Now there were some present at the same time who told him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
Parallel Translations
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Now there were some present at the same time who told him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
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Ther were present at the same season that shewed him of the Galileas whose bloude Pylate mengled with their awne sacrifice.
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There were certaine men present at the same season, that shewed him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
Cross-references (5)
Passages linked to Luke 13:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 1 Peter 4:17-18 For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who don’t obey the Good News of God? “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will happen to the ungodly and the sinner?”
- Lamentations 2:20 “Look, Yahweh, and see to whom you have done thus! Should the women eat their offspring, the children that they held and bounced on their knees? Should the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
- Ezekiel 9:5-7 To the others he said in my hearing, “Go through the city after him, and strike. Don’t let your eye spare, neither have pity. Kill utterly the old man, the young man, the virgin, little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom is the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” Then they began at the old men who were before the house. He said to them, “Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out!” They went out, and struck in the city.
- Acts 5:37 After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the enrollment, and drew away some people after him. He also perished, and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered abroad.
- Matthew 27:2 and they bound him, and led him away, and delivered him up to Pontius Pilate, the governor.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain We must not rejoice at the just punishment of…
We must not rejoice at the just punishment of others, but rather be instructed thereby to repentance.
Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, almost ten years, and about the fourth year of his government, which might be about the fifteenth year of Tiberius’ reign, Christ finished the work of our redemption by his death.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1 There were present at that season some that…
1 There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
Ver. 1. Told him of the Galileans] So called from Judas Gaulonites, or Galilaeus, their captain; to whose faction also belonged those four thousand murderers, Act 21:38. For Pilate had not authority over the Galileans properly so called. See Josephus, xviii. 2.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The Holy Scriptures giving us no account of these…
The Holy Scriptures giving us no account of these two stories to which our Saviour doth here refer, and those who have wrote the history of the Jews having given us no account of them, interpreters are at a great loss to determine any thing about them. We read of one Judas of Galilee, who drew away much people after him, and perished, Act 5:37. It is said that he seduced people from their obedience to the Roman emperor, persuading them not to acknowledge him as their governor, nor to pay tribute to the Romans. It is guessed by interpreters, that some of this faction coming up to the passover, (for they were Jews), Pilate fell upon them, and slew them while they were sacrificing. Others think that these were some remnant of Judas’s faction, but Samaritans, and slain while they were sacrificing at their temple in Mount Gerizim, and that (though Samaritans) they were called Galilaeans, because Judas, the head of their faction, was such. The reader is at liberty to choose which of these he thinks most probable, for I find no other account given by any. The latter is prejudiced by our Saviour’s calling them Galilaeans, and advantaged by the desperate hatred which the Jews had to the Samaritans, which might make them more prone to censure any passages of Divine providence severe towards them. But what the certain crime or provocation was we cannot say; we are sure that de facto the thing was true, Pilate did mingle the blood of some Galilaeans with their sacrifices, of which a report was brought to Christ. We are at the same loss for those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell. Siloe, or Siloa, was the name of a small fountain at the foot of Mount Zion, which, as we are told, did not constantly, but at certain times, send out waters, which running through hollow places of the earth, and mines and quarries of stone, made a great noise. Isaiah mentions it, Isa 8:6. There was also a pool in Jerusalem which had that name, and had a wall built by it, Neh 3:15. Christ sent the blind man to go and wash there, Joh 9:7. Turrets are (as we know) very usual upon walls. It seems one of these towers fell, and slew eighteen persons, come thither either to wash themselves, or by reason of some healing virtue in those waters, upon what occasion we cannot determine; but there they perished. This story seems to have been something older than the other. Our Saviour either had heard what some people had said, or at least knew what they would say upon those accidents, for we are mightily prone to pass uncharitable judgments upon persons perishing suddenly, especially if they die by a violent death. As he therefore took all occasions to press upon them repentance, so he doth not think fit to omit one so fair; and though he doth not, by what he saith, forbid us to observe such extraordinary providences, and to whom they happen, but willeth us to hear and fear; yet he tells them, there were many Galilaeans as bad as they, who unless they repented, that is, being sensible of, heartily turned from, the wickedness of their ways, would perish also: thereby teaching us,
1. That punishments come upon people for their sins, and more signal punishments for more signal sinnings.
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2. That although God sometimes by his providence signally punishes some for notorious sinnings, yet he spareth more such sinners than he so signally punishes.
3. That therefore none can conclude from such signal punishments, that such persons punished were greater sinners than they.
4. That the best use we can make of such reports, and spectacles of notorious sinners, more than ordinarily punished, is to examine ourselves, and to repent, lest we also perish.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain There were two eminent sects among the Jews in…
There were two eminent sects among the Jews in our Saviour’s time, namely, the Herodians and Galileans; the former stood stiffly for having tribute paid to the Roman emperor, whose subjects the Jews now were; but the Galileans (so called probably from Judas of Galilee, mentioned Act 5:37) opposed this tribute, and often raised rebellion against the Roman power. Pilate takes the opportunity when these Galileans were come up at the passover, and sacrificing in the temple, to fall upon them with his soldiers, and barbarously mingled their own blood with the blood of the sacrifices which they offered; neither the holiness of the place (the temple) nor the sacredness of the action (sacrificing) could divert Pilate from his barbarous impiety. Our Saviour, understanding that some of his hearers then present concluded these persons to be the greatest sinners, because they were the greatest sufferers, he corrects their errors in this matter, and assures them, that the same or like judgments did hang over all other sinners, as well as these, if timely and sincere repentance prevented not.
Learn hence,
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1. That a violent and sudden death is no argument of God’s disfavor.
2. That notwithstanding persons are exceeding prone to pass rash censures and an uncharitable judgment upon such as die suddenly, especially if they die violently.
3. That none justly can conclude such persons to have been the greatest sinners, who have been in this world the most signal sufferers.
4. That the best use we can make of such instances and examples of God’s severity, is to examine our own lives, and by a speedy repentance to prevent our own perdition: I tell you, Nay, etc.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain We have here, I. Tidings brought to Christ of…
We have here, I. Tidings brought to Christ of the death of some Galileans lately, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices, Luk 13:1. Let us consider,
1. What this tragical story was. It is briefly related here, and is not met with in any of the historians of those times. Josephus indeed mentions Pilate's killing some Samaritans, who, under the conduct of a factious leader, were going in a tumultuous manner to mount Gerizim, where the Samaritans' temple was; but we can by no means allow that story to be the same with this. Some think that these Galileans were of the faction of Judas Gaulonita, called also Judas of Galilee (Act 5:37), who disowned Caesar's authority and refused to pay tribute to him: or perhaps these, being Galileans, were only suspected by Pilate to be of that faction, and barbarously murdered, because those who were in league with that pretender were out of his reach. The Galileans being Herod's subjects, it is probable that this outrage committed upon them by Pilate occasioned the quarrel that was between Herod and Pilate, which we read of in Luk 23:12. We are not told what number they were, perhaps but a few, whom Pilate had some particular pique against (and therefore the story is overlooked by Josephus); but the circumstance remarked is that he mingled their blood with their sacrifices in the court of the temple. Though perhaps they had reason to fear Pilate's malice, yet they would not, under pretence of that fear, keep away from Jerusalem, whither the law obliged them to go up with their sacrifices. Dr Lightfoot thinks it probable that they were themselves killing their sacrifices (which was allowed, for the priest's work, they said, began with the sprinkling of the blood), and that Pilate's officers came upon them by surprise, just at the time when they were off their guard (for otherwise the Galileans were mettled men, and generally went well-armed), and mingled the blood of the sacrificers with the blood of the sacrifices, as if it had been equally acceptable to God. Neither the holiness of the place nor of the work would be a protection to them from the fury of an unjust judge, who neither feared God nor regarded man. The altar, which used to be a sanctuary and place of shelter, is now become a snare and a trap, a place of danger and slaughter.
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2. Why it was related at this season to our Lord Jesus. (1.) Perhaps merely as a matter of news, which they supposed he had not heard before, and as a thing which they lamented, and believed he would do so too; for the Galileans were their countrymen. Note, Sad providences ought to be observed by us, and the knowledge of them communicated to others, that they and we may be suitably affected with them, and make a good use of them. (2.) Perhaps it was intended as a confirmation of what Christ had said in the close of the foregoing chapter, concerning the necessity of making our peace with God in time, before we be delivered to the officer, that is, to death, and so cast into prison, and then it will be too late to make agreements: "Now," say they, "Master, here is a fresh instance of some that were very suddenly delivered to the officer, that were taken away by death when they little expected it; and therefore we have all need to be ready." Note, It will be of good use to us both to explain the word of God and to enforce it upon ourselves by observing the providences of God. (3.) Perhaps they would stir him up, being himself of Galilee, and a prophet, and one that had a great interest in that country, to find out a way to revenge the death of these Galileans upon Herod. If they had any thoughts of this kind, they were quite mistaken; for Christ was now going up to Jerusalem, to be delivered into the hands of Pilate, and to have his blood, not mingled with his sacrifice, but itself made a sacrifice. (4.) Perhaps this was told Christ to deter him from going up to Jerusalem, to worship (Luk 13:22), lest Pilate should serve him as he had served those Galileans, and should suggest against him, as probably he had insinuated against those Galileans, in vindication of his cruelty, that they came to sacrifice as Absalom did, with a seditious design, under colour of sacrificing, to raise rebellion. Now, lest Pilate, when his hand was in, should proceed further, they think it advisable that Christ should for the present keep out of the way. (5.) Christ's answer intimates that they told him this with a spiteful innuendo, that, though Pilate was unjust in killing them, yet without doubt they were secretly bad men, else God would not have permitted Pilate thus barbarously to cut them off. It was very invidious; rather than they would allow them to be martyrs, though they died sacrificing, and perhaps suffered for their devotion, they would, without any colour of proof, suppose them to be malefactors; and it may be for no other reason than because they were not of their party and denomination, differed from them, or had difference with them. This fate of theirs, which was capable not only of a favourable, but an honourable construction, shall be called a just judgment of God upon them, though they know not for what.
II. Christ's reply to this report, in which,
1. He seconded it with another story, which, like it, gave an instance of people's being taken away by sudden death. It is not long since the tower of Siloam fell, and there were eighteen persons killed and buried in the ruins of it. Dr Lightfoot's conjecture is that this tower adjoined to the pool of Siloam, which was the same with the pool of Bethesda, and that it belonged to those porches which were by the pool, in which the impotent folks lay, that waited for the stirring of the water (Joh 5:3), and that they who were killed were some of them, or some of those who in this pool used to purify themselves for the temple-service, for it was near the temple. Whoever they were, it was a sad story; yet such melancholy accidents we often hear of: for as the birds are caught in a snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falls suddenly upon them, Ecc 9:12. Towers, that were built for safety, often prove men's destruction.
2. He cautioned his hearers not to make an ill use of these and similar events, nor take occasion thence to censure great sufferers, as if they were therefore to be accounted great sinners: Suppose ye that these Galileans, who were slain as they were sacrificing, were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you nay, Luk 13:2, Luk 13:3. Perhaps they that told him the story of the Galileans were Jews, and were glad of any thing that furnished them with matter of reflection upon the Galileans, and therefore Christ retorted upon them the story of the men of Jerusalem, that came to an untimely end; for, with what measure of that kind we mete, it shall be measured to us again. "Now suppose ye that those eighteen who met with their death from the tower of Siloam, while perhaps they were expecting their cure from the pool of Siloam, were debtors to divine justice above all men that dwelt at Jerusalem? I tell you nay." Whether it make for us or against us, we must abide by this rule, that we cannot judge of men's sins by their sufferings in this world; for many are thrown into the furnace as gold to be purified, not as dross and chaff to be consumed. We must therefore not be harsh in our censures of those that are afflicted more than their neighbours, as Job's friends were in their censures of him, lest we condemn the generation of the righteous, Psa 72:14. If we will be judging, we have enough to do to judge ourselves; nor indeed can we know love or hatred by all that is before us, because all things come alike to all, Ecc 9:1, Ecc 9:2. And we might as justly conclude that the oppressors, and Pilate among the rest, on whose side are power and success, are the greatest saints, as that the oppressed, and those Galileans among the rest, who are all in tears and have no comforter, no, not the priests and Levites that attended the altar, are the greatest sinners. Let us, in our censures of others, do as we would be done by; for as we do we shall be done by: Judge not, that ye be not judged, Mat 7:1.
3. On these stories he founded a call to repentance, adding to each of them this awakening word, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish, Luk 13:3-5. (1.) This intimates that we all deserve to perish as much as they did, and had we been dealt with according to our sins, according to the iniquity of our holy things, our blood had been long ere this mingled with our sacrifices by the justice of God. It must moderate our censure, not only that we are sinners, but that we are as great sinners as they, have as much sin to repent of as they had to suffer for. (2.) That therefore we are all concerned to repent, to be sorry for what we have done amiss, and to do so no more. The judgments of God upon others are loud calls to us to repent. See how Christ improved every thing for the pressing of that great duty which he came not only to gain room for, and give hopes to, but to enjoin upon us - and that is, to repent. (3.) That repentance is the way to escape perishing, and it is a sure way: so iniquity shall not be your ruin, but upon no other terms. (4.) That, if we repent not, we shall certainly perish, as others have done before us. Some lay an emphasis upon the word likewise, and apply it to the destruction that was coming upon the people of the Jews, and particularly upon Jerusalem, who were destroyed by the Romans at the time of their passover, and so, like the Galileans, they had their blood mingled with their sacrifices; and many of them, both in Jerusalem and in other places, were destroyed by the fall of walls and buildings which were battered down about their ears, as those that died by the fall of the tower of Siloam. But certainly it looks further; except we repent, we shall perish eternally, as they perished out of this world. The same Jesus that calls us to repent because the kingdom of heaven is at hand, bids us repent because otherwise we shall perish; so that he has set before us life and death, good and evil, and put us to our choice. (5.) The perishing of those in their impenitency who have been most harsh and severe in judging others will be in a particular manner aggravated.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain The Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their…
The Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices - Some of the followers of Judas Gaulonites. They absolutely refused to own the Roman authority. Pilate surrounded and slew them, while they were worshipping in the temple, at a public feast.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Christ preaches the necessity of repentance, from the
CHAPTER XIII.
Christ preaches the necessity of repentance, from the
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punishment of the Galileans massacred by Pilate, 1-3.
And by the death of those on whom the tower in Siloam fell,
4, 5.
The parable of the barren fig tree, 6-29.
Christ cures a woman who had been afflicted eighteen years,
10-13.
The ruler of the synagogue is incensed and is reproved by our
Lord, 14-17.
The parable of the mustard seed, 18, 19;
of the leaven, 20-21.
He journeys towards Jerusalem, and preaches, 22.
The question, Are there few saved? and our Lords answer, with
the discourse thereon, 23-30.
He is informed that Herod purposes to kill him, 31, 32.
Predicts his own death at Jerusalem, and denounces judgments on
that impenitent city, 33-35.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIII.
Verse 1. At that season] At what time this happened is not easy to determine; but it appears that it was now a piece of news which was told to Christ and his disciples for the first time.
Whose blood Pilate had mingled] This piece of history is not recorded (as far as I can find) by Josephus: however, he states that the Galileans were the most seditious people in the land: they belonged properly to Herod's jurisdiction; but, as they kept the great feasts at Jerusalem, they probably, by their tumultuous behaviour at some one of them, gave Pilate, who was a mortal enemy to Herod, a pretext to fall upon and slay many of them; and thus, perhaps, sacrifice the people to the resentment he had against the prince. Archelaus is represented by Josephus as sending his soldiers into the temple, and slaying 3000 men while they were employed in offering sacrifices. Josephus, War, b. ii. c. 1, s. 3, and ii. c. 5. Some suppose that this refers to the followers of Judas Gaulonites, (see Ac 5:37,) who would not acknowledge the Roman government, a number of whom Pilate. surrounded and slew, while they were sacrificing in the temple. See Josephus, Antiq. lib. 18: but this is not very certain.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Luk 13:1-3. There were present at that season —…
Luk 13:1-3. There were present at that season — When Christ spake the foregoing words; some that told him of the Galileans — The followers of Judas Gaulonites, whose story Josephus has given us at large, Antiq., Luk 18:1. It appears he was the head of a sect who asserted God to be their only sovereign, and were so utterly averse to a submission to the Roman power, that they accounted it unlawful to pay tribute unto Cesar, and would rather endure the greatest torments than give any man the title of lord. Perhaps this story of the Galileans might now be mentioned to Christ with a design of leading him into a snare, whether he should justify or condemn the persons that were slain. Be this as it may, the scope and connection of the passage, as well as Christ’s answer, show, that the persons who mentioned the case of these Galileans thought God had permitted them to be massacred at their devotions for some extraordinary wickedness; thus insinuating a very wrong idea of divine providence. And Jesus said, Suppose ye, &c. — Christ “not only condemned the notion now mentioned, but told them expressly that these Galileans were not to be reckoned greater sinners than others, because they had been overtaken by so severe a calamity, and exhorted them, instead of forming harsh judgments of others from such examples of sufferings, to improve them as inducements unto themselves to repent, assuring them that if they did not they should all likewise perish;” or, perish in a similar manner, as the word ωσαυτως implies. And, as a general and national repentance did not take place, Christ’s threatening was most awfully verified. For there was a remarkable resemblance between the fate of these Galileans, and that of the main body of the Jewish nation; the flower of which was slain at Jerusalem by the Roman sword, or by the falling of walls and towers, while they were assembled at one of their great festivals: and many thousands of them perished in the temple itself, and, as their own historian relates, were literally buried under its ruins. Many, who came from far to attend the passover, fell before their sacrifices; and when Titus took the city a multitude of dead bodies lay round the altar.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain There were present - That is, some persons who…
There were present - That is, some persons who were present, and who had heard his discourse recorded in the previous chapter. There was probably a pause in his discourse, when they mentioned what had been done by Pilate to the Galileans.
At that season - At that time - that is the time mentioned in the last chapter. At what period of our Lord’s ministry this was, it is not easy to determine.
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Some that told him - This was doubtless an event of recent occurrence. Jesus, it is probable, had not before heard of it. Why they told him of it can only be a matter of conjecture. It might be from the desire to get him to express an opinion respecting the conduct of Pilate, and thus to involve him in difficulty with the reigning powers of Judea. It might be as a mere matter of news. But, from the answer of Jesus, it would appear that “they” supposed that the Galileans “deserved” it, and that they meant to pass a judgment on the character of those people, a thing of which they were exceedingly fond. The answer of Jesus is a reproof of their habit of hastily judging the character of others.
Galileans - People who lived in Galilee. See the notes at Mat 2:22. They were not under the jurisdiction of Pilate, but of Herod. The Galileans, in the time of Christ, were very wicked.
Whose blood Pilate had mingled ... - That is, while they were sacrificing at Jerusalem, Pilate came suddenly upon them and killed them, and “their” blood was mingled with the blood of the animals that they were slaying for sacrifice. It does not mean that Pilate “offered” their blood in sacrifice, but only that as they were sacrificing he killed them. The fact is not mentioned by Josephus, and nothing more is known of it than what is here recorded. We learn, however, from Josephus that the Galileans were very wicked, and that they were much disposed to broils and seditions. It appears, also, that Pilate and Herod had a quarrel with each other Luk 23:12, and it is not improbable that Pilate might feel a particular enmity to the subjects of Herod. It is likely that the Galileans excited a tumult in the temple, and that Pilate took occasion to come suddenly upon them, and show his opposition to them and Herod by slaying them. “Pilate.” The Roman governor of Judea. See the notes at Mat 27:2.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. These…
Whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. These seem to have been some of the seditious followers of Judas, the Galilean, or Gaulonite, who denied that God’s people were to pay taxes; and it is thought that some of them, coming to offer up sacrifices in the temple, Pilate caused them to be slain at that very time, so that their blood was mixed with the sacrifices. (Witham) --- Whose blood, &c. i.e. whom he had caused to be massacred in the temple, at the time they were offering sacrifices. The history, to which allusion is made in this place, in not well known; but there is great probability that these Galileans were disciples of Judas, the Galilean, who taught that they ought not to pay tribute to foreigners. As they were spreading this doctrine in Jerusalem, and perhaps even in the temple, Pilate laid violent hands upon them, and caused them to be murdered amidst the sacrifices. (Calmet) --- Galileans, &c. These were the followers of one Judas, a Galilean, of whom St. Luke makes mention in the Acts of the Apostles, (Chap. v.) who held it unlawful to call any one lord. Many of this sect were punished by Pilate, because they would not allow this title to be given to Cæsar; they also maintained that no other sacrifices could lawfully be offered, except such as were prescribed by the law, by which opinion they forbade the accustomed sacrifices offered up for the emperor and people of Rome. Pilate, irritated by these their opinions, ordered them to be slain in the midst of their sacrifices, and this was their blood mixed with that of the victims. (St. Cyril in St. Thomas Aquinas)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain Luke Chapter 13
Luke Chapter 13
Now, at this moment they reminded Him of a terrible judgment that had fallen upon some among them. He declares to them that neither this case, nor another which He recalls to their minds, is exceptional: that except they repent, the same thing should happen to them all. And He adds a parable in order to make them understand their position. Israel was the fig-tree in the vineyard of God. For three years He had been threatening to cut it down; it did but spoil His vineyard-did but encumber and uselessly cover the ground. But Jesus was trying for the last time all that could be done to make it bear fruit; if this did not succeed, grace could but make way for the just judgment of the Master of the vineyard. Why cultivate that which only did harm?
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Nevertheless He acts in grace and in power towards the daughter of Abraham, according to the promises made to that people, and demonstrates that their resistance, pretending to oppose the law to grace, was but hypocrisy.
However (Luk 13:18-21) the kingdom of God was to take an unexpected form in consequence of His rejection. Sown by the word, and not introduced in power, it would grow on the earth until it became a worldly power; and, as an outward profession and doctrine, would penetrate the whole sphere prepared for it in the sovereign counsels of God. Now this was not the kingdom established in power acting in righteousness, but as left to the responsibility of man, although the counsels of God were being accomplished.
At last, the Lord takes up, in a direct manner, the question of the position of the remnant and of the fate of Jerusalem (Luk 13:22-35).
As He went through the cities and villages, fulfilling the work of grace, in spite of the contempt of the people, some one asked Him whether the remnant, those that would escape the judgment of Israel, should be many. He does not reply as to the number; but addresses Himself to the conscience of the inquirer, urging him to put forth all his energy that he might enter in at the strait gate. Not only would the multitude not enter in, but many, neglecting that gate, would desire to enter into the kingdom and not be able. And moreover, when once the master of the house was risen up, and the door was shut, it would be too late. He would say unto them, “I know you not, whence ye are.” They would plead that He had been in their city. He would declare that He knew them not, workers of iniquity: there was “no peace for the wicked.’ The gate of the kingdom was moral, real before God-conversion. The multitude of Israel would not go in at it; and outside, in tears and anguish, they should see the Gentiles sitting with the depositaries of the promises; while they, the children of the kingdom, according to the flesh, were shut out, and so much the more miserable that they had been nigh unto it. And those who had appeared to be first should be the last, and the last first.
The Pharisees, under pretence of consideration for the Lord, advise Him to go away. Thereupon He refers finally to the will of God as to the fulfilment of His work. It was no question of the power of man over Him. He should accomplish His work, and then go away; because Jerusalem had not known the time of her visitation. Himself, her true Lord, Jehovah, how often would He have gathered the children of this rebellious city under His wings, and they would not! Now His last effort in grace was accomplished, and their house left desolate, until they should repent, and, returning to the Lord, say according to Psa 111:1-10, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Then He would appear, and they should see Him.
Nothing can be plainer than the connection and the force of these conversations. For Israel it was the last message, the last visitation of God. They rejected it. They were forsaken of God (though still beloved) until they should call upon Him whom they had rejected. Then this same Jesus would appear again, and Israel should see Him. This would be the day that the Lord had made.
His rejection-admitting the establishment of the kingdom as a tree and as leaven, during His absence-bore its fruit among the Jews until the end; and the revival amid that nation in the last days, and the return of Jesus on their repentance, will have reference to that great act of sin and rebellion. But this gives rise to further important instructions with regard to the kingdom.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain E. The Son of Man in relation to the…
E. The Son of Man in relation to the Sin of One and the Misery of Another. Luk_13:1-17
1There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood 2Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus [he] answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they 3[have] suffered such things? I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise 4perish. Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? 5I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
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6He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. 7Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground [makes the ground useless]? 8And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: 9And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it 10, down. And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. 11And, behold, there was1 a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. 12And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. 13And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. 14And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day. 15The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite [Ye hypocrites2], doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead, him away to watering? 16And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? 17And when he had said [while he said] these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Luk_13:1. At that season.—According to Luke this intelligence comes to the Saviour while He is in Galilee, where he had just (Luke 11, 12) repelled the imputations of His enemies, and warned the people against the leaven of the Pharisees. Probably we are to conceive the matter thus, that among the listeners to His last discourse there were some who had just received the mournful tidings in respect to the Galileans, and now hastened to communicate them to the Saviour, in order to hear His judgment upon the matter. In all probability the cruel deed had been perpetrated very shortly before, and had excited general exasperation.
Of the Galileans.—Many things here concurred to heighten the hideousness of this deed. Pilate, Procurator of Judæa, had, contrary to law, attacked subjects of Herod. Pilate, the heathen, had not even held sacred holy things, but had perpetrated a massacre in the temple. It is as if the exasperation at this act yet echoed in Luke in the very form of the expression,—Whose blood Pilate had mingled.—A tragically graphic delineation, which justifies the conjecture that these unfortunate ones had been wholly on a sudden fallen upon and slain by the Roman soldiers. What the provocation to this deed was cannot be stated with certainty, nor is there any ground to understand here (Euthym. Zigab., Theophyl., Grotius, a. o.) particularly followers of Judas Gaulonites. But it is certain that the Galileans at that time were exceedingly inclined to popular commotions (Josephus, Ant. Judges 17, 9, 3); that even at the feast in Jerusalem tumult not unfrequently arose; and that Pilate was not the man to desist, from regard to the sanctity of a locality, from executing a punishment recognized as necessary. If we call to mind the atrocities which the Romans, particularly afterwards, committed against the Jews, the murder of these Galileans will then appear to us only as a single drop in an unfathomable sea; and we must not be surprised if we find this deed, although it was generally known in the days of Jesus (τῶν Γαλιλ.), only noted down by Luke. An indirect argument for its credibility we find in the enmity subsequently alluded to between Pilate and Herod, Luk_23:12, which perhaps originated from this illegal act. It is, however, not apparent that this intelligence was communicated to the Saviour in any particularly hostile intent, and as Luke moreover gives no intimation in reference to the time when or the feast at which this massacre was committed by Pilate, he takes from us all possibility of drawing any chronological deduction whatever from this isolated historical datum.
Luk_13:2. Suppose ye.—In all probability those who brought this intelligence to our Lord were involved in the common error that so sudden a death in the midst of so sacred an employment must without doubt be regarded as a special proof of the terrible wrath of God upon those so slain. Were they perchance thinking of that which the Saviour had just said, Luk_12:47-48, upon exact correspondence in the future of retribution with sin, and did they wish over against this to draw His attention to the connection between sin and punishment even in this life? The Saviour at least considers it necessary to contradict the erroneous fancy that these Galileans were in any way stamped as greater sinners than all others by the judgment which had befallen them (ἐγένοντο declarative). He by no means denies the intimate connection between natural and moral evil, but He disputes the infallible certainty of the assumption that every individual visitation is a retribution for individual transgressions, and does not concede to those who are witnesses of a judgment the right, from the calamity which strikes some before others, to permit themselves a conclusion as to their moral reprobacy. But we abuse the declaration of the Saviour if we understand it in such a sense as that these Galileans did not deserve at all to be called ἁμαρτωλοί, but rather martyrs.
Luk_13:3. I tell you, Nay.—“Dominus hoc profert ex thesauris sapientiœ divinœ.” Bengel.—Our Lord knows and sets Himself against the perverseness of so many who, when they hear of public calamities, are much more inclined to direct their look without than within. In opposition to this He gives the earnest intimation that the fate of individuals ought to be the mirror for all.—Unless ye repent.—This declaration is the more apposite if we assume that the momentous intelligence had been brought to the Saviour with the intent to awaken in Him thereby the apprehension that a similar fate might also perchance threaten Him and His followers. No! not He, He declares: they themselves had an approaching Divine judgment to fear. Before Jesus’ eyes all Galilee stood forth to view as already ripe to future judgment, and in order to show that Judæa was in no respect securer, He subjoins the reminiscence, Luk_13:4-5, of a similar casualty.
Likewise perish.—The reading ὡσαύτως (Tischendorf) appears to deserve the preference above the weaker ὁμοίως (Lachmann). The Saviour does not mean to say that they shall perish in a similar, but that they shall perish in the same manner, namely, through the cruelty of the Romans, who were destined to avenge in terrible wise the evil deed of rejecting the Messiah. What streams of blood were afterwards shed in the same temple, and how many at the same time were buried under the rubbish and the ruins of the city and of the temple!
Luk_13:4. Those eighteen.—Again the Lord alludes to a similar event, which was yet fresh in every one’s memory. From a cause to us unknown, one of the towers standing not far from the brook Siloam had fallen in, and had buried eighteen corpses in its ruins. That it was a tower of the city-wall (Meyer) is not proved.—Here also was the rule and application the same as in the foregoing example, only that to the Saviour now not only the fate of impenitent individuals, but at the same time that of the whole Jewish state, stands before His soul; in spirit He sees much more than a single tower, He sees City and Temple fallen. The question possibly arising, to what circumstances so many who yet were quite as great sinners as those eighteen owed hitherto their preservation from such a lot, the Saviour now answers with the parable of the Unfruitful Fig-tree.
Siloam, comp. Joh_9:7, in all probability the same piece of water which in Neh_3:15 appears under the name Shelah [Siloa in E. V.], a pool in the neighborhood of the fountain-gate, outside of Jerusalem, in the valley of Kedron, which perhaps David or one of his successors had dug (comp. Isa_8:6), and in whose vicinity there was also a village or place of like name. Apparently it received this name (the Sent), because the water with which this pool was supplied was conducted artificially through the rocks. Although Josephus often speaks of Siloah, the archæologists are nevertheless still as ever more or less at variance about the locality in which this pool must be actually sought. The principal views can be seen stated in Winer, ad loc., and as to the question whether Siloah and Gihon must be identified with one another, comp. Hamelsveld, Bibl. Geog. 2. p. 187. As to the rest, nothing more in detail is known about the πύργος ἐν τῷ Σιλ. The view of Stier, however, that the eighteen unfortunate men were prisoners who were confined in the tower, in whose case therefore it might so much the more easily appear as if a Divine judgment had overtaken them, is quite as much without proof as the opinion of Sepp that they were laborers, among whom also was the mason whom, according to the statement of Jerome, our Lord had formerly healed. See above on Luk_6:6.
Luk_13:6. A Fig-tree … in his vineyard.—Although the mention of a fig-tree in a vineyard sounds somewhat singular, it is yet by no means incongruous or in conflict with Deu_22:9, which undoubtedly speaks of seed but not of trees. If we assume the fig-tree as the symbol of Israel (Hos_9:10; Mat_21:19), the vineyard could then only designate the whole world, in which these people had been planted as an entirely peculiar phenomenon. “Ficus arbor, cui per se nil loci est in vinea. Liberrime Israelem sumsit Deus.” Bengel.
Luk_13:7. Then said he.—If God is the Lord of the vineyard, the gardener can only be Christ. This view deserves at least the preference above the somewhat arbitrary assumption of Stier that by the vineyard the rulers and leaders of Israel collectively are understood, as in Mat_21:33. It is by no means proved that the expression: “Behold I come,” Luk_13:7, applies to Christ alone. The Father Himself is here represented as the comer, because He, since the day of the New Covenant had dawned, might with the fullest right expect peculiar fruits from the fig-tree of Israel. It is undoubtedly certain that everything that is said of the fig-tree is still applicable to each particular individual, and that every one entrusted with the care of souls may recognize his type in the gardener; but quite as manifest is it also, according to the connection of Luk_13:1-5, that the Saviour here before all has the Jewish state in mind, and that the indirect setting forth of His own person as a gardener agrees perfectly with the care which He had so long expended on this fig-tree, as well as with His character as the Intercessor who prays for the guilty.
These three years I come.—The three years indicated not the previous duration of the ministry of Jesus among Israel (Bengel), and as little the whole ante-christian period (Grotius), and least of all the τρεῖς πολιτείας of the judges, the kings, and the high-priests (Euthym. Zigab.); but denote in general a definite brief time, which here is limited to this particular number three, because the tree when planted brought forth as a rule its fruits within three years. But if one insists on having a definite time for God’s work of grace on Israel, we may reckon the time from the public appearance of John the Baptist—a half year before the entrance of Jesus on His office—up to the present moment, which altogether does not make up much less than three years. To this labor of grace, however, Israel had hitherto in no way given answering results. Not only did the fig-tree bear no fruit, but it also withdrew from other trees, by shade, absorption, &c., the warmth and the sap which they might have received if this had not stood in the way (καταργεῖ, see Meyer, ad loc.).
Luk_13:8. This year also.—A sufficient but brief time is still given to the fig-tree to bring forth better fruits.—Dig about it and dung it.—Intimation of the condition and augmented labor of grace with which the Saviour in the last weeks and days of His life requited the growing hatred of His enemies. To intercession He now joins strenuous activity, and only if this also is in vain will He forbear to make intercession for the unfruitful fig-tree. Yet He does not say that He Himself will hew it down, but only He no longer holds back the Lord of the vineyard, and entreats no longer for something that remains incorrigible. He yet counts it as possible that in the fourth year fruits may become apparent which the three first years had not brought, but He also assumes it as certain that in the opposite case the fig-tree must be removed out of the vineyard.
Luk_13:10. And He was teaching.—The narrative of the healing of the infirm woman is peculiar to Luke. The time when this miracle took place is not more particularly stated; but the shamelessness with which the Archisynagogus expresses his displeasure against Jesus, allows the conjecture that we have to assign to this event a place in the last period of the public life of our Lord. The reception of the narrative into this connection may at the same time serve as a proof how the Saviour, according to His own declaration, even amid increasing opposition, yet continued to dig about and to dung the unfruitful fig-tree. As to the rest, this Sabbath-miracle has much agreement with others already related, and apparently it is to be attributed to this circumstance also that Matthew and Mark pass it over in silence. Against the credibility of the fact this silence proves nothing, except with those who deny the possibility or profitableness of miracles of this sort a priori.
ΙΙνεῦμα ἀσθενείας.—We may plainly recognize that Luke here understands a species of possession; she was plagued by a πνεῦμα, which caused an ἀσθένεια. Her nervous energies were so weakened that she could not raise herself up. “Ex nervorum contractione incurvum erat corpus.” Calvin. With the words: “Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity,” the Saviour calls her unexpectedly to Himself, and therefore works psychically upon her, in order to make her receptive for the benefit which He is about to bestow upon her physically. Finally He lays His hands upon her, and now too the ordinary result does not fail to follow.
Luk_13:14. The ruler of the synagogue.—In this man anger at the supposed Sabbath desecration is visibly in conflict with a kind of fear which the miracle just performed has aroused in him. What he does not venture to say to the Saviour Himself he says to the people, with so loud a voice that the Saviour also should hear it. But that the miracle can make no other impression whatever upon him, is a strong testimony against him. However, it appears also from Luk_13:17, that besides him there were yet other ἀντικείμενοι present in the synagogue, which at the same time is an internal proof of the correctness of the reading ὑποκριταί, Luk_13:15.
Luk_13:15. The Lord, cum emphasi.—The Son of Man makes Himself now heard as Lord of the Sabbath, and that in figurative language similar to that which He had already more than once used in a case of this kind. Take note however of the distinction between the argumentum ad hominem which is made use of here, and that which is made use of Luk_14:5 (comp. Mat_12:11-12). That it was really permitted on the Sabbath to take out one’s beast to drink, is proved by Lightfoot and Wetstein, ad loc. How was it possible that that which for a beast was regarded as a desirable benefit, should be condemned as a misdeed, so soon as it was performed on a human being?
Luk_13:16. Being a daughter of Abraham.—Not merely a general antithesis between man and beast, and far less a conception of the human personality deserving of sympathy, restricted according to Jewish popular notions (De Wette), but an emphatic designation of the spiritual relation which existed between father Abraham and this his daughter, comp. Luk_19:9. That we are entitled to regard this woman as a daughter of Abraham in the spiritual sense, appears even from this, that the Saviour does not once ask as to her faith, doubtless because He had already read this in her heart, while besides, her glorifying of God immediately after the miracle, Luk_13:13, testifies of her devout disposition of soul; nor is the declaration: “Thy sins are forgiven thee,” here made. Where now such a daughter of Abraham was bound by Satan, the Saviour could not forbear to snatch from him this booty.
Whom Satan hath bound.—More plainly than by this otherwise superfluous expression the Saviour could not give it to be understood that He regarded the demoniacal condition of this sufferer as the effect of a direct Satanical influence. Since possession can never be merely corporeal, it may be assumed that along with the spirit of discouragement and privation of power, the spark of faith had maintained or developed itself in the woman.
Luk_13:17. And all the people rejoiced, comp. Luk_5:26; Luk_9:43.—The Saviour’s words roused the conscience, as His deed roused the sensibility. The view of this miracle renews again the recollection of the former ones, and the continuity (γινομένοις) of this beneficent activity disposes heart and mouth to the glorifying of God. This accord of praise to the honor of the Father was to the Son a proof that He this time also had not tarried in Galilee in vain, and accompanied Him as it were on His way, now when He, as it appears, is leaving this land, in order to repair to the feast of the Dedication, John 10.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Luk_13:1-9, we see the Saviour over against human sin; Luk_13:10-17, over against human misery: both times in the full glory of His love and holiness. This for justification of the inscription chosen for this division.
2. The Saviour declares Himself on the one hand against the light-mindedness of those who entirely deny the intimate connection between natural and moral evil; on the other hand against the narrowness of those who consider individual misfortune and individual punishment as words of one and the same signification. The true point of view from which national calamities are to be regarded as voices calling to a general conversion, is here brought forward.
3. This parable of the Unfruitful Fig-tree contains not only the brief summary of the history of Israel, but also of the gracious dealing of God with every sinner. For all who live under the light of the Gospel there comes earlier or later a καιρὸς τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς, Luk_19:44, which when it has passed by unused, makes them ripe for the righteous judgment of God. But the Mediator of the New Covenant is at the same time their Intercessor, as long as deliverance is yet possible. So far then from the long-suffering of God affording any ground for the expectation of a final escape from punishment, it is, on the other hand, a pledge that the contemning of it is finally requited in the most terrific manner. Thus do we find here also the representation of a final judgment followed by no subsequent recovery whatever.
4. As this parable brings before our mind the image of the people of Israel, it permits us at the same time to cast a glance into the holy soul of the Mediator, for to His intercession was it owing that the Jewish state yet stood. The lengthening out of the time of grace for this Unfruitful Fig-tree had also been the object of His still nightly prayers. Undoubtedly if in the words: “Hew it down,” the words and spirit of the Baptist reëcho (Mat_3:10), there is heard in these words: “Lord, let it alone this year also,” the compassionateness of the Son of Man, who was not come to destroy men’s souls, but to save them.
5. Parallels to the parable of the Unfruitful Fig-tree: Isa_5:1-7; Hos_9:10; Jer_24:3; Psa_80:9-11; Mar_11:12-14. Respecting the Sabbath miracles of our Lord, see on Luk_6:1-11.
6. The suffering of the woman in the synagogue is the faithful image of the misery into which Satan plunges man as to his soul; her healing is the image of redemption. The reality of this miracle is indirectly testified even by the president of the synagogue, who is indeed mean enough indirectly to censure the woman because she has allowed herself to be healed, but does not yet possess shamelessness enough to deny that here a sudden healing took place.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Jesus, 1. Over against the sin of mankind, Luk_13:1-9 : a. with inexorable severity does He rebuke sin, Luk_13:1-5; b. with inexhaustible patience does He wish to preserve the sinner, Luk_13:6-9; Luke 2. over against the wretchedness of mankind, Luk_13:9-17 : a. where Jesus comes He finds wretchedness; b. where Jesus finds wretchedness He brings healing.
Many men find satisfaction in being the first bringers of evil tidings.—The Lord often answers us very differently from what we could wish and expect.—Unexpected death.—All who are overtaken by heavy and deserved calamities are sinners, but not for that greater sinners than others.—What befalls others should serve us as a warning, 1Co_10:11.—The riches of the patience and long-suffering of God, Rom_2:4.—The parable of the Unfruitful Fig-tree the image of the dealing of God with the sinner: 1. The careful labor, 2. the righteous investigation, 3. the unhappy result, 4. the righteous judgment, 5. the entreating Intercessor, 6. the last delay.—The goodness and severity of God, Rom_11:22.—In the heavenly counsel of grace there are days which may outweigh whole years, and years which may outweigh whole centuries.—The acceptable year of the Lord, Isa_61:2.—All gracious leadings of God have the one purpose that we may really bring forth fruit.—Whoever brings forth no fruit is at the same time injurious to others.—The Lord is patient, but of great power, Nah_1:3.—The true Sabbath-keeping fixed by the example of the Saviour, Luk_13:10-17; Luk_13:1. Indicated, 2. justified.—The house of the Lord the best refuge for sufferers.—No suffering so tedious that the Saviour cannot yet give deliverance.—The Lord understands even unuttered sighs.—The terrible might of Satan over body and soul.—Whom the Son hath made free, he should praise the Father.—Even the most glorious revelations of love are lost for him who has a mind at enmity with God.—Hypocrisy and cowardice not seldom intimately connected.—Even where the Saviour is only indirectly blamed He does not permit it to pass without an answer.—Hypocrisy condemned before the tribunal of the human, 1. Understanding, 2. sensibility, 3. conscience.—Ashamed must all be who rise up against Jesus.—How the Saviour vanquishes His enemies: 1. By the deed, 2. by the word of His love.—Jesus breaks asunder the bonds of Satan.—The shaming power of truth.—Glorifying of God the fruit of the work of redemption.
Starke:—Ever something new, and seldom anything good.—God’s open enemies must often be the instruments of His judgment on those who were wont to be called His people.—Canstein:—Men are in no place and in no employment sure that this or that calamity may not befall them.—Cramer:—Faithful preachers should direct all that they hear to the end of edifying and improving the church.—Brentius:—The judgments of God are incomprehensible; it befits us thereat to lay our hands on our mouths and to admire them in holy humility.—Quesnel:—We ought ourselves to seek the fruit in our lives before God comes to seek it.—Public and private intercessions avail much with God when they are fervent.—When the time of grace is passed Christ intercedes no longer.—The sinner is hewn down when God gives him over to the judgment of reprobacy.—Cramer:—Examples of tedious sicknesses are necessary, and wholesome for us to know, Rom_5:3-5.—Jesus looks upon the bowed down, the lowly, and the meek, that He may lift them up and elevate them.—Public assemblies have a promise of blessing; let no one forsake them.—In churches and schools there have undoubtedly been many blind zealots that have more hurt than profited the kingdom of God.—Quesnel:—Religion must often serve as a pretext to avarice and envy; be watchful against this.—Necessity and love know no law.—Canstein:—Nothing suits better with the day of the Lord than the work of the Lord and the destruction of the works of Satan.—The high value of the souls redeemed through Christ can never be urged and impressed enough.—Although faithful shepherds and teachers must everywhere here go through the valley of misery, yet they obtain one victory after another.
Heubner:—Purpose of God in special judgments of calamity.—God sends harbingers before heavy tempests.—The false comfort which men draw from others’ calamities.—To perish in the ruin of a city is a small matter compared with the misery of finding one’s destruction in the future ruin of the world.—God also counts the years.—The sinner everywhere derogates from the good of earth.—Envy against God even takes on the guise of piety.—Without Christ the spirit is bowed down and not capable of praise.
The Parable.—Arndt:—The greatness and the duration of the Divine forbearance.—Zimmermann:—How the Divine long-suffering leads the sinner to amendment.—Lisco:—The righteousness of God as it has been made manifest in Christ.—The whole parable admits also of an admirable application for a sermon on New Year’s morning.
The Miracle.—Pichler:—The Lord Jesus such a Saviour as we need: 1. For deliverance out of so manifold need, 2. for the revelation of our inmost heart, 3. for advancement in the life of faith and humility.—Palmer:—Wherever the Saviour comes there does He meet wretchedness and sin.—Schmidt:—Opposition to the Saviour, a. how it arises, b. how it is dissolved (through truth and grace).—Lisco:—The true Sabbath-keeping.
Footnotes:
[1]Luk_13:11.—Ἠν, a usual interpolation, by whose omission with B., [Cod. Sin.,] L., X., Lachmann, Tischendorf, [Meyer, Tregelles,] and others, the liveliness of the narrative is heightened.
[2]Luk_13:15.—The plural, ὑποκριταί, has externally and internally preponderating authority. The singular of the Recepta has only arisen from the fact that the copyist had the preceding αὐτῷ in his eye. But the Saviour addresses Himself, in the person of the ruler of the synagogue, to the whole genus of hypocrites represented by him. [Υποκριταί is supported by A., B., Cod. Sin., 13 other uncials, against 3.—C. C. S.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1-10. The assembled Myriads break up their congregation at…
1-10. The assembled Myriads break up their congregation at the solemn close of the discourse of the last chapter; but a lesser circle remains round our Lord, with whom a colloquy now ensues. Some persons, who, perhaps, have arrived lately from Jerusalem, narrate a cruel slaughter which has just been committed there by Pilate. This draws from Jesus a solemn admonition, which may be considered as an appendix or afterpiece to the main discourse to the Myriads just closed.
1. Were present—Had come with the intelligence from the metropolis. Jesus is now in eastern Judea.
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At that season—So as to retail the news in the hearing of Jesus at the close of his discourse.
Told him—The Greek word implies that they announced it to him as news. Galileans—These importers of news from Jerusalem doubtless know that our Lord is himself a Galilean. He is “Jesus, the prophet of Galilee.” (Mat_21:11.) If they heard his discourse, they might have recognized the Galilean traits of articulation. His twelve, whom he addressed alternately with the people, are all Galileans; and their dialect, whenever they might chance to utter anything, (as Peter did, Mat_21:41,) would bewray them. Hence we see a reason why these news-men may have been ready to furnish Jesus a bad piece of information about his fellow Galileans. In the second place, there seems very fair reason to believe, with the best commentators, that these slaughtered Galileans were the fanatic partizans of Judas the Galilean or Gaulonite. This man was an ultra Jew, who took ground against paying tribute to any foreign power, as treason against Jehovah. Pilate would be very well disposed to improve the opportunity to aim a deadly blow at such a set of men upon very slight pretexts. These informants, be it farther noted, are on the side of Pilate, holding that the sinners in the case are undoubtedly the Galileans. They see, therefore, chance to taunt Jesus, as if implicating him in the fanaticism and treason of the Gaulonite’s followers, and warning him of a similar danger.
Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices—From the tower of Antonia, which we have elsewhere described (see note on Mat_21:12; Mat_26:5,) as having been so built as to command the temple, for the very purpose of instantly repressing all tumults and seditions, for which its courts rendered it a favourite and advantageous place, Pilate was able to pour a destructive volley upon the occupants of any part. These Galileans were in the court of the temple, near the great altar; and probably the process of slaying their sacrificial victims was going on. The arrowy shower of death came, and the blood of the sacrificers and of their sacrifices blended in the same stream!
It was an awful omen! On the victim lies the weight of the worshipper’s sin; but here his own blood is made to mingle with the sin-atoning blood of the slain beast!
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain Luk_13:1-9. Accidents and Judgments. The Barren Fig-Tree.
Luk_13:1-9. Accidents and Judgments. The Barren Fig-Tree.
1. There were present at that season] Rather, There arrived at that very season. The curious phrase seems to imply that they had come on purpose to announce this catastrophe. Hence some have supposed that they wished to kindle in the mind of Jesus as a Galilaean (Luk_23:5) a spirit of Messianic retribution (Jos. Antt. Luk_17:9, § 3). But Christ’s answer rather proves that they were connecting the sad death of these Galilaeans with their imaginary crimes. They were not calling His attention to them as martyrs, but as supposed victims of divine anger. Their report indicates a sort of pleasure in recounting the misfortunes of others (ἐπιχαιρεκακία).
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of the Galileans] who regularly attended the Jewish feasts at Jerusalem, Joh_4:45.
whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices] Probably at some Passover outbreak, on which the Roman soldiers had hurried down from Fort Antonia. This incident, which was peculiarly horrible to Jewish imaginations, often occurred during the turbulent administration of Pilate and the Romans; see on Luk_23:1; Act_21:34. At one Passover, “during the sacrifices,” 3000 Jews had been massacred “like victims,” and “the Temple courts filled with dead bodies” (Jos. Antt. xvii. 9, § 3); and at another Passover, no less than 20000 (id. xx. 5, § 3; see also B. J. 11. 5, v. 1). Early in his administration Pilate had sent disguised soldiers with daggers among the crowd (id. Luk_18:3, § 1; B. J. 11. 9, § 4). The special incidents here alluded to were far too common to be specially recorded by Josephus; but in the fact that the victims in this instance were Galilaeans, we may perhaps see a reason for the “enmity” between Pilate and Herod Antipas (Luk_23:12).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) The Galileeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with…
XIII.
(1) The Galileeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.—The incident is not related by Josephus or any other historian, but it was quite in harmony with Pilate’s character. (See Note on Mat_27:2.) We may fairly infer it to have originated in some outburst of zealous fanaticism, such as still characterised the followers of Judas of Galilee (Act_5:37), while the pilgrims from that province were offering their sacrifices in the courts of the Temple, and to have been repressed with the same ruthless severity as he had shown in other tumults. It was probably one, at least, of the causes of the enmity between Herod and Pilate of which we read in Luk_23:12.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 1-9. Signs of the times. The Lord continues…
Vers. 1-9. Signs of the times. The Lord continues his solemn warnings. Israel pictured in the parable of the barren fig tree.
There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices; better rendered, now there were present at that particular time; namely, when the Master was discoursing of the threatening signs of the times, and urging men to repent and to turn and make their peace with God while there was yet time, for a terrible crisis was impending on that doomed land. Some of those then present, probably Jerusalem Jews, specially told off to watch the great Teacher, struck with his grave foreboding tone, when he spoke of the present aspect of affairs, quoted to him a recent bloody fray which had taken place in the temple courts. "Yes, Master," these seemed to say, "we see there is a fierce hatred which is ever growing more intense between Jew and Roman. You know, for instance, what has just taken place in the city, only the victims in this case were Galilaeans, not scrupulous, righteous Jews. Is it not possible that these bloody deeds are simply punishments of men who are great sinners, as these doubtless were?" Such-like incidents were often now occurring under the Roman rule. This, likely enough, had taken place at some crowded Passover gathering, when a detachment of soldiers came down from the Castle of Antonia and had dealt a red-handed "justice" among the turbulent mob. Josephus relates several of the more formidable of such collisions between the Romans and the Jews. At one Passover he relates how three thousand Jews were butchered, and the temple courts were filled with dead corpses; at another of these feasts two thousand perished in like manner (see " Ant.," 17:9. 3; 20:5.3; and " Bell. Jud:," 2:5 5:1). On another occasion disguised legionaries were sent by Pilate the governor with daggers among the Passover crowds (see "Ant.," 18:31). These wild and terrible collisions were of frequent occurrence in these sad days.
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Vers. 1-9. The barren fig tree.
"At that season," or "at that particular time "- whilst the pleading, warning words which follow from the forty-ninth verse of the previous chapter are ringing in the ears of those around the Lord some bystanders tell him of judgments which had actually been fulfilled, of Galilaeans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. We have no information as to the particular event referred to. Riots, small insurrections, revolts from Roman authority, were by no means uncommon, and we know that Pilate was cruel in his repression of them. Probably these Galilaeans had been rioting, and the procurator had profaned the holy things of the sanctuary by casting their blood over the offering made by fire. And the thought simmering in the minds of the superstitious speakers was, "These wretched people had not given the diligence which had been spoken of. They died unreconciled and impenitent. They were great offenders, therefore they endured great punishment." It was a prevalent belief among the Jews that signal calamity to individuals was the token of signal Divine displeasure. This was the inference of Job"s companions when they saw him in the day of his sore grief. This was the inference of the men near Christ as to the victims of the dark catastrophe. And he who knows what is in man at once finds the place of their thought, rebukes their hasty reasoning, and summons them, instead of reflecting on others, to try their own Ways and remember, "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." The parable which follows enforces this appeal to the conscience. It is a short but wonderfully expressive parable. "Everything is involved in it," says Stier, "which a mission of repentance to a people demands.
I Observe, the truth on which Jesus insists is THE NEED OF PERSONAL REPENTANCE ON THE PART OF ALL. In contrast with his audience, this was the application of the calamities related which he made. These were to him the prophecy of the doom awaiting every one who continued in his sins. Archbishop Trench emphasizes the "likewise." "Ye shall all likewise perish, i.e. in a manner similar to that in which both the Galilaeans and the eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell perished. So, in the destruction of Jerusalem years afterwards, multitudes of the inhabitants were crushed beneath the ruins of their temple and their city, and, during the last siege and assault, numbers were pierced through by the Roman darts, or, more miserably yet, by those of their own frantic factions in the courts of the temple, in the very act of preparing their sacrifices. So that, literally, their blood, like that of the Galilaeans, was mingled with their sacrifices, one blood with another." All befallings of judgment which men witness should be, not occasions of criticism or of harsh stricture on others, but voices bidding to humility and self-examination. The sin which I can trace in my neighbour should chiefly remind me of the sin which has dominion over myself. If I have been kept from his transgression, let me thank the grace which has kept me, recall how great perhaps was the difference between his circumstances and mine, and ask whether, in some other form, I may not have been a transgressor as great as he. Reflections such as these will save from all Pharisaic exaltation, will send us to our knees for the erring brother, ay, and send us to our knees for ourselves the word of the Lord sounding within, "Thinkest thou that he is a sinner above thee, because he suffers such things? I tell thee, Nay: except thou repent, thou shalt likewise perish.
II Now see in the parable BOTH THE GOODNESS AND THE SEVERITY WHICH LEAD TO REPENTANCE. The details who owns the vineyard? what the vineyard represents? who is the Dresser or the Gardener? for what the three years and the one year of grace stand? need not here be discussed. The parable is a picture of Almighty God in his dealings with his Church, Jewish or Gentile, in the desire of his love, in the responsiveness of his heart to the intercession of the Mediator whom he has appointed, in the deferring of his judgment so that a fuller opportunity may be given to men to confess his presence and seek him with their whole heart, and flee from the wrath to come, Notice three of the salient features.
1. The fruit which is sought sought year by year with increasing disappointment; fruit, the legitimate product of the tree, growing out of its life, marking its use and value. We hear the astonished "What more could I do to my vineyard that I have not done?" And nothing but leaves." Herein we recognize the longing of the love of God. He gives to men that men may give of his, one to another. As his own goodness is "a flowing life-fountain," so is the goodness which is the expression of the new heart and the right spirit. The fruitless tree keeps a certain energy to itself. There is a power in it which remains undeveloped. It draws the moisture away from the surrounding soil, it receives the rain and sunshine of heaven; it is all an in-come, there is no out-come. Is it not the type of the kind of person who is a stranger and foreigner to the life of the Eternal a person who is fed, but does not feed; who claims to be ministered to, but does not seek the bliss of ministering; whose character has no distinct influence for good; who is not what, in his place and according to his opportunity, the Lord of the vineyard expects him to be? God comes to men for his harvest. Is he receiving it from us? "Herein," says Christ, "is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit." Remember, "much fruit the well-matured, well-ripened godliness of the one in whose heart are God"s ways. Resemblances cannot impose on him whose eyes are as a flame of fire. Why did he curse the tree which he beheld on his way to Bethany? Not because it was barren, but because it was false. In the fig tree the fruit should appear before the leaves. He saw leaves where there had been no fruit. Profession is nothing. A routine of religious offices is nothing. Appearance before God is nothing. All this may be only an extra assumed for an occasion, and then taken off. The tree which produces is the tree that is sound at the core. The conscience right produces the life right. Repentance, the way of making the tree good; holiness, the life of repentance for this God comes to each of us, seeking, expecting.
2. What as to the intercession? There appears on the scene the one who has been charged with the care of the vineyard. The first reference, no doubt, is to the Lord Jesus Christ himself, into whose hand the Father has given all things, and in whom is substantiated the craving of the old patriarch for the Interpreter one among a thousand to whom the Eternal is gracious, and saith, Deliver from going down into the pit: I have found a ransom." it is he who ever liveth, the God-Man, to make intercession. "Yet not," as has been remarked, "as though the Father and the Son had different minds concerning sinners, not as though the counsels of the Father were wrath, and of the Son mercy: for righteousness and love are not qualities in him who is Righteousness and who is Love; they cannot, therefore, be set the one against the other, since they are his essential Being." Yes, "if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous." But there is a secondary reference not to be overlooked. Before Jesus left the world to go to the Father, he promised to send the Holy Ghost as another Advocate; not another in the sense that he would be a different Person, but in the sense that he would be his other self a Divine presence inhabiting the Church which is his body, and revealing and glorifying him. All faithful souls, anointed with the sevenfold gifts of this Paraclete, are joined with him in intercession for the unfaithful and unfruitful. The prayer of the Church is the voice of the Holy Ghost Christ"s voice echoing from human hearts. And the whole Bible is charged with the thought that, for the sake of the elect, because of their life and work and cry to heaven, judgments impending over the earth are stayed. Intercession is not a merely beautiful and becoming function; it is the power which binds "the whole round earth by golden chains about the feet of God." "Cut it down; why mischieveth it the ground?... Lord, let it alone this year also.
3. Finally, God"s times and spaces what are they? "These three years I come." The three years have been supposed to signify the epoch of the natural law, the epoch of the written Law, and, finally, the epoch of grace; Moses, the prophets, the acceptable year of the Lord"s coming; the three years of Christ"s ministry; childhood, manhood, old age. Whatever may be the value we attach to these explanations, the fact denoted is the long-suffering of God. Notice the two aspects of the waiting: to judge, but be gracious, and to judge and condemn. The latter is the "strange work." In grace, God comes silently; for condemnation, he comes, first crying aloud by his threatenings, "I am coming quickly," that the opportunity for the Intercessor may be given. First, the axe is laid at the root of the tree; there it lies, ready, yet the blow is deferred. "Cut it down;" yet a little longer year also.
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-5. The significance of suffering.
What does it mean, that all men suffer? and what is signified by the great calamities which some men endure? The Jews of our Lord"s time were drawing inferences which were common and natural enough; but they were not the safest nor the wisest that might have been drawn. In the light of the Master"s teaching, we conclude
I THAT SUFFERING IS ALWAYS SIGNIFICANT OF SIN. Whenever we see any kind of suffering, whether it be ordinary sickness and pain, or whether it be of such an extraordinary character as that referred to here (vers. 1-4), we safely conclude that there has been sin. And this for two reasons.
1. That all sin tends toward suffering; it has the seeds of weakness, of decline, of dissolution, in it. Give time enough, and sin is certain, "when it is finished, to bring forth death." It carries an appropriate penalty in its own nature, and, except there be some merciful and mighty interposition to prevent it, the consequences will be felt in due time.
2. That it is certain there would have been no suffering had there been no sin. A good and holy man may be experiencing the results of other men"s iniquity, and his troubles not be directly traceable to any wrong or even any imprudence in himself. Yet were he not a sinful man, to whom some penalty for some guilt is due, he would not have been allowed to be the victim of the wrong-doing of others. We bear the burden of one another"s penalty; and there is no injustice in this, because, though we all suffer on account of other men"s actions, we suffer no more than is due to our own delinquency. The fact that a man is suffering some evil thing is therefore a proof that, whether or not he brought this particular trial on himself, he has offended, he has broken Divine law, he has come under righteous condemnation.
II THAT GREAT CALAMITY IS SUGGESTIVE OF GREAT GUILT. There are two considerations which suggest this conclusion.
1. One is a logical inference. We argue that if sinners suffer on account of their guilt, the greater sinners will be the greater sufferers.
2. The other is the result of observation. We do often see that men who have been guilty of flagitious crimes are compelled to endure signal sorrows; the tempest of human indignation bursts upon them, or the fires of a terrible remorse consume them, or the retribution of a righteous Providence overtakes and overwhelms them.
III THAT WE ARE BOUND TO TAKE CARE LEST WE DO OUR NEIGHBOUR WRONG in this conclusion of ours.
1. For the heinousness of individual guilt and the measurable magnitude of present punishment do not always correspond with one another. We do not always know how much men are suffering; they may be experiencing inward miseries we know not of; and it is most likely that they are undergoing inward and spiritual deterioration which we cannot estimate a consequence of sin which is immeasurably more pitiful than any loss of property or of health.
2. And the calamities that have overtaken a man may be due to the fault of others, and they may be disciplinary rather than punitive in their bearing upon him. They may rather indicate that God is cleansing his heart and preparing his spirit for higher work, than that God is visiting him with penalty for past iniquity. We must therefore be slow to act on the principle on which the Jews based the conclusion of the text. There is one thing which it is always right to do. We may be sure
IV THAT THE WISE THING IS TO MAKE HONEST INQUIRY ABOUT OURSELVES. What about our own sin? It is certain that we have sinned. Biblical statements, our own consciences, the testimony of our neighbours, all affirm this. We have sinned against the Lord, and deserve his condemnation and retribution. Is it certain that we have repented? Have we turned away from the attitude and the actions of selfishness, of ungodliness, of insubmissiveness, of disobedience? And are we resting and rejoicing in the mercy of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord? If not, we shall perish; for impenitence means death. C.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR Vers. 1-21. The grace and progress of God"s kingdom.
We saw at the close of last chapter how urgent a matter it is to get reconciled to God. Luke, in constructing his Gospel, introduces us next to a cognate thought the necessity of repentance if judgment is to be escaped. Let us take up the orderly thoughts as they are laid before us in this passage.
I JUDGMENT EXECUTED UPON OTHERS IS A CALL TO REPENTANCE ADDRESSED TO US. (Vers. 1-5) There was a disposition then, as there is still, to set down special judgment as the consequence of some special sin. Job"s comforters simply expressed the fallacy to be found in every heart. When Christ"s attention was, therefore, directed to the Galilaean emeute, and to the bloody way in which Pilate had put it down, he directed his hearers to discern in it a providential warning and call to repentance. The accident at the tower of Siloam had the same significance. It was a call to survivors to repent lest a judgment as severe should overtake them. The fate of the dead was no proof of special sin, but it was a clear call to repentance addressed to the survivors, The warning was singularly appropriate. The cruelty of Pilate and the overturning of the tower of Siloam had their counterparts in the siege of Jerusalem forty years after, when the people had demonstrated their impenitence. Hence we should learn the practical lesson from every judgment of the imperative necessity of personal repentance. These terrible calamities are allowed to occur, not that we may uncharitably criticize the conduct of the dead, but that we may carefully review the conduct of ourselves who survive, and repent before God.
II BEFORE MEN BECOME FINALLY IMPENITENT AND INCORRIGIBLE THEY GET A LAST CHANCE OF AMENDMENT AND REFORM, (Vers. 6-9) The siege of Jerusalem has been before the prophetic eye of Christ, and, to impress the necessity of personal amendment and reform upon the people, he tells the parable of the fig tree. It is a history of care without any return. Orientals dig about their fruit-trees, and manure the roots, and encourage fruitfulness in every way.Fruitless trees they burn, after a three-years" probation. Now, the Jews were as a nation represented by this fig tree. Through long years the heavenly Husbandman had given it every chance of bearing fruit. His long suffering is nearly exhausted, and but for the dresser of the vineyard by whom Jesus means himself it would have been cut down as a cumberer of the ground. His intercessions saved the nation for other forty years. And what tender care was expended on it in the closing ministry of Christ, and in the ministry of the apostles! Truly the tears of our Lord over Jerusalem, the self-sacrificing zeal of Paul and Peter and the rest for the conversion of their own countrymen, and the series of significant providences with which the forty years were filled, unite to show that the national annihilation was deserved. A fruitless nation must make way for others. Let this last chance of the Jewish nation, the forty years of respite between Christ"s death and Jerusalem"s doom, admonish sinners of their solemn responsibility amid similar respites still. The Lord"s long-suffering, though great, is not infinite; upon it sinners need not eternally presume; a day comes round in every case, when he who will be filthy and unholy is allowed to be so still. (Rev_22:11)
III THE SABBATH SHOULD BE THE SEASON OF SPECIAL UPLIFTING TO INFIRM SOULS. (Vers. 10-17) How should a Divine day be spent? This was the controversy Christ had with the chief priests and Jewish rulers. The rabbinical idea was that it should be a day of purely physical rest, and that even healing should be postponed to the succeeding and secular days. Our Lord, on the contrary, held that the sabbath was a day for special philanthropies, a day of opportunities such as the other days, with their secular routine, cannot afford. Hence the sabbaths were days of special miracle. Meeting a poor woman whose infirmities had been of eighteen years" standing, he took her, laid his hands upon her, and healed her. It was a glorious uplifting which the poor bent woman received. But the ruler of the synagogue, where this happened, indignantly objected to such a work being done on the sabbath day; only to draw upon him, however, the rebuke of Jesus, "Ye hypocrites, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman," etc.? (Revised Version). His argument is unanswerable. They were accustomed to deal mercifully with their own beasts, but were ready most inconsistently to deal unmercifully with human beings, who should have been more valued, but are often, alas! less cared for than dumb animals. Such hypocrisy found in Jesus a constant foe. His adversaries were thus put to shame, and the common people rejoiced and praised God for the glorious sabbath services which Jesus rendered to the poor and needy. Ought we not, then, to look for special upliftings of our infirm souls on the holy days? Jesus is waiting to heal us, and to raise us up to spiritual power. As Gerok daintily puts it, we should expect to pass from work-day worry to sabbath rest; from earthly grief to heavenly joy; from the yoke of sin to the service of the Lord. We do not utilize our Lord"s days aright, if such experiences are not enjoyed.
IV THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS A WIDENING PHILANTHROPY. (Vers. 18, 19) After the philanthropy extended to the infirm woman, it was natural for our Lord to pass to the parable of the mustard seed. This represents an insignificant beginning, followed by growth to such an extent, that under the branches of the mustard tree the birds of heaven find fitting shelter. In the same way the kingdom of God began around Jesus, apparently an insignificant Person, and eventually passed on to afford shade to many. In a word, the kingdom of God is an extending philanthropy. It widens its arms and embraces more and more in its shadow. In the same way, we may be sure that it has no true lodgment within us, unless it is making our philanthropy a growing and extending power. We are not Christ"s unless we have his beautiful and philanthropic spirit.
V THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS A THOROUGHLY TRANSFORMING POWER. (Vers. 20, 21) From mustard seed and its growth, Christ proceeds to speak of leaven. It is hid in the three measures of meal, and works its way onwards until the whole mass is leavened. There is thus indicated how thorough and gradual the work of Christianity is. We are not true Christians unless every portion of our nature feels its transforming power; nor will Christianity pause until it has penetrated to the utmost extent the population of the world. The great idea of the parable is thoroughness. Let this characterize us always in our connection with the kingdom. R.M.E.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain The Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled
Luk_13:1-5
The Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled
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Teachings from tragedies
We shall miss the very point of Christs teaching if we suppose that he meant to lessen our sense of the inseparable connection between sin and punishment.
What, then, did He mean? He meant this: That every personal visitation, whether by violence or by accident, is not to be regarded as a retribution for a personal sin; that we are too short-sighted to judge, and that we are too sin-stricken ourselves to overlook, in our condemnation of others, our own need of repentance. The main purpose of such startling events is to arouse individuals and society at large to a recognition and to a repentance of their own sins. He appears to me to have opposed on the one hand the levity of those who ignore the connection between natural and moral evil: and, on the other hand, He rebuked the narrowness of those who connected individual sorrows befalling others with individual sins. In all ages and in all lands this hydro-headed fallacy has asserted its power. The ordeal in mediaeval times was based on it (the noble having the ordeal of fire and the bondman the ordeal of water), and the wage of battle has not yet lost its hold on the nations, and even Christians regard war as a decisive appeal to the Lord of hosts, to show on which side right lies, though history abundantly shows that often might has won and right has lost. This is the principle on which people have constantly based their judgments, and do so still, though in different form. If you clamber the hills at the back of Penmaenmaur you will see the stones which are said by the people to be quiet players, who were petrified by the judgment of God for playing the game on Sunday. You smile at that; but there are multitudes now who, hearing of a disaster on the railway, will call it a judgment if it happens on Sunday, an accident if it happens on Monday.
I. THINK OF THE FOLLY OF THIS SHORT-SIGHTED JUDGMENT.
1. It presupposes that this is the world of punishment, whereas Scripture and experience alike testify that it is the world of probation.
2. The folly of these hasty judgments of ours also appears from their constant contradiction by unmistakable facts. It was of the wicked, not of the righteous, that the Psalmist said: They are not plagued as other men. Indeed, we should lose faith in a righteous God altogether if this world were the only stage on which His purposes are worked out. There is a good story told of John Milton which will illustrate this point, though-I do not vouch for its accuracy. It is said that when the great poet was living in Bunhill-fields, forsaken and blind, old and poor, one of the despicable sons of Charles I. paid him a visit, and said: Do you not see, Mr. Milton, that your blindness is a judgment of God for the part you took against my father, King Charles. Nay, said the poet of the Commonwealth, If I have lost my sight through Gods judgment, what can you say of your father, who lost his head? Well, that is a fair example of the confusions and contradictions which arise from endeavours to interpret, by our shortsighted notions, the far-reaching purposes of God.
3. And what will be the result if men are taught to look for Divine decisions now, before the appointed revelation of the righteous judgment of God? Why this that wicked men will be emboldened in wickedness so long as they seem to escape all rebuke and disaster--and they often do. They are profligate, but not punished: prayerless, yet crowned with blessings; dishonest, yet succeed all the better in their ventures; cruel and hard, yet make money faster because they are so; and soon they will call darkness light and light darkness; and will go on recklessly, amid the sunshine of prosperity, to a hell they do not believe in! Well might our Lord rebuke the hasty judgments of men on account of their folly.
II. But, apart from its folly, THERE IS SIN IN THIS HABIT TOO OFTEN, IF NOT ALWAYS.
1. It leads even religious people to a kind of untruthfulness which the King of truth always and everywhere condemns. They cannot help seeing the contradictions and anomalies I have alluded to, and they naturally shut their eyes to those which do not fit in with their theory. If, for example, helpless people are crushed in a theatre, it is a judgment, but if in a church, it is an accident. If an evil happens to themselves, it is a trial; but if it comes to another, it is a warning. But all this is untrue and unreal, and, therefore, it is abhorrent to our Lord. Yes, and it is detected by a sharp-eyed world, which adduces it as a proof of the unreality and unfairness of religious people, and so our testimony for the King of truth is weakened. Jesus meant what He said when He uttered those memorable words: He that is of the truth heareth My words.
2. Besides, there is often harshness in those judgments of ours on other people. We think and say that they are sinners above all others because they suffer such things. This hard condemnation of others was one of the chief sins of the Pharisees, and it called forth some of the sternest words our Lord ever uttered.
3. I am not sure but what the thought of other peoples sins is comforting and pleasant to us; presenting a contrast by which we may throw up into relief our own virtues. And such self-complacency was a third sin Jesus saw in His hearers. (A. Rowland, LL. B.)
A direct application
I. OCCURRING INCIDENTS SHOULD TEACH US SPIRITUAL TRUTHS (Luk_13:1; Luk_13:4).
II. IT IS THE TENDENCY OF THE HUMAN MIND TO JUDGE RASHLY (Luk_13:2).
III. THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY RESTRAINS THE RASHNESS OF HUMAN JUDGMENT. I tell you, Nay.
IV. WE SHOULD AT ALL TIMES LOOK AT HOME. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. (A. F. Barfield.)
Judgments and repentance
I. We are to speak on the common, but erroneous idea, that THE SINFULNESS OF AN INDIVIDUAL MAY BE CONCLUDED FROM THE JUDGMENTS BY WHICH HE IS OVERTAKES. We can affirm it to be an axiom received by the men of every generation, that punishment and sin are so near relatives, that to perform the one is to incur the other. And the axiom is a true axiom, though in certain instances it may be wrongly applied. It is a truth, a truth to which hereafter the unrolled history of the universe shall bear witness, that human guilt provokes Gods wrath; and that the greater a mans offences the sterner shall be the penalties with which he is visited. And we think it altogether a surprising thing that this truth should have retained its hold on the human mind; so that in the worst scenes of moral and intellectual degeneracy it hath never been completely cashiered. We think it a mighty testimony to the character of God as the hater and avenger of sin that even the savage, removed far away from all the advantages of Revelation, is unable to get rid of the conviction that guilt is the parent to wretchedness, and that, let him but see a fellow-man crushed by an accumulation of disaster, and he will instantly show forth this conviction by pointing to him so branded with flagrant iniquities. But whilst the common mode of arguing thus leads to the establishment of certain truths, it is in itself an erroneous mode. This is the next thing which we go on to observe. The Jews concluded that the Galileans must have been peculiarly sinful, since God had allowed them to be butchered by the Romans. They showed, therefore, that they believed in an awful connection between sinfulness and suffering, and so far they were witnesses to one of the fundamental truths of Revelation. But, nevertheless, we gather unquestionably from Christs address, that it did not follow that because these Galileans were massacred they were sinners above all the Galileans. Now, if we would attend to the course and order of Gods judgments, we should presently see, that although wherever there is suffering there must have been sin, still nothing can be more faulty than the supposition that he who suffers most must have sinned most. There is no proportion whatsoever kept up in Gods dealings with His creatures between mens allotments in this life, and their actions. On the contrary, the very same conduct which is allowed to prosper in one case entails a long line of calamities in another.
II. Now this brings us to our second topic of discourse. We have shown you the erroneousness of the inference drawn by the Jews; AND WE DO ON TO THE REPROOF WHICH THEY MET WITH FROM THE REDEEMER. We bid you, first of all, observe that Jesus, in no degree, denies the actual sinfulness of the murdered Galileans. He only sets himself against the idea which had been formed of their relative sinfulness. What they had suffered was, undoubtedly, a consequence of sin in the general--for if there were no sin, there could be no suffering. But the calamity which overtook them was no more necessarily the produce of particular sin, than was the blindness of the man concerning whom the disciples asked, Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? Sinful, then, the Galileans were, and, because sinful, they also suffered. But of their sinfulness we all partake, and, what then is to exempt us from partaking of their suffering? We are taught by our text that if we repent we shall be delivered; if we repent not, we must perish. And I just wish to set before you, with all plainness and simplicity, THE EXACT PLACE WHICH REPENTANCE OCCUPIES IN THE BUSINESS OF OUR RECONCILIATION TO GOD. There has been much mistake abroad on this matter, and both repentance and faith have been wrongly exhibited by a diseased theology. A man is not pardoned because he is sorry for his sins. A man is not saved because he believes upon Christ. If you once say that it is because we do this or that, that we are accepted of God, you make the acceptance a thing of works, and not one of grace. If we say to an individual, Repent and believe and thou shalt be saved, the saying is a true saying, and has the whole of Gods Word on its side. But if we say, Repent, and because penitent, thou shalt be forgiven, we represent repentance as the procuring cause of forgiveness, and thus do fatal violence to every line of the gospel. Repentance is a condition, and faith is a condition, but neither the one or the other is anything more than a condition. In itself there is no virtue in repentance--in itself there is no virtue in faith. That repentance must precede pardon is clear from every line of the scheme of salvation; but that repentance must precede coming to Christ is a notion fraught with the total upset of this scheme. We deny not that a legal repentance, as it may be termed, is often beforehand with our turning to the Mediator; but an evangelical repentance is not to be gotten except from it. It is a change of heart--it is a renewal of spirit--it is the being translated from darkness to light, the being turned-from dead works to serve the living and true God. And if all this mighty renovation is to pass upon man, ere it can be said of him that he has truly repented, then he must have betaken himself to the Redeemers fulness in order to obtain the very elements of repentance, and this is distinctly opposed to his possessing those elements as qualifications for his drawing from that fulness. Of all things, let us avoid the throwing up ramparts between the sinner and the Saviour. I am bold to say that, if the gospel be conditional, the only condition is a look. Look unto Me, and be ye saved. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
The judgments of God
-This story is often used, it seems to me, for a purpose exactly opposite to that for which it is told. It is said that because these Galileans, whom Pilate slew, and these eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell, were no worse than the people round them, that therefore similar calamities must not be considered judgments and punishments of God; that it is an offence against Christian charity to say that such sufferers are the objects of Gods anger; that it is an offence against good manners to introduce the name of God, or the theory of a Divine Providence, in speaking of historical events. They must be ascribed to certain brute forces of nature; to certain inevitable laws of history; to the passions of men, to chance, to fate, to anything and everything, rather than to the will of God. No man disagrees more utterly than I do with the latter part of this language. For as surely as there is a God, so surely does that God judge the earth; and every individual, family, institution, and nation on the face thereof; and judge them all in righteousness by His Son Jesus Christ, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, and given Him all power in heaven and earth; who reigns, and will reign till He hath put all enemies under His feet. Our Lord does not say--Those Galileans were not sinners at all. Their sins had nothing to do with their death. Those on whom the tower fell were innocent men. He rather implies the very opposite. We know nothing of the circumstances of either calamity; but this we known that our Lord warned the rest of the Jews, that unless they repented--that is, changed their mind, and therefore their conduct, they would all perish in the same way. And we know that that warning was fulfilled, within forty years, so hideously and so awfully, that the destruction of Jerusalem remains as one of the most terrible cases of wholesale ruin and horror recorded in history; and--as I believe--a key to many a calamity before and since. Like the taking of Babylon, the fall of Rome, and the French Revolution, it stands out in lurid splendour, as of the nether pit itself, forcing all who believe to say in fear and trembling--Verily there is a God that judgeth the earth--and a warning to every man, class, institution, and nation on earth, to set their houses in order betimes, and bear fruit meet for repentance, lest the day come when they too shall be weighed in the balance of Gods eternal justice, and found wanting. But another lesson we may learn from the text, which I wish to impress earnestly on your minds; These Galileans, it seems, were no worse than the other Galileans; yet they were singled out as examples, as warnings to the rest. It is as if they were punished, not for being who they were, but for being what they were. History is full of such instances; instances of which we say and cannot help saying--What have they done above all others, that on them above all others the thunderbolt should fall? Was Charles the First, for example, the worst, or the best, of the Stuarts; and Louis the Sixteenth, of the Bourbons? Look, again, at the fate of Sir Thomas More, Bishop Fisher, and the hapless monks of the Charterhouse. Were they sinners above all who upheld the Romish system in England? Were they not rather among the righteous men who ought to have saved it, if it could have been saved? And yet on them--the purest and the holiest of their party--and not on the hypocrites and profligates, fell the thunderbolt. What is the meaning of these things?--for a meaning there must be; and we, I dare to believe, must be meant to discover it; for we are the children of God, into whose hearts, because we are human beings and not mere animals, He has implanted the inextinguishable longing to ascertain final causes--to seek not merely the means of things, but the reason of things; to ask not merely How? but Why? May not the reason be--I speak with all timidity and reverence, as one who shrinks frompretending to thrust himself into the counsels of the Almighty--but may not the reason be that God has wished thereby to condemn not the persons, but the systems? That He has punished them not for their private, but for their public faults? Looking at history in this light, we may justify God for many a heavy blow, and fearful judgment, which seems to the unbeliever a wanton cruelty of chance or fate; while at the same time we may feel deep sympathy with--often deep admiration for--many a noble spirit, who has been defeated, and justly defeated, by those irreversible taws of Gods kingdom, of which it is written--On whomsoever that stone shall fall, it will grind him to powder. We may look with reverence, as well as pity, on many figures in history, such as Sir Thomas Mores; on persons who, placed by no fault of their own in some unnatural and unrighteous position; involved in some decaying and unworkable system; conscious more or less of their false position; conscious, too, of coming danger, have done their best, according to their light, to work like men, before the night came in which no man could work; to do what of their duty seemed still plain and possible; and to set right that which would never come right more: forgetting that, alas, the crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered; till the flood came and swept them away, standing bravely to the last at a post long since untenable, but still--all honour to them--standing at their post. When we consider such sad figures on the page of history, we may have, I say, all respect for their private virtues. We may accept every excuse for their public mistakes. And yet we may feel a solemn satisfaction at their downfall, when we see it to have been necessary for the progress of mankind, and according to those laws and that will of God and of Christ, by which alone the human race is ruled. And we shall believe, too, that these things were written for our example, that we may see, add fear, and be turned to the Lord. (C. Kingsley, M. A.)
Accidents, not punishments
I. First, LET US TAKE HEED THAT WE DO NOT DRAW THE RASH AND HASTY CONCLUSION FROM TERRIBLE ACCIDENTS, THAT THOSE WHO SUFFER BY THEM SUFFER ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR SINS. NOW, mark, I would not deny but what there have sometimes been judgments of God upon particular persons for sin; sometimes, and I think but exceedingly rarely, such things have occurred. Some of us have heard in our own experience instances of men who have blasphemed God and defied Him to destroy them, who have suddenly fallen dead; and in such cases, the punishment has so quickly followed the blasphemy that one could not help perceiving the hand of God in it. The man had wantonly asked for the judgment of God, his prayer was heard, and the judgment came. And, beyond a doubt, there are what may be called natural judgments. You see a man ragged, poor, houseless; he has been profligate, he has been a drunkard, he has lost his character, and it is but the just judgment of God upon him that he should be starving, and that he should be an outcast among men. You see in the hospitals loathsome specimens of men and women foully diseased; God forbid that we should deny that in such a case--the punishment being the natural result of the sin--there is a judgment of God upon licentiousness and ungodly lusts. And the like may be said in many instances where there is so clear a link between the sin and the punishment that the blindest men may discern that God hath made Misery the child of Sin. But in cases of accident, such as that to which I refer, and in cases of sudden and instant death, again, I say, I enter my earnest protest against the foolish and ridiculous idea that those who thus perish are sinners above all the sinners who survive unharmed. Let me just try to reason this matter out with Christian people; for there are some unenlightened Christian people who will feel horrified by what I have said. To all those who hastily look upon every calamity as a judgment I would speak in the earnest hope of setting them right.
1. Let me begin, then, by saying, do not you see that what you say is not true? and that is the best of reasons why you should not say it. Does not your own experience and observation teach you that one event happeneth both to the righteous and to the wicked? It is true, the wicked man sometimes falls dead in the street; but has not the minister fallen dead in the pulpit?
2. The idea that whenever an accident occurs we are to look upon it as a judgment from God would make the providence of God to be, instead of a great deep, a very shallow pool. Why, any child can understand the providence of God, if it be true that when there is a railway accident it is because people travel on a Sunday. I take any little child from the smallest infant-class form in the Sunday-school, and he will say, Yes, I see that. But then, if such a thing be providence, if it be a providence that can be understood, manifestly it is not the Scriptural idea of providence, for in the Scripture we are always taught that Gods providence is a great deep; and even Ezekiel, who had the wing of the cherubim and could fly aloft, when he saw the wheels which were the great picture of the providence of God, could only say the wheels were so high that they were terrible, and were full of eyes, so that he cried, O wheel! If--I repeat it to make it plain--if always a calamity were the result of some sin, providence would be as simple as that twice two made four; it would be one of the first lessons that a little child might learn.
3. And then, will you allow me to remark, that the supposition against which I am earnestly contending, is a very cruel and unkind one. For if this were the case, that all persons who thus meet with their death in an extraordinary and terrible manner, were greater sinners than the rest, would it not be a crushing blow to bereaved survivors, and is it not ungenerous on our part to indulge the idea unless we are compelled by unanswerable reasons to accept it as an awful truth? Now, I defy you to whisper it in the widows ear. And now, lastly--and then I leave this point--do you not perceive that the un-Christian and unscriptural supposition that when men suddenly meet with death it is the result of sin, robs Christianity of one of its noblest arguments for the immortality of the soul? Brethren, we assert daily, with Scripture for our warrant, that God is just; and inasmuch as He is just, He must punish sin, and reward the righteous. Manifestly He does not do it in this world. I think I have plainly shown that in this world one event happeneth to both; that the righteous man is poor as well as the wicked, and that he dies suddenly as well as the most graceless. Very well, then, the inference is natural and clear that there must be a next world in which these things must be righted. If there be a God, He must be just; and if He be just, He must punish sin; and since He does not do it in this world, there therefore must be another state in which men shall receive the due reward of their works; and they that have sown to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, while they that have sown to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Make this world the reaping place, and you have taken the sting out of sin.
II. Now to our second point. WHAT USE, THEN, OUGHT WE TO MAKE OF THIS VOICE OF GOD AS HEARD AMIDST THE SHRIEKS AND GROANS OF DYING MEN?
1. The first inquiry we should put to ourselves is this: Why may it not be my case that I may very soon and suddenly be cut off? Have I a lease of my life? Have I any special guardianship which ensures me that I shall not suddenly pass the portals of the tomb? And the next question it should suggest is this: Am not I as great a sinner as those who died? If in outward sin others have excelled me, are not the thoughts of my heart evil? Does not the same law which curses them curse me? It is as impossible that I should be saved by my works as that they should be. Am not I under the law as well as they by nature, and therefore am not I as well as they under the curse? That question should arise. Instead of thinking of their sins which would make me proud, I should think of my own which will make me humble. Instead of speculating upon their guilt, which is no business of mine, I should turn my eyes within and think upon my own transgression, for which I must personally answer before the Most High God. Then the next question is, Have I repented of my sin? I need not be inquiring whether they have or not: have I? Since I am liable to the same calamity, am I prepared to meet it? Do I hate sin? Have I learned to abhor it? For if not, I am in as great danger as they were, and may quite as suddenly be cut off, and then where am I? I will not ask where are they? And then, again, instead of prying into the future destiny of these unhappy men and women, how much better to inquire into our own destiny and our own state!
2. When we have used it thus for inquiry, let me remind you that we ought to use it also for warning. Ye shall all likewise perish. No, says one, not likewise. We shall not all be crushed; many of us will die in our beds. We shall not all be burned; many of us will tranquilly close our eyes. Ay, but the text says, Ye shall all likewise perish. And let me remind you that some of you may perish in the same identical manner. You have no reason to believe that you may not also suddenly be cut off while walking the streets. You may fall dead while eating your meals--how many have perished with the staff of life in their hands! Ye shall be in your bed, and your bed shall suddenly be made your tomb. You shall be strong, hale, hearty, and in health, and either by an accident or by the stoppage of the circulation of your blood, you shall be suddenly hurried before your God. Oh: may sudden death to you be sudden glory! But it may happen with some of us, that in the same sudden manner as others have died, so shall we. But lately, in America, a brother, while preaching the Word, laid down his body and his charge at once. You remember the death of Dr. Beaumont, who, while proclaiming the gospel of Christ, closed his eyes to earth. And I remember the death of a minister in this country, who had but just given out the verse--
Father, I long, I faint to see
The place of Thine abode;
Id leave Thine earthly courts and flee
Up to Thy house, my God,
when it pleased God to grant him the desire of his heart, and he appeared before the King in His beauty. Why, then, may not such a sudden death as that happen to you and to me? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Lessons
1. We may hence learn to beware of rashly judging others. Let us think of the guilt which we should thus incur, and also of the retribution in kind, which we should thereby prepare for ourselves.
2. We may hence learn not to be too hasty in interpreting afflictive dispensations of Providence against ourselves. We may sometimes hear a person who is labouring under great reverses, or heavy bodily distress, express himself thus, Surely I must be a very great sinner, else such things could never have been laid on me. If his meaning, in expressing himself thus, be that he is a great sinner in himself, that he suffers less than he deserves, that he might justly be cast off altogether, and that he ought to humble himself under the rod, and consider well what ought to be amended in his feelings and character--nothing can be more proper. But if his meaning be, that such sufferings are a proof that he is a sinner beyond others, and that he is still unpardoned and unrenewed, and that God is treating him as an enemy, and probably will cast him off for ever--nothing can be more hasty. The truth of the case may be the very opposite; and, if his humility be real, probably is the very opposite. Let all afflicted souls learn to seek to God for the sanctified use of their trouble, and support under it; and let none vex themselves with dark surmises whose trust is in the God of mercy.
3. We may hence learn to be thankful for our own preservation. When we hear of the heavy calamities, and the sudden removal of others, let us bless God for our own safety. What but His kind care has preserved us? Let us be thankful for our ordinary and daily preservation, and especially for signal deliverances. Let us be thankful, too, for our quietness and safety during our solemn religious services. When we think what blindness, unbelief, wandering of thought, and varied sinfulness, mix even with our very best services, and especially with our worst, how thankful should we be that the Lord has not broken in and made a breach on us, and mingled our blood with our sacrifices.
4. We learn from this passage, that it is our duty to mark and improve calamities, and especially violent and sudden deaths. It is right to speak of them to each other, with a view to our mutual benefit. When Gods judgments are abroad in the earth, the inhabitants of the world should learn righteousness. Be ye also ready: for, in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man commeth.
5. But there is one other lesson from this passage, on which I am especially desirous of fixing your attention, namely, the necessity of genuine repentance. Our Lord Himself, here says twice, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Consider, then, what is implied in repentance unto salvation; and seek to become possessed of it. (James Foote, M. A.)
The massacre of the Galileans
There is no account in Josephus, the only Jewish contemporary historian, of this massacre of the Galileans. The oldest account of it is in Cyril of Alexandria, about four hundred years after it occurred, and runs thus: For these [Galileans] were followers of the opinions of Judas of Galilee, of whom Luke makes mention in the Acts of the Apostles, who said that we ought to call no man master. Great numbers of them refusing to acknowledge Caesar as their master were therefore punished by Pilate. They said also that men ought not to offer to God any sacrifices that were not ordained by the law of Moses, and so forbade to offer the sacrifices appointed by the people for the safety of the Emperor and the Roman people. Pilate, thus being enraged against the Galileans, ordered them to be slain in the midst of the very victims which they thought they might offer according to the custom of their law, so that the blood of the offerers was mingled with that of the victims offered. It is also conjectured that this interference of Pilate in slaying these Galileans was the cause of his quarrel with Herod, who resented his interference until a reconciliation took place by his sending Christ to him as one under his own jurisdiction. (M. F. Sadler.)
An accident wrongly described
I remember that terrible accident which occurred on the Thames--the sinking of the Princess Alice steamboat. It appalled everybody, and we called it a mysterious providence. I remember reading in the newspapers that when the collision occurred the boat cracked and crumbled like a matchbox--that was the sentence used. Why did it do so? Not by a special providence, but because it was built like a matchbox--as slim and as flimsy: and the providence that ended so fatally was, as usual, not the providence of God, but the reckless greed of man. (J. Jackson Wray.)
Scrutable providences
Modern science has brought the world a fifth gospel. In it we read that God commands us to give Him our whole heads as well as our whole hearts, for that we cannot know Him nor obey Him till we discern Him in every minutest fact, and every immutable law of the physical universe, as in every fact and law of the moral. It is barely two hundred years since the great Cotton Mather preached a famous sermon called Burnings Bewailed, wherein he attributed a terrible conflagration to the wrath of God kindled against Sabbathbreaking and the accursed fashion of monstrous periwigs! For years after his time the Puritan colonies held fasts for mildew, for small-pox, for caterpillars, for grasshoppers, for loss of cattle by cold and visitation of God. They saw an Inscrutable Providence in all these things. But when their children had learned a better husbandry and better sanitary conditions the visitations ceased. When, in Chicago, a nights fire undid a generations toil, spreading misery and death broadcast, was that horror in the least degree inexplicable? Every man who, within thirty years, had put up a wooden house in a city whose familiar breezes were gales, and whose gales were hurricanes, solicited that rain of fire. They who, hasting to be rich, fell into the snare of cheap and dangerous building, digged, every man, a pit for his neighbours feet as well as for his own. The inscrutable aspect of the calamity was that it had not come years before. And the Providential lesson would seem to be that laws of matter are laws of God, and cannot be violated with impunity. When the earthquake well-nigh swallowed up Peru, five or six years ago, men stood aghast at the mysterious dispensation. But heaven has not only always declared that tropical countries are liable to earthquakes, but had taught the Peruviaus through hundreds of years to expect two earthquakes in a century, travelling in cycles from forty to sixty years apart. The citizens of Arica have not only this general instruction, but that special warning which nature always gives. A great light appeared to the south-east. Hollow sounds were heard. The dogs, the goats, even the swine foresaw the evil and hid themselves. But the simple men passed on and were punished. Before the Alpine freshets come the streams are coffee-coloured. Even the tornadoes of the tropics, which are instantaneous in their swoop, so plainly announce themselves to old sailors that they reef sails and save ship and life, while only the heedless perish. The simoon gives such certain and invariable warnings that the caravan is safe if it be wary. Herculaneum and Pompeii were built too far up the mountain. And that the builders knew quite as well as the excavators of the splendid ruins know it now. But they chose to take the risk. And to-day their cheerful compatriots gather their heedless vintage and sit beneath their perilous vines still nearer to the deadly crater. St. Petersburg has been three times inundated, and after each most fatal calamity processions filled the streets and masses were said to propitiate the mysterious anger of God. Peter the Great, who built the city, was the successor of Canute. He ordered the Gulf of Cronstadt to retire, and then set down his capital in the swamps of the verge of the Neva. Whenever the river breaks up with the spring floods, the trembling citizens are at sea in a bowl. Only three times has the bowl broken, so much money and skill have been expended upon it. But when a March gale shall drive the tide back upon the river, swollen and terrible with drifting ice, drowned St. Petersburg will be the pendant for burned Chicago. (J. JacksonWray.)
Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish
True repentance
True repentance is a change of mind, accompanied by a sincere renunciation of sin. Its evidences are--
1. A consciousness of the evil of sin.
2. Self-condemnation.
3. A sense of unworthiness.
4. Great grief on account of the sin committed.
5. A truthful confession before God.
6. Prayer for power to resist temptation.
7. A mind open to good impressions.
8. Its emblem among plants is a bruised reed.
9. Its model among men is Christian weeping before the Cross, but afterwards Christian rejoicing in hope.
This is repentance that needeth not to be repented of I desire to die, said Philip Henry, preaching repentance; if out of the pulpit, I desire to die repenting. (Van Doren.)
A faithful warning
A young woman, being requested to join a Christian Society, stated that she had a tract given her when a scholar in a Sunday-school, in which tract an account was given of a young woman who died happy. This girl in her illness called her sister to her, and affectionately said, Sister, if you do not repent of your sins, and turn to Jesus Christ, where God is you can never come. This so impressed the young woman that she never forgot it. She added, Wherever I was, whatever I was doing, this was always on my mind, where God is you can never come. I was very much distressed at-my situation, and could find no peace. She eventually, came to Jesus, became happy in the enjoyments of the pardon of her sins, through faith in the atonement of Christ Jesus, and lived in the expectation of realizing what her faith anticipated.
All sin must be repented of
If seven robbers were to get into a mans house, even though six of them were discovered and made prisoners, and sent off to jail, yet, as long as the seventh was known to be concealed in some secret corner, the master of the house could not well feel himself out of danger. Or, if a bird has fallen into a snare, and is only caught by a single claw; or, if any animal has been caught in a trap, though it should be only by the leg, yet they are both in as much danger as if their whole bodies were entrapped. Thus it is that certain destruction awaits us, unless all sin, even the very least, be repented of. Pharaoh, after having been smitten with many plagues, at last consented to let the people go, provided they left their sheep and cattle behind them. But this would not satisfy Moses. He, acting for God, says, All the flocks and herds must go along with us; not a hoof shall be left. So Satan, like Pharaoh, would keep some sin in us as a pledge of our returning to him again; and even though sin be taken away, he would wish the occasion of sin to remain. For instance, he might say, Leave off gaming; but still there is no occasion to burn the cards and throw away the dice. You must not do your enemy any injury, but there is no occasion for you to love him. But Gods language is of a different sort. He says that the occasion of sin, though it be dear as a right hand, must be cut off; if we retain an eye for Satan to put his hook into, he will be sure to insinuate himself, and the latter end may be worse than the beginning. (F. F. Trench.)
What repentance cannot do
Suppose I should preach the gospel in some gambling-saloon of New York, and suppose a man should come out convicted of his wickedness, and confess it before God, and pray that he might be forgiven. Forgiveness might be granted to him, so far as he individually was concerned. But suppose he should say, O God, not only restore to me the joys of salvation, but give me back the mischief that I have done, that I may roll it out. Why, there was one man that shot himself; what are you going to do for him? A young man came to Indianapolis, when I was pastor there, on his way to settle in the West. He was young, callow, and very self-confident. While there he was robbed, in a gambling-saloon, of fifteen hundred dollars--all that he had. He begged to be allowed to keep enough to take him home to his fathers house, and he was kicked out into the street. It led to his suicide. I know the man that committed the foul deed. He used to walk up and down the street. Oh, how my soul felt thunder when I met him 1 If anything lifts me up to the top of Mount Sinai, it is to see one man wrong another. Now suppose this man should repent? Can he ever call back that suicide? Can he ever carry balm to the hearts of the father and mother and brothers and sisters of his unfortunate victim? Can he ever wipe off the taint and disgrace that he has brought on the escutcheon of that family? No repentance can spread over that. And yet how many men there are that are heaping up such transgressions! (H. W. Beecher.)
Repentance
I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES THAT LED TO THIS IMPORTANT TEACHING ABOUT REPENTANCE.
II. THE NATURE OF REPENTANCE.
1. The relation of repentance to faith. In order of time they spring up together in the soul. In order of nature faith must precede repentance. We cannot turn from sin without Christ, and we cannot come to Christ without faith.
2. Repentance consists of three elements.
(1) Godly sorrow for sin.
1. Not mere sorrow for sin, for there is much sorrow because sin is an evil and brings punishment, yet no godly element in it.
2. It is the sorrow of a man more concerned for his guilt than his misery, whereas worldly sorrow is more concerned for the misery than the guilt, and would plunge into deeper guilt to escape the misery.
3. Illustrations of worldly sorrow (Pharaoh, Ahab, Judas).
4. The true spirit of godly sorrow is that of the prodigal--I have sinned before heaven, and in Thy sight. Also Davids sorrow Psa_51:1-4).
(2) Confession of sin.
1. This is an essential part of repentance. (Often a relief to guilty men to confess their crime.)
2. It must be very thorough and humbling and heart-searching.
3. It is connected with the continuous forgiveness of believers
1Jn_1:7).
(3) Turning from sin to God.
1. The godly sorrow must have a practical result, in the way of proving its genuineness and attesting itself by fruits.
2. Necessity of reparation recognized by civil law (cases of libel). But there are injuries in which no reparation can be made (murder).
3. In cases of Pharaoh, Ahab, Judas, no turning from sin to God, though there may have been sorrow and confession of sin.
4. There must be a turning from all sin--from the love and the practice of that which is sinful.
III. THE NECESSITY OF REPENTANCE.
1. Jesus spoke-the words of the text in a spirit of prophecy. (Forty years after, at siege of Jerusalem, the Jews felt the meaning of the likewise of the text.)
2. Preachers cannot now say that, but they can say that if you do not repent you will perish everlastingly. (T. Croskery, D. D.)
The necessity of repentance
1. That those who meet with more signal strokes than others, are not, therefore, to be accounted greater sinners than others. The Lord spares some as great sinners, as He signally punisheth. I tell you, nay. Reasons of this dispensation of Providence:
1. Because of Gods sovereign power and absolute dominion, which He will have the world to understand--Is it not lawful for Me to do what I will with Mine own? (Mat_20:15.)
2. Because we are now under the mixed dispensation of Providence; not the unmixed, reserved to another world, when all men shall be put into their unalterable state.
3. Because the mercy of God to some is magnified by His severity on others.
4. Because in very signal strokes very signal mercies may be wrapped up.
5. Because this dispensation is in some sort necessary to confirm us in the belief of the judgment of the great day.
USE 1. Then learn that unordinary strokes may befall those that are not unordinary sinners; and therefore be not rash in your judgment concerning the strokes that others meet with.
2. Then adore the mercy of God to you, and wonder at His sparing you, when ye see others smart under the hand of God.
3. That the strokes which any meet with, are pledges of ruin to impenitent sinners. But Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Reasons of this are--
1. Because they show how hateful to God sin is, in whomsoever it is Isa_42:24).
2. Because they show how just God is. He is the Judge of all the earth, and cannot but do right.
3. Because whatever any meet with in the way of sin is really designed for warning to others, as is clear from the text (see 1Co_10:11-12).
4. Because all those strokes which sinners meet with in this life are the spittings of the shower of wrath that abides the impenitent world, after which the full shower may certainly be looked for.
USE 1. Be not unconcerned spectators of all the effects of Gods anger for sin going abroad in the world; for your part and mine is deep in them. There is none of them but says to us, as in the same condemnation, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
2. Consider, O impenitent sinners, how can ye escape, when your ruin is insured by so many pledges thereof from the Lords hand, while ye go on in sin?
3. The strokes that others meet with are loud calls to us to repent. That is the language of all the afflicting providences which we see going on in the world.
To confirm this, consider--
1. God does not strike one for sin with a visible stroke, but with an eye to all.
2. Thereby we may see how dangerous a thing sin is to be harboured; and if we will look inward, we may ever see that there is sin in us also against the God of Israel.
3. How much more do strokes from the hand of the Lord on ourselves call us to repent? (Hos_2:6-7).
USE 1. We may see that none go on impenitently in a sinful course, but over the belly of thousands of calls from Providence to repent, besides all those they have from the Word.
2. Impenitency under the gospel cannot have the least shadow of excuse. The calls of Providence common to the whole world, are sufficient to leave the very heathens without excuse (Rom_1:20); how much more shall the calls of the Word and Providence, too, make us inexcusable if we do not repent? I come now to the principal doctrine of the text.
I. EXPLAIN THE NATURE OF REPENTANCE.
1. What it is in its general nature.
2. How it is wrought in the soul.
3. The subject of true repentance.
4. The parts of repentance.
I come now to the application of the whole. And here I would sound the alarm in the ears of impenitent sinners, to repent, and turn from their sins unto God. O sinners, repent, repent; ye are gone away to your lusts and idols, turn from them; ye have turned your back on God, turn to Him again. In prose curing this call to repentance, I shall--
1. Endeavour to convince you of the need you have to repent.
2. Lay before you a train of motives to repentance.
3. Show you the great hindrances of repentance. And--
4. Give directions in order to your obtaining repentance.
(1) Labour to see sin in its own colours, what an evil thing it is Jer_2:19). What makes us to cleave to sin is false apprehensions we have about it.
To see it in itself would be a means to make us fly from it. For this end consider--
1. The majesty of God offended by sin. Ignorance of God is the mother of impenitency (Act_17:30).
2. The obligations we lie under to serve Him, which by sin we trample upon.
3. The wrath of God that abides impenitent sinners.
4. The good things our unrepented-of sins deprive us of.
5. The many evils which are bred by our sin against the honour of God, our own and our neighhours true interest.
(1) Be much in the thoughts of death. Consider how short and uncertain your time is.
(2) Dwell on the thoughts of a judgment to come, where ye shall be made to give an account of yourselves.
(3) Meditate on the sufferings of Christ.
(4) Pray for repentance, and believingly seek and long for the Lords giving the new heart, according to His promise (Eze_36:26). (T. Boston, D. D.)
Nature and necessity of repentance
I. NATURE.
1. Repentance implies godly sorrow for sin.
2. Repentance involves hatred of sin.
3. Repentance includes reformation. This, as it respects both the affections of the heart and the conduct of the life, is the crowning excellence of this evangelical virtue.
II. NECESSITY. Except … perish.
1. This is the decision of God respecting all men.
2. The facts point this way. Sinners have perished--sinners distinguished by no peculiarity of guilt--sinners, therefore, in whose case there was no more reason to anticipate the righteous judgments of heaven than there is to anticipate it in other cases. What God has done in these instances, there is every reason to believe He will do in others like them. This is the argument of our Lord, and it comes to us in unabated force.
3. The moral government of God requires it.
4. Also the moral character of God. Sin is abhorrent to His nature. As a holy God, He must regard it with absolute abhorrence and ceaseless displeasure. To suppose otherwise is to suppose God either to approve or to be indifferent to what is directly opposite to Himself, and worthy of His eternal rebuke. It is to suppose God to hate, or wholly disregard His own perfections and glory. But can a spotless God hate Himself? Can His own infinite perfection become an object of indifference to Himself? Can He fail to abhor sin with a measure of indignation proportioned to the purity and infinitude of His nature? (N. W. Taylor, D. D.)
Of repentance
We should labour to make good use to ourselves of Gods judgments on others. Why? God expects it; this is the way to prevent the execution on ourselves. How?
1. Learning righteousness (Isa_26:9); faith, seeing Him execute threatenings; fear, beholding His severity; obedience, sure want of that is the cause; love, whilst we escape.
2. Forsaking sin: Sin no more (Joh_5:14). All sin, because every sin is pregnant with judgment; therefore it summons to search and try, etc., especially those sins which brought wrath on others. Observe providences; use means to discover what is the Achan, &c. We have great occasion to practise this. Wrath is kindled and burns, &c.; the cup of indignation goes round; the sword has had a commission, &c.; the scars and smarting impressions continue in bodies, estates, liberties. Let us learn to believe, to tremble, to love. Let us forsake sin, our own; the sins that have unsheathed the sword, mixed this bitter cup. Make not this warning ineffectual with the Jews supposition. Rather hear, believe, apply what Christ says, Except I repent, &c.
I. FROM THE ADMONISHER, CHRIST, IN THAT HE TEACHES REPENTANCE. Repentance is an evangelical duty; a gospel, a new-covenant duty. This should not be questioned by those who either believe what the gospel delivers, or understand what it is to be evangelical; but since it is denied, let us prove it. And first from this ground.
1. Christ taught repentance. But He taught nothing but what was evangelical.
2. It is excluded by the covenant of works. No room for repentance there.
3. It is required in the gospel (Act_17:30).
4. It was preached by the apostles (Luk_24:47; Act_2:28; Act_3:19).
5. It was the end of Christs coming (Mat_9:13) to call sinners.
6. It was purchased by Christs death (Act_5:31).
7. It has evangelical promises.
8. It is urged upon evangelical grounds (Mat_3:2; Mar_1:14-15).
9. It is the condition of the prime evangelical mercy. God offers, gives remission of sins, upon condition of repentance. What Christ commands us, Himself does practise (Luk_17:3). If he repent, forgive him. So Act_3:19, and Act_2:38.
10. It is confirmed by the seal of the covenant of grace. Baptism is the seal of repentance.
11. It is a fundamental of Christianity (Heb_6:1).
12. It is the way to life (Act_11:18).
1. It reproves those who reject this duty as legal. Certainly those who find not this in the gospel, have found another gospel besides that which Christ and His disciples preached.
2. Exhort. To practise this duty evangelically, that is most congruous. Directions:
(1) Undertake it for evangelical ends. The end gives nature and name to the action. If your aims be legal, mercenary, the act will be so. Go not about it only to escape hell, avoid wrath, satisfy justice, remove judgments, pacify conscience. Ahab and Pharaoh can repent thus, those who are strangers to the covenant of grace. How then? Endeavour that you may give God honour, that ye may please Him, that you may comply with His will, that you may never more return to folly. Confess, to give honour, as Jos_7:19, get hearts broken, that you may offer sacrifice well pleasing.
(2) Let evangelical motives lead you to the practice of it. Act as drawn by the cords of love. The goodness of God should lead you to it (Rom_2:1-29.).
(3) In an evangelical manner, freely, cheerfully, with joy and delight; not as constrained, but willingly.
(4) Repent that ye can repent no more. This is an evangelical temper, to be sensible of the defects and failings of spiritual duties.
(5) Think not your repentance is the cause of any blessing: it is neither the meritorious nor impulsive cause; it neither deserves any mercy, nor moves the Lord to bestow any.
(6) Think not that your repentance can satisfy God, or make amends for the wrongs sin has done Him.
(7) Ye must depend upon Christ for strength, ability to repent; all evangelical works are done in His strength.
(8) Ye must expect the acceptance of your repentance from Christ.
(9) Think not your repentance obliges God to the performance of any promise, as though He were thereby bound, and could not justly refuse to bestow what He has promised to the penitent; for He is not obliged to fulfil it till the condition be perfectly performed. Imperfect repentance is not the condition; God requires nothing imperfect. If He accomplishes His promise upon our weak detective endeavours, it is not because He is by them engaged, but from some other engaging consideration. Now our repentance is defective, both in quantity and quality, measure and manner, neither so great nor so good as is required. Why, then, does God perform? How is He obliged? Why, it is Christ that has obliged Him; He makes good the condition. When we cannot bring so much as is required, He makes up the sum; He adds grains to that which wants weight. He has satisfied for our defects, and they are for His sake pardoned, and therefore are accepted, as though they were not defective.
(10) Expect a reward, not from justice, but mercy.
II. Thus much for the admonisher, I tell you. PROCEED WE TO THE ADMONITION. And in it--
1. The correction, nay. Hereby He corrects two mistakes of the Jews:
(1) Concerning their innocency. They thought themselves innocent, compared with the Galileans, not so great sinners (verse 2).
(2) Concerning their impunity, grounded on the former. Because not so great sinners, they should not be so great sufferers, nor perish as they in the text.
From the first. 1.
(1) Impenitent sinners are apt to think themselves not so great sinners as others; to justify themselves, as Pharisees in reference to others; like crows, fly over flowers and fruit, to pitch upon carrion; say as Isa_65:5, Stand by thyself, &c.
(a) Because never illuminated to see the number, nature, aggravations of their own sins, how many, how sinful; examine not their hearts and lives; judge of sins according to outward appearance, not secret heinousness.
(b) Self-love. They cover, extenuate, excuse their own; multiply, magnify others.
(c) Ignorance of their natural sinfulness. In which respect they are equally sinful as others. Seed-plots of sin; have a root of bitterness, an evil treasure of heart; a disposition to the most abominable sins that ever were committed, such as they never thought of, nor will ever believe they should yield to (2Ki_8:11-12); want nothing but temptation, a fit occasion.
Take heed of this. It is a sign of impenitency. Paul counts himself the chief of sinners: If you judge yourselves, etc. (1Co_11:31).
(2) From their conceit of impunity. Sinners are apt to flatter themselves with the hopes they shall escape judgments. If they can believe they are not so great sinners, they are apt to conclude they shall not perish: Put far from them the evil day (Amo_6:3), threatened (verse 7); cry Peace, &c. Satan has blinded them. Beware of this. It has been the ruin of millions. Those perish soonest who think they shall longest escape (Amo_6:7; 1Th_5:3; Be not deceived, God is not mocked, &c. Believe the Lord threatening rather than Satan promising.
2. The direction--Repent. Repentance has such a relation to, such a connection with, life and salvation, as this cannot be expected without that; for though it be neither merit nor motive, yet consider it as it is, an antecedent and sign, qualification, condition, or means of life and salvation, and the truth will appear.
(1) An antecedent. So there must be no salvation till first there be repentance. Sown in tears before reap in joy.
(2) Sign. A symptom of one being an heir to salvation.
(3) Qualification. To fit for life. He that is in love with sin is not fit for heaven. No unclean thing enters there. Neither will God Himself endure him to be there.
(4) Condition. For that is, without it, never see God: Except ye, &c. This is the condition, without which ye shall not escape.
(5) Means and way to life: Christs highway. Repentance to life (Act_11:18). Peter directs them to this (Act_2:38). What is it to repent? Why must they perish that do not?
To repent, is to turn; to return from former evil ways (Eze_14:6).
1. Sorrow for sin. To repent, is to mourn for sin (2Co_7:9-10).
(1) Hearty, such as greatly affects the heart. Not that of the tongue, which is usual, I am sorry, &c.; nor that of the eyes neither, if tears spring not from a broken heart; not verbal, slight, outward, superficial, but great, bitter, cordial humbling; such sorrow as will afflict the soul.
(2) Godly sorrow (2Co_7:9-10), sorrow for sin, as it is against God; not as it is against yourselves, prejudicial to you; as it brings judgments, exposes to wrath, makes you obnoxious to justice, brings within the compass of curses, and in danger of hell.
2. Hatred of sin. This is an act of repentance, and that indeed which is principally essential to it. This hatred is
(1) well-grounded;
(2) universal;
(3) irreconcileable.
3. Forsaking sin. Terror to impenitent sinners. Hear the doom in the text: Except ye repent, etc. Those that do not, will not repent, must perish, shall perish. There is no way without repentance to avoid perishing, and these will not repent, mourn, hate, forsake sin.
What will become of them? Christ, the righteous Judge, gives sentence, they shall perish, certainly, universally, eternally.
1. Certainly. For Christ has said it. He speaks peremptorily; not they may, but they shall.
2. Universally. All, and every one, without exception, whatever he be, have, do, or can do, Except, &c. Christ speaks to the Jews, and to all without exception--all perish. If any people in the world had any ground to plead exemption, sure it was the Jews; no people ever in greater favour, none ever had greater privileges. Whatever you can plead why this should not concern you, they had as much ground to plead.
3. Eternally. Soul and body, here and hereafter, now and for ever, must perish without redemption: For who shall redeem from it but Christ? and Christ cannot do it except He will act against His own Word, except He will deny Himself. The sentence is passed, and none in heaven will, none in earth can, recall it. Exhortation: To the practice of this duty. Christ urges it, and under such a penalty. These should be sufficient enforcements. But there are many more considerations to stir up to this duty.
I shall reduce them to three heads: some concerning--
1. Sin to be repented of.
2. Christ that urges repentance.
3. Repentance itself, the duty urged.
1. Concerning sin.
(1) No creature ever got, nor can get, any advantage by sin.
(2) The least sin is infinitely evil. When I say infinite, I say there is more evil in it than the tongue of men or angels can express, than their largest apprehensions can conceive. When I say infinite evil, I understand it is a greater evil than the greatest in the world besides it.
(3) The least sin deserves infinite punishment, i.e., greater than any can endure, express, or imagine.
(4) The least sin cannot be expiated without infinite satisfaction.
(5) It is the cause of all the evils that we count miseries in the world. Whatsoever is fearful, or grievous, or hateful, owes its birth to sin. Were it not for sin, either no evil would be in the world, or that which is now evil would be good.
(6) It is the souls greatest misery. Those evils which sin has brought into the world are lamentable, but the miseries wherein it has involved the soul are much more grievous.
(7) It is Gods greatest adversary; it has done much against the world, more against mans soul; aye, but that which it does against God is most considerable, as that which should move us to hate, bewail, abandon it, above all considerations. It has filled the world with fearful evils, the soul with woeful miseries; but the injuries it does to God are most horrible.
(8) Consider the multitude of your sins. If any one sin be so infinitely evil in itself and in its effects, oh how evil is he, what need to repent, who is guilty of a multitude of sins
2. Considerations from Christ, who enjoins repentance. If our sins were occasion of sorrow to Him, great reason have we to mourn for them. But so it is; our sins made Him a man of sorrows. The cup which He gives to us, He drank Himself; He drank out the dregs and bitterness, the wormwood and gall, wherewith this sorrow was mixed. That which He left to us is pleasant. The cup which Christ gives us, shall we not drink it? Nay, the cup which Christ drank, shall we refuse to taste? Our sins made Him weep and sigh, and cry out in the anguish of His spirit; and shall we make a sport of sin?
3. Considerations from repentance, the duty enjoined. That is the time when all happiness begins, when misery ends, the period of evils; the time from whence ye must date all mercies. Till then, never expect to receive the least mercy, or have the least judgment, evil, removed without repentance. (D. Clarkson, B. D.)
Take heed to thyself
There is a peculiar point and pregnancy of import in these words, which may be wholly overlooked in making them a simple basis for the general affirmation that all sinners must repent or perish. This, true and awful as it is, is rather presupposed than positively stated. To confine ourselves to this, as the whole meaning, is to lose sight of two emphatic words--ye and likewise. Assuming, as a truth already known, that all men must repent or perish, the text affirms that they whom it addresses must repent or perish likewise, that is, like those particularly mentioned in the context. Another feature of the passage which is apt to be neglected is, that it not only teaches the necessity of repentance to salvation, but presents a specific motive for its exercise, or rather teaches us to seek occasions of repentance in a quarter where most of us are naturally least disposed to seek them; nay, where most of us are naturally and habitually prone to find excuses for indulging sentiments as far removed from those of penitence as possible; uncharitable rigour and censorious pride.
1. That suffering is a penal consequence of sin seems to be a dictate of reason and conscience no less than of revelation. At all events, it is a doctrine of religion which, above most others, seems to command the prompt assent of the human understanding. They who acknowledge the existence of a God at all, have probably no impressions of His power or His justice stronger than those which are associated with His providential strokes, and more especially with death as the universal penalty. War, pestilence, and famine are regarded by the common sense of men not merely as misfortunes, but as punishments, and nothing more effectually rouses in the multitude the recollection of their sins than the report or the approach of those providential scourges. In all this the popular judgment is according to the truth.
2. What is thus true in the aggregate must needs be true in detail. If all the suffering in the world proceeds from sin, then every Divine judgment in particular must flow from the same source. Wherever we see suffering we see a proof not only that there is sin somewhere to account for and to justify that suffering, but that the individual sufferer is a sinner.
3. And yet it cannot be denied that there is something in this doctrine thus presented, against which even the better feelings of our nature are disposed to revolt. This is especially the case when we contemplate instances of aggravated suffering endured by those who are comparatively innocent, and still more when the sufferings of such are immediately occasioned by the wickedness of others. Can it be that the dying agonies of one who falls a victim to the murderous revenge or the reckless cupidity of others are to be regarded as the punishment of sin? Against this representation all our human sympathies and charities appear to cry aloud, and so intense is the reaction in some minds that they will not even listen to the explanation.
4. This feeling of repugnance, though it springs from a native sense of justice, is mistaken in its application because founded upon two misapprehensions. In the first place it assumes that the sufferings, in the case supposed, are said to be the penal fruits of sin committed against man, and more especially against the author of the sufferings endured. Hence we are all accustomed to enhance the guilt of murder, in some cases, by contrasting the virtues of the victim with the crimes of the destroyer. And in such a state of mind not one of us, perhaps, would be prepared to hear with patience that the murder was a righteous recompense of sin. But why? Because at such a moment we can look no further than the proximate immediate agent, and to think of him as having any claim or right of punishment is certainly preposterous. But when the excitement is allayed, and we have lost sight of the worthless and justly abhorred instrument, we may perhaps be able to perceive that, in the presence of an infinitely holy God, the most innocent victim of mans cruelty is, in himself, deserving only of displeasure; or, at least, that no difficulties hang about that supposition, except such as belong to the whole subject of sin and punishment.
5. If any does remain, it probably has reference to the seeming disproportion of the punishment to that of others, or to any particular offence with which the sufferer seems chargeable in comparison with others. But there is no authority for holding that every providential stroke is a specific punishment of some specific sin, or that the measure of mens sufferings here is in exact proportion to their guilt, so that they upon whom extraordinary judgment seem to fall are thereby proved to be extraordinary sinners.
6. The effect of this last error is the more pernicious, and the cure of it more difficult, because the doctrine which it falsely imputes to Christianity is really maintained by many Christians as well as by many who make no such professions. It often unexpectedly betrays itself in a censorious attempt to trace the sufferings of others back to certain causes, often more offensive in the sight of human censors and inquisitors than in that of a heart-searching God. But even where the sin charged is indeed a sin, its existence is hastily inferred from the supposed judgment, without any other evidence whatever. This uncharitable tendency can be cured only by the correction of the error which produces it.
7. But in attempting this correction there is need of extreme caution, as in all other cases where an error has arisen, not from sheer invention or denial of the truth, but from exaggeration, or perversion, or abuse of truth itself. Let us not, e.g., attempt to vindicate the ways of God to man by denying the doctrine of a particular providence. No distinction can be drawn between the great and small as objects of Gods notice and His care, without infringing on the absolute perfection of His nature by restricting His omniscience.
8. Nor must we deny any penal or judicial connection between particular providential strokes and the sins of the individual sufferer. To deny that the bloated countenance, the trembling limbs, the decaying mind, the wasted fortune, and the blasted fame of the drunkard or the libertine, are penally consequences of sin, of his own sin, of his own besetting, reigning, darling sin, would be ridiculous, and all men would regard it in that light. And the same thing is true of some extraordinary providences. When a bold blasphemer, in the act of imprecating vengeance on his own head, falls down dead before us, it would argue an extreme of philosophical caution or of sceptical reserve to hesitate to say, as the magicians said to Pharaoh when they found them selves confronted with effects beyond the capacity of any human or created power, This is the finger of God. What, then, it may be asked, is the error, theoretical or practical, which Christ condemns, and against which we are warned to be for ever on our guard?
If it be true, not only that suffering in general is the fruit of sin, and that every individual sufferer is a sinner, but that particular sufferings may be recognized as penal retributions of particular sins, where is the harm in tracing the connection for our edification or for that of others?
1. Even if the general rule be granted the exceptions are so many and notorious as to render it inapplicable as a standard or criterion of character.
2. This is a matter which God has not subjected to our scrutiny.
3. The tendency of such inquisitions, as shown by all experience, is not so much to edify as to subject--not so much to wean from sin as to harden in self-righteousness, by letting the censorship of other mens sins and other mens punishment divert our thoughts entirely from those which we commit, or those which we are to experience. Here, then, is the use which this instructive passage teaches us to make of the calamities of others, whether those which fall on individuals in private life, or those which strike whole classes and communities. The whole secret may be told in one short word--Repent. As the goodness of God to ourselves ought to lead us to repentance, so ought His judgments upon others to produce the same effect. Every such judgment should remind us that our own escape is but a respite--that if they who perish in our sight were guilty, we are guilty too, and that unless we repent we must all likewise perish. The words are full of solemn warning and instruction to us all. They give a tongue and an articulate utterance to every signal providence, to every sudden death, to every open grave, to every darkened house, to every scattered fortune, to every blighted reputation, to every broken heart in society around us. They command us, they entreat us to withdraw our view from the calamities of others as proofs of their iniquity, and to view them rather as memorials of our own, of that common guilt to which these manifold distresses owe their origin, and in which we, alas! are so profoundly and so ruinously implicated. (J. A. Alexander, D. D.)
The naturalness of Gods judgments
Now the principle that every judgment of God is connected, in the way of ordinary cause and effect, with the sin or error therein condemned, destroys at once the notion that plague or famine are judgments upon us for infidelity, or rationalism, or sabbath-breaking, or our private sins, for there is plainly no natural connection between the alleged sin and the alleged punishment. For example, the town which takes due sanitary precautions may refuse to give one penny to missions, but it will not be visited by a virulent outbreak of cholera. The town which takes no sanitary precautions, but gives £10,000 a-year to missions, will, in spite of its Christian generosity, become a victim to the epidemic. The lightning will strike the ship of the good man who chooses to sail without a lightning-conductor, it will spare the ship of the atheist and the blasphemer who provides himself with the protecting rod. There is, then, always a natural connection between the sin and the punishment, and the punishment points out its own cause. It is my intention this morning to show the truth of this principle in other spheres than that of epidemic disease. If we can manifest its universality, we go far to prove its truth. Take as the first illustration the case of the moral law. The commandments have force, therefore, not because they are commanded by a God of power, but because they are either needful for, or natural to, human nature. Nor is the judgment which follows on their violation any more arbitrary than the laws themselves. As they have their root in our nature so they have their punishment in our nature. Violate a moral law and our constitution protests through our conscience. Sorrow awakes, remorse follows, and remorse is felt in itself to be the mark of separation from God. The punishment is not arbitrary, but natural. Moreover, each particular violation of the moral law has its own proper judgment. The man who is dishonest in one branch of his life soon feels dishonesty--not impurity, not anything else but dishonesty--creep through his whole life and enter into all his actions. Impurity has its own punishment, and that is increasing corruption of heart. Take, again, the intellectual part of man. The necessities for intellectual progress are attention, perseverance, practice. Refuse to submit to these laws and you are punished by loss of memory or inactivity of memory, by failure in your work or by inability to think and act quickly at the proper moment. Again, take what may be called national laws. These have been, as it were, codified by the Jewish prophets. They were men whose holiness brought them near to God and gave them insight into the diseases of nations. They saw clearly the natural result of these diseases and they proclaimed it to the world. They looked on Samaria, and saw there a corrupt aristocracy, failing patriotism, oppress/on of the poor, falsification of justice, and they said, God will judge this city, and it shall be overthrown by Assyria. Well, was that an arbitrary judgment? It was of God; but given a powerful neighbour, and a divided people in which the real fighting and working class has been crushed, enslaved, and unjustly treated--and an enervated, lazy, pleasure-consumed upper class, and what is the natural result? Why, that very thing which the prophets called Gods judgment. Gods judgment was the natural result of the violation of the first of national laws--even-handed justice to all parties in the State. The same principle is true in a thousand instances in-history; the national judgments of war, revolution, pestilence, famine, are the direct results of the violation by nations of certain plain laws which have become clear by experience. For these judgments come to teach nations what is wrong in them, and the judgments must come again and again while the wrong thing is there. We find them out by punishment, as a child finds out that he must not touch fire by being burnt. The conclusion I draw from this is, that all national judgments of God come about naturally. But there are certain judgments mentioned in the Bible which seem to be supernatural--the destruction of Sodom, of Sennacheribs army, of the Egyptians in the Red Sea, the plagues sent upon the Israelites, and others. These are the difficulty. How shall we explain them? or shall we seek to explain them at all? First, we must remember that the writers had not the knowledge capable of explaining them; that nature to them was an insoluble mystery. They naturally, then, referred these things to a direct action of God, or rather, because they were out of the common, to an interference of God with nature. They were right in referring them to God, but it is possible that, owing to their ignorance of nature, they were wrong in their way of explaining them. Secondly. There is a thought which goes far, if it be true, to explain these things--it is that the course of human history may be so arranged, that, at times, healing or destructive natural occurrences coincide with crises in the history of a nation. For example, we might say that the sins of Sodom had reached their height at the very period when the elastic forces which were swelling beneath the plain of the Dead Sea had reached their last possible expansion. Or that the army of Senncherib lay encamped in the way of the pestilential wind, which would have blown over the spot whether they had been there or not. Thirdly. Whatever difficulty these things present to us in the Bible, the same difficulty occurs in what is profanely called profane history. There is not the slightest doubt, were our English history written by a Hebrew of the time of the kings, that the eclipse and the thunderstorm at Creci, and that the storms which broke the Armada on the rocks of England and Scotland, would have been imputed to a miraculous interference by God with the course of nature. We do not believe these to have been miraculous; but we do believe them, with the Jew, to be of God. But we must also believe that they are contained in the order of the world--not disorderly elements arbitrarily introduced. That is, while believing in God as the Director and Ruler of human affairs, we must also believe in Him as the Director and Ruler of the course of nature. We see in all things this law holding good--that Gods judgments are natural. There is another class of occurrences which have been called judgments of God, but to which the term judgment is inapplicable. There are even now some who say that the sufferers under these blows of nature suffer because they are under the special wrath of God. What does Christ say to that? He bluntly contradicts it! I tell you nay--it is not so. There are not a few who still blindly think that suffering proves Gods anger. Has the Cross taught us nothing better than that, revealed to us no hidden secret? There is no pain, mental or physical, which is not a part of Gods continual self-sacrifice in us, and which, were we united to life and not to death, we should not see as joy. But, say others, God is cruel to permit such loss. Three thousand souls have perished in this hurricane. Is this your God of love? But look at the history of the hurricane. Could not God arrange to have a uniform climate over all the earth? We are spiritually puzzled, and, to arrange our doubts, God must make another world l We know not what we ask. A uniform climate over all the earth means simply the death of all living beings. It is the tropic heat and the polar cold which cause the currents of the ocean and the air and keep them fresh and pure. A stagnant atmosphere, a rotting sea, that is what we ask for. It is well God does not take us at our word, When we wish the hurricane away, we wish away the tropic heats in the West Indies and along the whole equator. What do we do then? We wish away the Gulf Stream and annihilate England. How long would our national greatness last if we had here the climate of Labrador? Because a few perish, is God to throw the whole world into confusion? The few must be sometimes sacrificed to the many. But they are not sacrificed without due warning. In this case God tells us plainly in His book of nature, that He wants to keep His air and His seas fresh and clean for His children to breathe and sail upon. The West Indies is the place where this work is done for the North Atlantic and its borders, and unless the whole constitution of the world be entirely changed, that work must be done by tornadoes. God has made that plain to us; and to all sailing and living about warm currents like the Gulf Stream it is as if God said, Expect my hurricanes; they must come. You will have to face danger and death, and it is My law that you should face it everywhere in spiritual as well as physical life; and to call Me unloving because I impose this on you, is to mistake the true ideal of your humanity. I mean to make you active men, not slothful dreamers. I will not make the world too easy for My children. I want veteran men, not untried soldiers; men of endurance, foresight, strength and skill for My work, and I set before you the battle. You must face manfully those forces which you call destructive, but which are in reality reparative. Brethren, we cannot complain of the destructive forces of nature. We should have been still savages had we not to contend against them. (S. A. Brooke, M. A.)
The case of passing judgment concerning calamities examined: What kind of judgment on such occasions is innocent and just ascertained; and the culpable extremes noted and censured
I. I shall observe WHAT KIND OF REFLECTIONS OR CONCLUSIONS WE MAY JUSTLY RAISE UPON ANY CALAMITIES WHICH BEFALL OTHER MEN.
1. In the first place, we need not be scrupulous of thinking or saying that the persons so visited are visited for their sins. Our blessed Lord finds no fault with the Jews for suggesting or supposing that the Galileans were sinners, and were punished by God for their sins. All mere men are sinners, and all afflictions whatever have a retrospect to sins committed, and are, in strictness of speech, punishments of sin.
2. That all calamities whatever are to be understood as coming from the hand of God. The Jews looked upwards to a higher hand than his, supposing Pilate to be the minister or executioner only of the Divine vengeance; and in this they judged right.
II. To TAKE NOTICE OF THOSE EXTREMES WHICH MANY SO RUN INTO, BUT WHICH WE OUGHT ABOVE ALL THINGS CAREFULLY TO AVOID. There are two noted excesses in this matter: one the text expressly mentions, the other is omitted, or only tacitly pointed to. That which is mentioned, is, the drawing rash and uncharitable conclusions from greater sufferings to greater sins; as if they who have suffered most must of consequence have been the worst of sinners. The other, which is not mentioned, but yet is tacitly condemned, is, the being positive and peremptory as to the particular sin, or kind of sin, that draws down Gods judgments upon any particular person or persons. That which I now intend to treat of, is the pointing out, or specifying the particular sin or sins, for which we suppose Gods judgments to have fallen upon any particular person or persons. The motives for doing this are many and various, as circumstances vary, though all centering in self-flattery, or partial fondness to ourselves. Sometimes it is vanity and ostentation, while we affect to make a show of more than common sagacity in discovering the hidden springs of events, and in interpreting the secrets of Divine providence. Sometimes party prejudices and passions have the greatest hand in it; while we are willing to measure God by ourselves, and to fancy that He takes the same side that we do. If our opposers or adversaries fall into troubles or disasters, how agreeable a thought is it to imagine that it was a judgment upon them for their opposition to us. But the most common and prevailing motive of all for censuring others in this manner on account of their afflictions, is to ward off the apprehension of the like from our own doors, and to speak peace to ourselves. Observe it carefully, and you will scarce find a man charging a judgment of God upon others for any particular sin, and at the same time acknowledging himself guilty in the like kind. No, he will be particularly careful to pitch upon some vice, which he himself, in imagination at least, stands clear of, and is the farthest from. The designs of providence are vast and large; Gods thoughts are very deep, His judgments unsearchable, His ways past finding out.
1. Sometimes the primary reasons, or moving causes of the Divine judgments, lie remote and distant in place or in time; several years, perhaps, or even gererations, backwards. God may visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him. He has at any time full power and right to take away the life which He gives, or any worldly comforts which Himself bestows; and if He sometimes chooses to exercise this right and power on account of things done several years or ages upwards, there can be no injustice in so doing; but it may more fully answer the ends of discipline, and God may show forth His wisdom in it. This I hint, by the way, as to the reason of the thing: the facts are evident from the sacred history. When King Ahab had sinned, God denounced His judgments against him, but suspended the execution, in part, to another time; assigning also the reason for deferring it: Because he humbleth himself before Me, I will not bring the evil in his days, but in his sons days will I bring the evil upon his house: which was accordingly executed, in the days of him son Jehoram, about fifteen years after.
2. It may further be considered that sometimes the best sort of men are permitted to fall a sacrifice to the rage and violence of the worst; and this either because the world is not worthy of them, or because God gives them up, that their malicious persecutors may fill up the measure of their iniquities. In either view the thing is rather a judgment of God upon the wicked who remain, than upon the righteous so taken away.
3. Supposing we were ever so certain that any person is visited for his own sins only, without any respect to the sins of his ancestors, or of any man else; yet great mistakes may be committed in conjectures made about the particular sins. We have a very remarkable instance of it in Shimeis censure upon King David.
III. To POINT OUT THE PRACTICAL USE AND APPLICATION OF THE WHOLE.
1. Let it be observed that religious and righteous men are often grievously afflicted. In which case it is most evident that, though they may and do deserve as great temporal afflictions as can be laid upon them, yet they do not deserve them more, nor so much as those worse men that escape. God, for many wise reasons, may sometimes punish good men in this life, and spare the ungodly. The sins of the former, being of a smaller size, may be purged away by temporal calamities; while the greater transgressions of the latter are reserved for an after-reckoning, a more solemn and dismal account. Good men may retain some blemishes, which want to be washed away in the baptism of afflictions. Or, God may sometimes serve the interest of His Church, and set forth the power of His grace, and the efficacy of the true religion, by the sufferings of good men; which is the case of martyrs or confessors who have been persecuted for righteousness sake.
2. Suppose we certainly knew that any person who is under trouble, or who has remarkably suffered, and died by the hand of God, had been a wicked and ungodly man; yet we cannot justly conclude, that he was at all worse than many who had not so suffered. For in some cases it may be an argument rather in his favour, to prove that he was not so bad as others. First, I observe, that in some cases the afflictions which a bad man suffers may be an argument in his favour, as affording a probable presumption that he is not so bad, but rather better, than those who escape. Now, I say, when God punishes a sinner in such a way as affects not his life, with a view to his amendment (whether it be by extreme poverty or disgrace, or bodily hurts or diseases, or whatever else it be), in these cases it may serve for an argument in his favour, to prove that he is somewhat better than many others that are spared. For God, who sees into the hearts of all men, may know what effect His visitation will have upon him; and may therefore mercifully mark him out for sufferings, as foreseeing of what use they will be towards the bringing him to a sense of his sins and to be a serious repentance: whereas others, who are more hardened in their vices and follies, He may totally reject as past cure; and so may let them go on and prosper for a time, until death comes and brings them a summons to a higher and more dreadful visitation. But here, perhaps, you might ask, Why should such or such sinners be singled out for examples rather than others, and refused the privilege of a longer time to repent in, if they were not greater and more grievous sinners than the rest? To which I answer: First, supposing them to have been all equally guilty (which was indeed the supposition I have proceeded upon), yet it might be necessary to cut off some, and some rather than all; and, in such a case, God might choose to single out such as He saw proper to animadvert upon, while His mercy is free to pass by others. But further, it should be considered that those who are spared, except they repent, are in a worse condition than those who have already suffered; their judgment is respited only, and deferred for a time, to fall the heavier at the last. So that, though they have some favour shown them, in being spared so long, they have the more to account for; and, without repentance, will at length pay dear for their privilege. But, I must add thirdly, that, supposing the offenders not to be equally guilty, yet God may, if He pleases, and very justly too, cut off the best first, and spare the worst, for two very plain reasons: one, because the best may sufficiently deserve it, and God may do as He pleases. The other, because that, if it were His constant method always to take vengeance upon the worst first, many would be thereby encouraged to go on in their sins, as long as they should imagine there were yet any men left alive more wicked than themselves. (D. Waterland, D. D.)
Thorpes repentance
In the days of Whitfield, Thorpe, one of his most violent opponents, and three others, laid a wager who could best imitate and ridicule Whitfields preaching. Each was to open the Bible at random, and preach an extempore sermon from the first verse that presented itself. Thorpes three competitors each went through the game with impious buffoonery. Then, stepping upon the table, Thorpe exclaimed, I shall beat you all. They gave him the Bible, and by Gods inscrutable providence, his eye fell first upon this verse, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. He read the words, but the sword of the Spirit went through his soul in a moment, and he preached as one who scarce knew what he said. The hand of God laid hold upon him, and, intending to mock, he could only fear and tremble. When he descended from the table a profound silence reigned in the company, and not one word was said concerning the wager. Thorpe instantly withdrew; and after a season of the deepest distress, passed into the full light of the gospel, and became a most successful preacher of its grace.
Love in warning
That father who sees his son tottering toward the brink of a precipice, and, as he sees him, cries out sharply, Stop, stop!--does not that father love his son? That tender mother who sees her infant on the point of eating some poisonous berry, and cries out sharply, Stop, stop I put it down!--does not that mother love that child? It is indifference that lets people alone, and allows them to go on every one in his own way. It is love, tender love, that warns and raises the cry of alarm. The cry of Fire! fire! at midnight, may sometimes startle a man out of his sleep, rudely, harshly, unpleasantly. But who would complain if that cry was the means of saving his life? The words, Except ye repent, ye shall all perish, may seem at first sight stern and severe. But they are words of love, and may be the means of delivering precious souls from hell. (Bishop Ryle.)
Terror not necessary to repentance
There are those who will not come into Gods kingdom unless they can come as Dante went into paradise--by going through hell. They wish to walk over the burning marl, and to snuff the sulphurous air. If a man has done wrong, his own thoughts should turn him to reparation; but if they do not, the first intimation from the injured friend should suffice. (H. W. Beecher.)
Repentance
1. Repentance is a difficult work, God must work it. It is not in mans 2Ti_2:25). And He peradventure will give it, no man is certain of it. It is a supernatural grace not only above nature corrupted, but nature created; for man in innocency had no need of it.
2. It is a necessary work. Our Saviour before showed the necessity of it--Except you repent, you shall all perish (verses 3, 5). So Mat_3:10. Turn or burn, there is no remedy.
3. And it is a most excellent grace. A fair daughter of a foul mother. She looks backward, and moves forward; is herself a dark cloud, yet brings a fair sunshine. Is this a riddle to you? I will read it. Sin is the mother, repentance is the daughter, the mother is black and ugly, the daughter fair and lovely: God is the Father of repentance, and He could never endure the mother sin, but hates her society; being born, she slew her mother, for by repentance sin is slain, and in so doing God doth bless her; she no sooner receives breath, but she cries for pardon and forgiveness. Miracles she works. The blind eyes are by her made to see the filthiness of sin; the deaf ear she causeth to hear the word of truth, the dumb lips to cry out for grace, and the heart that was dead, becomes now alive to God, and the devil that ruled in it is now expelled. She looks backward to sins past, and is humbled for them, yet she moves forward to holiness and perfection. In short, repentance is herself cloudy, and made up of sadness, yet everlasting joy and happiness doth attend it. (N. Rogers.)
Or those eighteen
Errors respecting the providence of God
It is probably in part the cause, and partly the effect, of the idea of gloom and sadness that we are far too apt to associate with religion, that we regard God so much as if He were only the sender of evil and not of good, as if He indeed sent the dark cloud that occasionally casts its shadow across our path, but had no concern with the bright and gladsome sunshine that habitually enlivens it. Judge for yourselves. Suppose that some being that knew nothing of God were to become an inmate of one of our dwellings, and were to derive all his knowledge of Him from our conversation, is not the probability that he would first and oftenest hear His name mentioned in connection with some calamity, and that he would form the idea that we regarded Him as some mysterious power who had to do only with sickness, and death, and funerals? Now, it is doubtless well that we should recognize the hand of God in the evils that befal us; and a most blessed thing it is that we can resort to Him in the day of sore distress, when our hearts are ready to sink within us, and we feel that all others than He are miserable comforters; but surely it is not well that we should shut Him out from our thoughts when all goes well with us. We treat God very much as an unkind husband treats his wife, giving her the blame of all that goes amiss in the domestic affairs, forgetting that it is to her prudence and good management that he is indebted for innumerable and often unthought of comforts. Another misconception into which we habitually fall respecting the Divine Providence is to think of it as only having to do with the great and striking events of our lives, and not with the daily and hourly occurrences, which are individually small and scarcely thought of, but which, in the aggregate, make up very nearly the whole of our lives. It may have happened to some of us to be delivered from great and imminent danger, in circumstances in which it was almost impossible to avoid recognizing the finger of God; and it is well if we have felt due gratitude for such a deliverance. But if we viewed the matter aright, ought we Hot constantly to be filled with gratitude to Him for keeping us from falling into danger? Is the continuance of health not as great and as special a blessing as the recovery from sickness? When some harrowing calamity occurs in our neighbourhood, we feel that those who have been in the midst of it, and who have escaped unscathed, have a laud call addressed to them for thankfulness and praise; but does it ever occur to us, that if there be any difference, the call is still louder to us for gratitude, because we have been kept out of the danger itself? Depend upon it, that for one great event in our lives in which we see the hand of Gods providence visibly at work, there are ten thousand small events in which it is not less really, though less manifestly, at work. It was a received maxim amongst a particular sect of the old heathen philosophers, that Jupiter had no leisure to attend to small affairs; but it is our blessed privilege to know regarding Jehovah, that, whilst He counts the number of the stars, and calls them all by their names, He superintends the fall of every raindrop, and directs the course of every sun-ray, and clothes the lilies of the field with glory, and feeds the young ravens when they cry to Him; that, whilst He rules over the destinies of states and empires, He watches over the flight of every sparrow, and numbers the very hairs on the heads of His people. (T. Smith, D. D.)
The bad and good use of Gods signal judgments upon others
I. THE WRONG USE WHICH MEN ARE APT TO MAKE OF THE EXTRAORDINARY AND SIGNAL JUDGMENTS OF GOD UPON OTHERS; AND THAT IS, TO BE UNCHARITABLE AND CENSORIOUS TOWARDS OTHERS, WHICH IS COMMONLY CONSEQUENT UPON A GROSS AND STUPID NEGLECT OF OURSELVES. For men do not usually entertain and cherish this censorious humour for its own sake, but in order to some farther end; they are not so uncharitable merely out of spite and malice to others, but out of self-flattery and a fond affection to themselves. This makes them forward to represent others to all the disadvantage that may be, and to render them as bad as they can, that they themselves may appear less evil in their own eyes, and may have a colour to set off themselves by the comparison. It is the nature of guilt to flee from itself, and to use all possible art to hide and lessen it.
II. MORE PARTICULARLY CONSIDER SOME OF THE RASH CONCLUSIONS WHICH MEN ARE APT TO DRAW FROM THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD UPON OTHERS, WHETHER UPON PUBLIC SOCIETIES AND COMMUNITIES OF MEN, OR UPON PARTICULAR PERSONS.
1. It is rash, where there is no Divine revelation in the case, to be peremptory as to the particular sin or kind of it; so as to say, that for such a sin God sent such a judgment upon a particular person, or upon a company of men, unless the judgment be a natural effect and consequent of such a sin; as, if a drunken man die of a surfeit, or a lewd person of a disease that is the proper effect of such a vice, or if the punishment ordained by law for such a crime overtake the offender; in these and such-like cases, it is neither rash nor uncharitable to say, such a mischief befel a man for such a fault; because such an evil is evidently the effect of such a sin: but in other cases, peremptorily to conclude is great rashness. Thus the heathens of old laid all those fearful judgments of God, which fell upon the Roman empire in the first ages of Christianity, upon the Christians, as if they had been sent by God on purpose to testify His displeasure against that new sect of religion. And thus every party deals with those that are opposite to them, out of a fond persuasion that God is like themselves, and that He cannot but hate those whom they hate, and punish those whom they would punish, if the sway and government of things were permitted to them.
2. It is rash, likewise, for any man, without revelation, to conclude peremptorily, that God must needs in His judgments only have respect to some late and fresh sins, which were newly committed; and that all His arrows are only levelled against those impieties of men which are now upon the stage, and in present view. This is rash and groundless; and men herein take a measure of God by themselves, and because they are mightily affected with the present, and sensible of a fresh provocation, and want to revenge themselves while the heat is upon them, therefore they think God must do so too. But there is nothing occasions more mistakes in the world about God and His providence than to bring Him to our standard, and to measure His thoughts by our thoughts, and the ways and methods of His providence by our ways. Justice in God is a wise, and calm, and steady principle, which, as to the time and circumstances of its exercise, is regulated by His wisdom.
3. It is rash to conclude from little circumstances of judgments, or some fanciful parallel betwixt the sin and the punishment, what sinners, and what persons in particular, God designed to punish by such a calamity. There is scarce anything betrays men more to rash and ungrounded censures and determinations concerning the judgments of God, than a superstitious observation of some little circumstances belonging to them, and a conceit of a seeming parallel between such a sin and such a judgment. In the beginning of the Reformation, when Zuinglius was slain in a battle by the papists, and his body burnt, his heart was found entire in the ashes; from whence (saith the historian) his enemies concluded the obdurateness of his heart; but his friends, the firmness and sincerity of it in the true religion. Both these censures seem to be built upon the same ground of fancy and imagination: but it is a wise and well-grounded observation which Thuanus, the historian (who was himself of the Roman communion), makes upon it--Thus (says he) mens minds being prejudiced beforehand by love or hatred (as it commonly falls out in differences of religion), each party superstitiously interprets the little circumstances of every event in favour of itself. Everything hath two handles; and a good wit and a strong imagination may find something in every judgment, whereby he may, with some appearance of reason, turn the cause of the judgment upon his adversary. Fancy is an endless thing; and if we will go this way to work, then he that hath the best wit is like to be the best interpreter of Gods judgments.
4. It is rash, likewise, to determine anything concerning the end and consequence of Gods judgments.
5. And lastly, It is rashness to determine that those persons, or that part of the community upon which the judgments of God do particularly fall, are greater sinners than the rest who are untouched by it. And this is the very case our Saviour instanceth here in the text. And this brings me to the--
III. Third particular I proposed, which was to show HOW UNREASONABLE IT IS FOR MEN TO DRAW ANY SUCH UNCHARITABLE CONCLUSIONS FROM THE JUDGMENTS OF GOD UPON OTHERS, THAT THEY ARE GREATER SINNERS THAN OTHERS; AND LIKEWISE, HOW FOOLISH IT IS FROM HENCE TO TAKE ANY COMFORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT TO OURSELVES THAT BECAUSE WE ESCAPE THOSE CALAMITIES WHICH HAVE BEFALLEN OTHERS, THEREFORE WE ARE BETTER THAN THEY. Our Saviour vehemently denies that either of these conclusions can justly be made from the remarkable judgments of God which befall others and pass by us--I tell you, Nay: but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
1. It is very unreasonable for men to draw any such uncharitable conclusions concerning others, that because the judgments of God fall upon them, that therefore they are greater sinners than others. For--
(1) What do we know but that God may inflict those evils upon those particular persons for secret ends and reasons, only known to His own infinite wisdom, and fit to be concealed from us? What do we know but He may afflict such a person in a remarkable manner, purely in the use of His sovereignty, without any special respect to the sins of such a person as being greater than the sins of other men; but yet for some great end, very worthy of His wisdom and goodness?
(2) What do we know but that God may send these calamities upon some particular persons in mercy to the generality; and upon some particular places in a nation out of kindness to the whole? It is foolish likewise to take any comfort and encouragement to ourselves that, because we have escaped those sore judgments which have befallen others, therefore we are better than they are; for (as I have shown) these judgments do not necessarily import that those upon whom they fall are greater sinners, and that those who escape them are not so: but suppose it true, that they were greater sinners than we are, for any man from hence to take encouragement to himself to continue in sin, is as if, from the severe punishment which is inflicted upon a traitor, a man should encourage himself in felony; both these sorts of criminals are by the law in danger of death, only the circumstances of death are in one case more severe and terrible than in the other; but he that from hence encourageth himself in felony, reasons very ill, because he argues against his own life. The only prudent inference that can be made, is, not to come within the danger of the law, which punisheth all crimes, though not with equal severity. Thus I have done with the filet thing I propounded to speak to from these words, viz.: The wrong use which too many are apt to make of the signal and extraordinary judgments of God upon others. I proceed to the second thing I observed in the text, viz.: The right use we should make of the judgments of God upon others; and that is, to reflect upon our own sins, and to repent of them, lest a like or greater judgment overtake us. This our Saviour tells us in the next words, But except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. I shall only draw an inference or two from what I have already discoursed upon these two heads.
1. Let us adore the judgments of God, and instead of searching into the particular reasons and ends of them, let us say with St. Paul (Rom_11:33).
2. Let us not be rash in our censures and determinations concerning the judgments of God upon others; let us not wade beyond our depth into the secrets of God: for who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been His counsellor? (Archbishop Tillotson.)
Lessons from accidents
I. THE CONTRADICTION OF A GREAT ERROR IN JUDGMENT. Our blessed Redeemer here teaches us by example to seize upon the events which transpire around us, and to turn them to the improvement of those who hear of them. Some ungenerous Jews informed Him of the barbarous and impious way in which Pilate had taken vengeance upon some Galileans, mingling their blood with their sacrifices; in reply to whom Jesus referred them to another case, not of Galileans, but of dwellers at Jerusalem, not by the hands of man, but by the hand of God; that from these two together He might draw two very important lessons.
1. The accident which befell those eighteen. They were buried alive beneath the ruins of a falling tower. A melancholy end! Death, come at what time and in what form it may, is dreadful, except to those who by grace are raised above the fear of it--a very few. The approach of it is most appalling to human nature. It is not natural to man to die; it is no part of the original constitution of his being; and nothing can reconcile most men to it. And it becomes still more revolting as it is aggravated by circumstances not common.
2. The inference drawn from this accident. The Jews argued that their sufferings were the proof of their sins; that their rare doom was evidence of their rare guilt. This was a common notion among them; and there was some reason in it, for if left to argue out our own principles, without information or experience, we should conclude that God would always reward men according to their deserts, and that, as all suffering is the offspring of sin, the one would be proportioned to the other, so that the amount of one would indicate the amount of the other. This notion was greatly confirmed in the mind of the Jew by the peculiar government which God exercised as the King of Israel, under which His providence did often indicate His pleasure or displeasure, dispensing present blessings and curses according to His promises and threatenings by Moses. And though this was with the nation rather than with individuals, there were on record in their Scriptures particular instances of evident reward both of evil and good which led them to make the general rule. We, in the same way, knowing that the curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked, but He blesseth the habitation of the just, are apt to come to their conclusion, and to regard the death of those who perish miserably as a marked punishment. Therefore we must ponder the third thought in the text--
3. The denial which our Lord gives to this inference. We are Dot expressly told what was the intention of those who related to Jesus the cruel assault of Pilate upon the Galileans at the very altar of God. But we can gather it from the answer of the Great Teacher, which is evidently not the answer that they desired. He plainly showed their supposition to be that which I have assumed, by His direct contradiction of it. Suppose ye, He said (meaning Ye suppose ) that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things? I tell you, Nay --which He confirmed by the parallel question and answer in our text. And if there were any triumph of party spirit in these bearers of evil tidings, Jesus took it away well by thus turning their attention from the despised Galileans to their fellow-citizens--teaching them that if the inference were just in the one case it would be so in the other, yet with Divine impartiality denying it in both. And this forbids all to draw such an inference, even in thought. Which prohibition let me strengthen by a fourth consideration--
4. The reasons which there are against such conclusions. It ought to be enough to know that the principle upon which they are founded is often false, and that it is not in our power to ascertain whether it be true or false in most cases. Yet I would deepen the impression by reminding you that such inferences are apt to harden our feelings and take away our pity--a great evil for us. We cannot but have more sympathy with an innocent sufferer than with one who is guilty; yet should human misery in every form and in any man at once awaken our unfeigned and generous compassion, and keep this alive as long as it lasts.
II. THE SUGGESTION OF A MOST IMPORTANT PERSONAL THOUGHT. Some might suppose from the line of argument which I have now followed that I do not believe in the special providence of God (though I have really asserted it), and ask, Is there evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it? or if not, does He act without reason? Then I reply, that my unwavering faith is, that whether there be good or evil done in this way, it is the Lords doing; but persuaded that every event which transpires is the appointment of His providence, I perceive also that He does not make His appointments known to us to gratify our curiosity or to justify our censures; for He giveth not account of any of His matters, not willing that we should judge His servants in the present state of our ignorance. Moreover, I have followed, not the dictate of my own mind, but the course indicated in the text, the great object of which is to teach us to consider ourselves rather that to censure ethers; for in it Jesus says, Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Awful as was their end, such an end awaits you if you avert it not. In which saying there are three things worthy of notice.
1. The solemnity of this warning. The catastrophe to which our Lord referred was both instant and terrible; and it was the type of that which befel the hapless multitudes dwelling in Jerusalem at the time of its utter destruction. We tremble at the tale, and should have grown sick and faint at the sight, like so many stout men who witnessed it. And does any such doom await any among us? Many, ay, all, but for the grace of God.
2. The reasonableness of this warning. Whether we see it or not, there is reason in everything that God does, and in everything that Christ says. In the last great day, however, the reason shall be evident why some perish and others are preserved; all men shall discern it. It is intimated in our text; they will perish who would not repent, though space was given them for repentance. But where is the necessity for this? One short word is the answer--Sin.
3. The universality of this warning. (J. Williams.)
Sudden and signal calamity improved
I. Now, first, let us inquire what are those FALSE CONCLUSIONS which men are apt to draw from the stirring and startling events of providence.
1. The first feeling in the mind of man, when God sends afflictive dispensations, is to lose sight of Divine providence altogether. This is to drive God out of His own world--to refer the thing altogether to second causes. Oh! it was an accident; it was some chance event; it was some unfortunate circumstance; or it was something which occurred from carelessness, want of watchfulness, want of circumspection, want of foresight and provision; forgetting a Divine hand, losing sight of an almighty Providence.
2. And this is the second remark I have to make--that when the event which occurs is so marked and peculiar that man cannot altogether lose sight of Divine providence or of the Divine hand, he then is disposed to attribute some special guilt or some special misfortune to the sufferers themselves. He tries to find out some particular circumstances in the case which has occurred that may apply peculiarly and expressly to the parties concerned.
II. But now I come, in the second place, to inquire into those SOLID AND IMPORTANT LESSONS which these events are really designed to teach us.
1. Now, of the lessons which this solemn event is intended to teach, the first is this--that we are all standing on the brink of an eternal world. Beloved brethren, it does not require any mighty effort of Jehovah, any vast convulsion of nature, to destroy us or to carry us out of the world. A single spark will do it; a little smouldering spark getting amongst combustible matter, or thrown into any other circumstances in which these accidents by fire occur, is a sufficient agent in the hand of your God to destroy life. A little disorder in any part of the animal frame can do the same. The air you breathe is impregnated with disease. The very ground on which you walk may prove your death. A fall, a stumble--a thousand minute accidents--may kill you.
2. This event reminds us of the punishment due to sin.
3. A loud and most solemn call to repentance. (D. Wilson, M. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 1. Some … which told him of the Galileans,…
1. Some … which told him of the Galileans, etc. The incident referred to is not mentioned elsewhere. Tumults at the temple and bloody interference by the Romans were common. On this occasion, no doubt, many had been slain in the temple courts, and from what follows it is evident that those who brought the word thought it a judgment.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Luk_13:1. There were present.—The phrase is a peculiar one,…
CRITICAL NOTES
Luk_13:1. There were present.—The phrase is a peculiar one, and might be translated, “then there came up” or “arrived,” perhaps to bring tidings of this outrage. Whose blood.—The phrase is highly dramatic: the persons had been slain in the Temple, and their blood had been mingled with that of the sacrifices they were offering. Pilate.—This incident is not recorded in history. But similar events are known to have happened: Josephus tells of murders and massacres in the Temple, and of Pilate’s cruelty in repressing outbreaks. As these persons were Galilæans, we have, perhaps, here an explanation of the enmity between Pilate and Herod (Luk_23:12). Pilate had, we know, about this time put down an insurrection in Jerusalem with great severity (see Luk_23:19).
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Luk_13:2. Suppose ye.—This thought was in their minds, though apparently they did not express it. What they regarded as a judgment upon others Christ advised them to take as a warning to themselves. Great public calamities may be signs of God’s displeasure, but it is a superstitious abuse of the doctrine to hold that the particular sufferers are greater sinners than other men.
Luk_13:3. Ye shall all likewise perish.—It is not for those who, by their sins, are liable to like judgments of God to pass sentence on others and to infer their exceptional guilt. The words are doubtless prophetic of the manner in which myriads perished in the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans.
Luk_13:4. Those eighteen.—An incident well known at the time, but of which we have no further information than is here given. Tower in Siloam is evidently a tower on the city walls near the Pool of Siloam, at the south-east corner. “It is an ingenious, but of course uncertain, conjecture of Ewald that the death of these workmen was connected with the notion of retribution, because they were engaged in building part of the aqueduct to the Pool of Siloam, for the construction of which Pilate had seized some of the sacred Corban-money (Jos. B.J, II., Luk_9:4)” (Farrar). It is noticeable that these two incidents are of a different character: the first was death inflicted by the cruelty of man; the second, death by accident. Sinners.—Lit. “debtors,” a different word from that in Luk_13:2.
Luk_13:5. Likewise.—Prophetic also of deaths by falling buildings in the siege and capture of Jerusalem by the Romans.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Luk_13:1-5
Accidents not Judgments.—Whenever any great public calamity happens, there are never wanting persons who are ready to point out the special sin which has provoked it; and it is noticeable that they are, as a rule, more indignant at those who suffer wrong than at those who do wrong. They are eager to utter their harsh censures, while other men sit silent with dismay; they interpret the Divine Providence according to their private prejudices and theories, and, therefore, often contradict each other; and they carefully exclude themselves from the operation of the vengeance—“Whatever happens to them is a trial, while whatever happens to their neighbour is a judgment.”
I. The false inference.—To affirm that, by an invariable and most merciful law, sin entails punishment—national sins national punishment, personal sins personal punishments—is the duty of every Christian teacher; but to fix the times and assort punishments to sins, to affect to stand midway between heaven and earth and interpret the mysteries of Providence, is simply stark presumption in any uninspired man. It is not given to the sons of men to comprehend the goings of the Inhabitant of Eternity. The sweep of eternity is large, and gives scope and verge for the play of retribution beyond the reach of mortal eye. To play the interpreter, and say, “This punishment is a judgment on that sin,” is to play the fool. The Holy Scriptures affirm the mystery and delay of retribution; that it is not measured in mortal scales; that the sweep and fall of its scourge are not traceable by mortal eyes. They teach us that those “whose feet are swift to shed blood” often outrun the pursuing vengeance for a time, and for a long time—nay, beyond all bounds of time. They teach that many offences escape whipping here, though, sooner or later, the impartial lash falls on all.
II. The true lesson to be drawn from calamities.—The gospel teaches us a more excellent way of interpreting the facts of life than that of these presumptuous discoverers of judgments. Instead of dwelling on the mysterious fate of our neighbours, it bids us come quite home, and repent, lest we ourselves should likewise perish. It teaches us in effect that no evil is so evil as the spurious goodness which, separating us from our fellows, cries to its neighbours, as from a superior platform, “Stand down there, for I am holier than thou.” It teaches us that the accidents by which we suffer, so far from being personal judgments on personal sins, are parts of that great mystery of evil which is now suffered to task our thoughts and try our faith, in order that, by-and-by, it may lead in a complete beatitude, a profounder rest, an eternal good and joy. The only safe moral we can draw from the judgments of God, or what seem to us His judgments, is the warning, “Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.” Let us take the warning, and not judge one another any more. We are too apt, when we see any forlorn and solitary brother sitting, like Job, among the potsherds, to sit down beside him, like Job’s comforters, and hand him the very sharpest and roughest of the sherds that he may scrape himself withal. We are too apt, when any calamity befalls our neighbours, to assume that they must be sinners above all other men, and to speculate—sometimes in their hearing—on the crimson and scarlet dyes of their guilt. We need, therefore, to remember that accidents are not judgments, that accidents are not even accidents, since they are all ordered of God, and form part of that gracious discipline by which He lifts us through the graduated and rising circles of His service. They are sent for our sakes, who only stand and witness them, as well as for the sake of those who suffer them; not that we may judge others, but that we may examine ourselves.—Cox.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON Luk_13:1-9
Luk_13:1-9. Three Motives to Repentance.—We need to remember the spiritual tension, the awful feeling of urgency, if we would do justice to our Lord’s threefold summons to repentance.
I. The story of the Galilæans was probably carried to Jesus as a person who made Messianic claims of some sort, and who might be expected to show a practical interest in the honour of the country. Jesus startles His informants by the abrupt diversion of interest. He saw in the death of these Galilæans, with all its atrocity of circumstance, a picture and prophecy of the doom, which, within a single generation, should overtake the whole of the Jewish people. The moral motive to repentance is plain here. A tragic ending, a life cut short, is not to be a mere nine day’s wonder. It is a voice from heaven, an emphatic voice, to stagger and shock the careless, and to make them think seriously of God.
II. The next case is different. It was an accident. Has an accident a “moral”? If not, why did our Lord utilise this pure “accident” in a moral interest? In the lips of an unfeeling man such language would be unpardonably offensive. It is the use of it by such men that has brought it to discredit. But Christ’s interest in repentance was an absorbing passion. Such accidents ought, if we take Christ’s example here as a law, to help in the conversion of all who are awed and startled by them. Such emotions of pity, awe, sympathy, are not to be wasted. To see men moved, moved deeply, and yet not permanently, not to the point of changing their life to the bottom, and putting it right with God—this was what straitened Christ’s spirit, and moved Him to speak with such startling vehemence.
III. The insertion of the parable of the fig-tree at this point, even though it were spoken on another occasion, rounds off the lesson on repentance, it presents the same appeal, with the same importunity, on what seems to be at first totally different ground. The urgency of massacres and accidents, which do not happen every day, or at every door, can easily be evaded by most men. “These things are not likely to happen to us. It is absurd to make the bare supposition of them a motive in life.” Christ’s answer to this sceptical mood is the parable of the fig-tree. He seems to side with the mood, but does not allow it to evade His earnestness. Massacre and accident are extraordinary resources of which God avails Himself; but His goodness also—which is so unbroken in your life—is also designed to lead you to repentance. God tries every way, because men seek to evade Him by every way. He tries exceptional severity, because men take His goodness for granted; He tries uniform, ever-renewed, patient goodness, because He is good, and severity is His strange work. But it would be a fatal error to presume on His goodness. The parable ends with the same inexorable refrain as the verses about the Galilæans and the fall of the tower. Not to repent is perdition—if neither severity nor goodness startle men, they are lost. These stern, passionate utterances are the expression of the intense love of Christ. No one has ever loved like Jesus Christ, so no one has ever spoken with such awful severity and urgency. No one has been so pained with soul-travail for the conversion of men.—Denney.
Luk_13:1-5. The Lesson of Evil Tidings.
I. How men use evil tidings.—Jesus was from Galilee. Men are always too ready to gossip about the misfortunes of others. Christ had just been speaking about God’s judgments on men who knew His will and did it not. The bystanders at once named the destruction of the Galilæans by Pilate. Why? Because they thought the sudden death of these men was a mark of God’s displeasure at some grievous sin.
II. How Christ would have them used.—How quickly Christ saw the thoughts which had led the speakers to utter their evil tidings! He saw in them a fault which we are all too apt to fall into—the fault of always forming unkind judgments about people in misfortune; of always thinking, and even sometimes saying, the worst we can of people. Christ rebukes them for their want of charity, and cautions them for the future. God’s judgments will fall upon all unrepentant sinners.—W. Taylor.
Rash Judgments.—We are taught here—
1. To beware of rashly judging others.
2. Not to be too hasty in interpreting afflictive dispensations of Providence against ourselves.
3. To be thankful for our own preservation.
4. That it is our duty to mark and improve calamities, and especially violent and sudden deaths.
5. The necessity of genuine repentance.—Foote.
Sin and Punishment.
I. Punishment does follow upon sin.
II. Yet God spares more than He signally punishes.
III. Therefore no one can conclude from such instances that those who are punished are worse than their neighbours.
IV. The best use we can make of remarkable examples of this kind is to examine ourselves and to repent of our sins.
Luk_13:1. “Blood … mingled with their sacrifices.—The suggestion is: God must have been specially angry with these Galilæans, who were cut off by a heathen, in God’s house, at His altar, and when engaged in the act of worshipping God. The argument is similar to that of Job’s friends (Job_4:7; Job_8:20; Job_22:5).
“Vers. 2–9. Punishment and Long-Suffering.—Christ’s answer consists of two parts.—
I. A plain and literal threatening of general destruction to all who do not repent.
II. A new challenge to the repentance which alone can save, in a parable which exhibits long-suffering as an argument to repentance, and which passes from the people as a whole to each individual.
Luk_13:2-3. “Sinners above all the Galilæans.”—Our Saviour does not say that the calamity which had overtaken these Galilæans was not a punishment for sin. He contests not about that, but rather seems to agree to them so far, and draws that warning out of it. He only corrects the misconceit it seems they were in, in thrusting it too far off from themselves, and throwing it too heavily upon them that sacrificed.—Leighton.
Luk_13:3. “Ye shall all likewise perish.”—Jesus, with prophetic insight, immediately discerns the significance of this fact. In this carnage, wrought by the sword of Pilate, He sees the prelude of that which the Roman army would accomplish soon in every part of the Holy Land, and especially in the Temple—the last refuge of the nation. In fact, forty years later, all that remained of the Galilæan people was gathered in the Temple, and suffered, under the Roman sword, the penalty incurred by their present impenitence.—Godet.
Signal Chastisements—
1. Signal chastisements inflicted upon sinners by God warn us of His righteous anger against sin, and should lead us to examine ourselves and consider what we deserve.
2. His kindness and forbearance in sparing others who are equally guilty should be regarded by us as an invitation to repentance.
“Repent.”—Repentance implies.—
1. A change of mind.
2. Conviction of sin.
3. Grief on account of sin.
4. Hatred of sin.
5. Actual reformation.
6. Faith in the Redeemer.
Our Inability to Trace the Connection between Suffering and Sin.—Christ affirms, and all Scripture affirms, that the sum total of the calamity which oppresses the human race is the consequence of the sum total of its sin; nor does He deny the relation in which a man’s actual sins may stand to his sufferings. What He does deny is the power of other men to trace the connection, and thus their right, in any particular case, to assert it.—Trench.
“Likewise.”—The correspondence between what had happened to these Galilæans and what was to happen to the Jewish people is very striking.
1. In both cases the punishment was inflicted by the heathen.
2. The time was that of the Passover, when sacrifices were being offered.
3. They were slain with the sword.
Luk_13:4-5. “Upon whom the tower fell.”—Our Lord introduces this incident as showing that whether the hand of man or (so called) accidents, lead to inflictions of this kind, it is in fact but one Hand that doeth it all (cf. Amo_3:6). There is also a transference from the Galilæans—a despised people—to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, on whom the fulness of God’s wrath was to be poured out in case of impenitence.—Alford.
Luk_13:5. True and False Ways of Regarding Calamities.
I. Light-minded persons are inclined to deny the intimate connection between natural and moral evil.
II. Narrow-minded persons are disposed to interpret all such calamities as judgments upon exceptional guilt.
III. The true way to regard them is as a call to repentance.
“Likewise perish.”—In like manner with the former instance, this prophetic word of Jesus was literally fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem; houses and public buildings were burned and overthrown, and multitudes perished in the ruins.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain Luk 13:1-5. “And there were certain ones at that…
DOOM OF THE IMPENITENT
Luk 13:1-5. “And there were certain ones at that time announcing to Him concerning the Galileans, whose blood Pilate mingled with their sacrifices. And responding, He said to them, Do you think that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered these things? I say unto you, No; but unless you repent, you shall all perish in a similar manner.” This incident had occurred sometime during Pilate’s proconsulship, when the Galileans were at Jerusalem offering their sacrifices, and a riot breaking out, the Roman guards, who were always convenient in the Tower Antonia near the temple, rushed forth and slew them on the spot, so that their blood actually mixed with the blood of their sacrifices. They ask Him to explain this awful tragedy. He simply turns the matter over to them, using it by way of admonition, as He saw, in the clear light of His infallible Divinity, the rivers of blood accumulating and ready to overflow all that country in the desolating Roman wars, which, within forty-one years of that date, blotted out the Jewish nation. He saw that those very people were going to perish by the Roman arms, just as those Galileans of whom they spoke to Him. If they had repented, they would have escaped that awful slaughter, as all of the Christians, pursuant to His warning, did leave the country in time to save their lives, going away to Pella, beyond the Jordan. Hence repentance unto life was the only escape of those people from the bloody deluges which Jesus then saw accumulating, as well as from the retributions of eternity. “Or do you think that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them were sinners above all the people who were dwelling in Jerusalem? I say unto you, No; but unless you may repent, you shall all perish in a similar manner.” During the siege at Jerusalem that tower at Siloam fell on eighteen, and crushed them. As His audience were Galileans, it is hardly probable that these unfortunate eighteen were also Galileans who had gone to the siege. You see this case is parallel with the above, and consequently explained in the same way. Some wonder that Josephus gives no account of these tragedies, but that is not astonishing, as instances of this kind were so common, and the Jewish wars so many, he passed by them as insufficient for notice.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Luk 13:1-3
Luk 13:1-3
The Judgments of God.
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I. Our Lord does not say, Those Galileans were not sinners at all. Their sins had nothing to do with their death. Those on whom the tower fell were innocent men. He rather implies the very opposite. We know nothing of the circumstances of either calamity; but this we know—that our Lord warned the rest of the Jews that unless they repented, that is, changed their minds, and therefore their conduct, they would all perish in the same way. And we know that that warning was fulfilled within forty years, so hideously and so awfully that the destruction of Jerusalem remains as one of the most terrible cases of wholesale ruin and horror recorded in history, and as, I believe, a key to many a calamity before and since.
II. But we may learn another lesson from the text. These Galileans, it seems, were no worse than the other Galileans; yet they were singled out as examples, as warnings, to the rest. Pestilences, conflagrations, accidents of any kind which destroy life wholesale, even earthquakes and storms, are instances of this law; warnings from God, judgments of God, in the very strictest sense; by which He tells men, in a voice awful enough to the few, but merciful and beneficent to the many, to be prudent and wise; to learn henceforth either not to interfere with the physical laws of His universe, or to master and wield them by reason and science.
III. The more we read, in histories, of the fall of great dynasties, or of the ruin of whole classes or whole nations, the more we feel—however much we may acquiesce with the judgment as a whole—sympathy with the fallen. It is not the worst, but often the best specimens of a class or of a system who are swallowed up by the moral earthquake which has been accumulating its force, perhaps, for centuries. May not the reason be that God has wished to condemn, not the persons, but their systems? that He has punished them, not for their private, but for their public faults? It is not the men who are judged—it is the state of things which they represent; and for that very reason may not God have made an example, a warning, not of the worst, but of the very best specimens of a class or system which has been weighed in His balance and found wanting?
C. Kingsley, Westminster Sermons, p. 252.
References: Luk 13:1-5.—Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 254; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 408; Homilist, new series, vol. iii., P. 150.
Luk 13:2-3
I. The folly and uncharitableness of mankind are in nothing more clearly seen than in their disposition to blame everyone who is unfortunate, and to think themselves surely in the right as long as they are prosperous. "While he lived," said the Psalmist of the worldly-minded, "he counted himself a happy man; and so long as thou doest well unto thyself men will speak good of thee." On the other hand, let one be smitten with disease or poverty, he shall never want some to ascribe his sufferings to the intemperance of his youth, to his extravagance, carelessness, or vicious indulgences while he had money, or to the judgments of God on his covetousness and want of generosity. And yet every day’s experience proves, both in public and private life, that the wisest of us is deceived, and the best man disappointed in three out of four of his worldly hopes and expectations. The reason of this is, that the present life is a state of trial, and not of reward and punishment; and the use to be made of it is, that the afflicted learn patience, the prosperous godly fear, and all men charity and candour in judging of others.
II. Our Lord’s words in the text are a warning addressed to the Jews as a nation, and awful beyond any human lesson, from the consideration that it was so soon and so terribly accomplished. Jerusalem would not know the things that belonged to her peace; she would not be gathered under the wings of her mighty and gracious Redeemer; therefore, not one only of her towers fell, but all her walls and towers, yea, even the Temple of the Lord was laid even with the ground, so that not one stone was left upon another; not a few Galileans only defiled her altars with their blood, but the whole multitude of her children were slain with the edge of the sword, or led captive into all nations—an everlasting monument of God’s anger against obstinacy and hardness of heart, and a sad lesson to such as judge their neighbours guilty because they suffer, that they also repent if they hope not to perish in like manner.
J. Keble, Sermons Occasional and Parochial, p. 75.
References: Luk 13:2-4.—S. A. Brooke, Sermons, p. 42. Luk 13:3.—R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 1st series, p. 79. Luk 13:5-10.—Homilist, new series, vol. ii., p. 146.
Luk 13:6-9
The Barren Fig Tree.
I. God has placed us in the most favourable circumstances for the bringing forth of fruit. The privileges of the Jews were small in comparison with those which we enjoy. The light which they enjoyed was that of the early dawn; ours is that of the noonday sun. They had the prophets; we have the Son of God.
II. God expects exceptional fruit from a tree on which He has bestowed such exceptional advantages. If we have so much more than other nations, we ought to be just so much better than they, for the fruit in this case is that of character. Righteousness, meekness, fidelity,—in a word, moral excellence springing from our faith in Christ, and our devotion to Him,—that is the fruit which God expects to find in us as the occupants of His vineyard.
III. God pronounces sentence of destruction on all who, having had such privileges, bring forth no fruit. The Church’s life depends on the present members of the Church, and only through their fruitfulness can its permanence be insured. The same is true of individuals. When they cease to grow, they cease to live; and barrenness is at once the symptom of death and the reason why they die.
IV. This sentence pronounced on the barren fig tree is not at once carried into execution. The stroke of Divine justice is arrested for a season, and its arrest is due to the mediation of the great High Priest. But there is no indifference; and if the fruitless man repent not, the day of the Lord will come to him as a thief in the night, and he will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.
W. M. Taylor, The Parables of Our Saviour, p. 276.
References: Luk 13:6.—R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 1st series, p. 52. Luk 13:6-9.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. vi., p. 289; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. x., p. 358; E. Blencowe, Sermons to a Country Congregation, vol. i., p. 386; A. B. Bruce, The Parabolic Teaching of Christ, p. 927.
Luk 13:7
Fit to Live.
Men ask, "Are you fit to die?" and men hold up death before the sinner’s eyes, and men dwell in solemn warning on the world to come, and on far-off images of death. But God asks, "Are you fit to live?" What, then, is life, if we have to answer the question, "Are we fit to live?" We must seek for the answer where we find the question. The Lord of life has taken a fruit tree in a garden as the best example of the nature of life, both here and in the one great judgment type, when He cursed the barren fig tree, and withered it root and branch, to be for ever the emblem of the lost nation.
I. Life is an internal growth; this is the first great truth. The outer world comes to it in forces of all kinds, and it receives them all, draws them into its being, subdues them to itself, lives by and through them, but makes no stir itself; neither moves nor utters sound, nor is violent, nor fills the world with the rush of impetuous strength. But planted by a Master’s hand it stays there, drawing from common earth and common air a growth and a beauty new and unknown to them by its own transforming power; and so it goes on, never losing a moment, making all things serve it in turn, be it rain or frost or wind or sun. Rain and frost and wind and sun touch it each with a power of their own, be it in hate or love; but no sooner do they touch it than the life within seizes on the power, masters it, changes it, gives it a new nature, makes it part of a new life, and to take strange new forms of bud and leaf and flower and fruit. The moment the life does not master the forces which come, that moment it begins to lose its own vitality, and therefore silent mastery of an outward world is life.
II. The great question, "Are you fit to live?" takes this form: first, has all the digging and culture and money spent and time been honestly used? Has it ornamented you, and budded into a growth of leaves fair to look on? And, secondly, is there a ripeness of life coming of such a nature as to be food for the living, and a seed of life for fresh planting? Where is the ceaseless inward power that transmutes all that reaches it into luxuriant growths of new and pleasant services, the silent sustained mastery that, come good, come evil, takes it all, and changes it into crop after crop in due season of help for others, life by which others may live? Tried by this test, are you fit to live?
E. Thring, Church of England Pulpit, April 3rd, 1880.
References: Luk 13:7, Luk 13:8.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xi., No. 650; Ibid., vol. xxv., No. 1451. Luk 13:8.—J. Natt, Posthumous Sermons, p. 384; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. i., p. 48.
Luk 13:9
The first thing which strikes us, perhaps, in this transaction is its individuality. There must have been many vines and many fig trees in the vineyard; but the story is told as if the whole vineyard were for that one tree alone, and as if the great Proprietor concerned Himself only with it. The inference is evident—the whole Church spreads its provisions for you. As much as if you were the only member in that Church, the whole circuit of its ordinances is for you. Personally, distinctly, separately, God deals with you; He visits you; He examines you; He expects from you; He is grieved or He is pleased with you. It is all in the closest individuality. It is not, "Is this a fruitful Church?" but, "Are you a fruit-bearer in this Church?"
I. It is a very humbling recollection, those years of love and care, those years of unfaithfulness and emptiness which God all along has been counting. The true measure of the emptiness is the extent of the culture. Had the dressing not been what it is, the wonder would have been less. But when we think of all that hand has done—all the cherishing and the watching and the pruning and the training,—then we can estimate that dismal word, "None, none." "He sought fruit, and found none."
II. But here the question forces itself upon us, "What is fruit?" For I can hear some one saying, "I know that I have borne very little fruit, but I hope it is not none." What is fruit? What is it which is to a man what the figs are to the fig tree? I answer: (1) It would be something appropriate to his nature, accordant with his being—"For men do not gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles." And what is the nature of the being of a man? Physical, intellectual, impassioned, spiritual. Such, then, must fruit be, real and tangible, visible and felt, reasonable, thoughtful, balanced, affectionate, earnest, spirit going forth to spirit, assimilating itself to God. (2) It must be fruit in its season. We do not expect man’s fruit at child’s age. (3) It is not fruit until it is for the Owner’s sake. It is not fruit-growing in thought, word, or deed, for itself or for you; it is something for God, something thought, said, done, for the sake of God. (4) It must be in its nature sanctified, drawn from the Father, received through the Son, matured and mellowed by providences, full of love.
J. Vaughan, Sermons, 1868, p. 133.
Luk 13:10-17
The Impotent Woman.
I. This impotent woman may fairly be taken as a type of character to which we, or many of us, answer; and answer much more closely than, for example, to that of the prodigal son. For if we have inherited a soul naturally Christian, or have had a pious nurture and training, or if, under the mask of our insensibility or our indifference to religion, the grace of God has wrought on our hearts in secret and inscrutable ways, we probably have not broken into open rebellion or flagrant vice, and wasted our patrimony in riotous living. We much more nearly resemble this faithful daughter of faithful Abraham. For her misfortune was, not that she was a contented slave in willing submission to an evil power, but that she was held in a grievous bondage, insomuch that, try how she would, she could in nowise lift herself into straightness and health. Like her, despite all our efforts after truth and goodness, there is a spirit of infirmity in us, an incompetency to do the good we would; a subtle, mysterious malady whose origin is in the will—a malady inscrutable to human eyes, immedicable by human art. There is but One who can make us straight. The Healer of the impotent woman can heal us. Only Christ, the strong Son of God, can redeem us from the weakness which mars our service; but He will do it if we let Him.
II. We may also learn why He often delays His help. God often delays to grant us the help we ask and need, that He may develop faith in us by trial, that He may let patience have her perfect work, that out of weakness we may be made strong by conflict and prayer and endeavour; and last and best of all, that, when we are thus prepared for His coming, He may bring us a good beyond our hopes, and bestow on us a blessing greater than we could once ask or receive.
III. Finally, we may learn, when we are exercised by these kind delays, where and when to look for the Divine appearing. We shall find Christ, as the impotent woman found Him, in the synagogue on the Sabbath; or, to translate the phrase into modern terms of speech, we shall find Him amid the sanctities of worship, when the soul has learned to rest in Him.
S. Cox, Sunday Magazine, 1886, p. 306.
References: Luk 13:10.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. iii., p. 111. Luk 13:10-13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1426. Luk 13:10-17.—A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 88; W. Hanna, Our Lord’s Life on Earth, p. 144. Luk 13:11-13.—G. Macdonald, Miracles of Our Lord, p. 43; W. Walters, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 326. Luk 13:11-14.—T. Birkett Dover, The Ministry of Mercy, p. 136. Luk 13:18, Luk 13:19.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. ii., pp. 471, 472. Luk 13:20, Luk 13:21.—Ibid., vol. ii., pp. 471, 479. Luk 13:23.—D. McLeod, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxi., p. 275; J. Burton, Sermons on Christian Life and Truth, p. 22; R. W. Church, Human Life and its Conditions, p. 97. Luk 13:23, Luk 13:24.—H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xvi., p. 309; Ibid., vol. xxvi., p. 187; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iii., p. 256; F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xii., p. 369.
Luk 13:24
Eternal Life not to be Won without Toil.
I. Our Lord says, "Strive;" and He vouchsafes to add one reason why we should strive. A gate is appointed for us to enter into—the gate which leads to our true home, the only place where we can be happy, and this gate is strait, i.e., very narrow. So strait, so narrow, is this gate and way, that it cannot be found for mere seeking. Many, many there are who know more or less of it, have a true notion where it is to be found, and really wish they had entered in and were moving along that way; but they have not the courage to take the true and only method of entering; they will not make themselves low, little, and humble; they will not stoop, so the lowly door keeps them out; they load themselves with earthly riches, cares, and pleasures, so that they and their burdens take up too much room to crowd in through the narrow gate; they will not be converted and become as little children, so they cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.
II. Men hold easily on, hardly seeking, not at all striving, until their path in life is run out, and they find themselves all on a sudden close to the other narrow gate, the very doorway of heaven itself, which is also called strait and narrow, because none may go through it who has not the mind of Christ, the lowly, meek, humble, self-denying mind, which He so earnestly invited, and charged all who would come to Him to learn of Him. But these have not learned it; and what is the consequence? When once the Master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door,—i.e., when the day of trial is over, and the night of judgment is come, and when the work of this world, according to the counsel of God, is ended,—it will be as in orderly and strict households, when darkness and the hour of rest is come, and the family has retired, and the doors are made fast for the night; at such a time, if strangers, who have no claim to such a favour, much more of incorrigible servants who have forfeited their claim, come knocking and demanding admittance, the Master will say, "I know you not whence ye are." Who can describe the horror and despair which will come upon them in that moment, when they shall hear Him who is love saying to them, "Depart from Me"?
J. Keble, Sermons for Sundays after Trinity, part i., p. 128.
References: Luk 13:24.—Christian World Pulpit, vol. x., p. 161; A. Scott, Ibid., vol. xiv., p. 97; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii., No. 475; J. H. Wilson, The Gospel and its Truths, p. 51; H. W. Beecher, Sermons. vol. i., p. 119. Luk 13:24-27.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 281, Luk 13:30.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. viii., p. 193. Luk 13:31-33.—Ibid., vol. xi., p. 213. Luk 13:31, Luk 13:32.—D. Fraser, Metaphors of the Gospels, p. 202. Luk 13:32.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 97. Luk 13:34. Ibid., p. 246; D. Fraser, Metaphors of the Gospels, p. 209. Luke 13—F. D. Maurice, The Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven, p. 204; Parker, Christian Commonwealth, vol. vi., p. 563. Luk 14:1.—Ibid., Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxv., p. 241. Luk 14:1-4.—G. Macdonald, Miracles of Our Lord, p. 69. Luk 14:1-6.—W. Hanna, Our Lord’s Life on Earth, p. 144; A. B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 68. Luk 14:1-11.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 351; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 155. Luk 14:1-35.—E. Johnson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvi., p. 141. Luk 14:3.—R. D. B. Rawnsley, Village Sermons, 2nd series, p. 217. Luk 14:3-5.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 32. Luk 14:3-6.—Ibid., vol. xii., p. 183. Luk 14:7.—C. C. Bartholomew, Sermons Chiefly Practical, p. 195. Luk 14:7, Luk 14:8.—Preacher’s Monthly, vol. ii., p. 251. Luk 14:7-11.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 477; A. B. Bruce, The Parabolic Teaching of Christ, p. 309; C. Kingsley, National Sermons, p. 322; H. Goodwin, Church of England Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 13.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain Section 3. (Luk 13:1-35; Luk 14:1-35; Luk 15:1-32; Luk…
Section 3. (Luk 13:1-35; Luk 14:1-35; Luk 15:1-32; Luk 16:1-31.)
The Gospel as manifesting God to man.
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We are approaching now the very heart of the Gospel; in which God is manifested in righteousness and love to man: His whole character is made apparent. But for this, man also must be manifested, in order that the suitability and necessity of God’s grace may be seen. This is the theme of the first part here, therefore, that righteousness alone, man being what he is, can do nothing for him: judgment, and only judgment, is his portion. The second part (Luk 14:1-35) exhibits God and man in contrast to one another; men seeking their own things and without taste for the things of God; with the consequences of this for those that follow Christ. While, thirdly, in the fifteenth chapter, all the heart of God is seen as towards man when simply lost, rejoicing in his recovery. The sixteenth goes on to the practical life of the disciple, and to the recompense beyond.
1. The first part lays the basis of repentance, and shows how far man’s judgment of himself must go, if it is to answer to the judgment of God with regard to him. Here we have —
(1) First, very precisely, Paul’s doctrine of "no difference," with which he opens the way for the gospel in his epistle to the Romans. They tell the Lord about the Galileans whom Pilate had slain at the very altar, as they were drawing near to God. He probes the thought of their heart by the question: was this, then, a proof that they were greater sinners than others in the sight of God? and answers it Himself, that they were not, but that, except they repented, all would perish alike: there was not a possible one who could merit escape.
He adds another example, where the character of what took place might make it seem more like the special judgment of God Himself, -eighteen upon whom the tower of Siloam fell and slew them: were these, at any rate, "debtors" to the justice of God beyond all else of the dwellers in Jerusalem? and again He will not leave it to others to answer, but answers it Himself in the same way as before. The number 18, which is 3x6, speaks of evil manifested in its highest uprise; and note that the Lord says not a word with regard to them to lessen the thought of evil in them: that is not the point. On the contrary, make of it as much as possible, the lesson is only deeper. For the question is, not, were they sinners beyond others? but does the hand of God upon them prove them to be that? had they not been such, could they have pleaded exemption from divine judgment on that account? And to this He answers, No: judgment from God, and even to perdition; will come upon all, except they repent. It is the owning the ruin in which we are alike, which casts us, as sinners, upon unfailing mercy and brings out from under judgment: this, and this alone.
(2) He strengthens this by showing that the delay of judgment does not at all mean escape from it, but only that God desires men to escape, and would leave them the possibility of it. The alternative still remains: "if not, thou shalt cut it down;" the fruit of repentance must be brought forth, or sooner or later (if in this life even never) judgment must take its course.
Even this respite comes, not from comparative betterness, but through a Mediator. It is not that there is some little fruit, but let it alone till all means are exhausted that may produce fruit. It is the plea of mercy only that could avail for any; and the fruit of repentance must at last be found.
(3) Here comes in the assurance of the resource that there is in God for all that so turn to Him, though it be "without strength" as well as "ungodly." A woman bowed together so that she could not lift up herself, for eighteen years! Notice, once more, that sinister eighteen. Yet with Him there is no difficulty. "Woman; thou art loosed from thine infirmity," He says; and then His hands make His words good. She was made straight immediately, and glorified God.
But this produces indignation in the synagogue: for it is the sabbath; and a man must not use the power of God upon the sabbath day! What! the Lord says: is it to preserve the rest of God unbroken, to keep a daughter of Abraham in bondage to Satan? Notice the emphasis He lays upon this, that she is a daughter of Abraham. How unseemly for one who inherits Abraham’s faith to be kept bowed together; and this is, doubtless, how we are to take Christ’s plea for her, as in the case of Zacchaeus afterwards (Luk 19:9). This perfects the picture: work there is none, but God’s work, and the synagogue in vain would tie His hands. It was, in fact, but loud-voiced hypocrisy: for they had no difficulty in leading away their beasts to the water. They only prized man at less than the beast.
(4) With this, for the time, His adversaries are silenced, and the people rejoice at all His glorious works. But the Lord repeats here two significant parables whose meaning we have already seen; but which gain a new significance from their new position. They are parables of the Kingdom not then begun; and carry us beyond Judaism into that which would indeed seem to show His adversaries silenced, and the people rejoicing in His power established.
Alas, what it does show is the likeness of human nature in all dispensations, the revival of the synagogue in the professing Church of Christ, and the consequent degradation of the divine in human hands. For these parables show us the Kingdom of God itself administered by man, and the changed form which is the result of this. In the first it is seen like one of the kingdoms of the world, and the ministers of Satan finding shelter in it. In the second the professing Church itself is adulterating the bread from heaven, to adapt it to the tastes of the world; in the end the word being leavened. Such is man; and in no way, perhaps, could he be shown more hopeless in his evil. Hope can be in God alone.
The weakness even of the saint is shown in these pictures: for the evil goes on without ability on his part to overcome it. For himself he may; but he has lost control of that which was committed to him, and cannot recover it. His very separation from the evil, which faithfulness to God enjoins, has to be in confession of the general ruin.
Such then is man; and being such, all help, all hope, must be in God alone. "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?" (Isa 2:22).
This judgment, seen and accepted in the Cross, is peace, holiness and happiness. Self is set aside by that which has made peace for us; and Christ abides as the One in whom we have acceptance with God, and the store-house, freely ours, of every blessing.
(5) But judgment yet abides for those that refuse His grace, and the door of salvation is even a narrow one, for the many who would gladly enter the Kingdom by some way more gratifying to their pride of heart, or freer to the careless foot of those who would have God as careless. Nor would that door be always open: the Master of the house would rise and shut it; and then there would be many left outside, even of those who could plead outward acquaintance with Him, but no practical inward knowledge, still the unsaved doers of unrighteousness. Then would be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when they would see Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of God, but be themselves shut out and Gentiles too from all quarters would come and sit down there; the last being first, the first last: men’s thoughts ever, naturally, the opposite of God’s. But God’s will stand.
(6) The Pharisees come now to the Lord with an apparently friendly suggestion, but which, from His answer to it, evidently proceeded from Herod himself. "That fox" was but seeking in a round-about way to get rid of One whom he feared as well as hated. It is easily to be understood from what we have read of him elsewhere, that he did not want more blood on his hands of such a character as had already stained them. Yet the reports of the marvels done in what was his own kingdom troubled and haunted a heart in which, as is so commonly the case, superstition and unbelief held sway together. If he did not want to commit himself to threatening which he might have to make good, he was more than willing that it should be done by others. The Lord shows him that He knew well his design; and that He was perfectly beyond the power of all that he could do. The power of God which was showing itself supreme over man’s great enemy, and in tender assuagement of the misery which had evoked divine compassion in its behalf, could not submit to be thwarted or curbed by-aught that man could do. It would go "today and tomorrow," -the two days of testimony in the face of unbelief; .on the third day, He, the glorious Worker, would be perfected; and there is surely an enigmatic reference to resurrection. The mightiest miracle of all, not in power displayed only, but in its significance, would place Him for ever in manifest supremacy, with His work accomplished, all the power of the enemy but working out, spite of itself, the divine purpose.
For He knew whither He was going, not to escape Herod, but to meet the enmity of man where it had ever displayed itself most, where most God had, through the generations past, drawn near to men. Jerusalem had a fanaticism of hatred for the prophets which would be jealous of any perishing elsewhere. Then with a sob of anguish for His murderers: -"Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and stoneth those that are sent unto her!" -He turns where His heart draws Him, to testify in face of the inevitable result following -"how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen her brood under her wings! and ye would not." So He and they must part, because they will: their house -no more God’s house -is left to them; and say unto you, Ye shall not see Me, until ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."
2. The fourteenth chapter shows man; such as we have seen him, in contrast with God, and the rejection of His grace by man in consequence of the resulting estrangement of his heart from Him. The conditions of discipleship are therefore the readiness to abandon even the nearest relatives for His sake, and to take up one’s cross to follow Him. The cost must be reckoned seriously in a world so adverse, and God’s salt must not be allowed to lack its savor.
(1) Once more the sabbath question is brought up; and this time, by the Lord Himself. In it they would set God against Himself, and make His statutes prohibitory of the profit to men they were intended to secure. He takes this up therefore in the house of one of their rulers and a Pharisee. A man is there before Him who has the dropsy; and He asks the question which was not then for the first time asked, but which they had never answered, "Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath?" But they are silent. Then He makes divine power give the answer, surely an unbribed one: He takes and heals him, and lets him go. God has decided.
The case He puts to them, He had put before; and He puts it to show that they themselves had virtually decided it also, and that to make even a doubt of it was mere hypocrisy on their part; they made none if it were ox or ass, or the worth of these. But good with God has constant prerogative: He never tied His own hands, that He should not bless, though man; if he could, would do so. They lacked sincerity; but how far were they from God, who dared to argue for Him so!
(2) He turns to the guests to press on them the wisdom of humility. Even in the world the man that exalts himself is often abased: but with God this is the constant rule. Man’s way is that of self-exaltation: he cannot trust God nor see himself aright; he must be abased for blessing or abased in judgment. How the Speaker here in His own Person illustrates the contrast between God and man. How far He had come down! emptying Himself in a love that seeketh not her own; that divine fulness might be in Him for human need: a need which our pride forbids us to own; and would make the cross of Christ but foolishness.
(3) Now He has a word also for the entertainer, bidding him seek his recompense at the resurrection of the just. For this, he must not invite those who can repay him, but the poor, the maimed, the blind. To covet what is spiritual, and invisible except to faith: that is not only permitted but enjoined upon us, though the recompense is but mercy, and the Giver One who never mistakes, and whose rule in exaltation and abasement, Christ has just now given. We are safe, therefore, in waiting for His approval; while the sense of His grace encourages the weakest to send his heart on there.
(4) Now, when one of those at table hears these things, his heart is stirred to say that he is indeed blessed who shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God: to which the Lord replies by a parable, to the effect that men do not think so, but when God opens to them the provision of His house, the invited guests begin all to make excuse. Their possessions, the relations upon which they have entered, these in themselves not evil, are made excuses for turning the back upon that to which as Israelites they had been invited, and where indeed they claimed to have a place. The Kingdom long looked for had come nigh at last, the blessed. Servant of Jehovah had appeared, to make known to the guests that the appointed time was arrived, and all things were now ready. Nothing needed but to come and partake of the free bounty of God, -of a grace which required nothing but man’s acceptance of it.
The leaders of the nation; their self-claimed representatives, were those who had treated thus the heavenly message. Grace itself was forced to turn from them to the poor of the flock, those in the streets and lanes of the city, "the poor and the lame and the maimed, and the blind." Poor enough, and with plenty of defects, the very evils of their condition were such as took from them the excuses which had been made by the others. "The blind had no field to view, the lame could not go along behind his oxen, the maimed had no wife who could have hindered him from coming; only the feeling of poverty could have held them back; but this feeling also vanishes, since they must in a friendly way be led in by the Servant" (Van Oosterzee).
Thus the condition of the guests, which stumbled the Pharisees, is accounted for. The publican and the harlot went into the Kingdom of God before these: for their knowledge of themselves as sinners, and their despair of self-recovery, made the Saviour of the lost to be fully suited to them. Repentance and faith were in their case friendly associates which took them by both hands to lead them to Jesus.
But God’s provision found not in this way sufficient guests in Israel: "Lord, it is done as Thou hast commanded, and yet there is room." Again; therefore, is the word issued, "Go out into the highways and hedges," -to the mere unsheltered wanderers, such as were, spiritually, the Gentiles, -"and compel them to come in," (love’s sweet compulsion,) "that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, that none of those men that were invited shall taste of my supper."
The last words, though speaking of the rejection on God’s side of those who were rejecting His grace in Israel, their place given to the Gentiles, yet in principle remains true as to all rejectors, they shall not taste of God’s supper. The invitation is now world-wide, and bears with it wherever it goes the responsibility attached.
(5) There follow, the world being such as all this shows it to be, the conditions of discipleship. It is just when crowds are going with Him, and to these, that the Lord declares them. He had spoken in the same way before, but the repetition intensities His utterance, and shows its exceeding importance. He who comes to Him must hate (in comparison with Him) all nearest and dearest to him, and his own life, too. He must bear his cross, and come after Him, or he cannot be His disciple.
Then He bids them count the cost of this, and draws two pictures: the first under the figure of building; the second, of a warfare.
A "tower" is something that is conspicuous and eminent as a building; and needs, on that account, a special solidity. It may be for defence; it nay be for overlooking what is round it. Our Christian discipleship should have all these characters.
It will be conspicuous, in a world like this, just as far as it is Christian. The world is not something of an inferior sort, but the total opposite of Christianity. The Christian is a light in the world, a light which shines in darkness, and cannot blend with it.
It will be eminent: little need to say that, with the Lord’s conditions before our eyes. Even the world recognizes the moral height of devotedness and self-sacrifice; though it will make large reserve when it is estimating this in the case of a Christian.
Then as to defence, the character of the disciple fully maintained shields him from how much temptation which the waverer invites and succumbs to; while the suffering to which he is exposed as such causes the "Spirit of glory and of God" to rest upon him (1Pe 4:14), power that is equal to every demand upon it
Finally, the disciple it is who as such acquires the ability to see, the single eye being in fact that of the disciple, to whom Christ is the touchstone of every thing.
But this is a tower that costs much to build, from the point of view from which it is seen by one outside it. It will cost him all that the world holds precious; how much he will gain he is not yet in the place to see. He who attempts it lightly will surely find it beyond his power to accomplish; and he who does not undertake it in strength far greater than his own.
The next picture of discipleship views it as a warfare. A king is going to an encounter with another king: for you must indeed be as a king to meet the forces that are against you in the world. Moreover these are not merely irregular, guerilla forces: they are organized under a king of their own; the dread "prince of this world," with more than the power of this world in his hand, and more than you are likely to be able to meet, high as you may rate your competence. Here, surely, if you come to reckoning, all is against you: the case is more strongly against you, the result of failure worse than in the former one. You may be scoffed at if you begin to build and are not able to finish; but here it will be worse: provoke the animosity of the world against you, and it is an enemy that does not easily forgive.
Thus the effect of reckoning may seem mere discouragement; and so it is meant to be, from all mere levity, and from all self-confidence: if you are setting out in either of these moods, you may as well give up at once. If, on the other hand, you are in serious earnest, the Lord’s words are meant only to cast you upon resources better than your own; and all-sufficient.
But savorless salt, of what use is it? just as little is discipleship without reality. Israel had been; in God’s thought for her, such a purifying salt for the nations of the earth. It had become savorless; and God’s new evangel had not succeeded in imparting to it the quality which it had lost. It could only be cast out. And just such would be the case with those who should now have merely the label without the reality of discipleship.
3. We now come to the very heart of the Lord’s teaching in this Gospel, and turn from man and what he is, to realize the love of God towards him, in spite of, or rather, in view of what he is, -the heart of God told out in seeking and saving that which is lost. The three parables of this chapter unite in this: in each case what has been lost is found; in each the joy is with the finder; and in heaven; before the angels, speaks conclusively of Whose joy it is that is presented. The three parables again; in this connection, naturally suggest the Trinity, the Shepherd and the Father being in manifest agreement also with such a thought. The Woman does not seem so, until we realize that the Spirit is often presented in Scripture in the agents and instruments through which He works. The Woman then will stand directly for the Church, but still as the vehicle of the Spirit, and all parts of the chapter will be in place. Father, Son, and Spirit are all occupied with man; and he it is through whom the angels themselves become adoring witnesses of the "exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus."
(1) All the tax-gatherers and sinners were drawing near to Him to hear Him: this was the occasion of the parables and shows us the application of them as not to wandering saints, but to sinners truly that: the "lost," a deeper word used by divine love here than the Pharisees themselves, as to men in this life, would have cared to utter. But these were murmuring, after their manner, at the Physician of sin-sick souls, for going after them. "This Man receiveth sinners," they say, "and eateth with them." It is then that in a parable He makes personal appeal to them. Was there any of them who if he lost but one sheep out of a hundred, would not leave all the rest and go and find it? Yet they wondered at the value of a human soul to Him! He was finding what He had lost: for they were His; He was Maker and owner of them indeed, become shepherd in His care for them; and He would not leave one such till He had got it back.
We see in this a character of these parables as an appeal to the different classes before Him: not meant therefore, to convey merely general truth but to specialize and apply it. The "lost" is not here characteristic of men in general, but meant to apply itself to those who in self-despair would take it as their description. The Pharisees would disclaim it as intended for them -would have resented it if so applied: they would discern readily enough for whom it was intended; while the poor outcast sinners, self-convicted, would find to their unutterable joy, that they were just those whom He, compassionate Saviour, could not suffer to be lost. All that followed was for them: the putting upon His shoulders, the bringing home with joy; His care too great to trust them any more to themselves for getting home. Then the reception, the gathering together of the friends, the angels, to bid them all rejoice with Him! He does not close without a word for the other class here: for, if the lost sheep was the sinner that repenteth, who then were these "ninety and nine just persons who needed no repentance?" Ah, there had been no joy like this in heaven over them! there never could be as long as they retained this character.
(2) The second parable is that of the woman, in Scripture the figure of the Church, the instrument of the Spirit. The lamp of the Word is in her hand, and she needs it in the darkness of the night, while Christ is absent. The "house" is the circle of natural ties and relationships; for it is not just a question of public preaching, but of that testimony upon which the success of the preacher after all so much depends, and for which the whole Church, and not any class or section of it, is responsible. Good it is to realize that every soul of man, covered with the dust of sin as he may be, and hidden in the darkness of the world, belongs of right to the King’s treasury, and has the King’s image stamped on him, though with sore disfigurement. Claim him we may, wherever we may find him, for God to whom he belongs. This general evangelism, we may learn from the parable here, is what is the mind of the Spirit for the Church indwelt of Him. Here too there must be friends and neighbors summoned to rejoice, -angelic onlookers who are in sympathy with Him who is always the glorious Seeker, and who sets in motion all the springs of love and pity that flow anywhere in unison with His own.
(3) The third parable shows us the dead alive again; the subjective side, therefore, of this recovery of the lost, which the first two were incompetent to express. The sheep is simply brought back; the piece of money is unchanged when restored; but the lost son returns to his father, and in heart, though under the pressure of famine at the first. The parabolic veil also is thinner, and permits the affections of the heart to manifest themselves with freedom. The two classes seen in the first parable, lost sight of in the second, reappear and come fully out in contrast here, the mirror being held up before the Pharisee as never before, in the elder son.
Sons they both are. This, which has led some astray as to the application; is intelligible in view of Israel’s relationship to God, as in Deu 14:1: "Sons ye are of Jehovah your God." This, of course, must not be understood as if involving the Spirit of adoption; which they had not, nor what would be implied by such language in the New Testament. It involved of necessity neither new birth nor salvation. An adoption they had; and the Lord says to the Syro-phenician woman, "It is not meet to take the children’s bread and to cast it to dogs." Again in the parable which He spoke to the Jews after His solemn entry into Jerusalem, He speaks of Pharisees and publicans both as "sons," exactly as here. Those to whom He was now addressing Himself claimed this most unhesitatingly in their own behalf, and in a sense in which He could not allow it: "We be not born of fornication," they said indignantly: "we have one Father, even God" (Joh 8:41.)
This relationship, though it might be only external, furnishes the basis of appeal in the story before us. External only it was, at first, with the younger son; and to the end of it with the elder. The prodigal naturally is the younger son: the elders of Israel were with the Pharisees.
This younger son soon shows where his heart is. The "substance" that he gets and squanders is, of course, his portion in natural things, that which God has in fact divided among men to use as accountable to Him who gave it, or perhaps to abuse in utter forgetfulness of Him. The far-off country which he seeks classes him at once among the many whose backs are habitually turned on God. Here for awhile he enjoys himself after the fashion of those to whom transgression has its own delight, in the lusts which yet consume and never satisfy. An end must come, therefore, in which not only his own resources are at an end, but a famine comes upon all the sources of supply. He is in a land, too, where no man gives, but he joins himself to a citizen of that country, and is sent into the fields to feed swine. Sad picture of Satan’s service, in ministering to men given up to their own lusts entirely, longing even to be as they are; thank God, (this is His mercy merely and the door of hope) thank God, in vain.
Now he comes to himself, and in his misery the thought of his father’s house breaks in upon him. Alas, it is not yet his father; nor does he think aright of it either, if we realize of what it is the parable speaks. Bread there is there, to be sure, enough and to spare -abundance of bread in that Bethlehem, where our Christ was born, and whence He came to us: bread enough, but not for hired servants. No hired servant, as such, could eat the passover in Israel (Exo 12:45.) God has all children in His house, and service but for the free hearts who know the constraint of love in serving Him.
The prodigal is not yet in place to know this, and fain would be one of those hirelings himself. All else is gone for him; but he will go back and confess the sin which he committed, which has deprived him of the son’s place (never really known), and after the fashion of man’s humility, which recognizes not the worthlessness of such labor nor the grace of God, he will say, "Make me as one of thy hired servants."
With all this, he is yet on his way to his father. The father’s love anticipates and effectuates the son’s endeavor. "When he was yet a long way off, his father saw him, and had compassion; and ran, and fell on his neck and kissed him." Not a word of the confession intended has been uttered; not a question is put: "I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord; and so Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." There is no reproof for the past, no stipulation as to the future, no condition in this free forgiveness. How it would spoil the revelation of the Father’s heart which is to do the yet needed work in the soul of the returning prodigal, make the son a son, and deliver from all thought of that far country, save abhorrence of that which had carried him thither!
Now, in another spirit than that which dictated it, he can pour out his confession. "Make me a hired servant," he cannot say for shame. And the right acknowledgement of his unworthiness is cut short by the father’s peremptory joy which bids, "Bring forth a robe, -the best, -and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and sandals on his feet." What he could not have pretended to as claim if he had never wandered is now his in the father’s delight to have him back: Christ, the sinner’s robe of wondrous righteousness, what can equal it in the apparel of the angels as they shine in heaven? Then the ring unites the working hand to God for ever; and the feet are shod for all the way, whatever it may be.
"And bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat and make merry: for this my son was dead and is alive again; and was lost, and is found."
Death is the food of this new life, for which in fact, that it might be, life had to be given. Such is the ransom price by which the prodigal has to be redeemed from the bondage of sin. And henceforth death is not merely conquered, but becomes the minister to a life in which the shadow of death is passed for ever. The fatted calf -or young ox, not immature but in the first fresh vigor, -the type of the laborer for God, is here the peace-offering, that aspect of the Lord’s work which the Gospel of Luke expresses. The prodigal is welcomed into the joy of reconciliation and communion with God; but it is the Father’s joy, let us still remember, which is all through prominent: "This my son was dead and is alive again; was lost and is found."
Every way in contrast with this picture, we have now that of the elder son; and it would be impossible, surely, for any one to mistake for whom it is intended. He has not wandered, is no prodigal, has no need of repentance, has never transgressed his father’s commandment, is still in the field when his brother comes home; and then finding how he has been received, breaks out in indignation. Then another side of his character comes out: he himself brings it out. Music and dancing in his father’s house: these are strange things to him. Joy over him there never had been such. He had had no privileges, not even a kid to make merry -not, mark, with his father, but with his friends. Could the cold, cheerless life of a formal religionist be more clearly expressed? He too is in heart away from his father, has no sympathy with the yearning of God’s love over a sinner, cannot eat and make merry over the return of such, though his father comes out and entreats him, will not go in. What is the end of a breach like this? That the Lord leaves to be decided by each one in his audience for himself. But God keeps -can they expect otherwise? -to His own thoughts: "It was meet that we should make merry and rejoice: for this thy brother was dead and is alive again: he was lost and is found."
There is one thing here, however, which spite of all the rest has been supposed to give countenance to the view that the elder son is the true picture of the child of God, or at least the consistent one. It is, that the father says, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine." But to explain this we have only to go back to the beginning of the parable and to remember that the substance which the father had divided between them, and which the younger son had squandered in self-indulgence, could not be any figure of spiritual blessings, but, as already said, of earthly things. If, then; the prodigal had returned, that with all its spiritual gain did not reinstate him in the possession of what he had lost; it did not in itself restore the lost health, the forfeited possessions, the various good gifts of God which had passed away from him. On the other hand, the spiritual blessings which salvation brings do not become the possession of any by the careful or upright use of earthly things. And the witness of his own heart (in the case of the elder son) was that, spite of his own punctilious righteousness, the Father’s house had made no music over him.
4. This leads on; however, to the next parable, in which, not the outside multitudes but disciples are taught how they may use even earthly things (even the mammon of unrighteousness) in such a way as that, when this fails, the "friends" they have made by it, may receive them into the eternal tabernacles. But here, notice, there is no parade of the righteousness of the one who acts after this manner. No, it is the very opposite: we have an unjust steward accused of wasting his master’s goods, a thing which recalls to us the younger son of the parable before given; rather than the elder. And here is where we all begin naturally, although the Lord has something else to say of this before He closes.
But to begin with, all are stewards of God in the matter of those things with which we have been entrusted and not one of us can stand before God on the ground of righteousness in our stewardship. Death -and this is brought out in fullest emphasis by the law of Moses -is the turning of man out of the place for which he was originally created, as having failed in it: and who is not turned out? Self-righteousness is thus impossible if we will listen to the teaching of nature itself, and above all of that law under which the Pharisee so securely sheltered himself. The "publican," or tax-gatherer, become a disciple, had owned his sinnership before God, while the Pharisee had refused to recognize it: and thus in the only way possible for man; the repenting sinner had become comparatively righteous.
The parable here is not however of the reception of a penitent, but of stewardship: of one under sentence of dismissal for unrighteousness, and of what he can still do in view of the future.
He does not hope for reversal of his sentence, but seeks how best he may sub-serve his interest when this has taken effect. If death be this dismissal, as it most evidently is, then in the application this refers to what comes after death; and so the Lord Himself applies it.
The steward is a child of this age, and his wisdom is that of his generation. It is not commended for its righteousness, but for its adaptation to the end in view; and in this respect the children of this age are wiser than the children of light. They pursue their end with more clear-sighted consistency, while the children of light are often how strangely inconsistent. The unrighteous steward is unrighteous to the last, and no plea to the contrary is ever made for him; but his wisdom as to the future is set before us for our imitation; the unrighteousness of it being distinctly reprobated and set aside in the words that follow the parable: "for, if ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon; who will commit to your trust the true riches?"
His master’s goods are still in the steward’s hands; and these are all the means that he has, as his words plainly show. Yet his authority over them seems only now to extend so far as concerns the rendering that final account that has been required of him. He is no doubt under jealous oversight now, as to any further waste," such as has been charged against him; but, of course, if he is to render an account, he has authority to call in the accounts. Here he can do no harm.
So he calls in his lord’s debtors to see how every one stands, and remits to each a portion of his debt, a thing which Edersheim remarks, was within his rights, though his motive in it was unrighteous. In mercy, and in his master’s interests even; he might have done so; he did it in his own.* But the wisdom with which he made capital out of what was not in his hands is clear enough. The moral for disciples is, "Make yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that, when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles."
{* Van Oosterzee concludes that it was his own overcharge that he remitted, and thus that he made his account right with his master, while he gained credit with the tenants. But this introduces much that is conjectural; and it does not seem that he had hope of setting his account right.}
Certainly it is not meant that we can buy ourselves thus admission into heaven, or that God’s grace is shown in permitting us to buy cheap. He gives, but does not sell; unless it be "without money and without price." And even as to rewards, love can reward only what is done from love. Yet love itself may desire, and must, the approval of Him towards whom it is felt, and so may covet the rewards of love; while grace permits us out of what is not our own to make "friends" that shall in this way welcome us in the habitations of eternity.
Thus to use what is so commonly as to be characteristically the "mammon of unrighteousness" is not unrighteous, but faithfulness in that which is Another’s; and although it be in "that which is least," as such earthly things must be, yet even as that it may test and manifest the character with regard to what is the "true riches." A man’s piety cannot be measured by his charities; but on the other hand it cannot exist without them, for "faith without works is dead." And he who seeks to satisfy himself with that which is not his own; but of which he is merely steward, will find the things that are his own proportionately unsatisfying. Even an Abraham, with his face toward Egypt, will find a famine in the land which God has promised and brought him into.
Thus the Lord deals with the side of righteousness; and He rules with a firm and steady hand. Grace does not relax the lines of government; and the throne of grace is a true and absolute throne. A servant may not be a son, but every son is a servant; and "no servant can serve two masters." God and Mammon are incompatible as that.
5. But that cuts deep; for the Pharisees are among His audience; and they, the zealous maintainers of law, are at the same time money-lovers. They deride Him therefore: for had not the law promised all temporal good to the man that kept it? From this it was easy for one that had never felt the hopelessness of man’s condition upon that footing, to make the fruit of a man’s own covetousness the token of his acceptance with God. They thus, as the Lord told them, justified themselves before men; but justification is not man’s work, but God’s: what human law allows one to judge his own case? when; alas, also, the world is in complete opposition to God, and what is esteemed most highly by it is with Him an abomination.
There was another thing. The dispensation of law was passing away. The law and the prophets were until John; and then the Kingdom of God was preached. Now every one was forcing his way into that, through the opposition of those like themselves who neither believed John; nor the One to whom he testified.
The passing of the dispensation did not mean that the law had failed. It could not fail: heaven and earth might pass rather than one tittle of it fail. It did not fail, when that to which it pointed came; nor when that was remedied. which Moses for the hardness of their hearts had permitted, and the new dispensation perfected what the law was unable to enforce.
He gives them an example, which the former Gospels have insisted on more fully. Pharisaism had taken advantage of the permission of divorce to give sanction to a license against which the whole spirit of the law bore witness. Now all this was to be remedied. He that should put away his wife and marry another would now commit adultery; and he likewise who should marry a divorced woman. The exception given in Matthew with regard to this, and which is found neither in Mark nor Luke, is not really an exception: for the divorce only affirms the breach of the law of marriage which sin had already made in the case excepted.
Thus the law had not failed, but was only perfected in the Kingdom of God.
The Lord goes back now to illustrate the fundamental mistake that they were making by the contrast of two men; perfect opposites of one another in life and after death, but in either case with the reversal after death of the condition in life.
He pictures a rich man; so rich as that if the Pharisaic idea were right, he should have been in fullest favor with God. He is clothed in purple and fine linen; and passes each day in uninterrupted enjoyment.
There is a poor man at his gate, so poor as to be in beggary and starvation. He longs for the crumbs (the broken pieces) from the rich man’s table; and the dogs -unclean animals for the Jew -come and lick his sores.
No evil is recorded of the rich man further than this, that he enjoyed himself to the full. Even neglect of Lazarus is not urged against him. Perhaps Lazarus may have got the broken pieces. That he remained a beggar is true: but is it supposed that a rich man is to feed and care for every beggar at his door-step? Nor do we read of anything to the credit of this Lazarus. Providence seems to have decided against him, and the law to have condemned him: for where are the good things the law has promised to those that keep it?
The beggar dies, and there is a marvellous change. Without any means by which to make friends for himself to receive him into the everlasting tabernacles, he is carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. A beggar, with everything against him as that, according to the law, gets a place that the best Jew in the world might envy him for. What has caused this? Not law, we may be sure. Not any need of making up for that pitiable life on earth by the after condition. The testimony of the law settles this fully, and would settle it as well for any child of man. Nay, his name, Lazarus, Eleazar, "the Mighty One the Helper" gives us the only key to the explanation here. Spite of all else against him, God the Mighty One, acting apart from law, and so in grace, has lifted him from that degradation in which he was to the place in which now we find him. He who has chosen Jerusalem, Jacob, Abraham, any other name in this line that you please to name, has chosen to do this -to display Himself in it: and who shall say Him nay?
The rich man also dies, and is buried. Again a marvellous, but now dreadful change! In hades -it is not hell, gehenna -he lifts up his eyes being in torment, and sees Abraham from afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. "And he called and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue: for I am tormented in this flame."
The language is, of course, as figurative here as on the other side is Abraham’s bosom. All representations of what is beyond the present life seem to partake of the same figurative character, which is, however, all the more adapted to appeal strongly to the imagination. The final judgment is not yet come; the once rich man has, as we presently see, brothers upon earth who may be warned to escape that place of torment. Resurrection; therefore, has not come any more than judgment, but the wrath of God is already realized in suffering which can be most suitably conveyed to us in terms like this. The hope of relief, -of such slight relief as is requested here, is presently declared to be in vain; an impassable gulf (or chasm) unalterably fixed between the lost and saved, no crossing or mingling to be, even for a moment; no hope of condition changing after death, such as many entertain today, for a moment to be thought.
But the reason for the rich man’s coming into that awful doom is what is evidently intended to be pressed upon us. The Lord has already declared to his disciples that whosoever loseth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal; and that, if a man come to Him, and hate not his own life, he cannot be His disciple. This, it is plain, the rich man had not done. This only it is that is affirmed against him: "Child, remember, that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things" -not "good things" simply, but "thy good things." He had chosen life on the wrong side of death, and lost it.
This loss is not merely that: for God cannot be simply passive with regard to sin, and the tormenting flame is the wrath of God upon it. Death is not extinction; nor, therefore, is the second death. All that we find in this picture is the very opposite of this: it is intense realization. And if the pang of remorse is the soul’s judgment of itself, (such judgment as the lost may be capable of,) the judgment of God is other than this, and more.
Oh, then; for a voice to warn men! So thinks the poor sinner here. Companionship is no alleviation of this hopeless anguish. "I pray thee then; father," he says, "that thou wouldst send him to my father’s house: for I have five brethren; so that he may testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torment." Even this hope fails: "They have Moses and the prophets," Abraham answers; "let them hear them." But he urges further: "Nay, father Abraham; but if one go to them from the dead, they will repent." But he said to him, "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rise from the dead."
No fear that Moses should not receive due honor from the lips of Christ. These Pharisees with their strenuous seeking of a sign from heaven: these are they that dishonor Moses. "Take up, and read," disdainful Pharisee, and thou shalt see how Moses accuses thee of unbelief of all the signs that he has given, and which are fulfilled in Him that speaks to thee. Yet our hearts ache so often for something more, even with Scripture completed in our hands, and a greater than Moses speaking to us from it. Yet "all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink;" and out of all the host that did so, two men of those that came out of Egypt entered the land to which God was bringing them! So with the men that wanted a sign now, did they dream that when He whom they had devoted to death should come back from the dead, they would be found giving large money to the keepers of His tomb, to have it believed a lie that He was risen? So still, with their eyes tight shut, men cry for light.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain The Galileans killed by Pilate. The Unfruitful Fig Tree.…
The Galileans killed by Pilate. The Unfruitful Fig Tree. Lament Over Jerusalem
1-9. Three exhortations to repentance, of which the former two are based on recent events, and the third is a parable. All are peculiar to Lk.
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1. Whose blood Pilate] These men had evidently been killed in the courts of the Temple for some real or suspected sedition while they were slaying their victims, an act which was performed not by the priests, but by the offerers, or their servants. Nothing is known of this particular act of atrocity, but Philo, a contemporary writer, speaks of Pilate's repeated massacres of persons uncondemned, and insatiable and most grievous ferocity. It was perhaps either the cause or the consequence of the enmity between Herod and Pilate mentioned Luk_23:12.
2. Were sinners] see on Joh_9:3.
3. Shall all likewise perish] This was literally fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem, but probably Jesus means, 'as these have suffered literal death, so you shall all suffer spiritual death.'
4. Tower in Siloam fell] Another unknown incident. It is plausibly conjectured that this tower was part of the waterworks and aqueduct which Pilate built with the sacred money of the Temple treasury (Korbanas), to the great scandal of pious Jews. The persons killed were probably workmen, whose death was regarded as a judgment for their impiety. For 'Siloam' see on Joh_9:7.
The idea was very common among the Jews that great calamities are a proof of great sin. This was the view of Job's friends, who were convinced that his great misfortunes argued him a great sinner (Job_4:7; Job_8:2-14, Job_8:20; Job_22:5). Our Lord on several occasions strongly opposed this view (see Joh_9:2). Sometimes, no doubt, suffering is a direct punishment for sin, but not always, perhaps not generally. In the case of the righteous it often arises from the sin of others, or is permitted as a trial of faith, or as a means of refining and purifying the character. A righteous man's sufferings may even be directly due to his righteousness, as in the case of our Lord, the apostles, Socrates, and numerous missionaries and reformers in all ages and countries.
6-9. The Barren Fig Tree. This parable illustrates the warning (Luk_13:3, Luk_13:5), 'Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.' A certain man (God) had a fig tree (the Jewish nation) in his vineyard (the world), and he came (at various crises of their history) seeking fruit (good works and pure religion) and found none. And he said to the vine-dresser (the Son of God), Behold these three years (under the Law, under the Prophets, and under the Scribes) I come seeking fruit. Cut it down. Why, besides being unfruitful, doth it also cumber the ground (prevent the conversion of the world)? And the vine-dresser (Christ) answered, Lord, let it alone this year also (for a further time of grace), till I dig about it and dung it (i.e. preach the gospel, show signs and wonders, send down the Spirit, do all things for its conversion), and if it bear fruit thenceforth, well; but if not, thou shalt cut it down (i.e. shalt destroy the nation with its city and Temple): cp. Mat_21:19. The parable is also capable of a more general application to the individual soul.
10-17. The woman with a spirit of infirmity (peculiar to Lk). The story is told not so much for the sake of the miracle, as for the light it throws upon the question of sabbath observance. It is the only case of Christ's preaching in a synagogue recorded in the latter part of the ministry.
12. He called her] An unasked-for cure.
14. Said unto the people] The ruler durst not openly rebuke Jesus, but indirectly censured Him by censuring the people.
15. Loose his ox] The rabbis, while permitting attention to beasts on the sabbath, did so grudgingly: 'It is not only permitted to lead a beast to the water on the sabbath, but also to draw water for it, yet so that the beast draw near and drink, without the water being carried to it and set down by it.'
16. Satan hath bound] The Jews attributed such ills to Satan. It is not implied that the woman was of evil life.
18-21. The Mustard Seed and the Leaven (Mat_13:31-33; Mar_4:30). See on Mt.
22-30. Are they few that be saved? Jesus does not directly reply to the question, but warns His hearers of the difficulty of obtaining salvation, of the danger of delaying repentance, and of the probable rejection of many unbelieving descendants of Abraham, and of the salvation of many believing Gentiles. There are close parallels in St. Matthew.
23, 24. See on Mat_7:13, Mat_7:14. Gate] i.e. 'door.'
25. The master] i.e. our Lord. The 'shutting the door' takes place at Christ's second coming, or perhaps at the death of each individual. Lord, open] see on Mat_25:10-12, also Mat_7:23.
26. This v. specially applies to the Jews.
27. Depart] see on Mat_25:41.
28, 29. See on Mat_8:11, Mat_8:12.
30. See on Mat_20:1-16.
31-35. Message to Herod Antipas, and lament over Jerusalem. This threat of Herod is peculiar to Lk.
31. Certain of the Pharisees] Probably they wished to frighten Jesus out of the dominions of Herod, where He was tolerably safe, into Judæa, where He would be in the power of the Sanhedrin: cp. Amaziah's attempt to frighten Amos (Amo_7:10-17). Herod] For his biography see on Mat_14:1-11. Will] RV 'would fain kill thee.' Herod may have used threatening words, or there may have been a rumour to that effect, but it is certain that he did not seriously seek our Lord's death: cp. Luk_23:11.
32. That fox] The fox is an emblem of cunning, not of cruelty. Behold] i.e. 'I perform My ministry today and tomorrow (i.e. for the time appointed), and on the third day (i.e. when My hour is come) I shall be perfected by death. No threats of Herod can shorten My ministry, or hasten the hour of My death.' Perfected] He calls His death His 'perfecting,' because by it He perfected His work by atoning for the sins of the world, also because it was followed by His glorious resurrection and ascension, whereby His human nature was 'perfected' or glorified.
33. Nevertheless, etc.] i.e. 'Yet although My death is so near, I must labour for the time appointed. Herod cannot prevent Me. He cannot destroy Me here in remote Galilee, for it is only in Jerusalem that a prophet can die.' Walk] RV 'go on my way.' Out of Jerusalem] 'The saying is severely ironical, and that in two ways: (1) According to overwhelming precedent, Jerusalem is the place in which a prophet ought to be put to death; for it had obtained by usage the right to slay the prophets (Grotius). (2) It is not Herod that will be the murderer. It is at your hands, in your capital that I shall die' (Plummer).
34, 35. Mat_23:37-39. See on Mt.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LIII. Repentance Enjoined].
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [LIII. Repentance Enjoined].
LIII. REPENTANCE ENJOINED. PARABLE OF THE BARREN FIG-TREE. cLUKE XIII. 1-9.
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c1 Now there were some present at that very season [At the time when he preached about the signs of the times, etc. This phrase, however, is rather indefinite-- Mat_12:1, Mat_14:1] who told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And he answered and said unto them, Think ye that these Galilaeans were sinners above all the Galilaeans, because they have suffered these things? 3 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all in like manner perish. [While Jesus spoke, certain ones came to him bearing the news of a barbaric act of sacrilegious cruelty committed by Pilate. It may have been told to Jesus by enemies who hoped to ensnare him by drawing from him a criticism of Pilate. But it seems more likely that it was told to him as a sample of the corruption and iniquity of the times. The Jews ascribed extraordinary misfortunes to extraordinary criminality. Sacrifice was intended to cleanse guilt. How hopeless, therefore, must their guilt be who were punished at the very times when they should have been cleansed! But the Jews erred in this interpreting the event. Quantity of individual sin can not safely be inferred from the measure of individual misfortune. It was true that the Galilæans suffered because of sin, for all suffering is the result of sin. But it was not true that the suffering was punishment for unusual sinfulness. Our suffering is often due to the general sin of humanity--the sin of the whole associate body of which we are a part. History, of course, says nothing of Pilate's act here mentioned. Pilate's rule was marked by cruelty towards Jews, and contempt for their religious views and rites.] 4 Or those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell, and killed [326] them, think ye that they were offenders above all the men that dwell in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. [Of this instance, also, there is no other historic mention. It, too was a small incident among the accidents of the day. The pool of Siloam lies near the southeast corner of Jerusalem, at the entrance of the Tyropæan village which runs up between Mt. Zion and Moriah. The modern village of Siloam probably did not exist at that time. What tower this was is not known. As the city wall ran through the district of that fountain, it may possibly have been one of the turrets of that wall. This instance presents a striking contrast to the slaughter of which they had told him, for it was, 1. Inflicted upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and 2. It came upon them as an act of God. And Jesus therefore concludes that all shall likewise perish, he pronounces upon the entire people--Jews and Galilæan alike--a punishment made certain by the decree of God. It is significant that the Jewish people did, as a nation, perish and lie buried under the falling walls of their cities, and the debris of their temple, palaces, and houses. But the word "likewise" is not to be pressed to cover this fact.] 6 And he spake this parable [this parable is closely connected with Luk_13:3, Luk_13:5, and Luk_12:58, Luk_12:59]; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came seeking fruit thereon, and found none. 7 And he said unto the vinedresser, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why doth it also cumber the ground? [It cumbered the ground by occupying ground which the vines should have had, and by interfering with their light by its shade, which is very dense.] 8 And he answering saith unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it [a common method of treating the fig-tree to induce fruitfulness]: 9 and if it bear fruit henceforth, i well: and if not, thou shalt cut it down. [In this parable Jesus likened his hearers to a fig-tree planted in a choice place--a vineyard, [327] the odd corners of which are still used as advantageous spots for fig-trees. There is no emphasis on the number three, and no allusion to the national history of the Jews, as some suppose. It simply means that a fig-tree's failure to bear fruit for three years would justify its being cut down. Those to whom Jesus spoke had been called to repentance by the preaching both of John and of Jesus, and had had ample time and opportunity to bring forth the fruits of repentance, and deserved to be destroyed; but they would still be allowed further opportunity.]
[FFG 326-328]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain 1. The Necessity of Repentance. (Luk 13:1-5.)
CHAPTER 13
1. The Necessity of Repentance. (Luk 13:1-5.)
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2. The Barren Fig Tree. (Luk 13:6-9)
3. The Healing of a Daughter of Abraham. (Luk 13:10-17)
4. Parable of the Mustard Seed. (Luk 13:18-19)
5. Parable of the Leaven. (Luk 13:20-21)
6. Solemn Teachings. (Luk 13:22-30)
7. The Answer to Herod. (Luk 13:31-33)
8. Lament over Jerusalem. (Luk 13:34-35.)
Luk 13:1-9
Luke alone gives the parable of the fig tree as well as the historical incidents preceding the parable. The absolute necessity of repentance is emphasized by the Lord. The fig tree is the nation Israel; but the individual application must not be eliminated. When there is no repentance, after God’s merciful patience, the delayed judgment will be executed. Israel illustrates this fully. The tree was hewn down, though the root remains. In Matthew we read of the budding fig tree, the sign that the summer is nigh.
Luk 13:10-17
The healing of the daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound for eighteen years, is reported only by Luke. Attention has been called to the significance of the number 18. Upon 18 fell the tower of Siloam and the woman, who was bound for 18 years. “The number 18, which is 3 x 6 (six the number of man) speaks of evil manifested in its highest uprise”--Numerical Bible. Satan had manifested his dreadful power over this daughter of Abraham but the Son of Man, who came to seek and to save that which is lost, has the power to deliver her. She was made straight and glorified God. The expression “daughter of Abraham” signifies that she was a believer. Satan was permitted to afflict her body; it was the same with Job. See also 1Co 5:5.
Luk 13:18-21
The parables of the mustard seed and the leaven appear in Luke in an entirely different setting than in Matthew. We have already seen in our annotations of Mat 13:1-58, what these two parables teach. Here in Luke they are evidently closely linked with the parable of the barren fig tree, showing that when Israel has failed and passed under the national judgment, the Kingdom of God, as resting in the hands of man, becomes like any other kingdom of the world, sheltering the unclean (fowls), and internally it is corrupted by leaven.
Solemn teachings follow in answer to the question “Lord, are there few to be saved?” The door is open, but narrow. And the door to salvation will one day be shut for those who refused to enter in. And here we find the words which were omitted by Luke in the account of the healing of the Centurion’s servant. The application to the Jews, who rejected Him, and the acceptance of the Gospel by the Gentiles is self -evident. The person, whom our Lord calls “fox,” most likely was Herod himself. The “today and tomorrow” refer to His great work in bearing testimony and working miracles; the third day, when He would be perfected, is the day of resurrection. Then follows His lament over Jerusalem. The consecutive teachings of this chapter, beginning with the necessity of repentance, Israel’s failure, the demonstration of His power, His solemn words and finally His lament over Jerusalem are intensely interesting.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Last Admonitions to Repentance.
Last Admonitions to Repentance.
The lesson of the Galilean tragedy:
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v. 1. There were present at that season some that told Him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
v. 2. And Jesus, answering, said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things?
v. 3. I tell you, Hay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
v. 4. Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
v. 5. I tell you, Nay; but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
At the same time, upon the same occasion, when Jesus had spoken the words of solemn warning concerning the Judgment and how to avert it. The current opinion was that there was a direct connection between the greatness of the transgression and the severity of the punishment. Some of the people present, therefore, gave Jesus an interesting piece of news which they had received from Jerusalem through some pilgrims that had recently returned. Pilate, the procurator of Judea, had punished subjects of Herod, the tetrarch of Galilee. A heathen governor had polluted the Temple of God with human blood. The incident is not related by Josephus, but fits in well with the character of the Galileans and with the disposition of Pilate. The Galileans were very restive under the Roman yoke and strongly inclined to sedition. And Pilate had the vice of most weak natures: when his temper snapped the leash, unbridled passion held sway. There had probably been a demonstration in the Temple which threatened to assume the proportion of a riot, and Pilate had promptly dispatched some soldiers and executed speedy punishment. Some commentators think that this incident caused the enmity between Pilate and Herod, Luk 23:12. The questioners implied that so sudden a death in the midst of so sacred an employment must be regarded as a special proof of the wrath of God upon those so slain. But Jesus corrects this notion. The slain Galileans were no sinners in an extraordinary measure, above all other Galileans, since they had suffered these things. A similar case, from the standpoint of the present discussion, was that of the eighteen persons upon whom the tower of Siloam, probably one built over the porticoes of the pool, fell. It was wrong to suppose that these were guilty above all the people that lived at Jerusalem. Very emphatically Jesus says, in either case: Not at all, I tell you. All the Jews, and also His hearers, were equally guilty, and a like fate might befall them at any time; unless they repented, they all might perish and be destroyed in the same way. The Lord here gives a rule according to which we may judge and measure the misfortunes and sufferings of others. The suffering of the world is the result of sin. In the case of the unbelievers the suffering is nothing but punishment, with a view, however, of leading them to repentance. In the case of believers suffering of every kind is chastisement at the hands of the Father, who punishes in time that we may be spared in eternity. If a Christian is struck by misfortune, he will not use the word "trial" in order to justify himself. Rather will he say, in true humility, that his many sins have merited far greater and more severe punishment, and will never ask the question with regard to his own crosses or those of others, Wherewith have I earned this? But above all, one thing must never be done, and that is to argue from the severity of the suffering, drawing conclusions as to the greatness of the guilt, Job 42:7; Joh 9:2-3.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Jesus is still speaking in front of the crowd. Some people in the crowd ask him a question and he begins to respond. This continues the story that begins in Luke 12:1.
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At that time
This phrase connects this event to the end of chapter 12, when Jesus was teaching a crowd of people.
whose blood Pilate mixed with their own sacrifices
Here "blood" refers to the death of the Galileans. They were probably killed while they were offering their sacrifices. This could be stated explicitly as in the UDB. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
whose blood Pilate mixed with their own sacrifices
Pilate probably ordered his soldiers to kill people rather than doing it himself. AT: "whom Pilate's soldiers killed as they were sacrificing animals" (See: Metonymy)
Do you think that these Galileans were more sinful ... way? No, I tell you
"Were these Galileans more sinful ... way? No, I tell you" or "Does this prove that these Galileans were more sinful ... way? No, I tell you." Jesus uses this question to challenge the understanding of the people. AT: "You think that these Galileans were more sinful ... way, but they were not" or "Do not think that these Galileans were more sinful ... way" (See: Rhetorical Question)
No, I tell you
Here "I tell you" emphasizes "no." AT: "They certainly were not more sinful" or "You are wrong to think that their suffering proves that they were more sinful"
all of you will perish in the same way
"all of you also will die." The phrase "in the same way" means they will experience the same result, not that they will die by the same method.
perish
die
translationWords
Galilee
Pilate
sacrifice
Jesus
sin
suffer
repent
perish
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 13:1-4 Jesus was responding to a popular claim that…
13:1-4 Jesus was responding to a popular claim that bad things only happen to bad people. Sin has negative consequences, but not every bad thing is a result of sin. Jesus then clarified that all people are sinners who need to repent (13:3, 5; see Job 4:7; 8:4, 20; 22:5; see also Pss 34:21; 75:10; Prov 3:33; 10:3, 6-7, 16, 24-25; John 9:2-3).
13:1 Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee: This particular incident is not known from other sources, but Pilate was a ruthless governor who, on several occasions, violently suppressed revolts (see Josephus, War 2.9.2-4; Antiquities 18.3.1-2).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.