISTS WITNESS TO JOHN THE BAPTIST (Luk 7:18-35)
As the fame of the wonder-worker spread it reached John the Baptist in prison (compare Luk 3:19). For Johns doubts and our Lords discourse concerning him see Matthew 11.
THE WOMAN WHO WAS A SINNER (Luk 7:36-50)
The Pharisee was willing to show Jesus the outward honor of an invitation for selfish reasons, but had no love for Him, as his treatment showed. Houses in the east had easy access, and on occasions when distinguished rabbis were entertained, outsiders were admitted to listen to the conversation. Reclining at the table with the feet extended outward, made possible the action of this woman. It was grace in her that drew her to Jesus as her Savior, hence she had already been forgiven ere she washed His feet. In other words, as the latter part of Luk 7:47 shows, she was not forgiven because she loved, but she loved because she was forgiven. It is solemnly suggestive that she was the only one in that company to whom such an announcement of forgiveness was made. They all heard it, including the host, but none seemed to desire it for himself.
THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER (Luk 8:4-15)
Before reaching this parable it is pleasant to read of the woman ministering of their substance not to Jesus only, but to them, i.e., He and His disciples (Luk 8:2-3 RV). Compare this with the earlier suffering and need in the cornfield. We pass over the parable because of our comment in Matthew, but add a remark of Stuart, that in Matthew the fruitful ones hear and understand; in Mark they hear and receive; in Luke they hear and keep. These words are alike in that to understand, receive, and keep the Word are all requisite to fruit-bearing.
IN THE GERASENE COUNTRY (Luk 8:26-39)
The remaining incidents of the chapter have been touched upon in the other Gospels, but we pause at the visit to the Gerasene country. A practical thought has been suggested to us here: if men can be the mouthpiece of demons, why should it be difficult to believe that a man may be the mouthpiece of the Spirit of God? Matthew speaks of two men though Mark and Luke call attention to only one. Was it because of this ones subsequent request (Luk 8:38)? What a contrast in this he presents to the other people of that country! They wished Jesus to depart, but he wished to go with Him. Salvation makes all the difference as to whether one desires the Lords presence or not. But the Lord wanted a witness in Gerasene and could not spare this man to come with Him (Luk 8:39). Does the mans work afterward explain what Mark says of this country at a later time (Mar 7:31-37)?
QUESTIONS
1. How does Lukes account of the centurions action differ from Matthew?
2. How is the raising of the son of the widow of Nain distinguished?
3. How could the incident of Luk 7:36-50 occur in Simons house?
4. What three things are necessary in a Christian to fruit-bearing?
5. What desire does salvation awaken in the human heart?
Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary
In our Saviour’s miraculous cure of the centurion’s servant, we have several particulars very observable:
1. The person applying himself to our blessed Saviour for help and healing: he was a Gentile, an Heathen, a Roman soldier, an officer and commander; yet he believes in, and relies upon the power of Christ.
Note, that such is the freeness of divine grace, that it extends itself to all sorts and ranks, to all orders and degrees of men, without exception; even the bloody trade of war yields worthy clients to Christ: he does not so much regard what we are and which we are, as with what dispositions and the desires, with what purposes and inclinations, we come unto him.
Observe, 2. The person whom the centurion came to Christ for: not for himself, nor for his own, but for his servant. His servant was sick; he does not drive him out of doors, nor stand gazing by his bedside, but looks out for help and relief for him: a worthy example of humanity! Some masters have not so much regard to their sick servants as they have to their oxen and their swine. But he is not worthy of a good servant that in a time of sickness is not willing to serve his servant.
Observe, 3. Unto whom the centurion seeks, and with what zeal and application; he seeks not to wizards and conjurers, but to the physician, for his sick servant; yea, to Christ, the chief Physician; and this not with a formal relation in his mouth, but with a vehement aggravation of his disease. My servant lies sick of the palsy, grievously tormented, Mat 8:6 Where the master’s condolency, and tender sympathy, with his afflicted servant, is both matter of commendation and imitation.
Observe, 4. The happy mixture of humility and faith which was found in this centurion. See his wonderful humility in not thinking himself worthy to come into Christ’s presence, or that Christ should come under his roof. The best men have always the lowest thoughts of themselves; when we esteem ourselves unworthy of any favors, Christ accounts us worthy of all.
See also his faith in Christ’s divine power; he believed that Christ was able at a distance, and by a single word, to command off the distemper of his servant; he tells him, that diseases were as much at Christ’s command, as his servants were at his command.
Humility, we see, is both the fruit of faith, and the companion of faith. An humble soul has evermore an high esteem of Christ’s power, and a low esteem of itself.
Observe, 5. How our blessed saviour exceeds not only the centurion’s desires, but his expectations. Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. Mat 8:7.
O wonderful condescension. In Joh 4:47 we read of a certain nobleman and ruler that twice entreated our Saviour to come to his house and heal his son, but our Lord refused. Here the centurion does but barely tell Christ of his poor servant’s sickness, and Christ, both unasked and undesired, says, I will come and heal him.
O how far is Christ from seeming in the least to honor riches and despise poverty! He that came in the form of a servant goes down to visit a sick servant upon his poor pallet bed, who did not come near the rich couch of the ruler’s son.
Observe, 6. The notice and observation which our Saviour takes of the centurion’s faith: he wondered at it from him. Admiration agreed not to Christ as God, but as man it did. Christ wrought faith as God, and wondered at it as man. What can be more wonderful than to see Christ wonder? We find not our Saviour wondering at worldy pomp and greatness: when the disciples wondered at the magnificence and stately buildings of the temple, Christ rather rebuked them than wondered with them; but when he sees the gracious act and exercise of fatih, he is ravished with wonder.
Let it teach us to place our admiration where Christ fixes his; let us be more affected with the least measure of grace in a good man, than with all the gaities and glories of a great man; let us not envy the one, but admire and imitate the other.
Observe, lastly, Christ does not only admire the centurion’s faith, but publishes it: Verily I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel; that is, amongst the generality of the Jewish nation.
For, as to particular persons, several had showed a greater faith that this, as Joseph and Mary. This expression lets us know, that where the means of faith are but small, the nobler act and exercise of faith are wonderful and soul amazing.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Luk 7:1-10. When he had ended all his sayings Namely, those contained in the preceding chapter; in the audience of the people For though his discourse was immediately addressed to his disciples, he delivered it in the hearing of the people who stood round him in the plain; he entered into Capernaum Near which town the plain was in which he had preached. And a certain centurions servant was sick See some of the circumstances of the miracle explained on Mat 8:5-10. And when he heard of Jesus Of his miracles and of his arrival at Capernaum; he sent unto him the elders of the Jews Magistratus oppidi, aut prpositos synagog, either the magistrates of the town, or the rulers of the synagogue. Grotius. For, as it was anciently the custom of the Jews to intrust the management of public affairs to persons advanced in years, as having most wisdom and experience, they called all who discharged those offices elders, even when, in later times, they were admitted to them without any regard to their age at all. It is plain, from the more circumstantial account here given of this miracle by Luke, than that given by Matthew, that when the latter says, There came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, &c., he is not to be understood as signifying that the centurion came in person, but only by his messengers. Indeed, it is usual in all languages, especially in the Hebrew, to ascribe to a person himself the things which are done, and the words which are spoken, by his order. Accordingly, Matthew relates as said by the centurion himself, what others said by order from him. An instance of the same kind we have in the case of Zebedees children: from Mat 20:20, we learn it was their mother that spoke those words which, Mar 10:35-37, they themselves are said to speak; because she was only their mouth. In Joh 4:1, Jesus is said to baptize, when he baptized by his disciples. And Joh 19:1, Pilate is said to take and scourge Jesus, when he did it only by his soldiers. Thus, in the following Jewish proverbs, adduced by Le Clerc on this passage, The messenger of any man is as, or equal to, the man himself. The ambassador of a king is as, or equal to the king. And nothing is more frequent, even at this day, in our courts of law, than to say that a person comes into the court, and asks a thing, which he asks perhaps only at the third hand, by the counsel, whom his solicitor has employed in his cause. They besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy This centurion seems to have been what they called a proselyte of righteousness; for he was a lover of the Jewish nation, on account of their religion, and therefore had built them a synagogue: which attachment to them, and uncommon generosity, had made him greatly beloved in that country. Hence these elders of Capernaum, where he now resided, heartily espoused his cause on this occasion, presented his petition to Jesus, and urged it also from the consideration of his character. Then Jesus went with them As he constantly embraced every opportunity of doing good, whether to the bodies or souls of men; so he did not decline this that was now offered him, but cheerfully went with the elders as they desired, in order to heal the centurions servant. And when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him In the way, some of the centurions friends, whom he had sent, met Jesus with a message from him, in which he expressed the highest opinion of our Lords power, and desired him not to take the trouble of coming, but to order the cure, which he knew he could easily do. When Jesus heard these things he marvelled at him Admired him, on account of his great humility, and the strength of his faith. See on Mat 8:5. And turned him about, and said unto the people With great solemnity; I say unto you What it is of great importance that you should consider and lay to heart; I have not found so great faith As now appears in this stranger; no, not in Israel In all my journeys through the country, and converse with its inhabitants. Observe, reader, Christ will have those that follow him to observe and consider the great examples of faith that are sometimes set before them; especially when any such are found among those who do not profess to follow Christ so closely as they do; in order that, by considering the strength of the faith of such, they may be ashamed of the weakness and wavering of their own. And they, returning, found the servant whole The cure was immediately and perfectly wrought. Observe also, 1st, The kindness of this centurion to his servant, and the anxiety he showed to get him cured, were suitable to the character of a humane master, and exhibit an excellent pattern of duty, very fit to be imitated by Christian masters, with whom it is but too common to treat their servants and dependants as if they were not creatures of the same rank with themselves, but of an inferior order. 2d, Christ will take cognizance of the distressed case of poor servants, and be ready to relieve them; for there is no respect of persons with him. Nor are the Gentiles excluded from the benefit of his grace. Nay, this was a specimen of that much greater faith which would be found among the Gentiles, when the gospel should be preached to them, than among the Jews.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2. The Centurion’s Servant: Luk 7:1-10.
This was the most striking instance of faith that Jesus had met with up to this time; and what was more astonishing, He was indebted for this surprise to a Gentile. Jesus instantly perceives the deep significance of this unexpected incident, and cautiously indicates it in Luk 7:9, while in Mat 8:11-12 it is expressed with less reserve. We should have expected the reverse, according to the dogmatic prepossessions which criticism imputes to our evangelists. It is obliged, therefore, to have recourse to the hypothesis of subsequent interpolations.
This cure is connected, in Matthew as well as in Luke, with the Sermon on the Mount. This resemblance in no way proves, as some think, a common written source. For, 1. The two passages are separated in Matthew by the healing of the leper, which Luke assigns to another time; 2. The narratives of the two evangelists present very considerable differences of detail; lastly, 3. There was nothing to prevent certain groups of narrative, more or less fixed, being formed in the oral teaching of the gospel, which passed in this way into our written narratives. As to Mark, he omits this miracle, an omission difficult to account for, if he copied Matthew and Luke (Bleek), and equally difficult if, with them, he derived his narrative from an original Mark (Ewald and Holtzmann). Holtzmann (p. 78), with Ewald, thinks that if he cut out the Sermon on the Mount, he might easily omit also the passage which follows, and which opens a new section. But on other occasions it is asserted that Mark purposely omits the discourses, to make room for facts. Now, are we not here concerned with a fact? Bleek does not even attempt to explain this omission.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
XLIII.
HEALING THE CENTURION’S SERVANT.
(At Capernaum.)
aMATT. VIII. 1, 5-13; cLUKE VII. 1-10.
c1 After he had ended all his sayings in the ears of the people, a1 And when he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him. che entered into Capernaum. [Jesus proceeded from the mountain to Capernaum, which was now his home, or headquarters. The multitudes which are now mentioned for the third time were not wearied by his sermon, and so continued to follow him. Their presence showed the popularity of Jesus, and also emphasized the fact that the miracles which followed the sermon were wrought in the presence of the vast throngs of people.] a5 And when he was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion [The context shows that this centurion or captain of a hundred men was a Gentile, but whether he was in the employ of Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee, or an officer in the Roman army, is [270] not clear, neither is very important. The army of Antipas, like that of other petty kings, was modeled after that of Rome], c2 And a certain centurion’s servant [slave boy], who was dear unto him, was sick, and at the point of death. 3 And when he heard concerning Jesus [The sequel shows that the centurion had probably heard how Jesus had healed the son of his fellow-townsman– Joh 4:46-54], he sent unto him elders of the Jews [To reconcile Matthew and Luke, we have only to conceive of the centurion as coming to the edge of the crowd about Jesus, but modestly refraining from coming into the Lord’s immediate presence.] asking him that he would come and save his servant. abeseeching him, 6 and saying, Lord, my servant lieth in the house sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. [Because palsy is not usually accompanied with suffering, some think that in this case it was combined with tetanus or lockjaw, a combination not infrequent in hot climates. But Sir R. Bennet, M.D., speaks thus: “In this instance we have probably a case of progressive paralysis, attended by muscular spasms, and involving the respiratory movements, where death is manifestly imminent and inevitable. In such a case there would be symptoms indicative of great distress, as well as immediate danger to life.” As to palsy generally, see Luk 18:8). The elders, little knowing the wideness of our Lord’s vision and sympathy, supposed that Jesus would look upon the splendid synagogue erected for the Jewish people as a sufficient motive for granting their request. Even the apostles were slow to learn that at heart Jesus knew neither Jew nor Gentile.] c8 For I also am a man set under authority, having under myself soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant [not a soldier, but a household slave], Do this, and he doeth it. [Having those over him, he knew how to obey, and [272] having those under him, he knew how to be obeyed. He was familiar, therefore, with all the principles of obedience. Knowing from the healing of the nobleman’s son, or from other reports concerning Jesus, that the realm of nature obeyed Jesus, he judged from his knowledge of earthly obedience that Jesus had those who could come and go for him, and who could carry his messages and enforce obedience to them. He felt that the presence of Jesus was not at all necessary to the healing.] a10 And when Jesus heard it, {cthese things,} he marvelled at him, and turned and said unto athem cthe multitude that followed him, aVerily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. [To some it seems strange that Jesus could marvel, but he had all the actual feelings of a man. However, we should note that Jesus is never said to have marveled but twice. In this case it was because of belief, and in the other ( Mar 6:6), it was because of unbelief. Those who think that Jesus gave or gives faith should note this fact. If Jesus had given the centurion faith, he could not have been surprised to find that he had it; and, if he failed to bestow it upon the people of Nazareth, it would have been inconsistent in him to express surprise at their lack of it. It would seem, however, irreconcilable with the character and affectionate nature of Christ, to bestow faith in such profusion upon this Gentile stranger, and withhold every spark of it from his near kinsmen and fellow-townsmen. Faith is no miraculous gift. Faith means no more nor less than belief; and a man believes the Scripture facts in the same manner and by the same processes that he believes any other facts.] 11 And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven [Jesus here predicts the conversion of the Gentiles, since that fact is suggested to him by the faith of this centurion. The east and the west represent the extreme points of the compass in the directions in which the world was most thickly inhabited. But Jesus refers rather to spiritual separation than to [273] geographical distances– Mal 1:11, Isa 49:19, Jer 16:19, Zec 8:22.] 12 but the sons of the kingdom [The child of anything in Hebrew phraseology expressed the idea of special property which one has in the thing specified, as, for instance, children of disobedience ( Eph 2:2). Jesus here means, then, the Jews, to whom the kingdom belonged by hereditary descent– Rom 9:4] shall be cast forth into the outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. [In this paragraph Christ’s kingdom is set forth under the simile of a great feast, a familiar simile with Jesus ( Mat 26:29, Luk 22:30). The Jews were accustomed to speak of the delights of the Messianic kingdom as a feast with the patriarchs ( Luk 14:15), but lost sight of the fact that Gentiles should share in its cheer and fellowship ( Isa 25:6). Marriage feasts and other great feasts of the Jews were usually held in the evening. Inside, therefore, there would be joy and light and gladness, but outside there would be darkness and disappointment, tears and bitter self-reproach ( Mat 25:10-13). The despised outcasts should be brought in and placed at the festal board, while the long-invited guests–the natural and fleshly heirs of Abraham’s invitation–would be excluded ( Mat 21:43). Hell is absence from spiritual light, separation from the company of the saved, lamentation and impotent rage.] 13 And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And the servant was healed in that hour. [In the moment when Jesus spoke, the servant was healed–not relieved, but healed.] c10 And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole. [The centurion, long before this when he was building the synagogue, had doubtless heard with delight concerning the wonderful works wrought by the mighty prophets in the olden time; he little dreamed that his own eyes should see them all surpassed.] [274]
[FFG 270-274]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Luke Chapter 7
Hence, after this, we find the Spirit acting in the heart of a Gentile (chap. 7). That heart manifested more faith than any among the children of Israel. Humble in heart, and loving the people of God, as such, for the sake of God, whose people they were, and thus raised in his affections above their practical wretched state, he can see in Jesus One who had authority over everything, even as he himself had over his soldiers and servants. He knew nothing of the Messiah, but he recognised in Jesus [22] the power of God. This was not mere idea; it was faith. There was no such faith in Israel.
The Lord then acts with a power which was to be the source of that which is new for man. He raises the dead. This was indeed going beyond the pale of the ordinances of the law. He has compassion on the affliction and misery of man. Death was a burden to him: Jesus delivers him from it. It was not only cleansing a leprous Israelite, nor pardoning and healing believers among His people; He restores life to one who had lost it. Israel, no doubt, will profit by it; but the power necessary to the accomplishment of this work is that which makes all things new wherever it may be.
The change of which we speak, and which these two examples so strikingly illustrate, is brought out in treating of the connection between Christ and John the Baptist, who sends to learn from the Lords own mouth who He is. John had heard of His miracles, and sends his disciples to learn who it was that wrought them. Naturally the Messiah, in the exercise of His power, would have delivered him from prison. Was He the Messiah? or was John to wait for another? He had faith enough to depend on the answer of One who wrought these miracles; but, shut up in prison, his mind desired something more positive. This circumstance, brought about by God, gives rise to an explanation respecting the relative position of John and Jesus. The Lord does not here receive testimony from John. John was to receive Christ upon the testimony He gave of Himself; and that as having taken a position which would offend those who judged according to Jewish and carnal ideas-a position which required faith in a divine testimony, and, consequently, surrounded itself with those whom a moral change had enabled to appreciate this testimony. The Lord, in reply to Johns messengers, works miracles which prove the power of God present in grace and service rendered to the poor; and declares that blessed is he who is not offended at the humble position He had taken in order to accomplish it. But He gives testimony to John, if He will receive none from him. He had attracted the attention of the people, and with reason; he was more than a prophet-he had prepared the way of the Lord Himself. Nevertheless, if he prepared the way, the immense and complete change to be made was not itself accomplished. Johns ministry, by its very nature, put him outside the effect of this change. He went before it to announce the One who would accomplish it, whose presence would bring in its power on the earth. The least therefore in the kingdom was greater than he.
The people, who had received with humility the word sent by John the Baptist, bore testimony in their heart to the ways and the wisdom of God. Those who trusted in themselves rejected the counsels of God accomplished in Christ. The Lord, on this, declares plainly what their condition is. They rejected alike the warnings and the grace of God. The children of wisdom (those in whom the wisdom of God wrought) acknowledged and gave glory to it in its ways. This is the history of the reception both of John and of Jesus. The wisdom of man denounced the ways of God. The righteous severity of His testimony against evil, against the condition of His people, shewed to mans eyes the influence of a devil. The perfection of His grace, condescending to poor sinners, and presenting itself to them where they were, was the wallowing in sin and the making oneself known by ones associates. Proud self-righteousness could bear neither. The wisdom of God would be owned by those who were taught by it, and by those alone.
Thereupon these ways of God towards the most wretched sinners, and their effect, in contrast with this pharisaic spirit, are shewn, in the history of the woman who was a sinner in the Pharisees house; and a pardon is revealed, not with reference to the government of God in the earth on behalf of His people (a government with which the healing of an Israelite under Gods discipline was connected), but an absolute pardon, involving peace to the soul, is granted to the most miserable of sinners. It was not here merely the question of a prophet. The Pharisees self-righteousness could not discern even that.
We have a soul that loves God, and much, because God is love-a soul that has learnt this with regard to, and by means of, its own sins, though not yet knowing forgiveness, in seeing Jesus. This is grace. Nothing more touching than the way in which the Lord shews the presence of those qualities which made this woman now truly excellent-qualities connected with the discernment of His Person by faith. In her were found divine understanding of the Person of Christ, not reasoned out indeed in doctrine but felt in its effect in her heart, deep sense of her own sin, humility, love for that which was good, devotedness to Him who was good. Everything shewed a heart in which reigned sentiments proper to relationship with God-sentiments that flowed from His presence revealed in the heart, because He had made Himself known to it. This, however, is not the place to dwell upon them; but it is important to remark that which has great moral value, when what a free pardon really is is to be set forth, that the exercise of grace on Gods part creates (when received into the heart) sentiments corresponding to itself, and which nothing else can produce; and that these sentiments are in connection with that grace, and with the sense of sin it produces. It gives a deep consciousness of sin, but it is in connection with the sense of Gods goodness; and the two feelings increase in mutual proportion. The new thing, sovereign grace, can alone produce these qualities, which answer to the nature of God Himself, whose true character the heart has apprehended, and with whom it is in communion; and that, while judging sin as it deserves in the presence of such a God.
It will be observed, that this is connected with the knowledge of Christ Himself, who is the manifestation of this character; the true source by grace of the feeling of this broken heart; and also that the knowledge of her pardon comes afterward. [23]
It is grace-it is Jesus Himself-His Person-that attracts this woman and produces the moral effect. She goes away in peace when she understands the extent of grace in the pardon which He pronounces. And the pardon itself has its force in her mind, in that Jesus was everything to her. If He forgave, she was satisfied. Without accounting for it to herself, it was God revealed to her heart; it was not self-approval, nor the judgment others might form of the change wrought in her. Grace had so taken possession of her heart-grace personified in Jesus-God was so manifested to her, that His approval in grace, His forgiveness, carried everything else with it. If He was satisfied, so was she. She had all in attaching this importance to Christ. Grace delights to bless, and the soul that attaches importance enough to Christ is content with the blessing it bestows. How striking is the firmness with which grace asserts itself, and does not fear to withstand the judgment of man who despises it! It takes unhesitatingly the part of the poor sinner whom it has touched. Mans judgment only proves that he neither knows nor appreciates God in the most perfect manifestation of His nature. To man, with all his wisdom, it is but a poor preacher, who deceives himself in passing for a prophet, and to whom it is not worth while to give a little water for his feet. To the believer it is perfect and divine love, it is perfect peace if he has faith in Christ. Its fruits are not yet before man; they are before God, if Christ is appreciated. And he who appreciates Him thinks neither of himself nor of his fruits (except of the bad), but of the One who was the testimony of grace to his heart when he was nothing but a sinner.
This is the new thing-grace, and even its fruits in their perfection: the heart of God manifested in grace, and the heart of man-a sinner-responding to it by grace, having apprehended, or rather having been apprehended by, the perfect manifestation of that grace in Christ.
Footnotes for Luke Chapter 7
22: We have seen this to be precisely the subject of the Holy Ghost in our Gospel.
23: To explain the expression, Her sins are forgiven, for she loved much, we must distinguish between grace revealed in the Person of Jesus, and the pardon He announced to those whom the grace had reached. The Lord is able to make this pardon known. He reveals it to the poor woman. But it was that which she had seen in Jesus Himself, which, by grace, melted her heart and produced the love she had to Him-the seeing what He was for sinners like herself. She thinks only of Him: He has taken possession of her heart so as to shut out other influences. Hearing that He is there, she goes into the house of this proud man, without thinking of anything but the fact that Jesus is there. His presence answered, or prevented, every question. She saw what He was for a sinner, and that the most wretched and disgraced found a resource in Him; she felt her sins in the way that this perfect grace, which opens the heart and wins confidence, causes them to be felt; and she loved much. Grace in Christ had produced its effect. She loved because of His love. This is the reason that the Lord says, Her sins are forgiven, because she loved much. It was not that her love was meritorious for this, but that God revealed the glorious fact that the sins-be they ever so numerous and abominable-of one whose heart was turned to God were fully pardoned. There are many whose hearts are turned to God, and who love Jesus, that do not know this. Jesus pronounces on their case with authority-sends them away in peace. It is a revelation-and answer-to the wants and affections produced in the heart made penitent by grace revealed in the Person of Christ. If God manifests Himself in this world, and with such love, He must needs set aside in the heart every other consideration. And thus, without being aware of it, this poor woman was the only one who acted suitably in those circumstances; for she appreciated the all-importance of the One who was there. A Saviour-God being present, of what importance was Simon and his house? Jesus caused all else to be forgotten. Let us remember this. The beginning of mans fall was loss of confidence in God, by the seducing suggestion of Satan that God had kept back what would make man like God. Confidence in God lost, man seeks, in the exercise of his own will, to make himself happy: lusts, sin, transgression follow. Christ is God in infinite love, winning back the confidence of mans heart to God. Removal of guilt, and power to live to God, are another thing, and found in their own place through Christ, as pardon comes in its place here. But the poor woman, through grace, had felt that there was one heart she could trust, if none else; but that was Gods. God is light and God is love. These are the two essential names of God, and in every true case of conversion both are found. In the cross they meet; sin is brought fully into the light, but in that by which love is fully known. So in the heart light reveals sin, that is God as light does, but the light is there by perfect love. The God who shews the sins is there in perfect love to do it. Christ was this in this world. Revealing Himself, He must be both; so Christ was love in the world, but the light of it. So in the heart. The love through grace gives confidence, and thus the light is gladly let in, and in the confidence in the love, and seeing self in the light, the heart has wholly met Gods heart: so with this poor woman. This is where the heart of man and God always and alone meet. The Pharisee had neither. Pitch dark, neither love nor light were there. He had God manifest in the flesh in his house and saw nothing-only settled that He was not a prophet. It is a wondrous scene to see these three hearts. Mans as such resting on false human righteousness, Gods, and the poor sinners-fully meeting it as God did hers. Who was the child of wisdom? for it is a commentary on that expression. And note, though Christ had said nothing of it, but bowed to the slight, yet He was not insensible to the neglect which had not met Him with the comm on courtesies of life. To Simon He was a poor preacher, whose pretensions he could judge, certainly not a prophet; for the poor woman, God in love, and bringing her heart into unison with His as to her sins and as to herself, for love was trusted in. Note, too, this clinging to Jesus is where true light is found: here the fruitful revelation of the gospel; to Mary Magdalene, as to the highest privilege of saints.
Fuente: John Darby’s Synopsis of the New Testament
HEALING OF THE CENTURIONS SERVANT
Mat 8:5-13, and Luk 7:1-10. We see here a clear confirmation that the Mount of Beatitudes, on which the sermon was preached, is not Mt. Hattin, west of Tiberias, as many believe, but that great mountain hanging over the city of Capernaum from the north; as He is at Capernaum immediately after descending from the mountain, whereas Mt. Hattin is twenty miles distant by land and ten by sea. But when He finished all His words in the ears of the people, He came into Capernaum. The servant of a certain centurion, who was valuable to him, being sick, was about to die. And hearing concerning Jesus, he sent to Him the elders of the Jews to ask him that, having come, He may heal his servant. And they, coming to Jesus, continued to entreat Him, earnestly saying, That he is worthy to whom He will do this; for he loveth our race, and he hath built for us a synagogue. We are quoting Luke. Matthew says that the centurion himself came to Jesus. You see here, Luke says that he sent the elders of the Jews. In this there is no discrepancy, as we must remember that old Roman law, adopted by the English and the Americans, Qui facit per alium, facit per se, What a man does by another, he does by himself. This principle is recognized in all Biblical interpretation, and here harmonizes Matthew and Luke. From the fact that both incidents transpired in Capernaum, some have confounded this miracle with that of healing the nobleman’s son (John 4). They are entirely different. In the latter case, Jesus was at Cana, and actually healed him while a day’s journey distant. In the case of the centurion, Jesus is in the city. The nobleman was a Jew, a member of the Herodian family; the centurion a Gentile, an officer in the Roman army. The nobleman is an example of weak faith, increasing and triumphing in the end; while the centurion exhibits very strong faith throughout. When I was in Capernaum they pointed me out the ruin of the synagogue which this centurion built for the Jews. And Jesus was going along with them. And He being far from the house, the centurion sent his friends to Him, saying, Lord, be not troubled, for I am not worthy that You may come beneath my roof; therefore I did not consider myself worthy to come unto You. But speak in a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I am a man placed under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say to this one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. And Jesus hearing these things was astonished at him, and turning, said to the multitude following Him, I say unto you, That I have not found so great faith in Israel. And those who were sent, returning to the house, found the sick servant well. The faith of the centurion, as you see, received the Savior’s highest commendation, assuring them that He had not found so great faith in Israel, this heathen Roman officer eclipsing the brightest examples in all the Hebrew nation. His faith is beautifully illustrated in the reasons which he gives for not troubling Jesus to come to his house, though He was then on His way, I am a man under authority, etc. What is the meaning of the centurion? Just as I command Roman soldiers, and they are forced by the rigors of military law to obey me or lose their heads, so You command diseases to evacuate the body and devils to come out of the soul, and they are bound by the laws of the universe to obey You. Therefore there is no need of Your coming to my house, as You have nothing to do but command the disease to leave my servant, and it is bound to get away; it can not help itself. Mat 8:2 : But I say unto you, That many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of the heavens, but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness; and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Thus our Lord indulges in these mournful reflections upon the awful doom of the unbelieving Jews, the children of the kingdom, who had waited four thousand years for the coming King, and then, unfortunately, rejecting Him, will make their bed in hell. Children of the kingdom does not mean that they are already members of it, but simply that they are subjects for admission into it, this being a peculiar Oriental expression. The wonderful faith of this Gentile seems to remind our Savior of the coming millions from the whole heathen world, destined so speedily, responsive to the gospel call, to hasten into the kingdom, thus filling the vacancy created by the fall of the Jews. And Jesus said to the centurion, Go, and as you have believed, so be it unto you. And his servant was healed in that hour. This declaration of the Master is a glorious climax, setting forth the great gospel law of pardon and sanctification, thus recognizing our faith as the measuring line of our experiences, commensurate with what we get from God. While repentance must put you on believing ground, and loyal obedience demonstrate your faith to the world, yet faith is the only receptive and appropriative grace in the Divine economy. Prayer shovels in the coal, but faith generates the steam.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Luk 7:2. A certain centurions servant. As soon as this officer heard of Christ, he believed in him, having been assured of the miracles by competent witnesses. Being a gentile, he sent the rulers to Christ, to ask mercy on behalf of a favourite domestic.
Luk 7:5. He hath built us a synagogue. Works done for God are sure in the issue to receive a divine reward; and they who shelter his flock on earth shall find a sanctuary in his kingdom, provided that their piety be sincere.
Luk 7:9. I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. The jews had at that time a general notion that they must touch the Saviour, in order to receive a cure; but here is a faith that the Saviours healing virtue was unlimited, either as to case or distance. This surpassed Marthas faith, when she said, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. Joh 11:21-32. It is added in Matthew, As thou hast believed, so let it be done to thee; and his servant was found restored to his wonted vigour.
Luk 7:11. A city called Nain. Bochart describes this little city as situate between mount Tabor, Nazareth, and mount Hermon the less.
Luk 7:12. There was a dead man carried out. Grace met the widowed mother following her only son to the grave. Grace came opportunely, as in the case of Elijah and Elisha, to other afflicted mothers. Grace said, weep not; the grave shall restore its dead, and in the highest perfection of beauty. Jesus is never unmindful of the widows tears.
Luk 7:14. He came and touched the bier, and bade the dead arise, as he had bidden all nature rise in the first creation. Though the passing away of the living to join the sleeping dead must not be interrupted, yet for once the Saviour would disclose his power and grace. Oh touch my dead heart with thy quickening power and love, that I may rise and live for thee.
Luk 7:18. The disciples of John came to him in the castle of Macherath. Mat 11:2. Mark 6.
Luk 7:37. A woman is the city which was a sinner. I can by no means admit the conjecture that this was Mary Magdalene, for she is mentioned by name immediately after this narrative, and as quite another person. Neither could it be Mary, sister of Lazarus, for she was not an inhabitant of the city,
but of Bethany, a village; and she anointed the Lord six days before his crucifixion, which farther distinguishes the similarity of the action in point of time. It was usual with the jews to anoint at feasts, as in Psa 23:5. Thou spreadest a table for me in the presence of mine enemies, thou anointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. It was likewise usual for the master of the house to receive his guests with a kiss. See Calmet on Jewish Festivals.
Luk 7:50. Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace. Father Cheminais, whose sermons Ostervald admits have abundance of unction, at the close of his sermon on this woman, asks his hearers, (and his interrogations I beg leave to translate)
Why does not such a conversion convert you? What hinders your giving up your hearts to the Lord? What occasions the delay? Do you say, I await grace? I await the happy moment which shall break all my chains? What, sinners, and are not the truths I have just announced, grace sufficient for you? But what, I pray, is the grace which you expect? It is illumination in the mind, it is an ardour in the will. And does not the striking example just set before you diffuse light the most cheering, and afford motives the most powerful that can be presented you from without? You await grace! Dare you say that grace is withheld, after the sentiments with which the Lord has inspired you by my mouth. Dare you blaspheme against providence, which assures you that God wills your conversion, and you will it not? How often, he says, would, I have gathered you, and you would not. Mat 23:37.
But you await a grace more efficacious; that is, you insult God by the allegation, that he invites you, but not sufficiently; and your heart does not yield to solicitations so weak. Oh ungrateful race! His seeking you is of small account, while your apathy presumes to prescribe to him the manner in which he must draw you from your sins.
You hope to receive grace more efficacious; and what are the ways you take to obtain it, but those of hardening your heart against all its first attractions. Of how many gracious feelings were you once susceptible, which to-day make no impression on your heart. A death unforeseen, the perfidy of a woman, a mortification, an example of conversion, once occasioned serious reflections. Grace in the early ardours of youth found the avenues of your heart; but now nothing strikes you; and yet you await grace. What illusion!
But a word more. What is the grace which you expect? A grace which shall irresistibly accomplish the work of your conversion? Another chimera. Is there any grace, how strong soever it may be, whose effects are not dependent on the coperation of man. Now, while you expect such a grace, your goodness does not deign to act: therefore, while you delay, your conversion is impossible.
But you await a victorious grace, which shall vanquish nature, and whose attractive sweetness shall turn you to piety without trouble, without pain, without conflict. Another illusion. The heart does not change all at once from its objects of delight, without doing violence to itself. The strong-armed man who is in possession of your heart, will dispute the entrance of grace; he will dearly sell his defeat. He must be fought, he must be vanquished by force. We do not make so easy a transition from nature to grace. It is requisite that the victory should cost a battle, and that the storm should presede the calm. Grace indeed softens the heart, but does not supersede labour.
However efficacious, however persuasive the attractions of grace might be which converted St. Augustine, what conflicts did he not sustain in disengaging his heart from vice. With what perplexities was he not agitated. What horror of himself. What dread at the very idea of a change. What regret at what he was about to quit. What fear of the future, what reluctance, what irresolution. What discord of sentiment held not his mind floating in a continual state of uncertainty. One must take upon ones self to do the greatest violence to correspond with the calls of grace; and yet you pretend that conversion shall cost you nothing!
You await grace. Oh heaven! And what is the manner of your awaiting it? In resisting it in fighting against it in shutting up all the avenues of your heart against its entrance. Are you young? This is the season of pleasure; one must wait for maturer age. Have you attained to that maturer age? You have now the calls of business, and must defer till future years. Are you in health? This is not the time to dream of religion. Are you sick? Yes; but things are not yet come to extremities. Does the good example of others reproach you? It is hypocrisy, it is constraint. A sudden death, does it admonish you? It was a person in a bad state of health, or far advanced in years. Does a virtuous action edify you? You empoison it: in a word, whatever grace God may confer, you stifle it in the birth; and meanwhile you await grace.
This being the case, it is not divine illumination, it is not the drawing of the Spirit, which are become useless; it is not our sermons, it is not pastoral advice; these are lost. It is not the favoured time of mercy and salvation, it is not the solemn festivals of the church. These you suffer to pass away, under the idle pretences of awaiting grace; and as to myself, I declare that I await your conversion no longer.
REFLECTIONS.
To a wicked and profligate world, the case of this woman must be highly interesting: for the sinner and his God must have a reckoning, and settle the long account either for mercy or for judgment, However long he may evade his conscience, he must ultimately yield to an arrest of justice, And if it be true, that the law of God extends to the thoughts of the heart, it must be a case of great interest to the sinner of higher reputation.
The case of a woman who has lost her character is still more instructive. She is placed in a deplorable situation. She can enjoy no company but the dregs of society. Nor is the brand less opprobrious, in a moral view, on her seducer; though his professional duties and other affairs may still retain him exterior respect. See Reflections, Proverbs 7.
The gates of repentance are open to the worst of sinners who turn in due time. We are not told how this woman was brought to repentance; yet it is natural to presume that Christs preaching had reached her heart. He had opened the purity and glory of the law, he had traced crimes from the first emotion of passion to perpetration; and the mirror of truth confounded the culprits by a full portrait of themselves. In this mirror the woman recognized herself. She saw her sins, and abhorred the scene. She was overwhelmed with guilt, and shame, and grief. She knew not which way to go for comfort; but impelled by anguish, she took the bold and laudable resolution to prostrate in silence at his feet who had seemed to preach to her alone. Salvation was her sole errand and grand concern, the anointing of the Lord was simply a pretext of decency. It is good therefore for sinners to hear the gospel, for God may yet grant them repentance unto life; and it is equally good for persons entangled in the snares of sin, to ask advice of those who are able to instruct them in cases of conscience, and the great concerns of salvation. It is also a fact that the pharisee, or fifty- pense debtor, has the same need to come with tears for a pardon as the most unhappy of the human kind. We are all of one mass, and though education may have saved us from some of the more scandalous sins, we are all guilty in the sight of God.
The mercy of God to contrite sinners exceeds the conceptions of men, and the expectations of the penitent. Christ suffers such sinners to approach him, to touch him, and to weep at his feet. Happy omen of pardon. When justice has forbearance to hear all the sad tale; when redeeming love listens to all these sighs, is witness to all these tears, and protestations of future purity, vengeance drops her aspect, and Satan has lost his prey.
Christ will advocate the cause of sinners truly contrite, how great soever their crimes have been. While the rigid pharisee changed his reverence of this great prophet, as he thought the Lord to be, and indulged in secret contempt, and while all the company was silent, behold Jesus pleads the cause of this reputed harlot. But he advocates her cause with fairness and equity. She had prostrated, she had washed his feet with tears, she had wiped them with her hair, she had anointed, she had kissed his feet. Simon had showed no such marks of love.
Sinners, come and see this glorious sight; come and see an emanation of godhead steal from the Son of man. He tells his murmuring host the thoughts of his heart. He endeavours to gain him by the fair argument of the two debtors; he does more, he astonishes the penitent with grace greater than expectation. He says, her sins which are many are forgiven. He crystalizes all the large flowing tears into gems of joy. He causes a full tide of heaven to irradiate her countenance, exciting adorations of praise and love, which none can know but by the like approach to Christ The greatest offenders may receive a full assurance of pardon. This is often done by a promise whispered to the heart, as now in the ears of this woman; but it is always one by a manifestation of Gods forgiving love shed abroad in the heart. The consciousness of pardon is more than a counterpoise to the consciousness of guilt. She loved much. Hence when a penitent is favoured with this inward witness and sentiment of divine mercy, he loves God and all mankind with an expansion of soul he never knew before. He enters into the sanctity of God, clothes himself with his glory, and tramples on his former sins.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Luk 7:1-10. The Centurions Servant (Mat 8:5-13*).Lk.s version is peculiar through the introduction of two sets of intermediariesJewish elders and friends. Thus he keeps the Gentile centurion himself (as well as his servant) from contact with Jesus, and is satisfied with recording the esteem in which the pagan soldier (like Cornelius, Acts 10) was held, and the extension of Jesus beneficence and His appreciation of faith beyond Jewry.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
A CENTURION’S SERVANT HEALED
(vs.1-10)
The Lord then came to Capernaum and there was appealed to by a Gentile, a Roman centurion, by means of the mediatorship of Jewish elders. In contrast to this a woman of Canaan later came to Him herself, asking His mercy for her daughter (Mat 15:22), but He ignored her because she appealed to Him as though she was Jewish. But when she called Him “Lord” rather than “Son of David,” He reminded her that she was in the place of a “dog,” being a Gentile. She then took her proper place and He answered her need. But in this case, the centurion fully realized his place and asked only as an undeserving Gentile, not for himself, but for a servant who was dear to him. The Jews testified to the commendable character of the centurion as one who loved the Jewish nation, even to the building of a synagogue for them (vs.4-5).
The Lord Jesus did not hesitate to go with the messengers. Yet the centurion sent others to tell Him that he himself was not worthy to have the Lord even enter his home, no more than he was worthy to come to the Lord. But he asked that the Lord only say the word which would heal his servant. The centurion reasoned that he himself, a man subject to authority, had authority over all those under him and they would obey his commands. So he recognized the Lord as the One truly subject to the will of God, yet Himself having authority over creation, so that even sickness would immediately obey His command (v.8).
In this centurion we see a picture of Gentiles today brought into blessing by the pure grace of God. First, he recognized that God had sovereignly chosen Israel as His special people, and He loves them rather than envying them. Secondly, he takes a place of complete unworthiness in reference to having any claim upon the Lord Jesus. Then thirdly, he gave the Lord His true place and honor of being both Son of Man, obedient to the authority of God, and Son of God in authority over all creation. This beautifully illustrates the proper attitude of Gentiles in their reception of the blessings of Christianity. The heart of the Lord Jesus was so refreshed by the man’s words that He told those who followed Him, “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel” (v.9). The Greek word for “great” used by the Lord in this instance is great in its largeness: faith was not constricted by mere natural thought or feeling. Yet let us remember that the important reason for this was the Object of his faith, the glory of the person of the Son of God. The servant was healed immediately, as the messengers found in returning home.
THE SON OF THE WIDOW OF NAIN RAISED
(vs.11-17)
Not only was this illustrious Person able to heal the dread diseases of mankind, for we now find that death itself is no problem for Him. In the centurion’s servant we witness the healing and blessing of Gentiles at a time when Israel was stumbling in unbelief, and in the case of the son of the widow of Nain we see a picture of the great grace and power of the Son of God as able to bring the nation Israel from a state of death to that of life, as will be the case yet for that desolate nation when she is completely restored after centuries of death and decay, for the receiving of Israel again by the Lord will be figuratively “life from the dead” (Rom 11:15). The young man being carried out for burial (v.12) was the only son of his mother, whose heart was surely desolate with sorrow. Here is the same lesson as seen in Naomi in the Book of Ruth. Naomi is typical of Israel’s former blessing reduced to widowhood and desolation, so that, just as it required Ruth also to fill out the picture of Israel restored to blessing, so it takes the resurrection of a son to show this picture of Israel’s future rising from death. The Lord’s compassionate words, “Do not weep,” are backed up by immediate action. He touched the coffin and spoke with calm authority to the young man who sat up and began to speak. Wonderful anticipation of the day when good words will be put into the mouth of Israel (Hos 14:1-3), “a pure language” in contrast to the vain words of unbelief (Zep 3:9). The Lord then delivered him to his mother. How great a comfort this must have been to her desolate heart, just as Naomi was comforted in the marriage of Ruth to Boaz, the mighty man of wealth, bringing new life in the child born as a result of his happy union (Rth 4:13-15).
This great miracle of resurrection stirred a wholesome, reverential fear among the people. This, with other occasions of His raising the dead, provides proof that Jesus is “the Son of God with power” (Rom 1:4). The people glorified God for raising up a great prophet, and realized that this was a manifest visitation of God among His people (v.16). The report went out to all the surrounding area and to Judea, some distance removed from Galilee.
JOHN SENDS MESSENGERS TO QUESTION THE LORD
(vs.18-29)
The disciples of John the Baptist carried news to him in prison of the power of the Lord Jesus over disease and death. This beloved prophet of God had ministered publicly only for a short time in the living power of the Spirit of God, and had borne faithful witness to the glory of the Lord Jesus as the Son of God (Joh 1:34). He heard of miracles performed by the Lord, but there was no miracle performed to release him from prison, nor had the Lord taken any place of power and dignity such as might be expected of the Messiah of Israel. Evidently this bewildered John, and his faith for the time wavered. Sending two of his disciples to the Lord, he instructed them to question Him as to whether He was the one for whom Israel looked, or was it for another? Not only John was affected in this way, for none of the Lord’s disciples expected their Messiah to take a pathway of humiliation leading to the death of the cross. This was contrary to the great manifestation of His glory for which they looked. But they must learn that He was to be “made perfect through suffering” (Heb 2:10).
John’s two disciples witnessed the marvelous power of the Lord Jesus in the healing of great numbers of infirmities and virulent diseases, of demon possession also and restoring the sight of many who were blind (v.21). This last was a special sign of the power of Messiah (Isa 42:6-7). No other had ever opened the eyes of the blind before the Lord Jesus did so (Joh 9:32-33).
The Lord answered by telling them to report to John what they had seen and heard in the way of miraculous power shown in tender mercy to those who were in deepest need, and ending with “to the poor the gospel is preached.” John may have wondered why he was not brought out of prison, when Isa 42:7 spoke of the Messiah “bringing the prisoners from the prison”, but soon he was delivered from prison by way of a martyr’s death, which surely has resulted in greater blessing than he had imagined. However, the things the Lord had done could not have been done by any other than the Son of God, the true Messiah of Israel. There could be no question whatever. Yet the Lord only gently reproved John’s doubts, “Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me” (v.23). Who else could possibly speak this way?
THE LORD’S COMMENDATION OF JOHN
(vs.29-34)
The Lord then addressed the crowd, defending John as a true prophet of God, though He says nothing of Herod’s cruel injustice in imprisoning him. What had the people gone into the wilderness to see? Was it merely a reed (a weakling) shaken by the wind, moved merely by earthly circumstances? Or was it a celebrity in fine clothing? People who want to attract attention do not go the the wilderness: they seek that which caters to the flesh, such as kings’ courts where they may show themselves to advantage amid the glitter and tinsel. Yet people were impelled to go to the wilderness, to see what? A prophet? Yes, the Lord, says, “and more than a prophet.”
John had the great privilege, not only of prophesying of Christ, but of preparing the way before Him. He was God’s messenger to announce the blessed Christ of God. No other had ever been accorded such dignity as this. No greater prophet had ever arisen. Though the greatness of John’s moral and spiritual character is evident (Joh 1:1-27; Joh 3:27-31), it is not this to which the Lord refers, but to the greatness of the dignity of the place God had given him. In this regard he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than John. The Lord speaks of the future glorious millennial kingdom for which the Old Testament had taught Israel to look and which will be introduced entirely by the power and grace of God. Yet we may also rightly apply it to the present aspect of the kingdom of God in its mystery form, that is, believers even now have a favored place in the present kingdom that John did not have.
Verses 29 and 30 are still the words of the Lord Jesus. The people generally, and tax collectors specifically, recognized that God was righteous in sending John to call Israel to repentance. They therefore submitted to John’s baptism of repentance, publicly justifying God rather than themselves. But the proud self-righteous Pharisees refused God’s counsel against themselves. They preferred the deceitful covering up of their guilt rather than to admit their guilt by being baptized by John. This was haughty rejection of the Word of God.
The Lord then used a question to stir the interest of the people, asking what He might compare with “the men of this generation,” that is, a generation of self-righteous men. The similarity of His illustration is striking. They were children — childish and immature — sitting idly in the marketplace (the place where serious business is transacted), complaining that people had not danced to their music and they had not wept to the tune of their mournful dirge (v.32). They had not liked John the Baptist’s serious call to repentance, but had virtually played their frivolous music to him, complaining because he was too serious to dance. But how could John respond to this when their true state was one of departure from God. He abstained from even eating and drinking with them, for God had sent him for the serious purpose of bringing them down in self-judgment in view of preparing the way of the Lord. They accused him then of having a demon.
On the other hand, the Son of Man did eat and drink with them. He did not weep to the tune of the mournful dirge of the Pharisees with their legal demands. They were legal minded enough to strongly criticize Him for eating with tax gatherers and sinners (Luk 5:30). They wanted Him to conform to their cold, formal religion, which reduces people to a practical state of mourning. But He had brought the grace of God that people desperately needed. He would not do as they wanted him to, to put on a long face and pretend to be very religious. Then they criticized Him for not conforming to their attitude of false humility. He did not practice their outward show of fasting, but even ate with tax collectors and sinners. Then they falsely accused Him of being a gluttonous man and a winebibber, just as religious zealots today glory in their boasted self-denial and despise others who do not do the same. Thus self-righteousness despises the grace of God and is grossly unfair in its accusations.
In both these cases God’s wisdom was condemned by religious leaders. But all wisdom’s children (genuine believers) fully justified that wisdom, whether in the stern message of John or in the gracious ministry of the Lord Jesus, for both were in perfect place. Faith recognized this, while unbelief remained undiscerning and insensible.
IN THE HOUSE OF SIMON THE PHARISEE
(vs.36-50)
The Lord not only ate with tax collectors and sinners, He accepted the invitation to dinner of Simon, a Pharisee. This also was grace, though the Pharisee did not think of it in this way. As the Lord was sitting there a woman of the city, known as a sinful person, came boldly into the house and stood behind Him weeping. She then washed His feed with her tears, kissing His feet and finally anointing them with ointment (vs.37-38). Such a sight ought to have amazed the Pharisee, causing him to wonder why such a totally unique thing was done. Could we imagine this being done to any other person? No indeed! In fact, to do this to any other would be idolatry. Only Christ is worthy of such tears of repentance and such lowly adoration of any created being.
But the Pharisee discerned nothing of this: he understood nothing of the woman’s tears nor of her evident full submission to the Lord Jesus. All he could think of was that the Lord had allowed a sinful woman to touch Him. Therefore he concluded that Christ was not a prophet, for a prophet would surely have had some knowledge of the woman’s character (v.39).
However, the Lord knew, not only her character, but the reality of her tearful repentance and the reality of her loving adoration of Himself. More than that, He knew all the thoughts of Simon, and what He spoke to Simon should surely have persuaded the haughty Pharisee that the Lord was certainly a prophet of unusual greatness, for He more than answered Simon’s unexpressed thoughts, using an example of two debtors.
Of the two debtors He speaks of, one owed ten times as much as the other. The creditor “freely forgave them both.” Then the Lord questioned Simon as to which of them would love the creditor more, and Simon answered correctly “the one to whom he forgave more” (vs.40-43). How little Simon was prepared for the direct and striking application of this! The Lord reminded him that when He was invited into his house, Simon did not give Him water to wash His feet, which was a usual common courtesy in that land of sandals and dusty paths. But the woman had done far more: she washed His feet with tears and wiped them with her hair.
Again, a kiss was a common friendly greeting in Israel, but Simon had ignored this, while the woman had not ceased to kiss the Lord’s feet, which expressed affection and humble adoration. Simon had not furnished oil with which to anoint the Lord’s head, but the woman had anointed His feet with ointment, typical of fragrant, lowly worship (vs.44-46).
How powerful and wise then are the Lord’s words in verse 47: “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.” Simon was to realize that the Lord knew more about her sins than Simon did, yet all were forgiven. It was a sense of His — forgiving grace that drew her to Him, and in this condition she expressed her responsive affection toward Him.
The Lord adds a word that ought to have deeply penetrated Simon’s conscience: “to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.” Did Simon realize that there was anything in his life that needed forgiveness? Did he practically dismiss it as being “little”? Indeed, did Simon love the Lord at all, let alone love Him a little? The woman realized she was a sinner. Simon should have realized he was a sinner too. But some think of their sins as being of little consequence. and therefore think they have no need of forgiveness. Others, whose sins are no more glaring than the first, yet realize their sins are a serious offense against God, and are deeply burdened by them. Their hearts cry out for forgiveness, When forgiveness is realized, they love much.
Then the Lord addressed the woman, but did not refer to her sins as being many. He simply assured her they were forgiven. She had His word for this, so there remained no lingering doubts that all were fully forgiven. Wonderful certainty, for the Lord had said it!
The Lord had answered Simon’s thoughts, but others present at the meal were dense enough to question within themselves as to how the Lord could forgive sins (v.49). He answered their unbelieving thoughts also, but not by speaking to them directly. Rather, He added still more striking words of encouragement to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace” (v.50). Not only does He forgive: He saves and gives peace. He gives this positive assurance to the woman in the presence of all these doubters. At least, she was given no reason to doubt, though others may have unbelieving doubts, at the thought of forgiveness, salvation and peace with God being given now to those who receive the Lord Jesus. She knew she needed just what the Lord spoke of, and she received it. How beautifully mingled here is the majestic greatness of the Lord Jesus with His tender grace and truth!
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Verse 1
In the audience of the people. This discourse was listened to by a large concourse of people, as is stated more fully in the account given by Matthew. (Matthew 4:25,5:1,8:1.)
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
CHAPTER 7
Ver.1.-Now when he had ended (or fulfilled) all his sayings.
Ver. 2.-Ready to die, nigh unto death. Syriac.
Ver. 3.-He sent to him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. S. Luke ascribes the request of the Jews to the Centurion himself, because they asked in his name; but the Centurion sought not that Christ should come unto him, but only that the Lord should be told, “My servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.” S. Mat 8:6-8 The Jews asked therefore that which they knew the Centurion desired, although he was too humble-minded to seek it.
“That he would come,” i.e., would give up everything else, and apply himself to the healing of the servant. An expression equivalent to the Hebrew word , ba, come.
Thus God came to Abimelech, Gen. xx; to Balaam, Num. xxii.; and to the Hebrews, Deut. xxxiii., when He appeared to them and gave them the Law. So it is said of the Baptist. John came, shewed himself, neither eating nor drinking. The force of the passage lies therefore in the word “heal,” that he would heal his servant, whether he came-went down-to his house or not.
Ver. 6.-Lord, trouble not thyself, do not incur the fatigue (Syriac) of such a journey, but speak the word only, and heal my servant.
Ver. 11.-And it came to pass the day after that He went into a city called Nain. A city of Galilee two miles distant from Mount Tabor, situated on the river Kison, and called Nain, from the Hebrew word which denotes beauty. Thus Naomi says, “Call me not Naomi,” i.e. fair or beautiful, “call me Mara; for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me” (Rth 1:20)-words which the widow of Nain, mourning the loss of her only son, might well make her own. So also Psa 133:1., “Behold how good and how pleasant (Nain) it is for brethren to dwell together in unity,” and therefore how sad and sorrowful for brother to be separated from brother, mother from son, by the hand of death.
The place is specially mentioned for the confirmation of the miracle, and also because “Jesus went about all the cities and villages, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people” (S. Mat 9:35); and to show the bitterness of the mother’s grief, for the death of her son at Nain was a greater trial to the mother than if they had been living in some country place. Just as it seems more hard for a man to be cut off in youth than in age, in health than in sickness, in prosperity than in adversity, in the spring tide rather than in the winter of life, as it is written (Ecclus. 41:1), “0 Death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions, unto the man that bath nothing to vex him, and that hath prosperity in all things. 0 Death, acceptable is thy sentence unto the needy and unto him whose strength faileth, to whom everything is a care.”
Ver. 12.-Now when he came nigh to the gate of the city, behold, there was a dead man carried out, &c. “Behold,” i.e. by accident, humanly speaking, Christ met the bier; but the meeting was foreseen and fore-ordained of Christ, that He might raise the dead to life. He willed, however, that it should seem accidental and not designed, in order that it might be the more esteemed; for as the proverb runs, “that is of little value which is voluntarily offered for sale.”
“There was a dead man carried” without the city. Because, for sanitary and other reasons, the Jews had their burial places without the walls.
So the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimatha, in which the body of Christ lay, was without Jerusalem. So also the valley of Jehoshaphat, the scene of the judgment to come and the general resurrection, is the common burial-place of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with the exception of the kings, for whom David had provided a sepulchre in Zion. 1 Kings ii. 10. For similar reasons the Romans, who were forbidden by the twelve tables to bury their dead within the city, used the Campus Martius as a place of sepulture, until Theodoric revoked the law; and there is abundant evidence to show that the Christians also, in the time of the persecution, used the crypts which they had excavated without the city for purposes of interment, but afterward, when peace was given to the Christians, they consecrated burial places within the walls near the temples in which they were wont to worship:
1. That the remembrance of death might be continually presented to the faithful as an incentive to a holy life. Like as the Spartans were commanded by Lycurgus to bury their dead within the city, in order to teach their young men that death was to be honoured and, not to be feared.
2. That by their consecration they might be secure against the wiles of the devils, who are wont to dwell in the tombs and possess the bodies of those departed. S. Luk 8:27.
3. And also that the faithful when on their way to worship might be led to pray that those who lay buried around might be released from purgatory, and counted worthy of a glorious resurrection at the last day, and also that they might be partakers in the holy sacrifices offered in the temples and might benefit by the merits and by the prayers of those Saints who either lie buried, or are in some way especially commemorated therein. Thus Constantine the Great wished to be buried in the porch of the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople, and Theodosius in the Church of S. Peter at Rome. And so, as most of the churches at Rome show the Christians built altars over the tombs of the martyrs, for reasons which I have given in my comments on the text, “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain.” Rev 7:9.
The only son, , i.e. the only child of his mother, and therefore the sole object of her love. For he was to her her hope and her future, the support of her declining years, and the light of her eyes. Hence the mother’s grief was of the bitterest kind, like to that which the prophets tell of: “They shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son,” Zec 12:10. And again, “0 daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation.” Jer 6:26.
And much people of the city was with her. This widow seems to have been a woman highly esteemed by her fellow-citizens, “out of respect for whom they joined in the funeral procession.” S. Ambrose. Furthermore, there is generally at the gate of a city a great crowd of people going in and coming out, particularly as formerly the gate was not only the market-place, but also the seat of judgment.
Hence God willed that the miracle should be thus publicly wrought, that many being witnesses of it, many might be led to give praise to Him. Bede.
Ver. 13.-And when the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said into her, Weep not. Nay, rather begin to rejoice, for I will restore your son to life again, mourn not as dead one whom thou shalt soon see brought back again to life. Bede. He forbids her to weep for him, who was, about to rise from the dead, S. Ambrose.
Ver. 14.-And He came and touched the bier: and He said Young man, I say unto thee, Arise. The bier, an open bier surely, as is common amongst the Jews.
Arise. Elijah, Elisha, and others restored the dead to life by means of prayer to God, but Christ at a word, as Lord of life and death, and therefore very God. He touched the bier, says Cyril, to show that his body was effectual for the salvation of men, for as iron heated in the fire does the work of fire, and kindles the chaff, so the flesh united to the Word gives life to mankind.
Ver. 15.–And he that was dead sat up and began to speak. Sat up, raised himself up into a sitting posture, and so returned to life; for to sit up and to begin to speak are sure signs of returning animation.
And He delivered him to his mother, i.e. He took him by the hand and placed him on his feet, then led him to his mother. Behold thy son! Take him home with thee, that thou mayest rejoice over him, and that he may render thee true filial obedience.
Ver. 16.-And there came a fear on all.
Ver. 17.–And this rumour of Him went forth throughout all Juda, and throughout all the region round about. Fear, i.e. reverence, and a sacred awe, mixed with admiration and joy.
A great prophet. The Messiah, of whose coming all were in anxious expectation.
Allegorically. The widow is the Church who mourns her sons-those who have fallen into mortal sin and forfeited the grace of God-as dead, and seeks by her tears for their restoration; and in answer to her prayers, Christ-1. Causes the bearers to stand still, checks those evil passions which gain the mastery over the young, and breaks their power. 2. Touches the bier, i.e. the wood of the Cross, and by it raises the dead to life. For by virtue of Christ sinners are moved to repentance, and restored to favour with God. Hence, 3. The dead man sits up and begins to speak, begins to lead a new life and give praise unto God, so that those who are witnesses of this marvellous change are filled with admiration and are led to give glory unto God. So S. Ambrose and others.
Of this we have a living example in S. Monica, for she mourned unceasingly for her son, who was dead in trespasses and sins, but recalled by her prayers to such holiness of life that he afterwards became a chief doctor of the Church. S. Augustine, Confessions.
Again, more particularly, the widow is the Church, the son the people of the Gentiles enclosed in the bier of concupiscence, and borne along to hell as to a sepulchre. By touch of the bier, i.e. by the wood of the Cross, Christ gave life to the world
Figuratively. By the example of the widow we see how a priest or director should act when any of his spiritual children have fallen into mortal sin and are being borne to the grave of everlasting misery. He should follow the bier with weeping and much lamentation, for thus he will receive comfort from the Lord who-(1.) Touching the bier will cause the bearers to stand still, i.e. cause evil lusts and passions to cease; (2.) will recall the dead to life; and (3.) will raise him up to the performance of good works, so as to confess his sins and tell of the loving kindness of God.
Thus at last he is restored to the Church, his mother, whose past sorrow will be eclipsed by her present joy, and thus also many will be led to extol the goodness of God.
Again, the widow represents the soul, her son the understanding, inactive and dead. When such a soul laments her spiritual death, especially if others also join in her mourning, Christ will grant an awakening. The bier is a conscience in a state of false security. The bearers, the evil enticements and flatteries of companions which stand still, i.e. are restrained at the touch of Christ. Bede. Or, as Theophylact interprets it, the widow is the soul which has lost its husband, i.e. the word of life; the son is the understanding; the body, the coffin or bier.
To sum up. We read that Christ on three occasions recalled the dead to life.
1. The daughter of the ruler of the synagogue in the house, i.e. one who sins in thought and intention.
2. The son of the widow at the gate, i.e. one who sins openly, and imparts his guilt to others.
3. Lazarus in the tomb, the habitual sinner who lies as it were buried in sin without hope of recovery or release.
The first, Christ raised to life by secret prayer apart from others; the second by a word; the third by crying with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. Hence different degrees of sin have different remedies, but to rescue the habitual sinner from the death of sin there needs no less than the voice of Christ speaking loudly to the sinner’s heart.
Ver. 29.–And the publicans justified God. Confessed the goodness of God in sending the Baptist, and in offering them salvation :through his baptism and preaching. See verse Luke 35; 1Ti 3:16; and S. Mat 11:l9.
There is a question whether this verse and the one following, give the words of the Evangelist or of our Lord Himself. But as the opening words of the 31st verse, “and the Lord said,” are absent from the best MSS., we may conclude, with Maldonatus, that these two verses are a part of the continuous discourse of Christ.
Ver. 30.–But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, either within themselves, i.e. in their hearts, because they did not dare openly contravene His words, or as against themselves, i.e. for their own condemnation. Bede.
Ver. 36.-And one of the Pharisees desired that he would eat with him, and He went into the Pharisee’s house and sat down to meat.
Ver. 37.-And behold a woman in the city. Behold, a wonderful thing, and a wonderful example of penitence. A woman called Mary Magdalene. S. Luk 8:2. It is questioned whether this is the same woman who is mentioned by the two other Evangelists. S. Chrysostom thinks there were two; Origen, Theophylact, and Euthymius, three who thus anointed our Lord, and that each Evangelist wrote of a different person. S. Mat 26:7; S. Joh 12:3.
But I hold that it was one and the same woman-Mary Magdalene, the sister of Martha and of Lazarus, who anointed our Lord, as we read in the Gospels, on two but not three occasions; and this is clear,-
1. Because this is the general interpretation of the Church, who in her Offices accepts what is here written by S. Luke as referring to the Magdalene alone.
2. Because S. John (Joh 11:2) writes, “It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick,” thus plainly alluding to this passage of S. Luke, and signifying that only one woman anointed the Lord. For if there had been more than one, the words just quoted would have insufficiently described her. But the meaning is, “when I say Mary, I mean the penitent who anointed the feet of the Lord, as recounted by S. Luke, whom all know to be Mary Magdalene.”
3. Because the Mary mentioned by S. John (Joh 12:2-3) is clearly the same Mary Magdalene, the sister of Martha and of Lazarus, who anointed Christ here, as described by S. Luke, and again at Bethany, six days before the passover. For S. Matthew (Mat 26:6) and S. John (Jn 12:i) both refer to the same event, as is evident if the two accounts are compared together. Therefore it was Mary Magdalene who anointed Christ, not three times, as Origen would have us believe, but twice only, once as is recorded by S. Luke, and again six days before His death.
4 The same thing is testified to by Church history and tradition, and also by the inscription on the tomb of the Magdalene, which Maximus, one of the seventy disciples, is said to have built.
5. And this is also the opinion of S. Augustine, S. Cyprian, and many other interpreters of scripture.
But it may be objected that this Magdalene followed Jesus from Galilee (S. Mat 27:55), and was a Galilean, and cannot have been the same as Mary the sister of Martha, who lived at Bethany, and was therefore of Juda. I answer that she was of Juda by descent, but seems to have lived in Galilee, it may be in the castle called Magdala, either because she had married the lord of that place, or because it had been allotted her as her share of the family property. Hence she was called Magdalene from the name of the place, Magdala. So Jansenius and others.
In the city. Some think in Jerusalem. But Jerusalem was in Juda, and these things seem to have been done in Galilee where Christ was preaching. Hence it is very probable that the city was Nain, the scene of Christ’s miracle, as Toletus and others conjecture; but some think that it was the town of Magdala in which she lived, an idea which Adricomius on the word Magdalum supports.
A sinner. Some recent writers, to honour the Magdalene, think that she was not unchaste, but only conceited and vain, and for this reason called a sinner. But in proportion as they thus honour the Magdalene, they detract from the grace of God and that penitence which enabled her to live a holy life. For by the word sinner we generally understand one who not only sins, but leads others also to sin. The word sinner therefore here signifies a harlot, i.e. one who has many lovers although she may not make a public market of her charms, and this interpretation is accepted by S. Augustine, S. Jerome, Isidore of Pelusium, S. Ambrose, Gregory, Bede, and S. Chrysostom, who holds (Hom. 62 ad Pop.) that to her refer the words of our Lord, “Verily, I say unto you, that the publicans and harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.” S. Mat 22:31. Hence the Church hymn:-
Now from the very jaws of hell returns;
E’en to the threshold of a Life eternal,
After her fitful life of guilt and shame.
She, from a seething caldron of offences,
A fair and perfumed vase is now become;
From an uncomely vessel of dishonour
Translated to a vessel full of grace. So she, who hath so many sins committed,
Doubtlessly Christ permitted her to be entangled in all the filth of a wanton life, that He might show the power of His grace in winning her back to purity again, for the worse the disease the greater the skill of the physician in curing it. Nor does this detract from the honour due to the Magdalene, for the greater her sins, the more admirable her penitence, and the stronger her resolution to forsake them.
God willed that she should be an example of penitence, that none should despair of pardon because or the heinousness of their offences, but trust to the infinite compassion of God, mindful of the saying of S. Paul, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting.” 1Ti 1:15-16.
“Truly,” says S. Gregory, “a life anxious to atone for faults committed is oftentimes more pleasing to God than that innocence which rests in a torpid security.”
Great, indeed, is the gift of innocence by which we are preserved from sin, but greater is the grace of penitence and remission of sin, and this grace is the greater in proportion to the greatness of the sin, for thus forgiveness is granted to the more unworthy, and so the grade becomes to him the greater, as S. Thomas teaches. Hence sinners who truly repent excel their brethren in humility, and in austerity and holiness of life, and often perform acts of heroism which those who have sinned less deeply are unable to do. As may be seen in the case of many saints, and especially in that of one who from a robber became the very mirror of monks. For the baseness of his former life, the baseness of his sin, the punishment due to his offences, and the pardoning love of God, are to the penitent so many incentives to a better and a holier life.
So the pearl is the emblem of penitence. For as the sun by its rays was said to convert the substance of the oyster into a precious jewel, so Christ by his transforming grace changed the woman that was a sinner into a pearl-a penitent saint.
When she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house. It was not fitting that the Magdalene, whose sinful life was known to all, should anoint Christ in her own house, but rather in the house of another, so that there might be no suspicion of evil. Hence she was not ashamed to act as she did in the house of the Pharisee; for, as S. Gregory says (Hom. 33), Being filled with shame within, she did not think there was any cause for the show of shame without. And S. Augustine (Hom. 58 de Temp.) writes, The sinner who washed the feet of the Lord with her tears, and dried them with the hairs of her head, when she knew that the heavenly physician had come, entered the house an uninvited guest; and thus she, who had been shameless in sin, became yet more bold in seeking salvation, and so deserved to hear that her sins were forgiven. And again (Hom. 23), Thou hast seen how a woman of notoriously evil repute entered, uninvited, the house where her Physician sat at meat, and although little fitted for a feast, was fitted for the blessing which she thus boldly (pi impudenti) sought to obtain. For she knew how great was her need, and that He to whom she had come, could grant her relief. For Christ accepted the invitation of the Pharisee, in order to provide those who sat at meat with the spiritual feast of the repentant Magdalene. Hence S. Chrysostom (Serm. 93):Christ sat at the feast, not to drink cups of wine flavoured with honey and perfumed with flowers, but the bitter tears of repentance; because God longs for the tears of the sinner. For, as S. Bernard says, the tears of penitence are the wine of angels, and yield them unbounded delight. And again (Serm. 30 in Cant.),Tears are an earnest of repentance, and a return to the blessing and favour of God, and therefore of sweet savour to His angels.
An alabaster box of ointment. See S. Mat 26:6.
Ver. 38.-And stood at His feet behind Him weeping, and began to wash His feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment.
At His feet. The ancients at their feasts reclined on couches, their heads resting on their hands, their feet turned away from the table, so that there might be room for others on the same couch. Hence it was easy for the Magdalene to fulfil her pious purpose, for tradition represents her as a woman of lofty stature.
She stood. Standing indicates not the posture, but the presence of any one.
She stood, i.e. she came, and fell on her knees, at the feet of Christ. For kneeling is the posture of penitence.
She drew nigh, says S. Augustine (Hom. 23), to the feet of the Lord, and she who for long had taken to evil ways, now seeks to direct her steps aright. For humble contrition she weeps, and washes the feet of Christ, and in the devotion with which she wiped and anointed them, although silent, she speaks.
In the Magdalene therefore was fulfilled that which is written: “Tell me, 0 thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon;” also, “While the King sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof,” (Son 1:7-12); and further, “I will rise now and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth” (Son 3:2), which see.
Note here:-1. The reverence and modesty of the Magdalene, which is the grace of youth and of penitence. She drew nigh to Christ, not in front of Him, for she considered that she was, on account of her past misdeeds, unworthy of His holy presence, but at His feet. Therefore, S. Bernard accounts reverence or modesty (Serm. 86, in Song)to be the foundation of all virtues. “How great,” he says, “is the grace and the beauty which a modest blush lends to the cheek!”
2. S. Mary Magdalene, as S. Chrysostom (Hom. 11, on S. Matt.)observes, was the first who came to Jesus for pardon and forgiveness. Those before her had sought restoration to bodily health alone. Therefore, wounded like a deer, she, wounded by the dart of Christ’s love, runs to Him for succour. Christ had showed her her wretchedness; hence, overcome with sorrow and remorse, she could not bear for one moment longer the burden of her sins, but at once sought of Him pardon and release. Therefore, without waiting until Christ had left the Pharisee’s house, she burst in uninvited to the feast. So foul and loathsome is even one mortal sin alone. As S. Anselm asserts (De Similit. cap. cxc.), “If of necessity I had to choose between sin and the torments of hell, I had rather plunge headlong into hell, than give sin the mastery over me;” and he adds, “I had rather enter hell pure from the stain of sin, than reign in heaven a prey to its pollutions.”
3. The act of S. Mary Magdalene seems as if prompted by the words of the Baptist, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world,” S. Joh 1:29; or by the invitation of Christ, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” S. Mat 11:28. Moreover, she was persuaded that He, who had delivered her from the possession of the seven devils (S. Luk 8:2), would deliver her also from the bondage of sin. Therefore, in deepest contrition she draws nigh to Christ, acknowledging Him to he a prophet sent from God with power to forgive sins, and in full hope that He would pardon the guilt which she had contracted; for, S. Gregory says, Christ drew her to Himself by inward grace, and received her outwardly with pity and compassion.
And began to wash His feet with her tears. Observe how abundant were the tears of the penitent, inasmuch as they were able to wash and cleanse the dust-stained feet of the Lord. See S. Mat 10:10. On their power and efficacy, S. Chrysostom has written (Serm. de Pnitentia),and S. Ambrose, “Christ washed not His own feet, in order that we might wash them with our tears. Blessed tears, not only because they are able to wash away our guilt, but because they besprinkle the firstfruits of the heavenly Word, and incline His steps towards us.”
Blessed tears, for they not only obtain pardon for the sinner, but strength and refreshment for the just. For truly is it written “My tears have been my meat day and night,” Psa 43:3. And S. Gregory (Hom. 33): “As I ponder over the penitence of the Magdalene, I long to keep silent and weep. For what heart so hard, as not to be softened by the tears of this penitent sinner, who considered what she had done, and was careless of what she would do-who entered unbidden to the feast, and wept amongst those who were feasting. Learn then how great must have been the compunction and sorrow which impelled her on such an occasion to weep.”
And did wipe them with the hairs of her head. Other means were at hand, but in her deep penitence, the Magdalen would dedicate to the service of Christ the very hair which once she took such pride in adorning. Hence S. Cyprian (De Ablutione),She used her hair for a napkin, her eyes for a pitcher, and her tears for water. Her contrition showed itself by her tears; her faith washed the feet of the Lord, her love anointed them. She made her head to be a foot-stool, and wiped the sacred feet with her unloosened hair. Without reserve, she gave herself to Christ, and He, regarding the intention rather than the act, anointed the anointer, cleansed her who was cleansing, and wiped away her sins.
S. Euthymius assigns the cause, “He makes instruments of sin, instruments of righteousness.” And more particularly S. Gregory (Hom. 33),”That which she had given up to the service of sin, now she offers for the glory of God. Her eyes, which had lusted after earthly things, she wears away with the tears of repentance. Her hair, which once added to the comeliness of her face, she now used to dry up her tears. With her mouth, which was wont to speak proudly, she now kisses the ground on which the feet of the Lord trod. All her sinful indulgences she sacrifices for the love of Christ, and making her former vices give place to virtues, wherewith she offended therewith she now serves God.”
Hear also S. Chrysostom (Hom. 6, on S. Matt.): “So the woman which was a sinner, inflamed with the fires of love, and purged by her flood of tears from the stains and defilement of sin, exceeded even the virtue of virgins. For in the warmth of her penitence she exulted in her longings for Christ; washing His feet with her tears, wiping them with the hairs of her head, and anointing them with ointment of price. Thus she acted outwardly, but how much more fervent were the thoughts of her heart, which were known only to God.”
And kissed his feet. She who once delighted in the kisses of unchaste desire, now chastely kisses the feet of Christ, and seeks thereby the pardon and forgiveness of her sins. For a kiss is a sign of forgiveness, as well as of kindness and of love. S. Ambrose.
Mystically. The two feet of Christ, says S. Peter Damian, are mercy and judgment. To kiss one without the other is productive of rash security, or of an evil despair. Publicly, at a public feast, in presence of all the guests, the Magdalene performed her act of penitence, that her openly avowed repentance might atone for the public scandal of her former life.
And anointed them with the ointment. The ancients made frequent use of ointments or perfumes. See Eccles. ix. 8. And these were generally prepared by women. 1Sa 8:13.
The Magdalene boldly entered the house of Simon her friend at the time of the feast, that thus she might show the warmth of her love for Christ. Titus. For, as S. Paulinus says (Epist. 4, ad Severum),The Lord regarded not the ointment, but the love which impelled her, fearless of reproach or rejection, to enter uninvited the house of the Pharisee, and with that violence by which the kingdom of heaven is taken by force, she ran to the feet of Christ, and made them to be, if I may so express myself, her sanctuary and her altar. There she consecrated her tears-made offering of a sweet-smelling savour, and made sacrifice of her affections and passions; a broken and contrite heart, a sacrifice with which God is well-pleased. Therefore she not only obtained the forgiveness, of her sins, but wheresoever the Gospel is preached, there what she hath done shall be told for a memorial of her.
Mystically. S. Peter Damian explains, that this ointment was made out of our sins; for she, mixed and macerated in the mortar of repentance, sprinkled with the oil of discernment, and softened in the caldron of discipline by the fires of remorse, is applied a precious and acceptable ointment to the Saviour’s feet. He adds also that this ointment was fourfold, inasmuch as it was composed 1. of devotion; 2. many virtues; 3. piety; and 4. Pity.
Note what a noble example of penitence and of virtue the Magdalene presents.
1. Her remarkable faith in believing that Christ was able to forgive sins, a power which the Scribes and Pharisees denied Him, and which no other prophet possessed. Hence if we may credit S. Augustine (Hom. 33), she believed that He who had power to forgive sins, was more than man, and was led by divine illumination to acknowledge Christ to be God; for, as S. Augustine goes on to say, to believe that Christ can forgive sins, is to believe that He is God; and he adds, “She drew nigh unto the Lord impure, to return pure; sick, to return sound; a confessor of sin, to return a disciple of Christ.”
2. Her wonderful devotion in continuing to kiss the feet of Jesus, and wash them with her tears until she heard Him say, “Thy sins are forgiven: go in peace.”
3. Her great wisdom in not seeking pardon by the words of her mouth, but rather by the deep yearnings of her heart.
4. The depth of her penitence, in that for thirty years, after thus publicly showing her contrition, she lived in the desert a life given up to austerities and the practice of good works. Hence Petrarch writes:-
“Love and hope deep seated in the heart made cold and hunger sweet, and turned the hard rock into a pleasant couch;” and adds, “Here, unseen by men, but surrounded by bands of angels, and supported by the daily Offices, thou wast permitted to hear the responsive chantings of the angelic choirs.” And so Christ revealed to S. Bridget that there were three saints specially pleasing to Him: the Blessed Virgin, John the Baptist, and Mary Magdalene, of whom He spake thus:-When Mary Magdalene was converted, the devils said, ‘How shall we gain power over her again, for we have lost a goodly prey? We cannot look at her because of her tears; so covered and protected is she by good works, that no spot or soil of sin can stain her soul; so holy is her life, so fervent her love for God, that we dare not draw nigh her.'”
Figuratively, S. Ambrose (lib. de Tobia, cap. xii.), says, “Whoso hath pity on the poor anoints the feet of Christ. For the poor are His feet, and on them He harmlessly walks.”
Ver. 39.-Now when the Pharisee which had bidden Him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, this man, if He were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth Him: for she is a sinner, and therefore unfit to touch a holy prophet. This Pharisee was, as S. Augustine says (Serm. 23), one of those self-righteous men, of whom Isaiah wrote, chap. lii. II.
But Simon’s reasoning was false, for the unclean touched Christ that they might be cleansed by Him. For this cause He came into the world, that as the good physician, He might heal all manner of diseases, whether of the body or of the soul. He was offended, therefore, because, as Euthymius says, he knew not that Christ, although very God, was made man to save sinners. And, again, the Magdalene was not now unclean, for she had been cleansed by contrition, as Christ proceeded to show. Simon was deceived, because he judged of the past, and not of the present. For Mary was the same, yet another. Another, yet her very self, says Chrysologus (Serm. 74).Wherefore the humble penitent was holier than the proud Pharisee, who, if he had not already sinned as deeply as the Magdalene, was liable from his spiritual pride to fall into as great a sin. S. Augustine (in loc. cit.). Hence in many things the Pharisee offended, as Toletus shows. Therefore, S. Gregory (Hom. 33), concludes thus: “We should in another’s fall lament our own sin; for perhaps, under similar circumstances, we should in like manner offend, and although punishment should always follow on sin, we ought to make a distinction, to be harsh and severe in our treatment of vice, but to be compassionate to the weakness of human nature. For though the sinner must be punished, he must be gently dealt with, as our neighbour.”
Ver. 40.-And Jesus answering (the secret thoughts of his heart) said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee.
S. Augustine, Theophylact, Bede and others, think that this Simon was not Simon, the leper, in whose house the Magdalene again anointed the feet of Jesus. S. Joh 12:2, S. Mat 26:6. Others are of a contrary opinion, because the name is the same, and because the circumstances of the second anointing are so similar. It seems, however, that this Simon was converted when Christ was on his way from Galilee to Juda (S. Mat 19:1); and that he followed Jesus, and settled at Bethany, near S. Mary Magdalene, who was known to him, in order to enjoy with her the presence and teaching of Christ.
I have somewhat to say unto thee. See how wisely Christ reproves Simon with these gentle but meaning words, which appealed to his better feelings, and at once arrested his attention. For, as S. Augustine says, Christ desired to correct the error of his thoughts, in return for the entertainment which he had provided. And S. Luke implies that Simon at once recognised his fault, for he answered modestly, Master, say on. As Thy disciple, I will gladly accept Thy words as the teaching of my Master.
Ver. 41.-There was a certain creditor which had two debtors. The debtors, says S. Ambrose, are those who owe God, the heavenly creditor, not actual money, but a return of good works and of virtue. Our debts, therefore, are our sins, by which we do despite to God, and for which we should make atonement. But we cannot make atonement unto God, and therefore are in danger of hell fire. For the Syriac creditor implies the same as usurer, and the Greek word answers to the Hebrew , nosche, and signifies one who gives, either outright, or on usury. Deu 15:6, Deu 28:12; Ecclus 29:1-2.
One owed five hundred pence and the other fifty. The Roman denarius or penny, originally of the value of ten asses, was worth about eight pence of our modern money. In this parable we are to understand by the two debtors, Mary Magdalene, and Simon the Pharisee; who is not mentioned by name, lest he should be offended or disheartened. This is clear from the following verses wherein the Magdalene is thrice, by antithesis, brought into comparison with Simon, and preferred to him. She, therefore, is the debtor who owed five hundred pence, who considered that she owed God much more because of her sins than Simon; and therefore, that she might obtain forgiveness, she loved more and showed greater proofs of her love. But Simon owed only fifty pence, his sins were but venial, and therefore he considered that he owed little to God. He was self-righteous, and thought that he had little or no need of repentance.
But S. Augustine rightly observes, for this very reason he ought all the more to acknowledge that he was a debtor to God, who had preserved him from committing greater offences. Thou wast not an adulterer (as the Magdalene) in that past life of thine which thou dost ignore. But it was God who kept thee from sinning, preserved thee from temptation, and from the power of the tempter. Acknowledge then what thou owest to Him who has kept thee from evil. For there is no sin which one man has committed that another man may not commit, if God withdraw His guidance from him.
Ver. 42.-And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? (loves him most, Vulg.) i.e. “in verity,” or “ought” to love him most. For a similar Hebraism, see Amo 5:13. The prudent shall keep silence in that time, i.e. they were being silent or it behoved them to be silent.
The meaning is, As he who has been forgiven much, is accounted to have received forgiveness because of his deserts, so debtors who owe much, are wont to show the utmost deference to their creditors, in order to obtain from them, if not forgiveness of their debt, at least favourable terms of payment. In like manner, Simon, thou shouldest have known that the Magdalene loved me with a greater love than thine. For she showed greater proofs of her love, and therefore her sins, which are many, are forgiven, because she loved much. Wherefore, she is no longer a sinner, nor, as thou thinkest, unworthy to touch my feet; but holier than thou, and more worthy to be touched by me. The parable, therefore, plainly teaches us, that the more we love, the more we shall be forgiven.
So S. Augustine (Hom. 23), “The more she loved Me, and shows her love, the more do I forgive.” But if we take the Greek rendering , and translate according to the English version, the argument is inverted. For although the love of the creditor, as shown in the forgiveness of the debt, excites in return the love of the debtor, yet at the same time it is the love of the debtor, in seeking to make payment of the debt, which causes the creditor to forgive. So De Lyra, Francis Lucas, and others. Hence the parable in one sense teaches us, that as the debtor who has been forgiven the most, loves his creditor the more, so Christ because he had forgiven the many sins of the Magdalene, will be the more beloved by her. But Christ desired also to show, not only that her sins were forgiven, but the reason, and the manner of their forgiveness, i.e. on account, of her love, so that we, taking example by her, may, in like manner obtain forgiveness.
Another explanation is given by S. Ambrose (De Tobia, cap. xxii.). Christ forgave the sins of the Magdalene, which increased her love and gratitude to Him; but, Christ foresaw this increase of love, and therefore from the very first forgave her. Again, S. Gregory (lib. vi. epist. 22), and after him Toletus: The greater the debt, which is forgiven the greater the gratitude of the debtor. When, therefore, 0 Simon, thou sawest in the Magdalene such great signs of love, thou shouldest have inferred how much had been forgiven her. For as the cause may be inferred from the effect, so her love wasthe result of her forgiveness. See then how rashly thou hast condemned this woman, when thou shouldest have known, from the abundant signs of love and gratitude which she had shown, that all her sins, however great their number, had been forgiven. But this interpretation is at variance with the 47th verse, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.” The word “for” or “because” shows that her love was not the effect but the cause of her forgiveness. See infra, v.47.
Ver. 43.-Simon answered and said, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most. And He said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. Christ praises the answer, in order that Simon might the more readily accept the reproof and the lessons to be drawn therefrom.
Ver. 44.–And He turned unto the woman, and said unto Simon, seest thou this woman? He turned, because the Magdalene stood behind Him, for from consciousness of her guilt, she did not dare to meet His sight. Seest thou this woman? no longer, as thou thinkest, a sinner, but a penitent reconciled with God.
I entered into thine house, but thou gavest Me no water for My feet. It was the custom in those days to wash the feet of one’s guests before they sat down to meat, both for purposes of cleansing and refreshment. Thus Abraham washed the feet of the Angels, Gen. xviii. 4, and Lot, Gen 19:2. See also Jdg 19:21. Whence S. Paul considers that a widow may be set apart for the service of God, “if she have washed the saints’ feet,” 1Ti 5:10.
Christ had come as a guest to the house, and therefore Simon should have washed His feet. Christ therefore reproached him for his want of consideration and care, and contrasts his conduct with the love of the Magdalene. For Titus says, “It is an easy matter to provide water, but difficult to supply such an abundance of tears.”
Ver. 45.-Thou gavest Me no kiss, but this woman, since the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss My feet, “with reverence and godly fear.” Titus. Guests were in old times received with a kiss in sign of affection and welcome. But Simon omitted this salutation. Hence “It was thy duty, 0 Simon, to receive Me, thy invited guest, with a kiss of welcome, but the Magdalene has more than made up for thy neglect, for she hath continued to kiss, not My face, but My feet, from the moment I entered Thy house.”
Ver. 46.–My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed My feet with ointment. The more valued the guest, the more precious the perfumes wherewith He was anointed. Thou didst not anoint My head, but she hath anointed My feet with very precious ointment. See again how she excelleth thee in love and devotion. “Not that the Lord,” as Ambrose says, “valued the ointment, but rather the love, the faith, and the humility.” Hence Christ concludes,
Ver. 47.-Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much. Greek, , have been forgiven. At what time, we may ask, were her sins forgiven?
1. Francis Lucas thinks at the time when the Lord said unto her, “Thy sins ate forgiven,” v. 48.
2. Others are of opinion that her sins were forgiven when our Lord in this present verse declared unto Simon the fact of her pardon.
3. But it seems more probable that her sins were forgiven at some time antecedent, i.e. when she felt true contrition for her offences. Because when by the grace of God she had been led to see the heinousness of her sin, so deep was her contrition and sorrow, that she thereby regained the divine favour, and so her love for God and her sorrow for her sins impelled her to show openly the reality of her repentance, and therefore before Christ could say unto her, “Thy sins are forgiven,” she had obtained forgiveness by reason of her complete penitence.
We may, however, take the words “her sins are forgiven” as spoken in the same sense in which the priest pronounces absolution over a penitent, who is already reconciled to God by his perfect repentance. The priest absolves him who is already absolved, and this absolution is so effectual as to do away with any sin which might still attach itself to the penitent. Further, a sin often repeated may be often forgiven, if the penitent confesses his fault as often as he commits it, and seeks absolution at the hands of the Church. Hence Christ for the third time forgives the sins of the Magdalene. Wherefore He freed her not only from the guilt but from the punishment of sin, and granted her free release.
This is what the angel said to a certain Bishop of the Church: Penitence and confession restore the penitent to the number of the elect.” Again, “The tears of a penitent may well bear the name of a baptism.” Barlaam. And Palladius tells us, that a certain virgin who had fallen into sin “was more pleasing to God in her penitence, than in her former purity.” See also S. Jerome (De pnitentia Fabiol); and Climacus (De pnitentia.)
For she loved much. Toletus and some others think that the word “for” signifies not the cause but rather affords the proof of her forgiveness. “Thou mightest have known, 0 Simon, that her sins were forgiven, for these open signs of love are bestowed on Me in gratitude for my forgiveness of her sins.”
But this explanation is faulty, because the Magdalene knew not that she had been forgiven, until she heard Christ pronounce the pardon of her sins. And Christ does not say, Learn from her acts of love that her sins have been forgiven, but on the contrary, Her sins are forgiven because of her love.
Hence the cause of the Magdalene’s forgiveness was her great love for God, which led her to hate and abhor her former sins. For love is the death of sin, and the life of righteousness. S. Augustine (De laudibus charitatis.) Hence all theologians hold with him, that the act or perfect contrition which includes the entire surrender of the heart to God, precedes, but at once brings with it justification and forgiveness of sin as its final result, in the same way as a certain amount of heat (calor ut octo) applied to wood, as a result produces actual fire in that wood.
So the Council of Trent (Sess. xiv. cap.iv.), distinguishig between the attrition caused by fear of punishment and the contrition which follows on the love of God, decides that the latter, in conjunction with the sacrament of penance, reconciles the sinner with God, which the former is in no wise able to do; for “a broken and a contrite heart, 0 God, thou wilt not despise,” Ps. li. 17. Hence S. Gregory (Hom. 33) explains, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much, i.e. she burnt off the corruptions of sin, because she was inflamed with the fire of love. For the more the heart of the sinner burns with the love of God the wore is he purified from the lust and corruption of sin.”
But to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. This refers to the Pharisee, because he obtained no forgiveness, inasmuch as he showed no signs of penitence or of love for God. Our Lord, under reserve, saith little or “less,” as the Vulgate renders it, is forgiven, though he might have said “nothing” is forgiven. But by the words “to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little,” we may understand:
1. That, according to the principles on which God forgives sins, “one mortal sin, even though it be the least, cannot be forgiven without its accompanying sins being forgiven also, and whensoever one is forgiven, the others are forgiven as far as the guilt is concerned, but more or less of punishment is meted out, according to the degree of love which fills the heart of the penitent.”
2. That he who has no love for God, or only that natural love which well nigh all men possess, loves God less than one whose love is divinely inspired. Hence to the one many, i.e. all his sins, are pardoned; to the other less, i.e. nothing, is forgiven. All was forgiven the Magdalene because she was truly contrite, and sought forgiveness by every means in her power; but the Pharisee received no forgiveness, because he felt no sorrow for sin, and had not even given the feast with any desire of obtaining mercy from Christ..
For Christ designed the parable to apply to S. Mary Magdalene and also to the Pharisee, and willed from it to show why the one was forgiven but the other not. S. Augustine adds, “The parable was spoken because the Pharisee thought he had few, if any sins, not because he had no love, for he showed some love in that he invited our Lord.” And again, “0 Pharisee, thou lovest little, not because little is forgiven thee, but because thou thoughtest that there was little which needed forgiveness.” Toletus remarks, “Little was forgiven Simon, because by the grace of God he had been preserved from committing sin, for he had entertained Christ, and not persecuted him as the other Pharisees. Hence it is very probable that afterwards this Pharisee became a true follower of Christ.” See further Suarez, Parte iii., de Gratia, lib. viii. cap. x.
Ver. 48.-And He said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. FrancisLucas thinks that the Magdalene’s sins were at this time and by these words forgiven. See preceding verse. Christ now turns to the Magdalene, and repeats that which He had said just before to Simon, in order to comfort her grief, to confirm her pardon, and show that He had power and authority to forgive sins, and that He therefore was the Messiah, and God. Euthymius.
Ver. 49.-And they that sat at meat with Him began to say within themselves, i.e. to reason in their hearts, for they did not dare to express their thoughts lest they should be put to rebuke.
Who is this that forgiveth sins also? Is it the Messiah? Is it God, for God alone can forgive sins! Christ leaves them a prey to wonder and to doubt, in order that they might be led to inquire into His life, doctrine and miracles, and see in Him the Son of God.
Ver. 50.–And He saith to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace. Faith, not alone, as, the innovators hold, but fruitful in good works, such as the Magdalene had displayed, and love. For a little before, v. 47, Christ had ascribed her forgiveness to her love. We must here understand, therefore, not a barren faith, but a faith which showed itself in her acts of contrition and love.
Hath saved thee, i.e. hath freed thee from sin, and made thee meet for salvation. Thy loving faith hath placed thee in the way of salvation, and if thou continuest therein, thou wilt lay hold upon eternal life, for a readiness to serve God is the way to glory.
Go in peace. Be no longer downcast and distressed by reason of thy sins: they have now no power to hurt thee, nor to make thy conscience afraid. Euthymius. The fruit of repentance, forgiveness, and of a conscience void of offence, is peace and spiritual joys, which far exceed those which the world can give, as it is written, “Being justified by faith, we have peace with God.” Rom. v. 1; and again, “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ,” Phil. iv. 7. So also, “He that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast,” Pro 15:15.
S. Bernard, in his sermon on the Magdalene, very fitly remarks, “The joy which a perfect heart looks for from an untroubled conscience is a lasting happiness. For the heart which is cleansed from this world’s corruptions, and whose desires are fixed on God, joys only in the Lord, and rejoices only in God its Saviour. The soul of such an one despises the threats of the enemy, casts away fear, is not a prey to false hopes, but, secure against all evil, rests in perfect peace.”
This perfect peace Christ gave to the Magdalene, for God’s work is perfect (Deu 32:4), and therefore those whom Christ cleansed were made perfectly whole. He therefore,
1. Uprooted from the Magdalene’s heart all vicious habits, all evil recollections and fleshly lusts, and restored to her true peace of mind.
2. Endued her, not only with chastity, humility and penitence, but also with,
3. A contempt for earthly things, and a love for heavenly; and
4. Kindled in her heart an ardent love, which caused her to dedicate herself and all she had to His service.
Hence she followed Christ as He went about the villages preaching, and ministered unto Him of her substance, resigning the cares of the family to her sister Martha, that she might wholly devote herself to the teaching of the Lord.
Hence she heard from His lips the words, “Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her,” S. Luk 11:42. Hence also she stood at the foot of the Cross, and beheld Christ washing away, by His blood, those sins which she had washed with her tears, and afterwards, with a yet more fervent love, withdrawing into the desert she gave herself up to the contemplation of His life, His passion and His resurrection, and, wholly devoted to His service, lived henceforth for heaven and not for earth.
Such also was the conversion of S. Paul, and therefore he was endued with all Christian and Apostolic virtues. See Acts ix. A similar conversion of heart and mind, we are told, was experienced by S Cyprian at his baptism (Lib. ii. Epist. 2, ad Donat.); and by S. Augustine (Confess. lib. ix. cap. i., lib. viii. cap. ii.)
Wherefore Origen, in his noble Homily on the Magdalene, figuratively says, “We may follow the example of this woman, in order to obtain a similar blessing. For we way confidently draw nigh unto Jesus, since He did not withdraw Himself from the sinner who sought Him. Learn then from her, 0 sinner, to mourn over the absence of God from thy soul, and to seek His presence again. Learn from Mary to love Jesus, to hope in Jesus, and by seeking Jesus to find Him. Learn from her to fear no opposition, to refuse to be comforted without Him, and to count all things but loss for His sake. Hence see the power of grace, and of the love of Christ.”
“Love conquers all things.” “Love can control the savage lion, and love alone has power to 1ead captive the hearts of men,” for “love is strong as death,” Son 8:6.
Fuente: Cornelius Lapide Commentary
7:1 Now {1} when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.
(1) Christ admonishes the Jews that for their obstinacy and rebellion he will go to the Gentiles, by setting before them the example of the centurion.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
1. The healing of a centurion’s servant 7:1-10 (cf. Matthew 8:5-13)
This incident shows Jesus extending grace to a Gentile through Jewish intermediaries. It would have helped Luke’s original Gentile readers appreciate that Jesus’ mission included them as well as the Jews. It is another case in which Jesus commended the faith of someone (cf. Luk 1:45; Luk 5:20). Luke continued to stress Jesus’ authority and the power of His word (cf. Luk 4:32; Luk 4:36). The similarities between this incident and the conversion of Cornelius are striking (cf. Acts 10).
"His story is thus an example of the fact that God is willing to accept all men alike and that everyone who fears him and performs righteousness is acceptable to Him (Act 10:34 f.)." [Note: Marshall, The Gospel . . ., p. 277.]
The good relations between the Jews and this Gentile also show their compatibility, an important lesson for early Christians since there were Jewish Gentile tensions within the early church. Jesus also noted the unbelief that characterized the Jews generally, another important factor that the early church had to deal with. In his account of this healing, Matthew, writing to Jews, stressed the inclusion of Gentiles in God’s plan, but Luke, writing to Gentiles, emphasized the importance of Gentiles loving Jews. [Note: Edersheim, 1:544.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
This verse is transitional. It helps us appreciate the fact that people generally (Gr. laos), not just disciples, were listening to the Sermon on the Mount, at least the last part of it (cf. Mat 7:28). The Greek word that Luke used to describe the completion of Jesus’ teaching on that occasion is eplerosen, which means "fulfilled." He thus implied that this teaching was a fulfillment of prophecy about the Messiah, perhaps that He would preach good news to the poor (Luk 4:18; Luk 6:20; Isa 61:1).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Chapter 12
THE FAITH OF THE CENTURION.
Luk 7:1-10
OUR Evangelist prefaces the narrative of the healing of the centurions servant with one of his characteristic time-marks, the shadow upon his dial-plate being the shadow of the new mount of God: “After He had ended all His sayings in the ears of the people, He entered into Capernaum.” The language is unusually weighty, almost solemn, as if the Sermon on the Mount were not so much a sermon as a manifesto, the formal proclamation of the kingdom of heaven. Our word “ended,” too, is scarcely an equivalent of the original word, whose underlying idea is that of fullness, completion. It is more than a full-stop to point a sentence; it is a word that characterizes the sentence itself, suggesting, if not implying, that these “sayings” of His formed a complete and rounded whole, a body of moral and ethical truth which was perfect in itself. The Mount of Beatitudes thus stands before us as the Sinai of the New Testament, giving its laws to all peoples and to all times. But how different the aspect of the two mounts! Then the people dare not touch the mountain; now they press close up to the “Prophet like unto Moses” to hear the word of God. Then the Law came in a cluster of restrictions and negations; it now speaks in commands most positive, in principles permanent as time itself; while from this new Sinai the clouds have disappeared, the thunders ceased, leaving a sky serene and bright, and a heaven which is strangely near.
Returning to Capernaum-which city, after the ejection from Nazareth, became the home of Jesus, and the center of His Galilean ministry-He was met by a deputation of Jewish elders, who came to intercede with Him on behalf of a centurion whose servant was lying dangerously ill and apparently at the point of death. The narrative thus gives us, as its “dramatis personae,” the Sufferer, the Intercessor, and the Healer.
As we read the story our thought is arrested, and naturally so, by the central figure. The imposing shadow of the centurion so completely fills our range of vision that it throws into the background the nameless one who in his secret chamber is struggling vainly in the tightening grip of death. But who is he who can command such a service? Around whose couch is such a multitude of ministering feet? Who is he whose panting breath can throw over the heart of his master, and over his face, the ripple marks of a great sorrow, which sends hither and thither, as the wind tosses the dry leaves, soldiers of the army, elders of the Jews, friends of the master, and which makes even the feet of the Lord hasten with His succor?
“And a certain centurions servant, who was dear unto him, was sick and at the point of death.” Such is the brief sentence which describes a character, and sums up the whole of an obscure life. We are not able to define precisely his position, for the word leaves us in doubt whether he were a slave or a servant of the centurion. Probably-if we may throw the light of the whole narrative upon the word-he was a confidential servant, living in the house of his master, on terms of more than usual intimacy. What those terms were we may easily discover by opening out the word “dear,” reading its depths as well as its surface-meaning. In its lower sense it means “valuable,” “worthy” (putting its ancient accent upon the modern word). It sets the man, not over against the tables of the Law, but against the law of the tables, weighing him in the balances of trade, and estimating him by the scale of commercial values. But in this meaner, worldly mode of reckoning he is not found wanting. He is a servant proved and approved. Like Eliezer of old, he has identified himself with his masters interests, listening for his voice, and learning to read even the wishes which were unexpressed in words. Adjusting His will to the higher will, like a vane answering the currents of the wind, his hands, his feet, and his whole self have swung round to fall into the drift of his masters purpose. Faithful in his service, whether that service were under the masters eye or not, and faithful alike in the great and the little things, he has entered into his masters confidence, and so into his joy. Losing his own personality, he is content to be something between a cipher and a unit, only a “hand.” But he is the masters right hand, strong and ever ready, so useful as to be almost an integral part of the masters self, without which the masters life would be incomplete and strangely bereaved. All this we may learn from the lower meaning of the phrase “was dear unto him.”
But the word has a higher meaning, one that is properly rendered by our “dear.” It implies esteem, affection, transferring our thought from the subject to the object, from the character of the servant to the influence it has exerted upon the master. The word is thus an index, a barometrical reading, measuring for us the pressure of that influence, and recording for us the high sentiments of regard and affection it has evoked.
As the trees around the pond lean towards the water which laves their roots, so the strong soul of the centurion, drawn by the attractions of a lowly but a noble life, leans toward, until it leans upon, his servant, giving him its confidence, its esteem and love, that golden fruitage of the heart. That such was the mutual relation of the master and the servant is evident, for Jesus, who read motives and heard thoughts, would not so freely and promptly have placed His miraculous power at the disposal of the centurion had his sorrow been only the selfish sorrow of losing what was commercially valuable. To an appeal of selfishness, though thrown forward and magnified by the sounding-boards of all the synagogues the ears of Jesus would have been perfectly deaf; but when it was the cry of a genuine sorrow, the moan of a vicarious pain, an unselfish, disinterested grief, then the ears of Jesus were quick to hear, and His feet swift to respond.
It is impossible for us to define exactly what the sickness was, though the statement of St. Matthew that it was “palsy,” and that he was “grievously tormented,” would suggest that it might be an acute case of inflammatory rheumatism. But whatever it might be, it was a most painful, and as every one thought a mortal sickness, one that left no room for hope, save this last hope in the Divine mercy. But what a lesson is here for our times, as indeed for all times, the lesson of humanity! How little does Heaven make of rank and station! Jesus does not even see them; He ignores them utterly. To His mind Humanity is one, and the broad lines of distinction, the impassable barriers Society is fond of drawing or setting up, to Him are but imaginary meridians of the sea, a name but nothing more. It is but a nameless servant of a nameless master, one, too, of many, for a hundred others are ready, with military precision, to do that same masters will; but Jesus does not hesitate. He who voluntarily took upon Himself the form of a servant, as He came into the world “not to be ministered unto, but to minister,” now becomes the Servant of a servant, saying to him who knew only how to obey, how to serve, “Here am I; command Me; use Me as thou wilt.” All service is honorable, if we serve not ourselves, but our fellows, and it is doubly so if, serving man, we serve God too. As the sunshine looks down into, and strews with flowers, the lowest vales, so the Divine compassion falls on the lowliest lives, and the Divine grace makes them sweet and beautiful. Christianity is the great leveler, but it levels upwards, and if we possess the mind of Christ, His Spirit dwelling and ruling within, we too, like the great Apostle, shall know no man after the flesh; the accidents of birth, and rank, and fortune will sink back into the trifles that they are; for however these may vary, it is an eternal truth, though spoken by a son of the soil and the heather-
“A mans a man for a that.”
It is not easy to tell how the seed-thought is borne into a heart, there to germinate and ripen; for influences are subtle, invisible things. Like the pollen of a flower, which may be carried on the antennae of some unconscious insect, or borne into the future by the passing breeze, so influences which will yet ripen into character and make destinies are thrown off unconsciously from our common deeds, or they are borne on the wings of the chance, casual word. The case of the centurion is no exception. By what steps he has been brought into the clearer light we cannot tell, but evidently this Pagan officer is now a proselyte to the Hebrew faith and worship, the window of his soul open towards Jerusalem while his professional life still looks towards Rome, as he renders to Caesar the allegiance and service which are Caesars due. And what a testimony it is to the vitality and reproductive power of the Hebrew faith, that it should boast of at least three centurions, in the imperial ranks, of whom Scripture makes honorable mention-one at Capernaum; another, Cornelius, at Caesarea, whose prayers and alms were had in remembrance of Heaven; and the third in Jerusalem, witnessing a good confession upon Calvary, and proclaiming within the shadow of the cross the Divinity of the Crucified. It shows how the Paganism of Rome failed to satisfy the aspirations of the soul, and how Mars, red and lurid through the night, paled and disappeared at the rising of the Sun.
Although identifying himself with the religious life of the city, the centurion had not yet had any personal interview with Jesus. Possibly his military duties prevented his attendance at the synagogue, so that he had not seen the cures Jesus there wrought upon the demoniac and the man with the withered hand. The report of them, however, must soon have reached him, intimate as he was with the officials of the synagogue; while the nobleman, the cure of whose sick son is narrated by St. John, {Joh 4:46} would probably be amongst his personal friends, an acquaintance at any rate. The centurion “heard” of Jesus, but he could not have heard had not some one spoken of Him. The Christ was borne into his mind and heart on the breath of common speech; that is, the little human word grew into the Divine Word. It was the verbal testimony as to what Jesus had done that now led to the still greater things He was prepared to do. And such is the place and power of testimony today. It is the most persuasive, the most effective form of speech. Testimony will often win where argument has failed, and gold itself is all-powerless to extend the frontiers of the heavenly kingdom until it is melted down and exchanged for the higher currency of speech. It is first the human voice crying in the wilderness, and then the incarnate Word, whose coming makes the wilderness to be glad, and the desert places of life to sing. And so, while a sword of flame guards the Paradise Lost, it is a “tongue” of flame, that symbol of perpetual Pentecost, which calls man back, redeemed now, to the Paradise Restored. If Christians would only speak more for Christ; if, shaking off that foolish reserve, they would in simple language testify to what they themselves have seen, and known, and experienced, how rapidly would the kingdom come, the kingdom for which we pray, indeed, but for which, alas, we are afraid to speak! Nations then would be born in a day, and the millennium, instead of being the distant or the forlorn hope it is, would be a speedy realization. We should be in the fringe of it directly. It is said that on one of the Alpine glaciers the guides forbid travelers to speak, lest the mere tremor of the human voice should loosen and bring down the deadly avalanche. Whether this be so or not, it was some unnamed voice that now sent the centurion to Christ, and brought the Christ to him.
It was probably a sudden relapse, with increased paroxysms of pain, on the part of the sufferer, which now decided the centurion to make his appeal to Jesus, sending a deputation of Jewish elders, as the day was on the wane, to the house to which Jesus had now returned. They make their request that. “He would come and save the servant of the centurion, who was now lying at the point of death.” True advocates, and skilful, were these elders. They made the centurions cause their own, as if their hearts had caught the rhythmic beat of his great sorrow, and when Jesus held back a little-as He often did, to test the intensity of the desire and the sincerity of the suppliant-“they besought Him earnestly,” or “kept on beseeching” as the tense of the verb would imply, crowning their entreaty with the plea, “He is worthy that Thou shouldest do this, for he loveth our nation, and himself built us our synagogue.” Possibly they feared-putting a Hebrew construction upon His sympathies-that Jesus would demur, and perhaps refuse, because their client was a foreigner. They did not know, what we know so well, that the mercy of Jesus was as broad as it was deep, knowing no bounds where its waves of blessing are stayed. But how forceful and prevalent was their plea! Though they knew it not, these elders do but ask Jesus to illustrate the words He has just spoken, “Give, and it shall be given unto you.” And had not Jesus laid this down as one of the laws of mercy, that action and reaction are equal? Had He not been describing the orbit in which blessings travel, showing that though its orbit be apparently eccentric at times, like the boomerang, that wheels round and comes back to the hand that threw it forward, the mercy shown will eventually come back to him who showed it, with a wealth of heavenly usury? And so their plea was the one of all others to be availing. It was the precept of the mount evolved into practice. It was, “Bless him, for he has richly blessed us. He has opened his hand, showering his favors upon us; do Thou open Thine hand now, and show him that the God of the Hebrews is a God who hears, and heeds, and helps.”
It has been thought, from the language of the elders, that the synagogue built by the centurion was the only one that Capernaum possessed; for they speak of it as “the” synagogue. But this does not follow, and indeed it is most improbable. They might still call it “the” synagogue, not because it was the only one, but: because it was the one foremost and uppermost in their thought, the one in which they were particularly interested. The definite article no more proves this to be the only synagogue in Capernaum than the phrase “the house” {Luk 7:10} proves the house of the centurion to be the only house of the city. The fact is that in the Gospel age Capernaum was a busy and important place, as shown by its possessing a garrison of soldiers, and by its being the place of custom, situated as it was on the great highway of trade. And if Jerusalem could boast of four hundred synagogues, and Tiberias-a city not even named by the Synoptists-fourteen, Capernaum certainly would possess more than one. Indeed, had Capernaum been the insignificant village that one synagogue would imply, then, instead of deserving the bitter woes Jesus pronounced upon it, it would have deserved the highest commendation, as the most fruitful field in all His ministry, giving Him, besides other disciples, a ruler of the Jews and the commandant of the garrison. That it deserved such bitter “woes” proves that Capernaum had a population both dense and, in the general, hostile to Jesus, compared with which His friends and adherents were a feeble few.
In spite of the negative manner Jesus purposely showed at the first He fully intended to grant all the elders had asked, and allowing them now to guide Him, He “went with them.” When, however, they were come near the house, the centurion sent other “friends” to intercept Jesus and to urge Him not to take any further trouble. The message, which they deliver in the exact form in which it was given to them, is so characteristic and exquisitely beautiful that it is best to give it entire: “Lord, trouble not Thyself: for I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof: wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto Thee: but say the word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, having under myself soldiers: and I say to this one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.”
The narrative of St. Matthew differs slightly from that of St. Luke, in that he omits all reference to the two deputations, speaking of the interview as being personal with the centurion. But St. Matthews is evidently an abbreviated narrative, and he passes over the intermediaries, in accordance with the maxim that he who acts through another does it per se. But both agree as to the terms of the message, a message which is at once a marvel and a rebuke to us, and one which was indeed deserving of being twice recorded and eulogized in the pages of the Gospels.
And how the message reveals the man, disclosing as in a transparency the character of this nameless foreigner! We have already seen how broad were his sympathies, and how generous his deeds, as he makes room in his large heart for a conquered and despised people, at his own cost building a temple for the exercises of their faith. We have seen, too, what a wealth of tenderness and benevolence was hiding beneath a somewhat stern exterior, in his affection for a servant, and his anxious solicitude for that servants health. But now we see in the centurion other graces of character, that set him high amongst those “outside saints” who worshipped in the outer courts, until such time as the veil of the Temple was rent in twain, and the way into the Holiest was opened for all. And what a beautiful humility is here! What an absence of assumption or of pride! Occupying an honored position, representing in his own person an empire which was world-wide, surrounded by troops of friends, and by all the comforts wealth could buy, accustomed to speak in imperative, if not in imperious ways, yet as he turns towards Jesus it is with a respectful, yea, a reverential demeanor. He feels himself in the presence of some Higher Being, an unseen but august Caesar. Nay, not in His presence either, for into that audience-chamber he feels that he has neither the fitness nor the right to intrude. All that he can do is to send forward his petition by the hands of worthier advocates, who have access to Him, while he himself keeps back out of sight, with bared feet standing by the outer gate. Others can speak well and highly of him, recounting his noble deeds, but of himself he has nothing good to say; he can only speak of self in terms of disparagement, as he emphasizes his littleness, his unworthiness. Nor was it with him the conventional hyperbole of Eastern manners; it was the language of deepest, sincerest truth, when he said that he was not worthy even to speak with Christ, or to receive such a Guest beneath his roof. Between himself and the One he reverently addressed as “Lord” there was an infinite distance; for one was human, while the Other was Divine.
And what a rare and remarkable faith! In his thought Jesus is an Imperator, commanding all forces, as He rules the invisible realms. His will is supreme over all substances, across all distances. “Thou hast no need, Lord, to take any trouble about my poor request. There is no necessity that Thou shouldest take one step, or even lift up a finger; Thou hast only to speak the word, and it is done”; and then he gives that wonderfully graphic illustration borrowed from his own military life.
The passage “For I also am a man set under authority” is generally rendered as referring to his own subordinate position under the Chiliarch. But such a rendering, as it seems to us, breaks the continuity of thought, and grammatically is scarcely accurate. The whole passage is an amplification and description of the “word” of ver. 7 {Luk 7:7-8}, and the “also” introduces something the centurion and Jesus possess in common, i.e. the power to command; for the “I also” certainly corresponds with the “Thou” which is implied, but not expressed. But the centurion did not mean to imply that Jesus possessed only limited, delegated powers; this was farthest from his thought, and formed no part of the comparison. But let the clause “I also am a man set under authority” be rendered, not as referring to the authority which is above him, but to that which is upon him-“I also am vested with authority,” or “Authority is put upon me”-and the meaning becomes clear. The “also” is no longer warped into an ungrammatical meaning, introducing a contrast rather than a likeness; while the clause which follows, “having under myself soldiers,” takes its proper place as an enlargement and explanation of the “authority” with which the centurion is invested.
The centurion speaks in a soldierly way. There is a crispness and sharpness about his tones-that Shibboleth of militarism. He says, “My word is all-powerful in the ranks which I command. I have but to say Come, or Go, and my word is instantly obeyed. The soldier upon whose ear it falls dare not hesitate, any more than he dare refuse. He goes at my word, any whither, on some forlorn hope it may be, or to his grave.” And such is the obedience, instant and absolute, that military service demands. The soldier must not question, he must obey; he must not reason, he must act; for when the word of command-that leaded word of authority-falls upon his ear, it completely fills his soul, and makes him deaf to all other, meaner voices.
Such was the thought in the centurions mind, and from the “go” and “come” of military authority to the higher “word” of Jesus the transition is easy. But how strong the faith that could give to Jesus such an enthronement, that could clothe His word with such superhuman power! Yonder, in his secluded chamber, lies the sufferer, his nerves quivering in their pain, while the mortal sickness physicians and remedies have all failed to touch, much less to remove, has dragged him close up to the gate of death. But this “word” of Jesus shall be all-sufficient. Spoken here and now, it shall pass over the intervening streets and through the interposing walls and doors; it shall say to these demons of evil, “Loose him, and let him go,” and in a moment the torturing pain shall cease, the fluttering heart shall resume its healthy, steady beat, the rigid muscles shall become pliant as before, while through arteries and veins the life-blood-its poison all extracted now-shall regain its healthful, quiet flow. The centurion believed all this of the “word” of Jesus, and even more. In his heart it was a word all-potent, if not omnipotent, like to the word of Him who “spake, and it was done,” who “commanded, and it stood fast.” And if the word of Jesus in these realms of life and death was so imperative and all-commanding, could the Christ Himself be less than Divine?
To find such confidence reposed in Himself was to Jesus something new, and to find this rarest plant of faith growing up on Gentile soil was a still greater marvel, and turning to the multitude, which clustered thick and eager around, He said to them, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” And commending the centurions faith, He honors it too, doing all he requested, and even more, though without the “word.” Jesus does not even say “I will,” or “Be it so,” but He works the instant and perfect cure by a mere volition. He wills it, and it is done, so that when the friends returned to the house they found the servant “whole.”
Of the sequel we know nothing. We do not even read that Jesus saw the man at whose faith He had so marveled. But doubtless He did, for His heart was drawn strangely to him, and doubtless He gave to him many of those “words” for which his soul had longed and listened, words in which were held, as in solution, all authority and all truth. And doubtless, too, in the after-years, Jesus crowned that life of faithful but unnoted service with the higher “word,” the heavenly “Well done.”